[dramatic music]
- We all experience fear.
- You ready for this?
- Oh, my God.
- But it's how we face this fear...
Augh!
That defines us.
That was brutal, man.
My greatest fear is that if I don't overcome my fear,
it will consume me.
I feel completely unprepared.
I've always loved adventure.
And being a bit of a risk-taker,
I've had my fair share of broken bones along the way.
- Come down all the way.
- Did I get you worried there for a minute?
But this is different.
This time, I'll be guided and inspired
by some extraordinary people who really know how to push
their edge and go beyond.
- Something like that?
It's maybe a two- to three-year process.
And we've got a week.
- I'm attempting three extremely
dangerous sports, where I will challenge myself physically--
[screams]
--mentally--
- You've had loads of pain.
Any more, and you could die.
- --and emotionally.
- Hold.
Hold it.
That's good. That's OK.
Hold it in.
Good.
- [gasps]
I felt about as close to death as I could possibly get.
- He's got kids, so I'm going to make sure
he knows all of the risks.
- This is really next-level.
I never feel so alive being so close to death.
I'm ready-- Whoo!
To take my life-- - Come on.
- --to the edge.
Oh, my God.
I'm alive.
Oh, my God.
I'm alive.
[motorcycle engine revving]
[dramatic music]
* *
If, like me, you've ever wondered what it would
feel like to fly, sport wingsuiting is probably
about as close as you can get.
Soaring through the clouds over 120 miles an hour
will certainly make you feel like your life is on the edge.
And the reality is, I'll be learning
to do this in just two weeks.
* *
An endeavor like this requires a great teacher,
a good student, and a lot of trust.
And I've got a great teacher.
The real question is,
what kind of student am I going to be?
[dramatic music]
* *
Oh, dude.
[laughs]
- What do you think of that?
- Are you freaking kidding me?
- Are you ready for this or what?
- Oh, my God. Get me on that thing.
- That is what it's all about right there.
- On a dime.
I was like, he's going to hit the bike.
Bro.
- Can't wait to get you up there, man.
- Man, I cannot wait.
I'm down. - Let's go do this.
- Yeah. Let's do it.
I'm down.
Let's go.
Let me be really clear.
I'm definitely not a skydiver.
I've only jumped one time, and that
was attached to an instructor, so I've never jumped solo.
[helicopter blades whirring]
But I am comfortable with that feeling of discomfort.
Yeah, baby.
And I definitely get high on the adrenaline.
And now I'm going to learn how to do that safely...
Here you go.
Oh!
[motorcycle engine revving]
In order to execute my first jump.
[doors rattling]
- This is us for the next couple of weeks.
- Wow. Awesome, dude.
- [laughs]
- I love it.
This is it.
- Look at all this gear.
Who shows up with their own equipment, by the way?
I mean, what kind of guy?
- The same guy that picks you to be their teacher.
Let me tell you. - [laughs]
Whoo!
- When it comes to instructors,
Luke is the guy you want.
Luke Aikins is one of the world's greatest skydivers...
- Bye-bye!
- And wingsuiters.
- Wow.
Look at that.
That is super cool.
- What is all that stuff on there?
I mean, you got it all--
- Well, that's my name, obviously.
'77, my year of birth.
There's my number.
I'm a spade.
And then there's some symbols that
represent people in real life.
- I mean, a custom suit?
- My son's represented here, Flynn Bloom.
- Where's that? - My--
- Oh, nice.
- --daughter, Daisy Dove is there.
And again, the spade.
- So you're definitely--
- And there's a feather for my--
my love.
- Definitely into the big thing, right?
- Symbolism.
And keep me, like, safe and protected from anything
that's weird out there.
- Throw some of that my way. - I think I need to, bro.
I think-- - Oh, I need it.
I'll take anything. - You've got it coming.
You got it coming, brother.
Things-- you got some angels protecting you, for sure.
Luke's the first person in the world
to jump out of a plane at 25,000 feet without parachute.
That's right.
Without a parachute.
- Ahh!
- He's been skydiving since he was 12 years old
and has recorded over 21,000 jumps.
Whoo.
- Are you excited already? Dude--
- I'm like--
I'm like-- I've got butterflies in my stomach, if I'm honest.
I mean, it's like-- you know, obviously it's like, this is--
like, I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew,
let me just put it like that.
- I mean, you saw what I just did, right?
I just come ripping around the wingsuit, land next to you.
It's just like that. - Yeah, I mean.
Yeah. Right.
- Super easy. - Just like that.
That easy. Yeah. [laughs]
- So why in the world you want to do something like this?
The first question I ask anybody
who wants to go skydiving.
- You know, through COVID--
I don't know about you, but it was a pretty intense
experience for, I would say, the majority
of people on the planet. - Most of us, yeah.
- Right.
And you know, what was really palpable to me
was the level of fear that I could feel around me, right?
I was like, if I get a chance to come out of this
and do something, what would I do
that showed me, like, taking responsibility, learning,
and confronting fear.
- I'm fascinated that you're willing to put your life
in my hands for me to not only teach you to skydive,
which is fairly standard-- we're going
to go from skydiving--
I mean, we're here at an airport, right?
We'll go from skydiving to wingsuiting in such
a short amount of time. - Yeah, yeah.
- It's just a very ambitious-- and that's why
I was interested in why you wanted to do this.
- Me never doing it before to wingsuiting
in the time frame, which is like a couple of weeks, right?
- Yeah.
- Is that a safe amount of--
- You know, it's never been done before,
the pace we're going to go on.
I actually had to get a waiver to get
you to be able to wingsuit with less than 200 skydives.
