How Pros Prepare for a High-Stakes Building Jump (Full Transcript)

A veteran skydiver shares how years of experience and repeated rehearsal make complex team fly-through jumps feel controlled, not chaotic.
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[00:00:06] Speaker 1: How do you prepare a jump like this, mentally and physically? Well, the preparation started years and years ago. Obviously, I've been skydiving for like 20 years. I've been base jumping for 9, 10 years. So for the approach, we're just trying to fly it smooth and controlled so that the team can fly together. And we practice that a few times just from skydiving, so jumping out the plane up high. We get together, we fly. We kind of simulate how many seconds we're going to fly straight when the turn comes, when the dive at the building comes, just so that that's second nature, pretty much. Nick just dived down. He's about to go through. And there they go. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my. It was cool. It was flying through the glass, you know, having the reflection. It's like flying through a narcissistic funhouse. So it was great for us. How many jumps have you done? Skydives over 20,000 and probably about 3,000 base jumps. Does it ever get boring? Does it lose that feeling? I don't know. We don't get to fly through a building every day. So, no.

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Arow Summary
A veteran skydiver/base jumper explains how he prepares mentally and physically for a complex team jump through a building. Preparation is built over decades of experience and repeated practice runs from high-altitude skydives to rehearse formation flying, timing, turns, and the final dive so actions become second nature. He describes the unique sensation of flying through reflective glass and notes that despite tens of thousands of skydives and thousands of base jumps, rare jumps like this never feel boring.
Arow Title
Veteran jumper on training for a building fly-through
Arow Keywords
skydiving Remove
base jumping Remove
mental preparation Remove
physical preparation Remove
team formation flying Remove
rehearsal Remove
timing Remove
approach control Remove
high-altitude practice Remove
risk Remove
experience Remove
20,000 skydives Remove
3,000 base jumps Remove
building fly-through Remove
glass reflection Remove
Arow Key Takeaways
  • Preparation relies on long-term experience plus targeted rehearsal for specific jumps.
  • Teams practice smooth, controlled approaches and formation flying during regular skydives.
  • Key timings (straight flight, turn, dive) are simulated until they are automatic.
  • Unique environments (like flying through reflective glass) create novel sensations and keep the sport exciting.
  • Even highly experienced jumpers report that exceptional jumps do not become boring.
Arow Sentiments
Positive: The tone is excited and confident, emphasizing mastery through practice and the thrill of a rare, visually striking jump that remains engaging even after extensive experience.
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