buzzin the walls

January 4, 2009 2:17 PM

At the beginning of windsuit base jumping, we were trying to get as far from the wall as possible...and now its getting boring so we play around. (money shot at 3:10)
posted by allkindsoftime (82 comments total)

i literally lost my breath watching that. amazing. congrats to the crazies that do this.
posted by nonreflectiveobject at 2:22 PM on January 4, 2009

I wonder if there's an adult diaper as an integral part of that flying-squirrel suit.
posted by notsnot at 2:32 PM on January 4, 2009 [2 favorites]

To really make it fun their crash helmets should be made out of steak knives.
posted by munchingzombie at 2:35 PM on January 4, 2009

Um.. so is the "money shot" a graphic collision or something? Because some of us really don't like seeing things like that.



(Sure, I enjoyed Faces of Death when I was like 17 (show me a guy who didn't).)
posted by oddman at 2:37 PM on January 4, 2009

No, it's just a dude FLYING HIS ASS OFF.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 2:39 PM on January 4, 2009 [7 favorites]

This looks like something I would very much like to do if not for the fear of a violent, sudden death brought on by my general clumsiness.
posted by cortex at 2:39 PM on January 4, 2009 [12 favorites]

This reminded me of a video that went around a year or two ago where the guys were paragliding with skis on, and alternated gliding and skiing down ravine-strewn mountainsides.

I just wonder... how do you start? I mean at what point to you have to take the leap of faith?

Whoever does this has brass ones. Big brass ones.
posted by LondonYank at 2:40 PM on January 4, 2009

Wow. It's a really good thing I hadn't heard about this sort of thing when I was a little kid.
I think I'll stick to longboarding, though.
posted by dunkadunc at 2:40 PM on January 4, 2009

Ho. Lyshit.
posted by metastability at 2:40 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Wingsuit, not windsuit.
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 2:44 PM on January 4, 2009

The flying stuff was great. But I was a bit perturbed by the bit at the beginning, where they were skiing off the edge of a cliff and ejecting their skis once airborne.

If I was out hiking in the mountains and was impaled by a terminal-velocity ski, I'd be a bit grumpy.

Does that make me just an old fart?

Disclosure: I am an old(ish) fart.
posted by bokeh at 2:45 PM on January 4, 2009

Next those guys need to try swooping down on some mountain goats, as discussed here.
posted by TedW at 2:46 PM on January 4, 2009

Amazing footage, thank you for posting. I would so love to do this myself one day. The makers of the wingsuit recommend beginners have at least 200 logged skydives...I'd better get cracking.
posted by sektah at 2:46 PM on January 4, 2009

As a raging, hyperventilating acrophobe, I have no idea why this wigs me way less than pics of that horrible Grand Canyon glass overlook or the video of people strolling along the crumbling two-foot-wide walkway on the side of a cliff. Maybe it's because part of my brain is convinced it's a CGI effect.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:46 PM on January 4, 2009

I know what I'll be dreaming about tonight.
posted by Optamystic at 2:52 PM on January 4, 2009

Makes Batman look like a chicken.
posted by Missiles K. Monster at 2:54 PM on January 4, 2009

This very technique will appear in an upcoming action movie or Bond flick, if it hasn't already. The visuals are simply stunning, and there is a director out there who will want to plaster them on the big screen for sure.
posted by davey_darling at 2:54 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

And I can't go up past the third step on a ladder without feeling oogy. Holy.
posted by beautifulcheese at 2:56 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

we came over here to specifically learn to fly our wing-suits off of cliffs

Pardon the pun, but that's a pretty steep learning curve as Step 1 is presumably "jump off a fucking cliff".

At least they're wearing helmets?
posted by slimepuppy at 2:58 PM on January 4, 2009 [8 favorites]

slimepuppy, I think step 1 was "jump out of an airplane." Which requires its own set of brass but is really a hell of a lot safer than jumping off a cliff, with or without a wingsuit or parachute.
posted by localroger at 3:04 PM on January 4, 2009

Dang. The things white people like.
posted by punkfloyd at 3:13 PM on January 4, 2009 [5 favorites]

This very technique will appear in an upcoming action movie or Bond flick, if it hasn't already.

The ski-off-a-cliff-then-release-parachute has already been used in a Bond flick (with Union Jack themed parachute, 'natch.)

The windsuit and the jump-off-a-cliff combination has not iirc.
posted by gen at 3:14 PM on January 4, 2009

This very technique will appear in an upcoming action movie or Bond flick

Dear Director of an upcoming Superhero Movie,

Pay Attention!, this could be your Kirby moment.

love,
fan with money just waiting to spend it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:23 PM on January 4, 2009

Meh. I bet there's a Jackie Chan movie where he does it without the suit.

