New Movie - Extreme Canyoneering

[bjp]

I am constantly amazed how thoroughly people believe that the particular trade off they have personally made between safety and desirable experiences is exactly the trade off that everyone else in the world is morally bound to make. Especially when the people chastising someone for doing something irresponsibly dangerous are the same people that are in the tiny (some might say "extreme") minority of the general public who have decided that canyoneering itself is an acceptable risk. Canyoneering is inherently dangerous -- it just happens to be worth the risk.

[lucach]

I can only see this leading to more accidents in the canyons, and possible further regulation.

Give me a break! These are professional stuntman and the "don't try this at home kid" goes implied.

I've done all the canyons they show in the videos (Cresciano, Iragna, Lodrino, etc.) and never thought of doing any of those crazy acrobatics they do in the video. I've done some, and seen friends do some more, but not THAT crazy. If someone wants to kill themselves trying to replicate these professionals, it deserves the Darwin awards.

Anyway, to conclude that these spectacular cool videos will produce more accidents is like saying extreme skiing or skateboarding or mountain biking videos produce more accidents. They probably do... but in such extremely small percentage that is irrelevant. (they victims would have done something else equally crazy after seeing a James Bond movie stunt)

[lucach]

More footage, same guys. I gotta learn how to do a sliding frontflip. I would love an Adidas sponsorship.

These ARE NOT the same guys as the original video! I personally know Luca Nizzola and David Tresaco, I've done canyons with them. These are very experienced class C canyoneers that like big jumps and toboggan but they are not professional stuntmen or circus acrobats like the folks in the first video. I've done some of the jumps and toboggans shown in the second video, they are scary but not dangerous, it's reflective of what canyoning in the alps is about. You won't see Luca or David jump 120ft or toboganning 90ft head first, that kind of stuff is "don't try this at home kid".

UPDATE: LET ME TAKE THAT BACK! Warren Verboom IS in the second video, and he IS a professional. He seems to have perfect control over his body, he can do a 75ft slide-and-jump that many dread, but when reached the edge of the rock he would stand up (while still sliding at full speed) and jump off the edge doing a flip, then once the flip is complete look back and decide if he has time to do another or correct trajectory to land perfectly in the water instead. Yes, he is THAT good. Warren has some of the most EXTREME CANYONING VIDEOS that I've ever seen, his company website is http://www.deapcanyoning.com/