A popular vacation trend is to participate in an adrenaline-inducing activity, like bungee jumping, skydiving or, more innocently, hang gliding.
However, one man's seemingly harmless choice to go hang gliding in Switzerland turned into a 2 minute and 14 second nearly fatal experience.
Chris Gurskey is a photographer based in Florida.
His YouTube channel, Gursk3, is full of exciting travel videos of adventures in Iceland, hiking the Grand Canyon and snow tubing in Breckenridge.
However, his November 26th video titled "SWISS MISHAP" brought out the more terrifying aspect of his adventures.
The caption of his video reads,
"My first time Hang Gliding turned into a near death experience as my safety harness was never hooked to the Glider. For 2 Min. 14 seconds I had to hang on for my life! The landing was a rough one, but I lived to tell the story."
Warning — this video is not for the lighthearted.
SWISS MISHAPwww.youtube.com
As the video shows, Chris's harness was not attached to the hang glider as it should have been. What followed was a gliding experience of just over 2 minutes that would make any viewer's palms sweat.
Gursky's terrifying adventure ended in him suffering a fragmented distal radius fracture in his right wrist which required a surgery where a titanium plate and 7 screws were inserted to fix the fracture.
He also tore his left bicep tendon due to his life-saving grip on the hang glider's bar.
Despite his near-death experience Chris maintained a humorous attitude regarding the whole video.
When the video shows his realization that he wasn't attached he joked,
"Houston, we have a problem!"
As the pilot attempts to find a place to land, Gursky quipped,
"Maybe aim for a tree?"
And finally, after chronicling his injuries he ended the video saying,
"It beats the alternative.
This was the first day of our vacation in Switzerland.
Base jumping tomorrow?"
People are amazed by Chris's ability to maintain his sense of humor.
However, more impressive than his demeanor is his bravery and survival!
Not many people feel as though they could have handled the experience as well as Chris.
The only question now is how will Chris Gursky top this?
