Worst Case Scenario with Abi Clarke and Julia Stenton - Day 14 - Chris Gursky

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

The first time you go hang gliding, you don't want the resulting video to go viral but that happened to Chris Gursky. Abi relives Chris's near death experience to Julia and takes her through how his harness was never hooked to the glider and for over two minutes Chris had to quite literally hang on for his life! Watch Chris' unreal viral video here!Send in your own worst case scenario to [e-mail] and please follow the podcast on Instagram @wcspod for video extras.Theme tune by the brilliant Crizards who can be found on Instagram @crizardsAbi and Julia are in Edinburgh this August for the Fringe Festival. Get tickets to see Abi here and Julia here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get attacked by an angry shark Stuck up a mountain in the dark Pushed off a top of a big landmark Hit by lightning in your local park Caught in a downpour of acid rain Struck by meteor or a train A proton beam passing through your brain Attacked by that angry shark again

Hear how they survive Trappled by a herd of buffalo Chaste with an axe by your new friend Joe Burried alive in a pile of snow It's the worst case at Hello! Hello! Hi, I just took a big drink, sorry.

Welcome to our podcast. This is worst case scenario. We tell survival stories. To give you hope that no matter how bad it gets, survival is actually possible. It is. Even in the worst case scenario. Yes.

I got overwhelmed this week, so I went home home. Oh, nice. I ran away. I escaped. Did that work? You know what? no I'm going home yeah a little bit

oh that's good but my my parents are going through that stage where they like clear out the house like all their kids have gone now so there were some a lot of photo albums about so I brought some photos oh

to kind of to take you three I've got photos of my of my Amdram history oh my god because I started from a young age I've got, I mean, that's not, this isn't a production, this is, this is a, I'd say a three-year-old me clinging to the mic at karaoke. Can we share these?

Anyone else haven't I go. Can we put these on the Instagram? We will put them on the Instagram. At WCS pod. Then we've got, um, my first. You look fucking miserable clinging on to that microphone. Wow. I was just doing a very intense ballad.

Also, I really appreciate all of the bowl cuts in this picture. My mum had one bowl, one haircut. Which really ages you quite nicely. Wow. I'm just saying, that is a three-year-old. The bowl cut was an era. Yeah, four-year-old.

And if you want to work out how old Abby is, just look at what that era was. Oh. I've got my first role, which was as an ensemble white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. and you can see I'm taking it very seriously. Ensemble white rabbit.

I don't want to talk about it. I thought there was only one white rabbit. No, they got to add some extra roles for the other kids. Multiple rabbits. I was too young to be part of the company, but my brother and sister in it, as you can see. I was going to say, your sister looks exactly like you in this picture. My sister was Alice, my brother was the bad hatter.

They were like, we have to give a part to Abby. So I was like baby rabbit or something. And I am taking it very seriously. Also, yeah, you're posing this. Everybody else is like clearly just like there for fun. Abby looks so deadly serious. It's like I'm at the RSC. She's, well, it's she, yeah, she, um.

It's intense and it's intense. I took the role so serious, um, that I actually went method and I never took the bunny ears off. Oh, wow, she's sleeping in this one. Bunny is on, uh, you did go. As you could see, my friends enjoyed doing plays with me from this one. Abby is very forcefully holding hands with a very unhappy little, So unhappy, right? Yeah.

In fact, it looks like you are digging your fingernails into this person's hand. I'm like, we have to do the bows. The look of like intense glee on your face is actually quite worrying. This is slightly older. I think that's us doing thriller. I don't know what that is. Oh, wow. This is great.

This is like, this is very, um, jazz hands Chicago kind of vibe she's wearing a like a school shirt a white shirt standard white shirt and on top a very jazzy sequined waistcoat and then holding some kind of baton baton yeah it's uh I think I think you know it's a little like old bamboo what is happening here you can't do a show number without a stick I'll be honest you look like snooker players We do. Getting ready for the tournament.

We nearly do. This is what I'm most proud of though that I found. And I would like you to just read this out for everyone. Okay, sorry, I'm just... Hi, loud job. Where are you in this one? Oh, this is Thriller. You're all dressed like you're in fame.

Oh, maybe it was Fing. No, it's Thriller. Look, can't you see the little rips? We're clearly dead. You're all wearing pink. How is that? It was neon, but you know when you just like rip the shirt a little bit, obviously at the chest. Some of these people are too old to be doing this.

This is quite sad. This is obviously where my stardom began. Oh, actually really giving up too much here. But if you could just read out what this certificate is for. Whilst I read it out, you can put your phone on an aeroplane mode. Go on, read it out. Read a laugh. Did you make this this weekend?

No, I was awarded this. Okay, this is a very homemade certificate. Absolutely not. That says at the top, certificate in fun writing. And then in beautiful handwriting, a sort of calligraphy style. It says Abigail. And then underneath it says,

was a supermodel. It's one word, supermodel. There's a definite gap between those two words. One word. Abigail was a supermodel. Go to our Instagram and see the very deliberate space between those two words. There's a supermodel for the Catwalk Company. You know them.

You know the Catwalk Company. Did anyone else have this? I think Gigi Hadid is signed to the Catwalk Company. Her and Kendall Jenner really rocking the Catwalk Company. Did you ever have to be? Was this just me where a company would come to your school and put on a like

catwalk. Like a fashion show? Like a fashion show. They came and they had all of these clothes that you could pick from to wear in the fashion show and then you walked it. It was incredibly toxic for primary school children. Then you like walked the catwalk. Where did you go to primary school? Laguna Beach. This is crazy. At the end of it

you could like force your parents to buy you the clothes you wore. like that's how they made the money my wording is very telling of your upbringing well no is in like that's clearly what happened is all the parents got pressured by their children like but I've worn this and I'm a model

and I love it so much and then they'd have to like buy it yeah this was me and my first catwalk as you can tell I insisted on being oh I'm sorry is this the special clothing provided by the catwalk company because I'll tell you now it's all just

kids in oversized t-shirts or varying colors. This was the finale where we obviously did promo for the company because we are professional models and I don't think I'm actually old enough to be there but I insisted on partaking because I had such a natural talent do you know what I mean like I was a protege I was a model protege

you look like a little Christmas elf in your green t-shirt and red leggings this is like a weird little cult where they're all, everybody's been separated into different colors T-shirts. And people wonder. All branded with the catwalk company and very like root one font. This is the last picture. That one's not really related. I just thought that man is painting that was such force. I feel like I'm being forced into some nationalist. It's funny. I'm not making any

assumptions. It's funny that it's a white bald man painting St. George's flag onto your face. And I look terrified. My arms and my own. I'm like, pulling my face away he's like holding me in place you look like none of these decisions were yours he's like oh sorry laudra i'm so that was a survival story and it's that's because laudra's a Scottish dog he does not he's not he's not a fan of st george's right now um that's a phenomenal picture isn't it that just looks like I was forced I mean I feel like you could put in a complaint against this guy using this as evidence What's the other girl getting like butterflies or something?

