Basically Extreme

An image of a New Zealand base-jumper against a backdrop of Kuala Lumpur’s skyline is one of the BBC’s ‘Week in Pictures’. Ninety-eight base jumpers took part in the annual International Tower Jump leaping off the 421m Malaysian building; the fifth tallest freestanding structure in the world. The extreme sport involves wearing a parachute and jumping from fixed objects. The word base stands for the four types of surface from which you can jump: buildings, antennas, spans (bridges) and earth (i.e. cliffs). Malaysia hosted the first base jump back in 1999. The numbers of spectators and participants in this annual event continues to increase every year as the sport grows more popular.