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Mini: High Dive Into a Tiny Pool · Why We Do What We Do

0:03
Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we do what we do. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to Why we Do what we do Mini. I'm your
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Speaker 1: host Abraham and I'm Shane. We are a psychology podcast
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Speaker 1: and we like to talk about all of the things
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Speaker 1: that humans and non human animals do, and then sometimes
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Speaker 1: we talk about the very dangerous things that people do
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Speaker 1: that are crazy stunts.
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Speaker 2: Yes, and so you may have seen this portrayed in
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Speaker 2: cartoons where maybe Goofy is at the very top of
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Speaker 2: a very very tall ladder that only is a ladder
0:42
Speaker 2: with a high dive diving board at the end of it,
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Speaker 2: and he jumps into a very tiny pool. Sometimes the
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Speaker 2: pools replaced with a glass of water for comedic effect,
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Speaker 2: and it is hilarious. So we are talking about diving
0:52
Speaker 2: from high places into tiny pools.
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Speaker 3: Yes, that is the thing that we're talking about.
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Speaker 1: This is a mini short form episode which is like
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Speaker 1: ten to fifteen minutes long. We release these on Mondays.
1:02
Speaker 1: We release our full length episodes on Wednesdays. So this
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Speaker 1: one we try and just get into that topic, do
1:07
Speaker 1: a quick exploration and explanation, and then exit that topic
1:12
Speaker 1: so that you can go about your day. Just knock
1:14
Speaker 1: these short ones out and this one seems to lend
1:17
Speaker 1: itself well to that particular thing.
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Speaker 3: So let's get into this here.
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Speaker 1: First, We're going to start with three important premises to
1:24
Speaker 1: help understand what we're talking about and how it works. One,
1:28
Speaker 1: diving into water generally requires enough water that the speed
1:32
Speaker 1: of your descent can be slowed by the amount of
1:34
Speaker 1: water you're diving into. Sure that you all knew that,
1:37
Speaker 1: but I want to make sure that we're very clear
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Speaker 1: to begin with. Two belly flops will stop you from
1:43
Speaker 1: going into the water very far, and they hurt like
1:45
Speaker 1: the dickens. And yes, three people gotta make money. So
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Speaker 1: with those important things understood, let us begin.
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Speaker 2: Yes, So now then we've got that a way, let's
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Speaker 2: dive into the strange history of performers jumping in a
1:59
Speaker 2: shallow pool from very high places. People have likely been
2:04
Speaker 2: incorporating water acts into performances for longer than we have
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Speaker 2: specific records, and traveling circuses, those shisty shisty traveling circuses.
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Speaker 2: Traveling circuses have started incorporating these with high wire acts
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Speaker 2: and synchronized swimming performances.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, there's some spectacle to be had around
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Speaker 1: activities that people can do in the water, so that
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Speaker 1: got incorporated into these sort of fantastical performances. In the
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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, people started doing axe in which they would
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Speaker 1: ride horses up to a large platform. The platform was
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Speaker 1: over water, and then they would jump the horse into water.
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Speaker 1: Usually they were jumping pretty far, if that helps.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and also maybe not a great practice. Now,
2:47
Speaker 2: how exactly this started is difficult to pin down. We
2:50
Speaker 2: don't really know. But a traveling performer who went by
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Speaker 2: the name Dot Carver, which is a really good name
2:56
Speaker 2: for a performance, pretty good, Like I feel like this
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Speaker 2: a good name for a performer. Apocryphaly was inspired when
3:02
Speaker 2: he was on a bridge that collapsed and his horse
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Speaker 2: fell into the Platte River in Nebraska in eighteen eighty one.
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Speaker 2: Although that sounds very made up, that sounds so specific,
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Speaker 2: almost too specific, but that's what he says happened.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a reported incident that inspired the idea
3:18
Speaker 1: of jumping horses into water, But some records indicate that
3:22
Speaker 1: horse diving may have started much earlier and the eighteen hundreds.
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Speaker 1: This actually really isn't about horse diving specifically, although it
3:29
Speaker 1: was kind of this act either way, whenever it started,
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Speaker 1: it did become a significant attraction in Atlantic City, New Jersey,
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Speaker 1: where there was a hole I think it was called
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Speaker 1: the Steel Pier. They had this whole rig setup where
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Speaker 1: horses would go up and then jump into these tanks
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Speaker 1: of water.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: So there's usually a ramp to a platform about forty
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Speaker 2: feet tall, and riders would ride their horses to jump
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Speaker 2: into a twelve foot deep pool.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, they'd sort of just get to the edge of
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Speaker 1: the platform, position the horse and they would jump into
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Speaker 1: these pools and twelve feet's like that's a decent amount
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Speaker 1: of water, Like you've got enough that you're not Really
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Speaker 1: the stunt itself is not can you survive a shallow landing?