- OK.
- But I've set up some benchmarks.
So we're going to go off of skill level, where you are,
with an ultimate goal of flying a wingsuit over the ocean.
- Listen, water, air, wind, my favorite things.
I'm down. - OK.
- If you think I can do that-- - That's the goal.
- If we get to a place where I can do that, I will be like--
- I'm going to see if I can make that happen.
- If we can make that happen--
- That would make it spectacular.
- I mean, that would be spectacular.
Before I can wingsuit over the ocean,
Luke needs to teach me to fly for at least 3 miles.
That's so that I can safely make it to the shore,
because the water landing is dangerous.
I want to avoid that at all costs.
- So let's see how you do along the journey.
And then we'll make those decisions as we go together.
- Yeah.
- The first step that I have is to get
you what we call an A license.
- What's that?
- So an A license is our first license we get as a skydiver.
You have to get 25 skydives.
At that point, you are no longer a student
when you get this A license.
You are now-- can pack your parachute.
You can go up by yourself in an airplane
and find out where to jump and what the winds are doing
and make all these decisions on your own without me.
That's our first step is to get this A license.
And once we get that, then we'll
start thinking about working towards the wingsuit.
- I will say, you know, obviously, I'm like,
I know that I'm in good hands.
But I will just like to reiterate at this point
that I have two kids, and I really
want to get home to them.
And I have a beautiful partner.
So I'll just put that on the table right now.
- Well, you know, like, I'm a third-generation skydiver.
I'm a pilot, airplanes, helicopters.
And you know, my dad was in the navy.
And my dad passed away in a plane crash a couple of
years ago.
And so that made me think things
differently as a father.
And you know what I mean?
Like, I'm still skydiving.
I'm still whatever.
But I was so untouched.
Like, nothing can happen to me.
You know, you're bulletproof.
And then something like that happens to your family,
and you realize, OK, things can happen.
- Yeah.
- You could have these horrible accidents.
- Yeah.
- But does that stop me?
Should you be paralyzed and not do anything?
- Right, yeah. - I don't think so.
- No.
- And so it's just learning to accept that these
things can happen and do your very
best to make sure they don't.
You can do things that seem wild and crazy,
and you don't have to be a crazy person to do it.
- That's what I like to hear.
- I think the very first thing that we have to do
is, I'm going to send you over to meet
my buddy Mickey Nuttall.
He's an incredible athlete. - Okay.
- He's world champion multiple times.
And Mickey is an expert at flying in a wind tunnel,
a vertical wind tunnel.
- Oh, really?
- Because we're on such a fast pace,
I'm going to get you to feel freefall
before we ever skydive.
- Great.
Hey. - Hey, hey, man.
How's it going? I'm Mickey Nuttall.
- Mickey, how you doing?
- Welcome to iFLY.
This is definitely the best first step
for learning how to skydive.
- How close is it to the real thing?
- So everything that you do in here,
your body reacts the exact same way in freefall.
So it's my understanding you're going
to put a wingsuit on and learn how to fly a wingsuit as well.
- Yeah. That's the whole point.
- The skydive--
- [indistinct] so I can wingsuit.
- That's awesome. - Yeah.
- Cool.
What do you say we get geared up?
- Get suited up. - Get started.
Let's go fly. - Yeah.
Awesome. - Sounds good.
- All right.
- OK.
Go ahead and get in that skydiving body position.
Let me see you get your chin up a little bit.
All right.
So it's a little harder in here.
The wind is going to help push you into that body position.
And I'm going to be out in front of you
here giving hand signals.
So you're going to want to be able to look up at me.
That's it, man.
Just like that.
- We didn't talk about it, but I broke my back when I was 20.
So it's going to be interesting to see how--
- What vertebrae?
- I crushed T12--
- OK.
So pretty high--
- T11 and 10.
Because your back is your nervous system, for four days,
they said I'd never walk again.
Everything hurt.
I couldn't move a finger without it hurting.
And they said you'll be on your back for six months.
And then they operated on me, and I walked out of hospital
on crutches in 13 days.
I've got pretty good mobility, actually.
- We'll work around what mobility you have.
Let's take care of this first step.
What do you say? - Yeah.
Ready to go. - Awesome.
Cheers, mate. - Let's do it.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Before you deploy a parachute,
we communicate to others that we're in the sky with,
"Hey, guys, I'm about to pull."
* *
I'm going to go above my head with this hand
to counterbalance. - Right. And pull.
- Reach, pull, and release.
- OK.
- Let's say you exit the airplane.
That wind kind of catches you on one shoulder
and flips you over onto your back.
Now we're flying back to Earth.
That's not a position we want to pull our parachute in.
We want to get back belly to Earth.
* *
When I give you a thumbs-up, I want you to roll out of bed
and arch and be ready to fly.
Make sense? - Makes sense.
- How are you feeling? - Great.
- Shoulders strong? - Yeah.
- Back is strong? - Yeah.
- Awesome.
* *
- Just starts to become intuitive.
* *
- So for this rotation, I'm going to grab ahold of you
like Luke is going to have you in freefall.
- Great.
- And I just want to fly together.
- Yeah.
Just the idea that I'll be jumping solo out of a plane
tomorrow after only one day in a wind tunnel
is exciting and terrifying.
[wind hissing]
[upbeat music]
* *
- Hey, man.
I'm ready to go. - Are you ready?
- Hi. - Hi.
- This is my wife, Monica.
- Hi, nice to meet you. - I'm gonna hug you.
- All right. - Uh-oh.
Monica's hugging. - Yeah.
