For those of us that get a cold chill at the idea of jumping from such a height that it would literally require the use a parachute to live, BASE jumping seems crazy enough on its own without adding to the madness. Yet, somehow, leaping from almost 2,000 feet seems way more appealing when it’s done from a fast moving surfboard attached to a zipline.
We came across this totally awesome, totally nutso video at Sploid, and it was posted to YouTube by Red Bull (though the daredevils in it did use parachutes instead of relying on wings). The super fun montage features the “collective” known as The Flying Frenchies in the Vercors mountain range taking turns riding a surfboard, traveling at over 46 miles per hour, on a zipline, before jumping off near the halfway point into the valley below.
Everything about this is wonderful. The pure joy experience by the Frenchies here is clear, but there’s so much here that brings us merriment, too. For instance, when they strung the band up on the zipline (there’s a guy playing a double bass from a zipline 2,000 feet in the air, and he’s joined by a guy playing the drums!), or the guy that landed and immediately turned into the Riddler.
So even though we didn’t think BASE jumping needed any extra layers to make it look like the craziest thing in the world, apparently it was missing a zipline and a surf board to make it insane enough for us to forget how crazy it is.
Would you be willing to try this stunt? Zip into our comments below and let us know why.
Images: Red Bull