dimanche 26 octobre 2014

Kuala Lumpur Tower Base 2014 Video.

Here my video of the Menara Tower Base boogie 2014. Reviewing all these videos was really nice. We had such a good time. I would like to thanks everybody who shared jumps with me and made this event unforgettable.

Another big thank you to Inglewood Burgers and Stay X Cold Clothing for the support on this trip.

Enjoy the video !


vendredi 3 octobre 2014

Kuala Lumpur Menara Tower Boogie Final Report

I'm sorry that I didn't write anymore report after the day 3. We started to jump on day 4 and I have to say that the motto of the event "Eat, Sleep, Base Jump, Repeat" was tottaly right. We made nothing apart jumping, eating and sleeping. Ho yes one thing, packing between jumps.

It would be too long to tell you about every jump as I made 34. This boogie was incredible form the begining to the end, the organisation, jumpers, staff, viewers even the object it self, the Menara Tower, was perfect. I could try many kind of stuff that I never tried before like floater and back exit, gainers, two way, three way, hanging exits and even Extreme Barbichette (see video) !

We are really lucky to have an event like this where we are treated like kings to jump a building. I would like to thanks all the organisation, staff and my jumping buddies who made this trip unforgettable  . It was a kid dream for me to jump form this tower and now I realized it. I hope to make it back sometime !

Here are some pictures and the first short video out of my footages. I will edit a longer video later with all the crazy stuff I filmed. 


Gainer exit !

Gainer.
Trying a "High five to gainer" with Jean-Phi.
Two way gainer with Luc.

Back exit.

Head up / Head down.
The crew !


jeudi 25 septembre 2014

Kuala Lumpur Menara Tower Boogie Daily Report : Day 3

Third day, briefing day. 

We arrived at the Menara Tower at 9am this morning. Everybody was pretty exited to climb to the top of the tower and have a first look of the place. The view from the top, on the city skyline and the  Petronas Twin Towers is incredible. I had some memories of my visit as a kid in the tower but in reality it's much better. 

Kuala Lumpur Skyline

After everybody registered and got their event t-shirts we started the briefing. Gary Cunningham an Australian base jump veteran gave us all the informations we need to jump safely. We had a review of different incidents that happened in the past years to try to avoid the same errors. 

Briefing
The press was also there. A good part of the day was also dedicated to an official opening ceremony with different authorities. We had a small "press conference" and group photo. It was pretty funny to see all this photographers here for us. 

Official opening ceremony
Feeling like a rockstar !
The afternoon we had two briefings, one about aerials and one about the pendulum rope. As I want to try some gainers, it was really interesting to have tips from Douggs. I don't know if I will try the pendulum rope jump this year as it seems a bit tricky. Maybe after a few days of practicing gainers. 

Everything ended around 4pm, I decided to show the biggest mall in town to my buddies. The mall is so huge that it even has a roller coaster inside. We couldn't resist to take a few ride on it and on some of the other attractions. We definitely know where we will go if we can not jump next days ;-)

Feeling like kids !
Thanks for reading and sorry if there is some spelling mistakes. I'm really tired and tomorrow is a big day so we are all looking forward to go to sleep. 

Tomorrow is jumping day !!








mercredi 24 septembre 2014

Kuala Lumpur Menara Tower Boogie Daily Report : Day 2

Second day in Kuala Lumpur.

I had a nice "grasse matinée" and woke up around 10am. I decided to go for a big tour in town. I started by going to Butik Bintang. It's a crazy street full of malls and shopping centers. 

Butik Bintang
I spent a couple hours around there then realized that I never visited the area called Brickfields. It's a small part of the city near the Central train station. I discovered a nice neighborhood full of life with many indian shops and restaurants. After a small lunch in a great vegetarian restaurant, I had a nice walk around and met two indian guys who want to open a backpacker hotel. They invited me to visit the place and asked me what was my opinion on it. It was pretty funny to play the "expert". After that I went to the big mall next to the train station to take a bit of fresh air. As the weather is really warm and humid, malls are always a good plan to refresh yourself. Even if most of them have the same stupid shops. 

Brickfields
A good vegetarian restaurant in Brickfields if you ever go there.
On the way back, I passed by one of my favorite street in KL, Lebuh Ampang. The street has beautiful old houses all painted in different colors. It's also another part of the city that as a lot of indian influences. You can find there many good vegetarian restaurants. 

