Outdoor Adventures Time! Tuesday, period 1

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

“CLIFF DIVING.”

The class met this week on the edge of the preserve. Eliot, who had a large bag of supplies slung over his shoulder and a walking stick, gave Parker a bit of side-eye.

"Yes," he said. "After we hike out to the cliffs."

“Right, that,” Parker agreed. “I brought wetsuits again.” She pointed to a few duffel bags. “Because it’s warm out, but the water is still cold. And if you want to dive in just your clothes, that’s okay. I brought towels. But you might regret that is all I’m saying.”

"Those of you not into throwin' yourselves off cliffs," all, like, three of you, "I'll be setting up some campfires at the top. If you're interested, I can show you. If not . . . I got stuff for s'mores."

Parker was maybe rubbing off on him.

“Or you can do both,” Parker pointed out. “If you wanna dive for a bit and then decide you’re not up for it again. Or vice versa. No limits, people.”

"Only requirement is the hike," Eliot said. "Which you might wanna get used to, since stuff we're doin' on the island is all gonna involve walking to it. It's a shorter one today, though, only about ten minutes. Keep an eye out and see if you can spot any of Fandom's weirder wildlife."

Like those green deer people always talked about. Eliot hadn't really seen one. He wasn't chatty enough.

“Let’s get going, people! Hup hup hup!”

That last bit was for you, Eliot. Heee.

Comments

Diving! With Parker

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

The cliffs were about twenty feet high on one end, and fifty or so feet high on the other. Parker was already in her wetsuit before you could ask “when did she change clothes”?

“Okay, everyone. I’ve already scouted this area, so you don’t have to but please, if you do this again? Check the water levels first. You don’t want to go diving off a cliff into two feet of water. That only works if you’re a cartoon. Or maybe Pinkie.”

Hunh. Now there would be something to see.

“The cliff height here is 25 feet on the shallow end, 52 feet at the high end. The water is thirty feet deep, and there aren’t any rocks in the area you want to be diving off here. If you’re diving at these heights, it’s got to be at least 12 to 16 feet deep, okay?” Parker checked everyone was paying attention. “That’s like diving off a two-story building, up to a five-story building. Which is another good reason for a wetsuit, it’ll protect you from the worst of your body slapping the water if you don’t land right.” The guys, especially, might want to keep that in mind.

Parker gave a few more tips (”http://www.wikihow.com/Dive-Off-a-Cliff”), demonstrated once with great glee, and then said, “Two at a time, only! Wait ‘til people clear the jump area! And the walk up is over there!”

Re: Diving! With Parker

[doesnotkneel]

Edward wasn't looking excited about doing this at all.

Except oops, as he walked on up, he was grinning a bit. A lot. A lot a bit?

This was the best class of all time.

Re: Diving! With Parker

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Isn't this awesome?" Ringo asked, glancing over at him and practically vibrating with excitement.

She'd even been looking for a chance to examine the cliffs!

Re: Diving! With Parker

[doesnotkneel]

"It's bloody mad what Parker lets us do," Edward said, grinning, "So aye, it's grand."

He was too laid-back to vibrate, but he definitely looked happy!

Re: Diving! With Parker

[soniaroadsqueen]

"They'd never let us do something in school back home." Which probably contributed to Ringo's general disinterest in school.

Re: Diving! With Parker

[doesnotkneel]

"Back where I come from, we'd do it anyway," Edward said, "And deal with getting yelled at."

Re: Diving! With Parker

[wildandbrave]

Did you think Cosette would be hesitant about this? Because she wasn't. She didn't look quite as excited about it as Edward did, but eager nonetheless.

Her father would probably have an apoplectic fit if he knew what she was up to right now, but that was why she wasn't going to tell him about it.

Re: Diving! With Parker

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Get a running start, see how far out you can get!" Parker called her suggestion as Cosette got back to the top.

Re: Diving! With Parker

[wildandbrave]

"How far out do you think I ought to get?" Cosette called back, because yes, she was totally going to do this and if she ended up pursuing an X-Games career after high school it was going to be all your fault, Parker.

Re: Diving! With Parker

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Fifteen feet!"