Why? It's funny. You rarely see a child's face painting table manned by a group of middle-aged men without it being part of some kind of documentary. Maybe one day it will be. I think we need to look that guy up. I think maybe we need to. It definitely doesn't look like I asked that.

He only has red and white in front of him. Yeah. You know, as a supermodel, you have to take the main. As a super... You're given. Model. A supermodel. You were a supermodel.

You were a super model. I'm framing that I'm putting it on the wall. I'm putting it here, actually. That's not going on there. That's not. Vito. Neil, we're not doing this. Abby, I was a supermodel.

We're not, no. Officially a supermodel. We're on, we're on a tight time schedule. So I'm going to crack on. Um, today, I am. doing another story of the internet. Oh, okay. Viral vid. Oh, nice. A viral vid of times past when things were viral on YouTube.

Hmm. I mean, things still are, but it's not like... That was the hub, wasn't it? Yeah, it was the hub. Yeah. Um, so on Monday, 26th of November, 2018, Chris Gerski uploaded a video under the title, Swiss mishap. including the warning content may be disturbing to some including my wife was it bore at right so we already know he's fun

and it immediately went viral it now has over 11 million views so Chris Gerski and his wife Gail oh big up Gail were on the first day of their holiday to interlaken Lacken Interlaken

Neil just shrugged Yeah Who knows The level of shits Neil just gave Yeah Zero In Switzerland

From their home in Florida It's a Florida It's a Florida Calf Yes It's going to be good when they're from Florida Shout out to Florida They

loved travel and adventure and they didn't shy away from heights and often enjoyed aerial pursuits while on vacation oh no no no on previous trips they usually enjoyed ziplining they were big zip liners oh i wouldn't mind a zip line i love a zip line i didn't know ziplining was like a regular hobby thing yeah i didn't know you could be like yeah we're keen zip liners i didn't know until recently that ziplines existed outside of a playground shut up really you've never been go ape well yeah i have since but yeah like very recently yeah yeah all about the zip line yeah big fan um but apparently the regular regular every holiday got it they found the local zip line yeah i do now just imagine

though they went to the local park yeah just any zip line they could find they're like yeah we're keen zip liners and the kids are just like waiting takes about four seconds he's like geez man move on don't even have kids um their feet are just dragging along the floor picking up those wood chips yeah they never they never said how big the zip lines were um but when chris said he wanted to go to switzerland gale gail's my kind of gal right she she's a pre-planner she planned the holiday great what they were going to do she did a lot of research right she did she did she's relegated to my wife in the video my wife who organizes my whole life right So she did her holiday research and was like, she looked ahead to see what activities were available, right?

And she saw hang gliding. I mean. Which I for years thought was hand to gliding. Just gliding around with your hand. No, I thought because you hold on with your hands. Oh, right. You're like hand. Yeah.

Hang. Hang. Hang makes more sense. You didn't think that you were hanging. Hang does make more sense. Well, I'd imagine you're not meant to be hanging. I've since learned that they kind of are like hanging from a harness.

Yes. Yeah. But yes. Hang gliding. And yeah, Chris was like, no sorry, Gail was like, yeah, I want to do that. Hang gliding. Next up. Next on my list.

I want to do that. I mean, it's not far from a zip line, is it? It's the same. No, but we have learned from our bungee jumping episode. One in 560. chance of death. Yes. Which is quite shocking.

Yeah. My housemate was like, oh my God, to that episode. She was like, I totally would have done hang gliding. Yeah, same. Yeah. But we've learned more dangerous than we thought. So it was their first, it was the first time either of them had tried this particular air sport.

And so they were in the hands of their instructor slash pilots. Okay. They're in Switzerland. Day has come. Gail's dreams are coming true. They're going hang gliding. It was a beautiful sunny day, crisp and the panoramas of the Alps

with lush forest below. You can see it, you're there. I can feel the wind. Gail is like, this is why you plan. This is great. Chris and Gail were put into safety harnesses and talked through the activity. They practiced running.

Good to practice. With their pilots. So they practiced the kind of like how you'd run together, because you are kind of like... Oh, you've got to work as a team. Got to work as a team as your pilot and then you kind of like take off.

Then Gail and her pilot took off first. And Chris said it looked cool as hell. Ooh. Then Chris put his GoPro up to the back of the glider, got underneath. Pilot was like doing something behind him, but it was Chris's first time. He doesn't know what he's looking out for or anything.

His pilot lines up for takeoff. All good. This is where. the video on YouTube starts. Okay. So he's put the GoPro at the back. So we're looking at Chris and the pilot's back. Oh, okay, yeah.

And like out onto the view. Right. Now, spoiler alert, you can immediately see you from the start of the video that the pilot's harness. So they are separate. So the pilot's harness is pulled upwards by a carabina and Chris's is hanging down towards the ground.

No, that's not the way it should be pointed. No, it doesn't look right even to a... The layman. The pilot says, are you ready to run? Chris says yes, and then he counts down, three, two, one, go, run, run, run, run. And they run, as they practice, off the left side of a 4,000 foot mountain. Ah, no. So you're meant to run until your feet lift the ground,

but gravity immediately took over. And Chris felt himself sink. He said, I was expecting to level out above the pilot, but discovered my harness was not attached to the hang glider or anything else. Oh, wait. And the only thing stopping him from falling to his death were his hands. So he's literally hanging off by the hands. Yeah.

