Updated on 10/26/23 - 10:30 EST to reflect comments from Gio Masters, the base jumper in question.
One base jumper recently learned a very hard lesson about the laws of gravity, barely surviving an 876-foot fall into a West Virginia gorge after deploying his parachute at the last possible second.
On Friday, the jumper, along with hundreds of others, headed to New River Gorge for Bridge Day, touted as the world’s largest single-day extreme sports event, where their ill-fated jump was captured on camera.
“There he goes!” one viewer can be heard saying from behind the lens, their giggles turning to genuine concern after it appeared the diver’s parachute was not opening. “Where is that?” he continued, as another asked about the state of his safety device.
“Did he open?” they questioned.
Though the answer to this inquiry was a yes, the jumper’s red parachute peeking out from the blue body of water at the last possible moment, it appears their fall was enough to spark concerns of several on-site officials, with rescue boats racing to his landing spot.
Gio Masters, the daredevil who performed the jump reached out to eBaum's World to clarify that his stunt was just that, a stunt, assuring us, "This was a precisely calculated stunt and was 100% intentional."
So take it from this daredevil — when in doubt, pull that cord, but not too late.
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