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Meet daredevil former paratrooper John Bream 'the Flying Fish'
National World - Broadcast Video
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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.
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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]
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