I'm going to try and find where I say. This is like a looney tunes. So what it's meant to look like, this is how I've got it. So how it's meant to look is the pilot is on the bottom. Yeah. This kind of bunk bed situation. The pilot is on the bottom. It's meant to be holding the bar

and the passenger kind of hangs above them in a little. Oh, so is he resting on top of the instructor? No, so how it's meant to go. Yeah. Is the pilot's in front. Yeah. And when they kind of take off, the passenger hangs above.

Yeah. In a kind of like sleeping bag type harness with straps it's kind of like a like a baby who can't be trusted with a duvet you know how you like yeah yeah yeah um and they usually don't have to hold the handles like they don't have to hang on they can just like yeah be like um i'm with you the caterpillar in bug's life when he's like i'm flying is that there have i made that up i don't know maybe um and and it's usually just the pilot oh there we go we've got picture so you see how they're like hanging a bug and their little papoose yeah and the hang glider is driving

below. Right, I'm with you, I'm with you. Yeah? Yeah. This is obviously not what it looked like for Chris. There wasn't a whole lot of talking and Chris was left wondering whether he had done something wrong. He said, I didn't exactly know what was going on or what happened until it was way too late to either drop off or do anything about it. I just remember realizing that the only thing holding me up from probably imminent death was my hands. So in the video, they first go over some houses and obviously it's above the houses. They're doing this in a residential area? No, like, so the kind of houses disappear quite quickly.

The houses are like at first and it's still very like mountainy like cute pretty houses. Oh, okay, right, right. You know what he should have done it over? Yeah, okay. A ball pit. Fuck off. Okay, so in the video they go over houses. So like that is still very high, but it's kind of like

I don't know, maybe dropping off would have been an option, perhaps, at that point. Yeah, nice soft landing onto some... Pitched roofs. You can kind of see... The ground is in view. Yeah. But then the pilot takes a left turn and they turn down the mountain and the floor kind of drops away and it very suddenly gets so much higher.

And presumably, at what point does the instructor know, the pilot know he's fucked it I think on that I mean immediately immediately it's very obvious because Chris just drops yeah we've seen what it's meant to look like he's meant to hang above right and as soon as they go off yeah he goes down to the ground and he's just holding he still takes that turn down the big I think the turn is like very immediate yeah okay we can watch the video oh we're definitely watching the video They're now, rather than kind of like houses, which you kind of can work out the height of them,

they're now above huge trees, like massive, that get further and further away as they go down the slope. So apparently he thought if he grabbed the top of a tree, he might make it. The top of a tree, imagine having the top of a tree. I don't they've ever seen the top of a tree, let alone like... He's ever seen the top of a tree?

Like in a plane, like I mean from an aerial view, like not where it's been in grabbing distance. Yeah. And he said because he, he grew up very, as a very outdoorsy person, climbing trees. That was his first. So he was like, maybe I could do that. But then he was like, I'm 55 now. What's he doing? I can't do that. I can't do that anymore. When they take off, I'm going to explain kind of exactly where his hands are. Okay. So when they take off, he has one hand on the bar and one hand on the back of the pilot's harness. Okay.

So this is also why the pilot hasn't seen that he's not clipped in because he's behind, right? I see. And Chris can see the pilot's strapped in. So why would he think he's not? Yeah. So, yeah, to get into the position, he has one hand on the bar, one hand on the pilot's back,

and then when they take off, he's meant to just be able to let go. Okay. So that's where they are at first And So that's why immediately it's clear it's gone wrong Because he's still holding onto the bar With his left hand And then his right hand is kind of

Then immediately starts moving around for grip Oh my God He starts, so he starts on the guy's harness Then slowly drops down the body Getting lower and lower Until he is hanging way below the landing gear And he's holding onto the instructions instructor's trouser leg.

No. So one hands on the bar, one's on moving instructors trousers leg. And the instructor's like shaking his leg. Yeah, like thank God for belts. Thank God for belts. Otherwise that pilot's dick was out.

And so he's below the landing gear as well, which is bad. He's now so. Oh, God. Yeah, so the point of hanging in your little sleeping bag. Yeah. Is that you're safe.

You're kind of like flat out. Yeah. with the hang glider and then you land and the wheels of the hang glider hit the ground not first, yeah. He is below the wheels. Oh my God. So those legs are gone.

Like as soon as they hit the ground. Yeah, his legs are hitting the ground first. Oh my God. So so far, things that could be added to the survival kit. I'm going to say a belt. Yeah. For keeping the trousers up. I'm going to say whatever connects his harness to the...

Yeah, but that's not what he's said to him in this. instance. Oh, sorry, yeah, true. This is a best case scenario, Julia. This is worst case scenario. A sturdy pair of chinos or whatever he's wearing. I imagine he's wearing some kind of utility trouser. A good pair of utility trouser. Yeah. Or a belt

to hold them up. Belt is good, I think. Belts useful in lots of scenarios. They did everything to be the villain in the 2000s with the waist belt, but a good practical belt. For sure. So he actually said in a podcast interview that he used to use a hand grip thing. This is another thing.

possibly for the survival kit, one of those like hand grip trainers. Oh, I know, yeah. Hand strengthening things. Every day on his commute to and from work. And he wasn't sure if that helped. He was a fit guy for his 50s, but he wasn't like a gym rat. And he also said adrenaline and the sheer will not to let go is what kept him holding on. And also, you don't really go, you never like, oh, mustn't skip grip day.

grip day like who thinks to be like i really need to work on this grip on my commute i guess it's just like if you've got time to kill like what yeah i mean thank god he did so yeah he'd have like did he say how long his commute was i think his commute was like an hour and so he'd just he'd just he'd just use his little hand grip thing and he said i've always had a pretty strong grip um but i'm right-handed and I held on mostly with my left hand the whole time. So like we said, the left hand was on, but the right hand was the one that was like gripping those trousers,

trying to find stuff. And so, yeah, he was like, I'm not really sure where that came from. The ability to grit with my left hand. The desire to live, I imagine. Well, yeah. But it is, like, imagine your bad hand and you're kind of holding on mostly with just one hand.