Nice to meet you.
- Very nice to meet you, Monica.
What a pleasure. Where'd you guys meet?
- We actually met on Tinder. Now we're--
- No, no, no. - I'm just joking.
- That's great.
- No, we actually went to high school
and then met years later.
- Monica's got 2,500 jumps.
She's an AFF instructor, all that.
- Yeah.
- So she's going to be jumping with us today.
- So cool.
- So what we're going to do today is,
we're actually talking about the actual stuff
that we need to know to skydive.
- OK.
- A couple of things that we have here.
We have an altimeter that you're going to need now.
The altimeter is going to keep track of your altitude.
You're going to wear this on your left wrist.
Once you get to 5,500, open your parachute.
- OK.
- If I need to do something at 5,500 feet,
I like it to beep at 6, because it's
just reminding me like, "Hey, it's time to wake up.
It's time to get ready to do something."
- How long is the 500 between-- so 6 is--
- It takes about 6 to 8 seconds to go 1,000 feet.
- So 4 seconds.
- It's not like you have to rush.
- Right. You have 4 seconds.
- Yeah.
You got time to sort it out.
First thing we have here-- you have
a main parachute on the bottom and your reserve
parachute on the top.
Typically, we need a reserve 1 in 1,000 skydives.
We have a pilot chute hooked to a bag,
and then the lines are hooked in here.
So as he pulls this out, the bag goes out.
The parachute comes out of the bag,
and the parachute opens up.
And then here we have our toggles.
This is how we steer the parachute.
So if we look at this, when we grab our toggles,
we pull it down one time, releases,
and this is how we steer our parachute.
We pull on the left. We turn to the left.
We pull on the right.
We turn to the right. Pretty straightforward.
- Pretty straightforward.
- When we're flying our parachute,
our hands are all the way up.
That's full flight.
We just push them up and hold our hands at the top.
- But you have to be holding the toggles.
You can't be holding your hands here.
- Correct.
We pull them down one time all the way.
That releases our brakes.
Now I have full control of the parachute.
I'll have a radio on you that I'll be able to talk to you.
I'm going to boogie down.
I'll land, and then I'll turn the radio on.
- It's just a lot of information to take in,
and it's slightly overwhelming.
It's a lot.
- So if you think about your right hand
does everything to do with your main parachute.
It deploys your main parachute, and it
releases your main parachute.
- To learn all of this and jump out of a plane
all in a day,
how many things can go wrong or not go wrong?
- OK.
Right hand is all your main parachute.
Left hand is your reserve parachute.
Can only do one thing.
Does that make sense for your hands?
- Yeah.
- Cutaway means we release the main parachute.
We open up, the parachute's all tangled up.
We don't like it.
We pull that handle.
That one goes away.
Now we pull our reserve parachute.
- Oh, cutaway. - Cutaway.
Yeah. It has no chance of--
- Cutaway the big one, because it
was messed up, so you just-- - Yeah.
So you just release that and then open your reserve.
- And then you have a reserve.
And then you said there's a third one if you pass--
- Nope. Only two. - There's two.
[line trilling]
[phone chimes] - Hi, baby.
- Are you excited?
- Yeah. Yeah.
No, I'm good.
We just got to go now, because it's--
it's good conditions. So--
- Did you chant?
- Yes.
[bowl rings]
[chanting]
I've been practicing Buddhism since I was 16 years old.
It gives me ishumin, the determination
and the perseverance to overcome all the obstacles
we face in our daily lives.
[ethereal music]
Growing up, I was addicted to the adrenaline rush.
And I never thought about the consequences.
As a result, I broke a few bones along the way.
But I still feel the urge to push myself beyond that edge,
and I'm thinking that trusting Luke
and his team, their protocols, well, that's the way to go.
- The only thing you didn't get to do in the wind tunnel
is work on the exit, how we step off the plane.
* *
- So you're going to have your right foot forward,
have your left foot back.
And you just put your hands right here
because you're just going to-- you're
not going to grasp the door.
You're just going to put your hands and hang on.
You're going to have your right foot forward, left foot back.
- There you go. - There you go.
- Yep. - Hands in the door.
- So sandwich-- yeah.
That's what keeps you from falling out.
- OK, so--
- I won't let you fall to the ground.
Put your right here. - Other hand.
- Yeah, that's right. - There you go.
Perfect.
- You don't grasp the door, because you want
to get caught on anything.
- Well, you just don't want-- like a lot of time,
students will hang on to it, and they never let go.
- Right. Right. Right.
- So then if you just, like, just hang on to it
just like this, you're going to go, "Check in."
- Checking in is checking the person on the other side.
- With me. I'll be right here like this.
I'll literally be right here looking right at you
like this. - Check in.
- "Check in."
"Check out." - She'll shake you.
She'll be outside.
- You'll be-- how are you outside if you're--
- She'll be hanging on.
- Oh, you're going to be hanging
on to the side of the plane. - Yeah, exactly.
- I see. OK.
So "check in." - "Check in."
both: "Check out." - Right.
Left. Prop.
Up.
Down. - Step out.
- You got it.
Perfect.
- Once you start that cadence, just keep going
with it, because I can't-- - Hear.
- I can't read your mind. - Just keep going.
And if you stop--keep going, because if you start again,
I'm pulling all three of us out.
- Got it. - OK.
- Whatever you want. That works.
- No problem.
- So let's all get in.
Let's do this.
[heartbeat thumping]
- [exhales]
[propellers whirring]
There's a million things going through my mind.
* *
I'm just trying to stay calm.
* *
[indistinct].
[propellers whirring]
- Whoo!
