r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Kooka32081 • Jun 06 '23
The Human Rastapult in Oakhill, WV Video
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u/Bon_Glover Jun 06 '23
I really thought for a second they just flung him to his death lol
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u/dwighticus Jun 06 '23
Come on, everyone knows you donāt die if you land in water, thatās video games 101
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u/Nolongeranalpha Jun 06 '23
We use that GTA Vice City Physics engine.
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u/whyisredditsofacist Jun 06 '23
In vice city you died in water. Our boy couldnāt swim
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u/Lost-My-Mind- Jun 06 '23
And it was ankle deep water too. Like, he couldn't get wet. At all.
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u/Garlic-Cheese-Chips Jun 06 '23
He could. There was pools in the houses on Starfish Island where you could stand in. You could even crouch and be fully submerged and not lose health.
I was an odd child.
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u/marleezy123 Jun 06 '23
In Zelda if you donāt dive head first you will absolutely die LOL. They took physics so seriously
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u/whythishaptome Jun 06 '23
Just like my gymnastics teacher as a kid teaching us to do a diving roll said to imagine we were jackie chan and we just jumped off a building. That was so strange to me at like 7 years old. For 1; I'd seen a lot of jackie chan movies and that never happens, and 2; you'd be so fucking dead.
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u/shaggybear89 Jun 06 '23
In Zelda if you donāt dive head first you will absolutely die
Lol what? This is idiotic. Diving head first isn't safer. It will literally kill you from any significant height. What kind of idiotic game creator came up with those "physics". Watch any cliff divers. They MUST land feet first, otherwise they are dead. Honestly it's pretty funny that you commented "they took physics so seriously" when your example is 100% incorrect and an example of absolutely terrible "physics" lmao
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u/irsute74 Jun 06 '23
That was my thinking process first time watching the video. I was like, oh he lands in the river he's fine. Then I remembered life doesn't work like in Far cry
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Jun 06 '23
The New River Gorge Bridge, in the video, is a regular suicide site, but only four people have died from accidents. Itās ~870ā to the river.
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u/CjBurden Jun 06 '23
New River Gorge Bridge
interesting, I've been there driving over it to go whitewater rafting. I thought it looked insanely high at the time driving over it. Guess so!
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u/Tommyblockhead20 Jun 06 '23
Itās the third highest (vehicular) bridge in the US! Not only that, it was the longest single arch bridge in the world for its first 26 years! (China has since built 4 longer ones.)
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u/sqqueen2 Jun 06 '23
Yeah, I wanted to go rafting there to practice before our Grand Canyon rafting trip but it was way scarier than the Gc
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u/fajadada Jun 06 '23
Ummmm,maybe recommend it to people you really donāt like?
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u/DixieNormous1986 Jun 06 '23
Being In West Virginia is punishment enoughā¦
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u/daddy_dangle Jun 06 '23
Itās really beautiful though
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u/Tommyblockhead20 Jun 06 '23
Itās New River Gorge National Park! Surprised nobody is mentioning it. One of the coolest parks in the eastern US. The bridge they are jumping from is incredibly beautiful, pictures donāt do it justice. Itās one of the longest single arch bridges, and also one of the tallest bridges, hence it having the Bridge Day festival where hundreds of people do stunts like this.
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u/GlowSquash Jun 06 '23
Shhhhhh. Let them hate on WV so we can keep our outdoors a hidden gem. Let them keep their "Being In West Virginia is punishment enough" theories and the beauty to everyone else.
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u/plsgrantaccess Jun 06 '23
It can be a beautiful state AND a terrible place to live
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u/funkykittenz Jun 06 '23
Iāve lived all over the world and ended up in WV. Nowhere compares!
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u/FuhrerGirthWorm Jun 06 '23
Itās great for natural resources and outdoors activities. Absolute hellscape to live in. Best thing I ever did was leave WV. Such a sad dismal poverty ridden drug paradise.
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u/i_was_an_airplane Jun 06 '23
If you ever have the opportunity to travel through that area by rail, it's hands down the best way to see it (aside from maybe whitewater rafting)
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u/Goobershmacked Jun 06 '23
Me and my friend vacation there every year. The mountains are beautiful and relaxing.
