#43 A Tribute to Kelan Dammers - The Traveling Wingsuit Base Jumper

Kelan Dammers had been traveling the world with his wingsuit and base jumping off cliffs, bridges, and helicopters. His experiences were so unique and incredible, we chose to record an episode with him about his experiences (Episode #16). Kelan was passionate about the sport, but practiced caution and was transparent about the realities of participating in a dangerous sport. Above all else, Kelan was a son, brother, and good friend to many. This episode is a tribute to his life, may he rest in peace.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This episode is in memory of KalenDammers. On April thirteenth, twenty twenty
two, we produced an episode onthe Globetrotters podcast titled Traveling the World in
the Wingsuit with Kalin Dammers. Forthose that aren't familiar with what wingsuit based
jumping is, it's when you usea flight suit or wingsuit to jump out

(00:20):
of mountains, helicopters, bridges,basically anything at high altitude and fly around.
That's a simple way of phrasing it. If you've never seen these videos
or heard of it, I recommendyou YouTube it. It's quite something.
I knew Klin for seven years.We were colleagues and lifeguards at UC Berkeley,
and first met on the night shiftat Golden Bear Pool. If you're

(00:42):
not familiar with the bay or thepools at Cow, then that name means
very little to you, but topatrons and lifeguards, it's a pool at
the top of a hill that overseesthe bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sunsets there, as you can imagine, are quite spectacular. I got there
for my shift on time and assumedthe other lifeguard wasn't going to make it
because we were half an hour intothis shift, and no one else had

(01:04):
showed up at a different pool.This might have been a bit of a
problem, but at Golden Bear,one guard is plenty. Eventually, Klin
did show up, a bit sweatyand out of breath. He told me
he had gone to the wrong pool, and by the time he realized his
mistake he needed a hustle and overto the hill. Given his frantic state,

(01:25):
I thought it was credible. Monthslater he would admit to me that
he overslept and came up with thatfib on the spot so he wouldn't get
in trouble. I don't blame him. It was the first time we had
met, but truthfully, had hetold me the truth on day one,
I don't think I would have cared. A few months and several dozen shifts
went by and we got along gradeI found out that he was a sky

(01:49):
diver with aspirations of becoming a wingsupbase jumper. Can't really say I've met
too many people in my life withthese dreams. If you knew Klin,
he would be a classic example ofnever judging book by its cover. When
we met, he was starting hissenior year as a mechanical engineer student at
UC Berkeley. He was serious,shy, oddly quiet, and sometimes if

(02:10):
you just looked over in his direction, you could tell he was thinking about
something and lost in his own world. He was a dedicated vegetarian with little
to no variety in his diet,and I mean no variety. He'd eat
plain, notoatmeal in the morning andheat cassadias with spinach throughout the day.
That was kind of it. Seriously, he was a messy roommate, and

(02:34):
we would often get into brotherly quarrelsabout it. His mom laughed when I
told her what most people wouldn't seeor couldn't see, was how dedicated and
meticulous he was about his jumps.He would constantly be checking weather and road
conditions to determine how many jumps hecould do in one evening. He would
spend most weekends Saturday and Sundays drivingover to the local skydiving facility and getting

(03:00):
as many jumps in from sunrise tosunset. On the weekdays, he would
work the maximum hours allowed by CowrexSports as a student worker. Looking back,
one thing I can't say with certaintyis if Iver saw him studying for
his classes outside of finals and it'sfunny, as I said that, I

(03:21):
heard a clip where he actually startedhis base jumping classes during finals weeks,
So I'm not even sure if that'strue about studying, not about his course,
but if he didn't, I wouldn'tbe surprised. He was a brilliant
person, and any person speaking tohim for more than two minutes could decipher
that on their own. That's probablythe main reason why I was so taken

(03:43):
and back when I found out abouthis passing, you think about the people
that this happens to, and yousay, never Kalin, He's got the
science down to a t. OnMay twenty seventh, twenty twenty two,
roughly a month and a half afterKlin's episode debuted, Calin passed away in
Switzerland after wink suit base jumping.Out of love and respect for his family