This is real.
- Oh, shit!
[laughs]
- All right.
- Check in.
Check out. Prop.
Up.
Down. Arch.
[dramatic music]
* *
- The priorities on this jump are
for you to respond to our hand signals
and for you to open your parachute on your own.
- Check your altimeter.
12,000 feet, thumbs-up.
You got three practice rip cord pulls.
So this hand is going to go up.
- 1,
2,
3.
- At 6,000 feet, you're locking on.
You're not going to take your eyes off your altimeter.
At 5,500, wave off.
Come back and pull.
* *
- All right, Orlando.
Looks like you had a good skydive,
and you got a good parachute.
If you can hear me, let's get a left 360.
Yeah, boy.
Yeah, Luke.
Whoo.
- All right, buddy, that was an awesome job, man.
This is Luke.
You're doing great.
The landing is the most important, right?
- Yeah.
- The flare is both hands even and all the way down.
What's that's going to do is keep
your parachute steering straight
as we come in to land.
Ready for landing.
Here we go.
Ready, set, flare.
Pull them down all the way.
Nice.
Dude, he crushed it.
He did awesome.
So good.
Whew!
Nervous for me too.
[laughs]
- That is electric.
Woo hoo hoo hoo!
That's crazy good.
Crazy good.
- [laughs]
- Oh, my God.
- Dude, you rocked it. That was awesome.
- That was freaking awesome.
- That was so good. You did great.
- Oh, I loved it. - Yeah.
- Wow, what a trip.
- It was so much fun.
- That is a crazy rush, huh?
- Yeah.
Yeah. So much fun, huh?
- Whoo!
- Dude, crushed it.
First jump, man. - How 'bout that?
- Awesome, huh? - Yeah.
- You pulled all by yourself. You did the whole thing.
- The whole nine yards, huh? - Was it cool?
Was it? - Super awesome.
I mean, it's-- the control you have with the parachute
when you're flying-- - It's amazing, huh?
- It's an amazing thing.
- Well, let's go inside, get out of the sun,
and we'll talk about this. We'll check it out.
- Yeah.
[rock music]
- So we graduated the first one.
On this jump, we're going to work on turns.
* *
- Up. Down.
* *
- So after your three practice rip cord pulls,
you're going to check your altimeter.
- Oh, so you check every time you do something.
- Yes. Between each maneuver.
So then check your altimeter.
Now left-hand turn.
- Got it.
- 90 degrees, right?
Check your altimeter.
And now right-hand turn.
Look right.
Turn right.
Then check your altimeter.
* *
- I said, all right, all right, Orlando.
- Monica and I were barely holding on,
I mean, like fingertips. - Yeah. Yeah.
- This next jump is a really big deal.
Monica and I are going to let go of you in freefall.
So we exit together, and it's all you.
- Holy shit.
[propellers whirring]
[tense music]
- At pull time, it's very important that you're
calm and slow and smooth.
I'd rather you be slow than to flip over onto your back.
[serene music]
* *
- The feeling of free falling, dropping through the sky,
is just electric.
* *
- Boom.
Yeah.
- Yep.
Keep coming to the left.
Come back here a little bit closer.
* *
Now pick something out in front of you
with your hands all the way up and fly your parachute right
to whatever you're looking at.
Ready.
Set. Flare.
All the way down.
And then just stand up.
Yeah.
I would say that's how we do it right there, everybody.
- That's how we do it!
Ahh! [laughs]
- Dude, you're-- - Dude.
- You were so awesome. - That felt good.
- You were solid.
You were solid up there.
- Oh, yeah.
Oh, my God.
- Is that so much better, dude, when we're not hanging on?
- Yeah.
- Dude, that's like-- you feel like you're skydiving, right?
- Yeah.
- That's the way we end the first day of skydiving,
by the way.
- That felt freaking awesome.
Whoo! [laughter]
What a feeling.
[bleep] rush.
So like liberating in a way, right?
Like everything is in your hands, right?
Your whole life is in your hands.
This heightened and accelerated program
that I'm on
is definitely pushing me up against that edge.
But maybe I'll find what I'm looking
for that way in a relatively controlled, safe environment.
* *
[seagulls squawking]
- So let me just now repeat that statement
from the royal household, which we have received
in the last few minutes.
The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.
- It's a real--
it's funny, because, you know, people, like, judge it,
and they look at it, and they go,
"Oh, you know, this entitled life."
That's a life of service for so many people.
Because so many people are holding that idea of her,
who she was and how she held herself.
And you know-- and through all of that,
man, wow, that is so much.
[exhales]
It's just a generational thing, I suppose.
[somber music]
* *
Wow.
Hey, God save the Queen.
- It's all you this whole jump. - Yeah. Yeah.
Good.
On you.
[dramatic music]
- It's only my seventh jump,
and I am jumping completely solo.
Over 120 miles an hour,
free-falling after just one day in a wind tunnel.
And the reality is,
when thinking about dying gets in your head
when life and death feels so next door to each other,
and that feeling, that's what keeps me pushing forward.
* *
- Wait. What's going on? What?
[tense music]
- Jump seven, which was the jump that I'll never forget,
I look up, and I've got my toggles.
And one is caught.
And I was just like, protocol, one, two, the chute cuts away.
The main canopy and the reserve drops in,
and you just go, you know.
And your heart's racing.
Luke says that having to pull a reserve shoot
happens 1 in 1,000 times.
I cannot believe this just happened
to me on my seventh jump.
I pulled it twice.
I looked up.
The toggle, it was twisted and locked, and I couldn't get it.
I was like [bleep], what do I do?
