In this episode we spoke with Miles about his career, starting out in BaseJumping, fear management, staying safe, best base jump locations and more!
👉🏻 Who Is Miles Daisher?
Miles Daisher is an accomplished BASE jump stuntman and BASE jump stunt coordinator with more than 10,000 skydives and over 6,000 BASE jumps. He is a member of the Red Bull Air Force and actively teaches BASE jump courses.
THINGS WE DISCUSSED:
00:00 Talk4 EP 086 intro by Louis Skupien
00:38 Who is Miles Daisher?
03:00 How did Miles Daisher start SkyDiving and BaseJumping?
12:22 Advice for future BaseJumpers
14:40 Dealing with family problems in extreme sport
16:20 Preparation and training before BaseJumping
19:50 Favourite jumps and locations!
24:00 Where has Miles Daisher not jumped?!
26:37 Working with Tom Cruise on Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning
30:17 Shameless Plug
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Transcript
hey what's up guys and welcome to episode 87 of talk for the quickfire podcast where we ask four great questions unique and interesting people behind the mic today is your host Louis scorpion that's me and let me introduce our very special guest for today miles Dasher is going to be answering our questions today miles welcome aboard a talk 4 podcast man uh just say hi to the Fine people listening and just give us a quick rundown of who you are and what you do and then we're going to shoot some questions so it could be here Louie um thank you for having me I'm miles Dasher your friendly neighborhood base jumper I live in Twin Falls Idaho at the bridge and yeah I just been um living the dream ever since I pretty much was born and uh here we are just climb up mountains jumping off of them and uh have having more fun than people's but I what I like to call it oh man no you're epic I've been following your stuff for quite some time now and uh it's clear that you're an absolute Legend within the space so always great to have you here but truthfully told man I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I came here because when I was doing my back researching yeah I saw one of your past podcasts and the guy runs the intro and then it flicks over to you and you were like cooking and stuffing I thought it was one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen man is hilarious I wasn't sure what to expect here if I'm honest yeah who knows I could have been mowing the lawn this time but uh yeah you caught me sitting down which is like I'm not on an airplane it's kind of kind of rare I love it no that gave me a great laugh but uh man let's um let's start with the mind blower before we get into uh the four questions so you're looking at a guy who has done over 10 000 skydives and over 6 000 base jumps I mean those numbers may actually be outdated now as well I mean I had a guy on before uh Sam Hardy awesome dude really talented at what he does base jumping and Wing suiting he was at about 2 500 base jumps and well I thought well it is I thought that was just nuts but then you've got you miles up to 6 000 so ridiculous um I guess just before we get into it man how many jumps are you up to now uh just hit top down 7 000 base jumps and uh 11 000 uh 400 skydives so I know I've hung out with that dude in China I can imagine it's quite a small world isn't it in the base jumping Community there's not there's not that many people doing it is there you know it's grown a lot uh lately and uh there are quite a few people doing it but it's still pretty small family and uh yeah we're a little tight group of just um rad homies getting out getting after it and I haven't met everybody you know in the base jumping world but I've met quite a few and uh yeah I know I know a lot of people in this uh fraternity of friends okay man well then um I mean we gotta we got four great questions lined up here for you today mate so um question one I just love a little bit of a backstory so you know how do you get into the industry in the first place Dan you know what was your when was your first Skydive and how did your preg your careers progress getting into this level which is just ridiculous you know Scott Evans one of those things when I was a kid I always wanted to do it and then as I got older I kind of fell into it but uh September 6th 1995 I headed out to Davis California Yellow County Airport and uh can you believe it Yolo County Airport and my roommates yeah he was a base jumper Scott ever guy and he's like check this video out check this out and I'm like whoa that's crazy hey skydiving where do we go do this and he goes you got a credit card and I'm all sure do and next thing you know here we are rallying out to Davis California and September 6th 7th and 8th were my first three days uh graduated AFF um was told I was a bit of a natural but I've spent a lot of time diving off diving boards um jumping off roofs of houses for fun I kind of wanted to be a stunt man and took Judo when I lived in Japan when I was a little kid and uh always learned how to fall and Tumble and roll and get back up and do it again and uh but then there we are in Davis County uh Davis uh skydance skydiving is what it's called and um I just remember my first jump was getting in the door and looking at Dan and he's just like okay and then checking out Craig O'Brien he's just like and I just gave him one of those back this is awesome Ready Set see ya and everything was sideways for a second I'm on wait a minute the next thing you know we I'm doing my artwork
