‘Life is so fragile.’ Man recounts 40-foot plunge from ocean cliff on California coast

Dustin Tanis thought he’d look for some friends holding a beach party Saturday night by stepping to the edge of Sunset Cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.

That’s when the edge crumbled away beneath his feet, sending him plunging 40 feet to the rocky beach below, Tanis told KSWB.

“I went from standing on solid ground to falling through the air,” Tanis told the station. “I thought to myself, ‘You have to land on your feet to protect your head and your back.’”

Tanis shattered his ankle, broke his back in four places, broke ribs, suffered a collapsed lung and broke his wrist and elbow when he crashed onto the rocks, he wrote on Instagram.

San Diego firefighters rescued Tanis and carried him to safety, he wrote.

“I kept going in and out of consciousness at that point when I was on the gurney — and that’s when I kept thinking I was going to die,” Tanis told KSWB.

Tanis said he will be hospitalized for some time recovering from his injuries, but expressed his gratitude in his Instagram post to firefighters and hospital staff for saving his life.

“Life is so fragile,” he wrote. “I promise you all (I) will be back, stronger than ever!”

In 2019, San Diego firefighters warned visitors about the dangers of Sunset Cliffs, particularly on the cliff edge, citing selfie-takers, KFMB reported.

“They get too close,” Lt. Andy Lerum told the station. “They lose their footing and it is a sheer drop off — sometimes over 50 feet.”

“The cliffs are unstable,” Lerum said, noting several people have died in falls over the past few years. “The edge is a vulnerability that people need to be aware of,”

Barriers can’t be built atop the cliffs because they’d only worsen the crumbling, KFMB reported.

This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 11:35 AM with the headline "‘Life is so fragile.’ Man recounts 40-foot plunge from ocean cliff on California coast."