After an accident during a BASE jump on Nov. 11, aerialist Ueli Gegenschatz has died in a Swiss hospital.

This spring at TED, Gegenschatz spoke movingly of his desire “to come as close as possible to the human dream of being able to fly.” Our thoughts are with his friends and family.

Wingsuit jumping is the leading edge of extreme sports — an exhilarating feat of almost unbelievable daring, where skydivers soar through canyons at over 100MPH. Ueli Gegenschatz talks about how (and why) he does it, and shows jawdropping film. [watch: Ted.com]

Ueli’s Website

Until she said “I do” to Glen Singleman, Heather Swan was trying her best to live her double life as a successful corporate executive and a single mom. However, that all changed when she was dragged into the world of skydiving and BASE jumping back in 1999. Like she said:

“My first jump was not until a year after we married and I found it terrifying. Before then I’d been just a safe corporate mum working hard at my desk and chatting at the watercooler.”

Glen Singleman gliding above the clouds, courtesy of Baseclimb.com

Ever since then, Heather has turned into an authentic adrenaline junkie. 6 years after that first skydive, she finally overcame the nerve and stepped up her game to join the elite club of BASE jumpers.

Heather BASE jump

Finally, in 2006, after 6 years of meticulous planning, she truly earned her place among the greatest BASE jumpers when she embarked on a 23-hour climb up Mt Meru and flew off in a wingsuit from 6672 metre up in the air. Till this day, she’s still the Guiness World Record Holder for the highest BASE jump ever attempted.  Jumping from the rarified air, she and her husband took a mere 2 minutes to glide down, reaching the terminal velocity of over 200 km/hr. After she landed, she finally achieved something so extrodinary that no one else, not even the founder of BASE Jumping Carl Boenish had attempted.

Heather and Glen jumping off Mt Meru, courtesy of Barcroft

Now Heather is a professional BASE Jumpers along with her husband Glen Singleman. She’s also a motivational speaker inspiring people around the world. She’s got a newly released book called “No Ceiling“, as well as a documentary called “BASEclimb 3″ recounting their experience during the Mt Meru trip. To learn more about Heather Swan, Glen Singleman, as well as their amazing endeavours, click here

This is how BASE jumping taught Heather how to conquer her fears, now she challenges everyone to do the same:

“Do one thing that you don’t think you can do, and I guarantee you will succeed”

Readers, will you take up her challenge?

sources: 1 2 3

What’s the most dangerous thing about flying?

Overloaded aircraft engine?  Skydiving from a high altitude? Gliding? Maybe not! A recent personal and careful documentation showed that wingsuit flying is the most scarry one!

Wingsuit flying is a form of base jumping, using a special suit and no other equipment. According to the ,,greatest” Wikipedia, ,,Wingsuit flying is the art of flying the human body through the air using a special jumpsuit, called a wingsuit, that shapes the human body into an airfoil which can create lift. The wingsuit creates the airfoil shape with fabric sewn between the legs and under the arms. It is also called a birdman suit or squirrel suit.”

A bit of history: Since 1930’s,  after many failures, Jari Kuosma of Finland and Robert Pecnik of Croatia teamed up to fulfill their dream of creating a wingsuit that was safe and accessible for all skydivers when they established BirdMan, Inc in 1998.  BirdMan’s Classic, designed by Robert Pecnik, was the first wingsuit offered to the general public.

So you’re completly carried by wind, as well as a bird and try to avoid obstacles in your way, like big rocks and trees:). At first sight I think everyone of you asks himself who has the courage to do this? I’m afraid many we know, many of our friends or people u  just met! It’s a dangerous sport but a very cool one!

Wanna try to do some wingsuit flying? Check out these links for more infos (how wingsuit flying works, wingsuit competition). Watch video below and see the real adventure:

Watch more related videos here.

non?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDFnS2SFbc0

Here is the 60 minutes story and video.

Here is where I first saw them “fly” in this TED video (flying starts at timecode 5:50). Truly amazing stuff.