readable heading altimeter check in bend your knees okay check in right back at you Craig O'Brien and um oh my God it was Hook Line and thinker for me on on jump one and I'm like I open my parachutes the two instructors turn into little dots you know and just disappear and then all of a sudden poof little two little parachutes open up and I'm like no I was like Wiley Coyote man and next thing you know I'm flying my parachute down Praxis flare practice flare practice flare cruise down and land stand it up laughing and I'm thinking how do I get a job at this Drop Zone man I'll sweep the floors start wherever I have to um let's let's get it going because I I need to be here and make things happen and yeah just started uh I got lucky you know right place right time right people and a good friend of mine um Shane McConkey was skydiving the same week and Diving Dave Potts and we just kind of clicked and started jumping together we formed a team called team hakasaurus because you know we're skiers and Shane would always like explode on some Landings he was doing 80 Footers fat to flat and like you know so he was always sword coming out of a knee surgery or this or that being a pro skier and we formed a team started jumping with Cliff Rider uh Mark Broderick uh Mark Heise just a bunch of like uh fun-loving criminals out in Davis County Airport and then we moved to Lodi then that moved into the parachute Center there then into Sky of Lake Tahoe and then um I was got a job being a packer moved out of my place lived in a tents for a couple of years and uh started doing tandems and then it just kind of progressed from there into base jumping and yeah we just started shooting a lot of base jumping with our cameras to try and figure out how it works what are we doing how can we figure out how to do it better and better how does this gear work you know let's shoot a video of it and watch it super slow motion and play it back and once we started figuring that out um we got really good at shooting videos and we were asked to make videos for ski movies and then it just sort of progressing from there Wicked man that's a that's a hell of a back story um you know one of the questions I'm kind of thinking now then is yeah I mean the way you describe that first jump is just like wow what a rush I mean I'm I'm pending on my first jump I'm I would love to go out soon and get one done um kind of trying to work up the the the nerves for it and stuff but I'm just interested man so you know after that first jump when you're at so many now what was it 11 700 or something seven thousand base jumps you know do you still get that exact same feeling like like jump one I mean how does it feel nowadays here it's not the same as the first one because you can never have a first time over and over but yes you get fired up you know you're basically going okay turn on synapses everything starts firing let's be truly alive right now and um live like this activity do this activity like our life depends on it because it does so like stay focused it it wakes you up and it makes you kind of one of like uh just be more alive than you normally are you know like walking through everyday life you know like staring at your phone walking across the street trying not to get hit by cars you know what I mean um but uh yeah I just I get fired up to get fired up and and I got home from a trip to louder brunon and super stoked to get out to the bridge and even though it's only 500 feet tall it's still dangerous and you know you still need to pay attention probably even more so because there's less altitude to um deal with and and dial things in so it's never the same as the first one but it feels good and it gets you all fired up and like yes things are tingly um juices are flowing fun things are happening and yeah it's it's not quite the first time but it's it's it gets me fired up it was it's what makes you tick you know it's like hey I'm gonna wake up this morning and let's go base jumping come on you know and uh yeah let's go let's stop stopping and get after it that's that's what I would say to you is if you want to go skydiving go check it out go to the Drop Zone fill out a waiver give them your credit card get on a plane he'll be so stoked you did it oh yeah man absolutely I mean I I definitely want to do I think I have a slight fear of heights or something in there but you know I've um I'm working on that at the moment man so um I would absolutely love to it it just looks like one of those bucket list things you gotta get done um but yeah you have a slightly concerned about the fact that when I actually watch the videos of people like doing it and stuff I'm already feeling super nervous so like okay um tell you what man on that note um any advice like for uh for for that first jump yeah I mean it's not really a height thing you know um because you get in an airplane and you take off and you go over a thousand feet and the ground is gone it just starts disappearing it starts looking like Google Earth and then you go up to 5000 feet and you can't even see where you took off from you know I think it's over there and