(Just kidding, this was breathtaking).
posted by treepour at 3:44 PM on January 4, 2009

I was kind of hoping the narrator had a Southern accent. And at some point said "Hey y'all ... watch this"
posted by ElvisJesus at 3:51 PM on January 4, 2009 [2 favorites]

Hate to brake it to you, but one of these suits was used by Angelina Jolie('s stunt double) in the second Tomb Raider film. It's one of the only memorable things about that godawful movie. That was 6 years ago now.
posted by slimepuppy at 3:53 PM on January 4, 2009

Was I the only one reminded of the "Flying Nun" while watching that? Something about the windsuits has a sort of monk's habit appearance, and the vaguely ecclesiastical music just added to that.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 4:12 PM on January 4, 2009

I noticed that they keep their faces more or less parallel to the ground. When you see the footage from the other guy in the windsuit, it looks like they are flying very fast above sloping ground. When you see it from the point of view of the guys on the bridge, the guys are just falling very fast along a vertical wall.

The "flying" is just optical illusion.

The day I overcome my fear of depths (heights I can take, I can look up at the clouds from my hammock all day long), I will glue some garden gnomes and bird houses to the wall of a cliff, and will do this shooting at them with a little laser gun making pew pew pew sounds.
posted by dirty lies at 4:12 PM on January 4, 2009

Oops, forgot to link: the Flying Nun
posted by sevenyearlurk at 4:13 PM on January 4, 2009

Where's Warren Miller when you need him?
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 4:22 PM on January 4, 2009

I would be totally crap at this as my first reaction at jumping off of a cliff would be to hug myself and roll into a ball.
posted by gomichild at 4:22 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Was I the only one reminded of the "Flying Nun" while watching that?

I was thinking more Rocket J. Squirrel.
posted by hal9k at 4:24 PM on January 4, 2009

Me: Whoa
Number 1 Son: Whoa
Number 2 Son: Whoa
Wife: How does he land?
Us: Errrr....

(spoiler: parachute)
posted by DU at 4:40 PM on January 4, 2009

The only proper way to land would be to hit a giant spiderweb spun between two cliff faces.

With our current technology, no parachute, they have to land on one of those giant inflatable things stunt doubles use. You miss it, you die.

A parachute is a cop out.
posted by dirty lies at 4:54 PM on January 4, 2009

By spun I mean "spun by themselves while they fall using a spiderweb dispenser on their wrists".
posted by dirty lies at 4:55 PM on January 4, 2009

This is without question the COOLESTMUTHERFUKKINGTHINGI'VEEVER...seen.

It's worth the gack of 300 skydives. Absolutely awesome.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 5:18 PM on January 4, 2009

According to a work colleague, who met one of these guys up at Whistler, that same guy died from hitting the wall on a later jump. So yeah, I guess it's cool up until the point where, as my colleague put it "rocks aren't very forgiving at 100 MPH".
posted by birdsquared at 5:20 PM on January 4, 2009

birdsquared: I guess we'll never know, but I wager he would say "It was worth it."

But, as someone said in an earlier thread to a link of amazing jumping feats, watching Man On Wire has totally changed the way I see these things.
posted by Corduroy at 5:34 PM on January 4, 2009

I'm not sure what you mean by 'money shot at 3:10' seeing as how it's pretty much ALL money shot.
posted by incessant at 5:35 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Wikkid Hahdkwah.
posted by chronkite at 5:36 PM on January 4, 2009

Sure, I enjoyed Faces of Death when I was like 17 (show me a guy who didn't).

[raises hand]
posted by The Tensor at 5:39 PM on January 4, 2009 [7 favorites]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'money shot at 3:10' seeing as how it's pretty much ALL money shot.

He flies within roughly 10-20 feet (probably less than 10, based on his earlier estimate) of a FREAKING ROAD WITH CARS ON IT AND PEOPLE STANDING ON THE SIDE. AT. TERMINAL. VELOCITY.
posted by allkindsoftime at 5:44 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

A friend of mine is an ex-Air Force skydiver with thousands of jumps, and every time I visit him at his place to drink beer and commiserate about expatriate life here, he ends up showing me some skydiving videos in the window between coherent speech becoming difficult and him falling asleep. Before that point last time I visited (and me throwing a blanket over him and grabbing a taxi back to my hotel), he played a longform vid including some of this footage, and I have never wanted so much to do something so dangerous ever.

But I promptly forgot about it, because, you know, the beer. Thanks for reminding me!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:47 PM on January 4, 2009

"It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever."

(My fear of heights thankfully prevents me from trying this, but thanks for posting this.)
posted by mosk at 6:03 PM on January 4, 2009

I think it was pretty cool, but you know all those fellows are going to die at what they do. And as long as they and their loved ones are copacetic with that then it is all cool. But once you start down that path where just merely jumping off cliffs and getting away from the walls if boring... well it has big rocks in the future for you at some point.

