In 1912 Frederick Law jumped from the Statue of Liberty in New York City and the modern-day sport of BASE-jumping was born. BASE, an acronym standing for the four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: Building, Antenna, Span and Earth, has been gaining in popularity recently and it was only ever a matter of time before its participants headed towards the wind turbines of the US … One has to see the inevitability of it all.
{pagebreak}
After all, a group of adrenaline junkies whose numbers have included a man who wanted to parachute from the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York, is hardly likely to think twice about scaling a mere 40-meter wind turbine before leaping into the unknown.
Yes, BASE-jumping is here and it’s probably coming to a wind turbine near you – or worse – owned by you, soon! Packing a parachute and hurling yourself from skyscrapers, mountains and bridges, “is living like a rock star”, said one reformed adrenaline junkie. BASE jumping is the adrenaline sport of parachuting from fixed objects and is an acronym that contains the major groups of objects these jumpers generally use: Building, Antenna, Span (bridge), and Earth.
It has traditionally been a highly furtive activity, carried out by a closed set of radical enthusiasts. The YouTube website seems to add to its growing database of BASE jumping videos on a daily basis and that can’t but increase awareness and thereby attract more potential recruits to the sport. Moreover, what is of special interest to PES is that it is an activity whose participants would seem to have the regularly-increasing battery of wind turbines throughout the US, firmly in their sights.