Yeah, I couldn't do any of this. He held on for two months. minutes and 14 seconds. That's outrageous. For anyone who's ever done the plank knows that's too long. Yeah, that's not okay. It's a very long time. To give context.

Yeah. A bit of fun. Those bars that are sometimes in the street to encourage toxic men. Oh yeah, I know. To prove themselves by hanging from a bar for a hundred seconds. There's always one in Edinburgh. Oh, he's the perfect victim for that.

He'd give in immediately. I nearly got him to do it. It was, maybe this year. They gather like apes. Yeah. They watch every single one film and they're like, yeah, but I can.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I look, you know when people are like, oh my God, I just hate how so many companies monetize off the insecurities of women and they don't do it for men. I've never seen something monetize off men's insecurities more. Yeah. Go to a busy high street on a Saturday.

On a Saturday afternoon and watch the men queue. To hang. To show their very bored girlfriend. Yeah. That they can hang from a bar for a hundred seconds. Yeah. For not as long as probably an averagely fit child can. True. Yeah, but they'd be like, yeah, but that's because I'm heavier.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's my muscle here. I had that at uni. I would say, Plank was a bit of a skill of mine at uni. Okay. And I used to, like, lead exercise glasses for musical theatre people. And the men got very toxic if I could beat them at Plank and they'd be like, yeah, but it's because you're lighter. Like, you're lighter. I've got more weight to, like, hold up. I was always like the excuse. My friend Anna can do the plank for so much longer if she talks to you about Andy Murray.

It's so weird. Specifically Andy? She can do it, she can't do it like... She can't do it with Roger Federer? No one else. She has such a love for Andy Murray. Right, I see. That she can do it for an extraordinary length of time.

And then we've also started hanging from, to try and do pull-ups, hanging from those paths. And she, again... You have to eventually pull yourself up. No, I know. But like to begin with, she's just hanging for like as long as possible. And it is wild. You know how people say that like if you swear when you're going through like,

you put your hands in ice and you swear. Right. I feel like this was on a Darren Brown or something. Put your hands in ice and you swear you can do it for longer. Really? Then if you don't swear. Her equivalent is, if she talks about Andy Murray, she could do anything for as long as you like.

I need to find my thing. Yeah, you need to find your Andy Murray. I think it's just talking about myself. I was, I think we found it. I go and runs with my housemate and it does go quicker when it's like my turn to talk about me. I can't believe that you said that and it wasn't me saying that. I'm a self-war. Okay. That's how I get away with it. Other people can't say it about you if you say it first.

Exactly. There we go. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. I'm aware but I refuse to change. So while, yeah, so for Context, those bars in the street, I mean, I'll be fair, because we'll have the men complain, but I think those bars do like twist a bit. That's the excuse, that is the excuse, isn't it? Yeah. I'm like, well, then why are you paying to do it? Exactly.

If it's a fix. Yeah, you know going in, it's a fix. You know, okay. But they still think they can beat it. They still think. The arrogance of it. I want to know how much those bars make. Oh.

They must make so much money. And in an afternoon, you just got to set up, how, maybe we should do that. We should do it. Brand it up. Brand it up. Paints it orange. Let's do it. I might find a boyfriend as well.

Oh, okay. Whoever wins gets Abby. Oh, wow. Okay. I'm hot. Okay. But what I was saying is that is 100 seconds. And 100 seconds is 1 minute 40 seconds.

So he fucking smashed this out of the park. Chris beat all of those men won the money and more. Does he now just go? He basically did it double. From high street to high street every weekend. Just absolutely bossing there. Just like standing there with a little hand grip. Yeah.

And then Gail gives him a little sippy cup. He's like, like, tells him down. Yeah. He said the moment the situation sunk in was on that left turn back down the hill. That's when, I think that's when him and the pilot went, fuck. Yeah.

So he wasn't sure whether that left turn was purposeful or if it was because he was holding mostly with his left hand and whether that like pulled the hand glider left i see um and he looked around at this beautiful crisp cool day as i said trees changing color and said he was picturing himself falling through the air like what a beautiful day i'm gonna die on if you're gonna at least it's not drizzly no i'd like i'd like the day to be bad reflective of what's happening yeah yeah and everyone be like, what a pathetic fantasy. Like, we're so sad.

Yeah. It's raining and like, the world is sad. We're as sad. You know? The planet is sad. Yeah. Like, I don't want everyone to be like, oh, what a lovely day. You wouldn't like your last images going through your brain to be that of a beautiful...

No, I want it, like, Hollywood movie, like, you know, when it rains and you look out the window with music on and you're like, I am in the music video. I want that. Yeah. I want, like, a sad ballad as I fall in slow motion. Everybody cries. Yeah. And then, like, it's never.

sunny ever sunny ever again. Like the sun dies with me. Right. That would be my ideal. I mean, that can be arranged, I imagine. Uh, I mean, not the subsequent everybody else does it. That's all I want. Okay. Otherwise, no. But you'll be dead. You won't know. I'll know. I feel like I'm the type to haunt. Um, oh, without a doubt. Hell yeah. I do not. That long list of people who've wronged you, I imagine. I do not let things go. no um so he said he didn't freak out um he concentrated with everything he could and decided dropping wasn't an option he was just like agreed i'm just gonna get through this yeah um the instructor kind of swaps between holding the harness um and the top of chris's hand so like he kind of tries to hold his harness

and then he swaps to like putting his hand on top of the left hand that's on the bar to try and hold his hand on. Which, unless you've got enormous hands, what is that doing? Well, I guess it's just like taking a little bit of, like if some, you're not going to, you're less likely to slip off if someone's holding. Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. Yeah.

Holding the hand. And so he drives with one hand while the other hand is like holding. Oh my God. Until the end, when he goes back to the top of the hand position to try and, like, land with both hands on the bar. Chris can feel his hand opening but finally sees the ground coming up. They approach the ground at 45 miles per hour. That's too fast. That's way too fast. And as soon as Chris's feet scraped the ground that pulled the rest of his grip free and he tumbles out shot. You lose him out of the GoPro. So his legs were first to hit the ground before the wheels. Yeah. His legs hit

and that just immediately just sends him tumbling. Oh my God. Let's go, he's out of shot. He said he probably flipped a couple of times and then sat up and assessed like, I'm alive. Now what? 45 miles an hour is so fast.

