Your Guide To BASE Jumping, Starring Ted Davenport

You've heard of it. You might have even seen a video of it. Your friend told you about a dog doing it. But what really is BASE jumping? Let BASE jumper, wingsuiter, and free skier Ted Davenport show you the way.

This is Ted Davenport. He's a BASE jumper.

(He's also a free skier and wingsuit flyer, but we'll get into that later.)

BASE jumping is an activity where one jumps from fixed objects and uses a parachute to break their fall. BASE is an acronym for the four main things people jump from: Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth.

It is quite possibly one of the most dangerous sports on the planet.

And even though Ted has done over 580 jumps. It doesn't make it any less dangerous. Once, he got in a super bad accident.

In 2009, at a local jumping spot in Colorado (an 800ft. cliff), he was going to do a double flip with an off-axis twist. But while running off the cliff, he set his rotation too fast. He was upside down, facing the cliff, and just saw the ground coming right at him. "I knew I had made a big mistake."

"A lot of things were running through my mind. Save yourself. Save yourself. Save yourself. You gotta do it. You cannot die today."

He was very badly injured, but luckily, Ted survived.

"It can kill you. That reality is just sitting in the back of your head. You know its there, you don't need to get out and play with it, but you know it's there."

But maybe you're still like, not impressed.

WELL, did you know once someone starts base jumping, their lifespan is shortened to about five years?!

Via basejumper.com

RIGHT, NEIL!?

Clearly, this is Ted's response to that:

And a lot of other people don't mind the risk either. There is a whole community of BASEjumpers, wingsuit flyers, and free skiers.

They're like lemmings.

"Um, what is wingsuit flying and free skiing?" Don't worry. Ted will explain.

Wingsuit Flying

Wingsuit flying is basically BASEjumping while wearing a bodysuit made out of nylon that turns your body into a flying wing.

For every one foot you fall down, you go forward two feet.

Free Skiing

Free skiing is when you combine BASE jumping and skiing, allowing skiers to ski lines on a mountain that normally were not possible.

And some people, like Ted, do all three!

So now you're probably sitting at your computer like this:

or like this:

Either way, you have to admit these guys drop the mic on extreme sports.

Because if someone put us at the end of a cliff, we'd all look like this:

Watch Ted Davenport's full mini-documentary on BASE jumping!

Via theskichannel.com