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Speaker 3: The stunt is can you aim?
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Speaker 1: Can you get a horse to jump off of a platform,
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Speaker 1: fall really far and land in a pool. There was
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Speaker 1: even this like really famous rider who lost her eyesight
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Speaker 1: during the stunts but continued to perform in one of
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Speaker 1: her eyes continue to perform even with that doing this
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Speaker 1: for a long time, and of course there were like
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Speaker 1: many ethical complaints about this, about treatment of animals and
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Speaker 1: like what's really the enjoyment of this anyway? And eventually
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Speaker 1: this closed down in the nineteen seventies. Although there were
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Speaker 1: multiple attempts to revitalize the practice. There was at least
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Speaker 1: one significant one I found in the nineteen nineties. I
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Speaker 1: want to say, it was like nineteen ninety three or
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Speaker 1: four or something. And then there was another one all
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Speaker 1: the way up in twenty twelve. They tried to bring
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Speaker 1: this back. Yeah, it was like just thirteen years ago,
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Speaker 1: which I mean, that is a long time ago, but
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Speaker 1: like this seems way more recent than I would have
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Speaker 1: expected for something like this.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and for what value of I don't know. I
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Speaker 2: just feel like there's not a part of me that's like,
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Speaker 2: you know what I want to you know what I
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Speaker 2: could really go for right now? I can go for
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Speaker 2: like a bag of popcorn and a really large soda,
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Speaker 2: And I just want to watch a horse jump off
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Speaker 2: a high dive. Like that's never like, there's no part
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Speaker 2: of that that's like that's good. It's so weird though,
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Speaker 2: it's very strange. Anyway, that's not even what we're talking
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Speaker 2: about today. The what of this episode is stunt shallow diving.
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Speaker 2: Another act emerged as a part of this traveling circus,
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Speaker 2: and like this this idea of jumping off of tall
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Speaker 2: things into things. So this other act immersion was made
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Speaker 2: particularly famous by a man named Roy Franson. Fransom was
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Speaker 2: quite the showman and stunt worker, and he started practicing
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Speaker 2: a routine in which he would jump into shallow pools.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and he started from obviously not that far off
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Speaker 1: the ground to begin with, but he would essentially he
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Speaker 1: would he would get his platform higher and higher, and
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Speaker 1: he trained extensively to practice his aiming, which is to say,
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Speaker 1: you want to land in the right place, because not
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Speaker 1: only were they shallow, but these pools weren't very big around, right.
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Speaker 1: He would actually practice that he could can condition his
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Speaker 1: body for the impact and also like the overcome the
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Speaker 1: fear of potential serious injury or death because you're like
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Speaker 1: jumping from increasingly high places into a very small target
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Speaker 1: and if you miss, then the consequences could be pretty
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Speaker 1: disastrous or even fake.
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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, And speaking of him being a stunt man,
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Speaker 2: he would even douse himself in fuel and light himself
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Speaker 2: on fire and then jump into the pools, which the
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Speaker 2: pools themselves would extinguish the flame. So he was like
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Speaker 2: like he liked to be kind of a spectacle.
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Speaker 1: It seems there's a good way to put it is
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Speaker 1: he was trying to create a spectacle. Ads also try
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Speaker 1: and create a spectacle. All right, we're back. We've been
6:46
Speaker 1: talking about Roy Fransen and his experience and sort of
6:51
Speaker 1: I don't even know that he was the first one,
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Speaker 1: but he was really sort of touted as the guy.
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Speaker 1: He was like the guy who started these shallow dives acts. Right,
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Speaker 1: if you look up shallow diving, you're gonna find a
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Speaker 1: lot of information about like scuba diving and just water
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Speaker 1: that's not very deep. We're talking about jumping off platforms
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Speaker 1: that are high in the air. And he continued to
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Speaker 1: raise the height of these jumps and decrease the depth
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Speaker 1: and size of his landing area of these pools. And
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Speaker 1: it's to the point where I found this one. This
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Speaker 1: seems almost improbable to me, but I did find one
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Speaker 1: source that suggested this and it seemed legit. So in
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Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight he set a record jumping from one
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Speaker 1: hundred and ten.
