INTERVIEW
“That was very risky, and I
would never think of being involved in
anything like that again.”
connected to his nose to supply
oxygen.
“But while on the trapeze he was so
exuberant he started breathing through
his mouth rather than his nose, and
fell into an almost semi-conscious
state. We asked him if he was OK,
and he replied ‘It’s high, I am cold
and very tired’. Thankfully we just
managed to pull him back into the
basket before he collapsed. But he was
all right after an emergency decent and
he breathed in pure oxygen.”
If that was not enough the pair
then combined with the Army’s Red
Devils parachute display team for
another daredevil act. Four Red Devils
jumped out of the balloon basket, and
deployed their chutes. The parachutists
were caught up by the balloon which
was allowed to semi deflate, before
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being re -inflated to match their
descent speed, and the parachute team
clambered back into the basket after
flying into a safety net slung under
it. Two parachutists got back into the
basket – creating the record as the
previous time it was tried only one
made it back in!
“That was very risky, and I would
never think of being involved in
anything like that again,” admitted
Chris.
Then came the TV ‘You Bet’
programme challenge. Chris first
tested it out to make sure it was
possible, before Mike – at a height
of 3,000ft - climbed from the basket
to the top of the balloon on a rope
ladder, stood on the top of the balloon
and then abseiled down the o ther side
- and all in the space of three allocated
minutes. He made it with one second
to spare!
When Chris arrived on the
Island as a youngster, moving from
Southampton, and attended school at
Shanklin Primary, Ventnor Middle and
Sandown High Schools he could never
have envisaged the two diverse careers
that lay ahead.
After summer holidays spent working
on Shanklin beach, he took a degree
in surveying at Portsmouth University,
and moved to London with his career
path seemingly mapped out. Within
a few years he and wife Lyn moved
to Sevenoaks in Kent and set up a
firm of Chartered Surveyors, but as
the recession began to bite they sold
their home and rented an oast house
in Paddockwood, looking for a new
challenge.