So fast. Remember those adverts that were like, if you hit me at 30 miles an hour. You're so good at this impression. There's an 80% chance. You did this impression all the time, I swear to God. Adverts have really gone downhill since influencers. haven't they

we don't see dead children anymore bring it back dead children haunting adults bring it back good shit that was like a really good advert very effective I mean it stuck with me

not the numbers so much better than the hedgehogs do you mean yeah those hedgehogs aren't teaching you shit no no right where are we he's flipped over he's alive now what

he could tell immediately his wrist was broken but everything else seemed amazingly fine. His legs are fine. His head and knees were scraped and his left bicep, this is horrible, was torn. And his shirt was shredded.

His shirt was shredded from holding on for so long. The pilot unhooked himself and came running back up to tell him not to get up and stay still, scared he'd go into shock. But Chris was like,

I'm actually fine, just my wrist is broken and I need that seeing too. Though it was really clear the wrist was broken because the bone was like fully popping up out of the skin. So we're at the point where he's decided not to make any charges stay positive, right? Lovely. I thought, in theory, that's nice.

What a good guy. I thought it was nice until I read an article that said, so you know how when the GoPro and they landed, that was left running, no one pressing. stop recording right so the GoPro was left running um and the GoPro was returned to him by the staff the instructors from the company and when they gave it back to him the GoPro was wiped and there was no footage at that point I think I'd be like okay fuck you then of just like okay I was going to take the high road but if you're going to play it like that no um

He found a company that restored the footage, and that's how it ended up on YouTube, but he still has never said what company it was, even though people have asked him. He's never revealed, he's never pressed charges, which I just think. So lucky. Wake the lawyers up. Yeah, someone get a lawyer. But the company sent a van to the nearest road, which meant they, but obviously they've just landed in a field. Yeah.

So that meant they had to walk over two fields and crawl under. the two electric fences to get to the road. But Chris said he wouldn't get into the car without his wife. Where is his wife? She's living her best life up in the air. She's been on a lovely walk.

She's hand gliding. Oh! Yeah. She's up above the trees. She's like, this is beautiful. She's still up there, is she? She's having a great time. That's so funny.

She's thinking about the dinner they're going to have later and they can just talk about what they saw on their lovely trips. So much better than zip lining. I found my new favourite sport. That's so good. I wonder what the statistics are.

That's what she's doing. Good for Gail. So he's like, I'm not getting in the car without Gail, who was currently blissfully unaware of the trauma and still in the air, hashtag, live in her best life. So they're all just looking around, looking at their watches, waiting for Gail to finish her jolly. Yeah.

But it's not in the main footage, you can see. gale coming in in the background in the actual landing in the actual landing zone oh yeah just having the time of their life a big smile on a face just like that was amazing it was so fun um so the instructor stayed at the hospital until he went into surgery and took his wife back to the hotel picked her up the next morning drove her back with his medication um and chris was so impressed at how he stepped up after the fact, saying that he was a good guy that he's never named the instructor.

What exact location or company? No suing. No suing. Once again. Who are these people? Who are these people? Better people than you. And he better have done that TV talk show circuit. He better have made some serious dollar.

Okay, well. And he did a podcast that I listened to. Good. Well, I hope that's bringing in the podcast. big bucks for him called cloud-based mayhem give it a listen um i don't want to i don't want to um i don't want to accuse anybody of anything but this does kind of smell a little like a spouse who's maybe looking for some what are you accusing kela life insurance many maybe do you know you take that back just sort of like uh imagine if there was she's organized it all

and she's like oh if there happened to be an accident there might be a little kickback for the instructor you mean you think gail knew the risks of hang gliding i would never make that assumption on a podcast but if you make that kneel sweating if you put two and two together and come up with four no i think if neil if if gail's an organized lady i don't think gail would fail i see right she knows the grip she knows he's working on the grip she yeah this is the last thing she she would not take him out grip wise no he's done all of those hanging bars in the right in the high street right that's true where's he weak swimming maybe swimming she'd find his weak it'd be a kayaking thing she knows he's good at air base sport yes true you're right I'm sorry

girl she'd just like gas him in his car or something you know there we go um so uh he was contacted by the FBI, attach to Switzerland, trying to get in contact with him. A Swiss prosecutor got hold of him and wanted to know if he wanted to press charges. And he said he was well past that point by then and said it was an accident and wanted to take the high road, stay positive. What a guy. Most other non-clippins are fatal. Yeah. Chris said he Google searched and couldn't find anyone else who had survived it afterwards. Whoa. Um, But despite all of this, he did go back and try hang gliding again. No, he didn't.

He did. This time with a quite well-known pilot, it seems, in the kind of like, hang-gliding world. Yeah, you'd want the best of the best. So at the end of the YouTube video, yeah. Text does actually come up that says, I will go hand-gliding again as I did not get to enjoy my first flight.

He's going strong on the bounce, this guy. I like him. do you know what this podcast is doing a great job of reaffirming my belief in human beings because so many of them have been so nice after being treated so terribly like but i guess if you do i think with this one and the bungee jump one they somehow amazingly luckily didn't get that injured yeah so i think it's easier to forgive if if you do kind of walk away yeah you got not that affected. I think it is easier to take the high road.

Yeah. He said he's going to take some time to try and find the instructor and say hi one day. Apparently he's now running his own tandem business in Interlaken. He's still... The instructor is. Just warning if you're going to go hang gliding in Interlaccon, Switzerland. Double check those credentials, maybe. At the end of the day, he posted that video.

it was at 600,000 and the end of the next day it jumped to 4 million. Like I said, it's now 11 million. Yeah. He got calls from every news outlet in the world. His wife was more scared than him to go the second time,

but he was like, what are the odds of it happening again? And he now wants to try paragliding. Yeah. Which I don't know the stats on. I should look that up. Yeah. With the parachute. I'd say that's over water though, isn't it?

Is that? Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it has to be. Oh, no, it's not. Parasailing. Oh, parasailing. That makes sense. So accidents happen in paragliding as well.

