Water is not only a life-source, but the life-source. And Deep-Water Soloing is finally appreciating the sport/lifestyle’s prominent positioning above this aforementioned life-source. But don’t go thinking that Deep-Water Soloing is limited to warm-water paradises the likes of Mallorca and Southeast Asia. Sea-cliff climbing has a long history with the sea cliffs of British coastlines towering over the North Atlantic, including the coasts of Pembroke, Swanage and Devonshire. That being said, these climbers embracing the sea as a support network of sorts is only a recent evolution that symbolizes a very natural yet previously underappreciated synergy between the wall they’re climbing and the ocean below.
South West climbing legend Frank Cannings speaks to this evolution in DWS: “The interesting thing for me to see with respect to today in deep-water soloing is the different attitude to the sea. We regarded the sea as the enemy — you didn’t want to go anywhere near the sea, it was there to kill you. So it’s a total reversal of approach to the water below you.”
Things really do come full circle, don’t they…?