this is the height you open your parachute at on your first jump and then you go all the way up to 13 000 feet and it's like you're super zoomed out from Google Earth you're like okay I see a map of kind of where we took off in the area of vicinity you know even though you're right over the top of it I think it's somewhere down there and then you jump out and you free fall for a minute and it just feels good like you're driving down the road you open your car window and you stick your hand out and you're doing 80 miles an hour it just feels pretty awesome right on a warm day and not a freezing day you know you can do that on a cold day too but it depends what you're into but it feels like throwing your whole body into that wind and then bumping up the speed a little bit to 120 miles an hour this is a good feeling of laying down on the air and it's similar to like swimming in the air if you will wow it's just it's a really good feeling I just I I suggest everybody tries it once and then uh the thing the most dangerous part about skydiving though is that you're gonna totally love it you're going to want to quit your job and move out to the Drop Zone and live in a trailer down by the river near the Drop Zone but um no it's a it's it's a super fun thing and it'll definitely open up your eyes to where you walk outside you're not just staring at the ground at what you're going to trip over but you're checking out the skies and like what's going on up there how is this atmosphere going to affect us today and uh how can I get my butt back in it because that's the place to be I like that man as well there's a really good point there actually as well and if you think about like how people live nowadays in general and stuff with phones and all this technology and stuff we spend so much time looking down and everything is like what's in our hands what's kind of in front of us what you know where we walk and all this sort of stuff it's so easy to forget to just look up and you know what when you look up I found this reason even like a starry night or you know just a beautiful sky man you can't put a price tag on that stuff it's just there's nothing like it but man third question then so um kind of going down the advice routes a bit more still so anyone considering going into extreme sports like this and going down that route um any advice for these guys and girls going into it and what would be like some of the biggest factors to consider before sort of uh going into this a little bit more than just for a hobby yeah I mean if you I get a lot of people hey I want a base jump okay cool um what what's your background what how did you get to this point in life and what do you want to do you know what are your what are your goals in base jumping you know do you want to just go do a couple of jumps you want to go wingsuit based jumping do you want to do Aerials there's there's so many Avenues in the sport to take but honestly as far as life goes in general the biggest thing I would say is to be healthy and that means taking care of yourself you know take care of your diet take care of yourself run a little bit you know burn some cardio and and uh just be strong and mentally quick it's kind of key to make you got to make quick fast decisions you got to make the decision quickly but you got to make the correct decision so in skydiving you have to have the ability to train your brain to react to situations and then you also have to have the ability for your body to accept those um reactions and be able to perform them so that you don't have to like think left arm straight right arm up you know you're just like think about what I need to do and it just starts to flow and do it and uh I would just say just be healthy and rock and roll and uh yeah that's a good question but be in the now you know what I mean like not like oh I wonder what's gonna happen tomorrow wonder what what all that was yesterday I can't even analyze that correctly what's happening now like nothing else matters except for what's going on because this is what's happening and if you're in the now and you can shut off all those other components like my dog whining over there who wants to go outside but he just wants to come back inside again and outside and inside but coconut chill buddy thank you um if you could live in the now that's a big part of it as well you know it's just be friends you have to be present to win so true very very very true man um here's an interesting one for you then um so I think one of the things that people don't kind of consider initially as well is like the outside input from other people so I'm interested like from your experience and what you've seen in other people as well how do you kind of navigate the whole family life thing when you're starting to do these kind of really extreme and dangerous things like how do you sort of navigate kind of having the family and people who love you and stuff on board with it and how do you sort of you know if they're if they're not all for it how do you kind of how'd you kind of say well it's my life type of thing I'm just interested I mean that that took a lot of planning from way back and it's basically I've made this sport my career you know starting to do tandems you know feed feed myself um and take care of my girlfriend and then