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video.mpora.com — “Approaching the lip, there’s this feeling of being completely out of control, completely in the hands of the river. You lose all that fear and all that anticipation, because there’s no turning back.”

Introducing 'Skyaking': skydiving with a kayak

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/


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Miles Daisher turned the extreme sport of skydiving on its head after deciding to jump out of a plane in equipment normally used only in water.

Mr Daisher then swoops in at 50mph and lands on the water in spectacular fashion.

His antics are showcased in a new 3D film on skydiving, BASE jumping, wingsuit flying and Skyaking.

The 40-year-old, from Twin Falls, Idaho, decided to put a twist into has favourite pastime when looking for new ideas to take it even more extreme.

These pictures 13,000 feet Above Ground Level (AGL) over beautiful Lake Tahoe show his efforts.

"It took us nearly a year before we could get our wish to come true as no one was really looking to throw a kayak out of an aeroplane.

"To begin with we did it off a 600ft bridge on a static line, and landed in Feather River, California."

Static lines connect the jumper to the point they are jumping from – such as a plane or in Mr Daisher's case the bridge – and automatically pulls their parachute as they fall away.

He said: "A year later I got permission to jump out of an aeroplane and so since that time I have jumped out of four different aircraft, including a helicopter.

"We have taken it all over the world from Mexico to Abu Dhabi and I have been Skyaking for nearly eight years now."

Over the years the father-of-two and his team have slowly perfected the art of Skyaking.

"There are a lot of things that can go wrong in skyaking and so you have to be prepared," he said.

"In skyaking I usually put the chute quite high. With skydives I will pull at 2,000 ft above the ground whereas with skyaking I will pull at 5,000 ft above the ground in case anything starts to go a little crazy.

"That way I have a time to sort things out, get out of the boat and then pull the chute for the kayak."

He has noted some strong differences in regular skydiving.

"The rate at which you fall is a lot different," he said. "Instead of falling flat on your belly you are sitting up right in an L position. I liken it to sitting on a space hopper, balancing front to back and side to side.

"It does take some decent balance skills. And because the boat has such a big surface area your fall rate is a lot slower.

"If you are lying on your belly, a normal sized human will fall at 120 mph.

"If you go into a stand up or a head down then you can build the speed up to 160-180mph.

"But with this boat, that has so much surface area and weighs 35lbs, meaning that I fall at only 98mph.

The reduced rate of Mr Daisher's descent through the clouds means that cameramen wishing to film him need to wear special wingsuits to increase drag and reduce their own fall rate.

Wingsuits are specially adapted bodywear for skydivers and BASE jumpers. Flaps of material running across the gaps between arms and legs increase drag for jumpers and allow them to glide like a flying squirrel.

Mr Daisher has completed more BASE jumps than anyone in the world with 2,570 and has completed a whopping 3,000 skydives since he quit his job and took up the sport in 1995.

20 Athletes Pushing the Most Insane Limits on Water, Land, or Air

Written by David Miller

Dudes flying 100 miles an hour just inches away from a cliff, dropping 186 feet down a waterfall, and ollieing over the Great Wall of China. . . all part of the progression.

Wingsuit Flying: Loic Jean-Albert, Andreas Barkhall, Espen Fadnes

Have you seen people flying yet? These guys are full on achieving mankind’s oldest dream. As they continue to push skills and develop new wingsuit technologies, it’s only a matter of time before somebody pulls off a controlled landing without a parachute.

Kayaking: Tyler Bradt, Rush Sturges, Ben Stookesberry, Jesse Coombs, Tao Berman, Pat Keller, Chris Gratmas

10 years ago, running any waterfall much over 30-40 feet was more of a stunt than anything else. Today, the latest boat and gear designs along with continually-evolving paddling technique have enabled paddlers to run enormous waterfalls totally under control. Up until this Spring, the 30-40 meter height seemed to be a plateau, but then Tyler Bradt made a completely game-changing run here in Washington, styling out the 186 foot Palouse Falls.

Check out the athlete reel of Rush Sturges below to get some idea of where paddling is at these days:

Snowboarding: Terje Haakonsen, Jeremy Jones, Bjorn Leines

There are posses of big mountain riders out there, but these guys have been pushing the biggest mountain lines for years.

Skiing: JT Holmes

Along with Shane McConkey (who died in a ski-base jumping accident earlier this year) JT Holmes has, for the last several years, pioneered big mountain lines that previously only existed in people’s imagination by incorporating base-jumping skills into skiing.

Skateboarding: Danny Way, Bob Burnquist

Although modern skateboarding still probably owes more to Rodney Mullen than anyone else, Danny Way and Bob Burnquist have (and still are) pushing limits as far as how big a feature can be skated.

Surfing: Laird Hamilton, Mike Parsons, Ken Bradshaw, Ross Clarke-Jones

These guys are among the most famous representatives of an entire crew of tow-in surfing pioneers.

Feature photo of Danny Way by ynoptic.