Finding Gold

Brazilian BASE trip by: The Bobs

By KAVU

January 19^th, 2021

Learning terminal, or “Big Wall” BASE jumping is an extremely difficult task. Contrary to what you might think, large, overhung, legal, and easily accessible cliffs to jump and fly are pretty hard to come by, and can commonly have a short window of time each season where they’re not covered in snow.

Turns out....... there’s heaps of perfect big walls south of the equator, nestled in the lush, green jungles of Brazil.

Julia and I decided to take a group of friends on a trip with us to Brazil...... down to her old back yard, and teach some big wall BASE jumping skills with hopes of improving the group's safe practice and knowledge of this amazing way to fly.

Before meeting the group, we started our trip off with a little "family and friends" time in Rio De Janeiro. A couple wingsuit jumps from Pedra Da Gavea to the beach at Sao Conrado , along with a few slider-off hops into the Favela of Providencia definitely had the adventure starting off on the right foot!

KAVU Days lead to more KAVU days with the right attitude!

We packed up everyone after a New Years celebration and headed north to the state of Espirito Santo. About 25 min outside of Castelo lies Pedra da Cabrito. Surrounded by coffee plantations, the black and gray rock walls jut up almost 900 meters (approx 3000'), providing ample altitude to learn terminal tracking and wingsuit BASE jumping.

Skyline that inspires......

We also had the opportunity to ride up to a relatively new, super overhung, location called Pedra do Penado.

Recently opened by local Brazilian wingsuiter Gabriel Lott, Penado is a prime location for newer jumpers to sink there teeth into slider-up tracking.......

..... Not to mention being, like so much of Brazil...... mind-bendingly beautiful!!

Its massively overhung wall with short, easy hikes to access the BASE exits allowed for the kind of repetition necessary for learning how to "track", or "fly your body" away from a wall. Learning to do this well makes for much safer openings and overall, safer jumps.

We ended the trip back in Castelo for some more Cabrito’s..... and even a track from Pedra do Fio.

There was lots of learning on this trip for everyone but..... always..... the most important part was that everyone landed safe and had smiles and laughing to share with everyone. Being inspired and motivated keeps us engaged with life. Sharing it is a gift.