get married and start the family and then you know I've kind of created this as as a uh as a means to an end a little bit if you will um so that this is it's what I do for an income as well so it's like hey guys I gotta go to work but everybody knows in my family that um I'm not some reckless Daredevil I might play that persona for a video or two here and there but all things considered I'm pretty methodical about what we do so that we not only have a good outcome we have a great outcome where the video rocks you know it's not just about surviving the jump it's about thriving through this skill set to show off what's possible and how to do it and I love to call it having more fun than people how to do that and how to um fly through the air with the greatest of ease wow man that's really well put but just so interested then so kind of on that subject then can you just like walk me through kind of the preparation and training routines kind of for this whole sort of thing so like how do you ensure your safety in such high risk situations just kind of give me a rundown for preparation for something dangerous like that yeah you've got to have situational awareness a big is a big factor in it you also need to be a meteorologist so you need to look at the wins and say okay the winds up on the exit Point are doing this what are the winds on the ground doing what are the winds in the middle doing there might be a Shear layer or something in there so you need to know what you're getting yourself into and then if you don't know what you're getting yourself into take a few steps back and wait and figure it out because it's always better to be down here wishing you're up there than up there wishing you were down here meaning if you jump into a situation you're not ready for it and then something gets thrown at you and you get pitched all around and then you're like oh God I don't know what I got myself into I wish I was down there so there comes the meteorology part situational awareness is um you need to be aware of all factors around you normally we go walk the landing area and go look around and go okay this is where we're gonna land all right this is what the winds are doing we use different tools like a windsock if you can and uh or even like pull a smoke on the ground so it's like and you see what the wind is doing um you need to know what your conditions are and you need to know what your obstacles are because there are certain things like power lines that will kill you um water that's flowing really quickly with a parachute on if you land in a river that's raging that could be bad so you need to know your dangers and how to mitigate them and and be ready for them and so I mean there's there's so much into it situation awareness um skill set you got to know your own skill set you know like is this possible in my wheelhouse to do this or am I kidding myself and just going for it blind luck gonna use my um survival tactics on this jump you know you can't you can't rely on your survival tactics forever they say in skydiving you start out with two jars one is empty with experience and one is full of luck and the goal in skydiving is to fill up your experience jar before the luck jar runs out so you gotta be you know sometimes you get lucky in life but you can't rely on that always you got to let your experience kick in sometimes and uh and and basically you need to study the game so that when things get thrown at you you're ready for them because there's things that can happen that you may not have even realized but the more questions you ask the more videos you watch the more the more um people you hang out with the more knowledge base you'll get on the sport the better you're gonna do in life that's just set yourself up for success is kind of the key to this game because um if at first you don't succeed maybe base jumping is not for you so you kind of need to just dial it in the first time every time yeah I mean there's like there's no risk involved right but I mean you wouldn't you wouldn't dive off of like a cliff or something would you without knowing what's underneath the water like that that's exactly what this is you need to know exactly what you're getting yourself into as you said so very true um so last little question then uh I mean dude over 11 000 skydives I can imagine it's gonna be quite difficult to pick out a favorite or something but you know just tell us a little story then so what have been some of your favorite jumps and maybe just give us a little story of one of your most daring adventures and what it took to make it work