I've got here saying that major accidents happen every year from what they call schoolboy errors in paragliding, where they forget to clip their leg straps, clip into their leg straps, sorry. So they launch and just fall out of their harness. That is a schoolboy error. Real school boy era. I'd say more like... Quite catastrophic error. Quite catastrophic, big error.

Yeah. Fully grown person error. So that's the story of Swiss mishap. So what are we putting in this toolkit? Well, we've been in the... Sorry, do you know the survival toolkit, I think you mean? Sorry, sorry. The survival toolkit, my bad.

Survival toolkit. I think he was saved by his pure grip strength. Right. So it's got to be something along those, like one of those grippy, grippy things. The thing you did in the car. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When he's just passing the time. I think we should get you.

I think should get one for your glove box and one for the survival toolkit. Yeah. You should always have one on you at all times. At all times. Whenever there's a moment, you're like, I could be doing something right now. Yeah. I also make procrastination more toxic. You could be training your grip right now.

Stop wasting time. I didn't need to guilt-shame myself anymore, but here we go. Yeah, I think one of those, one of those grippy... A little grippy trainer. Grippy trainer. But that is it. That's what we're putting in the... Yeah.

Do they have an official name? If they do, I don't want it. If they want to pay us for some advertisement, you know, if they want to sponsor the pod, we'll use the proper name. What, big, big hand grip. Big grip. Trainor boys. Yeah. But for now, it's a grippy trainer.

Okay, cool. Big grip energy. Big grip energy. There we in. And he's got a mic. I should take big grip energy. Okay. Okay.

It is time for the listener stories. If you have a listener story yourself at a time you survived the worst case scenario. please do write it in wcs pod no yes help help help help please just help um help at wcspod thanks send them over we'll read them out are you ready feeding out i've got one take away take over take the wheel hey abby and julia in brackets and a head scratch to Loudrop 2. Okay. So you are in charge of that.

He's currently horizontal. Oh. He's very much enjoying that head scratch. The poor came up. Yeah. There we go. Oh. And now he's looking at me like, why have you stopped?

What the fuck? What's happening? Do it again. Loving the podcast, the theme tune is one of my faves, and I now find myself singing along. Crizzards. Shout out. Shout out to Crizzas. They wrote it.

format. Very funny boys. Okay. Well, this scenario isn't quite life ending. There's been a fair amount of recovery time. It was my friend's 30th in June and I love making presents where I can. This one's really speaking to Abby. Not only is she 30. She's also into making presents. Whoa. Whoa. No, I actually hate to receive a homemade present. Unless you're like actually good at making shit. Yeah, but I feel like, don't you want that from an actual artist. But you don't like, But I feel like you, you don't like making stuff? Make, you don't make presents? I feel like that'd be right up your street.

I'll make, I'll make, I'll make, I'll make, like, I'll make, like, if I bought someone tickets for things, I'll, like, one time I made, like, an old tiny ticket with, like, a wax stamp. Cute. So that there was still something to give them. That's fun. But then he broke up with me, so. Oh, that's unfair. But I, fucking.

hate like a, oh, I've just started making jewelry this week. And that's how I'm going to get everyone for Christmas. No, fuck off. Yeah. I don't care that you've got an Etsy page. Right. You're still. Yeah. Give me something legit. Yeah. No shade to you, Taylor. I'm sure what you're making is. Well, do you have an Etsy page? Let's see it. I'll be the judge. You're going to really eat your words with this next sentence. She's a huge Twilight fan No, I'm not eating my words Oh really?

There's types of fans Okay, Abby's a huge Twilight fan Yeah, but I'm getting a feeling that Taylor is the fan fiction type of merch fan So this is, no, so Taylor is making presents for her friend who is a Twilight fan

Oh, okay Yeah, okay She loves making presents where she can She's making a present for her, her huge twilight fan, friend. Her friend who is a huge twilight fan. Okay, I'm on board what she's making. Okay.

So I decided to make her a, and I have no idea what this means, a Forks Penant Flag. Okay. Do you know what that means? Forks has a capital F, if that helps. Forks like what you eat your food with. Penant flag.

In brackets, the pointy ones you see it. in American movies with sports teams slash universities on them. Oh, that's just where they live, isn't it? Like a flag with... Oh, I know. Like, they're made of felt, aren't they? God, you really gave me some, like...

Is Forks where they live? What's Forks? What? Yeah. Forks is where they live? I think so. You're giving me real identity crisis right now. I'll be doing some frantic Googling

to be reassured. that she is the twilight nerd that she thinks she is. Where is Fox and Twilight? Yeah, that's where they live. Okay. Fox Washington. Right. I move with the Twilight,

like, oh, my God. Also, I feel like Taylor explained that for us. But then you've confused me with the Pennet. Oh, okay, okay. I was worried that Pennet was also a place. Penant, okay, sorry. So there we go. So we all know what we're talking about now, do we?

Those felt flags, they're very pointy. Yeah, American sports teams. So, with some felt and a hot, glue gun, I got to work. After getting frustrated with the glue gun... I feel like you could buy this. I've already found multiple online. After getting frustrated with the glue gun, the next day I decided to add the last bits with super glue. Oh, okay. This is where things got grim. Oh no. I applied the glue and went to press the pieces together, confused when it didn't stick. Seconds later, seconds later, my thumb. Just put it on the wrong side.

seconds later my thumb was burning and there was actual smoke as the glue sorry there was actual smoke as the glue chemically burned through the fabric and onto my skin that's a thing i was in pain but also complete shock as i tried to remove the fabric from my thumb anything where skin is burning or stuff is stuck to skin where it shouldn't be is disgusting PSA, don't put super glue on fabric, big no-no. Right, it's the fabric that's an issue here. I had no idea, but lesson learned. I had no idea either.

No, because I've gotten super glue on my skin before. Yeah, me too. And it hasn't been like an end of the day kind of situation. Yeah. But maybe it's, maybe the fabric is fusing to us. Yeah, sounds like the fabric is the... Because it's got lots of fibres. Yeah.

to it. So there's a lot more, it's going to be harder to get that all off, I guess. Maybe. Yeah. It just feels like there's a lot more going on. It was blistered for a while. I did take pictures, but I thought they might be too gnarly to send. Absolutely not. Pictures or it didn't happen. Well, I think keep the pictures to yourself. I don't need to see. But Abby's keen. So maybe send the pictures directly to Abby. You want to see grim? What a little thumb blister? Yeah. Oh, okay. Let's have it. My thumb still hasn't fully recovered

and I'm missing some of my thumbprint. Oh, commit as many crimes as you like. Isn't that what they do? Do they burn their thumbs off when they commit crimes? Yeah, apparently, if you get lots of pineapple juice on your fingers, it burns off your, that's probably bullshit. It sounds like a... That does not sound as good as your...

