ESPN’s X Games may have a new competition to add to the list of events in the near future if Miles Daisher has anything to say about it.
Daisher, the world’s leading B.A.S.E. jumper and skydiver, is the brain behind America’s newest extreme sport, skyaking.
On the surface, combining skydiving with kayaking would appear to be an unlikely match. But Daisher has taken the two to form what may be the most dangerous of any extreme sport.
Unable to convince anyone to allow him to jump off an airplane seated in a kayak (wonder why), Daisher started jumping off static objects. His first jump was off a bridge on the Feather River in California.
A year later, he made his first jump off an airplane and has spent the past several years perfecting his technique.
Daisher says the sport is quite tricky (really?) and one in which a lot could go wrong (really?!).
Unlike skydiving, where the jumper opens the parachute, in skyaking the parachute strings are automatically pulled by a static line that is attached to the object being jumped off.
Daisher says that while in skydiving he pulls his chute open at about 2,000 feet, he sets it to open at 5,000 feet during skyaking so that he has more time to get situated for the final drop in the water.
Thanks to the weight of the kayak, the pace at which he comes down is much slower, about 98 mph, as opposed to 120 mph in B.A.S.E. jumping, or 160 to 180 mph for skydiving.
The latest jumps were performed over California’s Lake Tahoe for the new 3D movie ‘Human Flight’, featuring the world’s most talented free fliers.
Watch this video of Daisher performing his skyaking technique.
