Skydiver Attempting 100 Jumps in 1 Day

A Minnesota man is attempting to skydive one hundred times in one day. Kevin Burkhart, who hatched this plan in order to raise some funds for two Parkinson Disease Foundations, began his quest Wednesday morning. By noon, Burkhart had succeeded in skydiving 28 times. By 6 pm, he was up to 75.

The plans for this fundraiser started a little over a year ago with the goal being to raise $40,000 for the two Parkinson’s Foundations. Before the day began he had already surpassed what his original goal was.

Kevin Burkhart’s relationship with the Parkinson Disease foundations began when Kevin learned that his father was suffering from the disease in 1999.

During the actual event, once Burkhart touches down, he has 1 minute to gather his belongings, change any gear, grab a bite to eat and a drink before jumping back in the plane for another round. The event is timed so that the plane touches down one minute after Burkhart reaches land. With all of the excitement and the energy needed to pull this off, Kevin will have oxygen on standby inside the plane to help him recuperate between jumps.

I am not sure if 100 jumps in a single day by one person is a world record, but it has to be pretty close. I have also not heard if he succeeded in his quest lastnight. If anyone sees or hears anything, drop me a line.

Source: WCCO.com

Honda Airs Live Skydiving Ad–Tragedy Ensues

Honda recently aired a ‘Live’ Skydiving Ad on television in Europe. The ad is pretty impressive with the skydiving team spelling out the H-O-N-D and A of Honda for this publicity stunt. The commercial can be found below, courtesy of YouTube. It is aptly titled ‘Jump’.

The BBC is reporting that only a couple of hours after this ‘live’ commercial took place, that one of the planes got into some trouble and ended up losing a wing, causing the plane to crash. One pilot and one skydiver were killed in the incident, while nine other skydivers escaped before the crash.

If you will think back to a few days ago, I did post an item about a recent skydiving accident in Spain. The time this was reported, nothing was mentioned about this being the same plane from the Honda ad shoot. This indeed was the same plane. Honda has since came out and suggested that they had no connection to the plane at the time of the incident, as all of it’s skydiving members and film team had already departed. Honda did offer up it’s condolences to the victims’ families. The Pilatus PC-6 crashed near Toledo Spain.

Another Close Call for Skydivers–This Time In Indiana

I am guessing that as the weather has started to finally get a bit warmer, that many people are aching to get outdoors and get on with their myriad of activities, including those of the high-risk sort. Skydivers will attest that their activities are much safer than many other sports. Thousands of jumps take place every day without an incident. For some reason, this week has been a bad one for skydiving press. The article of the crashing plane in Spain has made it’s rounds through many of the major news organizations this week, and now we have another one that is beginning to take off.

WFIE Channel 14, out of Evansville, Indiana is reporting on an incident that happened Sunday morning near Greensburg, Indiana–just outside of Indianapolis. Much like the first incident mentioned above, this one involved a plane malfunction at 7,000 feet. Fourteen skydivers were forced to make an emergency quick-exit out of the plane. The pilot then tried to circle around and land the plane, but upon touch-down, the plane flipped over on it’s top. Luckily, nobody was injured in this incident and all skydivers did make it safely to the ground. A pretty close call for everyone involved.

I have seen this story floating around in the International Press already, including places as far away as India. Much of this probably relates back to the press coverage of the first incident and how much attention it has brought. With the crash in Greensburg, Indiana coming right on the heels of the skydiving incident in Spain, I am sure this will get even bigger in the coming days.

I do need to emphasize that skydiving is a relatively safe activity, but you never can tell what is going to happen when it comes to equipment. I use to have a pretty good buddy that was a skydiving instructor at a local airport. I will never forget the time he told me about his current wife’s first jump. Somehow, while jumping tandem with her instructor (which wasn’t my friend) her lines had crossed on her parachute. She was having a good ‘ol time waving her hands around, spinning, attempting to flip–all in mid-air, without realizing that there was a problem. My friend was on the ground and not able to do anything from his vantage point but look on. The skydiving instructor with her, had to get her under control, tell her there was a major problem with the chute, and keep her calm enough to be able to let go of her with on hand, reach back and pull the spare. Needless to say, they both landed safely, but with a frightening story to tell. By the way, they both still skydive on a regular basis–something I am not so sure I would be able to do.

Skydivers Shake Death By Leaping From Crashing Plane

As a recent commenter on the Free Republic suggests, “Wow, what are the odds…”

Skydivers planning a jump in eastern Spain recently got a bit more than they were bargaining for. The plane carrying the thrill seekers lost a wing, plunged to earth, exploded and killed the pilot and one passenger. The skydivers, already prepared for their jump, decided to bail out a bit early. This move probably saved their lives.

Four of the parachutists were injured in the ordeal after bad landings, with two of them being listed as serious. One, a 23-year-old man suffered some back injuries, while another, a 52-year-old man suffered a neck injury. In total, six skydivers jumped from the crashing plane.

