B.A.S.E. Jumping Off Buildings in Russia—Slavs Got the Crazy Adrenaline Bug
Written By
Rachel Mansur
Subscribe to the Wonderment RSS Feed or get Email Updates
Published 1 year ago

If you've yet to witness B.A.S.E. jumping, it's an activity for adrenaline junkies first publicized by filmmaker Carl Boenish in '78. The freefall sport employs ram-air parachutes, and is most commonly executed in locations such as the highly elevated El Capitan rock formation of Yosemite National  Park (El Capitan is also technically the birthplace of the sport).

B.A.S.E. is an acronym that stands for "four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump": buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs). Most publicized footage takes place on just one of those fixed objects—Earth. I have yet to see jumps off antennae, and and the only semi-related B.A.S.E. jumps I've seen from "span" and "buildings" happen to both, curiously enough, take place in Russia. Though not technically B.A.S.E. jumping—in both instances the demonstrators are connected by bungees—it's the closest I've seen to a jump in an urban setting.

Exhibit 1: Playing a game of Russian Roulette off a bridge.

Exhibit 2: DIY bungee jumping. And again.

Below, the real thing in an urban setting, bungee-free, and at this stage, unsurprisingly performed by Russians. Photos by Natalia Sudareva.

B.A.S.E. Jumping Off Buildings in Russia—Slavs Got the Crazy Adrenaline Bug

B.A.S.E. Jumping Off Buildings in Russia—Slavs Got the Crazy Adrenaline Bug

B.A.S.E. Jumping Off Buildings in Russia—Slavs Got the Crazy Adrenaline Bug

B.A.S.E. Jumping Off Buildings in Russia—Slavs Got the Crazy Adrenaline Bug

B.A.S.E. Jumping Off Buildings in Russia—Slavs Got the Crazy Adrenaline Bug

B.A.S.E. Jumping Off Buildings in Russia—Slavs Got the Crazy Adrenaline Bug

B.A.S.E. Jumping Off Buildings in Russia—Slavs Got the Crazy Adrenaline Bug


Share this article

Comments

+1
Vewa Man (2) 5/3/11 10:52 PM
Be adventurous
Add your comment:
0 / 2000

B.A.S.E. Jumping Off Buildings in Russia—Slavs Got the Crazy Adrenaline Bug

If you've yet to witness B.A.S.E. jumping, it's an activity for adrenaline junkies first publicized by filmmaker Carl Boenish in '78. The ...

Photo of the Day: Australian Handplant

A skateboarder pulls an inverted handplant in a distant, upside-down land.

Hawaiian Surfer Dudes Make Their Own DIY Waves

Anybody who surfs knows there's often plenty of downtime waiting for the perfect swell to come along. So what do you do while you're waiting ...

Brooklynites Build Skull-Shaped Igloo Fortress

What better place to brave the Snowpocalypse than in a snowy simulacrum of a human skull? For those of you old enough to remember He-Man, yes ...

Head over Wheels! The World's First Double Front Flip on a Mountain Bike

On January 25th, Bienve Aguado decided that he would be the one to pull off the world's first double front flip on a mountain bike. And guess ...

All Wonderment

So Cal Life! World

Southern California Living

SoCal Surf World

SoCal Surf World is dedicated to anything and everything about surfing in Southern California. Get local insights, check seasonal buzz and exchange stories about the quintessential SoCal ...

Florida Fishing Info World

Next time go catching instead of fishing!

All Featured Worlds

Sebastian Thurtide commented on How to Make Furniture in Minecraft 50 seconds ago

Hey this is really helpful, if anyone has any more ideas please try to contact me on this wiki.

http://mccreate.wikia.com/wiki/User:Lord_Rose_Thorn

Yannick Bloemen posted a reply to the thread: WonderHowTo Minecraft Server - Apply Within! in the Minecraft World Forum 10 minutes ago

In-Game Name: ItzTheDude

Age: 17

Projects you'd like to see built: Large buildings,temples and castles

Do you agree to the Terms of Service and Rules: Of course!

Physics Anonymous posted to the corkboard to the Politics Dissected World Corkboard, about Freedom watch: Not a single Democrat voted in favor of ending FDA raids on raw 40 minutes ago

Here’s some news for those who still somehow believe the political left in Washington cares about the People. After U.S. Senator Rand Paul introduced an amendment that would have ended armed FDA ra...more

All Community Activity
loading...