I was like, do I--
do I undo and try and untie it?
It was totally--
I did it again for the two things.
I was like, [bleep] it. - Two tries is protocol.
- Two tries, brother. [bleep] me.
- Protocol, right?
- Oh, my God.
I didn't have the radio. I didn't have the--
I was like--
- Dude, hop on up here.
- Wait.
Was that intentional?
- No, that was not intentional.
- Holy shit, bro.
- The Queen.
- Oh, my God, the Queen.
Oh, my God, the Queen.
That one was for the Queen, and she totally saved me.
Dude, that is crazy!
Oh, my God.
I'm alive.
Oh, my God.
I'm alive.
- That never, ever happens.
We got to find that parachute, though, right now.
- It's over there.
--of the truck.
- Oh, that's great.
We'll just go get it.
- That was me.
- Oh, my good God.
- A little bit of a tangle on one of the steering lines.
No big deal. The parachute was open.
- Oh, my God.
- But because he didn't like it,
he decided to release it and open the reserve.
- Which one? - That was me.
- Oh, my God, man. - Oh, man.
Thank you. - I'm freaking.
Thank God you're fine. - Thank you, man.
Thank you so much for stopping, man.
- That was crazy.
I just--
- Thanks.
I really appreciate that.
- Thank you so much for stopping for us, mate.
That was super cool of you.
Wow.
- Bro.
- Hey.
- [screams]
[dramatic music]
* *
[line trilling]
- Oh, my God.
Katy's calling me.
- Uh-oh.
- Baby, I just had to pull my reserve parachute.
- You have two-- one if that doesn't work,
you pull the reserve.
You have two chutes.
- You know, it's not my time. It's not going to be my time.
- It's not. It's not.
- It's not my time. - It's just not.
- I got way too much living to do right now.
I'm like-- just this is like--
I'm just on the cusp of all this stuff right now.
But you know what I've learned?
If anything, when you learn the protocols
and you follow the protocols, everything's fine.
It's like discipline.
[serene music]
* *
- [chanting]
Chanting daimoku, nam-myoho-renge-kyo,
is about bringing yourself in tune
with the rhythm of the universe,
helping you to feel worthy of being happy.
My Buddhist practice helps me to transform fear and doubt
into courage and confidence.
It's the kind of wisdom that can also come from experience.
And speaking of experience, my 80-year-old uncle
has a wealth of it, especially when it comes to skydiving.
There he is, the man himself.
- What's happening?
- Needs no introduction.
This is my Uncle Christopher, who--
- Hey, Christopher. Nice to meet you.
- My mother's-- my mother's brother,
who is a remarkable human and a crazy outdoor Copeland.
And--
- How many skydives do you have?
I didn't even know you had an uncle that skydives.
- I'm telling you, man.
That's probably where this whole idea came from.
- Well, I've done 790 jumps.
- So you're a skydiver then.
You haven't just jumped. - Yeah.
- This one's pretty exciting to me,
because you guys are going to get to jump together.
And I'm going to let him dive down to you.
And I'm just going to be hanging out.
- Yeah.
- This is going to be about you guys doing your family thing.
- Right. OK.
Fine.
- Does that sound like a good-- sound like a good deal?
- He's, like, nervous now.
He's like, wait, what does that mean exactly?
[dramatic music]
* *
This plane goes up quite quick.
- Yeah.
- It's a real grunter.
[propellers whirring]
- Love you.
- I love you too.
- All right.
Green light.
Let's go.
- You could say my Uncle Chris has lived a life on the edge.
* *
And within my family, he certainly represents
that spirit of adventure.
[uplifting music]
* *
That was pretty epic.
- It was great, Orlando.
I mean, you were amazing.
- Oh, no.
You were amazing.
I can't believe we got to do that together.
- Well, you've got fantastic control.
- Oh, thanks, Chris.
- And I felt absolutely safe jumping with you.
- Oh, great. - Yeah.
- Oh.
I loved it. I loved it.
I'm so glad we got to do it.
- You were superb.
- It was amazing to see you up there.
I can't believe all the jumps you've done in your lifetime.
And that's-- and now we've got that logged as one of them.
- I mean, nobody back home is going to believe me.
- [laughs] I look at all of our family, you know,
and they're all kind of, like, extreme living,
living vitally, you know.
There's nobody not living vitally in our family.
- Yeah. - I'd say so.
- Yeah.
- We have this kind of--
this sort of--
I'd call it grit, really.
A bit of grit and determination.
It's been great to have you as an example of that, you know.
And I think that's the thing that I've
really appreciated most.
So I guess all we have to decide now, really,
is probably where we'll jump next.
- [laughs]
- It's kind of cool, the idea that we
could go jumping somewhere.
I'd like to jump in England.
Maybe I can come to you.
- I'll hold you to that. - All right.
I'll come to your spot.
- Yeah.
[upbeat music]
* *
- Getting goose bumps, dude.
What are we, a week in?
We started jumping a week ago?
- Bro, it's crazy.
- You're up to 25 skydives.
* *
This means you can go to any drop zone in the United States
with this A license and go skydive on your own.
* *
- I'm fired up.
Like, you know, honestly, this is like-- it's like--
it's been such a rocket ship.
The thing that I'm navigating is the highs and lows
of all the adrenaline. - Yeah.
* *
Now we're going to start thinking about wingsuiting.
- Yeah, baby.
As excited as I am, I'm just becoming
more aware of the stakes.
And I'm definitely starting to feel a little nervous.
I can't believe we're doing wingsuiting next.
