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Maybe you should. These are from the August 2005 18′ Skiff International Regatta in San Francisco. Check out the full gallery here…

As longtime TWC readers know, we love BASE jumping video here at TWC HQ because BASE jumpers usually produce beautiful jumps and beautiful visuals (and they seem to have decent musical taste). But sometimes BASE jumps aren’t so pretty. Like this one, for instance. Good thing there was an ambulance nearby…

BASE Jumping 101: Always Try To Aim for An Open Space…

Note to this team’s corporate sponsors: your guys are kicking ass when it comes to producing first class photos and videos, which is to say the sh*t that all of us stay-at-home wannabes love to watch. Latest case in point: ABN Amro’s recent stunt pulling Briitish wakeboarding champ Dan Nott along at 20 knots. Yes, if you’ve been paying attention you’ve seen the pictures. But I bet you haven’t seen the video yet. Well, for your viewing pleasure, here it is. Keep up the great work guys…

“Damn, I’d love to try this with some Southern Ocean greybeards under me…”

For the past month a team of three kayakers has been working their way around the isolated South Atlantic island of South Georgia, which is best known as the place Ernest Shackleton sailed to for rescue. Capt. Cook touched there as well, and this is his take: “…a land doomed to perpetual frigidness, whose savage aspects I have not words to describe.” No one has ever managed to pull off a circumnavigation by kayak, and after almost a month of brutal misery the Adventure Philosophy team is about halfway around. You can follow along here, but here’s a brief taste of what they have been experiencing (this is from an early dispatch):

A brutal day slogging into squalls and head winds for a miserable 16km. Our bodies are taking a hammering as are our supplies of anti-inflammatories. Hardly seems worth the effort put in, except we are 16km further than we were this morning. We were forced to spend a 2nd night at Salisbury Plains with strong winds and snow flurries all day long. Stunning place!!

A backdrop of some 6000 King penguins, the adults wandering past our tent to the sea in a constant stream, mapping along the coastline before diving in. Beside us was a harem of 60 or so Elephant seals, one of dozens and dozens that dot the bay. The sheer magnitude of wildlife is staggering!

It is very cold. As cold as anything we experienced in Antarctica. The sea cliffs are hung with icicles, and if the sea was fresh water it would be frozen. Even the warm north westerly wind brings snow.

This evening we watched a couple of Elephant bulls battle for the harem out of the door of the hemisphere. Then the beach master looked menacingly in our direction, and as we watched in horror, 4 tonnes of undulating blubber was coming straight for the tent. Another late arrival bull lay beside us and the 3 of us were scrambling for the back door – vision of some flattened billies and 3 depressions in the gravel being the last signs of Adventure Philosophy.
Not sure we will sleep so well tonight!

Sounds like fun…

“Please, please, come back…”

Will the Volvo Ocean Race be a wet ride in the new VO70s? Well, if these pictures by ace photog Jon Nash are any indication, the answer is, umm, YES! Just wait until these things hit the Southern Ocean…

Wet…

Wetter…

Wettest…

Frickin’ Submerged…

Check it out

“Hmm. I wonder if this thing comes in a home model…”

(Found on The Horse’s Mouth)

It’s a big weekend for speed freaks. Way Down Under at Australia’s famed Sandy Point, where the wind blows hard and the water is flat, the annual Speed Week starts tomorrow. And when I say the wind blows hard, I mean the wind blows hard. Here’s a wind chart from last year, a day that has come to be known as “Big Wednesday”:

This is a great event, with an exemplary Wetass philosophy (Here’s an FAQ: So what are the rules ? Simple. Just Go. Go out (when you like). Go fast (when you can). Go back (when you’re done)). Joining the fun will be the wild and wacky MacQuarie Innovations. Last year they crashed at 43 knots and destroyed their alien craft. Here’s what that looked like:

These guys are determined, though, and they’ve rebuilt MacQuarie and are working hard to steal the outright speed record back from windsurfer Finian Maynard.

Speaking of Finian, he’s also about to hit the water, at the custom-built French Trench in southern France. This time he’s going head-to-head against the other king of speed windsurfing, Bjorn Dunkerbeck, at his Masters Of Speed competition. And this weekend is starting to look good. If you want a reminder of what a windsurfer at a world record 46.82 knots, click here. As I say, it’s a speed junkie weekend. Enjoy…

Mad Macquarie: “Alright boys, let’s keep this thing in one piece, because I can’t face another rebuild…”

It’s been a long week, and it’s not quite over. So here are a couple of offbeat videos to keep you distracted…

Scuba is not just for people…

What happens to a water balloon in space? Click here to find out…

“Let’s go find that cat…!”

The Orange sailing team (Big Bruno Peyron in his maxicat, and the racin’ Ravussin brothers in their Formula 60 tri) have big plans. First up is the Transat Jacques Vabre for the Ravussins on November 6. And Bruno has all kinds of crazy sh*t in mind for his monster boat, from the conventional–Atlantic records–to the insane–the solo 24-hour record. To get you amped up for it all, I’ve managed to grab some vids from their site…

Orange On Orange (sounds like a psychadelic Bob Dylan tune)…

Launching a Formula 60 (from a field? I guess the budget for marina time is restricted…)

Let the multihull mania begin…

Monty Python Multihulls: “Hey, Bruno. We spit in your general direction…”