Meet the SkyFam: Lonnie

Today we introduce you to a member of the SkyFam who is probably already one of your personal heroes: Lonnie.

Lonnie Bissonnette was a badass BASE jumper even before he started jumping off shit in a wheelchair. From his website, lonniebissonnette.com, we’ll let Lonnie tell you about himself:

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Lonnie Bissonnette, an elite extreme athlete from Canada, is one of the world’s most prolific BASE jumpers. Highly respected and admired by his peers and community at large, Lonnie was injured July 2004 while attempting a quadruple gainer (a gainer is an outward facing, inward rotating flip) on his 1100th BASE jump off a 486 ft (150m) high bridge. The lines of his parachute tangled around his foot not allowing his parachute to fully open during the fall. Lonnie crashed into the river at a speed of about 70 miles per hour (113km/hr), severely breaking several bones in his body, neck and spine, and suffering a spinal-cord injury leaving him paralyzed. Lucky to have survived that accident, he was told by his doctor he would never jump again.

Spoiler alert: His doctor was wrong. Photo by Mario Richard

Unhindered by the effects of the spinal cord injury, Lonnie was back flying in the sky within twelve months post accident. He then made his rounds and jumped off all four objects in B.A.S.E (Buildings, Antennae, Span, Earth) again, thereby earning himself the distinction of being the world’s first ever paraplegic BASE jumper to have jumped from all four of the objects. Lonnie Bissonnette is Para-BASE #1. He currently is still the only paraplegic BASE jumper in the world to have jumped off of all four objects.