A cliff jumper has shared the shocking moment his parachute rips mid-air, leaving him clinging onto a rock for an hour.
Johnni DiJulius, who describes himself as a wrestler and base jumper, was out for another adrenaline-pumping experience with a large group when his parachute tore immediately after jumping off a cliff.
He captured his heart-stopping moment when his parachute ripped while he was in mid-air, leaving him stranded and clinging on to the cliff face for around an hour.
DiJulius lived to tell the tale and managed to capture the frightening experience on his action camera. In footage captured by himself, he can be seen losing control and hitting the edge of the cliff moments after jumping off.
As his leg bends backward, he struggles to regain his balance and soars down the cliff in an unstable manner. DiJulius mutters to himself in fear, before saying: “I’ve shredded my fu***ng canopy.”
For a while, he smoothly glides in the air, but soon crashes into another part of the cliff with force as his parachute gives out leaving him hanging tightly to the edge before hoisting himself up in a bid to recover from the ordeal.
He wrote on his Instagram post: “I was hesitant to show this, but I, fortunately, walked away with no injuries. I was the last jumper on a 30-person party load. One of the biggest fears is a 180 degree turn when your parachute opens.”
He explained: “Things like body position, pack job, or wind can cause these. I couldn’t steer and was shocked it was still flying. I lost too much altitude fighting off the wall, and since I couldn’t steer with a ripped canopy, I knew I wasn’t going to make it out the talus.”
“I hit the second cliff and got hung up. At this point, I knew I was not injured but wasn’t sure if anyone saw me because I was the last to go. After about an hour holding onto the side of the cliff, I finally climbed down and hiked back out,” he added.
Luckily, DiJulius walked away with no injuries. The video has been viewed more than 100,000 times and has racked up more than 4,000 likes. One person commented: “Damn bro, glad you’re okay.” A second viewer wrote: “Dude glad you are ok. A scene of a horror movie. Thank God.”
A third person commented: “Holy s**t.” Another person added: “Damn…staying calm and collected probably saved your life. This s**t was wild.” While someone said: “My boy lives to jump another day! Love ya brother.”
Cliff jumping is jumping off a cliff as a form of sport. When done without equipment, it may be also known as tombstoning. It forms part of the sport of coastal exploration or “coasteering”.
The world record for cliff jumping is currently held by Laso Schaller, with a jump of 58.8 m (193 ft). When performed with a parachute, it is known as BASE jumping.
Base jumping is the recreational sport of jumping from fixed objects, using a parachute to descend safely to the ground. “Base” is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antenna (referring to radio masts), spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).
Participants exit from a fixed object such as a cliff, and after an optional freefall delay, deploy a parachute to slow their descent and land. A popular form of base jumping is wingsuit base jumping.