the fear is like literally a hurricane inside your heads I do every nerve
ending is saying don't do this
once you take that step there's no coming back
it's something that will change
all extreme sports push it to the edge but only one step so
ok
you see people get injured you see people get killed
I've been surrounded by carnage
yeah
yeah
the sport that gives no second chances Jim Corliss has suffered more than just
gruesome injuries
I brought my back in three places all my ribs left foot writing these witnesses
violent deaths of too many good
I look over and I see a severed leg lying on the ground but still he is
lured to the edge
there's only two things in this world are prevent me from patient wonderful
journey
when I was a small child I used to dream about flying a lot and I remember
talking to my aunt once
I told her that I wanted to fly and she looked at me and she's just like you
know you need to be realistic in life you know people can't fly
you get older you'll understand when I got older and guess what I never
understood and i still know I fly
it's the purest form of human flight I've ever found
it's breathtaking its awe-inspiring there aren't words to describe how truly
powerful it
from Icarus
I'm strong
it's been a consuming dream
to break the shackles of Earth and take to the
a courageous beautiful
it's called
hey stupid
ace is an acronym for building
ok
expand
in earth
platforms from
students sleep in the ceiling free fall Sam
but Jeb Corlis first found his wings somewhere else
I used to always . at the hi-dive at the pool which was apparently a very high
tide 18 months old he was still wearing a diaper and sucking his thumb and he
was sucking his thumb and pointing up it's beyond
hi dad and I went no jab and the instructors at all
don't worry about it i'll take him up he'll never jump
I'll just take him up there you know he'll get scared you want to come back
down to stop asking
pick him up yep wiggled out of his arms wield we all the way down doggy paddle
back to the side of the of the pool and said again
she says that that was the point when she knew she had a problem
I've always been attracted to things that scare me
I don't know why I just know that i like the way it feels to be around things and
to do things that are frightening
growing up in New Mexico and Jeff indulged his appetite for fear while
other children called tadpoles
he went after more challenging prey
I used to really enjoy catching poisonous animals like how to Gila
monster wants lots of scorpions
I had a pet tarantula really big black and orange tarantula
i also had a pet black widow for a while
he was probably about 7 years old when he brought the rattlesnake home
I just went ok and I said well what are you going to do with it and he basically
sit well i'm going to let it go eventually but i just want to look at it
for a while they were the ones i look for the most i really enjoyed them
because they were the most dangerous
I don't know they scared me so I really kind of enjoyed being around them they
gave me such an intense feeling they were kind of my little friends hung out
I catch them and keeping his pads and then I release them and go catch some
more and keep them as pets and i still love them
eventually James insatiable appetite for fear was given a name i was diagnosed
with counter phobia and didn't believe them when they said it because it
sounded almost too obvious
lead Jab to deliberately seek out and expose himself to his deepest fear
well it sounds like kind of a made-up condition whatever
yeah haha hey i didn't really it was like tell me something I don't know
about myself I mean come on
yeah
counter phobia foster Jeb's love of spiders and snakes as a child
they were about the only friends he had I never felt like I fit in
I never did fit in it wasn't a question I mean throughout my entire childhood I
never fit in with anybody
a large part of Jeb's childhood was spent traveling with his parents he got
a wide view of the world but was always the new kid on the block
I went to six different schools from 1st to 6th grade
school was a battle zone for me I didn't go to school feeling like I was going to
some place to learn
I felt like I was going into a friggin war zone I mean it was fighting non-stop
in first grade I was getting a fist fight
he was a loner in a lot of ways
jeff had a very hard time and yes he did have fights and he was eventually
homeschooled
I felt very lonely and I felt like I was separated from other people
I felt very different I felt very strange and I felt like a an outcast
I had no hope I had no desires i didn't care and made no difference
I was just like well whatever whatever i don't care i didn't make it didn't
matter if I lived or died you can make any difference to you
I mean it's horrible to say but i really was on a mission for death as I impacted