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Speaker 3: Feet way just way up there.
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Speaker 1: This is thirty four meters for those of a season
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Speaker 1: the metric system, and landing in only about eight feet
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Speaker 1: of water, which is like, I mean, that's should be
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Speaker 1: enough to sort of catch you, But I mean when
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Speaker 1: you're falling from that far, I would personally want a
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Speaker 1: little more water.
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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, or a little less height.
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Speaker 3: Yeah yes, yeah.
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Speaker 2: I've jumped off a forty foot like a forty foot
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Speaker 2: dive and that was nerve racking.
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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I bet that's so tall.
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Speaker 2: There used to be a rope sweat near my house
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Speaker 2: and we would have to like trudge through this like
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Speaker 2: muddy woody area like this kind of like bog I
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Speaker 2: guess if you will, and you could climb up to
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Speaker 2: the like one of these branches that went up over
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Speaker 2: the river and you could actually jump off of this
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Speaker 2: this like branch into the river, and it was it
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Speaker 2: was harrowing. It is scary, and this is in Florida.
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Speaker 2: This is in Florida, so you also have the risk
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Speaker 2: of running into alligators and stuff like that. But yeah,
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Speaker 2: the water was brackish, so it wasn't too bad. A
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Speaker 2: friend of mine landed on a manatee and broke his leg.
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Speaker 3: Oh my god.
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Speaker 2: It was a wild time. And then somebody cut the
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Speaker 2: ropes swing down and we couldn't go back.
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Speaker 3: So yeah, do not recommend. That's do not recommend.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, landing in the open jaws of an alligator a
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Speaker 1: shark or a anaconda or something in murky water that's
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Speaker 1: also full of debris from people who like to go
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Speaker 1: fishing out there, And oh god, that just sounds bad
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Speaker 1: all around.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, reckless if you will, speaking of reckless, as
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Speaker 2: you might have predicted frans And his final act was
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Speaker 2: his final act when he missed his target in a
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Speaker 2: in a nineteen eighty five stunt. But stunt diving lived on.
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Speaker 2: So Francis didn't make if France and didn't make it,
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Speaker 2: but the act was immortalized.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and tried to keep that as pg as possible
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Speaker 1: in describing his demise.
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Speaker 3: But yes, that that was the last for him.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Again, he might not have been the first. Others may
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Speaker 3: have proceeded.
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Speaker 1: Several were his contemporaries, but he was a very famous
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Speaker 1: person in the space, which meant that several were inspired
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Speaker 1: by him, and several notable stunt shallow divers the sort
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Speaker 1: of stunt shallow diving thing they also emerged. So one
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Speaker 1: of the more well known stunt shallow divers is a
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Speaker 1: guy named Darren Taylor, and he said a world record
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Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen when he jumped thirty seven point nine feet,
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Speaker 1: so about twelve meters here, and I do want to
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Speaker 1: be clear, like that's obviously significant less but he landed
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Speaker 1: in only twelve inches of water, which is not very much.
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Speaker 1: He would have been traveling at that point as much
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Speaker 1: as thirty two miles per hour or fifty three kilometers
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Speaker 1: per hour. That's going very fast into a very small depth.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, So I think this is the time of
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Speaker 2: the episode where we talk about how this is done. Now,
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Speaker 2: we're going to say this, and we're going to say
10:13
Speaker 2: a few times, do not try this. We are not
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Speaker 2: condoning you go do this. This is not the despiration
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Speaker 2: for you to become a shallow diver. This is we
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Speaker 2: are not providing instructions on how to do this so
10:24
Speaker 2: that you can go do this. Career is just describing
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Speaker 2: the human behavior that people engage in that allows them
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Speaker 2: to do this incredible feat. So if you want to
10:32
Speaker 2: try this, don't train with a profession, or don't like
10:35
Speaker 2: you don't want to do any of these things because
10:38
Speaker 2: it is dangerous and we are not encouraging that. So
10:40
Speaker 2: just so that you all know, we are not telling
10:41
Speaker 2: you to go do this. We're not telling you to
10:43
Speaker 2: go train with a professional. We're not doing any of
10:45
Speaker 2: those things we are saying, do.
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Speaker 3: Not, yes, very very very hard believe it that yes appropriate.
10:51
Speaker 1: So understanding how they do this, how this is done
10:55
Speaker 1: technique is everything. It's pretty much the reason that they're
10:58
Speaker 1: able to make this work at all. Surprisingly, the amount
11:02
Speaker 1: of water doesn't matter that much. I even saw some
11:05
Speaker 1: suggestions from them that you don't want a lot of
11:08
Speaker 1: water because it sort of becomes more dense and more firm.
