Privateer Profile: The Guy Who Jumps With A Parachute

Oh, and the next time you think you “sent it” at your local riding spot, ask yourself one question: “Did I need a parachute?”

This guy did.

Racer X: First things first, holy crap, dude. What was that? 
Bradley O’Neal: [Laughs] That was my fifth-scariest MotoBASE jump so far. 

FIFTH?! Wait, this is possibly the gnarliest thing I’ve seen in a while, and it’s not even your scariest?
Well, they have all been equally scary because each time I do it it’s usually a first time thing. This one was the second time I’ve used the parachute on the bike. I had only tested it one time before, but it was two months ago off a little cliff/sand bag jump I built. I think that one was scarier cause it was the first time I had actually tied myself into my bike and launched something.

Can you tell me a little bit about how this idea even came about?
I’ve had the idea since I was pretty young. Early teen years, me and my best friend Cody Irby kinda came up with the idea of launching a bike high enough to BASE jump/skydive from. Once I started skydiving and BASE jumping, I realized it was actually a possibility if I took the time to figure it all out. It’s just evolved over the past decade and now it’s about becoming sustainable.  I use the same bike now, with the objective of keeping myself and my bike alive. The jumps before, I would waste an old Craigslist bike cause we were still figuring things out. Back then, all I was focused on was keeping myself alive! Now it’s getting a little more real!

I’m looking at your Instagram right now. Are you a BASE jumper who likes moto, or a moto guy who likes BASE jumping? What’s your story?
I am a moto freerider from early childhood. I raced all the amateur stuff growing up. Sucked pretty bad at racing.  Got my supercross license in ‘08 and did terrible but had fun. I started skydiving and BASE jumping around 20 years old. Once I started jumping I totally forgot about any kind of racing and then BASE jumping took over. It’s been a mission to create freeride lines and MotoBASE jumps and combine the two ever since. 

Is this profitable or just a hobby thing?
Skydiving and BASE jumping has been my main income for the last seven years. MotoBASE is just now starting to get me opportunities and sponsor stuff so that’s awesome. But it’s all passion project stuff. I mean, everyone thinks I’m some rich dude who just wastes money doing all this but that’s so far from reality. I work super hard and live in a van full time so I can travel building jumps and chasing this dream.

That’s gnarly. Back to your last jump. How fast did you hit the take off and how high did you actually jump?
I had my bike topping out just under 80. I was having trouble getting the full speed with how gnarly the run up was. Especially with having the jump before the ditch, on the transition bottom. I was doing 73 mph when I hit the jump.  

How high in the air were you? Do you even actually know?
I had a piece of equipment called a Flysight we use to GPS track our altitude and speeds skydiving and stuff, so I do have info. I don’t want to disclose too much cause I’m using that for future projects, but I did get over 145 feet in altitude from landing.  

Just re-watched the video, your front wheel starts lifting a little bit before take-off, you totally could have back-flipped that!
[Laughs] Right! I basically had to preload off the rear wheel only. It was a trippy feeling but worked out nice! A backflip MotoBASE is definitely in my future but I have a couple other things I’m trying to tick off first. As I say, “baby leaps.” 

Let’s talk about the jump itself. How much grooming and prep went into that face? 
Oh, man… so much. That jump is not possible without totally changing the transition angle at the bottom. We spent 11 days total out there shoveling, raking, and swinging a pick axe. We had 150 sand bags and laid 150 feet of carpet for traction cause there’s not a drop of water anywhere near there. I just left the place last night. It’s been an absolute mission. I would say it was equivalent to some of the dudes builds for [Red Bull] Rampage [the mountain bike event] time wise. 

And you didn’t really get a practice run, right? Just had to literally “send it?”
[Laughs] Yeah that’s the thing with MotoBASE jumps. All preparation and then being able to pull the trigger when it’s time. It’s scary as hell honestly.

What was the feeling like upon landing it? You seemed stoked!
Oh man I was so pumped to land on my feet safely. I did this jump two years ago and almost died.  Landed so hard on the talus. So to make it clean this year was an awesome feeling and I learned so much from it. 

Oh wow! So this was kind of a redemption thing for you, huh?
Yeah for sure. I knew what needed to be done to make it clean so to pull it this time was an awesome feeling. Still could improve on some stuff but I’m getting more support with equipment nowadays so it’s getting so much safer and more fun.