Back in the day at USNA, the biggie was the “abandon ship” portion of the swim test.
With a modern swim facility that opened in 1982 (Lejeune Hall) that has a conventional 10 meter Olympic dive platform, it became a lot easier. Just walk up to the edge of the platform, take a step, cross your legs and don’t look down.
In the olden days, swimming was at McDonough Hall - a turn of the 20th century jewel box gymnasium. There was only one deep pool to do the 35 foot jump. You crept up narrow staircases towards a catwalk at the top of the building. At the edge of the catwalk was an aluminum painters ladder that you had to climb. The ladder wasn’t attached very well and it would move around while people were climbing. You has to count on the guy behind you in line steadying it. At the top of the ladder was a metal plate the size of a cafeteria tray. You had to climb onto the tray from the ladder and stand up into the ready position. You could touch the skylight. Then it was step off and wait to hit the water.
If you had any issues with heights, this routine was a total mind &#$*. Every year, there was at least one Mid in McDonough the morning of graduation trying to get this done.