Devin “Mudcat” Kelly: Purpose, Mortality, and the Philosophy of Flight

Now, I want to sort of start with kind of how the outside world perceives wingsuiters and base jumpers as adrenaline junkies.

When you first entered the community, did that stereotype sort of match the reality that you found?

Personally, I found the adrenaline junkie stereotype, the idea that the outside world has of us, being these adrenaline junkies, thrill seekers, daredevils, it did not match what I saw in the world, in the base world and in the skydiving, windsuiting world.

Instead, I found extremely calculated people um, people who were very wary of the risk versus reward profile and therefore did everything they could to stack the odds in their favor when it came to pursuing the next level of wingsuiting and then of base jumping.

So I found meticulous people, calculated people, philosophical people, uh, Living here in Lauterbrunnen, we'll go to the Horner or something, and the conversations you have are deep, and they're interesting, and sometimes they're poetic.

It's a beautiful world full of depth, and I don't think that depth is really accurately conveyed by the stereotype adrenaline junkie.

I do know some people are, you know, they jump and they say, yeah, dude, and all that shit.

But like, There are a couple of us and we're all obviously drawn to the thrill of it to some extent.

But I find the adrenaline aspect of jumping is actually what makes me uncomfortable.

My mouth tastes like chalk.

My hands start shaking.

My stomach does knots.

And really what I'm doing on exit is trying to suppress the adrenaline reaction that my body might have.

Sometimes I'll be standing on exit.

I'll literally be shaking sometimes.

And I know I'm not ready for peak performance right now.

Take a step back, meditate for five minutes, get my breath in order, and then go and perform.