Translator: Ilze Garda Reviewer: Leonardo Silva
Very often, I hear other people calling me and my friends crazy.
I don't mind, but if they do it in a way that differs them from us,
I would say, "No, guys, you are crazy."
And I will tell you why.
But now, back in time, year 1986.
I'm six years old,
Latvia is still occupied by the Soviet Union,
and we live behind the Iron Curtain,
not knowing anything about the Western world or culture.
My father's friend manages to obtain a movie from the U.S.,
he works in a cinema.
It's unbelievable for those times.
He also manages to organize a secret screening,
an illegal screening of the movie.
And this is my first time in a cinema, and I'm watching Star Wars.
I was amazed by the world of fantasy that it opened to me.
Later on, one of my favorite dreams
was flying with TIE fighter over the local river,
taking turns and playing with other pilots,
flying fast along the trees,
and enjoying this freedom of a three-dimensional flight.
At the same time, curious boys and girls in the West
continued a new sport that Carl Boenish started in 1978
when he took skydiving to the next level and started modern BASE jumping.
Already then, he defined the very essence of the sport by challenging beliefs.
His words are,
"There are many man-made laws
that aren't laws at all and need to be broken.
And one of them is the belief
that it's impossible to jump off the cliff."
And despite [the fact that] now I am an entrepreneur and office guy,
in my free time, I'm one of BASE jumpers.
(Video starts)
And I love those early morning sunrises during the climb.
When I'm in the mountains, I experience the world from a different perspective.
And from those early days of BASE jumping, people have developed the sport
to the point where we can take long flights along the cliffs
and experience the ultimate freedom of flight.
During BASE jumping,
I feel that time, space and nature are complete.
I feel almost like merging with nature
and experience every millisecond of the moment.
My senses are open, I notice even the smallest details,
even rocks, bushes, even the color of the grass
while passing it at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour.
Complete joy.
(Video ends)
And some people call it crazy.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
But think again: really, why?
Because isn't it natural to go for your dreams?
Wouldn't it be crazy not to experience the life in the way you would love it?
And what actually stops us?
I believe that everyone of us has dreams
that we haven't accomplished just because of fear.
I have some experience in it,
and I would like to share my formula for how to deal with fear.
And I will tell you the story about my first jump from the cliff.
Back then, I had already experience in skydiving, five years,
but, believe me, jumping from the plane and jumping from the cliff
is something completely different.
A few months before going to Norway for the first jump course,
I felt mostly excited about my choice.
But at some moments, I just couldn't fall asleep.
I was really afraid that I could die there.
I didn't like this emotional roller coaster that was out of my control,
and I thought, "How can I help myself?"
Despite that I would be given
all necessary information on the spot in Norway,
I decided, no, I should prepare myself earlier.
And with the help of my friends
that already had experience in BASE jumping,
they helped me to prepare.
And you might think that a jump off the cliff is an irrational thing,
but we started with a rational analysis.
So I divided the jump in three parts.
First, I'm on the exit point, standing at the edge.
How do I feel about the kickoff?
I'm aiming 30 degrees above the horizon, and doing a hard push.
Where can I try it?
Gymnastics.
OK, next part of the jump.
After three seconds of free fall, aerodynamics will start,
and I should feel the flow and fly as far from the cliff as possible.
Again, where can I get this confidence?
Jumping from the plane, skydiving, dedicated tracking jumps.
And the third part, opening the parachute and landing in a small area with rocks.
If I do not have enough confidence in this,
how can I gain it, how can I check myself?
Again, jumping, skydiving, with that type of parachute,
and landing in a small area, and thinking about precision.
Of course, I understood
that I can never completely prepare for something that I haven't done before,
but it definitely helped me to build enough confidence.
And you wonder how it went.
Well, I'm here.
And actually, it went great, everything according to the plan.
But, of course, not always I have this level of confidence.
Sometimes, when I haven't jumped for a longer period,
and the jump is much more complicated than that one from the cliff,
and I am at night standing on the roof, with my feet over the edge,
and I feel that fear is coming.
And I accept the fear, I let it come,
and I slowly breath till the point
where again I feel confidence in my legs and arms.
If I need even more confidence, then imagining a positive outcome helps.
I'm just visualizing two minutes in the future,
how I am celebrating the jump with my teammates
and sharing the joy about the jump.
And by unlocking this knowledge and experience,
I also unlocked a wider potential for myself.
I used this approach to start wingsuit flying.
I also used this knowledge to do something that nobody has done before.
Eight months ago, I heard the news
that the Latvian company Aerones has built a drone that can lift 80 kilos.
So I called them with a clear idea:
if you can lift 80, most probably, you can lift my 85.
A month ago, together with Aerones and Aerodium,
we managed to do the first human lift in significant height.
Before, it was done in height of a two-storey building.
Also, we managed to do the world's first drone jump.
(Video starts)
[Behind the scenes #first #dronejump]
It was a brilliant opportunity for us to push the industry forward
and to show that drones can be used
not just for spying neighbors or imagining Amazon delivery service,
but if the drone can carry me up to a 300-meters height already now,
most probably, in the nearest future, we could use drones for firefighting,
for human search and rescue, and, of course, for fun!
And suddenly, we clearly see that there's an application for craziness.
Because craziness actually is a part of every new idea.
And there should be somebody crazy enough to imagine a human-carrying drone,
somebody crazy enough to finance it, to build it, and to fly with it.
[Total altitude reached: 335 meters / 1099 feet]
[Latvia, Māļi, May [12], 2017]
[Total flight time with drone: 61 seconds]
Therefore, I'm wondering again:
wouldn't it be more crazy to stop human progress and fun
just because of fear?
(Video ends)
I believe we all are explorers.
From the very first days of our life,
when we learn to walk, when we learn to speak,
when we don't listen to what the mom says, "Don't jump in the puddle!"
(Laughter)
I can only agree with this great man,
"Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit."
And now, one of my latest dreams is that I have a drone in my garage.
Instead of having Enduro ride on a Sunday morning,
I take out the drone, fly above the trees,
around my neighborhood, over the river,
and then reaching height and then, with a slow back flip,
I fall out of the drone,
opening my parachute and landing in my backyard.
And my drone will land next to me.
(Laughter)
(Speaker exhales)
Thank you.
(Applause)