Glossary
Extract from the book :1000 jumps:
... I noted down each of my jumps one by one ... I made my 1000th jump in the spring of 2004 and I stopped this too boring accounting ... most were carried out alone and in total autonomy …
Accompaniment:
In my case, regrettably the accompaniment of a coach does not exist … My only source of maturity and knowledge is perseverance …
Acrobatics
... My pleasure is to occupy the space offered to me to develop an aesthetic movement of several linked acrobatics ... I forget the void to replace it with the volume that surrounds me...
Adventure
... To dare to be nonconformist ... the real adventure is not in the conquest of a place or in the creation of a marginal practice but more in lifestyle choices and a situation of insecurity towards society or towards my circle of acquaintances which it provokes ... It is difficult to break away from life’s beaten track but this is the price of escape and freedom …
Aesthetics
... New ideas cause confrontation… I follow a winding route.... Not easy to understand a passion or defy what is considered as suitable ... Difficult to explain a feeling as intimate as my sensations ... Is that why I jump by myself...
Alone in the world
... Overcoming the obstacles of high risk calculated action is a source of progress ... it gives me a good full feeling ... I am well aware that with my bungee figures, I toy with "extreme of the extreme "... I am the only one who can go back up a bungee cord with clamps...
American Media
... In front of me: a wall of cameras… I do not know how many television channels are waiting in two rows facing the main entrance, six hours later... Forgotten the philosophy... Forgotten the artistic spirit: the essential is the sensational information for TV news at 8 p.m. ...
American televisions
... All day, I am entitled to black limousines, to pretty hostesses… I did not think I would be a guest in so many TV studios ... Tomorrow I will be back in Harlem...
Anti-personnel land mines
... I wear a badge against mines... In New York I had the opportunity to highlight this armed plague... They indiscriminately kill a soldier, a child or a goat ... A mine kills or injures every thirty minutes somewhere in the world and all ten pages of this book a new explosion occurs ... The “ Perp-Walk "and sensationalism have completely blanked out the subject ...
Anxiety
... Rehearsals and constant training are how I place myself in situations of psychological distress similar to those that I have on a monument where mental conditions are superior to those of my trainings workouts ... finally by dint of rehearsals D-day becomes easy ...
Artist
... Sportsman or artist ... creative by nature, my approach is only artistic ... The artist has a legitimate desire to be loved and I love it when my passion is appreciated...
Attempts at the Statue of Liberty
…There were four attempts at the Statue of Liberty ... The different security systems do not work really ...The first two attempts inside the torch including the second with two backpacks of equipment and my teammate ... Twice I take off from New Jersey... in 2000 and 2001 ...
Bell 412 Helicopter
… Always the same over and over again: the police Bell 412 with its 1’200 horsepower... The difference is big between us. It is hovering and observes my landing calmly... I land on this sand like a feather with my 11 horsepower...
Bell 412 Pilot
... One of the pilots gets out and shakes hands to congratulate me! ... I am so surprised ... He is fascinated by my wooden propeller and amazed that such a small engine can take me so far...
Bolivia
... A coup d’etat in Bolivia. Yes, so what? ... Hidden under a transport cover, I am getting out of this Andes dump by the only road which may be mined...
Book
... The first book written on the bungee jump...
Broadway
... I pedal on Times Square to serve customers at the end of Broadway shows and luxury hotels ... My press-book on my pedicab is more successful than I ever imagined...
Brooklyn Bridge
“Go-o-o, for the first one”. I approach the East river at high speed… The massive stone piles fly past backwards ... The upside is in perfect communion with space...
Caress
... The water caresses me, envelops me… In this end of fall my eyes are level with this tidal mirror. One second later, the bungee pulls me back up without me getting wet...
Commitment
…My commitment places me in the uncomfortable situation of self-challenge and self-conquest… I do not have the security or the serenity of the recognised athletes from national federations … They are exactly in the same quest but are free from the everyday worries...
Competition
... My competitive spirit was working... sport exists only through competition but anyone can have sports activities...
Courage
... I do not believe I am brave when I jump but I am tenacious in my training... Nothing is innate in my courage ... If I should be regarded by everyone as a madman, this should be because of the time spent getting there ... The exploit is in the strength of my beliefs and I always had the feeling of being as gifted as a worker! ...
Creativity
... My third major source of motivation is creativity ... It is where the biggest reasons for my motivation are... My acrobatic jumps constantly require this inventiveness...
To dare
... I choose to face difficulties ... to endanger routine in order to dare rightly ... most people today don’t dare and the principle becomes a cult ... in life we should all dare to launch from our personal level ... "Risk comes from outside, daring comes from inside "...
