This South African skydiver’s expertise attracts attention from around the world – including Hollywood
By Daniel Renjifo, CNN
(CNN) — Jean Jacques “JJ” Wallis spends a lot of his time searching for his next extreme adventure in his home country of South Africa. But as a professional skydiver, BASE jumper, and wing flyer, adventure usually finds him first.
Wallis founded BASE Jump Africa in 2017, an online community where adrenaline junkies and fellow international air sports professionals go looking to connect with him for his expertise.
“I just willingly give them as much information I can,” Wallis says. ”Freely giving out the information is really good because it might save more people out there and it just gets everyone to a competent level.”
Introduced to air sports very early in life, he got his skydiving license straight out of high school and began working in the film and TV industry, performing and filming his own stunts for commercials.
Wallis’ 20 years of expertise has paid off. He recently assisted with parachutes on the “Mission: Impossible” film franchise with actor Tom Cruise.
”It was super cool – definitely a level up in my film (resume),” he says, adding it was also “a bit stressful, just making sure the parachutes were perfectly packed every single time.”
As an advocate for safety, Wallis hopes his knowledge will give more people the confidence to take up air sports.
“Man has always been intrigued by seeing the world from a different perspective,” he says. “A lot of people think we’re nuts for doing these types of things, but actually we think most people are crazy for not trying these types of things.”
Watch the video at the top of the page for a heart-pounding look at Wallis’ aerial adventures.
The-CNN-Wire
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