Crazy youtube vid of kids on several hundred foot tower

[Clayton_e]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nDKVRyF00M

Well, it doesn't look faked, the angles all seem right and nothing looks bluescreened to me.. It seems weird that there's absolutely no wind, but might've just been a crazy not windy day.

Can we get a translator?

There's some small text on a beam that can be paused and read, I couldn't make anything of it, though.

What could a tower like this be used for? How would they get up there?

Where the hell are they?

[Panacea]

I couldn't watch it.

[Zeener Diode]

Sounds Cyrillic.

[HongKongFooey]

Originally Posted by Zeener Diode

Sounds Cyrillic like lunatics.

FTFY

[Zeener Diode]

Hard to believe there's not a breeze up there. The kid's shirt doesn't ripple a bit.

[Chacoguy]

The smoke in the background is barely moving.

[Solfy]

Just watching that made my palms sweat.

[3acres]

Originally Posted by Clayton_e

What could a tower like this be used for? How would they get up there?

My guess is that it's a radio/TV transmission tower. They can be really tall: one that collapsed in Missouri in 1988 was about 2000 feet tall. The towers have ladders built into them for maintenance access; the kids could just use that.

I used to work with a guy who'd been on a tower maintenance crew in a previous job. They went around changing the aircraft warning lights, checking bolts and braces, stuff like that. As far as I was concerned, the guy just wasn't right; he had no fear of heights.

[Zombies!]

The way they're moving seems legitimate. Especially the kid in red, there's the kind of nervous bravado there - "I'm shit scared, but my pals will rip the fuck out of me if I punk out so here I go"

[Blaidd Drwg]

If you think that's crazy, check out this video!

[iampunha]

Originally Posted by Zeener Diode

Sounds Cyrillic.

I was thinking Russian, which is Cyrillic.

[Dudley]

Hated it!

[Lungfish]

Ahhh, to be young and stupid again.

[SmartAleq]

Oh FFS, why do I click on these links? I know it's just going to make me sick to my stomach and make the back of my thighs crawl like a nest of centipedes, but I do it anyway.

[sturmhauke]

I've done some stupid shit in my time, but that was about 2 orders of magnitude stupider than all my stupid shit piled together into a giant stupid shit ball.

[Zeener Diode]

That's some degree of stupidity.

[Mbossa]

I DON'T THINK WHAT THEY DID WAS PARTICULARLY WISE

[eleanorigby]

I can't and won't watch it. I used to be able to watch stuff like that, but not after having kids. (ok, I never really was able to watch stuff like that....)


Not having seen it, I'm not sure who is crazier: the kids or the camera person.

[Khampelf]

That video gave me a serious case of the heebie jeebies, with a simultaneous attack of the willies, while experiencing goosebumps and serious crawling of skin.

OK, now to go click Blade Dog's link, or whatever the newbies name is. Welcome, newbie!

[Khampelf]

The second one creeped me out not at all. Maybe because they were French. Why a jazzed up punk rock version of Yankee Doodle? Can any one who speaks French tell me the lyrics?

[jali]

Both videos really got to me. No more clicking for me today.

[AHunter3]

I'm not sure it's scary in quite the same way as video #2, but if you haven't seen it before this short little hiking trip could be worth a glance.

[SmartAleq]

Originally Posted by AHunter3

I'm not sure it's scary in quite the same way as video #2, but if you haven't seen it before this short little hiking trip could be worth a glance.

That one didn't bother me nearly as much because it wasn't as high up, there actually is a trail even though the tard with the camera occasionally decided not to use it and there's water down there so the splat factor isn't nearly as evident. I can climb around on rocks and take trails with a drop on one side just fine although I'll be VERY cautious about it, but get up on a crane or tall metal tower? No fucking way.

[Falcon]

The tower one definitely scares me. This one doesn't, although it's even more dangerous. Maybe because I've always wished I could fly, and this is the closest I've ever seen someone come to doing it without being in a plane or hang glider.

[SmartAleq]

Originally Posted by Falcon

The tower one definitely scares me. This one doesn't, although it's even more dangerous. Maybe because I've always wished I could fly, and this is the closest I've ever seen someone come to doing it without being in a plane or hang glider.

OMG, that looks like FUN! Talk about falling with STYLE!

[Revs]

Originally Posted by Khampelf

The second one creeped me out not at all. Maybe because they were French. Why a jazzed up punk rock version of Yankee Doodle? Can any one who speaks French tell me the lyrics?

I think it was a cover of Friggin' In The Riggin' by the Sex Pistols. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV6R0I2oHKY

[Falcon]

Originally Posted by SmartAleq

OMG, that looks like FUN! Talk about falling with STYLE!

Yeah, I totally get why those guys go out and do that.

[SmartAleq]

Originally Posted by Falcon

Yeah, I totally get why those guys go out and do that.

See, I'd almost be willing to risk splatting like a bug after a trip like that, whereas assing around on those big scary towers is just stupidy. You gots to have a parachute before you go screwing around with heights like that.

[Panacea]

Man, how'd you like to be driving in a car and see one of those guys sail past! Hah!

[Falcon]

Originally Posted by SmartAleq

See, I'd almost be willing to risk splatting like a bug after a trip like that, whereas assing around on those big scary towers is just stupidy. You gots to have a parachute before you go screwing around with heights like that.

Exactly. And it's not like the guys in the wing suits woke up one morning and thought "Hey, I'll go buy a wingsuit and throw myself off a mountain." They acquired a lot of skill before they got there. Which doesn't mean people never get killed doing it. But if you're going to go for high-risk endeavors, at least get the training and equipment you need to better your odds.

I did once find a video of a guy in a wing suit who ended up splatting into a bridge with people on it. It wasn't horribly graphic, but still upsetting. Still, at least he died doing something he loved and was good at--it was an accident. Climbing up a tower, walking onto a beam with no equipment and then falling off is plain stupidity.

[Radical Edward]

Looking down doesn't scare me as much as looking up at the open sky, and knowing that you're kind of in it. Those kids are stupid.

[SmartAleq]

Yup, Falcon, it's the difference between romancing gravity and getting buttfucked by it...

[Clayton_e]

The second one made me even more queazy..

Well, at least if you fell you probably wouldn't be in any pain whatsoever.

[Khampelf]

Originally Posted by Revs

I think it was a cover of Friggin' In The Riggin' by the Sex Pistols. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV6R0I2oHKY

I've listened to them both, and earlier if definitely sounds like "Yankee Doodle", later it sounds more like 'friggin in the riggin'.

[krisolov]

I watched'em both. the second one bothered me a bit more. Hanging and doing pull ups unprotected? No.

I build (as in I'm the project manager for, but don't actually turn a wrench) and have work done on smaller towers (only 330 ft or so) and can honestly say that the guys who work up high are a different breed.

Most of the ones I've gotten to know are an interesting mix between meticulousness and adrenaline junkies. It's a game for the young, that's for sure.

It gets much more breezy as they go up generally, so doing stunts like those two on the videos are... unwise.

[Clayton_e]

At that height is there ever times where its just not breezy?

I mean, I'd assume you'd have gusts left and right.