Very well then, why did they call you the crazy Russians?

SOCIETY

Moscow News № 24, June 13-19, 2001

Crazy Russians

Alexei:Not quite. We were supposed to be whisked off to shore by a rescue boat. But I was a bit stunned after hit­ting me water, and as I surfaced the boal propeller caught me on the head and one arm. Fortunately, it was a glancing blow That is, the outcome could have been different? Yuri:Naturally. It is not for nothing that we sign all those papers where we assume full responsibility for the risk in­volved. As far as I know, you applied to the Guinness Book of Records editors, What for? Alexei Semyonox: The Guinness Book of Records spurned us. They prefer chaps who can spit the farthest

This is what Saratov parachutists were dubbed at the International Stuntmen Festival where they won a gold medal and a diploma for the best air stunt. In conversation with Vremya MN's SVETLANA SHAROVA are the intrepid members of the Vertical team YURI FILIMONYUK and ALEXEI SEMYONOV

"Only please don't ask us if we are scared to jump," they chorused warn-ingly. "This is the daft question every­one is asking."

Very well then, why did they call you "the crazy Russians"?

Yuri: There was the pick of the world's stuntmen there. The show was to be a real smasher — races, explosions, medieval jousts, people in flames... So the organizers said to the parachutists: "Why don't you land smack on stage?" And that stage was a patch of tarmac some 25 meters across. From up there in the helicopter it looked like a mod­est-size soup plate. While all around was a hell of a tough set: a water-filled ditch complete with an old fortress, on one side; the river Setun, on the other; nine-story apartment blocks flanking it on a third side; a couple of high-rises, on a fourth. The area between these build­ings is a sort of windless bowl, but be­hind them it can blow and whirl in any direction. And you've got to anticipate every little thing. The slightest miscal­culation, and you'll smash against one of the high-rises, or else come crashing down on spectators' heads. They will

hardly take kindly to that, and your own pride will take a nasty jolt.

So they took stock of the situation, the Italians, the French, and the Americans with Eric Patrickson at the head — and he's four times world parachute jump­ing champion — and said firmly, no. Now, with us it's different — if a thing has to be done, we go and do it.

After our jump, which ended without mishap, the foreigners muttered "crazy" but with a new respect.

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