Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Meet daredevil former paratrooper John Bream 'the Flying Fish'
National World - Broadcast Video
Follow
19/01/2024
John Bream, who holds the Guinness World Record for the highest jump from an aircraft into water, talks about his life as stunt rigger, daredevil and a record breaker.
Category
đź—ž
News
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
Three, two, one, go.
00:02
I'm John the Flying Fish.
00:26
Yeah, I'm a... predominantly I'm a rope worker,
00:31
a stunt rigger and a daredevil performer.
00:36
That's what I like to do.
00:38
(MUSIC)
01:04
The way all my stories came around, or the way I became, you know,
01:10
doing these performances was, I was doing a lot of stunt rigging.
01:13
So I was rigging stunts, preparing stunts, you know,
01:17
coming up with ideas and stuff.
01:19
So for some of the world's leading adventurers all around the world,
01:23
and it was good fun, it was really good.
01:26
You know, I'd become quite a good rope tech,
01:29
so performing, rigging these stunts was great.
01:32
And I was watching people and I was thinking,
01:35
"Maybe I could do a bit more, you know, maybe I could go that bit further."
01:40
And there was something in me all along, thinking, you know,
01:43
"I could perhaps do something great."
01:46
And, yeah, so I thought I'm going to go for a big performance myself,
01:50
and I thought the world's highest jump from an aircraft into water
01:54
was one to keep people smiling, keeping them entertained.
01:58
And I thought, "If I'm doing this big stunt, if I'm doing something great,
02:03
I'm going to perhaps, you know, try and help people."
02:06
And what I did, I did it for awareness of veteran suicide.
02:11
Ironically, I nearly died.
02:13
No, it was all good, everything was OK.
02:16
But, no, yes, I did it for the awareness of veteran suicide
02:19
and veterans' mental health, you know.
02:22
And there were some lovely charities who I raised money for,
02:25
and a good local Portsmouth charity known as All Call Signs.
02:29
Yeah, so to prepare for a jump such as the high jump
02:34
from the aircraft into water that I did, physically,
02:39
so I had to physically train, you know, every day,
02:42
you know, hard, hard circuits, a lot of strength and conditioning.
02:45
I was really on form.
02:47
But I had to go all round, I went all round the country
02:50
jumping from high objects, you know, constantly,
02:53
bam, bam, bam, jumping from high, different cliffs, bridges,
02:56
anything I could get to,
02:58
where people wouldn't phone up and get me arrested for the police.
03:01
You know, "We've got a lunatic jumping off a bridge."
03:04
So, yeah, it was things like that.
03:06
But, yeah, no, it was just, yeah, just constant jumping from high.
03:10
So, with the high jump, once it had happened,
03:13
once I'd hit the water, yeah, to be honest,
03:17
the weather conditions were awful.
03:19
You know, the sea state was... It was unreal.
03:23
The boats were saying, "We never go out in this weather."
03:26
It was crazy, you know.
03:28
But the helicopters were there, you know, everything,
03:30
all the money had been raised, everyone was going,
03:33
and it just... I just couldn't see, you know, putting off any longer.
03:36
It had been postponed, postponed, postponed
03:38
for things like the Civil Aviation Authority, constant hold-ups.
03:42
You know, there was an oil tanker that had been hijacked
03:45
off the coast of the Isle of Wight,
03:47
and the Special Forces had to go in and clear that,
03:50
and that was putting my jump at risk, you know, again.
03:53
So there were so many elements for my big jump
03:56
that it wasn't going to happen.
03:58
So when it came to it, and it was a bit of bad weather,
04:01
I just got to the point, you know, "We need to go."
04:03
The helicopter pilots, the boats, everyone saying,
04:06
"Don't do it."
04:08
But I just, you know, I just went for it, yeah, just go for it.
04:12
And, yeah, so it was hard.
04:15
It was... it was a bad landing.
04:18
It wasn't the finest, you know.
04:20
I was a bit...
04:23
I was a little bit dizzy when I came, you know,
04:26
when I resurfaced and things, and it was tough going.
04:30
But it all was OK.
04:32
I did actually have a trip to the hospital as well.
04:36
I went there just as a check-over,
04:38
but, you know, I was discharged within an hour or so,
04:41
and I made the surgeons laugh and things like that,
04:43
so it was just good morale.
04:45
And, you know, it was at a time during COVID,
04:49
and the surgeon said, "What are you doing jumping from an aircraft?"
04:52
I said, "It was doubly dangerous,
04:54
"because I wasn't even wearing a COVID mask either."
04:56
And, yeah, so it was good fun.
04:59
But, no, all was OK.
05:01
So the moment before I exited, I was up there,
05:04
and the pilot, excellent pilot, Army fighter pilot,
05:09
brilliant fellow, Andrew Harvey, mega.
05:12
He was in this little aircraft trying to keep it steady,
05:16
and he was doing such a fine job, and he kept looking round at me, you know.