as far as skydiving goes I think my favorite jumps are um Red Bull Air Force Team jumps where we get everybody together we put night pyro on and we go out and get a big round going with people diving around us and with uh Wing suits going head down spiraling around us we just did this camp in uh Skydive Arizona and we're just hanging out in a big like 11 wave circular round with all of our Austrian buddies and and German and people from Chile and all the Red Bull all the all the team Rebel team going and uh with with um Wing suitors on the outside and we break off and make a small couple small chunks and I just love doing team stuff where um you have a slot specific job to do and you have to perform at a level where everyone else is all world champions around and then there's miles hanging out in the group all oh this is sick I'm totally sticking it take my pictures oh my god and I love that kind of style but uh as far as base jumping goes I think there's two jumps that really kind of float my boat well one of them is my most technical base jumps ever was in Petra Jordan off the treasury wall which is uh it's if you ever seen Indiana Jones Temple of Doom it's that um city that's carved out in the Rocks that's a real City it was created 400 BC and it's um it's in Petra Jordan it's called the treasury wall and it's this sheer Cliff that has a carving of a building um in the wall and above it is overhanging it's not overhanging it's semi semi-positive Cliff it's not quite sheer and uh the prince of Jordan gave us permission to skydive in and if we deemed it possible to do a bass jump than we could and I looked at it for two hours before I thought it was possible and I'm like okay there's two ways to do it good way in the not so good way let's go for the good way and uh it's it's in a Slot Canyon it's it's a hundred feet across it's probably less than that probably 80 feet across so when you open up and you fly your parachute here there in a few seconds and you see the stall sync turn and then surge back to land and it was super technical jump where I had Andy Farrington hold my pilot shoot and opened my static line my um opening so that I opened without skipping off the back of this cliff and then um or skipping my back off of this Cliff when I opened and then I flew out and around and came back and landed right in front of it I wanted to land in the in the opening the doorway and it's got these really sharp steps going up into it and I thought dude that would be the sickest to swoop around and go into the landing and it would have worked out perfect except for I measured the pillars on either side of the door just before you get to the door and there were two feet shorter than the width of my canopy so I elected not to go for that um I still think I might have made it but I'm glad that I didn't get hurt on that one because uh yeah you're only as good as your last landing and that one was a big video project so um so I needed to stick that and then the other favorite base jump is off of a cliff that I just was recently visiting in louder brood and Switzerland off the backside of the Yum Frau called milk stool and it's this two and a half hour hike up we did it in three hours actually and then you wing suit down around the corner ripping by all these waterfalls just totally just yodeling all through the Swiss mountains and laughing on the way down and oh my gosh and then you get to the very last waterfall and you just dive at it that power up and then flare up and then open and then land right by your car and then go get amazing cheese um
oh my gosh yeah yeah living the dream man I can't even tell you how much fun it is I mean I couldn't tell you how much fun it is
amazing amazing stuff um well I mean when you've done that many of them I'm just curious now so is there anywhere that you haven't done it that's like you've got it on your radar locked on this plate and you want to go then take it off the list is there anywhere like that you've got still or have you really just have you really just gone through it all no no there's so many places out there the world is huge there's endless locations and I really want to get to Norway I've already been to the cliff lowen where um you can uh take a gone or cable car up to the top and wingsuit base jump there but I haven't been with the people I want to go there with you know but that's been fadness and Amber and uh the one I went there I hiked I climbed a via ferrata and just did it solo into some seriously strong winds which gave me like immediate lift and I was like wow that was the best start of my life but uh I'd like to go there and spend some time in lowen and uh yeah there's there's plenty of places lots of other countries I'd like to go to and base jump that I haven't yet you know I'd like to go to Greece I used to live there but um it was a long time before I was a base jumper there's there's so many places I'd love to go to Antarctica and uh and actually I don't know if I would love to go there I would like to because I think love is a strong word and you've got to survive while you're down there you know it's cold cold injuries are for real and uh yeah there's so many things I want to do I just wanna keep myself healthy and keep myself alive and rocking it and enjoying uh life as much as humanly possible that's my goal sure looks like you're doing it I'm just thinking about it she said like some of the things I've seen like the images on the internet and stuff I can imagine that Iceland would be like a fantastic place to do it right are there some good spots there oh my gosh Iceland Greenland I just flew over there out the window and I'm like
