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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 !
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 !
