Jimmy & Marta
Jimmy Pouchert and Marta Empinotti are busy living the dream. They have managed to make a living doing what they love, BASE jumping. Both are part owners of Apex BASE, the largest manufacturer of BASE specific equipment, teachers of BASE jumping, and event organizers. Marta and Jimmy have been teaching skydivers to BASE jump for over 14 years. Marta has over 1,300 skydives and over 1,600 BASE jumps. Jimmy has over 4,500 skydives and 1,500 BASE jumps.
Their relationship is kept strong by a shared thirst for adventure and the love of laughter. Whether it is skydiving, BASE jumping, climbing, snowboarding or SCUBA diving, they are constantly on the move traveling the world in pursuit of some form of excitement. Their adventures have taken them around the globe many times over and they have no plans of ever stopping. Together, they have organized 6 separate Go Fast Games from the Royal Gorge Bridge in Cañon City, Colorado. They also have taken over 40 clients to jump from Angel Falls in Venezuela, the tallest waterfall in the world. They helped to organize and participated in 2 separate demo jumps from the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. And most recently, in association with Mextreme, organized the "Go Fast Baluarte Games 2013" event from the 1,200 tall suspension bridge "Puente Baluarte" on the road from Durango Mexico.
Marta has been in several commercials, a few movies, and most recently did a stunt for Discovery Channel's "Stunt Junkies". She leapt from the top of a semi truck as it drove over the Foresthill bridge near Auburn, CA. Jimmy also appeared on Stunt Junkies being reverse bungee launched from the canyon floor of the Black Gunnison to over 300 feet in the air where he then cut away from the bungee, went into freefall and then deployed his parachute to land safely back at the bottom of the canyon. His most recent stunt was at the 2013 opening ceremonies of the World Skydiving Championships in Dubai. In a rope/30 pulley/3 crane system designed by mad scientist Eric Strauss and Go Fast Sports, Jimmy was again launched into the air. This time the system got it's power from gravity. When a 50,000 pound sled of weights was dropped from one crane, the 30 pulley system translated the 6 foot drop through the pulleys, up to 2 separate 200 foot cranes near the backdrop of the stadium. He went from lying on a custom built sled tethered to the ground into a 0-200 mph in one second ride of a lifetime! Like a cannonball fired from the ground, eventually after about 350 feet, gravity once again took over. Jimmy said this was the best part. Hanging up in the air for that second, weightless, waiting for gravity to kick in. "Nothing in the World like it, all BASE jumpers should have one!".
One of J&M's most high profile jumps was a demo BASE jump from the roof of the Reliant stadium in Houston for the pre-game show while Aerosmith was playing on the field for Superbowl XXXVI. They both said that was also the most intense pressure jump with no "out" landing options. Marta said, "It was so packed, if we missed the 10 yard wide landing strip, we were going to land on people's heads. It would have been from heroes to zeroes in about 1.5 seconds!".
All time favorite jumps: Angel Falls, Cave of the Swallows in Mexico, inside a blimp hangar in California, a few jumps in what should be legal National Parks;), from the infinity pool on top of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Monte Brento in Italy, the Mushroom on the Eiger and pretty much EVERY jump in Switzerland, legal wingsuit demo jumps in Mexico out of the governor's personal helicopter wearing BASE rigs-into a super tight landing area in the City of Durango and over the Baluarte bridge, the various building jumps on the 20 day tour of Malaysia, Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, opening up Dragon's Nest in the Fisher Towers-Moab Utah, and from the Baluarte bridge into one of the most gnarly landing areas on the planet. They are currently residing in Colorado with their black lab Lua.