Matt Gerdes has a new book out, “The Great Book of BASE.” Awesome title, and awesome video from him with some of his recent escapades. That’s right, “escapades.” The word just rolls off the tongue so nicely. Much like the drool that comes after watching the video.

• Mirage Systems has an open call for “a hot, experienced skydiving girl [who] would like to be on a National TV show filming in late July.” <Mirage>
• Judge rules Skydive City, [Freefall Express] must coexist until trial. <Tampa Bay Online>
• Nutty lady claims highest freefall jump, despite … well, every skydiver’s common knowledge. Bonus round – find all the ridiculously funny problems with this backstory article. <AOL news>
• Italian wins that other World Cup. Jump4Heroes was also there with their poppy canopies. <ProBASE World Cup>
• VA Beach firefighters rescue SEALs from trees. <WAVY>

BASE jumping.  The activity itself is often shrouded in mystery, especially for the uninitiated.  We skydivers are vaguely aware of them, but the where/when/how is usually not shared and therefore rarely witnessed.
That elusive hour, just when the hint of dawn begins to color the sky, belongs to the BASE jumpers.  At least here in Florida.  As a sub-species of the People of the Sky tribe, I think we can all agree that responsible BASE jumpers are like, totally cool.

Director Marah Strauch of Scissor Kick Films is working on putting together a non-fiction feature film, aiming to capture what it feels like to jump off a building, cliff or a bridge, and walk away alive.  She wants to capture the essence of life, of freedom, of what it feels like to defy gravity for a moment and fly.
This is a huge project and Marah and her team are currently working to raise funds to be able to complete the work – specifically they are launching a fundraiser focused on the restoration and transfer to HD of the Carl Boenish film archive.

Please visit their Kickstarter fundraising page, where you can also get more information about the project.  In Marah’s words, this film is meant to be more than a simple history of BASE, it is to be a film that will inspire BASE jumpers and non-BASE jumpers alike to follow their dreams.  And here is her brand new blog.

Best of luck to the Gravity film team, we look forward to see the final product!

The month-long Baffin Island BASE Expedition is on right now! Check out that link for a lot of cool information, including an up-to-date blog, mission info, team member profiles and photos and videos from the last trip to the island in 2008.

The team includes some pretty big names in the BASE world, including the PD Factory Team’s own Jay Moledzki. We were also really psyched to see so many chicks on the team. Yay, chicks!

Good luck to the whole expedition!

Jump4Heroes are just back from BASE jumping in Switzerland. Supporting The Soldiers’ Charity they did some proximity flying and some extreme curry eating. Similar to the extreme ironing board concept where people take an ironing board to all kind of weird and extreme places, the gauntlet has been laid down for extreme curry eating.  The Charity is looking for people to do better so, if you think you’re up for the challenge, then send them your pictures or video.

See the TV interview below and a short edit of the jumps below that.

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.

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!