Here is a guy who was really pushing the limits of human flight. Unfortunately…it didn’t work out!
Archive for the 'BASE jumping' Category
After riding the bike park at Whistler for a few days we were all beat down. Everyone was banged up, bleeding and sore from hard riding and numerous crashes. We loaded up the rig and headed to Twin Falls, Idaho where we met up with more Nitro Circus members and TP’s dad for some beginner BASE jumping. When I say beginner BASE jumping, I mean people with absolutely no parachute jumps…no skydives and no BASE jumps. Most jumpers would not advise this type of behavior but I figure I can take a certain type of person and make it relatively safe in a controlled environment.
The Prienne Bridge in Twin Falls is one of the only legal bridges to BASE jump in the US. Jumpers come from all over the world to session the bridge. This is a great place to spend time and learn about BASE jumping as well as practice your skills. When your not running from cops or hiding from security guards you can slow down and pay more attention to what is going on with the general safety of your jump.
In all, I pushed 7 new people off the bridge. The way it works is I hold the pilot chute in my hand while the jumper climbs over the railing. The pilot chute is the small parachute thrown out to catch air and pull out the larger parachute packed into the container on your back. The jumper makes the jump from the bridge and I hold onto the pilot chute manually extracting the larger parachute from the container. This allows the jumper to focus mainly on body position and shortens freefall time to avoid any type of parachute malfunction.
Once the parachute opens the jumper has been instructed to fly the parachute over the water and land in the water to avoid any chance of breaking bones trying to land on ground for the first time.
The highlight of the trip was when Travis’ dad stepped up and threw a gainer off the bridge for his first BASE jump ever. One of the crazier things I have witnessed and he stuck it! No wonder Travis is the way he is…
The bridge
Some of the Death Campers
Pastrana about to jump
Nitro Circus Member Hubert making his first jump
Willie Crum climbing over the railing…scared senseless.
Getting in some flips
Travis’ dad about to stick a gainer from the top rail without any parachute experience at all.
Death Camp Instructors
Landing pattern
Central California can get hot mid summer…I’m talking 110° hot. There is not much going on in Lodi or the general vicinity. Mostly dry fields and vineyards, but for me, it’s where I jump out of planes.
The drop zone is filled with unique characters of all ages and backgrounds, more or less a melting pot of alternative individuals. It is one of those things really hard to describe unless you witness it for yourself.
I love jumping in Lodi due to the care-free attitude, the extremely cheap prices, and the “I just want to jump” mentality. Much nicer and lets just say “by the book” dropzones exist but this place suits me the best!
If you ever want to learn to skydive…come to Lodi. $500 and 7 jumps later you are on your own. After that you can jump out of the plane for $15. Let me tell you…it’s a great way to spend $15!
The changing room…
This is where everyone comes to pack rigs, manifest for a jump load, prepare for a tandem jump or just hang out and talk about how rad you are. These hangers are where you can find some “colorful” people.
Tandem students watching the 10 minute instruction video before they are strapped to the belly of a tandem master who then pushes them out of the plane…often times screaming.
Annika packing one up…
Waiting for my ride…
Loading up…
Final approach…
Fill it up again!
Another perk to Lodi is the numerous large antenna’s in the area. This one stands 1800 feet off the deck!
Whenever I thought of the upcoming Nitro Circus trip to the lake, my palms immediately started sweating. A week of fun on the lake with this group is not what most people would consider fun. I knew I was going to be lucky to come away uninjured or alive. Our goal was to get footage for the new Nitro Circus film “Double Wide” due out this fall.
The Nitro Circus rolls in style. I was picked up at the Las Vegas airport and taken to the owner of Nu Skin products “get away” house near Lake Mead. The house is entitled “Pirates Cove” which is basically “Pirates of the Caribbean” for adults. Long water slides, 60-foot mast jumps into small pools and pirate bars throughout the estate. I have never seen anything like this place and could easily spend a week there getting lost in all the details.
From there we loaded up a motor home, 2 fifth wheels, all the other trucks and headed for the lake. In all we had 2 houseboats, 3 cigarette boats, 4 ski boats and more toys than you can imagine.
Throughout the week we accomplished Big Wheel BASE jumps, Mtn Bike BASE jumps, rowdy zip lines, Rollovers for folks who have never skydived or BASE-jumped as well as many punishing stunts the crew was trying to step up too. I watched stunts executed to perfection and I also witnessed a few miracles. All in all, everyone came away in one piece. We had great time and I was stoked to play with the team again!
After the Lake, Pastrana, Plamer and myself rolled back to Vegas for some more BASE fun. Pastrana has some pull in Vegas…we showed up at 2 in the morning made one phone call, and found ourselves at the wind tunnel for a private middle of the night session.
The winds did not cooperate in Vegas but we made up for it with a private go-cart session with Cowboy Kenny Bartram, TP and TJ Lavin.
Make sure you check out the new Nitro Circus film“Double Wide”. You are not going to want to miss this one!
Ring Leader of the Nitro Circus…Travis Pastrana getting warmed up at “Pirates Cove”
One of the many nooks at Pirates Cove. The mast behind the girl goes up 60 feet with a platform to jump from. This is also the finishing pool for a legit water slide!
Some of the crew…after they ran out of gass.
TP’s Big Wheel BASE jump. This was a nasty 250 foot cliff right above our camp. TP had his heart set on riding a big wheel down this face. It was super gnarly and he went mocking down the side of this rock. TP crushed the jump in true form!
Next up was the zip line. After about 5 of us hit it, Jim DeChamp decided to try it out. You can see at the start of the zip line you are 80-90 feet off the deck. What you cannot tell is that the first 200 feet is over water that is only 2 feet deep. Somehow DeChamp managed to peel off the bar and fall every bit of 80 feet into 2 feet of water. Miraculously he was alright….
There was endless firework warfare!
TP, Plamer and myself getting ready to send it.
The aftermath…
Jim DeChamp redeeming himself with a rowdy Mountain bike BASE jump.
Waiting on wind….Not a bad view
Willie crum wanted air time himself. He decided to send the Big Wheel without a parachute. I am sure you can use your imagination to figure how this ended up.
Cowboy Kenny Bartram, TP, Me, TJ Lavin just after our private rally session.
Check out some helmet cam footage in the “BASE” section of the Video page!
July 23rd, 2007
I just returned home from 2 weeks in the magical Swiss fantasyland …Lauterbrunnen. I was working on a BASE jumping TV show for Rush HDTV and National Geographic.
Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland is one of the most beautiful places on earth with lush green grass, countless waterfalls, and 1800 ft walls on both sides of the valley to jump off.
We had perfect weather and multiple close calls but we all made it home alive.
May 15th, 2007
After sending 8 dirt bikes into the Grand Canyon the whole crew headed out to do some house boating.
What was supposed to be a relaxing time quickly turned into rowdy BASE jumps and a gnarly slip n slide down the red rocks that left many people dinged up.
The highlight was when Travis held onto my back during a BASE jump without a parachute or any sort of backup. He let go around 50 feet and landed in the water below.
May 5th, 2007
I got a call from Godfrey Entertainment asking if I would come to the Grand Canyon with Travis Pastrana and the Nitro Circus Crew to BASE jump dirt bikes into the canyon.
Needless to say, I was on a plane a couple days later.
It was my first time ever on a dirt bike and was a sick experience. Travis was doing triple back flips and corked sevens.
What a sweet way to start out the summer!