Daredevil
... This word is null and void in my case. Again, professionals of the copy-paste. The daredevil, attempts, achieves and thinks about it afterwards ... Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t ... He is not aware of the danger. He knows no limits and does not calculate ... Neither my family, nor myself could recognise me in this expression...
Eiffel Tower
... The complexity of the metallic forms is reassuring as for the ease of climbing with so many footholds ... After six jumps more or less unnoticed on October 27, 1991 ... And few years later ...
Fear
... Fear is not an end in itself and I hate that feeling ... I do not supplant my fears of the void but I keep a vigilant confidence...
Figures
... I rarely jump attached by the feet because the two or three possible figures are very easy ... The anchor I use is very low at the level of the pubis and voluntarily places my body in permanent imbalance …
Freedom
… I am in confrontation with myself... I assume my suffering and my uncertainties with the associated lifestyle choices... My moral commitment has obtained me the benefit of my freedom.... The feat owes more to the refusal of the established order than the performance itself… I aspired to discovery… It is difficult to escape the beaten track of life...
Frog jump
... Simple jump attached by the waist… I can chain 25 jumps in one hour ... but "send" a tightened double back flip in the air is another matter...
Futility
... The organized bungee jump illustrates this situation ... The jumper has conquered his fear, dived into the void: he has dared. He is the bravest in the village or in the world, but let’s admit that a single jump may be futile without spirit or consciousness...
Golden Gate Bridge
... THE sublime point! ... I'm hanging from the Golden Gate ... I stay in weightlessness as if time had stopped ... inebriated by the scenery, uplifted by the generosity of the site, I forget my fears and succeed my figures… I forget the rumbling of the Pacific waves...
Gratitude
... To improve, to say "I exist" to the world around us, we tackle the conquest of new fields of expression, new sensations or unpublished bungee jumping figures!... I have this thirst for knowledge and achievement ... I explore my limits...
Guns and Rangers
... A gun aimed at us and the other Ranger has a sawn off shot gun ... What worries me the most, is their nervousness and state of panic… Obviously not at the best of their self-control, they are nervous, drenched in sweat and take refuge behind their weapons …
Height
... My jumping shows continue to excite and anguish because of the height. It is my main role because these acrobatics might be the same at ground level… For me height is a guarantee of safety, like in aviation...
Impulses
... The essential is during my impulses. The success of my run-up to the departure platform determines the correct carrying out of my movement... Once in space, any correction is more difficult...
Innovation
... When I innovate, I accept the absence of social feedback ... I commit myself, get out of the usual course and pass above habits... some laws of existence are made to be contravened…
Invention
... I deposit a patent for the cone and the protection system... Tests are much more successful than I expected and seventeen years later, the principle of the cone is still conclusive...
Journalists
... Journalists are surprised not discover a furious madman, full of piercing with an Iroquois haircut...
La Grande Arche
... Among the artificial vertical lines, this cube, open like a triumphal arch, appeared to me of an absolute beauty …
Ladakh
... Ladakh is a lunar spell on the confines of Himalaya ... Caught by immersion syncope before the girl has been swallowed up by the canyon ... This country is still my most intense human experience...
Latex
... It comes from the sap of rubber trees… In 1525 the Amazon Indians chew this gum ... It is the most elastic material known with an absolute stretch of 700 %...
Liberty Torch
Nobody comes here ... ... my god, it is rolling again and again… Be brave… Three more rungs and it will be worse ... I progress respectfully. The hand. The fingers ... My head is in the flame of Liberty ...
Media
... How can I have the time to explain that my rotation in the second lift was so slow that I lost my rhythm? ...
Medical thesis
... I have been looking for someone who is interested in the subject for a long time and am the instigator of the work... An intern decided to carry out his work on the medico-physical aspects… Fascinating appearances to observe...
Mental and physical
... I memorize my exact gesture... Mentally evacuate all that is useless... I have a good mental safety margin at the perspective of a series of public shows... A rest allows me to get other landmarks but leaves the traces of physical fatigue for several days...
My September 11th
... Every morning, I get off the subway to push the door of the WTC… Next to this old black shoeshine-boy in front of the clothing store for beautiful photo girls … This morning in Brooklyn, behind my house the air is filled with brilliant ash. Jeremy cries...
Olympics
… I train on my small “personal” viaduct, considering the Olympics as of major importance … It does not matter. For the Olympics, the cold of winter is the price to pay …
Paris fire-fighters
... The discussion in a whisper is lively with “our” Paris fireman”. We laughed above these 115 metres of void : "guys I know you don’t have a pen ... but do you have a piece of elastic as an autograph" ... 20 years later we are still friends...
Passion
... Without authenticity or passion, a business cannot succeed sustainably ... My only qualification: my passion ... To throw myself into the void has never interested me beyond my first twenty jumps ... my aesthetic approach is not compatible with one spectacular jump...
