Stunt Junkies: Jimmy Pouchert: Reverse Bungee BASE Jump

Stunt Junkies
Reverse Bungee BASE Jump
Jimmy Pouchert

TMBA is the New York animation studio that created the "physics behind the stunts" animations for Discovery Channels "Stunt Junkies" TV show. In this episode bungee jumper Jimmy Pouchert performs a 1000 ft reverse bungee jump into a BASE jump at the highest suspension bridge in the United States.

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Jimmy Pouchert
Reverse Bungee Base Jump
Stunt Junkies

The only thing that I can say about Jeremy Pouchert's stunt is that it was amazing. Personally, it was one of the most stressful shows that I have ever been on.

The team that Jimmy had put together to do this reverse-bungee BASE jump was remarkable. They had definitely done their homework, and from preparation to testing to execution of the stunt, they were flawless. But this was a very dangerous stunt with no room for error, and every day we showed up on set was a day that somebody could get seriously hurt or killed.

As the week went on with the weather constantly threatening, Jimmy and his crew persevered. And on stunt day, with rain coming down and the temperature dropping, Jimmy accomplished the stunt successfully.

Jimmy has been a friend of mine for over 10 years, so I was especially excited to see him and to watch the stunt he had put together: a reverse bungee mixed in with BASE jumping at the highest suspension bridge in the states. We first met at the Auburn Bridge in Northern California, along with Jimmy's stunt coordinator Marty Tilley.

We went to the bridge to do a couple of jumps and to test the reverse bungee system. Jimmy had brought in professional bungee expert Doug Frutose, who has logged over 3,000 bungee jumps off nearly everything you can imagine. I was quickly impressed by the complexity of the system and how the crew worked seamlessly together.

The amount of gear and hardware was hard to believe, but in no time we were watching the crew hook up the bungees to the bridge and lower them to the ground. They strapped in a set of tires weighing around 200 pounds to the system and tested the line with a pressure gauge, as well as hooked up a dual three-ring cutaway system crafted by Marty.

When everything was set, they cut the tires away and off they went. They would add and subtract bungee cables to either increase or decrease the pressure. By the end of the day, they got the pressure correct and Doug agreed to get strapped in.

When he cut the system away, up, up and away he went! You could tell by watching his body fling through the air that it would be easy to break your neck if things weren't just right. Once the tests were out of the way, it was off to Colorado to the Royal Gorge Bridge.

The guys wasted no time getting the impressive bridge equipped with the bungee system. Jimmy and a couple "test" jumpers got over the rail and BASE jumped off the bridge. Everything looked fantastic until one of the jumpers made some bad decisions and had an extremely bad landing. Broken but OK, we got the injured jumper to safety.

Everyone kept their cool and continued with the job at hand, and by the end of the day, the stunt was ready. The only trouble was weather was also on the way. In the morning, the weather wasn't looking too good. With rain on the way, we did one last test with Doug on the bungee.

Everything went well and as the rain started to fall Jimmy made the call to go for it. He got set and before we knew it, he was being shot straight up into the sky! He cut away from the bungee, got his position, made a cool "wooosh," and deployed his chute.

Perfect opening and excellent landing! The stunt was probably the coolest one I've seen â€" truly exciting and one for the books.

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BASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E jumping, is an activity that employs an initially packed parachute to jump from fixed objects, as with paragliding. "B.A.S.E." is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antennae, spans (bridge), and earth (cliff).

BASE jumping grew out of skydiving. BASE jumps are generally made from much lower altitudes than skydives, and a BASE jump takes place close to the object serving as the jump platform. Because BASE jumps generally entail slower airspeeds than typical skydives (due to the limited altitude), a BASE jumper rarely achieves terminal velocity. Because higher airspeeds enable jumpers more aerodynamic control of their bodies, as well as more positive and quick parachute openings, the longer the delay, the better.

Skydivers use the air flow to stabilize their position, allowing the parachute to deploy cleanly. BASE jumpers, falling at lower speeds, have less aerodynamic control, and may tumble. The attitude of the body at the moment of jumping determines the stability of flight in the first few seconds, before sufficient airspeed has built up to enable aerodynamic stability.

On low BASE jumps, parachute deployment takes place during this early phase of flight, so if a poor "launch" leads into a tumble, the jumper may not be able to correct this before the opening. If the parachute is deployed while the jumper is tumbling, there is a high risk of entanglement or malfunction. The jumper may also not be facing the right direction. Such an off-heading opening is not as problematic in skydiving, but an off-heading opening that results in object strike has caused many serious injuries and deaths in BASE jumping (wiki/BASE_jumping)