Picture the scene: You’re standing on a 365m high platform preparing to fling yourself into the abyss for the sake of a base jump prank.
You’re up there on the ropey looking chair but you’re with your mate. You’re a pro. You’re feeling adrenaline course through your veins. Your mate gears up to jump. Off he goes.
Then this happens:
You look down and realise he’s only gone and pants’d you right there at 1,200 feet in the air.
Well, it’s not your average Tuesday morning activity, admittedly, but it’s exactly what happened to pro base jumper and all-round adrenaline junkie Tim Howll.
Tim and his friend Matt Turcs were in Kemaliye, Turkey, right above the beautiful Euphrates River, where they had planned to film their base jumping antics for YouTube.
Seemingly, the jump alone wasn’t enough to attract an Internet crowd, so Matt took matters – namely, his mate’s shorts – into his own hands right there mid-flight.
Luckily for Tim, his boxers were clean.
In fact, in a comedic twist which seems almost too good to be true they’re a rather impressive pair of rainbow-coloured briefs.
Tim said:
To access the exit – located above the Euphrates River – jumpers must ride a sketchy chairlift. Jumpers are pulleyed across the steel cable to the midway point. From there, we fall a whopping 1,200 feet.
…But not before Matt rips off Tim’s shorts, obviously.
The video was uploaded to YouTube, captioned ‘Fly your pants off, baby!’ and titled ‘Who needs pants?’ – because these are the big questions in life.
No word on the question of stuffing, however.
Just remember, kids, tomfoolery on the base jump platform is all well and good but these guys are professionals in extreme pant-pulling apparently.
And this kind of thing:
Don’t try this without a pro – like this guy who narrowly avoided falling to his death when a professional pulled him to safety with less than two seconds to spare.
Australian base jumper Chris McDougall noticed the beginner who’d crashed his class was about to jump without leg straps – which, with a quick Google search, we have learnt are vital to surviving a base jump.
McDougall ran over and pulled the man back before he jumped to his certain death:
It seemed the novice was more concerned with his GoPro than securing his parachute; an oversight which could have resulted in a viral video with a very different tone had McDougall not been around.
McDougall wrote on YouTube:
So many new jumpers come into this sport thinking it is all about go pro’s and social media and they forget the fundamentals of how serious and dangerous this sport can be if respect is not given to every aspect of it.
I am glad I saved someone’s life. But each jumper must have the ability to save their own on each and every jump.
For more extreme rescues, check this out:
Every day heroes do exist but they don’t wear capes, they wear parachutes.
And leg straps… But not always pants.
If you have a story to tell, contact UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.