Skydiving
From sky to steel: Sean MacCormac skysurfs the San Francisco Bay Bridge
Red Bull Air Force legend and skysurfing pioneer Sean MacCormac jumps from 1,500m and rides San Francisco’s iconic Bay Bridge before landing on a floating barge .
On August 23, 2025, adventure sports experienced a spectacular leap forward. Crowds watched on in awe as skysurfing innovator Sean MacCormac made history when he jumped out of a helicopter at 1,500m and skysurfed for nearly three minutes, before riding down the suspension cables of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. He then turned a hard right and floated down to a barge in the Bay, where he landed safely.
Watch it all unfold below:
MacCormac is a leading figure in the skysurfing world and a keen proponent of progression. That progression is always on his mind, as evidenced by his explanation of the origin of this bridge-riding idea: “I was shooting a BASE-jumping commercial in LA; we had a lunch break and I was looking out over LA, daydreaming about skysurfing, and I just imagined this impossible grind where you could use the canopy to grind a rooftop or something. Seeing lines with this equipment that I wouldn’t have imagined otherwise. From there, it just kind of percolated into this.”
The stats
With two X Games skysurfing medals and 22,000 skydives spanning 25 years in the sport, MacCormac is more than just a forefather of skysurfing. He’s a CIA civilian trainer, Hollywood stuntman and a US Navy and Air Force civilian trainer. There are fewer than a handful of human beings on the planet that could pull this world-first off, let alone come up with the idea.
To many, that idea might have seemed crazy, but to MacCormac, it was pretty simple. His idea was to load up in a helicopter with his skysurfing board - picture a snowboard mixed with an aircraft wing - and when reaching an altitude of around 1,500m, he would jump out. Once within range of the Bay Bridge, he would deploy his parachute and adjust his flight path. From there, MacCormac would grind the cables of the bridge before pulling off an exit manoeuvre and safely coast down to a landing pad on a floating barge.
Board meets Bay Bridge
© Michael Clark/Red Bull Content Pool
Sounds simple enough, right? Think again.
The preparation, skill and precision required by this top-secret project - fine-tuned over hundreds, if not thousands of hours of logistical meetings, practice runs, safety briefs etc - cannot be understated. This was basically a real-life Mission: Impossible movie scene that required a dedicated and highly-qualified group of pilots, cinematographers, photographers, logistics ops, ground crew and mission support.
In early July, MacCormac and his crew went out to Lake Elsinore, California to train at the renowned Skydive Elsinore. There, they set up a test facility with a 55m crane featuring a descending wire that mirrored what Sean would encounter on the Bay Bridge. According to MacCormac, “We have a giant crane with two anchoring forklifts and with Eric, our math magician, we’ve been able to come pretty darn close to emulating the schematics of the bridge, so what we’re able to do is get some repetition and figure out what the best flightlines are and go through this whole process. It’s been really incredible and confidence-building, so we’ve crossed the rubicon of the unknown.”
Sean MacCormac skysurfing
© Chris Tedesco/Red Bull Content Pool
That was one of the most technical things I’ve ever done
All the hours of visualising, practising and preparing played in their favour in this quest for perfection, and it all came to fruition on a crisp (and early) summer morning. A light wind was coming off the Bay, the bridge was shrouded in a yellow haze from the lights dotting the cables and illuminating their curvature. Cars, trucks and semis were already humming east and west on the bridge.
The crew of nearly 70 people assembled at Red’s Java House, an iconic San Francisco staple at 5.30am for the morning safety briefing and run of show. Nearly an hour later, all positions were set when weather holds stymied the jump, until the clouds parted and the sun shone through and golden rays of sunshine began to illuminate the massive columns of the bridge, right as a helicopter with MacCormac inside circled above. And then, it was officially go time.
The moment it all came together
© Michael Clark/Red Bull Content Pool
MacCormac jumps from the helicopter, a feeling he describes as “Dropping into a 2,000ft [600m] vert ramp” and begins his divebomb to history. He deploys his parachute shortly after his skysurf and he begins his flight path to the cables of the bridge. At 9.36am, Sean’s board connects with the cables and he rides it, before turning hard right and descending down the remaining 60m to the floating barge below. The crowd that had assembled along the Embarcadero due to the amount of media awaiting the jump clapped, hooted and hollered, as they'd just witnessed something that they'd never before seen - and nor had anyone else..
Once MacCormac was back on land, and when asked what he felt upon landing successfully on the barge after riding the Bay Bridge, he replied, “[It’s] just an incredible sense of relief. It’s funny, with the flying part, I feel awkwardly comfortable and confident. I didn’t have fear with the feat of it, but I had extreme anxiety in wanting to make sure to perform and stick every aspect of this. I have my whole family here. My team, my pilots, I mean, they’re my family. My Red Bull second family, too. I wanted so bad to stick it for all of them. There really is no I in team, and it was such a cathartic feeling to have everybody here and powersliding onto the [barge] felt like coming home.”