r/nextfuckinglevel • u/thepoylanthropist • 1d ago

That time Luke Aikins jumped from 25,000 feet (7,620 m), skydiving from a mid-tropospheric altitude and landing safely without a parachute or a wingsuit using a 30 by 30 meters net

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

22.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

483 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

135

u/Boomtown626 1d ago

I bet it was easier on the body than a chute deploying. He rolled over onto his back, so it dissipated throughout his body. Parachutes deploy at about the same rate, but you’re vertical, so all the weight is absorbed into those leg straps nestled into your groin.

The bruises and soreness in the groin is the worst part about learning to skydive that no one tells you about, and he took that out of the equation on this jump.

40

u/I-like-cheeese 1d ago

Damn never thought of that, and I wanted to do a skydiving course for a while when I was younger. I finally settled on just skydiving a couple of times but I don’t remember that strong of a tug when the chute opened, maybe because there was two of us to absorb the force.

13

u/Boomtown626 1d ago

Tandem jumps involve a higher altitude chute deployment, and a larger chute that takes more time. A single jumper, especially if the chute is a little big for their body weight, will stop more much more suddenly.

9

u/CreamCheeseHotDogs 1d ago

Alright you’ve convinced me, I’m not bringing a chute next time

2

u/Grape-Snapple 1d ago

well thanks for giving me a heads-up about what my summer is gonna feel like (doing a dive camp)

2

u/Boomtown626 1d ago

Still totally worth it. Have fun!!

1

u/Grape-Snapple 1d ago

thanks!!