Sunshine Superman Page #7

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It was driving me crazy.

It'd take half the day to get up

to the top of the cliff, right?

And I thought he was just lazy.

And finally there's a little stone hut

that you can sort of take shelter in

on your way up.

And we got about halfway up

and we got to the stone hut

and it started raining

so we had to actually go in this hut.

We went in this hut. We're sitting down

and Carl's rubbing his leg.

I go, "What's going on?

What's up, Carl?"

And he pulls his pant leg up

and his leg has this...

The bone goes down like this

and takes this jog.

I'm like,

"Carl what's going on with that leg?"

And it turned out he'd broken his leg.

He'd broken his leg hang gliding

a couple years before.

And he'd never got it set

because he's a Christian Scientist.

I didn't know anything

about any of that.

I believe that there's a law

and order to the universe.

Some people call it God.

I don't care what you call it.

I just know that mathematics

never fails us.

If we get the wrong answer,

we didn't apply something correctly.

Nothing happens by chance.

Every single thing that ever happens,

happens for a reason.

Happens due to the law of the universe.

One of the things I kept looking for

was someplace that was

cantilevered out like that.

So we found this thing,

Stabben pinnacle.

We get to the top and

there's a bunch of big boulders around.

What you do is you do

what's called a rock test.

And what you want

is something that falls

somewhere between 15 and 20 seconds

before it hits the wall.

The whole thing with BASE jumping

is you don't want to hit the wall.

That's what's going to kill you.

Fred and I pushed ten rocks

off the top of Stabben pinnacle

and they all hit between

three and five seconds.

Every time.

We did the rock test

and immediately ruled that out

as something we would do.

Carl goes, "No, it's too dangerous.

It doesn't give it enough time."

There was quite a lot of people

because it was a big team

and they had all the helicopters.

So it was both local people that was

going up to see what was going on

and there was a lot of tourists

that were stopping because of the

helicopter traffic that was going on.

It was a big event in Europe also.

So news teams

from all over Europe were here

waiting for this thing to happen.

I mean, it was a zoo.

I was hoping to be able to do this thing

sort of on a low profile.

But by the time the thing finally

happened, it was no secret to anybody.

The Boenishes were both...

Well, Jean, it was hard to tell

because she seemingly never got

excited about anything.

But Carl was coming out of his skin.

You know, like uncontainable enthusiasm.

This is a celebration of

the human spirit

and thank you for bringing

your spirits too.

Take a shot of Jean and me

and the crowd.

Put it on Infinity.

You have it on Infinity?

OK, look at the camera.

No, it's the other button.

I mean, it's like a geyser,

you know? Just like Old Faithful.

The day prior to when

we really got the thing on film,

he had done the jump basically

at night already, and done it perfectly.

So we knew that everything

was going to be perfect.

As soon as the sun comes up,

he can do this jump.

We're going to get it a couple times

so we got it covered,

then we're out of there.

Carl's enthusiasm was so high,

everybody was really high on this thing.

Remember, BASE jumping had never been

filmed on any kind of big scale.

It was little teeny 16mm documentaries

that people showed

on their bathroom wall.

And a huge network television crew

had swooped in here

with an internationally famous star,

David Frost.

He was the host

of The Guinness Book of World Records

and all this hoopla right?

And, boom, we have six cameras.

I think Boenish had another couple

cameras. We had cameras everywhere.

This is going to be a big event.

Everything was going great.

Everybody was enthusiastic.

It was sort of a big thing.

Then we got up, the sun was perfect.

It was a perfect bluebird day.

That was lucky enough.

We got everybody in position

in a matter of a couple hours.

They're getting ready now.

The Boenishes approaching

the jumping off spot, coming out there.

And the pilot is doing a fantastic job.

It's very difficult right there.

He seems to be balancing that helicopter

almost on one skid.

And there are the Boenishes over there.

There they are.

Perched on that very, very tiny outcrop.

Now with the help of our key mountain

climber, cameraman as well,

they're making their final

equipment checks.

Thirty seconds.

Are you ready?

- Twenty seconds.

- Twenty seconds.

Ten seconds.

Are you ready?

Five, four, three, two, one, go!

- Congratulations.

- Thank you very much.

Let's find Carl now.

He's a little behind.

He was very enthusiastic.

There he is.

Alright! Perfect landing!

He was always enthusiastic

about all of his projects.

Particularly after a jump was finished

or the film was in the can.

Terrific. Congratulations.

- Thank you very much.

- That really excited him.

It was exciting. Wow. Wow.

That's a jump of a lifetime.

Well, did you see how much lift

this big parachute has?

- I was staying up forever.

- Listen, just by landing safely,

that means you have set now

a new world's record for BASE jumping.

Norris, do you have the exact figures?

At least 400 feet further

than any other BASE jump in history.

And the speed,

because you deployed so late,

it was like flashing through

a 20-story building in one second.

Carl was really enthusiastic

about having finished the jumps.

To see that wall rushing by.

Man, we loved it.

And for Carl, too, to have been able

to make a record jump.

It was like, "Let's get out of here

before the mountain falls on top of us."

I just had this feeling of doom

hanging over something

that was potentially that sketchy.

So the moment they are over,

as though retroactively

something could happen,

and combined with the fact

that that was the last piece

that we needed to do on the show,

both of those combined and in concert

gave everybody a reason to get...

It put jet underneath everybody.

They were gone. Barn! Out of there.

After our record jumps,

we were both really tired

because we had been up for

a number of days with very little sleep.

Particularly

in the last 24 hours or more.

It was one o'clock in the morning

and it was not dark.

We really had a great deal of difficulty

in this midnight sun situation.

We had a short night that night.

I was...

...tired from the jumps the day before.

And I told him I was going to sleep in

and he had decided he wanted

to go and jump the Bruraskaret

which was the normally jumped site,

so I didn't think much of it.

But I was grousing a bit.

"You're tired. Why don't you stay?"

"Why do you have

to go do this right now,

right today, when you're tired?

Stay here and sleep."

That morning that Carl left for the jump

as I was lying in bed,

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