France’s Tom Pagès has develop into the primary particular person on earth to BASE leap a bike off a 135m (443-foot) cliff. To make the stunt work, each he and his motorbike wanted a parachute.

The stunt was carried out in Avoriaz, a mountainside resort in France, close to the Swiss border. Earlier than even making it to the 7m (23-foot) ramp positioned on the fringe of the 135m (443-foot) cliff, he first carried out three freestyle tips by means of the streets of the Alpine resort.

He then hit the ultimate ramp at 80 km/h (50 mph) and carried out two front-flips earlier than pulling his parachute and touchdown 55m (180 ft) away from the cliff. Earlier than pulling the chute, he hit 150 km/h (93 mph). After deploying it, he fell for a full 30 seconds and landed 170m (558 ft) beneath his peak top.

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“There was no higher place for this than Avoriaz! It’s a magical spot: surrounded by nature, with picket structure and nice infrastructure. The resort actually lends itself to freeriding, and it’s the one place I discovered a vertical cliff face over 130m excessive,” mentioned Pagès. “The toughest factor to handle was the one you’ll be able to’t see within the video: the wind.”

The undertaking was so wild that Pagès wanted new know-how to carry out it. Laden with helmets, boots, and protecting gear, to not point out a bike, he wanted a solution to deploy the motorbike’s parachute. For that, he obtained assist from Stéphane Zunino, who developed a parachute for the motorbike that had a handbook launch built-in into the seat.

The thought to base leap a bike got here to Pagès years in the past when he began skydiving. When he later began BASE leaping, the five-time X Video games freestyle motocross gold medalist says he couldn’t assist however think about what it could be like with a bike.

He supposed to attempt it in 2020, however the pandemic scuppered the plan. Lastly, although, he managed to discover a place the place he might mix the fields of BASE leaping and freestyle motocross.

“It’s a career-defining undertaking: combining the 2 universes that I like, FMX and parachuting in the identical efficiency,” says Pagès. “It’s additionally a life-defining one, mixing influences so as to shock folks and exhibiting up the place they least count on it.”

Photograph credit Crimson Bull