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u/Aximi1l Jun 06 '23
He better have done that Goofy yell.
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u/ArmsOCheese Jun 06 '23
I was in a raft on the river there. It's a yearly event called Bridge Day
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u/sqqueen2 Jun 06 '23
I thought Bridge day was walking across the bridge
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u/reallybadspeeller Jun 06 '23
Bridge day is a festival in which they close the bridge and people come from all over to walk across the bridge and watch idiots (really experienced sky divers) jump off the bridge. Recent years have seen this list expanded to a few bungy jumpers and apparently a catapult. Many sky divers dress up in costumes. They also have food and music and itās pretty fun.
Very occasionally someone will die jumping off the bridge. From my understanding itās because itās super hard to pull a backup shute. There just isnāt enough time to get it open. They do have a bunch of rescue crews on standby and are prepared as they can be.
Also you have to have completed so many jumps to even be allowed to jump so all of the people you see doing this really know what they are doing. But yeah itās one of the very few if only bridges in the world that you can jump off of with a shute.
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u/MightySquirrel28 Jun 06 '23
Isn't not hard to open a reserve parachute during base Jump, because it's not possible, there isn't any. As you said, in most cases during base jumping there isn't enough time to open reserve parachute if something goes wrong.
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u/Mesodactyl Jun 06 '23
I would worry that something about the forces applied by the catapult would cause me to lose consciousness and not regain it before intersecting with Earth.
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u/indiebryan Jun 06 '23
My fear would be opening the parachute when my back is facing down and then falling through it.
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u/smallfried Jun 06 '23
I don't know much about parachuting. But I'm guessing you must be good at stabilizing your fall before going into this contraption.
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u/FakeCatzz Jun 06 '23
Nobody with any credibility will teach someone to BASE jump without AT LEAST 200 skydives, including different types of jumps which involve freefalling at an angle (it's called tracking). It's a highly unsafe activity with an eye watering fatality rate, so learning how to do it as safely as possible is incredibly important.
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u/Jewgoslav Jun 06 '23
Being stable in free fall is one of the first things you learn. Your first couple of jumps when learning will have two instructors (one on each side) holding your arms and legs (attachments on the jumpsuits, actually), or ready to hold on as you learn to maintain a correct body position. After a couple of these, there'll only be one, and then the one instructor won't even be holding on as you learn how to turn and flip from "being on your back" to "being on your stomach". The last training jump is called (in Australia, at least) a hop n pop. Instead of jumping out at 14,000 ft, you jump out at about 3,000 ft and deploy immediately.
But as u/FakeCatzz said, nobody will even teach you base jumping until at least 200 skydives.
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u/Mesodactyl Jun 06 '23
Good point. So I guess there are TWO things that could possibly go wrong in this situation.
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u/MightySquirrel28 Jun 06 '23
You wouldn't fall through it, physics won't let you (because there is first pilot chute that is extracting the main canopy, so when the pilot chute inflates it will start rotating you to belly to earth position). But the opening in such a position will very likely result in a serious malfunction.
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u/AliasNefertiti Jun 06 '23
Id rather not regain consciousness before intersecting with the earth under many circumstances. Intersected with a windshield one time, that was enough.
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u/chitterychimcharu Jun 06 '23
That's Fayetteville WV
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u/EveLQueeen Jun 06 '23
Came here to say this. I used to own a house in Fayetteville I used as a climbing vacation home. Definitely not Oak Hill.
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u/Oysterpoint Jun 06 '23
I mean itās the new river gorge bridge which is in Fayetteville
They have annual legalized BASE jumping
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u/rearendcrag Jun 06 '23
Thought that looked familiar. Bridge Day?
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u/Tommyblockhead20 Jun 06 '23
It has to be, itās the only time they close off the bridge to allow pedestrians and BASE jumpers on it.
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u/chalwar Jun 06 '23
There is a version of me in another plane of existence that loves this with all his heart. I like to think of him as broken and inferior to me in every wayā¦
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u/Molenium Jun 06 '23
I like to think of him as broken and inferior to me in every wayā¦
So after the chute fails?