When they where skiing off and ejecting their skis my first thought was that they where never getting those skis back and it seems like a bit of a rich man's sport because of it, "oh, going to go throw a few hundred bucks of skis off the cliff now, ta"
posted by edgeways at 6:10 PM on January 4, 2009 [2 favorites]

The "flying" is just optical illusion.-- dirty lies

Eponysterical.

Look at the vid again. Watch the horizon. They're gliding. (And a heck of a lot more than I would have expected with those puny wings.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:17 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

this could be your Kirby moment

Or Steranko.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:20 PM on January 4, 2009

edgeways: When they where skiing off and ejecting their skis my first thought was that they where never getting those skis back and it seems like a bit of a rich man's sport because of it, "oh, going to go throw a few hundred bucks of skis off the cliff now, ta"

Maybe they use the money a normal person would be putting towards their retirement. I mean, how likely is it that they'll need it?
posted by Mitrovarr at 6:29 PM on January 4, 2009 [9 favorites]

That was insane.
posted by kbanas at 6:31 PM on January 4, 2009

I had the same thought about the shher waste of those skis, edgeways. However, most hardcore skiers have old beat-up, delaminated, pitted , etc. skis that aren't really much use anymore. I'm gussing that they likely use those. Hopefully, they collect them after, which might seem like eco not-picking to some, but then even on Everest garbage is a big problem.

That said, by defintion, skiing and skydiving are pretty much "rich men's sports" anywaze. While I don't consider myself rich by developed world standards, I am a skier, and it is freakin' expensive, especially relative to the income of most of the undeveloped world. Let's face it, any leisure activity which requires substantial spare time, travel to remote locations, and the use of exotic materials, is pretty much a rich man's sport.

As for zooming along at 100 mph, inches away from rock faces, and over sheer cliffs; as a confirmed motorcycling, mountain biking, windsurfing, kayaking, water and snow-skiing adrenalin junkie, I say that stuff is pure frikken craziness.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:52 PM on January 4, 2009

Regarding the ski/paragliding, there was this thread on it.

Wingsuits have been linked on the blue before. Tons more on the Tube. (there's also a wingsuit fatality if you look hard enough, where the subject hits a bridge -- spare yourself)
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:16 PM on January 4, 2009

I've seen this video probably 30-40 times already and *every* time my gut clenches up when he flies along the wall.

Simply amazing.

Jeb Corliss is/was attempting to land a wingsuit without a parachute but that may be on hold now as he is facing some jail time for trying to BASE jump the Empire State Building.
posted by ChrisHartley at 7:42 PM on January 4, 2009

I spent 90% of the video wondering how the hell you landed these things (maybe some kind of crazy flair?), and was pretty disappointed they just had parachutes on.
posted by smackfu at 7:42 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Looks like a hell of a rush but it's definitely a slow form of suicide.
posted by Justinian at 7:44 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Don't mountains often have really strong updrafts? Like vicious, ragged, climate-altering updrafts? That could, say, pucker your batwings and reduce you to dead falling weight? While you're so close to the ground that it's utterly unthinkable that you could open your 'chute in time?

Or that could just bash you into a sheer cliff face, knocking you briefly unconscious and then permanently dead? Seeing as you're flying mere feet away from that same cliff face while basically wearing sails?

Not that there aren't hundreds of good reasons to not do this, but that's my good reason: updrafts.
posted by penduluum at 7:50 PM on January 4, 2009

I've been waiting for Corliss to do the chute-less thing for a few years now, and read that the military is paying attention, should he pull it off. Didn't know about the Empire stunt, but he's my hero, considering the typical lifespan of a BASE jumper and his longevity thus far..
A Year in the Life gets watched a lot around my place.
posted by hypersloth at 8:05 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Why do these flash videos always freeze three seconds in for me??
posted by gottabefunky at 8:06 PM on January 4, 2009

Absolutely, penduluum. The unpredictibality of weather in sports like hang-gliding and para-sailing is why I've never taken ithem up. I don't mind something that I have a reasonable amount of control over, say by designing the trail, but the sheer abritrary nature of these airborne type pursuits is a deal breaker for me.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 8:17 PM on January 4, 2009

gottabefunky: if you're using Chrome, it's apparently a known bug. Memail me.
posted by penduluum at 8:51 PM on January 4, 2009

They don't need crash helmets, the need something more aerodynamic.
posted by netbros at 9:05 PM on January 4, 2009

Next up, a wingsuit cliffdive landing on top of a rolling streetluge sled at 90 mph.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:57 PM on January 4, 2009

gottabefunky I get that too, but it'll freeze right as the video becomes interesting every time. I think my computer just wants to annoy me.
posted by dabitch at 12:16 AM on January 5, 2009

However, most hardcore skiers have old beat-up, delaminated, pitted , etc. skis that aren't really much use anymore. I'm gussing that they likely use those.