But I think the acid in... You know when you, if you make margaritas regularly, if you make margaritas in the sun and you squeeze too much lime juice in the sun, you can like really badly burn your hands. No way. Yeah. So just a little PSA there.

No sun in here. Yeah. And I was like, we're not squeezing limes for these margaritas. No, we're really not. It's quite a uni freshest type vibe. Yeah. We're doing the lazy girl margarita. Um, okay.

So, she's got no thing. print but when I did finish the flag oh she carried on working on it good for her um in brackets made sure I was supervised by my mum for the rest of the making how old is this girl very clever uh it would it looked epic and my twy hard friend was very happy I have attached a pick of the flag oh she touches that thanks for making the pod it started a week or two before this so I was like well things could always be worse Taylor she her oh that is good

I've no idea what forks is but I do like a craft when it's good oh it meets Abby's very high standards congratulations Taylor I like a successful craft yeah well done that just looks like nice fabric do you know what I mean that's thick she isn't cheap it's felt she's got with felt

the traditional fabric for one of those flags what the letters as well yeah I would say the F is a little tall. Okay, right. Let's move on before, Abby. Overanalyze. Oh, we'll put it on our Instagram and you can equally judge it. You can appreciate it. Judge it. Like the rest of us. Ratings out of ten. Good. Ten, it's a ten from me. Let's make it a feature. Tens across the board. Let's do Fancy rating. It's like the fridge door of the internet. Thank you, Taylor, for

being our last contributor to the listener stories. How old is Taylor? Do we know? I don't know. We don't, we don't, we haven't asked for ages. It's a little creepy. But like, at what age do you, does your mum stop agreeing to supervise you? Probably at the age where you stop burning your hands unnecessarily when you're making. I don't think there's an age on that. No.

Well, yeah, no, I don't know. I just feel like if I rang my mum up being like, mum, I'm doing some crafts. She'd be like, you live in London and I live in Bristol. Just watch. you get on Skype, watch me do it. My mum would be like, why are you just like not make it if you're not capable? Yeah.

That's what my mum would do. Yeah, I'm with your mum, to be honest. But well done Taylor for persevering. Yeah, who's on Taylor now? Yeah. Lovely. This runs from Becky Jay. Ooh, Becky Jay.

She sounds like the fun one. That is a cool name, isn't it, Becky with an eye as well. Sounds like she's not the only Becky in a friendship group. Oh, maybe that's it. Becky with an eye. Becky with an eye. Steady on. You're going to alienate literally the only two people

who listen to this podcast. Okay, Becky says, I was war, sorry. I'm Abby with an eye, I don't know why I'm picking it. Oh yeah. Sorry. I was alone working at Hunting Tower Castle in Perth. Ooh. It was January.

It was freezing. I haven't long started. And when you work by yourself in these sorts of places, it is hellishly creepy locking up. Oh God, I can imagine. Oh my God, not last night. But a night this week, I was like totally alone in my house. Yeah.

And our house makes noises. Oh, God. It creaks so much. Like, you literally like lie in your bed and it sounds like someone's walking up the stairs. Do you have anybody living above you? Are you the top flat? No, we're the top. There are, I do think we can hear people next to us, though.

But like, I'm quite, I'm now kind of like acclimatized to how much you can hear. yeah and I've like chilled out about it a little bit now but this night honestly my window was like shaking I think eventually I worked out like I think it was just really strong wind that night yeah it was so unusual how many noises I was hearing it sounded like someone was like shaking our back door trying to get in and I just couldn't sleep I was just like you know and you just start freaking yourself out yeah to go downstairs and just watch is it cake did that help it did I got my weighted blanket out. Lovely. Love that. First, I texted Alex like I was about to be murdered. I bet he really enjoyed that. He was actually out with a drink with you. So you could actually give a, we had a

great time. I didn't even know that was happening. He did not mention it. He didn't check his phone, did he? Someone was being too good company. Yeah, he was having too much fun with me. Yeah, so he was out, but I was just like, who can I text? in the middle of the night that I'm terrified I might just die in a second and then I turned all the lights on in the whole house

got my weighted blanket sat and watched two episodes of Is It Cake 2? I feel like if you're worried that there's an intruder in the house pinning yourself down under a weighted blanket is possibly the worst thing

you could possibly do no one's making a speedy escape under a weighted blanket Well I can just sit by the door I mean I could but the weight of blanket it. Was it calming you down?

Well, that was, yeah. That's the idea, isn't it? That's the idea of it. So I was like, because also I think it in my head, I knew that there probably was an intruder. I was like, I need to just put all the lights on, chill out, get my mind calm. Yeah. And then, was it cake? Most of the time, actually, I'm really pissed off about is it cake too.

I haven't watched it. So the point is, right, is they're meant to make the decoys look like, no, sorry, they're meant to make cake look like the decoys. Yeah. And then you have to guess. Right. But this season, they started just tampering with the decoys and trying to make the decoys look like cakes and all notices that their shit cake is in the middle.

Oh. Doesn't that ruin the program? Yeah. So I got really into some deep Twitter hate on Is It Cake as well? That really distracted. And then, like, hours later, I get a text from Alex going, Are you alive? Are you okay?

Yeah. And obviously, I left it for like at least a minute just to make it to work. Just to make it to work. Yeah. And then I said, I'm watching. And then he was asleep, or no. No, he had to drive, he, like, left you really late. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He had to do a long drive home. Yeah. And then I, and then I eventually. I left the lights on, so if there was an intruder, they'd think I was just, like, partying all night. Yeah. Like, someone's here. Get the disco ball out. Yeah, they're awake.

Yeah. They're an insomniac. Yeah. And then I took my weighted blanket upstairs and I went to bed. Cool. Good. End of story. Good story.