Lebuh Ampang 

A nice old house
Tonight I wanted to join other basejumpers in chinatown to eat something but it started to rain like hell so everybody went back to their hotel. My friends Bras Noir, Jean-Phi and Luc should arrive soon. 

That's it for today, tomorrow is briefing day ! 

Thanks for reading and sorry for the bad quality of the pictures my phone is not really good at it. 

mardi 23 septembre 2014

Kuala Lumpur Menara Tower Boogie Daily Report : Day 1

I'm going to try to write a short report everyday of my trip to the KL Menara Tower boogie. I will stay brief on my report as I don't know how many time I will have to write them.

 I just arrived today at 3pm. The flights have been good. No bad surprises, good food and I could even sleep well on the second flight form Dubai to Kuala Lumpur. I was happy to see that all my baggages followed me. I checked in at the Hotel, had a shower and went for a walk in Chinatown. It feels so good to be back here. I really like KL, it's one of the most multicultural city I visited. You can feel influences form all asia and people living together no matter where they are from or what god they believe in. I had a nice veggie noodle soup and now I'm back at the hotel. I'm going to chill a bit and go to bed early. Tomorrow evening some buddies from Switzerland and France will arrive. I will take the day to walk around the city.

More pictures tomorrow !

I would like also to thanks Inglewood Burgers and StayxCold Straight Edge Clothing for the support !

The view from the Hotel with the Menara Tower we are going to jump from.


An Indu temple in Chinatown. 

mercredi 27 août 2014

Documentary filming.

Last week I've been filming with David Wagnières. He is realizing a documentary about base jumping as final project for his studies. The two days he was assisted by a couple of his friends. I decided to bring them first to the Croix de Fer, the great jump with an amazing end over a waterfall. It's a nice place to bring people who can hike a bit and would like to watch us jump. The hike takes about 1h30. We were also joined by Don, an american base jumper traveling in europe. The conditions were perfect and the jump was great. During the flight I spotted two people on a bench and I couldn't resist to offer the a little flyby. I would like to apologize to them if they were scared ;-) Here is some screen shots of what we filmed.

Ready to hike !

Briefing
On the exit.
Ready to fly.
Relaxing hikers (bottom left on a bench) and a wingsuit flyer.
After Croix de Fer we went to Chamonix hoping to film one more jump. Unfortunately the wind was too strong so we decided to film the interview part. We came back the next day to film the jump. David edited a short video of the exit, check it out ! 

I m nearly done with the editing of another short video filmed in Chamonix. A kind of "presentation" of my new sponsor StayXCold, it should be out in the beginning of next week.

Thanks for reading.

Trying to look serious during the interview.
Jumping the Brévent with the Mont Blanc in back ground. 

vendredi 8 août 2014

New sponsor and rainy days.

To start with a good news !

I am glad to introduce my new sponsor, Stay Cold Straight Edge. A great straight edge, vegan clothing brand from Germany. I chose this lifestyle more than ten years ago and I'm proud to represent it with them ! Go and check their stuff !

Stay Cold Straight Edge
On another hand the weather has been really bad those last two weeks. I could only jump on these last few days. 

First I went with my friend Stephane to the Vuardes. I think last time I made this jump was last spring. It was good to jump it again. We flew the left line and I could realize the evolution I made in my V5 comparing to last time. 

Vuardes' left line.
Yesterday I made a couple of jump off the Brevent. The conditions were perfect on the morning. I could keep working on some lines and trying to be more aggressive in my turns. The wind started to pick up in the afternoon and clouds arrived. No more jumping for that day. I hope the weather will be better this august.

Brevent flight with a nice view on the Mont Blanc. 
The end this article I just want to let you know that I started a facebook profile, if you wanna check it out it's just HERE. Thanks for reading !

dimanche 27 juillet 2014

Wingsuit in Chamonix

This is a short video edited by my friend Erwan Madoré. We worked on some nice lines on the Brevent  last week. He made a really great camera work ! Here is what came out of the session !

Enjoy and don't hesitate to tell me what you think of it !


mercredi 16 juillet 2014

Tallinn !

Back from Tallinn it's time for a little review of the trip !

I arrived in Tallinn late night on the 8th. The arrival was quite strange as at 01:00 I could still see some sun shinning over the horizon. I never experienced the night sun before. When I arrived at the hotel the people I was sharing the room with were already sleeping. I had a bit of sleep to be in shape for the beginning of the event the next day. 

