Some of us on the Red Bull Air Force recently returned from a really
great trip to the state of Mexico in the country of Mexico near the
city of Mexico City. It was really Mexican and it was a blast! We were
there to shoot a multi sport TV show for the Mexican sports channel
Televisa. Kind of like our ESPN. It was a show funded by the state of
Mexico to help promote tourism in that area. Altius,
https://www.altiuspro.com/
the Company hired to produce the show did a hell of a job juggling
many different sports and trying to nail all the shots they needed in
a less than a week. There were mountain bikers, break dancers, free
runners (Parkour), Kirby one of our Red Bull Air Race pilots and then
there was Mike Swanson, Jon DeVore, Miles Daisher and myself there to
do some base jumping, skydiving, wing suit flights, mountain flying
and swooping.
Right off the bat and immediately off the plane with no sleep I was
hauled off straight to a never before been jumped 300 foot cliff with
our local base jumper buddy “Gabo” and Miles D. That was sweet. Git er
done! All went well and we named the cliff Gabo’s Moose Knuckle. Our
police escort, even all the way up to the exit point, ensured our
constant entertainment. These cops were blasting MTV’s party to go
1993 anthems the whole way. It was hilarious. Miles, of course, stuck
the snot out of his signature skyak jump from the helicopter,landing
in the beautiful lake at Valle de Bravo. I was the follow camera for
that one and that didn’t suck either. Jon and Mike jumped from the
helicopter and buzzed some mountains and a children’s water park with
their high performance Ferrari’s for parachutes while Miles and I
buzzed the same mountain with our wing suits.
Since it was a show to promote tourism for the state they found it
necessary to film us going to many of the stunning attractions they
have in the area. We didn’t complain! So we spent all our spare time
going to see things like the place where all the Monarch butterflies
migrate to. This was absolutely mind blowing. There were millions of
the things completely enveloping the trees in the forest. They were
crawling all over us. We went to the Estrella Cave. This was a very
stunning cave system with passage ways all over the place. We went to
the best water park I have ever seen. Water parks are for kids right?
Not this one! It was full on. We went to the university to watch the
break dancers and the free runners. After seeing that I can no longer
feel comfortable calling myself an athlete. These were the best break
dancers in Mexico and, of course, the best I have ever seen but Miles
D served them up and then it was on! That boy’s got some surprising
skills on the cardboard but I’m gonna have to give it to the pros, by
a hair! The pros were shocked to see him throw down some pretty tight
moves though! The free runners have skills and strength that was mind
blowing. Think Jackie Chan times 10. Check out Chase and Coal here:
https://www.3runmedia.com/
These two were flipping and jumping off, over, across, up to and down
to anything and everything no matter where we were and onto hard
concrete and rocks. These guys see the natural and urban world through
some of the most creative goggles I have ever witnessed and they do it
without any sports equipment except their shoes. They would be a shoe
sponsor’s wet dream. Definitely worth checking out their sport if you
ever get the chance.
Production also also took us to the pyramids at Teotihuacan
Archaeological Park. What an incredible place! This place has the 3rd
largest pyramid in the world, The Pyramid of the Sun. It is believed
that the inhabitants of this large city built it around the first or
second century BC and it was as large or larger than Rome was at the
same time, the largest city in the Americas. Around 600 AD the
inhabitants seemed to have vanished with out a trace. No one really
knows why or to where. It was really a great experience getting to see
this important piece of history. From there production took us to one
of the state’s nicer spas because we had it so rough over the last few
days. I mean, all this grueling parachuting and the all expenses paid
sight seeing and exploring was really wearing us out! So we got to
make fun of Jon while he got a facial and then the rest of us got
massages. No, we didn’t get happy endings.
On the last night the producers polished off a great week by staging a
Mexican party for us. They put us in ponchos and sombreros and
mustaches and then proceeded to let us pour large quantities of
tequila down our throats while getting us to eat yummy Mexican
delicacies like problamo (sp???) and habanero peppers. My mouth has
never been in so much pain. It was worth it though just to get to
watch Miles try and pretend he was fine while eating a habanero. We
failed miserably to beat up a pinata and let extremely large green
bugs crawl all over us. I think they got the shots they needed! This
was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. We basically got paid to play
for a week. Cheers to all involved, can’t thank you enough and I hope
the TV show is a success and portrays how much fun there is to be had
in the state of Mexico in the country of Mexico near the city of
Mexico City!
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