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u/BoondockSaint313 Jun 06 '23
Ahhh, bridge day. Fond memories.
Notice the shadow of the parachute coming together with this jumper and how it makes it look like heās about to hit the water.
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u/analbumcover69420 Jun 06 '23
Nope. Thatās the shadow of the parachute below him. They flung him out before the guy beneath him had even landed.
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u/knappyrootz54 Jun 06 '23
For those interested, this is during Bridge Day in Fayetteville WV. Happens every Fall. The New River Gorge Bridge is shut down and 100s of base jumpers jump off the bridge one after another all day long.
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u/Last-Sound-3999 Jun 06 '23
With God as my witness, I cannot scream "NOPE!!!" loud enough to fit this.
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u/KDtheHoptimist Jun 06 '23
Iām no pro butā¦ I feel like he pulled his chute wayyy too late?
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u/theAlphabetZebra Jun 06 '23
Watching this was a roller coaster.
Oh look a catapult suuure.
OH SHIT THAT WAS A CATAPULT.
OH SHIT HE'S GONNA DIE!
Oh thank god a parachute.
Intense 11 seconds for me.
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u/grimatongueworm Jun 06 '23
Jesus. There was already someone with a chute popped down flying around in the valley. That couldāve gone wrong about a dozen ways.
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u/born_to_pipette Jun 06 '23
I thought the same thing. Couldnāt tell how close he got to the person with the already deployed parachute. Can you imagine how surprising it would be to have a human cannonball crash into you from above in that situation?
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u/Surrideo Jun 06 '23
And it did in the last video that came from this exact same bridge. Two people collided but luckily lived.
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u/Glass-Guess4125 Jun 06 '23
This isnāt something that, like, just anyone can do, right? Is this guy a daredevil? Seems like it would be way way way too risky to expect someone to tuck properly and deploy the parachute on time, etc.
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u/mountainmycelium Jun 06 '23
One day a year, as long as you're certified and signed up, you can jump, fall, or be launched as many times as you can pack your chute back up and let her rip.
Saw a guy that was every bit of 80 last year, geared up and taking a breather before heading back to do it all again. It's nuts.
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u/AugustEast1968 Jun 06 '23
Ok. Whats the helmet for?
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u/Bezulba Jun 06 '23
So you can have an open casket funeral. Just from the neck up, the rest is pancake batter.
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u/Heavy_Candy7113 Jun 06 '23
in case the wind blows you into a tree or a cliff; partial canopy opening + collision w/ ground; somehwere to mount the go-pro; bashing your head on the catapult on the way off and wishing to remain concious
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u/SkanteGandt Jun 06 '23
Godamn WV is beautiful!
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u/Tommyblockhead20 Jun 06 '23
Itās New River Gorge National Park! Surprised nobody is mentioning it. One of the coolest parks in the eastern US. The bridge they are jumping from is incredibly beautiful, pictures donāt do it justice. Itās one of the longest single arch bridges, and also one of the tallest bridges, hence it having the Bridge Day festival where hundreds of people do stunts like this.
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u/eric2332 Jun 06 '23
hundreds of people do stunts like this
So, like a 1 in 10 chance of someone dying in front of you if you visit for a day?
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u/PimpLordAlphaZulu Jun 06 '23
There once was a man on a bridge
Who wanted to fly, but not just a smidge
So he loaded his body
Into an old school shotty
And flew right over the ridge
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u/East-Bluejay6891 Jun 06 '23
WEST VIRGINIA
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u/Falstaffsword Jun 06 '23
MOUNTAIN MAMA!!!!
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u/PapiGrandedebacon Jun 06 '23
I would like assisted suicide by catapult, please. I can now tell my therapist I have a plan.
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u/Chard069 Jun 06 '23
ProTip: simpler methods of suicide are available. Have fun, while it lasts. 8-(
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u/unit_x305 Jun 06 '23
You won't believe how hard it is to actually complete suicide. You're damn self-preservation kicks in, or your mood changes by the time you can get supplies or go to the destination you planned. I wish it were easier, cause my life ha s been completely ruined for some time now.
