A woman has gone viral on TikTok after sharing a toe-curling video of her leaping off an 81-foot cliff – in a feat dubbed ‘death diving’.
The terrifying hobby involves jumping from a great height into the water, but while in the air, adopting the position of a belly flop until the very last second, tucking the limbs to take the impact.
Asbjørg Nesje, 23, from Norway, took on a huge challenge, leaping from a huge height and twirling through the air before, at the final moment, folding her body to enter the water.
In the background of the video, people can be heard screaming and cheering as she emerges successfully.
Despite other people being fearful, Asbjørg has a clear motto: ‘the scarier the better.’ If I’m doing a classic death dive, it feels like I’m flying,” she told NeedToKnow.online.
“If I’m doing a freestyle, I have to focus on the trick I’m doing.
“Then the landing comes and it smacks a bit, but I’m always happy after a jump, so the pain is easily forgotten.
“The scarier the jump is, the happier I am after I do it.”
The exhilarating clip has gone viral on TikTok with 2.2 million likes and over 50 million views, with commenters left terrified.
User Stacy said: “Wow… she EXTRA brave.”
Someone else commented: “OUCH.”
“I’m all for living your life and all but that’s probably not the best idea,” said another concerned viewer.
User Natasha added: “This made my stomach hurt bc I am so scared of heights and deep water.” [sic]
User Cyndi said: “Ouch! You are lucky that you are not paralysed.”
User Thomas asked: “Did she live?”
“She a good one bc I wouldn’t even dare,” said someone else. [sic]
Asbjørg started the scary hobby in the summer of 2020 with no previous diving experience, but soon found a love for it, comparing it to the feeling of flying.
She said: “I enjoy death diving more than any other kind of diving because it’s about beating your own fears and at the same time you’re playing and having fun.
“In death diving, you’re encouraged to have your own style and to invent your own tricks and techniques.
“I think it’s a cooler and more fun way to enter the water, and it’s also scarier and gives you more adrenaline and a feeling of mastery.”
She usually jumps between 10 and 24 metres, with her highest jump yet being 24.8 metres.
She said: “In the air, you want to look as cool, relaxed and controlled as possible, and you want to do the closing as late as possible”
“You can do a classic straight death dive, or you can do a freestyle with tricks in the air.”
To lead up to her jumps, Asbjørg starts by counting down from 10, as she finds it makes it easier for her.
She said: “When my counting reaches one, I start running towards the edge of the cliff.
“And in the air, I enjoy the airtime.”
For those eager to try death jumping, Asbjørg offered some advice: “When people try to replicate what I’m doing from lower heights, it’s cool and fun, because you won’t get hurt from low heights.
“But if people are trying from higher places, you should know what you’re doing.
“Most people wouldn’t try a death dive for the first time from a height that is dangerous, that’s one of the good things about it being so scary, fewer people would do it.
“But I really think people should start on safe heights, before building themselves up.
“It’s OK to get bruised, but getting injured is not fun.
“If you’re a beginner, I would start at three to five meters, then you move up to 10 meters pretty quickly.”
Going forward, she plans on trying a number of new jumps, tricks, and locations, to get the best that she can out of her death dives.
She added: “I always plan to get better than I was before, and try new tricks and jump from new places.
“I just finished a big project where I accomplished many of my goals, so I don’t have a specific dive planned right now, other than keep improving and try to make up some new tricks and setting new goals.”
