The problem was if you didn’t make it over the cliff ledge, you’d impact on it. We had the idea we’d be able to jump off a cliff and fly over the open valley. My very first wingsuit-flight base jump turned into a proximity flight. It was right at the beginning of the modern day wingsuits. In 1998 I saw one in Italy built out of a wetsuit and convinced the guy to build me an all-black wingsuit. But in the 1990s, French skydiver Patrick de Gayardon got the technology they use for parachutes and created a wingsuit that was safe to fly. Early on they’d used broomsticks and tarps, and it killed so many people. When I started skydiving at age 18, wingsuit flying had been a dead discipline. Jeb Corliss, an early adopter of the wingsuit, talks about close calls, evolving the human race to fly, and why he can't stop even after watching his friends die. Last year, at least 24 people died wingsuit BASE jumping. It has become one of the most lethal sports on Earth. Wingsuit pilots don inflatable, webbed suits that let them snake through valleys, navigate rock crevasses, and hit targets like balloons. But over the past few years, an even more dangerous variation of this extreme sport has skyrocketed in popularity. BASE jumpers tempt fate every time they leap off a cliff, bridge, or building.
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