Meet daredevil former paratrooper John Bream 'the Flying Fish'

National World - Broadcast Video

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.

Transcript

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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