The needs of the instinct

The Belgian Cedric Dumont has done 900 B.A.S.E. jumps in his life so far. His most recent was from a windmill in Cseteny, Hungary – and in an interview afterwards he talked about horror films and extreme sport, global warming and living in the moment.

Cedric, what does the word “danger” mean to you?

Hm ... I think of excitement, risk, adrenaline. In my sport, on the one hand, you have to calculate as many parameters as possible in order to keep danger at a minimum. On the other hand, danger is also the basis, the challenge of this sport – something you can play with and that helps you to learn a thing or two about yourself.

In this process, is fear an aide, an annoying hurdle, a challenge?

There are two types of fear: negative and positive. Negative fear paralyzes you and stops you from being active. Positive fear on the other hand makes you alert, clear and quick to react. That’s why, as a B.A.S.E. jumper, you have to convert your negative fear into the positive.

In contrast to you, normal people are afraid of taking on projects much less risky than yours – like, say, contradicting their boss or talking to someone they find attractive. What can we all learn from B.A.S.E. jumpers?

Well, a B.A.S.E. jumper can also be a failure in day-to-day life. But if you use your experiences wisely you can get to know yourself better through this sport. For example, in the last 11 years of my life I haven’t only gained self-confidence. I’ve also learned to focus my senses and to live the moment full of awareness – instead of letting my thoughts always drift off into the past or into the future.

So does that mean we should all jump off rooftops to grow mentally?

No. Everyone has to find his own path. The problem is that these days we live in an enormously safe world. Our every day life has become insanely boring. But our instincts need to be confronted with boundaries, with fear and danger. Some compensate for that by watching horror films, others do extreme sports, or go and climb Mount Everest ...

... or a windmill, like you recently in Hungary. How do ideas develop for B.A.S.E. jumping projects like this one?

We liked the aesthetics of the project. To put it simply: pure object, pure energy, pure sport. Apart from that, we planted a symbol against global warming and for renewable energy.

With this jump you opened your parachute much later than is even usual amongst experienced B.A.S.E. jumpers. Why did that work?

I have great trust in my packing technique. Under ideal conditions, when the wind and the landing spot are good, I can allow myself an additional second of free fall.

How do you calculate the moment for opening the parachute in such a situation? After all, every meter counts ...

Instinct. That’s exactly what makes the sport so attractive: that you can experience the feeling of freedom and speed with minimal equipment and have to work with your primary instincts. The only compromise is the parachute. You need it if you want to experience the feeling more than once.

Where will you be getting your next freedom and speed fix?

I’m just in the middle of a project in Belgium. I’ve just jumped from a crane, a bridge, an antennae and a building. At the last one, after the jump I had to hide from the police behind a bush – that’s why I won’t give away the location of the next two objects I want to jump from.