I'll wait for applause. You know what you could have done? I got it. Wow. You are too easy, Neil. Cool. Back to the story? Yeah.

You were going to say, okay. Okay, so where are we? It's freezing. Oh, she's locking up the castle. Spooky. Five minutes, so five minutes drive from the castle is St. John's. St. Johnston's. St Johnston's football stadium

Five minutes from the drive Five minutes drive, fucking hell Five minutes drive from the castle Is St Johnston's football stadium You know it And there was a match on that day At 4pm Who was playing, do you think, Julia?

Who do I think was playing? Probably St Johnston's team Well, if they've got a football stadium It'd be mad if they didn't have a team Never heard of St Johnston's It's 4pm. It's nearly fully dark, and I hear this roar from outside echoing through the castle. Cue me crapping myself before. You rarely hear crapping yourself anymore, do you? As a phrase.

Yeah, I guess it's the more polite version. It is. Thanks, Becky, for leaning towards the more polite version. I appreciate that. For those who don't know, she means shitting. Yeah, she shatter pants is what happened. Shit all over. cue me crapping,

absolutely destroying my pants before realising that it was the football fans. I carry on locking up. Football fans are scarier than ghosts. Yeah, I'd take on a ghost before I took on a football fan. I'd rather a ghost than a stadium of football fans.

I carry on locking up. I get to the bridge between the towers and I hear this gentle rustling but nothing else which sets my teeth on edge. Teeth? Yeah. You not heard that phrase?

Set my teeth on edge? No? There's a new one for you. Stick that in the bank. On edge? What do you mean? What are they on the edge of? Set your teeth on edge.

Just like on the edge of your teeth. Like... Ah, okay. Like Wallace. Like this? Yeah, just like that. A bit of ASMR for the fans. Nice.

I stop. I look around. I call out. And then this is in brackets, because the mass murderer is absolutely going to bloody answer me. Yeah. With higher pow. Appreciate that.

It's a good technique. We've definitely learned from horror films. I scold myself for being a twat. Because funny that they went for crapping themselves, but we've gone straight in with twat. Twat. Nice. Arse head.

Fuck face. I scold myself for being a twat because there is nothing there. I carry on. Next thing I know, another roar. Oh, the football fans. And I feel something touched my head. No.

A pigeon was clearly flying from one tower to the other, you know, as pigeons do. I screamed, ran across the bridge, ran into the two-foot thick stone wall across the room and to the door. She ran into a wall? She's the ghost. I screamed. Wow. That was not the plot twist I was expecting. making a film.

I screamed, ran across the bridge, ran into the two-foot thick stone wall across the room and to the door, all while feeling like something was chasing me. Is this person dead and they don't know it? Because that's not possible. If you can hear us. Yeah.

Come and visit us now. Are you in the room right now? I get most of the way to the door before a pigeon, which was freaked out by the noise of the stadium and then me screaming flies over my head and out of the door in front of me

to be half an hour to calm down enough to be able to finish locking up and my husband thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard when I called him up on the way home that's the end of the story Wow Becky, what a journey we're convinced you're a ghost

I think you're dead thanks for writing in how did you do that how did you Let us know I love a pigeon Do you? Yeah, I think they're hilarious

I think, nature's comedian Do you think? Yeah, you know A pigeon? They're overweight, they're clumsy Are they overweight? They seem it They're just like, okay, I'll tell you I like pigeons

Have you ever seen the film Bolt? No Well, Neil has There's a fun pigeon in it, is there? There are multiple fun pigeons. Oh, okay. And I honestly, now, whenever I see a pigeon, basically, they're pigeons that live in Hollywood.

And every time you meet them, they're trying to, like, pitch a film. Okay. But they're doing it just, like, wobb in their head. Yeah. And they're just, like, aliens. Oh, okay. And they're just, like, just so dumb. I love that all of your references to films are always either Disney or Pixar.

Well, yeah. I like what I like. Yeah, fair play. And if you want to get over a fear of pigeons, I recommend the film Bolt. My housemate's scared of pigeons. She won't even walk past one. I need to sit her down and make her watch it, because I just genuinely think it'll make you love pigeons.

Okay. Oh, well, that's nice, but a PR for the pigeon. About time. I think they're very funny little things. They mean you zero harm. They're just bobbing about. They're just getting by. They're just like living their life.

Yeah. They're getting everything. This is actually now starting to sound like my ex. You're thinking goldfish, I think. bombing about not hearing anybody forgetting everything I've got her time there's Paula

every podcast but I saved a pigeon once did you pick it up like a cabbage really that's how you pick up a bird so you hold their wings wings down I learn on a cabbage I did

I had a friend at primary school who had a pet chicken multiple pet chickens and she taught me how to pick up a chicken and first before I I was allowed to move on to real-life chicken. I had to do it on a cabbage. Okay.

The cabbage has like wings, I guess. Mm, I can see that. Yeah, so you have to hold down the wings. Yeah. And then you need to get it under your arm. Why did you need to pick up a chicken? Just for fun. I guess.

Poor chicken. I don't know. Just wanted to cuddle a chicken. Okay. And then I saw an injured pigeon in the road once, and I clocked into my chicken technique. Yeah. Picked up the pigeon, took it to a one.

Wildlife Center. Wow. And they were like, we don't want pigeons. They're like, we're more looking at like buzzards, but okay. You miss pigeon to yourself. Lovely. The end. Great. Well, another episode done. Okay. She was going straight in. Go on. Don't let me stop me. I felt like we'd have gone on too long. Yeah, I think we have. Anything we have to say, Neil. Hope you enjoy the podcast, follow it. On what? Instagram.

Wherever you get podcasts. Yeah, actually, that would be better. Review it, that would be nice. Yeah. Hope you survive for another week. Bye! Get attacked by an angry shark. Struck up a mountain in the dark.

Pushed up the top of a big landmark. Hit by lightning in your local park. Gauding a downpour of acid rain. Struck by meteor or a train. A proton beam passing through your brain. Attacked by that angry shark. Hear how they survive Trappled by a herd of buffalo

chased with an axe by your new friend Joe Buried alive in a pile of snow The worst case scenario