STORY NAME: BULGARIA BASE JUMPERS

DURATION: 3.37

STORYLINE:

In the morning under the Asparuhov bridge between Black sea and Varna’s lake, base jumpers prepare their parachutes for jumps over the 52 meters height bridge which is one of the lowest level for base jumps.Base jumping is the sport of using a parachute to jump from fixed objects. "BASE" is an acronym that stands for the four categories of objects from which one can jump, like buildings, bridges, antennas, spans, and earth.To make things more interesting, base-jumpers jump off various cliffs and man-made a low altitude objects, with only a few seconds to deploy the parachute, and virtually no time at all to deal with problems or malfunctions.Base jumping is so incredibly risky that it's actually illegal in many places.But in Bulgaria for the moment it is not illegal Starting in 1981 and as of May 9th, 2010 there have been at least 147 fatalities related to the sport. Base jumping is one of the world's more dangerous recreational activities, with overall fatalities in 2002 estimated at about one fatality per sixty participants.The club “Adrenalin” is the first and only one club which offers base and bungee jumps in the Balkan country.It was founded twenty years ago by former Bulgarian paratrooper Rosen Kasabov as they first start only by bungee jumps and from last year for the first time they offer and base jumps for everybody who wants to visit Black sea for the summer time.The bridge offers 52 meters altitude and as for the full parachute opening it needs 38-45 meters of free flight.At this reason many times the parachute is not fully opened or the time is not enough the speed to be reduced to low and save speed to hit the surface and only the water at the canal saves the jumper by injury.

Some jumpers do not attach the parachute folded at the rucksack on their back and prefer to hold it almost unfurled at hands and jump holding it as in the first 5-15 meters of the flight it opens very quickly and that is the way to hit the surface very gently and is more safe.

The base jumps place at the canal is good for jumps because of there is a water under it, but is possible sometimes any ship, small boat to hit the jumper or wind impulse to strike him on the bridge pillars and kill him.

During the base jumps people who are scared to do base can try bungee jumping using an elastic rope, as sometimes is possible to hit gently the water at the end of fly which is about 3-4 seconds.

For the past year the club provided more than thousand jumps as no one is fatal or any jumper been wounded.