Comments on: Burj Dubai BASE Jump

Burj Dubai BASE Jump

homunculus — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:20:31 -0800

World Record BASE Jump: from 650 meters up the Burj Dubai. [Via]

By: Happy Dave

Happy Dave — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:43:27 -0800

That's pretty awesome, especially that they got away the first time. And damn, that thing is high - hadn't realised really how high until I saw it side by side with Canary Wharf.

By: Devils Slide

Devils Slide — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:26:19 -0800

As they said, the shape of the building makes for a tricky base jump. Other than that it seemed pretty straight forward (said the coward from the safety of his comfy chair). When it comes to base jumping, a shorter fall in which one barely has time to deploy the chute is much more dangerous and unnerving than jumping off tall structures. Oh, and I assume the guy whose face was blurred out is using a pseudonym? Because if that's his real name he probably won't be given a Saudi visa once he's vetted. That would effectively shut down his plan to jump off the 1,600 meter building which is currently under construction in the Kingdom.

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:33:08 -0800

Is there anything the French cannot make boring? Sitting on a park bench! Climbing stairs! Talking about the weather! Philosophizing! Jumping off (not quite) the top of a building! Driving a car!

By: zardoz

zardoz — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:35:08 -0800

I like how they speak different languages but understand each other, sorta like Han Solo and Chewbacca.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:39:33 -0800

The fact that they were able to hang out for a few hours makes me want to try to throw a renegade soundsystem party in the building before it's finished. That would be hard core.

By: fairmettle

fairmettle — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:05:53 -0800

Dang it! I've been spoiled by watching the documentary Man On Wire (previously) - - all these modern extreme skyscraper stunt dudes look like rank amateurs now...

By: ageispolis

ageispolis — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:23:24 -0800

True Dayvan Cowboys.

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:28:41 -0800

You know, I watched a lot of BASE jumps before I realized that BASE stood for anything.

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:40:47 -0800

Children, before you think of jumping off great heights, consider the sad fate of one of the two men in this instructional video. His face was permanently blurred afterward.

By: bwg

bwg — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:54:13 -0800

What freaks me out about BASE jumping is the videos floating around the web that show what happens when the chute doesn't open or gets fouled.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:09:37 -0800

What freaks me out about BASE jumping is the videos floating around the web that show what happens when the chute doesn't open or gets fouled. A couple of years ago I watched a documentary about BASE jumping... not all the participants were alive by the end of it.

By: gman

gman — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:13:24 -0800

In other Dubai Records, they had the world's biggest firework display this week, at the opening of the £750m Atlantis Hotel.

By: notmtwain

notmtwain — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:13:38 -0800

By: schwa

schwa — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:56:01 -0800

What is it with the French? It seems most of the batshit insane nutcases doing these kinds of things are French.

By: nosila

nosila — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:11:23 -0800

"I didn't know what would happen if something went wrong." (from the video in the first link) Uhhhhhh.....

By: nosila

nosila — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:12:20 -0800

In other Dubai Records, they had the world's biggest firework display this week, at the opening of the £750m Atlantis Hotel. So that's where all our monies went.

By: GeckoDundee

GeckoDundee — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:13:43 -0800

What floor would you have it on, loq? If the cops show up, would everyone have to bail in those flying fox suits?

By: afx237vi

afx237vi — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:13:50 -0800

schwa: What is it with the French? It seems most of the batshit insane nutcases doing these kinds of things are French. I thought the same thing. Alain Robert (the human spider) is another one, although he doesn't appear to have climbed the Burj Dubai... yet.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:35:51 -0800

Yeah, while watching it I though: 'I wonder if that French Spider-Man nutter has climbed it yet?"

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:50:36 -0800

Base jumping is just probabilistic self-littering.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:09:50 -0800

I'm super impressed that they did 150+ flights of stairs in an hour and fifteen before jumping off the building.

By: dydecker

dydecker — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:13:22 -0800

Not exactly Man on Wire-level beautiful, is it?

By: C17H19NO3

C17H19NO3 — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:18:52 -0800

All your BASE are belong to us!

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:33:00 -0800

They "infiltrated" the building. These guys try this crap in the US, Homeland Security would talk to them for a few years.

By: GeckoDundee

GeckoDundee — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:46:27 -0800

These guys try this crap in the US, Homeland Security would talk to them for a few years. Are you still that scared? I would hope not.

By: Brockles

Brockles — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:49:27 -0800

What I find weird is that the English guy's face is blurred in the Eiffel tower footage, yet you can clearly see his face a few times on the footage of the event - notably in the car and going up the stairs. Or am I going mad? When he says that the guy wasn't close enough to see the plate, there is not one hint of blur. I am also assuming pseudonym, as blurring his face but adding only his name is a bit daft. Unless the voices have been switched around, of course.