I actually couldn't believe that a person could hit something that hard and
continue to live
yeah
the reality is no matter what you do in this life
it's coming to an end once you accept there's nothing that you can do about
your own mortality and you're now free
you have no control
so stop pretending even just get off living your life stop living here
21
yeah
ok
Corliss the sky his office
yeah
yeah
really
is this one of BASE jumping is best he spent nearly a decade perfecting his
craft
done some video cam in free fall and even though i'm i'm focusing on the jump
and focusing on him as a subject during filming
I'm still impressed you know there's a part of me going wow that looks like
in any sport is considered a good run in BASE jumping
it's a lifetime it's a sport you do one mistake you can die right away that's it
so it takes a certain type of person to do it will make space something so
incredibly dangerous as factors such a small margin for error
zero to 80 miles an hour
yeah
jumpers reach terminal speed
as per hour
in any sport we are dealing with high speed and seconds to make reactions
there's potential for injury and its potential for that
as a teenager
the potential for death is exactly what attracted gym to base to me
he was very shy very introverted
had a great view of fuel of difficulty dealing with the outside world as a
whole
from the age of seven - 19
I was extremely suicidal and to be honest with you when I first saw BASE
jumping
it really was perfect for one very specific reason
if I lived I did something amazing that no one else on this planet would be
willing to do if i died and release me from my suffering on this planet
so one way or the other I got what I wanted the first time that he heard
about BASE jumping he was 16 and he was watching the documentary on someone and
he knew immediately that that's what he wanted to do
but i remember thinking that's perfect
I mean it's horrible to say but i really was on a mission for death
I didn't want to live I didn't care i don't care about anything I'm care about
anybody else's wife I don't care about my life I was a walking dead person at
the age of 22
Jed began BASE jumping on one of his first jumps he almost found what he was
looking for
I was very inexperienced this was only my six base jump it was a 300-foot
antenna a dangerously low altitude for a beginner to load to allow for even the
slightest mistake
I am so scared I remember like looking down at the razor-wire fence and just
thinking
on my command I'm starting to
and right as i say it I just step off the antenna as I step off i remember
throwing the pilot chute and I remember everything just stop it
everything starts moving really slow and then all of a sudden starts accelerating
I remember bringing my hands up and just bracing for impact as my parachute
chuckles and it opens
I mean literally was like a shotgun
I just like didn't even know you couldn't believe that I was still
freaking alive and I grabbed a riser I turn I just forget slam into the road
I'm like laying on the ground completely shaking
I could literally feel the air touching my skin I could hear little insects
crawling in the grass around me I could it was the most powerful experience I've
ever had . and I remember looking up at the antenna remember thinking I'm a base
number now when i started BASE jumping all the sudden I started realizing you
know what
life isn't just misery life isn't just darkness
there's Beauty to do my search for death i found my life and BASE jumping is what
helped me do that
it gave me everything without it I would be dead by his mid-twenties had 300
jumps under his belt and was living his dream traveling
looking for that next perfect place to come
it had such a small margin for error
it was one of my scariest bait shops ever it was one of the few times I've
been so scared that I've been shaking uncontrollably act the exit point where
i'm sitting there shaking so much that I'm just like telling my body you know
stop shaking you know this isn't help hi i just couldn't stop shaking
it was it was truly more fun
yeah
yeah
I stepped off did my double reverse landed the security guard came up to me
and she's just like sir
you know don't run away and I just put my arms around her I'm just like I'm
okay
oh hello it is hugging her and she just like yes yes you're alive and you're
going to jail and I'm just like I don't care what the French police didn't know
what to charge away in Paris
like most places base jumping in itself is not evil
you have escaped to the warning I've been detained in four different
countries
you know four different times they don't have laws against it but what they do
have laws against are trespassing or reckless endangerment
I enjoyed the sneakiness I mean I enjoyed that part of it meant when