Parker would raise a glass of Red Bull in Cosette's honor every time she competed, if so.

Re: Diving! With Parker

[kenselvren.livejournal.com]

Now this looked like fun! Jalian would be diving off the high point - what was the point of cliff diving off a short cliff?

Re: Diving! With Parker

[spin_kick_snap]

After mastering lighting a fire--okay, after learning the basics, really--Kathy gave in to the siren call of flinging herself off of something high. She didn't know how to dive properly, so unless Parker was going to call her on it, she was just going to do a flip off the cliff instead.

Re: Diving! With Parker

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"What was Eliot giving you crap about earlier?" Parker asked, giving her a curious look.

Re: Diving! With Parker

[spin_kick_snap]

That was a good way to make Kathy pause. And also turn bright red. "Uh...Because of knives?"

Which was a very, very oblique truth. So much so that Kathy felt guilty saying it.

"And, umm, guys. Or a guy. Ish. But mostly knives."

Re: Diving! With Parker

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"A guy with a knife?" Parker checked. "What guy?"

Metaphors always took a while to make any kind of sense to her. (Eliot was the fiddle, but the other guy thought he was the fiddle, it was a whole thing.)

Re: Diving! With Parker

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, not with a knife. More like he had knives. And Eliot made us a picnic lunch and called it a date, and..."

Okay, Kathy realized that this would probably be confusing even for someone who wasn't as literal as Parker was.

"I should start over."

Re: Diving! With Parker

[thegc161kid.livejournal.com]

There was no way that Alex was going to miss out on a chance to do this and she was actually looking forward to it.

Re: Diving! With Parker

[vdistinctive]

After a bit of goading encouragement from his fellow teacher and one of his TAs, Eliot finally pulled off his overshirt and shoes and stepped up to the cliff.

The fifty-foot end. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it properly.

He swung his arms a few times and twisted to the side, cracking his back and neck, then took a deep breath and centered himself. And jumped.

It was more of a twist than a flip, a move practiced for spinning around and firing back at an enemy while falling, but it was second nature, as was the actual flip at the end that put him feet down just in time to slide into the water with nary a splash.

Splashes let the bad guys know where you were. It did occur to him after a moment or two under water that his students weren't actually enemies, and he didn't want them thinking he'd drowned. He surfaced a good fifteen feet away from where he'd gone in, and started swimming towards the climb back to the top.

"There," he said, pushing his wet hair out of his face as he got back up and giving Parker a little smirk. "Ya happy now?"

Re: Diving! With Parker

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was impressed by the flips, idly wondering if he'd had any gymnastics training in the past. And then Eliot--Mr. Spencer--got up out of the water, all soaking wet and...yeah...

KATHY WAS VERY ABSORBED IN TENDING THE FIRE NOW. IT WAS IMPORTANT. IT NEEDED TENDING. AND ALL OF HER ATTENTION.

Re: Diving! With Parker

[vdistinctive]

Eliot was nice and didn't even tease her about it! He did have to go back over to that fire, though. It was where his boots were.

And that water really was pretty cold.

"Dammit," he muttered as he pushed his wet hair out of his face again while tying his boots. "Shoulda brought a comb."

Re: Diving! With Parker

[spin_kick_snap]

SHE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT YOU WERE IMPLYING, ELIOT'S NARRATIVE. SHE WAS JUST A DEDICATED TA WHO CARED ABOUT FIRE SAFETY!

"Here," she said, offering him an elastic band from her bag. "I always carry spares."

Re: Diving! With Parker

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"So, sooooo happy," Parker said from behind her phone-camera lens. She sent the video to Hardison with Lookit Eliot! And then called down, "9.1!"

Re: Diving! With Parker

[vdistinctive]

Eliot snorted. "What're you, the Russian judge?"

Re: Diving! With Parker

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"You could always take an extra jump," Parker cajoled, grinning happily. "... or you could offer to bribe the judge after class?"

Re: Diving! With Parker

[spin_kick_snap]

"The Korean judge only gives you an 8.4," Kathy noted. "Your flips are good, but the technique is kinda sloppy at the end."

You know, where he moved into 'shooting people' position.