Pro surfer Jordy Smith recently paraglided off Table Mountain – Craig Kolesky and Red Bull was there to capture stills and video.

By Craig Kolesky.

My days can be very weird. My weeks are usually planned well in advance and schedules are kept, but sometimes I get calls at some crazy hour to shoot something cool. This was one of those mornings. Red Bull friends Horacio Llorens and Tom Thomas de Dorlodot were in Cape Town after paragliding across Africa.

The call from Ryan Payne at Red Bull went something like this:

Ryan: “Craig, you awake?”

Craig: “Yes Ryan, what’s up?”

Ryan: “We are throwing Jordy off Table Mountain with Horacio and Tom, can you be up there in 30min?”

So that’s how some of my days start. Getting to the top of the mountain was never easier, access had already been arranged and the long lines were bypasses. All we needed was a red carpet.

Nature plays a big part in what we do and sometimes things don’t work out, on this day we had an hour gap to get the guys off the mountain before the wind changed – Table Mountain is very tricky to jump from so we were lucky that everything worked out.  We ended with great stills and video and a lot of stoked crew after a successful jump.

Based in Cape Town, Craig Kolesky specialises in action and sports photography. For more of his work, take a look at his website or blog.