- [laughs]
[dramatic music]
* *
- When we fly our wingsuit, it fills up and pressurizes
like an air mattress.
These chambers fill up, and the wing gets thick.
It's not just a flat piece of material.
It's actually an aerodynamic airfoil.
So the front of your wing is like the leading
edge of an airplane.
We make a wing out of our body.
We're like airplane gliders through the air.
- Rather than just jumping out of a plane
and pretty much dropping straight to Earth,
a wingsuit allows you to glide horizontally
and cover more ground before you pull your chute.
Wingsuits come in different sizes.
The bigger the suit, the further you can fly,
but the harder they are to control.
So if things go wrong, well, things can go really wrong.
* *
- It's important that when we fly our wingsuit
that we have air speed.
So the big thing to remember is our head is going to be low,
our arms are going to be swept back,
and then we're diving through the sky.
- My first wingsuit, boys.
Whoo!
* *
- You never want to have wobble.
If it's wobbling, we're not going fast enough.
So our arms are pretty straight,
and they're straight up down.
And we're just kind of driving through our chest...
- Yeah. - Our chest
and our face right here. - Yeah.
- We're driving into the wind with all of that.
If you put this back like that, it wants
to end up going straight down.
- So if I'm too much like this, that's where I'm going
to get a wobble going, right? - Yep.
Just a little bit.
- And if I'm getting the wobble going, to stop
yourself from wobbling-- - Correct.
- --is-- is what? - That.
Exactly what you just did right there.
Yep. That's it.
- More arms. - Arms out.
Head straight.
And you'll feel it.
You feel good?
It's the practice.
We're going to exit, nice position like this.
And then you'll be ready, set, go.
You just got to step to the side.
- Out.
- Yeah.
There you go.
Down and chest into the wind.
That's it.
Down and chest into the wind.
Don't overthink it.
- OK. Great.
Let's do this. - Yeah, baby.
- I feel good, man. I feel good.
- I mean, this is it.
OK.
[chanting]
I'm on a fast track here.
So introducing new gear not only
affects the way I'm going to fly,
but my feelings of anxiety are sky high right now.
I don't know what's going to happen.
Am I going to fall out and just suddenly spiral into
some crazy, squirrely loop?
So it's going to be an interesting process
to control this wingsuit.
- You're packing those parachutes?
- Yes, ma'am.
That's what I'm here for. - Jack.
- Yes.
Very nice to meet you, Katy.
- Nice to meet you.
No funny business, Jack.
- Yes, ma'am.
- You pack those parachutes the same way every time, right?
- Don't you worry. Precious cargo.
I'll keep it squared away.
- That's right.
- We're about to have jumpers away.
- [chanting]
All right.
Whoo!
[dramatic music]
* *
- Do you hear him?
If you listen, it sounds like a fighter jet.
That's him.
- You mean, the person or-- - That's the bodies.
Yeah. - What?
- Yeah.
- That's his dream come true.
- Oh, yeah.
- To turn his body into a fighter jet.
- Well, fastest sport on Earth without a motor.
- Oh, God.
Next thing you know, he's going to be base jumping.
- We did talk about that the other day.
Just-- - Not happening, Jack.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- There he is. - Where?
- Good parachute for our landing,
right where he wanted to. - Great.
Thank God.
Parachute is open.
You did it!
[whooping]
- Yeah, buddy.
- Whoa! Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.
- Drop one of those toggles, man.
- [laughs]
- I might have distracted him a little bit on that landing.
- Oh, my God.
- Whoo!
- Katy!
- You did it.
One piece.
I'm so glad. - Oh, yeah.
- I'm so glad.
- Oh, my God.
- You're a flying wombat.
- I am the flying wombat.
- You're one of those squirrels.
- Exactly.
- You relaxed so much.
When I was next to you, you smiled.
- I got to tell you, though, I was super relaxed until I
got the wobble at the end.
- Yeah.
- So before I was going to pull, right?
So I'm like there, and I'm like,
this is not the place to be wobbling.
- That little bit of wobble stuff
is just like you need to breathe right through it.
- But I had this tiny moment like--
[panting]
- It was so mellow until then, huh?
- Yeah.
When that wobble happened, I'm at an elevation
where I need to pull.
So how much time am I going to have before I've got to,
you know, before I land, right?
That's where it feels very real.
- I think we should wrap this for today.
- Are we jumping tomorrow?
- You're doing something else tomorrow.
- Oh, OK.
Family.
- You're jumping into your family.
- Jumping into family time.
- Family.
[dramatic music]
* *
- All it took was one day off, and suddenly I couldn't escape
the thought of that wobble.
It's filled me with doubt, 1,000 what-ifs
rushing through my mind.
* *
This moment here kept me awake.
- Look what's going on here.
The wind comes across here.
It hits our chest.
It cuts into our pelvis.
Then it goes down by our knees, and then it comes back up.
- So just keep arching.
Keep arching.
- Arching is not the most efficient wingsuiting,
but it's the most stable wingsuiting.
- Well, that's what I'm asking for right now.
- Yes, stability. - I'm asking for stability.
- Stability. - Yeah, I'm asking--
- If you push your hip down a little bit, that stops.
- That stops. - That stops.
When you have downtime on such a tight schedule,
it's very difficult to not be thinking
about it all the time.
[dramatic music]
* *
- I thought this was pretty safe, actually.
- Yeah. - But watching that,
that's freaking me out. - Yeah.
- Kris has been my best mate since we were 11 years old.
He's seen me do some crazy things.
We've done some crazy things together.
So there's no way he would miss out on this.
- Seeing him start wobbling and waving and, like,
seeing him panic-- you know, panic, you can see it.