By: furtive

furtive — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:57:46 -0800

That's not the record. Jumping off cliffs/peaks is also considered part of BASE jumping. The record is currently held by Glenn Singleman and Heather Swan with a jump from Meru Peak in northern India at a starting elevation of 6,604 meters (21,667 ft).

By: GeckoDundee

GeckoDundee — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:05:19 -0800

No, Brockles, that's the younger, French guy. He wears sunglasses in some shots.

By: Restless Day

Restless Day — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:13:00 -0800

Good friend of mine is an avid skydiver, thousands of jumps, and he's also summitted the five highest peaks in the world--and says he just can't bring himself to go BASE jumping.

By: lupus_yonderboy

lupus_yonderboy — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:33:04 -0800

List of base jumping fatalities. I check this out periodically. There are always one or two new entries.

By: rageagainsttherobots

rageagainsttherobots — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:40:59 -0800

This feels like something out of a Michel Gondry movie.

By: krinklyfig

krinklyfig — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:46:55 -0800

I can't see the Flash video on this computer, but all I can think of is how the crane operator at the top level of that tower feels. That is insane.

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:57:20 -0800

I love how they just walked right into the building at night, with giant bags full of who knows what, in full view of the other workers.

By: docpops

docpops — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 10:15:15 -0800

From Lupus_Yonderboy's site: #6 Pauli Belik - Mar 07, 1983 Pauli Belik Object: Antenna Location: SWEDEN, , Stockholm COD: Impact Description: Pauli, along with several other jumpers, had been jumping the day prior and landing into very deep snow. The jumpers shook the dry snow out of the canopies prior to packing, but evidently Pauli didn't remove it all. What's left melts inside the packed rig while it sat in a warm room. The jumpers deposit the rigs into the trunk of an old Saab and drive to Stockholm. The temperatures are well below freezing. On deployment Pauli's canopy went to line stretch but is basically a solid block of ice that never inflates. No work will be performed today, methinks. This is incredible stuff.

By: TravellingDen

TravellingDen — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 10:47:41 -0800

The idiots bloviate about a feeling of "total freedom" when in fact, they have relieved themselves of almost all elements of freedom by jumping. Your choices: 1) pull the cord or 2) die. That doesn't seem like a lot of freedom to me. Perhaps it's more about lack of control and surrender to fate than freedom? At the moment they leap off that building, all priorities and forces in life are put into sharp focus: nothing matters except falling, and pulling that cord. Sort of like the rush gambling junkies get when rolling the dice or waiting for the roulette ball to settle - they have exercised, for one moment, total control.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:40:06 -0800

#50 Terry Forrestal - Jun 10, 2000 Terry Forrestal Object: Earth Location: NORWAY, , COD: Object Strike/Impact *** Think this was the guy who died in the doc I saw. ex-SAS being the clue. I seemed to remember his confidence seemed to far out-way his skill in the jumps they showed.

By: LordSludge

LordSludge — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:49:00 -0800

I'm thinkin it's "total freedom" from social control.

By: stinkycheese

stinkycheese — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:04:02 -0800

You'd have to shoot me and dump my body from the building to get me to 'jump off' but boy are these ever amazing to watch from ground level.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:15:30 -0800

Dubai: Party on, Dude

By: CaseyB

CaseyB — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:49:29 -0800

I would have thought that BASE "records" would be inverse. After all, the higher the structure, the safer the jump. Get back to me when someone does a successful 20m jump.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 13:13:59 -0800

I wonder how long it will be before someone jumps from the Siduhe Grand Bridge.

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 13:41:04 -0800

I wonder how long it will be before someone checks the schedule, fires everyone working on the ground floor that night, and hires a new batch of immigrants to replace them within minutes.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:12:30 -0800

Problem with the embed? I see no video (except that ad for the "Rebels" series).

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:13:45 -0800

What is it with the French? It seems most of the batshit insane nutcases doing these kinds of things are French. That comment prompted me to go re-watch all of my favourite wingsuit videos.

By: atrazine

atrazine — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 02:10:19 -0800

I wonder how long it will be before someone checks the schedule, fires everyone working on the ground floor that night, and hires a new batch of immigrants to replace them within minutes. It wouldn't surprise me if management knew about this. They were sure super ready with statements to the press here (Dubai) and it pushed the imploding real estate market off the front page for the first time in weeks. Also, expats, not immigrants.

By: Marisa Stole the Precious Thing

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:06:41 -0800

It wouldn't surprise me if management knew about this. They were sure super ready with statements to the press here (Dubai) and it pushed the imploding real estate market off the front page for the first time in weeks. Ah ... see, that's clever.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:02:45 -0800

It is already home to the world's glitziest buildings, man-made islands and mega-malls - now Dubai plans to build the tallest tower. But behind the dizzying construction boom is an army of migrant labourers lured into a life of squalor and exploitation.