you're going somewhere where he's not supposed to be you have to figure out
how you get in how you chump and how you get out without getting busted I mean
it's rubbing up almost like a bank it feels like it but it's not
we're not endangering any other life oh well
golden gate bridge isn't any legal jump haha
I didn't ask for permission to do it but it's not new people
I went up there with a couple buddies 0 was one of them
that night we go and buy some hard hats so we look like construction workers
we then go to the center point and start climbing up the cables
it gets the top
sun starts coming up and it's just it's beautiful man
it was an incredible feeling
I jumped off and did my triple reverse open my parachute landed under the
bridge
in fact that we got away was it was just luck
I mean I was just a total miracle God
but the law is the least of a base jumpers worries
yeah
wind gusts sketchy landing areas bad parachute polls just a few things that
can lead to disaster all base jumpers have a one or two stories of truly close
call are truly a magnificent jump which they pulled away and you know it was it
was very closed
when I hit the waterfall that experience changed me as a person
water was really pumping off the waterfall and we were thinking well you
know the winds are good but there might be some turbulence because of how much
water is coming off this thing you know you go through this like danger -
pleasure ratio at that point the danger was worth the pleasure so I'm like I'm
going
I jump off right through my pilot chute
I make a massive mistake which is I drop my left shoulder which throws off my
symmetry which makes my parachute open asymmetrically
I remember my parachute opening and looking at the waterfall going
oh and all of a sudden I just feel like just grabbed me by my legs just suck me
in
and as I impacted I actually couldn't believe that a person could hit
something that hard and continue to live
yeah
the current pushes me down I get to these walks
everyone just kind of laying there like back just going I mean I was in
excruciating pain
it took about one hour for my friends to get during this whole process
there are these little crabs that live in the water and I had a big slice on my
on my butt from hitting the clip and tearing my pants are entering the open
the crabs were attracted to the blood into the loop and through this entire
time i have these little tiny crabs at eating the flesh away from me there's
just there's really not a lot i do I mean I can move my arms but not very
well and they just were relentless they just wouldn't stop
they finally get me in the ambulance and my friends come over to me and they're
like hey let's see the footage and like hell yeah I do they get the camera and
they showed their like showing me the video literally as I'm in the ambulance
on my going so I was like at least we got some good footage though
yeah
the gym by something is fun oh yeah
Jeff broke his left foot right knee most of his ribs and his back in three places
he was laid up in the hospital for a month
I mean it makes you appreciate your life so much more when you realize that it's
not permanent
but I think about stopping
never
ice brushing relax haha
the stuff that he was doing was lightyears ahead when you see him
jumping
you're like my god I mean it was crazy
there's no question but he was crazy in a good way
I kind of idolize the guy
yeah
yeah
I'm scared to die just like you are as scared as you are standing on the edge
of a building and jumping off is exactly how scared I am
i'm not superhuman I'm a person just like everybody else
the only difference is i have come to an acceptance
i'm prepared to die in life am I going to die yes I'm gonna die will be based
dropping problem
in the sport where every June could well be your last
jeb Corliss has logged nearly a thousand after a few hundred he simply stopped
counting
he suffered gruesome injuries watched friends died around him and still he
answers a call to step to the edge
you can't really explain the feeling and then can you explain love to a person a
person really has to experience it to understand
there's like two things in this world that would prevent me from base-jumping
quadriplegic your death
adrenaline is nice
but it's not why i doing
I do it because this is my life
this is fulfilling my dreams
it's about the journey it's about going into the plates about going somewhere
you've never been seeing things you've never seen meeting people you've never
met we were introduced by a mutual friend of ours
I was starting to base jump at that time and we struck up a friendship then and
we started taking trips together right away as fun you know I mean he's a
higher energy person
the interesting thing about her is she's still a girl
even though she's super hardcore just like the super intense climber jumper