Often times the most exciting things are also the most dangerous. BASE jumping probably rank fairly high on that list. BASE is an acronym for building, antenna, span, earth. Instead of jumping out of an airplane from 13,000 ft, BASE jumping entails leaping off of a fixed object like a cliff, bridge, tower, or building. Since the jump is typically made at much lower altitude. BASE jumpers rarely reach the terminal velocity of 200 km/hr, because there is simply not enough distance for acceleration. However, if your name is Heather Swan, then you need not apply. When she jumped off the cliff of Mt. Meru at 21,000 feet, she was able to reach 200 km/hr even with a wingsuit. While BASE jumping evolved from skydiving, make  no mistake; the former is far more dangerous than latter. Statistically, 1 in every 100,000 people dies from skydiving; 1 in every 60 dies from BASE jumping. Through 500 BASE jump, the chance of you spending time in the hospital from a serious injury is 99%. The odd of you getting injured at least once is 100%. Jeb Corliss, the most respected BASE jumper today, having jumped over 1000 times around the world, often compare BASE jumping to the military. Initially, it may sound ridiculous to compare the recreational thrill seekers to the people that lay their lives on the line to protect our country. However, once you put some thought into it, it’s not too far off. Just like every soldier, every BASE jumper understands and accepts that he or one of his friends may die today; every jump could be their last. There may be 5 people getting on that helicopter to the summit, and only 4 might see the light of another day. In the back of their mind, there’s always a lingering question: “who is it going to be this time?” It surely isn’t a sport for the faint hearted. Now just out of curiosity, would you ever want to attempt BASE jumping?

Imagine standing at the edge of the cliff at the picture above, staring at this amazing view. You suddenly feel a chill crawling up your spine; the sensation is giving you goose bumps. You try to blame it on the chilly wind that is brushing against your skin, but you know better. In a moment, you’re about to leap off of this 10,000 ft cliff, free falling towards the ground at 140 km/hr. The spine tingling sensation is from the massive dose of adrenaline being released inside your body. Your friend beside you is doing the final countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Let’s Rock!!! And with a final push, you leap forward. The descent is slow at first, but gravity never fails to work her magic. In mere seconds, you approach the mind boggling velocity of 140 km/hr. The ground below is quickly approaching, and any wrong move, the turbulent wind might slam you right into the cliff wall. At this velocity, even a brush with the cliff can be fatal. But the funny thing is, none of that matters at the moment. There is no fear, there is no what if in the back of your mind. Only the fact that you’re free, free from the daily stresses that chain you down, and free from the limit that has caged you ever since birth. “That’s too dangerous,” “That’s physically impossible,” “You can’t do that,” These are the words often uttered by most of your elders and your peers when you were growing up. But now, with a slight smirk, you can look straight into their eyes and say: “Guess what, I did the impossible.”

So where’s the difference? What makes BASE jumping 1500 times more dangerous than skydiving? Skydivers often use airflow to stabilize themselves before opening up the parachute. The faster you’re going, the more control you have. In BASE jumping, since the velocity is slower, body control is more difficult. Therefore if the parachute is opened when body is not fully stabilized, there’s a high chance of parachute entanglement as well as off heading towards an obstacle. To further heighten the risks, skydivers typically have 3 minutes between the time the parachute opens and the time they land; it’s around 10 seconds in BASE jumping. Therefore, if the primary chute malfunctions, BASE jumpers do not have the luxury of opening up their backup in time before they fall to the ground [1].

Today, flying techniques and equipments have advanced greatly since its origin. With the recent invention of wingsuit, which is a special diving suit that turns the human body into an airfoil that creates lift, a new form of base jumping called proximity flying started appearing. BASE jumpers started experimenting with wingsuit to see how close they can fly alongside the cliff, tracing out the contour of the wall. The video below shows some amazing footage of proximity flying. In the video, Loic Jean Albert, a well known BASE jumper said: “At the beginning of wingsuit BASE jumping, we try to fly as far away from the wall as possible. Now it’s getting boring, so we play around.” Man…talk about a nutcase. At one point, Loic was gliding a mere 2-3 feet away from the cliff wall at 160 km/hr!!!

Proximity Flying

So what’s next for these insane BASE jumpers? Word is that Jeb Corliss is attempting to land on the ground using only his wingsuit. There are also people trying to put mini jet engines on their suit to achieve sustained flight. The latter idea has made some headway in the past few years. In 2005, Visa Parviainen jumped from a hot air balloon wearing a wingsuit with a jet engine on each leg. He was able to sustain a 30 second flight with no altitude loss. In 2008, Yves “Jetman” Rossy, flew across the 35 km English Channel with his special designed carbon fiber wingpack. He hopes to one day be able to truly soar through the sky like the falcons. While these ideas may all sound crazy, but so are the people attempting to accomplish these lofty goals. When crazy people try out crazy ideas, sometimes it just might work. After all:

“limits, like fear, are often just an illusion.”

