[ GEO ] A HIKE TO THE TOP OF ANGEL FALLS IN VENEZUELA, THE WORLD’S HIGHEST WATERFALL. 2011.
[ Armando ] That was quite a hike!
ARMANDO
[ Armando ] Dragging through mud,
thicket and rain for 20 days.
[ Santi ] It's so monotonous, jump one piece of deadwood then over the next.
SANTI 00:00:42-00:00:46 [ Santi ] Then the same thing all over again. I couldn’t do this again.
[ Alvaro ] When I...
ended up waist-deep in the mud
ALVARO
and tried to free my feet,
I ripped off the sole
of my shoe.
[ Dario ] I just turn off... click
DARIO
and keep on walking...
ALVARO DIES 2 YEARS LATER
[ Alvaro ] - Hey buddy! [ Santi ] - Yay!
[ Dario ] Now we're here altogether.
One was missing...
[ Dario ] We're all here.
[ Dario ] Manolito!
MANOLO DIED A YEAR EARLIER.
[ Dario ] How are you doing, are you tired? He didn't complain once.
[ Dario ] He hiked all the way up like a champ!
[ Dario ] It's crazy!
DARIO DIES 3 YEARS LATER
[ Dario ] After all we went through. Let's go!
[ title ] GONE WITH THE WING
[ man ] - Should I sign here? [ man2 ] - Yes, up here.
[ voice ] A message to your family in case it's only this video that gets back to Spain.
[ Alvaro ] OK so far but who knows what'll happen next!
[ Armando ] I wish you a happy 2013!
[ Armando ] And Maximus is right over there!
[ Saray ] They put overalls on,
messed them up to be sure they'd get into the building.
[ Saray ] They had to climb the scaffolding to get to the top.
[ voice2 ] - Is this your father? [ Saray ] - Yes.
[ Saray ] Look at him, a family man, a businessman
but does stuff like this!
[ Saray ] For a base-jumper, jumping from a tall building
SARAY CHANA, MANOLO’S DAUGHTER
that no one had jumped from before is something to be proud of.
[ Saray ] Plus, it's in town.
[ Saray ] Incredible, it's brutal!
[ Armando ] Here's a funny story:
once a friend told me he'd rented an apartment
ARMANDO DEL REY
in a high-rise in Madrid.
[ Armando ] I said, 'No way!'
[ Armando ] I go home, so does Dario,
we grab our chutes, go to our friend's place, open the balcony door and jump.
[ Armando ] At 3 am on a December night, we landed in the Gran Via.
[ Armando ] There's a photo of it.
[ voice3 ] Four,
three,
two,
one!
[ voice3 ] Let's go!
[ police ] Stay there!
[ police ] From up there? That's scary!
[ Carlos ] There's nothing more stressful, more unnatural
CARLOS SUAREZ
or more intense than throwing yourself off a precipice.
[ Carlos ] That's not something we were meant for.
[ Carlos ] We literally throw ourselves into the void
and face death,
just to savour life later.
[ Carlos ] We've always known that risk is a fascinating phenomenon,
which lets you develop and grow.
[ Carlos ] The question is, how far will you go?
[ Santi ] 'Project Wings' began with the idea of flying properly.
[ Santi ] We wanted to fly over all the elements, fire, water...
[ Santi ] That's why we jumped over volcanoes, the Antarctic,
we crossed the Mediterranean, the strait of Gibraltar.
[ Santi ] We wanted to experience the sensation and pleasure of flying.
[ Santi ] Just imagine how flying feels.
[ Santi ] Today, we can fly.
SANTI CORELLA
[ Santi ] Proximity flying is yet another step forward.
[ Santi ] We already have wings to fly, but we want to jump off hills, too.
[ Santi ] Nothing comes close.
[ Santi ] The only thing I can compare it to is the joy a puppy feels
when it's off the leash and runs around the field,
when he feels as though he can do anything he wants, when he's overjoyed.
[ Santi ] That's how we feel on proximity jumps.
[ Santi ] Imagine jumping off a cliff, which goes against our instincts,
but you fly down the cliff surface, controlling your trajectory.
[ Santi ] Everything zooms past at light speed.
[ Santi ] You can approach the cliff if you want or steer away from it.