blah blah but she still wakes up extra early to get all of our makeup on you
know that he's kind of spastic and and I'm pretty mellow
most of the time so we balance each other out really well
about seven years old times around 19 or 20
I felt uncomfortable around people and I felt uncomfortable in social situations
and now with two base jumping i found out that hey there are people like
myself and there are people who like to do the kinds of things that I like to do
and I'm not alone
yeah
on one of their trips in july of two thousand Jeff introduced Karen to
another base jumper his friend Dwayne listen they had an instant kinda I
remember just looking at it going
that was quick well hey yeah it was
they were they were like pretty much together right away
yeah
I really felt when I first met him that my life is never gonna be the same
Dwayne Weston was one of base jumping's most revered and respected but karen was
a newcomer to the sport
I met him and got to know him without knowing anything else about him or his
jumping or his accomplishments he was considered to be the craziest based upon
the planet doing things that were just beyond beyond beyond possible
nice russian relax yeehaw
what
yeah
in Western was one of the first jumpers to introduce aerobatic to the sport
reputation for pushing the envelope was widely known
I heard about him probably a year or two before I actually met the guy
it was legendary
when I heard about it my I imagine it's hardcore extreme to scroll but that when
I'm enemies like this kinda almost computer nerd dude what kind of funny
hair and like I like kind of a list be almost feminine voice and I remember
just looking i'm going to hurt Wayne he appear to be a quiet nice but then when
you see him jumping
you're like my god i like is this is that possible
it was a god
I mean it was like here was Dwayne here with everybody else
he didn't even have a close second he still doesn't have between met in 1990
and as their friendship grew so debased
ford exploded from its underground
exhibition springing up all over the world
Kevin between quickly became crowd favorites fully jimson needs
never-before-seen he definitely helped me like learn through this sport and do
things better
I actually thought it was insane oh my god never disappear and then within a
year I want
I mean he was crazy there's no question that needs a good day to die
blah blah blah but he was crazy in a good way he did very powerful very
dangerous very incredible thing but he was very calculated
I kind of idolize the guy is incredible big
yahoo by 2003 720 the base jumping into new territory
between the spectacular junk that we push the sport and themselves
it was doable like very doable it seemed risk to pleasure ratio see my pleasure
was way higher than risk and totally worth it
they're still proved to be memorable for all the wrong reasons and I know that he
probably up until last I can't believe he was going to pull it
all of a sudden I see something that was very difficult for me to comprehend at
the time
yeah
yeah
and I just look down and I see that I'm covered in blood
and a community of base jumpers there's definitely a connection that you make
with these people that are unlike any connection I've ever had with any other
group
you are relying on one another you know that if one of you gets injured but this
person is going to be the one who pulls you out there going to be one who makes
the phone calls are going to be the one who saves your life
the connections become very powerful very strong
you will get ready to start doing bae something you will see the people dying
and and most likely there will be your friends
BASE jumper dies on a jump other jumpers say they've gone
she's nineteen eighties around a hundred jumpers
but those are only reported fatalities
the real know
higher
yeah
base jumping really does seem a lot like going to war I always kind of have this
weird feeling when I go out with a group of guys it's like with jeez man is going
to be this time
get over a thousand feet this is the highest suspension bridge in the world
yeah
in October of 2003 jeb Corliss and his friend Dwayne Weston came here to
conquer the Royal River Gorge
if anything wasn't right we wouldn't have done it
everything was perfect
I mean it was safe it was it was good conditions for what we're trying to do
what they were trying to do have never been attempted
it wasn't a base jump it wasn't a skydive
it was its own bizarre unique first time thing
no one has ever done that
we jab plan to jump from the plane using wingsuits a recent innovation that
allows jumpers to glide through the air
I was going to fly under the bridge he was going to fly over the bridge
we were going to deploy inside the gorge land our parachutes and that was pretty
much it
both men were at the top of their sports doing in particular had become more than