-Michael Jordan

Source:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASE_jumping

[2] http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/wiki/BASE_Origins

Duuuuuuuude. Da Vinci might shit his robes if he saw these guys wingsuit base jumping in Norway. Beautiful footage of what almost seems too amazing to be real.

Este video es algo viejo (casi un año) pero aún considero que vale la pena publicarlo. Se trata de un deporte espectacular que sin duda alguna me gustaría alguna vez practicar Ya no digo más, mejor vean el video.

Por cierto, las dos canciones que se escuchan son:

• Contact – Violence
• Diz Organ & Sackcloth Fashion – Under Man

Video: wingsuit base jumping en Vimeo.

I know I already posted this video. I might post it again in a few months. This is seriously one of the craziest things I can imagine myself doing. I wouldn’t be doing those 5-10ft flybys, but I would definitely get my flying squirrel on.

so, wack wordpress won’t allow me to embedd this vimeo. but you should click the link and watch this. trust me.

Wingsuit loic jean albert and friends , Amazing flight… from Xmicky on Vimeo.

wingsuits. i want one. i need one. i got next.

I want distance.

Not distance from a particular point, but distance in general. As if one could achieve distance without any prepositions:

Not distance from, Not distance to

but just… distance.

I want to be in that between space without any two points to be inbetween.

Taking some distance promises a broader perspective. A broader perspective allows for a more objective or forgiving interpretation of the tiny and terrible actions of humans on earth. As Nanci Griffith sings in her earnest country twang: “From a distance, you look like my friend.”

The distance I crave cannot be found on google maps, and I don’t really think that I need any directions to get there. For, as Gertrude Stein aptly put, There is no there, there. Or, as my favorite cliche aptly explains: Wherever you go, there you are.

Mapping the distance to or from a particular point is like reading the last page of the novel in advance. It is like letting a fortune teller tell you the day you will die. I don’t want to know my final destination. When the airplane announcement comes over the loudspeakers “nonstop flight with final destination to – ” I would rather cover my ears.

Because to me, knowing the final destination is careening too closely to knowing one’s own mortality. In my opinion, this must be at the base of aviatophobia, or, the fear of flying. I do not want to be a foregone conclusion nor the patient passenger getting off at where else but the final destination. It sounds so morbid. All of what is within me rails against it.

The distance I crave is the sort of netherworld found between destinations wherein a person is neither here nor there – a sort of noncommittal zen state where decisions are delayed, indefinitely. Maintaining a holding pattern, waiting for clearance to land, but hoping clearance never comes.

I suppose what I want is an escape from subjectivity, which is, of course, impossible. The best that I can do is navigate between intersubjectivities ad nauseum. But the myth of objectivity fascinates me the way that the myth of progress intoxicated the industrialists.
It may not be possible, it may be unobtainable, but I yearn for it.

If I never land from the noncomittal inbetween I maintain objectivity.

I would like to be neutral as water. I would like to belong to nowhere – to rise and fall and rise again like a water drop. I would like to fly without ever landing. Perhaps, like young boys reading superhero comics, I simply want to be immortal. Is that so much to ask?

Laura Hartmark is a writer and is glad you took the time to read this blog.

Looking into the wacky stunts that people try and pull for that simple adrenalin kick, I found this video. Who would have thought that someone would attempt to race a glider in a wing suit. Reaching similar altitudes, the speed chase begins and with the glider nose diving, a mini parachute is deployed to keep it under control.

As the chase continues, the speed man in the wingsuits speed increases to the extent he has equalled the speed of the glider nose diving. Not only reaching the same speed but also maintaining it, emphasised by holding onto the gliders wing. Eventually reaching an altitude to deploy their parachute and correct their gliding height to ease back down to earth.

ⓒMatchstick Productions

Wingsuit base jumping off Norwegian cliffs and proximity flying with Loic Jean Albert, Espin Fadnes, and others. This is the ULTIMATE extreme sport ladies and gentlemen. 

So I typically try to keep my blog fairly real estate focused but this is probably one of the coolest video’s I’ve ever seen. As close to flying as it gets!

maybe one day!!!

Aliás, já que esse pluginzinho é tudo de bão, aproveito e posto o video mais legal que vi ano passado.