Guerlain Chicherit was attempting to beat the record for the world's longest car jump when things went very wrong.
Ok, all internet video hyperbole aside this is absolutely, horribly and terribly nuts. And the dashcam video of poor Guerlain is just heartbreaking. Thank god he escaped with his life.
Skip to the 7-minute mark to see the juiciest bit but be sure to also check out the whole film for the behind-the-scenes account of this fateful day.
"When I woke up the morning of jump day, I called my wife and told
her that I had a bad feeling. I've traveled the world for motorsports
and seen hundreds of crashes - multiple car pile ups at high
speeds, race cars rolling end-over-end, sometimes on fire."
James Kirkam, the 4 Wheel Motor Sports Creative Team Leader for
GoPro Original Productions, wrote of the experience on the scene
that day.
Professional skier and rally driver Guerlain Chicherit attempted to
beat the world record for longest ramp car jump. The result was not
what he had hoped for (min:sec that starts the teaser video), and
the video that came from it was not just a crash video.
"The life of a professional stunt athlete is rarely without
consequences," James explains. "We see them fall, crash, get hurt
and, yes, sometimes they die. But what we captured inside of
Guerlain's car was very different than a crash video -- it was a
deeply ethereal, intimate human experience. We captured 'that
moment' - A look on a man's face and a light in his eyes when he
realizes, 'this is it. I am going to die'. Three or four seconds that
seem like minutes, without time. Where I expected to see fear,
panic, contortion, and pain, Guerlain shows us a deep existential
calm."
It was a record of one man confronting his own mortality, and
ultimately experiencing a moment of what we can only describe as
grace.
Shot 100% on theHD HERO3+® camera from http://GoPro.com.