that's where this is okay okay gotta put another box to tick off the list you know yeah yeah I'm sure there's there's endless amazing places out there but I think I need to start figuring out things about I started getting into pair motoring quite a bit and I think I need to I'd like to get a team of paramotors who paramotorists who can also wing suit Bass Jump and Go Fly doesn't exits and then remote control your pair motor on down to the ground and and then get off the top and go Land by repair motor and start it back up and fly back to Camp refuel do it again yeah we're kid miles well I mean I can't wait to keep seeing all your content and everything but one more little question before we wrap this up as well um so I've heard that you worked with the man himself Maverick Ethan Hunt Tom Cruise on dead reckoning part one so yeah I um I I saw that movie recently actually did a podcast with the editor of the movie Wicked guy but just wondering what was it like uh working with him then and just kind of walk me through that sort of process to getting that insane stunt out the way oh my gosh that was so amazing actually you know Tom Cruise is just like he sounds you know like it's it's what you see is what you get when you see him in the movies that's him he is amazing one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet in the planet he's always like hey good morning good to see you good to see you good to see you and then um and he's always running around and just like and and hey let's go let's go let's go come on guys let's get fired up let's go and he's a motivator and um it was amazing working with him because he's he's just like the Navy SEAL type Persona where he's got a photographic memory when you tell him something he locks it in and if he doesn't understand it he'll let you know I'm not sure what you mean by that can you rephrase that and you give them different words you know and he's like okay got it check you know and then um yeah he can perform so well I mean oh my gosh we we had him jump off a cliff on a motorcycle seven times in one day and while he's riding this motorcycle off a cliff into a base jump he's acting at the same time and he did it perfect every single time it was amazing working with Tom and it's funny I'm like hey the cool guys like to do it like this and like this he's like exactly that's what I need to know cool okay drop your canopy like this and yeah he's he's uh he's a bro and and what a cool guy um I can't I can't give him enough props it was amazing hanging out with him and uh that to me dream come true always wanted to be a Hollywood stunt man and and working with the man A-list actor top of the food chain was just it was dream come true man I'm just I'm just so fired up and lucky in life in general and honored to um be able to work with Tom Cruise and I want to give props to John Devore who made it all happen and Wade Eastwood and oh my gosh it was such a good team um worked together for over a year and made some magic happen in Hollywood and and uh that was real there's no there's is no CGI going that was all legit like you know there were some drone shots there were some helicopter shots some ground shots some on-board cameras going and um which makes it even more dangerous when you put onboard cameras like oh don't snag that camera around your leg and have that motorcycle tow you into the ground you know you gotta like get clear of that but also play the camera and make that shot count you know that's why we put the camera there so yeah it was amazing I can't even tell you I'm just I'm so stoked and honored to work with them and what a cool guy he's he's he's played so many characters in life and and I love them all and it's pretty funny to talk to him about some of them and his favorites and and uh yeah he oh man I can't even tell you I could go on this one for hours and hours but uh yeah what a cool dude you know he is he is one of the most genuine nicest people you'll meet on the planet and uh just happens to be the best actor as well broken well that makes two of you man YouTube very very cool dudes and uh well like Mario's that has been the uh the four questions for today man so you know Shameless plug away dude so just kind of give us your Instagram where we can find some videos of some unreal stuff and uh yeah just plug away some of my people where you want sweet man milesdasher.com Dasher with an i d-a-i-s-h-e-r and miles per hour in front of that but don't put the per hour part you know miles dash.com is my website I got uh Instagram I'm usually on that one updating it quite regularly um Red Bull Air Force that's our team and we have Red Bull airforce.com and uh we we put more stuff up on Instagram than our website and um and red bull.com if you want to check out we've done a web series called miles above and uh we did three seasons of this and it's on YouTube and check out miles above great stuff miles thank you so much for joining me today for the talk for a podcast so glad we could get it done and finally uh it's been an absolute pleasure having you on man thanks for doing this yeah Louie my pleasure man rock and roll brother happy days to you damn right man I'm absolutely loving it right now this podcast is great and the listeners make it possible so thank you guys for listening you guys just you rock uh episode 87 that was and uh if you'd like to listen to the past episodes go and have a look at our Channel and if you'd like to listen in for the future ones we got some unbelievable stuff coming up you're not gonna believe it uh make sure to hit that subscribe button and spread some love by leaving a like and a comment signing off for now fights on and good night