SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - I cannot think of a worse nightmare then this happening on your first parachute jump. Both the chute and the reserve chute fail to open correctly. The student is prepared by the instructor for a hard hitting landing by positioning knees together as they spin dramatically towards the ground.

I won’t spoil the ending, but there’s bone crunching arrrrgh noises.

Knew you’d enjoy that.

-Robin.

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Here’s some more of these flying maniacs in wingsuits, this guy is known as “The Dude” (full post coming tomorrow on landing without a parachute (thanks to reader tipoff). These videos are incredible. Absolutely incredible.

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Follow Tango & Cash the NI MTB Boys in their latest adventure, To Err-igal is Human.

The mighty Mount Errigal, County Donegal. Basically a big 750-metre-high wobbly peat trifle with granite crushed nuts on top. We always wanted to have a crack at it on/with the bikes, so we departed Antrim at 5:40am on Saturday 15 December 2007, to climb the mountain.

We knew it was a carry to the top, so we padded the top- and down-tubes with pipe lagging from B&Q. It’s a good idea if you are going to be carrying for a long period.

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MS “Beluga SkySails” is the worlds first tanker to be towed by kite. The kite is 160m sq.

Ship christening of the worldwide first cargo ship with SkySails-System took place at the Hamburger Landungsbrücken/Überseebrücke on December 15th, 2007 – Milestone regarding the use of environmentally sound propulsion technologies at sea.

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The Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival starts tonight in Switzerland. Love that event. Above is one of my photos from 2004 when I watched Ines Papart win first place.

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How not to launch an RNLI lifeboat from the beach. The on-shore wind blew this English crew back onto the beach, for a minute it looks like they weren’t going to get away. Massive seas. Watch this video. (Thanks diverman).

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All climbing have a great video of Will Gadd ice climbing icebergs from waterlevel. Massive icebergs too! Iceberg-oldering anyone?

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Adventure Race World Series has been announced in Ireland for June 14-21 2008. Location is South West and more details are available from Jan 11th.

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-Robin-

BANGKOK, THAILAND (Team Geared Up) - So our incredible “When does Base Jumping Get Too Dangerous” post when viral, hi UKClimbing.com, hi AcidDog Forums, hi others! You brought a lot of traffic! Based on this obsessing, I’ve done a Top 5 worst Base Jumping Accidents videos to join our Top 5 Mountain Biking Crashes, Top 5 Bungy Jump Accidents & Top 5 Snowboarding Alternative Crashes.

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At #5 - When your mate opens their chute underneath you - it will never be pretty.

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At #4 - Very low jump from an Aerial. Not much room for error here!

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At #3 - When cycling off a cliff, remember to actually pull your chute. Winded? Broken Ribs?

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At #2 - This is not safe for work (NSFW), but here’s what happens when you get blown into a dam you’ve just jumped off. Amazingly he crawls out. Notice the similarities in sounds - winded? Broken Ribs?

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At #1 - Scary! But clearly the commentator is a very experienced BASE Jumper “After the rescuer clips her into his harness, if her chute rips, they’ll both die”… how so!?

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**TGU Bonus clip** - The Lowest Base Jump Ever!

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Now, how was that? Heart going a little faster?

-Robin-

(Image Credit: Craig)

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“He jumped from 40,000ft without a parachute…” Know the lyrics? Travis Pastrana does! This Moto Cross rider (world famous for performing backflips on a motorbike) has jumped out of a plane wearing only his boxers and holding a can of Red Bull. No Parachute!

In the promotional stunt, after getting the required film footage his dive crew ’soared’ over to him and attached his hidden harness to a chute in free-fall and pulled the cord. Nice! How much could have gone wrong with this one?! Story via Goblog I think.

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TrackMyJourney.co.uk apparently a great tool for GPS linkage to your mobile phone. Must run a test myself!

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Outdoor bloggers Rock & Ice writing competition. Neal & Dave, boys you should enter this with your stories!

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Video of MAX Adventure (Fiennes cancelled trip due to funding) and the landrovers they were using that had modified wheel bases to take tracks on them. Very cool vehicles for Ice work.

1997 - Wales, Alaska. Reconnaissance of the Bering Strait to establish the feasibility of driving across the sea-ice from Russia to Alaska. This was part of a bigger project to drive around the world from the west of Ireland to the east of Newfoundland, to celebrate Land Rover’s 50th anniversary. Led by the renowned explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the project was cancelled due to costs.

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Project your GPS speed onto your windscreen
for a real HUD (Heads Up Display) system like out of Star Wars.

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Have an amazing weekend!

-Robin-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - I’m not sure what you call this form of base jumping, but it’s about as extreme as it gets. We’ve written about these wing suits before and their ability to direct the jumper out away from the rock first Base Jump from the Grand Jorasses in the Alps. But this next video you are going to see is ’sick’… that’s sick in a ‘I feel physically sick’ way rather than the R&B “that’s sick dawg” sick.

Just how close can you go?

Thanks to AllClimbing who picked this up Twitter.

-Robin-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - A new Irish Skydiving large formation record was set at around 7pm on Monday 6th August 2007, when 30 skydivers linked to form a shamrock-shaped formation over the Irish Parachute Club.

The 30 skydivers and 2 cameramen exited from two aircraft: a Shorts Skyvan (G-BEOL) and a Pilatus PC6 Porter (EI-IAN), which were flying in close formation at 15,000ft. The formation completed on the 9th attempt, and was held for around 8 seconds until breakoff commenced at 5,500ft.

Video below:

Please don’t forget that most of this equipment used in the record was stolen last week, and the search is still on.

-Robin-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - In Ireland on Thursday morning thieves cut a hole in the roof of the Irish Parachute Club hangar at Clonbollogue and lifted out the parachute kits, cameras and radio equipment, after wires to the alarm system were cut.

The gear stolen belongs to both the club and private members and is valued at almost €250,000. They say the equipment could not be used in Ireland as it is heavily branded and contains club logos.

I would question if this gear can be used again even if they get it back. Would you trust your chute? Visit the club site at Skydive.ie

-Robin-

(Image Credit: Skydive.ie)