They call it an extreme sport for a reason. They do it to feel ‘Free’ and they’ll risk everything.
It all started in 1981 when Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield jumped off a Houston skyscraper; BASE Jumping was born.
If you don’t already know what BASE Jumping is, it involves jumping off either buildings, antennas, spans or earth and then deploying a chute and gliding your way to safety. Sounds easy right?
Most BASE Jumpers die by not calculating conditions correctly (wind, trajectory) or not judging their fall distance and chute deployment timing.
BASE Jumpers require the following: a main chute + a reserve, altitude meter and balls of steel.
As of March 2014, 228 registered deaths have been ‘recorded’.
How many have really died is anyone’s guess.