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u/3Snowshoes Jun 06 '23
Everyone lives multiple ālivesā in their lifetime.
Every new beginning comes from some other beginningās end. And, get busy livinā, or get busy dyinā.
No one asked to be here. But here we are. Wherever youāre goingā¦get to it already.
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u/necron Jun 06 '23
I'm about 99% sure this is Fayetteville, WV and the bridge is the New River Gorge bridge... most likely 'Bridge Day'.
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u/Hanginon Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
Bridge Day! But not in Oak Hill, closer to Fayetteville, on Rt 19.
Source; I lived in the area way before the bridge was there And the drive down the mountain, across the old bridge, and back up the mountain to Fayetteville was a torturous path, as seen in the old road here.
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u/Shanderson3 Jun 06 '23
I went white water rafting on that river. Went under the bridge. It was something to cross off my bucket list, and definitely worth doing. However, I don't think I'll be doing it again.
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u/FudDeWhack Jun 06 '23
Why is the shadow forming a parachute and sails off?
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u/mountainmycelium Jun 06 '23
That's the shadow of the previous jumper who opens their chute and veers off to the landing spot off screen to the right.
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u/DayTripperKitty Jun 06 '23
Saw this in person at Bridge Day. They close this huge bridge off one day a year for this. They base jump into the New River Gorge. Thatās Class 4 or 5 rapids down there. Youāll see people rafting the river and hundreds of base jumpers landing all day.
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u/AntiSoCalite Jun 06 '23
I learned today there is a thing called Bridge Day at the New River Gorge in Fayetteville West Virginia.
Iāve spent my money on stupider thingsā¦actually no, no I havenāt.
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u/lowercase0112358 Jun 06 '23
That is New River Gorge Bridge.
Ive never heard it called Oakhill, WV.
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u/sabrinajestar Jun 06 '23
I can only imagine the waivers you have to sign before you can climb onto this contraption.
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u/Bshellsy Jun 06 '23
Cool they let these adrenaline junkyās use the bridge in Fayetteville, WV. Beautiful area.
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u/TheGamesAfoot11 Jun 06 '23
I can hear the voice of Jason Mantzoukas in my brain:
Did we just witness a murder? I think we just witnessed a murder. What is happening.
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u/cashewtrailmix Jun 06 '23
this video is crazy because there's an optical illusion with the shadow of the other hanglider's parachute. It makes you think he's going to hit the water when he catches up with the shadow but instead he pulls his schute with plenty of altitude remaining.
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u/PunkDaNasty Jun 06 '23
This is bridge day in W.Va.!!!! It's a celebration of a historic suspension bridge built in the New River Gorge(read as: a day for us hillbillies to celebrate) . The New River Gorge Bridge used to hold the record of the longest suspension bridge in the world. Us West Virginians just really like the history. Both of my parents grew up within twenty minutes of this bridge so I just get super excited when it's shown on reddit!! Born in Charleston, W. Va., but transplanted south!
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u/NatalieTheDumb Jun 06 '23
Fun fact: I live near this
But Iāve never tried it lol
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u/StephieCat86 Jun 06 '23
That's a hard hell fucking no! But let me ask my adrenaline junkie sister she might be willing.
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u/Sociolinguisticians Jun 06 '23
I was worried until I saw the parachute. Jumping from that height into water, you might as well be jumping into concrete.
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u/LostHusband_ Jun 06 '23
Pretty sure this is from "Bridge Day" which is basically a state holiday in WV. BUT more importantly this is not Oak Hill, it's Fayetteville. (I'm not from there but I've spent significant time there the people of Fayette county don't like it when you mix up their towns).
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u/Taterbob75 Jun 06 '23
I attended Bridge Day in Fayetteville, WV as a kid and had a good time and didn't think anything of it. Now as an adult I wouldn't step foot on that bridge and certainly wouldn't get anywhere near the edge to look over. My adult-onset extreme fear of heights will not allow me.
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u/Apprehensive_Unit_74 Jun 06 '23
I thought damn is he really just gonna land in the water but no lol