Almost sounds like a weird James Bond type movie scene, but this one is 100% real. To read more on this amazing story, CLICK HERE now.

Michel Fournier’s Record Breaking Skydive of 130,000 Ft. To Take Place This Afternoon!

I ran an article almost a year ago about Michel Fournier and his quest to skydive from Outerspace (You heard it right, outerspace) Michel will be jumping more than 130,000 feet, through the atmosphere and back to earth on an attempt to break a record–by a mile. It actually could be quite more than a mile.

This record breaking attempt will be taking place in 32, 429 seconds from now–sorry, that is from the countdown on his own site. 32, 429 seconds just happens to be close to 4:30 pm this afternoon! In an attempt to fill you in a bit more on this cause, I have decided to go back and repost my original article on Michel and his record-breaking attempt. By the way, if you would like to watch, it will be played out on the Web at Michel’s personal website vie webcam.

Michel Fournier, 62, plans to be the first person to ever skydive from outerspace–back to Earth…a distance of 130,000 ft., and he is planning on doing it this year!

Michel Fournier Plans to jump from an atmospheric balloon suspended 130,00 feet in the stratosphere over Saskatchewan, Canada, breaking 4 records in the process. They are as follows: Read more

An Adventurist Editorial: The Stephen Fossett Debates

We should have all seen this one coming from a mile away–

Going into days 5 and 6 for the ongoing search of legendary adventurer Steven Fossett, people are starting to take their focus off of the search and more onto the debates surrounding these types of events when they occur–

First it began with how great of an adventurer Steven Fossett is.  Over the past few days this focus has slowly moved to the motives of a “Risk-Taker” and if Stephen Fossett’s family should be charged for the search currently taking place.

Both of these items are highly debatable and both of them generally always surround a high profile search, especially if the person involved was also a part of anything that has a certain risk-factor to it or has been the focus of media attention in the past.

Personally, I began taking notice of these debates around December of last year when three climbers became lost on Mt. Hood.  The ensuing search, that garnered massive media coverage, soon became a debate for a cause. 

It may be the cause of the general media’s focus to always provide something new to a highly viewed (and rated) story.  Running out of new leads, they hop back on the bus and get everyone involved in raging debates that once again spark interest to previous stories of the same general nature.

Two questions always emerge:  Should the families of the person being searched for have to pay for this service?  And secondly–the risk involved.  How could they do this to their families and loved ones?  What is it about risk that triggers these people to always endanger their lives? Read more

Adventure-X: Defining Adventure and Extreme Sports

I have put my new Adventure-X column up in the Outdoor Recreation area of Topix.  This weeks column takes a look at Adventure and Extreme Sports and what characterizes each. 

Many of you will already know that I am the current Editor of three seperate areas on Topix.  I currently Edit the Outdoor Recreation, Extreme Sports, and Mountain Climbing areas for their site.  This is a great news source.  Go check them out–actually have a little fun while your over their and type in your zip code in the search–find out what is going on in your neck of the woods–

Want a little teaser to this weeks Adventure-X column?  Read on.

Adventure-X:  Defining Adventure and Extreme Sports

Extreme Sports have been around since the mid-eighties. Not the sports themselves, but rather the term “Extreme Sports.” This term usually brings up an automatic picture of someone hitting the vert or grinding out a line on their deck. Not to long ago, though, things looked a bit different.

When Extreme Sports first gathered it’s famous name (attributed to an article in Outside Magazine) the sports involved looked a bit different than they do now. The ”Extreme Sports” angle was predomminantly geared towards adults–where now it is definately defined by the younger generation.

Extreme Sports essentially took off and focused on high-risk activities: Skydiving, scuba diving, hang gliding, rock climbing, storm chasing, and a new invention–bungee jumping. All of these activities were defined by their inherit risk factor as well as being non-team sports and taking place in the outdoors.

If you would like to read the rest of this column, Click HERE to go on over to Topix.  If you would like to read about Adventure-X and past columns then click HERE.  At the Top of this screen, you may notice a heading titled “Adventure-X”.  I will be posting the newest columns here each week.  This should prove to be a nice way to archive this special column for Topix.  Thank-you once again for your continued support.  I have been hearing some really good things about this and hope it will only get better.

Cheers-

Jason A. Hendricks, Editor

40 Year Anniversary of Worst Skydiving Accident Ever

Two days ago marked the 40th anniversary of the worst skydiving accident in history.  Eighteen recreational, though very experienced, skydivers plunged into Lake Erie.  Sixteen lives were lost and two managed to survive.

The skydivers were planning a routine jump off a B-25 aircraft, flying at 20,000 ft.  They jumped into solid cloud cover.  At 4,000 ft. everyone was suppose to deploy their chutes–no one knew where 4,000 ft. was.

