Kauai: Backflips off Kipu Waterfalls

A sunny afternoon found us on the South Shore for some play time at Kipu Waterfalls.

We drove down a secluded dirt road until we spotted an opening in the fields just large enough to possibly be the trail. Matt and I questioned whether our instincts were correct as we navigated our way through the overgrown sugar cane without any further indication that we were, indeed, on the right path.

That is, until we heard the sweet sound of running water and the chorus of cheers as a splash erupted from the pool below. We'd found it!

Matt and I promptly made our way over to the rocks and waited our turns to jump. A local kid took the plunge, and then a 40ish-year-old lady walked to the edge and stood there. And stood there. And stood there. And finally started to move forward a bit, but changed her mind and stood there. For probably five minutes, the lady just stood there on the prime jumping rock, freaking out while everyone watched. And that's when we learned a valuable lesson: Fear is contagious.

Next thing you know, everyone started to get a little hesitant about jumping off. Not that they could if they wanted to anyway, since the lady was still standing on the edge and well, you can't just go push her off. But her freaking out led to an outbreak of freak outs. Toward the five-minute mark, my wheels even started turning: What if there's a reason she's so nervous? The water is moving really fast, and it'd be so easy to slip just walking over to the ledge... and if you slipped while jumping off? Your head could hit the rocks and the falls would just push you under... But that's ridiculous. You just have to be careful. I've jumped off cliffs twice this size before. Someone just needs to break the ice again and ju...

My thoughts were interrupted by Matt: "I'm just going to jump off a different rock." And then he did. And then I did. And just like that, the jumping party resumed.

That's when we learned an even more valuable lesson: Just because the 40-year-old lady doesn't jump off a cliff, doesn't mean that you shouldn't jump off a cliff, too.

Of course, at that point, Matt felt the need to raise the stakes even more with a few of these:

Matt's Backflip at Kipu Waterfalls from Ashley on Vimeo.

Yes, multiple back flips off Kipu Waterfalls. Not bad, Matt, not bad.

Once we'd had our fun with the waterfall cliff jumping, we moved over to the South side of the pool. A huge rope swing beckoned off rocks a few yards higher than the falls. It was every bit as much fun as it looks!

After a few go-arounds, I swam our camera across the pool to catch Matt's latest tricks. The sun gets in the way of this video a bit, but if you look closely, you can see Matt's 1.5 back flips that he straightened out just in time for landing. He got quite a few props for that one! A group of local surfers told Matt that he had "reflexes like a cat." Pretty sure that made his day.

Rope Swing Back Flip from Ashley on Vimeo.

Needless to say, with kayaking in the morning and Kipu in the afternoon, our trip was off to an amazingly fun start.