- Yeah.
- He had a great jump, and he let this one
little wobble get in his head.
So we need to shake that off and move on.
[dramatic music]
- [chanting]
- If you look right up overhead, that's him.
- Jesus Christ.
- Look at that.
He's killing.
He's starting to think for himself now.
Well, even more so.
- After 45 years.
- [laughs]
- Jesus, he looks like Batman.
- Yeah.
- [laughs]
- Nice job, Orlando.
- [laughs]
- Let's go walk out there.
- Yeah, [indistinct].
- Watch this.
- You weren't bobbling at all. - No, no, no.
- I mean, look at this.
This is great flying.
You're crushing it on that wingsuit.
That was exactly-as-briefed flight.
What I would like to do is pull out the special wingsuit.
- Mm.
- It's a little bit bigger.
- This-- this is insane.
Bigger suits means a more experienced flyer.
So for Luke to suggest that I'm ready
to get into this bigger suit,
it's a vote of confidence that I really want right now.
But I guess there is, of course, that voice
in the back of my head going, "Well, am I ready for this?"
You know? [chuckles]
- So it's bigger on your arms.
You'll see the arm length is the same,
but there's a little more wing here.
Basically, this suit is a little bit bigger.
It's built to fly more.
Just if things go wrong, they go wrong quicker.
It's also really important that when we open,
we do our practice touches, you know.
The wing is going to go "ploop,"
and you're going to feel like, whoa, it inflates all around.
- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
This larger suit will allow me to fly a greater distance,
which ultimately brings me closer
to my goal of wingsuiting 3 miles over the ocean.
Baby, I have graduated to my own suit.
- This is the first time with the Bloom suit.
- Let's not rush this part, shall we?
[dramatic music]
* *
- You were like, why am I doing this?
Why do I love it?
And I think it's because I never feel so
alive being so close to death.
- Yeah.
- And that's what it is. - Right.
- Being on that edge makes me feel most alive.
And a big part of doing all of this
is so that I can be on that edge, but safely.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Flare hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard.
- Holy shit!
[grunts]
- Flare hard, hard, hard, hard, hard.
- Holy shit!
[grunts]
Oh, yeah, baby.
Did I get you worried there for a minute?
- Yes.
- Oh, my God.
Nearly got you.
[tense music]
The stakes are way higher with the wingsuit.
It's way more thrilling, way more terrifying, actually,
than skydiving, I would say.
Everything feels like it's happening very fast.
You have moments of, like, OK, I'm in this,
but actually, things feel like they
could go wrong very quickly.
And if they do, then that's when trouble hits.
And then you're like, OK, you know.
I think you just feel incredibly vulnerable,
like you're suddenly-- you're suddenly, like,
brought into this moment of absolute clarity
and concentration and focus. - Right?
It's like you're right on the edge of control.
- Yeah.
Nothing can come between you and the experience
that you're having.
There is nothing--
- Like a forced focus, right?
Like at that moment when you step off,
there's no one, nothing anybody else can do.
I sort of like that part for myself.
- What a time to be alive, huh?
Living a dream.
[gentle music]
* *
- I can't believe it's only been, like,
you know, whatever, two weeks or something,
of you doing this. - I know.
That's the piece I can't really believe either.
- Most of those jumps, are you strapped to somebody?
- Never. Not once.
- Oh, really?
Were you scared, though?
- Yeah.
The wingsuit is like, I think things
can go wrong faster in a way that's like,
if you don't have experience--
- Which you don't.
[chuckles]
- No. But like, there are steps.
When you take the steps and when you put yourself out
of your comfort zone and educate yourself correctly
with the right teacher and the right circumstances,
you'll surprise yourself. - Yeah.
- Who doesn't need to step outside their comfort zone?
It's way easier to be in it than out of it.
And that's been the really cool thing to realize for me,
is like, I think I'm a collector of experiences.
And the more experiences I can have,
the richer I feel and the more confidence
it gives me in any environment that I'm in, you know.
Because part of it is, I didn't have that, never
had that feeling of deep-seated confidence
just from youth, from being when we were kids.
- Right.
- I don't know whether that comes from when I did
that funny ballet school at four years old,
and I'm dressed in a monkey suit, and I'm hot as hell.
And I'm doing these little dances as a monkey on stage.
And I had a really itchy bum, so I was like, well--
I was like, yeah, I turned around
so the audience couldn't see me, and I scratched my ass.
Which if you think about it, a four-year-old in a monkey
suit scratching their bum-- - Perfect.
- --is genius.
They all lost it and thought it was hilarious.
And I didn't find that enjoyable.
I think I was freaked out.
My stage fright was like, what are they laughing at?
What have I done?
You know.
- Right.
- There is something being taxed in me.
Like, I'm used to physical taxation because of the way
that I work out and the things that I've pushed my body to.
But this is like a different level of physical,
mental, emotional-- like, there's
a vulnerability that's like, this is just crazy, right?
- Right.
When I saw you today, you weren't--
you looked focused.
You were running through in your head what you had to do.
I didn't see fear.
- Yeah. Yeah. I think it's because there's--
like, you know what I've had nothing but all day
every day is gratitude.
- They're quite a positive crew, aren't they?
- I want them around me all the time.
I just feel so grateful, so grateful.
It's, like, crazy.
And I hadn't expected that.
That's pretty unique.
And I don't know.
Because maybe it's just like I'm really close to death.
So I'm like, suddenly really grateful for life.
But, like, literally, I'm like, oh, man.
I'm so grateful for my life.
