Lots of news covering this jump by Omar Al Hegelan and Nasser Al Neyadi, but this one is my favorite: Man Falls from Burj Dubai – Worlds Tallest Building. Like, whoops, I fell!

Enjoy the video—and particularly MSNBC’s spectacular journalistic reporting of the building’s height as 27,017′ (the smarties at MSNBC changed out the video on us and they’re correct now! – it’s 2,717′):

Some more links to fill up what remains of your Friday workday:
BBC
CBC
Daily Mail

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Jump4Heroes Jump from Bloukrans Bridge. Photo by Dawie du Plessis.

It would be a shame to go all the way out to South Africa and not experience the place. So, with the World Cup nonsense out of the way, Jump4Heroes teamed up with some of the PD Factory Team to venture around the country and jump from anything survivable that was in sight.

Starting out at Cape Town, the weather was against us, so we put our foot down and headed for a jump in the rain at the 200′ Gouritz Bridge. Touring the Garden Route we spent the next few days having a boogie at Bloukrans Bridge, home of the highest commercial bungie jump operation. For anyone planning to go BASE jumping in South Africa, be warned—the landing areas can be pretty tight; landing at Bloukrans was either in the water or on a small patch of rocks, the trek out either involved swimming or rock climbing with no equipment- definitely scarier than the actual BASE jump!

Moving on, and having taken a 14-hour drive, we all jumped from the pool deck of a prominent hotel in Durban. The crack of the slider-down canopy openings may have slightly disturbed the guest out for an early morning swim and those breakfasting in their rooms admiring the view of the the sun rising over the sea.

The PD Team members called it a day at this point. They kept citing work as the reason they had to leave the trip but the rest of us firmly believed that they were just too scared; maybe they’d just had too much fun for 2009 though. It was then time to head north to the Drakensburg mountains, the largest mountains in South Africa, for a few jumps. The weather then turned and the remaining jumps didn’t happen.

In all it was a great trip. The Jump4Heroes crew got to raise some great awareness for The Royal British Legion, a charity that supports our troops- members of the Armed Forces, past and present. There’s a short clip of video, including BASE jumping from the roof of a moving car at Bloukrans Bridge, here:

Thanks to all those that made it possible, particularly our guide and photographer Dawie du Plessis.

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National Geographic Adventure magazine is holding open voting for Readers’ Choice Adventurer of the Year (<-click that link to vote!), and Dean Potter is in the running for his fusion of rock climbing/BASE jumping/wingsuit (Tony Suits, to be specific). You are to "cast your vote for the person you think best embodies the spirit of adventure", so get on over and vote—if you can avoid soiling yourself at 0:30 in this video.

Read about him here. And take note – the December/January issue is the last for National Geographic Adventure, so snag your copy now.

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West Virginian/jumper Marcus Ellison and Bridge Day BASE jumping coordinator Jason Bell gave us the locals’ scoop on just what there is to do in Fayetteville, WV—besides jumping off a huge-ass bridge. This, along with our Bridge Day ‘09 guide in the October issue of Blue Skies Mag, should keep you set for legal activities during your Bridge Day experience. As for the other kinds of activities…we actively discourage them. (But get pictures!)

View What to Do for Bridge Day in a larger map, including Google Street View of the bridge

Based on the great help we got from all the local businesses Marcus recommended in his piece, we have to believe Fayetteville is one of the coolest towns ever. We’d have liked to print more of the great pictures they sent, but there were just too many cool establishments to have room for them all!

P.S. The Mystery Hole is not the quietly-whispered-about strip club. They’re here.

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Sick wingsuit BASE video from JT. It may not be possible to get any closer to getting out and doing it yourself—which, of course, we highly encourage.

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60 Minutes had a great piece about wingsuiting this week—very decent looking boys doing very decent flying. If you’re into either of those sorts of things. Enjoy!

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There is just so much to say about this year’s Bridge Day! First, we will have a little guide to Bridge Day and things to do in the area, courtesy BASE jumping coordinator Jason Bell and local Marcus Ellison. Watch for more on that to come in the October issue and right here at blueskiesmag.com.

Next, we have a little favor to ask our loyal readers. We want to include a copy of Blue Skies Mag in all the jumpers’ registration packets. To do that, we are looking for someone who will be driving up to Bridge Day early in the week from either central Florida or the Charleston, SC area to take up a couple (heavy!) boxes of magazines. E-mail me at lara@blueskiesmag.com if you can do this!

Last, you may know of our printer woes, and how we were saved by a printer who shares our love of shenanigans and partial nudity. After reading the Bridge Day guide mentioned above, our rep (coincidentally, we’re quite sure) decided to take a boy’s weekend in the Fayetteville, WV area the weekend after next. So, if you run into a whuffo dude named Shawn from Virginia, please be sure to give him a good Bridge Day welcome—and thank him for saving Blue Skies Mag

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