Perp Walk
... I discovered the existence of the "perp walk" to satisfy an exhilarating journalistic production and jobless crossover ... This is the staging of an arrest orchestrated by the police ... a shame for democracy...
Philosophy
... The bungee as we know is a very respectable ride but which does not concern me anymore… What is essential to me is to occupy the space offered to me, to be able to create an aesthetic gesture ... when I practice an acrobatic jump I am an athlete completely actor of my approach… Between the previous category and acrobatics, the step is very high...
Police
... The eternal voyeuristic question about police and ill come after so much sweat ... They cannot speak for themselves and often the conversation becomes particularly interesting on the theme of training …The personal curiosity of the police about my training is interesting but will never be official and stays behind the scenes! ... I am finally on good terms with this authority ...
Policeman
... He gets up, takes the Daily News ... on the front page: "Next target for terrorists" with a nice picture of… the Statue of Liberty!
PPG / Paramotor
... The air is weak and the sail does not respond … This second time I am exactly on target in the horizontal and vertical axis of the railing of the Torch. There is not a breath of wind in New York Bay! ... I have nothing in the commands in this sudden empty bubble... "Damn ... a bit of wind, please" ... I must decide, it flies fast...
Provocation
... There is no provocation from me of the authorities!... The subject does not exist…
Rope access works
... For eleven years, I used potholing techniques... we apply them to the working world... I abseil on hostile cliffs, on facades of buildings, in wells ... The hardest: smoky toxic incineration silos or the voluntary collapse of a rocky scale of several tons for a funicular...
Security
... My two best and faithful friends in this area?: the void and 16 years of experience ... Here, there is no danger, everything is clear, comprehensive and nothing invokes misunderstanding ... hanging from my elastic, I play with space but do not remain for hours contrary to a routine working situation…
Sensations
... Slowly move my arms behind my back and hips to quickly bring them back at same time ... Go up, forward, forward, knees-ees... My back is in 100 metres of void and my head sticks to my thighs to increase the acceleration...
Sequences of movements
…My concept of sports training and rehearsal is essential… a sequence of figures with a winch to go back up dictate another conception of jumping… once my bungee rope is installed, I stay attached for almost two hours for about ten jumps …
Ski Instructor
... Mountain safety was part of my role as a ski instructor ... However each customer’s psychology had a considerable and unpredictable dimension in off-piste...
Ski Patrol
… The more the accident is serious and the more the commitment necessary to help the wounded person interests me … I like to rescue people in mountains … these acts are particularly gratifying …
Space
... The search for this lack of gravity is my greatest pleasure ... My feelings are very similar to those found in scuba-diving ... I will give everything to go into space...
Sports
... Acrobatic bungee jumping belongs to precise psychomotor sports. My self confidence, a focused attention and a progress in the perfection of my figures… From the end of the 80s, I chose not to commercialise my jumps but to create a sport that unfortunately is still very confidential...
Stage fright
... How many times have I been afraid in sixteen years of jumping, not of throwing myself into the void but of not succeeding a movement or not achieving it ... ... I hate the anxiety of the artist… In these cases, I want to run away ... I have only one solution: stop to imagining myself in the event and go for it into the void...
Statue of liberty / Third attempts
... I am pulling in altitude at a prodigious speed. What power of elevation! In an instant, the old lady disappears under my thighs... I find myself at 450 metres from the ground... I am alone above New York bay... the choppers are still not here…
Stuntman
To each his own job. I know nothing about this job ... Despite the nuance of meaning in English, a stupid term used by interviewers that have never interviewed but use copy-paste ... I promise, I will look up the definition in the dictionary…
Training
I chained eleven somersaults during one jump and today nothing is going right… I feel I never have my tiptoes tense and it takes too many seconds to group my body …
Truth
... The moment of truth always lays me bare and we cannot cheat with ourselves... The bungee is cruel because of that ... This is not a individual medicine but a single violent encounter with your intimate perceptions ... On my platform as big as four packs of cigarettes, it is impossible to tell yourself lies, and difficult to brag to your entourage...
Unbalance
... The blessed release of unbalance ... I think that all people doing something outstanding are big lunatics and this abnormality fascinates the world as much as it makes it move forward…
Undertake
... It is not easy to undertake but not to try, is a mistake ... "Only the unknown frightens men”... Undertaking: what a beautiful word whose meaning is so far from the current spirit of protection and assistance...
Winch
... The series of figures and the use of an electric winch allows me to go back up after each jump ... this technique dictates another concept of jumping with a new notion of sports training...
WTC
... Around Ground Zero, I know all the streets of south NY ... and the view points needed by these visitors for meditation...