In a crazily bold fashion, French BASE jumper Jumaidee Elias skateboarded off the side of the Millau Viaduct Bridge. He 50/50 grinded his way down and then free fell to the ground below. Waiting until what looked like the last possible second to release his parachute. Elias says in his Instagram post that this is the first time he’s tried anything like this and it was “truly terrifying.”
The bridge at it’s tallest length from the ground below is 1,104 ft. That’s not a whole lot of time to get your bearings and deploy your parachute. Skydivers are required to deploy their chute at about 2,000 feet. BASE jumpers usually jump from a height of less than 486 feet (148 m) so this stunt was somewhere in the middle of the two. Luckily he made it out unscathed but we recommend not doing this at home. If you do make sure you are accompanied by a professional or ARE one.
I also want to point out that the death rate for BASE jumpers is quite high. In 2002 there was an average of one death per 60 jumpers. It also has the highest mortality rate of any other ‘sport.’ So while this is cool please know that this was dangerous and the jumper had LOTS of practice before attempting this.
