Why would you jump off a building?!

A few years ago (May 18, 2002) I broke my first bone.  It was my collar bone.  Let me tell you how.


Since I was a little kid I've wanted to be a high fall stuntman.  My inspiration was the "father" of high fall, Dar Robinson (Video).  I had been jumping off of everything from chairs to tables to beds.  And I don't mean just standing on the item and jumping down, I mean setting up pads/pillows on the ground and hurling myself off.  I wouldn't say my mother encouraged it but she didn't actively discourage it either, that is, until I broke one of the dinning room chairs.


As I grew older I became more aware of the reason I enjoyed jumping off of things.  It wasn't until I was an adult and saw this part of myself reflected in my nephew that he was able to adequately and succinctly describe why we jump from everything.  From the mouth of babes (in this case a 6yr old), "It makes my hair go up!"


I learned to rock climb and rappel (abseil) falling in love with Aussie Style (Rap Jumping) which was a more controlled way to descend long distances than just jumping.  I then moved to bungee jumping which turned out to be more of a thrill than rap jumping!  The next step was skydiving, however, it turned out to be a step backward.  I had thought if falling was fun then floating would be even more fun.  The thrill is from the sense of falling and skydiving doesn't cut it.  My next thought was to work through skydiving to become a BASE Jumper however, they recommend at least 100+ skydives before attempting BASE Jumping... that's a lot of time and money!


I then moved back to Utah and began Snowboarding for my "fix" and got quite good at jumps, rails, boxes, etc.  I also had a street motorcycle as my primary mode of transport keeping me pumped with adrenaline.  I'm not sure what triggered the need for movie style high fall stunts but I felt I needed the experience.


Stuntmen primarily use one of three things to break a fall, either a big brick of foam (PortaPit), cardboard boxes, or a stunt airbag.  I saved a bunch of cardboard boxes from work and tested falling from one story.  It worked like a charm!  I calculated the price for enough boxes to jump from the roof of my apartment building which was a total of 3.5 stories (approximately 35 feet).  The main problem with boxes is the price (considering they are single use).  The next option was a foam brick, however, the cost and storage once used was prohibitive since I lived in a small apartment.  I settled on a stunt airbag because it would store small and be reusable, however, they were still expensive and only sold to certified stuntmen.  I decided to take matters into my own hands and just build one myself!


I went to WalMart's cloth section and bought a small amount of ripstop nylon to build a scale model.  I sewed it together (a simple box) and jumped from my couch... success!  For the full scale version I bought the entire stock of nylon from the same WalMart (50 total yrds) and began a day of sewing.  Once complete I needed some way to fill it with air so I went back to WalMart for the largest fan they sold.  All and all it was about $150 in product and 15 hrs of sewing.


I took my first full scale test jump from the balcony of my 2nd floor apartment.  This sounds dangerous, however, the airbag is 10ft x 12ft square and 6 ft tall so I only fell a few feet to the bag.  With the 1st floor test a success I had nowhere to go but up!


I moved up to the roof of the same building for the next part of the test.  Once on the roof I seemed to be the most entertaining thing going on in the neighborhood because a crowd of about 100 people formed to watch.

One of the onlookers was nice enough to snap a photo of me.


Finally the goal of being able to do a high fall was within my reach!  The next day after some planning I drove with a small group of friends to the building I had selected for the jump.  My old apartment building had no padlock on their roof access door :)


I set the bag based on my feeling of how far from the wall it needed to be... it was right next to a pole which added some anxiety to the jump, however, I was confident that I would miss the pole and hit the bag easily.


When I finally got in place on the roof (approx. 40 ft from the grass to my eyeballs) I started having second thoughts.  At 35+ ft the 10ft x 12ft bag seemed a bit too small, not to mention a bit too close to the building.  I had set the bag based on the distance from the edge of the building as opposed to the edge of the roof... classic rookie mistake.  No time to fix it since I had made my friends all wait for me to set up everything and clime to the roof.  I figured I would be fine simply taking a step back, then jumping up slightly to get myself over the "lip".


As I stood on the edge of the roof I realized there was yet another issue I had not counted on... the rain gutter.  The rain gutter added a possibility of catching my foot causing me to tumble and fall short (onto a cement walkway).  But again, confidence in my ability told me I would be fine.


With the help of my friend on the ground I decided a "faceoff" jump would be the way to keep me closer to the building allowing me to land on the bag.  Moments before I actually jumping my friend yelled, "You have nothing to live for!"


...


When you land on the air bag you hear a distinctive THWACK sound... I did not hear that sound.  I could tell that something was different because instead of being on my back as expected I felt like I was on my face... and it felt like grass was in my mouth and eyes.  Well, I landed off to the edge of the bag, and with the simplistic box design if you don't land right on center you slide off onto the ground.  In fact, this is the primary cause of death when doing high fall stunts.


One of the people watching had called 911 and paramedics were arriving as I regained consciousness.  The emergency room doctors couldn't grasp that I had willfully jumped from the roof of a three story building but that I was not suicidal.

I did make the evening news that night and am currently in search of the video clip.  A friend of mine did find a link to it the story:

JUMPING INJURY -- A 21-year-old man suffered injuries to his ribs, shoulders and right leg while jumping from the roof of an apartment complex Saturday onto an airbag.

The man was jumping for recreational purposes, according to a fire department spokesman, when he missed the airbag and injured himself. The incident happened at about 11 a.m. near 350 North and Belmont Drive in Provo.

The victim was transported to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center by ambulance. No further details on his condition were available.

The accident taught me to take my time, I have a lot to live for, and slow down a bit or else I might do something dumb and miss out on life.  And, use a bigger air bag.