11:11
Speaker 3: But you do.
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Speaker 1: Obviously need enough water that it can actually catch your body.
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Speaker 1: So toll avenjas might be the minimum number that you'll
11:20
Speaker 1: be able to get that someone would be able to
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Speaker 1: get away with. I'm not totally sure. I didn't do
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Speaker 1: the math on this, but you don't actually need a
11:27
Speaker 1: ton of water. How much you need doesn't really matter
11:30
Speaker 1: as much. But anyway, the basic tendance of the stunt,
11:34
Speaker 1: of trying to perform the stunt is that they want
11:36
Speaker 1: to slow their descent as much as possible and increase
11:41
Speaker 1: the amount of surface area of the impact as much
11:44
Speaker 1: as possible. That's essentially sort of the trick. In addition,
11:48
Speaker 1: they will often put the thing they're diving into on
11:51
Speaker 1: some kind of pad so that even when they hit
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Speaker 1: the water, there's a little bit more give. And again
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Speaker 1: I wouldn't call this cheating. I call this safety procedures
12:01
Speaker 1: for survival. I'm perfectly happy for them to take any
12:04
Speaker 1: and all safety precautions that are needed. So there are
12:07
Speaker 1: some things that they do that the pool itself might
12:10
Speaker 1: be on some kind of pad that has some kind
12:12
Speaker 1: of give to it. And as I said, they want
12:14
Speaker 1: to slow their descent as much as they possibly can
12:17
Speaker 1: and increase the surface area of impact as much as
12:20
Speaker 1: they possibly can. And we like to decrease the amount
12:23
Speaker 1: of ads as much as we possibly can, but they
12:25
Speaker 1: do creep in from time to time. And here they are,
12:34
Speaker 1: all right, we're back from that break and talking about
12:37
Speaker 1: the techniques that shallow stunt divers use to pull off
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Speaker 1: this stunt that they do, which is I mean, this
12:43
Speaker 1: is real. This is not a trick, but it is
12:46
Speaker 1: like a stunt if you will. Yeah, And stunt people
12:48
Speaker 1: who do stunts do have inherent real danger that they
12:51
Speaker 1: take on.
12:52
Speaker 2: Yes, So crashing into anything at high speeds can cause
12:55
Speaker 2: serious injury. Our bodies are basically just jelly overbone, right,
12:59
Speaker 2: and so when you crash into something that is even
13:02
Speaker 2: like semi solid, you can run into issues of internal bleeding, swelling,
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Speaker 2: broken bones, tears in the skin, bruising, and damage to
13:09
Speaker 2: your internal organs. So people who do this professionally need
13:11
Speaker 2: to minimize that damage and risk as much as possible
13:15
Speaker 2: through the techniques that they incorporate.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so Darren Taylor, he discusses how when he's performing
13:21
Speaker 1: this stunt, one of the things he does is he
13:24
Speaker 1: will push off the platform a little bit so that
13:27
Speaker 1: rather than him traveling just straight down, he's actually going
13:30
Speaker 1: to land at a little bit of an angle in
13:32
Speaker 1: the water, and that's going to decrease the direct impact
13:36
Speaker 1: if you're hitting it at an angle as opposed to hitting.
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Speaker 3: It just straight on.
13:39
Speaker 1: He also will spread his arms and legs as wide
13:42
Speaker 1: as possible, and this has two effects. One is that
13:44
Speaker 1: it's going to increase the surface area of impact as
13:47
Speaker 1: much as possible, so that the impact is not localized
13:50
Speaker 1: to like just a body cavity where his organs are.
13:53
Speaker 1: And he's also going to try and that having his
13:56
Speaker 1: arms and legs spread will also increase his wind resistance
13:59
Speaker 1: while which will slow him down a little bit as
14:02
Speaker 1: he goes as well, and the divers will also apparently
14:05
Speaker 1: cool the water because the cold water is denser, which
14:08
Speaker 1: again sort of slows the descent faster once they hit it.
14:12
Speaker 1: So that's sort of the technique that's involved here. So
14:15
Speaker 1: I mean, if you didn't get already that we sort
14:17
Speaker 1: of mentioned at the top, this is essentially a belly
14:20
Speaker 1: flop that is done with a heightened level. It is
14:23
Speaker 1: an intentional, highly technical belly flop intended to help you survive,
14:28
Speaker 1: although it will be very painful.