05:19
"John! John!" I was going, "No, we're doing this!"
05:22
And he's holding it steady, and the winds are going,
05:25
and the waves are higher than this room,
05:27
and my safety divers are getting washed off,
05:30
and everyone's in the boat, "Aah!"
05:32
You know, the pump for the water to break the surface tension
05:34
wasn't even hitting the water, it was flying off.
05:37
And it was going crazy.
05:39
And before I'm jumping, I can just see down below,
05:42
I saw this smoke. Smoke got popped to me, and to where to go,
05:46
and it was just disappearing.
05:47
And I was thinking, "Hang on a minute, that wants to be the area where I'm jumping."
05:50
But it was just blowing away.
05:52
And the waves are going up and down,
05:54
and that's taking the altimeter from the helicopter pilot.
05:57
And, yeah, it was really exciting.
06:00
And I got a friend of mine, Hugh Keer, excellent bloke.
06:04
He was there dispatching me, ready to go.
06:06
He was the jump master for the day.
06:08
And he's giving me the thumbs up.
06:09
And I remember just there, I took a few deep breaths.
06:12
And I felt good. I felt strong.
06:14
I thought, "Yeah, I'm going to go for it."
06:16
But then I jumped, and the wind coming in, it took my legs.
06:19
And I was going down, and I thought, "Ooh!"
06:23
I thought, "I better brace up before I hit the water."
06:25
And, yeah, it was all right.
06:29
- And it was all over in a flash.
06:31
- It was, yeah, it was about three and a half seconds of,
06:35
"This is going to sting."
06:37
So when I surfaced, I came up, and I got the boat sped around,
06:42
and we all got together, and we all climbed in the boat.
06:44
And I really felt my backside was quite sore.
06:49
And I said to the guys, I went, "How was my entry?"
06:53
And a couple of the lads kept quiet and just ignored me.
06:57
And one of them turned around and went, "Yeah, it was awful, John.
07:00
That was probably one of your worst jumps."
07:02
But, no, it was OK.
07:05
It turned out good.
07:07
And then you guys came up with the cameras and stuff,
07:10
and someone shouted, "John, how did it go?"
07:13
And I said, "Swimmingly!"
07:15
You know, just thinking it was great.
07:17
And then it wasn't until the boat drew on my back
07:20
that all the aches and pains started kicking in.
07:23
And, yeah, we shot me back, and then it was, yeah,
07:26
two paracetamol, and off you go, get yourself checked up.
07:30
Yeah.
07:32
So since this big jump, a few things have come about.
07:36
I've been doing a lot of base jumping,
07:39
and base jumping is when you put on a parachute
07:42
and jump off of a fixed object.
07:44
You know, it could be a building, an antenna,
07:47
a bridge, or maybe a cliff.
07:50
And, yeah, I'm finding it super exhilarating.
07:54
It's really good fun.
07:56
And, yeah, I found myself going around the world, really.
07:59
I was lucky enough to jump off the Eiger,
08:03
a huge mountain in Switzerland, last year.
08:07
And I managed to jump down and fly
08:09
all the north face of the Eiger.
08:11
So it was a really satisfying jump.
08:14
And, yeah, I had a good time doing it.
08:17
And I've been lucky enough to get a few other, you know, objects.
08:21
As I've been going, I went out to the Ukraine
08:24
with Vans Without Borders,
08:26
a charity who helped take aid to the Ukraine.
08:29
I went with them during the Russian invasion.
08:32
And we got all the way to the Russian border on the east.
08:35
And we got to an area where there was a huge massacre
08:39
a couple of days after this massacre,
08:41
and the buildings had been bombed.
08:43
And we were helping out some of the survivors.
08:45
And one of the buildings, like I said, had been bombed.
08:48
So I went to the guys.
08:50
I said, "Do you want a bit of cheering up?
08:52
"I'm going to go up the top and jump off."
08:54
And so I went up and jumped off this bombed building out there
08:57
and, you know, made them giggle.
08:59
It lifted morale slightly, so that was fun.
09:02
And, yeah, I've been lucky enough for the areas of such...
09:05
You know, Portsmouth is my hometown, where I am.
09:08
And, you know, we got the Spinnaker.
09:10
I managed to hop off of that.
09:12
The landing wasn't too good, though.
09:14
I was meant to land on a nice walkway,
09:16
but I ended up landing in the water,
09:18
you know, where they drive the model boats.
09:20
Yeah, so swimming out of that
09:22
and getting my wet parachute out,
09:24
and then obviously the security were a bit, "What's going on?"
09:27
Luckily, it was just me.
09:29
I tried telling them. I said, "It was the pilot."
09:31
You know, like, "Didn't you see the aircraft?
09:33
"You dropped us in the wrong place."
09:35
I've no jump as ever compared to when I was jumping
09:40
in the parachute regiment, the military jumps.
09:43
You know, I started...
09:45
You know, my first jump was 2003 as a 17-year-old lad.
