As Marcus Ellison stood rigged and ready for his first ever BASE jump from the 876′ New River Gorge Bridge, he thought, “This is kind of ludicrous.” But as he has many times since, he parked his toes an inch from the ether, breathed in the enormity of it all and jumped.
(Want to jump virtually with Marcus? Just hit play.)
“Not only was it my first Bridge Day,” said Ellison, “but it was my birthday, too, and I’m in front of my hometown crowd, if you will. I had hundreds of my friends cheering for me.”
Though, yes, the notion of standing atop some giant object and leaping from it may seem absurd, when you add a parachute and the skills of human flight to the mix, it puts a sort of acceptable twist on the whole thing. “The fear and anxious stuff is still there,” explained Ellison, “but as soon as your feet leave the edge, all the those are gone. You’re in this complete moment. It’s the freest feeling I’ve ever had in my life. You’re just flying.”
“I’m excited the night before Bridge Day, but I don’t lose sleep or anything,” he continued. “There are 450 jumpers from all over the world and we’re hanging out. It’s kind of a brotherhood sort of thing—lots of banter, people telling stories. It’s different for alpine jumps. You’re by yourself or with a small group of people. There are no crowds.”
However, “The lower stuff gets your nerves going, because there’s less time to deal with problems. But again, once your feet leave, you’re just surviving.”
Just before his second Bridge Day jump, Ellison again toed up to the brim. “Yup. This really is kind of ludicrous,” he thought.
