I want to be empathetic. I want to gasp when he gets pulled into the waterfall. I want to express my sincere hope that he is alright. But the only thought that comes to mind is: what did you expect, dumbass?
You jump that close to an incredibly fast and thereby powerful (powerful in that vortex sense) stream of water — being powered by the same gravity you’re hoping to avoid with the deployment of your parachute — and expect a DIFFERENT outcome? I don’t know if this guy is naive, or I’m cynical. What I do know is that cynicism in this context is coupled and thereon with a big ol’ helping of logic, and physics, and all sorts of science. Additionally, these are the types of bold go-where-I-don’t-belong weekend warriors that ultimately trip up the growth and evolution of a sport. Even if you read How To BASE Jump and Not Die or BASE Jumping 101 or BASE Jumping for Dummies each 100 hundred times, that doesn’t mean you’re ready to fight Mother Nature. She may look nice, but that woman has one hellish bad mood.
Fortunately, the man was alright, and the YouTube description he posted actually agrees with my assessment of the idiot in the video (the idiot he no longer is):
This was my first real hard hit in base jumping. This is Howick Falls in the KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is 364ft high. This jump was early in my base jumping career and probably ended up saving my life in the long run. I was young and just charging hard. I thought I was invincible and I needed a slight readjustment of the way I was thinking.
Lesson learned. Now let’s move on.
