Felix Baumgartner article in today's Evening Standard

[Craig]

Crazy leap of faith from the 'sky god'

from Danielle Gusmaroli in Salzburg

Base jumper bidding for world recognition drops in on Austria from 6,000 ft

He has already hurled himself from the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, and taken the quick way down from the top of the 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Yesterday, veteran base jumper Felix Baumgartner chose the skies of his native Austria to make his latest dive.

Floating in a hot-air baloon at a height of 6,000 feet above Salzburg, the 31-year-old briefly took in the 360 degree panoramic views, made a final adjustment to his parachute and hurled himself into nothing.

He fell like a stone until, with a jolt, he deployed his parachute a mere 900 feet above a field frozen rock-hard.

His 15 minutes of fame were witnessed by onlookers below, taking bets on whether his parachute would open.

Baumgartner is little known outside his native Austria, but in two months he intends to be hailed as the "sky god". The stunt was a practice session for the World Sports Awards, which for the first time will recognise extreme sportsmen alongside conventional athletes. Base jumping has recently attracted criticism because of the high number of deaths amoung Baumgartner's fellow practitioners, and the fact that many jumps from buildings are done illegally. Most persue the sport regardless of its obvious dangers, becoming addicted to the sheer adrenaline adrenaline rush. London has seen them leap from the Whispering Gallery in St. Paul's, the London Eye, and, in one fatal descent, the 28th floor of the Hilton in Park Lane.

Next summer Baumgartner intends to go up in a balloon 9,000 metres above Calais, jump out and fly across the English Channel and hopefully land somehwere in Kent.

Baumgartner, who was an army drill sargeant for five years, has done 98 previous base jumps and holds records for the highest and lowest jumps.

"I want to be known as the god of the skies," he said. "It's time that people took base jumping and skydiving seriously. The bit I love the most is the second before jumping when you know it can all go wrong but yet you still do it.

"The sky is my second home. It's where I belong and where I feel most calm."

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World Sports Award? I think You are making a joke.
This award is only for persons like Michael Schumacher (Formula 1), and the like.
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[guest]

//Next summer Baumgartner intends to go up in a balloon 9,000 metres above Calais, jump out and fly across the English Channel and hopefully land somehwere in Kent.

If he comes to the UK we will be waiting. i have the feathers. Anyone else got the tar........!
i know there will be some takers in the UK first come gets him.
P.S. someone call the passport control and the Scotish sherif to get him for that bridge jump and entering the country through a non recognised port of entry...... bet those remand prisoners will love a man in feathers...........

//veteran base jumper Felix Baumgartner chose the skies of his native Austria to make his latest dive.

It apears that he does jump at home..... any Austrians want to join the international tar and feather crusade.

Daedalus

[guest]

i know a french jumper who has already the project of the channel
felix take this project for him but, he has no experience in base jump (only 98, it's very few today) and are only thinking for himself

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What´s the matter anonymouse. Didn´t get nominated for the world sports award? I am a bit dissed also about not being nommed, what were the nom-board thinkin? I mean just because Felix was seen by around a billion (no joke) people for his Jesus jump, doesn´t qualify him for doodlysquat (other than than being a showman with a one time audience of one billion,WTB #1 etc.) Jesus!
What were they thinkin? I mean this guy has podiumed our secret sport, no one knew before and now 20% of the world knows about our secret sport.
Actually it´s even legal.......pfftttt!!! What kind of feathers?
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[guest]

jumping the channel?
seen it ! a bunch of brit armed forces types (i believe 1 of each marine navy army raf)
did it back in the late 70's early 80's and to be honest if they did it on fury generation kit doing it on state of the art 2000 kit is just cheating i hope felix isn't gonna claim this as a "skygod world first" too knowwaddameen;-)

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I think he intends to wing it with a hard wing,
What´s the Channel width there (Calais-Dover), 21 miles?
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[guest]

Space:

I'll join the tar and feather crusade. Here are my reasons.

1) Felix BURNS sites. This is the number one evil of our sport, and something he appears not only to be unconcerned about, but even to relish. Examples of his behavior abound, and include published newspaper photos of illegal sites in the home territory of other active jumpers, widely available internet video of illegal jumps, and notes left to taunt security guards.