14:30
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly exactly. Now, let's talk about why why are
14:34
Speaker 2: people doing this? I mean, and I go back and
14:36
Speaker 2: I say, people do lots of things for lots of reasons,
14:38
Speaker 2: but why are they doing this in particular? Right, So
14:41
Speaker 2: we kind of started with the why the stunt is novel,
14:43
Speaker 2: it's dangerous, it's likely to attract some views and attention,
14:47
Speaker 2: which means that people who take on this trade can
14:49
Speaker 2: earn money by performing for the audience. So that's pretty
14:52
Speaker 2: decent reason why. I mean, that's probably a lot of
14:55
Speaker 2: the reasons why David Blaine does the things that he
14:56
Speaker 2: does too. Right, It's like it's one of those things
14:59
Speaker 2: where some people like to do it because they like
15:01
Speaker 2: to see how far they can go. But for the
15:03
Speaker 2: most part, when you think about like kind of like
15:05
Speaker 2: the normal social context. I get a lot of attention,
15:07
Speaker 2: I get cheers, I get accolades, and I get money
15:09
Speaker 2: to do this. It's pretty cool.
15:11
Speaker 3: Yeah.
15:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like there is training that's involved, but I
15:14
Speaker 1: mean you get paid to just perform the stunt and
15:16
Speaker 1: you may only be performing it, you know, a few
15:19
Speaker 1: times a day, depending on various factors. But that might
15:23
Speaker 1: work for some people that's like a thing they want
15:24
Speaker 1: to do. So that essentially is as you said, the
15:26
Speaker 1: why again, let's just end very importantly on don't do this.
15:31
Speaker 1: Don't even try this. This is extremely dangerous. Again, like
15:35
Speaker 1: people go into the stunts that might be the path
15:37
Speaker 1: that you're sort of on, but like you're going to
15:40
Speaker 1: get a lot of training and mentoring and conditioning and
15:43
Speaker 1: you're going to have a lot of safety precautions that
15:46
Speaker 1: are in place to ensure that you can do this safely.
15:49
Speaker 3: Also, just don't do it like it's fine.
15:51
Speaker 1: The vast vast majority of you listening are not going
15:54
Speaker 1: to be a positioned where that's the path that you're on.
15:55
Speaker 1: And that's great, and I don't want to disparage people
15:58
Speaker 1: who have taken this on. Is the profession like, great,
16:01
Speaker 1: good for you, that's something you can make money doing,
16:04
Speaker 1: and we're just very powerfully advocating that. We're not suggesting
16:08
Speaker 1: you go and try this. Yes, exactly, Okay, all right,
16:12
Speaker 1: I think that's what we have to say about high
16:14
Speaker 1: diving into tiny pools that are very shallow. Is there
16:16
Speaker 1: anything you'd like to add or anything that I forgot
16:18
Speaker 1: before we wrap up this discussion today.
16:20
Speaker 2: Shane, I think that covers it all right, Thank you.
16:22
Speaker 3: All so much for listening.
16:24
Speaker 1: Don't go diving off of high places at all, let
16:27
Speaker 1: alone into tiny pools.
16:28
Speaker 3: But I think that's it.
16:30
Speaker 1: So oh, as I said, you can support us by
16:31
Speaker 1: joining us on Patreon. You can add free episodes, bonus content,
16:34
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, and I will read your name
16:36
Speaker 1: at the end of full length discussions as one. If
16:39
Speaker 1: you join us as a patron, you can support us
16:41
Speaker 1: by liking, subscribing, leaving us a rating and review. And
16:43
Speaker 1: if you'd like to tell us about your high diving
16:45
Speaker 1: experiences or like seeing someone pull this stunt off, maybe
16:49
Speaker 1: they can email us directly info at wwdwwdpodcast dot com,
16:54
Speaker 1: or we're just on the social media platforms. All right,
16:56
Speaker 1: that was fast, Yes, thank you for recording with me today, Shane,
16:59
Speaker 1: thank you everyone for listening. Thank you to my team.
17:01
Speaker 1: I think that that's it. So this is Abraham, this
17:04
Speaker 1: is a shame.
17:04
Speaker 3: We're out.
17:05
Speaker 2: Bye. You've been listening to Why We Do What we Do.
17:09
Speaker 1: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
17:12
Speaker 1: going to WWDWWD podcast dot com.
17:16
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and we hope you have an awesome day.