Heart of the Nation

tasmania 7467

omething magic happens in the split second after you leap from a cliff with a parachute on your back, BASE jumpers say. Before gravity takes hold, before the wind starts roaring in your ears and the cliff-face begins to streak past your eyes, theres a moment when youre hanging there in still air, suspended almost; in that instant your fear vanishes and is replaced by a crystal-clear awareness, and a sense of total control. Heath Baird lives for that feeling. When you commit yourself in that moment, and youre on the cusp of falling, its very empowering, says the 33-year-old, who has more than 1000 BASE jumps under his belt. You have all this anxiety beforehand, but the moment you jump everything clicks into place. You feel at home. Thats Baird in the top of the photo. Below him is his BASE jumping buddy Brandon Chance, who likes to spice things up a bit by launching with a backflip. Theyre pictured in Tasmanias Tyndall Range, near Queenstown, jumping from a cliff thats more than 300m high; this gives them almost eight seconds of freefall before they have to deploy their parachutes. Baird reckons its the highest cliff jump in Australia, and says they might be the first to BASE jump it (theyre certainly the first to document the feat). The pair, who live in Melbourne, jump together two or three times a week and are always scouting out new locations not only cliffs but buildings, bridges and radio masts too. Theyre meticulous obsessive, even in their approach to assessing and managing the inherent risks. (It was only on Bairds third trip to the Tassie site, each time studying the cliff, the launch point, the landing options, the wind conditions, that he made his first jump there.) Chance, 29, has done 500 jumps and he still gets the same intense feeling every time. But its more than that. BASE jumping is about adventure, its about camaraderie, he says. Its about living life differently. Ross Bilton
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Jumping for joy

Its a way of life for these two friends
photography warren frey

The Weekend AusTrAliAn MAgAzine / April 2-3 2011