Waking up I met the guys that shared the room with me, Sepp and Tobi two germans. Sepp was the boogie safety officer. We head to the tower through the street of Tallinn to get a bit outside of the city. There we discovered this great 175m high tower welcoming us in the sun. The place is perfect for base jumping, great overhang building and big landing area. We had a safety briefing by Sepp and the organizer. Everybody was feeling like little children with a new toy I guess, at least I was ! 

The tower !
After the briefing we finally took the elevator to the top, a thing I'm not used to. I usually hike for hours before a jump, here you just have to push a button ! The top of the tower is really nice with a restaurant and we can jump from different direction depending on the wind. We could jump from 11:00 to 17:30 on the first day. I made 4 jumps, 3 solos to get into it as I'm normally not jumping a lot slider down (low stuff) and a nice two way in the end of the day !

Waiting in a line.
On the edge, ready to jump.
Just landed. 
The second day was unfortunately too windy to jump. As Tallinn is close to the sea the wind can be really strong. At 12:00 the decision was made to cancel the jump for today. We spend the day visiting and relaxing in the city. 

Estonian tuk-tuk ride !
Tallin old town.
The third and last day was also announced windy but with a window to jump in the morning. We arrived at the tower earlier than the other days and started to jump at 09:00. Everybody was trying to jump as much as possible before the wind comes back. I could jump twice. A Two way following Schidi doing a gainer exit and another two way with Leo. It was fun to feel the difference in comfort between me and most of the guys that were jumping there. For me 175 meters is low as I mostly jump off cliffs but for the others it was high and it was nice to see them doing aerials and crazy stuff. 

Two way with Leo (Photo by Leo)

This was my first base jumping event and it was a blast ! Meeting all these jumpers from all around the world and sharing some great time together, I'm already looking forward for Kuala Lumpur ! 

I would like to thanks all the organizers and Inglewood Burgers for the support on this trip !

Here is a short video I made of the event. I hope you will enjoy it !

jeudi 3 juillet 2014

From sad news to good news.

The last month has been quite strange. It started with a sad news. I lost one of my closest flying friend in a wingsuit accident. We started base jumping pretty much in the same time and now from one day to another he is gone. This is the dark side of base jumping. It's one of the sport that gives you the most but can also be really hard on you, your family, friends and relatives.  

Rest in peace.
After an event like this there is always thousand of questions that pop up in your head. Is it really worth it ? Should I quit jumping ? What will happen if .... ? But after all that questioning I always comeback with one feeling. A feeling that is too hard to describe and that many people can't understand. I can't quit, at least not for the moment. This incredible feeling you have when you spend all this time in the mountains, jumping and flying with friends, it's freedom. Base jumping and wingsuit flying are the two moments when I feel totally free. No rules, only your limits, no body to tell you what to do or don't, total freedom. 

After the bad news, I decided to keep on jumping as soon as possible and spends some amazing days in the mountains. The summer is finally here ! It's so good to spend hours in the nature again and flying over some green landscapes. I went to many different jumps, Sans Bet, Varan, Criou also Croix de Fer that I jumped three years ago and that didn't let me a good feeling. I was quite worried on the top of the jump but this jump is actually incredible ! There is a beautiful line to fly over the cottages and that end straight over a waterfall. That was definitely one of the most epic view I had in flight. 

Erwan M. , Roch M. and Julien C. on Croix de Fer exit.
One of the most epic view I've seen in flight. 
All those jumps, all those feelings, all this time spend in the wild with friends reinforced me in my decision to keep on flying and jumping. I'm sure my friend is still flying and keeping an eye on us. 
Fly free brother.  

After that tough news I also got an incredible news. I sent my application to participate to the famous Kuala Lumpur Tower Base Boogie and I've been accepted. I visited the Menara Tower (the tower we jump from) when I was a kid while traveling with my parents. Since then it has been a dream for me to take part to this event. The dream will come true this september ! 

A dream coming true ! 
Check out this great video of the 2012 event by the Soul Flyers !



Next week I'm heading to Tallinn, Estonia for the TV Tower boogie. I will write a report when I'm back.

Until then, take care ! 




lundi 19 mai 2014

California !

The two weeks in California were a blast ! Let's have a little look back at it.

My skydiving school organized a trip to Perris Valley, California this year. I thought I would be a good thing for me to go there and train on my new wingsuit. Skydiving is not the best place to work on performances but the best environment to play and get comfortable with a suit. 