just a jumper he had so many times and he pulled them off like incredible think
so
in some way you know I thought like she can't get hurt
Wayne was one of these guys into book that it's like he's indestructible
bleeding from the face Nick
yeah I went through a cactus and landing yeah it was a legend because he was
almost risen to a level of immortal
that was his playground that dangerous area that risky your area that walking
on the edge plays in over 12 food based google it
that's fun with that meticulous approach and dazzling execution that
revolutionized the sport
Wayne was probably the best base jumper in the world
yahoo but he wasn't really that great a wingsuit pilot he was flying a new suit
that he wasn't that familiar with and that kind of bothered me
yeah
I doing this right when he can see you guys now
Wayne and 40 of the world's only bench jumpers gathered by invitation only if
you go fast games
we talked on the day that he laughed and I just told him go and just just have
fun and make good decisions and just remember you know you don't have
anything to prove to anybody at this point in your in your life and in your
career you know just go and enjoy yourself
the weekend up to that point was protecting 40 people doing six jumps a
day three days in a row and there's nothing more than like a twisted ankle
it was kind of went on your magic city 3000 a month
I got a phone message from him and he said he was being safe and having a good
time and is that I'll be home tomorrow night back in your arms and and that was
the last message that I i got from him
it was the last jump on the last day of the games
he and the plane seems a little bit scared when we are standing in the
doorway about ready to jump out
he grabs my hand and it looks at me he's all Jeb
just remember whatever happens happens
nice kind of looked at I remember thinking
what I mean we we have been on a lot of really hardcore jumps together
you never said anything like that to me before
just like that's kind of a weird thing to say
we left the airplane I started flying I saw Duane out of my peripheral for just
a split second I didn't see much in free fall
so I just kind of a little bit of Madame I preferable up above me and I kind of
just focused on the bridge and I'm like okay there's the bridge
open my wingsuit and started powering up underneath the bridge
all of a sudden I see something that was very difficult for me to comprehend at
the time
I saw parish an opening right in front of my face
I actually had to make evasive action i had to actually turn to avoid hitting I
see other stuff in the air and there's all this other stuff i'm not going but
what is this stuff
I hope my panna p land and I just look down and I see that I'm covered in blood
I'm just like whoa and I look over and I see a severed leg lying on the ground
I'm just like I mean it was it was you know i just went into shock
yeah
the bridge at a hundred and twenty miles an hour he died instantly
chute deployed on impact and carried his lifeless body to a ledge above the river
as much as join and I talked about death and the possibility of losing each other
in the sport
nothing can fully prepare you when it actually happens
I remember it like it was yesterday
you know and and I don't think it's something I forget very soon
yeah you want to skim that bridge by just a few few feet
you know if you tried to miss the bridge by 50 feet or if you try to miss bridge
by a hundred feet he would have been fine
he always wanted to cut it as close as you possibly could
why did you have to push the envelope in an area that you were an expert in I was
a little bit upset about that but in the end ultimately it kind of comes full
circle and I couldn't stay mad very long
any anger I felt was so short lived because that was just kind of who he was
and I I loved him deeply for that
yeah
maybe two or three months after it happened I started kind of questioning
you know what what what is my meaning here
why do i do this like what's the meaning of it is it is it still important to me
you know is it worth dying for
sort of
yeah the whole railings completely like Benton it
yeah
I'm really glad I was here
to see you
yeah
yeah
when you get into the sport of BASE jumping you have to be very realistic
about your mortality pretty much anybody who does Sport understands that is
dangerous and understands that you can be killed doing it
in October of 2003 with over a hundred already dead
base jumping claimed another victim
I went into shock I just kind of went numb and I didn't really
it took me a while to really kind of grasp what it even happened
in close range
jeb Corliss witness the violent death of one of the sports most respected
athletes
his friend Dwayne Weston
it's really kind of taking a lot of my steam out as far as like the the real