2) Felix claims to be the first off sites he did not open. In his crusade for international acclaim, Felix BELITTLES the efforts of previous generations of jumpers (who deserve great respect for the risks they took making this sport safer for all of us) by making jumps that were done years before, and claiming to be the first. Perhaps he really means "first Red Bull sponsored jumper to make the jump with an attendant press corps," or "first to burn the site."

3) Felix publicizes himself to the non-jumping public as an ambassador of our sport, despite clearly violating our most important ethics, and despite his relative inexperience. By proclaiming himself our representative, he steals whatever legitimate voice we might eventually muster, and uses it for his own self aggrandizement. This can only hurt possible future efforts to speak with one voice on issues such as access, safety and training--issues which are, in my opinion, far more important than the possibly negative publicity our sport (as a whole) receives from the activities of one high profile jumper.

4) I believe that publicity for this sport is a bad idea (a belief obviously not shared by Felix). In my opinion, the only possible outcomes of greater publicity are burnt sites, more injuries, and a greater number of novices attempting to reinvent the sport (with the resulting injuries and deaths). Felix's hunger for personal publicity can only hurt our sport in the long run.

In summary, I believe that Felix Baumgartner in particular, and the entire phenomenon of Red Bull Sponsorship in general are moving our sport in a negative direction.

So, yes, sign me up for the International Tar and Feather effort (as well as the International Red Bull Boycott).

--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@ucdavis.edu

[guest]

Nice one Tom.

I disagree that all publicity is bad but I wholeheartedly agree that all Felix's publicity is bad and with everything else you've said.

Our Felix tarring debate has been going for a little while now but we only have 25 votes so far. You can vote by going to the rogues gallery at http://www.homestead.com/ukbasejumping

Cheers,

Craig

[MT]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Nov-27-00 AT 01:25 AM (PST)[/font][p]Does this idiot deserve any more of this boards time. What a waste of food.

Some publicity is good for the sport but surely modesty is crucial to success as an ambassador for any sport.

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Space writes;
Hi Tom,
I would join the crusade also if some one can show me a list of sites that he burned, and who he burned, (without jumping on the factless bandwagon). I am aware of him burning a site, read that as one site. To burn a site, one has to publicize an active secret site that the locals have been jumping . Just because a site was jumped once some years ago or, was going to be jumped in the future for the first time is not a burnable offense IMHO. I did learn base ethics from the first generation of BASErs.
I am fully aware that I may get a list of Burns, I am totally open to that.
I will respond to your reasons, but don´t think that because I am responding, that I condone the burning of sites, by anyone........

Tom Writes;
Space: I'll join the tar and feather crusade. Here are my reasons.
1) Felix BURNS sites. This is the number one evil of our sport, and something he appears not only to be unconcerned about, but even to relish. Examples of his behavior abound, and include published newspaper photos of illegal sites in the home territory of other active jumpers, widely available internet video of illegal jumps, and notes left to taunt security guards.

Space writes; are these illegal sites, actually illegal? Did you bite hook-line and sinker on media presentation? The only thing that lets on that that it was illegal was the media presentation, not the laws. Was it an active site from the locals? and as for the note (read as one note) to security guards, did you ever consider this was an apology/thankyou note with a cash attachment for the security as opposed to a taunt?

Tom Writes;
2) Felix claims to be the first off sites he did not open. In his crusade for international acclaim, Felix BELITTLES the efforts of previous generations of jumpers (who deserve great respect for the risks they took making this sport safer for all of us) by making jumps that were done years before, and claiming to be the first. Perhaps he really means "first Red Bull sponsored jumper to make the jump with an attendant press corps," or "first to burn the site."

Space writes; You are somewhat distortedly correct. Felix has made maybe 2 jumps (TMK) in which he has errornously claimed to be the first in which he was not, This was because of his hesitancy to contact locals because of the apparent predgious you see here, (his crusade I will address with reason 3). Felix doesn´t belittle. Change your lenses in your prejudical glasses. RedBull has their own camera/press team so they can controll what exactly gets out (in case things go bad), a wise move IMHO. Jumps that were done years before and first to burn the site statements don´t go well together as I said before.

