refer them to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWfph3iNC-k&feature=player_embedded
I dont feel crazy at all anymore.
Good timing I was actually reading about him in popular mechanics today cool stuff. Did he ever land without the chute yet? He said he was going to try.
I wonder if they think the helmet is actually going to help them in case his wing suit fails…
Idk but nit is carbon fiber and looks cool !
That seems like it would be really cool - until you hit something.
After viewing that link, youtube showed a link of a guy who slams into a bridge at 120 mph. A carbon fiber helmet wouldn’t have helped him much.
I would be interested in knowing the casualty rate among people who do that.
There was a quote from him in the magazine I was reading.
People call parachuters crazy, parachuters call base jumpers crazy/gliders crazy and they all call him crazy. He wants to glide down a mountain and land on his feet. I think he is a bit crazy. But heck who says he can’t do it?
That seems like it would be really cool - until you hit something.
After viewing that link, youtube showed a link of a guy who slams into a bridge at 120 mph. A carbon fiber helmet wouldn’t have helped him much.
I would be interested in knowing the casualty rate among people who do that.
Link to the bridge accident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=IvjgvXcxMsU
Note that the guy being interviewed is, I believe, the very same Jeb Corliss whom we saw in the other clip. Amazing to me that after seeing his friend dismembered right before his eyes, he not only continues with this pursuit, but seems so casual about the danger. “Well . . . I came extremely close on that one! Ha ha ha ha!”
He must hate his parents.
They all die.
I would bet they all really live life too and I can’t say that about everyone.
I would be interested in knowing the casualty rate among people who do that.
Well I guess they did “live life” - up to the point that it ended.
I can’t think of any sport or activity that is so great that I would be willing to die at an early age to enjoy. For that matter, I can’t think of any sport that can compare to the joy of having and raising kids, and watching them grow up.
There are lots of activities that I enjoy, but none bring me more joy than hearing my daughter tell me she loves me, or watching my son laugh and play.
They all die.
I would bet they all really live life too and I can’t say that about everyone.
I’ve been to a few film festivals with his shorts included. One year he talked about how, given long enough, everyone you know (or rather, he knows) who base jumps will die. Two years later, same film fest had him talking about 2 people who were in the film from a few years earlier that had since died. It was surreal.
Seeing longer films with him, he’s really weird. Hard to put my finger on it but it’s like extreme mania. He was so overly excitable it was almost uncomfortable to watch.
I wonder if they think the helmet is actually going to help them in case his wing suit fails…
Like the old saying goes - in the case of a total failure, the helmet is wearing you …
I can’t think of any sport or activity that is so great that I would be willing to die at an early age to enjoy
Nobody is *willing *to die for their sport. That’s silly.
I think it’s important to understand that “crazy” is a relative term. I used to skydive a lot and ‘normal’ people think that’s crazy. But like with anything else, as the skill level goes up the odds of injury/death go down. Corliss is very very good at flying those wingsuits.
Are there always going to be external uncontrollable factors? Sure. Is it dangerous? Of course it is. But so is riding your bike. You could die doing that too, it just wouldn’t be as spectacular.
My question is how does he fit his huge nutsack into that jumpsuit?? Crazy!!
Ok, first of all. I have kids and love having them. It is the choice that I made to live. Some have made other choices. Such as flying wingsuits. It is his priority. Not mine, but I can understand.
I also can say that I AM willing to die for my sport. I don’t necessarily want to and do everything I can to not have that happen, but I understand the risk and have accepted those risks. I would rather live cycling on the roads than not. I make that decision with my children in mind. I would rather them grow up knowing a father who was willing to be active and accept risks of that activity than to be afraid of living.
That being said, I still rock climb because I am very good at the safety of it. However, I no longer ice climb, because, like the BASE jumpers, the risk is beyond what I am willing to accept. If you ice climb long enough, you will get hurt. There are just too many variables to control for.
So yeah, I am not sure he is crazy. It is just his priorities are different than mine. He is certainly committed to pushing himself. And he sure has a different set of definitions to DNS and DNF. My guess is if there is a slowtwich for wingsuit fliers, there are not a lot of posts that are titled “Weekend RR, Disappointing DNF”
Mark Twight, in his book on climbing, said something very similar and I think the book even contains the list of his climbing partners that had died over the years as he was at the boundaries of the sport.
He also has an excellent anecdote about one of the funerals of a former climbing partner where basically rather than have a eulogie, the victims friends step up to the pulpit, hit play on atape deck, remove the coffin and take off with it out of the church and take it to the cemetary themselves. If I recall correctly one of his points was that after a while pretty much everyone he knew or had climbed with had died, or at least a fair few of them.