Last week I was cruising around Italy with some ozzie and kiwi friends and doing some jumps at Mt Brento in Arco. Due to the nice weather there would be high winds in the middle of the day, so we ended up jumping early morning and just before sunset.
One morning my friend Jimmy suggested we do a wingsuit rodeo, me riding on top of him flying a wingsuit… “yes of course” I replied although I was scared shitless;-) Lots of deep breathing on the exit and off we went. I was holding on to his rig and since he’s taller than me I couldn’t see much. We took a step off and it was smooth and nice. We started diving as you do to build up speed, but at this point I got curious and peeked over his shoulder meaning I caught some air on my chest and was catapulted off. My legs hit his head and I was thrown unstable, but managed to stabilize myself before I deployed my canopy. Fun, but we needed to really nail it.
Next morning we had a go again and this is when the pictures where taken. This time I held on as tight as I could and managed to stay on. I quickly realized that we wouldn’t fly well if I came up to an upright position, so I stayed lying down, just in the way you use a body board, sort of surfing on top of the wingsuit. We dived at first and then picked up some great speed and started flying forwards. After about 10 seconds I saw that it was about time for me to pull, so from the position I was still in, I threw out my pilot chute and was yanked of Jimmy’s back as the canopy opened. It was so much fun! It felt almost like being in a James Bond movie!