Watch a 51 Year Old Survive Death by Extreme Sports

Few people in the world would be better prepared to survive a near-disaster than acrobatic hang-gliding world champion Jon Gjerde.

Which is nearly what happened to him last week, as demonstrated by this GoPro footage of a death-defying plunge he made at an extreme sports exhibition in Norway. The first 50 seconds are literally smooth sailing; the rest of the video … is not.

Even more fearsome is the footage shot from the ground, which records the collapse of Gjerde’s Moyes Litespeed RX4 and subsequent drop into a small lake. Gjerde survived, though he sustained serious bruising and apparently burst every blood vessel in his eyes — an image he’s given prominent view on his Facebook page.

“My vision failed and I struggled hard against G-force to get my rescue out,” Gjerde said.

For the record, dude is 51 years old.

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Diane Rommel

Diane Rommel has written for The Wall Street Journal, Outside, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Travel + Leisure, Wallpaper and Afar, as well as The Cut, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and McSweeney’s. She once drove from London to Mongolia, via Siberia.