“It’s 6 seconds to impact so allow for a bit of time and pull around 2-3 seconds”.

This was to be my first jump off Table Mountain. Karl had jumped it more than 150 times. I stepped back and looked out at the phenomenal view of the city below me. A few yachts lazily floated in the bay and down on the Clifton beaches romantic couples were popping the corks off their champagne to watch the final moments of light before the sunset. Cape Town is the most dramatic city in the world, and nothing can compare to the beauty of a still autumn evening. I gathered my thoughts, took a deep breath and did three neat steps before launching into the abyss.

The grey walls flashed past me as I began to pick up speed. The incredible silence had been transformed into the noise of rushing air. My mind began to register the objects coming up to meet me and I threw my pilot chute. My canopy cracked open perfectly and I started flying away from the wall and towards the city beneath me. I can’t think of anywhere in the world where you can have an experience quite like that.

Visually astounding

Base jumping is probably the most visually astounding sport on earth. The concept of leaping off buildings, antennas, bridges and cliffs is something that flies horribly in the face of common sense. It seems so humanly unnatural that people usually feel the need to respond by saying the practitioners have some “death wish” or are on the periphery of society seeking some meaning from life.

But the truth is far more boring: base jumping is a sport much like paragliding, skydiving and hang gliding. Like all sports it involves technique, experience and practice. It differs in that it is a brutally fast sport and one where the margin for error is very unforgiving. Rather group it with Formula One or street luge to get an idea of the reactions required.

I landed in the Tafelberg road and a moment later Karl neatly swooped down next to me. We packed up our parachutes and were greeted by a small group of onlookers who had gathered to watch us land. As we strolled back to the car he was met by his girlfriend Adele and they spoke about dinner plans for the night. It was a quiet, reserved conversation and the fact that we had just base jumped off the mountain was met with the same interest as if we had been out windsurfing.

To a skydiver the progression to base jumping isn’t as outrageous as it may seem to a layperson. Consider that in skydiving you free fall out of a plane and watch as your partner deploys his chute. All that changes in base jumping is that you “exit” from a fixed object that is significantly lower. The free fall concept is the same and the equipment is similar.

Perhaps perceptions will change

Perhaps the perception of the sport may change as time goes on. I remember as a kid watching people paraglide off Lions Head and thinking that they must be lunatics. Nowadays necks crane towards the gorgeous woman at the La Med bar rather than to those paragliders landing in the field below. It’s just perception.

Base jumpers are a pretty small group, with only about 10 or 15 in Cape Town. I would hazard a guess and say there are about 100 people that have base jumped in South Africa. All of them come from either a very experienced skydiving background or from a lifetime in extreme sports.

Due to the experience required, the jumpers are generally older than most people expect. Many of them are married and some of them have children. There is even a base jumpers' whiskey club, making us quite a civilised bunch actually.

In a society that loves to regulate us, our sports offer a chance to express our individuality. People prefer to choose activities that aren’t regulated. The freedoms that we enjoy in South Africa make this one of the most progressive countries in the world. The emphasis is on the individual to make his own choices as to how much “risk” he considers acceptable.

I trust that my friends involved in extreme sports assess the risks, whether they are surfing 30ft waves, kiting in gale force winds or base jumping off Table Mountain.