- If someone had said, this is going
to be the outcome of Orlando doing these things,
I'd be like, excellent.
- Right.
- That's growing up.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- I love that.
[serene music]
* *
- Can you hold this for a second?
I wanted to let you know, man, we now have completed
a special spot in skydiving.
You have your own logbook.
We're at 35 jumps.
- Wow.
- This book not only has your A license,
but it recognizes everything we did on every jump.
- The craziest part of this whole thing
is the time frame for me.
I just can't believe I met you two weeks ago,
and I'm now wingsuiting.
- Well, there's nobody that has done this progression.
You know, normally, you have to have 200 skydives to even
do your first wingsuit.
So this is like the first time that this has ever been done.
So it's a crazy--
- Pretty exciting, man.
- --crazy thing.
- [laughs] And my goal of this is that tomorrow we're going
to fly from the ocean out here, and we're going
to fly in to the beach.
- Does it affect anything in terms of the flight?
- Unless you land in the water, it shouldn't affect anything.
[laughter]
[upbeat music]
- I'm getting a sense about the community that you guys have.
What does it feel like on the inside of it?
Because how many people do this?
- Yeah.
It's like the land of misfit toys.
But the screws are loose in all the right ways, you know.
Something like that.
- Orlando, when you said your uncle Chris jumps,
I made one phone call to the UK, and I confirmed who he was
and that he was a skydiver.
That's how tight-knit the community is.
- Yeah.
My question for tomorrow is, how are you
going to judge how far out we should go,
because obviously, we're going
to be flying from out there.
- We've been staying just outside of your comfort
zone the whole time.
I want to be on the edge of my comfort zone,
which means we're going to get out as far away as we can
comfortably make the shore.
I'm not going to put you in danger.
I hope.
But you're going to come from the water.
You're going to have to make it to the land.
And that means a focus, good drive, efficient flying,
all the stuff that we worked on.
- Got it.
[pensive music]
* *
[dramatic music]
* *
- So if you look at this spot right here,
this yellow is about where we had our little bonfire.
We have this huge area of the beach for us to land on.
The beach is, like, 10 miles long.
But the wind is blowing onshore, meaning it's going
from the water to the land.
So we don't really have the full length of it, right?
We're going to kind of land this direction.
- So we're going to kind of come--
come in, come around, and then land facing the ocean.
- Yeah.
So now here's the really cool part.
This line is roughly 3 miles long.
- OK.
- We're going to open up the door at 13,000
feet above the ocean.
And we're going to be 3 miles out.
I'm going to look down.
But what's awesome is look at this airport right here.
This is where we are right now. - Uh huh.
- It's in perfect line.
So from our exit point, we're headed to the airport.
Just think about flying to the airport.
- OK. Great.
[dramatic music]
If you had to pull and then suddenly you're like land
in water, what do you do?
- I'm going to give you a flotation device.
It's going to be under your suit.
You just have to unzip your suit.
You pull this.
It inflates.
It helps float you.
So that's, like, a safety thing.
You land in the water, you swim away from the parachute.
Don't even think about it.
It's like an octopus, right?
All those lines and everything can tangle around you.
Don't try to save your gear.
Landing in the water is the worst possible scenario.
- Yeah. - It's serious.
I mean, you could die doing this stuff.
[dramatic music]
[horn honks]
* *
- Let's try to treat it like another jump.
But this is a little more intense.
- Yeah, yeah. Got it.
OK.
- Feeling good? - Yeah.
I mean, I'm--actually got butterflies this time.
- Me too.
- Based on this being the moment
that we'd been building up to, of course,
it's that, like, OK, how many things
can go wrong or not go wrong?
And there's all the variables.
There's this feeling in your stomach.
But I'm excited.
And I'm ready.
So trust the protocols.
Trust the gear.
And you know, trust that Luke knows what he's doing.
And then I'm ready for this.
- Fired up, huh?
- Whoo!
Last one.
- Clear prop.
[propellers whirring]
[dramatic music]
* *
- [chanting]
[exhales]
- Ahh! - [laughs]
- Oh, my gosh. - I was gonna say-- yeah.
- I'm going to open the door.
- Let's do it.
- Yeah. - Check in.
Check out.
Go.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Jumpers away.
Jumpers away.
* *
- Oh, my God.
Why am I so [bleep] nervous?
- You're not nervous. You're excited.
- Yeah!
[dramatic music]
* *
- Come on, Orlando.
- [whooping]
- That's a good parachute for Orlando,
good parachute for Orlando.
[serene music]
* *
- Ahh!
Whoo!
Ohh!
- Whoo!
- Oh, yeah!
- Oh, my God.
What a feeling!
- Dude!
[laughs] Welcome to my world here, man.
- Oh, I love you, bro.
I [bleep] love you.
- Oh, cool. Oh, I can't believe what we did.
Look out.
[both screaming]
- You did it!
Oh, my God.
- Congratulations. - I love you, man.
- Yeah, man. Good work.
Dude, Luke.
Yeah.
Killed it.
Right on.
- [bleep]. Tears of joy, baby.
Yeah.
We're alive.
And we did it. It's amazing.
It's like, wah!
- What did it feel like, flying over the ocean?
- It's like trusting in the universe,
trusting in your experience, trusting in everything
you've learned.
I guess it's a lesson in trust, isn't it?
I don't know. I'm still processing all of it.
But it's just like--
- You'll be processing it for a while, man.
- I'm alive.
- The daily "I'm alive" call.
- [laughs] Oh, my God.
I feel so lucky to be alive.
- I'm proud of you.
- I love you. - I love you so much.
[uplifting music]
* *