super heavy drive for jumping I mean I love jumping
it's huge part of my life and it's something I enjoy doing and I'm going to
probably continue doing it for very long time but is it the end-all be-all thing
not anymore
I think about him every day I don't think that that part ever gets easier
the missing part you know because he he was such an irreplaceable person and I
think that for me I that will be with me for the rest of my life you know
even base jumpers knew that the ocean was church and so we had a memorial in
Malibu
we didn't dump all of his ass he is done part of them and I remember coming back
with the bag on my surfboard and actually caught a wave
I was like surfing the wave with wayne like i was your last wave dude
yeah has kind of hit it was it was what it was
there was relatively intense and there are people on the bridge here
yeah
almost a year to the day after Dwayne's death
Jeb and Karen came to jump colorado's royal river gorge
when Dwayne died it took a little bit of time but i knew that i would jump again
and I wanted to jump again
a little bit to the right as opposed to that cable really sort of it right here
yeah the whole railing was completely like <time> seven </time>
yeah and it actually the vibration shattered supports underneath
yeah
it was it was definitely hard for and I could tell but she's a strong person
yeah she's dealt with a lot of people dying
I feel very uneasy on the bridge and I was thinking about jumping the bridge i
was considering it but actually seeing the place where where he impacted
I really don't have a desire to jump it right now
maybe i will someday i started kind of questioning you know what what what is
my meaning here
why and then I kind of came to the same conclusion I've always come to which is
well i'm going to die anyway
so does BASE jumping and rich my life and make me a happy person
yes is it worth giving my life born yes it is
kind of a little nauseous
this is my little micros
mr. wall lights I mean I felt like I was on it I felt like I just touching
I don't want to be any more hardcore
yeah
yeah
I'm doing more dangerous jumps and I've ever done before but they're safer than
any jumps I've ever done before because my skill level is higher
just a few
when his friend dying
for jeb Corliss readies himself to leap into the void
I feel pretty comfortable that I'm going to be okay but it's always kind of
schedule you doing new stuff
yeah
jeff has practiced this jump only a few times
never from this bridge
I do a lot of visualization right before i jump I'm trying to concentrate on what
i'm gonna be doing i'm gonna be doing it feeling a little short of breath
hey I can actually feel my heart feel kinda like it up higher in my chest to
normal
I kind of feel a little nauseous
this is what i look like runescape and now you know huh
ok
yeah
as I launched I think of bird flu in front of me I can't felt like I was
going to hit something
my brain just collected scrambling I mean I'm just going to go I'm just
flipping in different directions of going backwards and forwards i'm using
up too fast so i just kind of like reach back
it's my party my body is not really the right position line twists and looking
at the wall
I'm turning away i miss the wall bikes I mean I felt like I was on it I felt like
attention
wow I mean that was
that's about as close and about as hardcore as it can get I don't ever get
any more our coordinate that was about
there's enough to make me go you know I'm not good for today I think all chill
for a little bit
what
yeah
wow that's one
she's
yeah
if I appalled a second later I would have gone in
I would hit but I wouldn't be here talking to you right now I'd be in a
hospital or the mark
it is one of the few certainties in BASE jumping
that despite preparation skill courage jumpers will continue
sketch the exit point dude
all right
just because our dreams and who we are is different than other people doesn't
make it wrong or bad or waste
it's who we are it's what we are is what we love and there's nothing wrong with
that
and if you die doing something to love it's not throwing your life away
you guys
I think that we're all here for a reason a season or an entire lifetime
so treat those that you love with respect and appreciation all the time
because you know death is really only a step away for all of us at any given
time even if you're not jumping off buildings and cliff
I'm going
you can roll the sky
I don't believe you can push life park I mean if you just stop pushing you stop
evolving you start becoming something new you become stagnant and you die off
you have to evolve
life is precious
we only have so much time on this world you know you might as well go out there
live your life of your dreams
do what you love find that passion finding things that you love you know
and once you find it well go do it
yeah