(04:08):
and friends, we had refrained fromcommenting until now. I've had a few
discussions with his mom Sins, andthe only thing all disclosed from our conversations
is something that gave me a bitof comfort. She told me that the
podcast recording had helped her family processtheir grief. They didn't know Calin had
recorded that episode, and he nevertold them about it. To have Calin

(04:30):
speak about his travel experiences and hisone pointed commitment and passion for wink suiting
was comforting for them, and thatcomforted me. Truthfully, I felt a
bit of guilt after hearing about hisdeath. The episode we had recorded that
lauded my friend's accomplishments and heroics soonturned to grief and despair that somehow these

(04:50):
recordings had played a role in hispassing. And while I understand that my
friend was too smart to be influencedby others, the feelings remained until I
listened to some of our recordings.Together with most guests, we record pre
interviews to introduce ourselves and increase thecomfort level between the co hosts and those
that we speak with. In thisregard, Calm was no different. And

(05:14):
there's two clips I want to playfor you. The first one details how
meticulous he was about his jumps.And listen to the tone of his voice
when he recalls this memory. Youcan hear the sheer joy in my friend's
voice about this particular jump in Iceland. And I get to the exit point
and like the moment, like I'mkind of coming up to it. This
cloud rolls in and it's fully sockedin and I can't see anything, and

(05:39):
I try to use my laser rangefinderto make sure this is the exit point,
like how high the cliff is.It doesn't work. I brought my
drone. I try and fly itout, like immediately every collision warning sinster
goes off and it's not flying inthe cloud. So I just take a
big rock, which is like theclassic way to do. It's called a
rock drop. And you can tellhow big a cliff is by dropping a
rock off and counting how many secondsstill hits the ground, So it's like

(06:00):
crawled the edge drop. The rockoff takes six and a half seconds,
seven seconds, which I'm like,okay, that's perfect, it's big enough.
And then it starts like sleeting upthere, and by then it's it's
midnight. It's like it's twelve am, and I just get in my wings
and put on my home and justhide in here and wait for it to
clear. And then all of asudden, the cloud just blows through and
I can see like as far asyou can imagine. I'm like, all
right, time to go, andI just walk up to the exit point

(06:25):
clean, like the condensation off myvisor and then go. And that was
super fulfilling because this is my firsttime at a new exit point alone where
I didn't have I jumped alone andI jumped new exit points, but like
needing to find it for myself,make my own decisions about whether or not
not have anyone to kind of askask questions like is this okay? Is

(06:47):
that okay? Is this the wayto go? Is all self reliant?
I hear that, and it remindsme that this is what my friend lives
for. Yes, he enjoyed thejumps, but he also enjoyed the process,
the planning, and the spontaneity that'sinvolved in a trip like this.
The second clip that I want toplay for you is the most important to

(07:10):
me. It's a reminder that Calinwasn't looking for fame, fortune or clout.
He simply loved the sport. Itbrought him happiness and it helped him
evolve as a person. I meanjust compared to how I was kind of
in my teens, just just moreconfident, outgoing independent, you know,
traveling to all these places on myown. Um, everything that's done for

(07:32):
me in my career. Because tobe honest, like it's it's it's what
got me the job at GoPro andthen helping at Apple, and and how
happy it makes me because I have, like a lot of people, struggled
with, you know, a lotof depression and you know, finding finding
your place and and and your purposeand what makes you happy. And this

(07:53):
was a big and tripping factor intouh yeah, and into finding my happiness.
And you know, so many ofus are continuously looking for a place
in the world, finding that onething that makes us happy, something worth
working towards. And it's fair tosay that Calen found it. And I
have nothing but admiration and respect forhim as a former roommate who witness his

(08:18):
grit and a friend who would viewhis videos and pictures withal And it wasn't
because of the photos and videos thathe was showcasing that caused this all.
It was because I knew my friendwas doing something he had worked so hard
to do and that deserves recognition,at least in my eyes. Calin,
you will be missed but never forgotten.