[ Santi ] You see something in the distance and think, 'I'll fly that way!'
[ Santi ] And it's amazing when you actually do.
[ Santi ] It's something within us, a man should enjoy it, enjoy life.
[ Santi ] I believe... for me, we celebrate life.
[ Carlos ] Proximity flying is, in the end, about flying close to stationary objects.
[ Carlos ] Everyone wants to get as close to them as possible.
[ Carlos ] Like a computer game where you fly past various objects,
that's where problems arise.
[ Carlos ] It gets addictive, almost as if you're a real bird in flight,
but as you fly, you almost graze against objects
and that's what causes the tragedies.
MANOLO
[ Saray ] I'll show you the last photo of me and my dad,
taken just before the jump. It's lovely.
[ Saray ] It was just before the jump.
[ Saray ] We never took photos before jumps,
but he had a new suit, and I was wearing one given to me by Tony.
[ Saray ] That's why we chose to take a photo before that jump.
[ Saray ] Later he attached a smoke canister to his leg,
just down here...
[ Saray ] And that was his mistake.
[ Saray ] He taped it up very firmly
so that it was impossible to get off.
[ Saray ] And so, we went up in the plane,
and I can remember that
as he approached the door,
he said, 'Oh, Mother!',
then he jumped and headed down.
[ Saray ] As soon as he jumped, his leg caught fire.
[ Saray ] He was wearing his giant wingsuit,
and when he tried to reach the smoke canister,
his parachute opened and he got tangled.
[ Saray ] Then he opened his second chute without getting rid of the first,
then both parachutes got tangled.
[ Saray ] He didn't hit the ground at maximum speed but with his whole body.
[ Saray ] The situation was really tense for four hours because
he was conscious, they tried revive him,
but couldn't do anything.
[ Armando ] Manolo Chana had an obsession
with Angel Falls in Venezuela
and jumping off the world's highest waterfall.
[ Armando ] He couldn't do it because of his accident,
so we decided to go,
we organised a trip and made it there. It was more like a farewell.
[ Alvaro ] How do you like it, guys? It's incredible!
[ Alvaro ] Santi, how do you like it?
[ Carlos ] The second important figure who died,
in that group of friends, was Alvaro.
ALVARO
[ voice44 ] - Hey, you up there, good luck! [ Alvaro ]- Thanks!
[ Alvaro ] It's Alvaro, I'll count you down.
[ CARLOS SUAREZ ] Alvaro Bulto was on an endless quest for adventure.
[ Carlos ] He did a lot of other things, too.
[ Carlos ] He was a TV presenter and had travelled the world.
[ Alvaro ] I got nothing, so... next time.
[ Alvaro ] Handsome boy!
[ voice5 ] Go for it!
[ voice5 ] How are you?
[ Alvaro ] Make sure he focuses on me!!
[ Alvaro ] I'm s***ting myself!
[ Carlos ] Dario and I were in the Himalayas when we heard.
[ Carlos ] We were shocked because Alvaro had lots of experience
and should have been able to handle the jump.
[ Carlos ] It wasn't too hard for him.
[ Santi ] Alvaro and I were the last to jump. We flew down a sheer cliff, a wall.
SANTI CORELLA
[ Santi ] Near the wall...
[ Santi ] We jumped together, I flew ahead as he filmed.
[ Santi ] I saw a platform sticking out from the wall,
and thought it would be cool to fly close to it.
[ Santi ] Alvaro followed me,
but he picked up too much speed, flew too near and couldn't escape.
[ Santi ] That was the last time I saw him.
[ Santi ] When that happened to Alvaro
I knew it wasn't just Alvaro who'd died,
a part of me had also died.
[ Santi ] To be honest, that was my second heavy blow in a row.
[ Santi ] Since then, I haven't enjoyed jumping like I used to.
[ Santi ] This was the jump I dedicated to Alvaro,
it was partly a homage to him.
[ Santi ] All the jumps we'd done
over 25 years had been explosions of sheer joy.
[ Santi ] Each jump was the best.
[ Santi ] Each jump was better than the one before,
that was also true of the emotion, the joy.
[ Santi ] But I suddenly realised that
I didn't feel any joy jumping that time.
[ Santi ] That came as a shock,
and I've noticed the change ever since.
