Rookie Base Jumper Hooked on His Sport

base-hooksPeople get hooked on the thrill of extreme sports, but one man took his passion to a whole new level by literally hooking himself to a parachute, and not the way you are probably thinking.

Josh Miramant, 28, attached a parachute to his body using four eight-millimeter hooks pierced through his skin. In May, the U.S. base jumper from Maine took his painful leap of faith by performing a suspension jump, taking off from a cliff with his parachute attached by grappling hooks to his bare back. ()

Ouch! He is believed to be only the 11th person to make this type of leap.

Miramant never had any other type of piercing, but for his jump from a 380-foot high cliff in Ton Sai, Thailand he had four bolts bored into his upper back. The bolts were then fastened shut and the parachute hooks were attached to the bolts. He says having those piercings “was by far the most painful part of the experience,” he told Barcroft TV. 

After his successful jump the grappling hooks were removed, but evidence of the strain on his flesh was obvious from the heavily-bleeding incisions. Josh says he felt no pain during the jump because any discomfort was blocked by the huge adrenalin rush.

Insisting that he’s “not a masochist,” Miramant is now making plans to do it all over again later this year with a jump from a hot air balloon.