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Skydiving, Wingsuit Flying & BASE Jumping

11 Absolutely Absurd Things To Have Happened During A Skydive

Sponsored feature: Because sometimes, skydiving just isn't enough of an adrenaline rush...

Jumping out a plane is usually a pretty exciting activity all by itself. It’s not something that humans were ever particularly intended to do.

Most skydivers will feel the adrenaline kick as soon as they climb into the plane, and by the time they dive back out a couple of thousand feet later, their head will be pounding, their heart will be in their mouths and their stoke levels will be flying even higher than they are.

For others, though, whether through choices of their own or due to unforeseeable circumstances while up in the air, the thrill of skydiving is pushed to its very limits – to the point where the buzz of the dive flirts fearfully close to potential death.

Some are thrust into this situation, some invite it on themselves. No matter which of those options applies though, one thing holds true – it always makes for an absolutely jaw-dropping watch.

1) Man Has A Seizure After Jumping Out Of The Plane

Skydiving is dangerous enough on it’s own. You’ve got to be focused, calm and in control or could lose your life – so after this guy, known only as Christopher, had a seizure after jumping out of a plane at 12,000ft, many would have expected him to fall helplessly to his death.

Luckily for Chris though, who spent the next 30 seconds unconscious, his parachute instructor managed to find his way over and managed to pull his ripcord at around 4,000ft. From there, Chris regained his conciousness and managed to somehow orchestrate a safe landing. An eventful skydive if there ever was one…

2) The Word-Record Breaking 164-Person Formation

Everything is more enjoyable when you’re with your friends, right? If that is the case, we can only imagine the grins on the 164 skydivers who recently took part in this world record-breaking effort in the skies above Chicago.

Seven planes, over 23 times as many people, and all travelling at speed of up to 175mph… This must’ve been pretty damn difficult to organise and even tougher to actually pull off, but the end result? More than worth their efforts.

3) Travis Pastrana Goes Skydiving… Without A Parachute

Everyone knows Travis Pastrana is the ultimate daredevil. The Nitro Circus co-founder has taken on stunts of all sorts of danger on all sorts of bikes, but this stunt from an aircraft back in 2011 must still be one of his wildest.

The American motocross legend literally jumped out of a plane without a parachute, relying entirely on the skydivers around him to safely guide him down. That’s some serious trust from Travis, and a whole lot of sweating from the dudes responsible for making sure he didn’t end up as a splat on the ground.

4) Plane Turns Back And Nearly Chops Skydiver In Half

One thing you don’t expect to put you in danger when your skydiving is the plane you go up in. Sure, you might be a bit wary of it when you’re still inside – they’re normally pretty shaky – but as soon as you take the big leap out, it should be the last thing on your mind.

That wasn’t the case for this tandem passenger, who was almost cut in half by the plane she jumped from seconds after getting dropped out the door. It’s commonplace for a plane to dive at a safe distance after dropping off it’s passengers, but this pilot came way, way too close for comfort on this occasion!

5) Bob Burnquist Skateboards Into A Skydive

Bob Burnquist is absolutely insane. There’s no doubt about it. The Mega Ramp master has taken on more big drops than most others in the world, and the biggest he ever faced off against? Well, it’s got to be this badass skate-meet-skydive effort.

After taking on a presumably custom-made ramp and getting his grind on, Bob dives down into the canyon below and freefalls for a solid period of time before releasing his parachute. Burnquist walked away unharmed, though we doubt we can say the same for his skateboard…

6) Mat Hoffman Rides His BMX Out Of The Plane

Mat Hoffman is an absolute legend, a pioneer, and most of all, one of the toughest, most fearless human beings to ever come into existence.

The BMX legend was renowned for his desire to go higher on his bike than anyone else in the world, and he managed that both on the vert ramp and in a plane – once heading out on a skydive while still sat on his BMX. If anyone else did this, it’d probably blow your mind, but Hoffman? It’s almost kind of expected…

7) Man Gets A Tattoo While Freefalling From Plane

In what is probably one of the worst life choices of all time, a dude in Sweden once got a tattoo while freefalling from 4,000ft.

The tattoo, you can see above, reads ‘WFFT’, standing for ‘World’s First Freefall Tattoo’, and while you can indeed make out the letters, it’d be hard to tell the dude that his arm is looking good without a smirk coming onto your face.

8) Skydiving Granny Slips Out Of Parachute

This woman waited until she was 80-year-old till she finally went skydiving – for her birthday, no less. Maybe she was scared of heights when she was younger or maybe she just wanted to make the most of her final years, but either way, any doubts she will have had over the jump proved absolutely merited, because this, people, is an absolute skydiving disaster.

The grandma slipped out of her parachute and was left completely helpless as her fate was left completely in the hands of an instructor who was thankfully competent enough to guide her down, but clearly not competent enough to set up a safe harness in the first place.

9) Dude Paddles Kayak Out Of Airplane

We’ve seen skydiving from a skateboard and even on a BMX, but skydiving in a kayak is absolutely next level. Why? Well, for a starter, it’s a lot harder to ditch a kayak mid-air than it is a bike or a board. Secondly, the dude in the video actually stays in his kayak the whole time, eventually landing in a lake and paddling off, and finally… well, skydiving in a kayak has it’s own name – skyaking!

This is badass, and while we wouldn’t encourage you to give it a shot, if you do happen to do so, make sure you send us the video!

10) Man Proposes Mid-Skydive… And Drops The Ring

Firefighter Brandon Strohbehn thinks a bit more extreme than most. So, when he decided he was going to propose to his girlfriend, he didn’t want to do it in a restaurant, a stadium or even in a soppy living room packed full of candles.

Rather, Brandon thought he’d pop the question during a skydive, at 12,500ft in the air, and while Nicole said yes, disaster appeared to strike when he let the ring slip away. It wasn’t a deal breaker though, it was a fake ring. The real one was down on the ground. All’s well that ends well!

11) Skydiver Shaves Mid-Air For Japanese Commercial

Japanese TV is weird. C’mon. Have you ever seen Takeshi’s Castle? We must’ve watched about 100 episodes of that thing and we still have no idea what’s going on.

But why aren’t you talking about the video above, we hear you ask. Well, honestly, we don’t really know what’s going on there either. There’s a guy shaving in the middle of a skydive, somehow not cutting himself up, and another guy filming. What we do know about the footage? It’s odd. It’s very odd indeed.

The Indestructibles, a new TV show sponsored by G-Shock, is coming soon to Dave.

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