The Birdman
Jeb Corliss: I do believe that I am pushing the very boundaries of what's possible and that's what my life is all about. My life is about taking things and seeing how far we can go you don't really know where that line is until you cross it. Life is just a bunch of experiences you have until you die, you know, and this was an absolutely spectacular experience.
Joby Ogwyn: Jeb came as close to dying as you possibly can.
Jeb Corliss: I was diagnosed with a condition when I was younger called counterphobia - an almost pathological desire to confront fear. When things have scared me, I have been compelled to do them.
Ross Coulthart: I first met Jeb in 2009. We were in Malaysia. Jeb was BASE-jumping from the KL tower. It's a bloody long way down! He's part man, part bird... part crazy. Wearing his wing-suit, Jeb Corliss risks his life for the ultimate thrill — to fly free as a bird, but at 200km/h. It's an extreme pursuit that has killed many of Jeb's best friends. Jeb, do you have a death wish?
Jeb Corliss: If I had a death wish, I'd be dead. Think about it. If I wanted to die, do you think I would survive after doing all these incredibly dangerous things? No! If you want to die, guess what's going to happen? You're gonna die.
Ross Coulthart: Jeb's latest exploit is what he calls 'terrain flying' - flying so fast and so close to a mountain, he can almost touch it.
Jeb Corliss: And I've been practicing it a lot in a place in Switzerland that we call The Crack. And at that place, you know, I had a guy holding the balloons, 6-foot string, balloons on the end and he's holding them and he starts dragging them lower and lower because he's getting scared
that I'm gonna hit him. Where I jumped from was a mile away from where my balloons were so from a mile away, I was able to then pinpoint and hit a spot that was 5 feet by 2 centimetres. I came extremely close on that one.
Ross Coulthart: Last year, Jeb took this accuracy to a whole new level. In China, he didn't just fly over a mountain or next to it - he flew through it.
Jeb Corliss: As I'm looking down, I'm just like, "What are all those people doing down there?!" Like, there's so many people and I just flew over all their heads and it was...it was one of the most spectacular jumps I've ever done in my life. It was really special and it aired live to almost 500 million people. The press just kept saying, "So, when is enough enough? "When are you going to stop doing this?" And I'm just looking at them, I'm like, "Would you ask a bird, you know, "When are you going to stop doing that silly flying thing?" It's like, "No, it's what birds do, they fly, right?" If you had the ability to fly would you ever give up? Never, no! Flying is awesome.
I will do flying until I die. I mean, there's nothing that's going to stop me from flying.
Ross Coulthart: Overlooking Cape Town in South Africa sits the majestic Table Mountain - a BASE-jumper's dream.
Joby Ogwyn: Jeb just said, "Hey, man, wouldn't it be cool if we went to South Africa "and jump off Table Mountain?" And I was like, "Yeah, it would be great."
Jeb Corliss: How you doing back there, Joby?
Ross Coulthart: Joby Ogwyn is Jeb's best mate. In January, they set out for three days of terrain flying.
Joby Ogwyn: The first jump, Jeb and I both went immediately down to the terrain and started taking a look at it. And at that point I knew this was going to be an interesting trip.
Jeb Corliss: Yes. nd they walked away!
Joby Ogwyn: Oh, man! wow! I tell you what, bro... Man, I haven't had the juice flowing like that in a while!
Joby Ogwyn: It's the most powerful feeling of flight - true human flight -
that you can have and the closer you are to this terrain and these mountains
and these places like that, the more powerful the experience is.
Jeb Corliss: Beautiful!
Ross Coulthart: Over two days, Jeb and Joby made four successful jumps.
Joby Ogwyn: Yes! Good one, bro!
Joby Ogwyn: I suspect that Jeb and I were a foot or two off the cliff at most jumps and we're going well over 120 miles an hour for most of what we were doing on Table Mountain.
Jeb Corliss: That was beautiful. Truly, truly beautiful.
Jeb Corliss: Table Mountain had become my playground and all of a sudden I got very over-confident in my abilities and I thought that I could just do whatever I wanted there.
Ross Coulthart: On the third and final day, they set up for one more.
Jeb Corliss: There's no question that I made a choice to do something
a little more hardcore that day. OK, 10 seconds. Normally, we have the balloons set about six feet and I'm usually doing about 120 miles an hour
as I'm coming through the balloons. I'm at the top and I see the two balloons before stepping off and I can see that the black balloon is much lower and I kind of am, like, "I'm gonna go for the lower one." I jump off and basically
everything becomes very focused. It literally is like you just...You focus in on your target and it's like, "I'm hitting that." What happened was one of the balloons blew down and it actually hooked on rocks, so the string hooked on some rocks, holding the balloon down, basically on rock level. And then I start leaning over and as I start leaning this wing suit over, I start generating speed. You can just feel the speed, it's just like the power of the suit and as I'm coming through, there's basically these boulders that I'm coming in between.
Joby Ogwyn: I heard this loud boom! It was so loud and it echoed off
of the rocks and the mountains, it's like an amphitheatre so you just hear this loud crash.
Ross Coulthart: At that moment as you hit, are you thinking, "It's all over. I'm dead?"
Jeb Corliss: You're going to die. There's no stopping death now,
you're dead. So, you've got two choices - you can either not pull, you know,
and have a quick, painless death or you can pull and basically suffer
because you're gonna die anyway.
Joby Ogwyn: And so immediately, I just radioed and said, "I think he's dead,
I'm pretty sure of it "but call the helicopter immediately. "Maybe, maybe, maybe."
Jeb Corliss: Into the cliff, hard impact, I can't see, I can't move and, really, all I feel is horrifying pain.
WOMAN: Jeb, Jeb, Jeb!
Joby Ogwyn: The thought of losing him that quick, I just couldn't...
Joby Ogwyn: Jeb, stay awake buddy. Talk to me. Jeb, you have to, my friend.
Keep still, please keep still and just stay awake for me. Because all of our friends are dead. From climbing or BASE-jumping or wing-suit flying, they've all gotten wiped out. It's kind of just a few of us left.
Jeb Corliss: There is a moment where finally I kind of got to this point
where I could feel myself dying. There's actually a euphoric feeling
as you start to die. It's a very, very powerful - very powerful sensation
and as you start, like, letting go, I got really happy.
Joby Ogwyn: I think I came as close as you can come to watching a friend die that day. To me, in my mind, for an hour I thought that's what I'd seen and, you know, it's a miracle.
Jeb Corliss:I broke my right ankle, I broke my left ankle, I broke my left fibula, I tore my ACL out of my left knee, I de-gloved both thighs
so, basically, all of the flesh was ripped off the bone on both sides,
I tore a huge monster chunk of flesh out of my shin which needed skin grafting.
Ross Coulthart: After six weeks in hospital, Jeb is back in California
to begin his rehabilitation.
Jeb Corliss: I'm basically learning how to walk again and it's a difficult process but, you know, I'm glad that I have legs to do rehab on.
Man: Better. Perfect steps right there.
Ross Coulthart: So, what's next?
Jeb Corliss: My next project is I'm going to do a touch-and-go on purpose.
So, instead of doing it accidentally... (LAUGHS) ..I'm gonna go and I'm going
to start touching things on purpose. That's - when I get healthy, that's my, my next thing. (LAUGHS) Yeah! What a beautiful, beautiful life.