I've been unable to feel that unadulterated joy of jumping.
[ Dario ] One of the greatest things
is proximity to objects, isn't it?
[ Dario ] You have to walk a little!
[ Dario ] We'll hike for a whole 3 hours,
DARIO
just for 50 seconds of glory.
ARMANDO DEL REY
[ Armando ] Dario was like a freight-train travelling at 400 kph,
loaded with lead, with no brakes.
[ Armando ] That's how to describe him.
[ Armando ] He swept everything out of his path wherever he went.
[ voice6 ] With the Go-Pro?
[ Dario ] Yes!
[ Ramon ] Dario Barrio... Wow! He epitomised energy.
[ Ramon ] I'm on the verge of tears.
[ Ramon ] Well, that's it!
RAMON LOPEZ, FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
[ Ramon ] Can we stop?
[ Ramon ] It was my personal tragedy.
[ Ramon ] We were there and it was terrible.
[ Ramon ] It was a Friday, day one of the festival, a disaster.
[ Ramon ] We had group flights programed that day, the most spectacular show of the festival.
[ Ramon ] There were crowds and, clearly, no one expected anything like that.
[ Carlos ] You can reach a velocity of 200 kph.
[ Carlos ] 200 kilometres per hour.
[ Carlos ] High velocity is generally your guarantee of safety.
[ Carlos ] What happened to Dario was because his speed was far too low.
[ Carlos ] Dario knew he wasn't going to clear it
so he flipped as he turned and hit the castle wall.
[ Carlos ] That's the wingsuit I wore when I flew with Dario.
[ Carlos ] I haven't put it on since he crashed.
[ Carlos ] I still base-jump, including free base,
when you hike with a parachute on your back, and jump off a cliff.
[ Carlos ] I've jumped from hot-air balloons,
I've jumped off rocks,
but I haven't flown a wingsuit since then.
[ Armando ] - You look just the same! [ Santi ] - No, now I have a belly!
[ Santi ] - Listen, I wanted to see you so badly! [ Armando ] - Cool.
[ Santi ] I'll be damned!
[ Armando ] Wow. How long since we last saw each other?
[ Santi ] I've been recovering from my injury for a year, so longer than that.
[ Santi ] I haven't seen you all through my recovery.
[ Santi ] I stopped jumping in June and now it's June again!
[ Armando ] - It's really been a year? [ Santi ] - Yes, a year.
[ Armando ] Incredible.
[ Santi ] And today it's three years since...
[ Armando ] - Yes. [ Santi ] - Since Dario.
[ Saray ] You don't jump either?
[ Santi ] Last year I had an injury, a serious one, twice in a row.
[ Santi ] I told myself the moment had come to make a decision, that was it.
[ Santi ] - It's hard. [ Saray ] - Of course, it's hard but I'm glad for you.
[ Santi ] Well, it's been 30 years after all, I've jumped for 30 years.
[ Santi ] I'm so happy but a bit sad.
[ Santi ] It's the first time we've met and not jumped.
[ Armando ] I haven't been to the festival since Dario died.
[ Armando ] Ramon called me and said, Armando we want to pay you a tribute
and give you a plaque.
[ Santi ] It's not an official sport.
[ Santi ] Some want to make it official, but I don't think that will happen,
because that would rob it of its essence, the meaning would be lost.
[ Santi ] The spirit of base-jumping isn't competition,
it's adventure.
[ Santi ] We force what's left of the primal into the bottle of civilization.
[ Santi ] Parachuting used to be the same.
[ Santi ] 100 years ago it was quite liberal,
then it gradually became more standardised and regulated.
[ Santi ] There are almost no accidents now because
you can only jump at a certified jump centre.
[ Santi ] I accept there have to be regulations.
[ Santi ] But for me personally,
though the regulations are necessary
I feel a sense of loss.
[ Santi ] Why don't we stop living if we all die?
[ Santi ] It's no solution to quit living because you're afraid to die.
[ Santi ] If people ask,
now that I know what has happened over the years...
if you had a chance to prevent it from happening...
[ Santi ] If you could undo all these deaths
and have your friends stay with you?
[ Santi ] What would you do?
[ Santi ] I wouldn't turn back time, I'd leave it all as it is.