I was saddened read about the death of Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper, this morning. I met him briefly less than six months after his jump to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere in October 2012. Attending Baselworld, a major international watch and jewellery trade show, I found myself in a very small audience organised by ZENITH Watches, the watch brand that had sponsored Felix, listening to him speak. Zenith quite rightly pride themselves on the fact that despite being subjected to massive differences in pressure, temperature, altitude and acceleration, Felix’s standard production watch was working perfectly on arrival. However, I digress…
Felix Baumgartner was humble, self depreciating, honest and funny; he was, so to speak, down to earth and relatable. This was quite the juxtaposition with his unprecedented jump which had set three new records: the first jump in history to break the speed of sound in free-fall, the highest occupied flight in a balloon, and the highest free-fall.
Having watched, and marvelled at, his jump, it was incredible to listen to Felix Baumgartner talk about details of his preparation, in particular his working with a sports psychologist to help overcome the claustrophobia he experienced while wearing a pressurized suit, while sitting in an ascending capsule for 2 and half hours.
At the end of his talk, as he was leaving I intercepted him before he reached the door and asked if I could take his portrait. He said ‘yes’, the organisers said ‘no’ gaving the excuse there was not enough time. He replied to them, ‘It would have taken less time to have my portrait taken than to have this conversation.’
This is, honestly, not my finest portrait; taken with available ambient light with no preparation time, with people arguing around me, no time to establish a relationship with the person and next to no time allowed for it. That said, sometimes you simply have to you roll with what you have.
Vaya con Dios.
