So, yesterday morning I headed over to the Skylon Tower and got there a little after 11:15. I thought Dean Sullivan was going to be jumping at 11:30. It was a beautiful Summer day, with a slight wind. The wind would pick up a bit from time to time (at one point the rope going from the top of the tower to the bottom was blown quite a bit across the base of the tower), but it never seemed too much. When Dean was ready for the jump, there was barely any wind.
As we waited for the jump, more people gathered. At around 11:20 there was about a hundred people there, and within a few minutes, there was another 100 people there. I would guess there was somewhere between 200 and 300 people who gathered to watch the jump. If anything, by the time Dean actually jumped just after 12:00 pm, there may have been less people as people got sick of waiting.
Since things were delayed, it gave me a chance to see who was there. I’m sure there were more, but I saw representatives from the following media outlets:
- The River 105.1
- WGRZ Channel 2 out of Buffalo – they brought a van with satellite transmission equipment
- WIVB Channel 4 out of Buffalo
- WKBW Channel 7 out of Buffalo
- Tony Ricciuto from the Niagara Falls Review (I was standing beside him when he interviewed the guy from New Jersey for the article)
- Cogeco local cable TV
- CityTV out of Toronto
- CHCH out of Hamilton
- FallsTV (Niagara Falls Tourism)
There were also people wearing Daredevil Days shirts (this event was to promote that event). There were cameras on the building, but I don’t know who was operating those. The newspaper had said that Inside Edition was going to be there, but I didn’t see them and there is nothing on their site yet. There seemed to be a helicopter that circled a lot. I don’t know if that (or those) was part of the regular tours that happen or if they were there for the event.
Here are the pictures I took (video is below):
People were gathered on the balcony of the new Fallsview Casino smoking room
People were standing along the walkway between the Skylon Tower and the Fallsview Casino
People were sitting on the hill waiting for the event
There were two camera operators and some other people on top of the main building
There was a van from New York state…
…with a satellite transmitter on top. It turns out the van was from Channel 2 in Buffalo
This is a nice shot of what his drop was. Near the bottom of the tower you can see a thin white line on the right side, in front of the tower. That was his rope.
This is the top of the Skylon Tower before anything was ready
This is the top of the tower just as they started to get ready
This is the top of the Skylon Tower after he had dropped his rope. There was some sort of tarp under the rope at the top which I assume was so the rope didn’t rub against the concrete and fray/break
That is Dean’s head peering over the edge
Here he is just before he started his descent
Here he is partway down
As he reached the bottom, he disappeared from view. We certainly assumed he made it, but it wasn’t until he came to the edge that we knew for sure
Here is the video I took. You can view it here on the site, or view it on YouTube:
Lastly, the word has gotten out there already. Here is a list of places where I’ve read about the jump so far:
- Daredevil drops from Skylon Tower – London Free Press (a Canadian Press article)
- Canadian safely leaps from top of Skylon Tower – The Tonawanda News (Niagara Falls Review reprint)
- Man attempts jump of Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls, ON – WIVB Channel 4 (original article)
- Daredevil plunges face first off tower – Canoe CNews (Niagara Falls Review reprint)
- Daredevil Dean – Welland Tribune (Niagara Falls Review reprint)
- Who needs an elevator? – Niagara This Week (original article)
- Daredevil does rappel in Niagara – Nanaimo Daily News (original article) – note: this is a good article that mentions how he burned/melted through 2 sets of gloves on the way down. If you look at the picture as he was at the edge of the building, he seems to be looking down (maybe at his hands?)