09:49
And, you know, Nine Stone, wet through,
09:53
and having equipment on me,
09:56
you know, big guys, loads of guys,
09:58
all in a stick, ready to jump out the doors.
10:01
You know, many aircraft, as I mentioned, pitch black,
10:04
low-level flying, lots of, you know, terrible winds.
10:08
You don't know the drop zone.
10:10
You're under a parachute that you cannot control or steer.
10:14
There are chaps everywhere.
10:16
There's so many injuries.
10:18
It was petrifying.
10:20
So I've always said, "No base jump I've done yet
10:22
"as compared to jumping with the parachute regiment."
10:25
The feeling before you jump,
10:27
it's actually known as a thing called the flow state.
10:30
So what happens with that is your body,
10:34
sort of, you know, your in-body, your mind,
10:38
but you sort of take...
10:40
You get an out-of-body experience.
10:42
It's sort of... You just go on adrenaline, and it's crazy.
10:46
So this flow state just, you know, takes over,
10:49
and you go into autopilot, and you just go.
10:52
A lot of people have countdowns, you know, 3, 2, 1, see you.
10:55
And when that starts, when they start the countdown, they're off.
10:59
I personally, I like to do a lot of breathing before I jump,
11:02
really, you know, maintain focus.
11:05
And other people have different ways of coping mechanisms,
11:09
but, you know, the count's normally a big one.
11:12
But the feeling you get is just...
11:15
There's none like it.
11:16
Not a single worry that you had is on your mind.
11:19
Everything, you're focused on this and nothing else.
11:22
And it's a real escapism. It's good fun.
11:25
So I have been in talks with certain energy drink companies,
11:30
but nothing's confirmed yet.
11:32
You know, it's all just chat and things like that.
11:35
So nothing is confirmed,
11:37
and nothing's official or anything like that.
11:40
But if something does get ticked,
11:44
yeah, definitely be looking up,
11:46
because there are going to be some serious world records coming from myself.
11:51
[MUSIC]
11:56
(explosion)
11:58
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Recommended
5:04
|
Up next
John Bream: The Flying Fish record breaker
The News, Portsmouth
23/01/2024
1:28
John Bream jumping from the Spinnaker Tower
The News, Portsmouth
13/10/2021
0:23
Couple perform world record breaking stunt | Illawarra Mercury
Illawarra Mercury
22/08/2023
3:53
Eddie "The Eagle" Sets Toboggan Jumping World Record!
Red Bull
18/04/2016
0:12
Surfers Pull Off Incredible Stunt in Longboard Vs. Shortboard Experiment
StoryfulViral
17/04/2018
1:22
Behind-the-scenes look at Blackpool's training camp
Blackpool Gazette
yesterday
5:02
Blackpool defender discusses pre-season camp, fighting back from injury, and his ambitions for the season
Blackpool Gazette
yesterday
1:00
What makes the perfect pub garden - and should smoking be banned in outdoor drinking spaces?
National World - LocalTV
yesterday
2:15
Matthew Potts “can’t fault effort” from Durham after tough day against Surrey
National World - LocalTV
yesterday
4:45
Newcastle United Transfer Latest: Magpies miss out on Pedro but close in on Trafford
National World - LocalTV
yesterday
5:53
How will Florent Ghisolfi's arrival impact Sunderland?
Sunderland Echo
2 days ago
4:11
What's Régis Le Bris's long-term future at Sunderland?
Sunderland Echo
2 days ago
36:06
On The Whistle LIVE from The Bridge Hotel Vaults
Sunderland Echo
2 days ago
1:18
High-quality jobs for young people in Blackpool
Blackpool Gazette
3 days ago
36:00
Screen Babble: All the best TV and film for 2025
National World - Broadcast Video
10/01/2025
36:00
Kick and Chase: Contenders to start for the British & Irish Lions
National World - Broadcast Video
04/12/2024
0:45
Strictly fever comes to Blackpool TRAILER
National World - Broadcast Video
19/11/2024
0:15
Shots! launches new TV schedule
National World - Broadcast Video
08/11/2024
24:00
Athletics Weekly: Georgia Bell’s rapid progress, plus the impact of super shoes
National World - Broadcast Video
14/10/2024
12:00
Unconventional Brits: Episode 4
National World - Broadcast Video
06/09/2024
24:00
Gull-Mouth Action podcast: Veltman incident and Crawley's transfer window
National World - Broadcast Video
06/09/2024
24:00
Illuminating Blackpool
National World - Broadcast Video
05/09/2024
24:00
Fitbaw Talk: Naismith needs to talk to Hearts, Hibs and Motherwell Transfer deadline wins
National World - Broadcast Video
04/09/2024
24:00
The Roar: Transfer Deadline Day Reaction
National World - Broadcast Video
02/09/2024
24:00
Geordie Journos: Spurs win and Darren Eales
National World - Broadcast Video
02/09/2024