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SALT LAKE CITY — A local adventure sports marketing company got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Sunday as they watched "Fearless Felix" jump from 24 miles above the earth and land safely on the ground.
The team of about a dozen workers from Mountain Sports International (MSI) provided the technical event production and ground operations. The company's vice president and co-founder, Dave Swanwick, returned this week and is describing what he saw as "mind blowing."
"Along with the rest of the world, we were watching and holding our breath, keeping our fingers crossed," Swanwick said. "We were just lucky enough to be that team that was right there."
Related:
Skydiver descends 24 miles, breaks sound barrier
Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner landed gracefully on Earth after a 24-mile jump Sunday from the stratosphere in a daring, dramatic feat that officials said made him the first skydiver to fall faster than the speed of sound.About four years ago, Red Bull asked MSI to sign onto this mind-blowing idea.
"I mean, the concept of taking someone to the edge of space and having them come back down, you know it's pretty audacious," Swanwick said.
He and about a dozen others on his team helped with ground event planning. "We've been planning it out a couple of times," Swanwick said, "so finally in our third time of planning out the event we were able to make it a reality."
That also meant a front-row ticket as the 55-story, ultra-thin helium balloon holding a capsule with Felix Baumgartner inside soared upward. Then they watched as Baumgartner jumped from his capsule 128,100 feet above the ground.
He was falling so effectively, and the speed was on the monitor; and when he went into the spins it was pretty nerve-racking.
–Dave Swanwick, MSI
"He was falling so effectively, and the speed was on the monitor," Swanwick said, "and when he went into the spins it was pretty nerve-racking."
Baumgartner reached a maximum speed of 833.9 miles per hour, faster than the speed of sound.
"(It's) pretty amazing technology that went into that," Swanwick said, "and seeing it all right there was pretty spectacular."
Shortly after he landed, Swanwick tracked down the man of the moment to congratulate him. But that congratulations, he said, extends far beyond "Fearless Felix."
"(It was) the sort of event that brings the whole world together," he said.
Swanwick and his team are currently wrapping up their project — something they say they'll never forget.