In this tragedy, I still think that it is quite amazing that two people took a 20,000 ft. Freefall into Lake Erie and survived.  The survivors happened to be wearing styrofoam helmets, which they were able to use as floatation devices in the water.  The other 16 drowned.

For more on this tragedy, you can click HERE.

The Adventurist: What Exactly Defines ‘Adventure’?

That is one tough question.  We all know the word.  Many of us say life is an adventure–but what does it mean?  Is it the risk involved?  Going someplace few others have gone, or is it in doing something you fear?

I recently had the opportunity to discuss this topic with a fellow reader.  His idea of Adventure was something that usually involved apparent risk and took place out of doors.  I know this is a very basic definition, but we will get back to that in just a few minutes.

Adventure Sports, Adventure Travel, Adventure Books, Adventure of a Lifetime, I think all of these describe a unique opportunity to take a look at what exactly Adventure means.

In the media, Adventure is the thrilling..something exciting that perhaps you just don’t do everyday.  Is it about the risk involved?  Not neccessarily.  My grandmother use to say that Hurricane Andrew was an Adventure.  I am not sure about that, she obviously didn’t plan on being caught in the middle of a hurricane during her Florida vacation–yet, you can’t deny that there isn’t a fear factor there.

As defined, the noun Adventure is something that is an undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature, and the verb: to risk or hazard, to venture.

I would go on to include:  Adventure is something that is an undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature that involves apparent risks that may or may not be known at the time of the undertaking.

Quite essentially, in this very broad definition, Adventure can quite easily be anything we take part in.  There is no “Outdoors’ mentioned.  What could be one person’s adventure may very well be someone else’s everyday existence.  Changing a diaper, for me, would be a definate adventure..

Adventure Sports have become a popular term used to describe sports that offer up plenty of risk.   Mountain Climbing, Surfing, Mountain Biking, Sking, Skateboarding, ect.  In essence though, the risk can not be the only factor involved.  Pro Football and Basketball offer up risks as well, yet aren’t listed as an Adventure Sport.  One thing they do have in common though, they are pretty much all solo sports.  One person competing against another rather than a team on team sport.  There is also, if it might be slightly more so, bigger risk for injury.  There is that word “risk” again that ties back into the Adventure definition.

Risk.  Pro Football has risk as well though.  How many times have we seen a talented player carried off the field due to a spinal injury from making direct contact with his head into the gut of another player?  As such though, Pro Football is a team sport.

The Tour de France is considered an Adventure Sports event–yet, there are definately some team dynamics going on even if it is with a bicycle.  The Discovery Channel Team has won 8 of the last 9 tours, respectively.

Now you can begin to see where I am coming from.  I think every individual has an idea of what Adventure is–to them, personally–but I don’t really think it can be defined as a whole.  Everyone’s idea of adventure is different.

I recently drew some criticism for running a piece on BMX racing.  People familiar with this site have grown use to what I am doing.  They expect it—in a sense this site has become something less of an adventure and more of an expectation day to day.  They come because they know what they can expect.  You throw a new curveball in there and suddenly, they don’t know what to do or think, “Where’s the stuff I like?  Where is the climbing?”  It is funny sometimes, how just a small change can get people in an uproar.

“Promoting Education and Exploration Through Adventure”

This thought was developed as a basis in which to keep myself on track with a definate plan.  If you take each item individually, it leaves for a very broad world.  Educate, Explore, Adventure–all three of these items can basically mean anything.

With the BMX story that I mentioned earlier, it was a chance for me to break a cycle of sorts and offer something that I usually don’t offer.  BMX is a risk sport.  BMX is an individual sport.  Those of you that questioned my intentions saying it’s not “Adventure”, and don’t  hold true to my values, think again. 

My overall readers tend to be roughly my age and older.  I am 33.  They have moved on to bigger and better adventures from their childhood.  How many of us got our first beginnings in outdoor “Adventure” sports by riding around our BMX..climbing the trees and the hills around our houses, grabbing that skateboard and trying to bust out our first grind.  Many, many of us came from these simple beginnings–ones that now might not seem like much of an adventure as we grow older, but one that influenced the risks and adventures we take today. 

These events, these sports have been on a continous incline for the past 10-20 years.  This is where our future is and will be the influences for the coming adventures in the days ahead.  Those skateboarding rebels that blow by us on the sidewalks–could very well be that older rebel trying to make his first 8,000 meter peak in the days ahead.

BMX is an adventure.  Perhaps you don’t like it.  Perhaps you don’t like the big press that comes along with the new wave of adventure sports, but my intentions are that perhaps if you don’t know a whole lot about it, perhaps you will at least read it and learn a thing or two.  I am sure many of them don’t know that much about crampons, either.  They will read about your adventures here, and now I am giving you the chance to read about theirs as well.  There is plenty of room and plenty of excitement to go around.  Promoting Education and Exploration through Adventure still holds true.  Now we can all learn something.