Professional base jumper Jeb Corliss is due out of the hospital Friday and Tuesday released comprehensive video of the accident that broke both his legs and came within feet of taking his life when he clipped a rock formation at roughly 180 mph. The accident happened last month while Corliss was filming a jump for a TV documentary at Table Mountain in South Africa. Corliss cleared the rock formation with his upper body, but his legs hit. The contact significantly changed Corliss' trajectory causing him to nearly tumble but he quickly recovered and deployed his parachute. Multiple cameras placed on the ground, on a trailing wingsuiter and on Corliss himself captured the flight and the impact. Click through for video.

After landing under canopy, Corliss was recovered and airlifted to Christiaan Barnaard Hospital in Cape Town. A spokesperson for the hospital said Corliss' injuries required extensive surgery, and skin grafts that have kept him in the hospital under observation. Corliss has previously made successful jumps including one from the Eiffel Tower and another from the Christ the Redeemer stature at Rio de Janeiro and another from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. He is reportedly banned from New York's Empire State Building. Corliss' video of a jump that he performed along a section of the alps has earned more than 1.75 million views online since late 2010. Aside from landmark jumps, Corliss had set his sights on another goal -- to land a wingsuit without deploying a parachute. According to the Cape Times, Corliss sent a message from his bed in the hospital, stating simply, "I feel better than I've ever felt." His video thanks those who cared for him after he was recovered.

Ah man, you beat me to it. I saw this first thing this morning and have been trying to get a minute to post it. My title was going to be, "ALMOST missed it by that much!"

Not too long ago we were all watching that video out of China. My friend and I were watching it and commenting on if they ever miscalculated, that would be it!

Corlilss said he was trying to kick the black balloon. And yes, he admits how stupid a thing that was to do.

Hitting as hard as he did (he hit his foot on the rock, breaking both legs), I'm amazed he was able to pull it together, stabilize, and deploy his chute. World class composure/skill/instinct, IMHO.

It has been widely debated whether he is brilliant/crazy/stupid, etc., etc. for the flights he makes. I have no answer to those questions, but I would be interested to know what design mods he had to make to his wingsuit to account for those enormous brass balls...

To paraphrase the late Alex Lowe, there's not enough luck in this world and this time he got someone elses.

Glad he survived. I hope, for his sake, he backs off a little on flying close to terrain.

That is one cool customer. Focus, deal with problem at hand. Ignore the rest. Yeah!!!!

Gump

About as close as you can come to SPLAT!

I want to do this so bad, it is kick ass

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Mongo wrote:I want to do this so bad, it is kick ass

Break both you legs jumping off a cliff??

RanchPilot wrote:
It has been widely debated whether he is brilliant/crazy/stupid, etc., etc. for the flights he makes. I have no answer to those questions, but I would be interested to know what design mods he had to make to his wingsuit to account for those enormous brass balls...

no debate in my mind.

This is brilliant, crazy, and stupid.

Effin brilliant.

Unbelievable. Crazy. Stunning control to keep it together as well as he did.

Wonder if this guy is a relative - if so, he got all the brass ones in the family.

highlanderninerkc[orliss]

To be honest the next thread I expected to see on this guy was he was toast. Coming from another adrenaline junkie he's a mosquito flying within inches of a 30ft bonfire. Makes the gnarliest off airport landing I've ever done seem like a diaper change. I've hiked table mountain up and down and it's not nearly as vertical as the stuff they normally do.

The old saying: "if it don't kill you, it was fun" certainly applies here. He is really pushing the limit for a little thrill and won't live long if he keeps this up...
Having done my share of skydiving and suffered a broken leg doing it, I know the pain and long rehab should be enough for him to rethink this activity. AND he has not one but TWO broken legs. Man, that's got to hurt!

AvidFlyer wrote:To be honest the next thread I expected to see on this guy was he was toast.

AvidFlyer wrote:To be honest the next thread I expected to see on this guy was he was toast.

Let's see...you aim at the rocks with an expected clearance of about 3-4 inches. At 185 MPH. It's only a matter of time.

It's only a matter of time for all of us. The only thing we get to choose is how we live while we're here.

Reasonable minds can differ about whether this is brilliant, crazy, or stupid (or all three), but IMHO it is guys like this who redefine the boundaries and show us what we are capable of.

Imagine what they said about all those nuts who were strapping wings in their backs in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Lots of those guys hit the ground too, but thank God they were willing to try.

Somtimes the size of the nads is indirectly proportional to the size of the brain. Kind of like the ratio of teeth to tatoos in Wal Mart.

No different than "Hey Buck, wanna see somthin neat" Just that he has more fans.

Tim

RanchPilot wrote:It's only a matter of time for all of us. The only thing we get to choose is how we live while we're here.

Reasonable minds can differ about whether this is brilliant, crazy, or stupid (or all three), but IMHO it is guys like this who redefine the boundaries and show us what we are capable of.

Imagine what they said about all those nuts who were strapping wings in their backs in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Lots of those guys hit the ground too, but thank God they were willing to try.

I agree 100%.

I have been run over and caught on fire while doing pitstops in Indy car racing which had me laid up for quite a while, I still do it every weekend becuase it is awsome.

I want a wing suit.

It is just like flying, if there wasn't aerobatics or crazy off airport stuff I would have been board stiff and got out of it in 6 months. Going Mach 3 at 80000 feet gets boring real quick I would imagine, but go 180 next to a mountain so you actually have a sense of the speed, and its a whole new ball game.

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Here is one of my buddies, he was just about scalped, when he came to in the chopper the doctor had his entire hand inside his scalp.