Wingsuiters

Base jumping with a wingsuit (called ‘wingsuiting’) has 1 received / revealed / attracting lot of 2 mainstream media / social media / media coverage after the death of two Americans in Yosemite National Park in 2015. But since this 3 particular / general / effective sport does not often appear in the sports pages of the 4 professional sports / media coverage / mainstream media, many people don’t have a clue what it actually is. After she had interviewed some wingsuiters, journalist Natasha Vrey wrote a 5 participating / revealing / likely article about the extreme sport called wingsuiting.

“People who are 6 take up / involved in / achieving base jumping typically jump with a parachute from a high fixed structure or a cliff,” she wrote. “But the development of wingsuits changed everything. It has had a  far-reaching 8 effect / result / difference on the sport, since it has enabled 9 person / spectators / athletes to 10 support / achieve / encourage the impossible: it made them fly! The design of the wingsuit is such that it increases your body’s surface area, thus slowing down the rate of descent, allowing you to ‘fly’ over an impressive horizontal area. Once the word got out that wingsuits can make you fly, there was 11 encourage / participate in / an increase in the number of people wanting to 12 involve in / take up / cover this dangerous sport, despite the 13 difficulty / poor / huge risks involved. In fact, the risks didn’t seem to make any 14 difference / reason / attention at all.”

The young 15 British / Brit / English, Saul Davis, is a keen wingsuiter. He told Vrey that he had always been 16 participate in / increase in / inspired by extreme sports. “For me, it’s the rush,” he said, “I love it. The riskier, the better. But my girlfriend is pregnant now, and I have to admit I probably wouldn’t 17 forward / devote / encourage my child to 18 increase in / participate in / play wingsuiting. It’s just too dangerous.” Will he stop wingsuiting once he becomes a father? “Sadly, I am not 19 likely / encourage / primarily to 20 continue / forward / focus on,” Davis replied, “I will miss the rush of course, but if I continue with this, I am almost certainly going to end up in hospital, or worse.”