Daredevil reveals how he cheated death after plunging 964ft from 77-storey hotel to set world ‘wake-base’ record
A DAREDEVIL athlete has revealed how he trained for seven years before hurling himself off a 77-storey hotel to set a new world record.
Brian Grubb, 43, defied death as he skated off the world’s tallest infinity pool in Dubai, performing a breathtaking stunt that was the first of its kind.
Brian first took the ambitious idea to Red Bull seven years ago – and it took hours of work to pull off the stunt.
He was already a three-times world champion wake-skater before the stunt but wanted to add another string to his bow.
Wakeskating is a variation of the water sport wakeboarding – where the rider is not bound to the board.
“It’s a very dangerous sport. I didn’t know if I really wanted to get into it,” Brian told The Sun.
But, with many skydives already under his belt, he decided to give it a whirl and “fell in love”.
Describing the extensive planning process, Brian said: “There’s a lot of things that went into the project that we had to invent, and build.”
This included a drone that was powerful enough to pull him along and launch him off the building – and the monster gadget took more than a year to design.
A special ramp to give Brian enough momentum to safely clear the building and open his parachute was also custom built.
The jump took hours of training and Brian had the help of legendary base jumper – Miles Daisher – to oversee and mentor him.
Brian also had to find a sponsorship partner for the project and settled on Prada’s luxury sportswear line Linea Rossa.
Although the team did as much preparation as possible, the stunt in its entirety would have no rehearsal.
Brian managed to make his “pipe dream” a reality – but would have faced a terrifying situation if just one thing went wrong.
He said his “number one” safety concern was getting caught in the board tether and explained how there “wasn’t a lot of outs”.
“If I got tangled up in it, then I could have been hanging underneath the drone as well,” he said.
“The (drone) pilot wouldn’t be able to see me, because I would have gone below the building.”
Brian had a radio so he could communicate with the drone flyer but he never had to use it.
“As I got on my board the speed was perfect, and I never said a word to him the whole time,” he said.
“We just nailed it first try.”
A clip of the remarkable stunt has become the most watched Red Bull Instagram video of all time – racking up 66 million views.
In the footage, Brian skates along the skyline at 964ft – towed by a custom designed drone.
The height of the building isn’t initially clear from the camera angle but the clip takes a stomach-churning turn as a huge ramp appears.
Brian – sporting a full Prada getup and bleach blonde hair – skates up the slope and soars off the edge as he free falls off a skyscraper.
Once airborne, the athlete hurtles towards the ground before he deploys his parachute.
After a short flight down Brian lands on the beach below and greeted by cheers and high fives from a stunned crowd and his support team.
Although Brian risked his life to achieve the feat, he managed to keep his nerves at bay.
“I slept great the night before I was up like before my alarm. I was like super excited to get up there and see it,” he said.
But the prospect of the jump going ahead initially seemed bleak as the weather wasn’t on their side.
“At about 8.15am we were like ‘this probably isn’t gonna happen’,” he said.
I’ve been thinking about this for years and years – just the moment of being in the pool, getting on my board, hitting the ramp
Brian Grubb
He added that the wind was “unfavourable” and “gusting 13mph”.
But the team received a “sign” that they might still have one chance.
“It was kinda crazy, this balloon floated up from the ground,” he said.
“We have no idea where it came from or anything but we watched this balloon rise up the whole side of the building and it wasn’t moving.
“It just was coming straight up. It was a perfect wind indicator. It was so great. We were like, ‘this is like a sign’.”
At 8:24am, a four-minute countdown began.
Brian said he didn’t do anything special to prepare – except having a sip of Red Bull for energy.
He said he was “very calm and ready and very excited to to do it”.
“I’ve been thinking about this for years and years, just this moment of being in the pool getting on my board, hitting the ramp,” he said.
The team only had a “three hour window” to do the jump as it was done from the top of a busy five-star hotel.
Although the Address Beach Resort was “very accommodating”, they weren’t willing to stand in the way of sunseekers flocking to the pool.
Although the stunt was packed with danger, fortunately “everything went exactly according to plan”, Brian said.
“I had a perfect opening, and was basically safe at that point,” he said.
“I was super, super excited. I could hear everyone down on the beach cheering.”
“It was just a really awesome moment for both of us and for everybody on the team.”
And a place in the history books wasn’t the only bonus for Brian as him and his team were invited to stay at the lavish hotel in the lead up to the jump – and Brian also bagged himself some free designer clothing.
Brian said: “It was beautiful hotel with super great food.”
“It was like the full experience of getting to jump off the roof and stay at the hotel.”