Tom Writes;
3) Felix publicizes himself to the non-jumping public as an ambassador of our sport, despite clearly violating our most important ethics, and despite his relative inexperience. By proclaiming himself our representative, he steals whatever legitimate voice we might eventually muster, and uses it for his own self aggrandizement. This can only hurt possible future efforts to speak with one voice on issues such as access, safety and training--issues which are, in my opinion, far more important than the possibly negative publicity our sport (as a whole) receives from the activities of one high profile jumper.

"Space writes; In his crusade for international acclaim, publicizes himself, proclaiming himself , his own self aggrandizement. hunger for personal publicity" Tom, where did you get this info from? I never saw this and I live less than two hours away from his country and I speak the language and have never seen any of this on TV, and I assure you I do not have (Felix-can-do-no-wrong) glasses on. He has a job which is to appear in the media as much as possible wearing RB´s Logo, in which he does very well. His job is to be high profile. This has a psychological tendency to piss-off low profile jumpers (did you ever watch skydivers whine about movies that had skydiving in it? same deal). Nothing personal.

Tom Writes;
4) I believe that publicity for this sport is a bad idea (a belief obviously not shared by Felix). In my opinion, the only possible outcomes of greater publicity are burnt sites, more injuries, and a greater number of novices attempting to reinvent the sport (with the resulting injuries and deaths). Felix's hunger for personal publicity can only hurt our sport in the long run.
In summary, I believe that Felix Baumgartner in particular, and the entire phenomenon of Red Bull Sponsorship in general are moving our sport in a negative direction.

Space writes; Publicity has it´s advantages and diss´s, the advantages are of course a more accepted realization of our sport so we aren´t criminals anymore, The diss´s are exactly as you stated (Felix states that it´s a very dangerous sport and you should seek training for it). So, if you want to attack publicity givers, why not start at the top? BR, CR, BD, Vertigo, Aerial Focus, Skydiving mag, NBF, ABA, IBA, FBA, WBA,USBA, VDO, RSABA, Mountain Dew, Euro-Sport, FF Clowns etc.? As opposed to blaming everything on a solo jumper?

Tom Writes;
So, yes, sign me up for the International Tar and Feather effort (as well as the International Red Bull Boycott).

Space writes; Are you going to boycott the rest?
send me the list please of the burnt sites,jumpers etc....If your list is as extensive as you insinuate, I will sign up for the ITF effort and back you all the way...

take care,

space

[guest]

I agree with MT. Enough.

We are powerless over other people and their actions. And yet, look how much power he has over you all. Furthermore, we usually dislike qualities in others that we dislike in ourselves. Hmmmm....

Don't give him any more publicity on this board. Let him go. Eventually he'll tar and feather himself. And it will be all the more effective.

[guest]

I remember Frank Gambalie being sponsored by
Red Bull. I don't remember Frank being a
site burner and making outrageous claims of
being the best base jumper. Felix seems quite
silly. OK, the Jesus jump was cool but it wasn't
really that difficult compared to what has been
done in the past. Alan Hetherington started
static lining building 9 stories high in the
late 80's!!! He had to land the canopy rather
than clear a talus and float down the over the
terrain of the mountain. Doesn't the guy know
any history??? Why doesn't he go jump a train
and claim he it was a first, which BTW was
done by Carl Boenish and a few of the other
pioneers... I'm rambling now, damnit!

[guest]

Hi Tracy,

It isn't just burning sites that I'm concerned with. I am also of the opinion that jumping busy motorway bridges in the middle of the day with lots of traffic is out of order because it is so distractive. I believe BASE in this country (UK) is for the most part having a blind eye turned to it by the authorities but all this will stop when drivers start looking at BASE jumpers and causing major pile ups with fatalities.

Just my opinion.

Craig

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So, Where´s the list of persons and sites Felix has burned? Chris and Tom, Back up your posts with facts. I´d like to know and I´m sure many others would also. Sue seems to injected the most intelligence in this thread, and I am in total agreement with her.
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