Actually, some of the people skibasing in the beginning of the clip asked the TGR forums* for old bindings, specifically. They wanted a specific model of old Tyrolias that had an upward releasing cocking lever on the heelpiece. These binders are old enough that shops wouldn't mount them for liability reasons. This is why they can eject the skis by pulling on a cord attached to each binding. As for the skis, my guess is they would be the very definition of rock skis, and I hope they clean them up.

*Actually, it's more of a nomad community, after the exodus from the Powder magazine forums after the admins spurned them by deleting the archives, hence the persistent name "maggots" for member.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 1:00 AM on January 5, 2009

These suits prove Douglas Adams right. To fly, you throw yourself at the ground.. and miss.
posted by mediocre at 2:35 AM on January 5, 2009 [3 favorites]

This is why I paid $5.
posted by chuckdarwin at 3:10 AM on January 5, 2009

I just wonder... how do you start? I mean at what point to you have to take the leap of faith?

I'm guessing that it's like this:

1. Master skiing.
2. Master ski jumping.
3. Master base jumping.
4. Master cliff diving.
5. Ski jump off of some really high cliffs over and over.
6. Get used to the wingsuit (?) in a wind tunnel (?)
7. Ski jump off a cliff wearing said wingsuit over and over.
8. Decide that death is an acceptable option in the pursuit of your dream of actually flying.
9. Fly.
posted by chuckdarwin at 3:18 AM on January 5, 2009 [3 favorites]

rocks aren't very forgiving at 100 MPH

I want to see a wingsuit wearer try a water landing, but it would probably end much like that hijacked Ethiopean 747 when it ran out of fuel.
posted by bwg at 4:20 AM on January 5, 2009

I have ski dived, exactly once. Ouch, I hurt my back. I have not done gliding. But I have dreamed. Watching that video, every fiber of my body screamed, "Get away from that wall!". It would take too small a random variation in the fall to connect man with rock. Not good.

I recall from some decades ago, videos of people doing some kind of surfboards, while ski diving. Whatever became of that? It looked arguably a bit more awesome than this (yes, arguably, and I'm happy to argue either way, as "totally awesome" = "totally awesome").
posted by Goofyy at 4:41 AM on January 5, 2009

Obviously the video scrambled my brains. ski = sky, both times, above.
posted by Goofyy at 4:42 AM on January 5, 2009

I want to see a wingsuit wearer try a water landing, but it would probably end much like that hijacked Ethiopean 747 767 when it ran out of fuel.

(okay, done being a pedant)
posted by musicinmybrain at 6:16 AM on January 5, 2009

Anyone know the names of the tracks in that vid? I totally want to find the second one.
posted by thewalledcity at 7:33 AM on January 5, 2009

Dur, ok I found it (went to the original Vimeo page)

1st song: Contact - Violence
2nd: Diz Organ & Sackcloth Fashion - Under Man
posted by thewalledcity at 7:43 AM on January 5, 2009

So yeah, I guess it's cool up until the point where, as my colleague put it "rocks bridges aren't very forgiving at 100 MPH".

Bingo. Not particularly graphic, but still, not for the squeamish. I caught this on Discovery a few weeks ago; IIRC these two jokers were trying to simultaneously squirrel-suit-fly under and over a bridge somewhere, and, well, needless to say, it didn't work as planned.
posted by jckll at 8:11 AM on January 5, 2009

whoa.
posted by ericbop at 8:15 AM on January 5, 2009

Yeah. That's the video I was referring to.

6. Get used to the wingsuit (?) in a wind tunnel (?)
7. Ski jump off a cliff wearing said wingsuit over and over.

Wingsuits needn't be used with BASE jumping in particular. In fact, it would probably be much safer to get the basics down in regular jumps. I checked out the availability of wingsuit training in Canada awhile back and it's surprisingly scarce, but there is an outfit outside of Montreal that is starting to do it. None of it BASE, AFAIK.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 10:33 AM on January 5, 2009

Oh, boy, sleep! That's where I'm an insane wingsuiter!
posted by Artichoke Dance Off!! at 11:16 AM on January 5, 2009

My favorite wingsuit video: Melissa Andrezjewski and Chris McNamara take flight off
Kiguti Peak, Sam Ford Fjord, Baffin Island.
posted by prinado at 11:43 AM on January 5, 2009

Goofyy: sky surfing?
posted by crickets at 12:31 PM on January 5, 2009

Augh

he will die
posted by tehloki at 9:11 PM on January 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thanks, crickets. Wingsuits do look more flyable.
posted by Goofyy at 10:55 AM on January 6, 2009

Damn that looks like fun.
posted by homunculus at 12:12 PM on January 8, 2009

this is totally an option for people to commute downhill with, right? fly to work, carpool home?

omg. gonna watch again
posted by Glibpaxman at 3:03 PM on January 8, 2009