We flew to Los Angeles and drove a few hours to get to Skydive Perris. The place was a bit lost but a nice friendly and welcoming dropzone. I meet there Josh and Darren the wingsuit load organizers. We had a lot of fun chasing each other and flocking in the sky. I made around 55 skydives on this trip. A few of them were also tracking jumps and funny RW jumps with friends from my club. 

Some 3D flocking over California.
Dave Eaton exiting right before me.
Sunset load with Josh Sheppard.
A few tracking jump.
Some funny RW.
Californian sunset over Skydive Perris.
We had a few too windy days so we could have a quick road trip to San Diego and Oceanside. This part of the coast is amazing. I really felt like in a movie, surfers and great beaches all the way. We also spent the last day in LA. We had to take our plane in the end of the afternoon so it was a really fast visit on Hollywood Blvd and Venice beach.

--

Back home, we could make two jumps in Sans Bet last week. I was feeling much better in my suit. The USA trip was definitely worth it ! In another hand the weather sucks right now around Geneva. The snow is back in the mountains and there is so much wind. I hope for a better weather next week and I will send a few days around Samöens. 

I also had a nice invitation last week. I will participate the the Tallinn TV Tower Boogie this year. I've never been in Estonia so I'm really looking forward for it !


To end this article here is a short video form a local TV. They followed my friends Bras Noir, Pierre F. , Jean-Mi and myself for a jump in Magland just before I left for the USA. The result is really nice ! 


dimanche 6 avril 2014

Back home !


I'm back in Switzerland after an amazing trip around south east asia with my girlfriend.

We started by discovering Cambodia. A beautiful country with some of the most gentle people I ever meet. Cambodia history is crazy, they were an incredible strong place for centuries under the Khmer reign. We could visit the ruins of Angkor and all the temples around. Later in history, Cambodia became much darker. The Khmer Rouge destroyed and starved the country in their madness. The most incredible thing is that today Cambodian people are the friendliest people you can find, always smiling and ready to help you. After Angkor's ruins we went in the north, to the Mondolkiri province. We had the chance to make a two days trek in the jungle to learn more about elephants life and the jungle around. If you are interested, check out The Mondulkiri Project

Beng Mealea temple, Cambodia.
Beng Mealea temple, Cambodia.

Part of Angkor Vat temple, Cambodia. 
Sculptures in a temple, Cambodia.
Kids fishing, Cambodia.
Elephant in the jungle, Cambodia.
Laos was our second stop. We spend a few days in Pakse and drove around the local coffee farm with a motorbike. Then as we heard about a climbing place more north we took the bus to Thakek. We discovered Green Climbers Home, a climber paradise. After climbing for a week we moved to Luang Prapang and then Thailand where we spend a couple day in Chiang Mai before moving to Ton Sai. 

Climbing in Thakek, Laos
Monks in Laos
Ton Sai is another great place to climb but also a good place to chill on the beach and do some .... base jumping. I traveled without my rig as we were backpacking but I meet some crazy russian lads that generously lend me a rig. Thanks to Stanislav, check out his work with the Sinner Team crashing the boundaries between body modification, suspension, climbing, rope jumping and base jumping ! 

Jumping in Ton Sai, Thailand.
Jumping in Ton Sai Thailand.
After Ton Sai we moved to Malaysia where we had some nice snorkeling time. We also went to Kuala Lumpur wind tunnel. My girlfriend had only a tandem skydive and she always wanted to try this. I'm not a big tunnel guy, I spend about 20 mins in a tunnel a few years ago in Eloy (USA). As it's one of the cheapest tunnel in the world we took half an hour each and we had a really great time ! I had fun flying on my belly and also worked on my back flying. My girlfriend could fly alone on her belly, make 360° and up and down after 30 mins. She kicked asses and even tried back flying ! I'm going to edit a small video of our trip. I will post it later. 

Snorkeling with a turtle in Malaysia.
Batu Caves, Malaysia.
My girlfriend trying backflying in Genting Windtunnel.
 Our coach and myself in Genting Windtunnel. 

Now we are back home for a week. Even if traveling was great I'm happy to be back in the mountains.  I already made some good wingsuit base form the Belvèdere and Brevent. A couple of really nice two way and three way with some mates. Unfortunately there too much snow in the mountain to go somewhere else.

Three way exit off Brevent with Erwan Madoré and David Bugnion.
I have one more week before flying to the USA. I'm going to spend 2 weeks in Skydive Perris Valley to train and get ready for the base jumping season. 

Thanks for reading and by the way I started an account on Instagram now. You can follow me  at this address :  http://instagram.com/base_life