Andy Lewis, a high-wire specialist watched by millions during Madonna's Super Bowl halftime show in 2012, has died in a BASE jumping accident in Utah. Authorities say the 41-year-old, known in extreme sports circles as "Sketchy Andy," was killed Sunday during a canyon jump in Mineral Bottom near Moab, Fox News reports. The other jumper, a man in his 50s who has not yet been publicly identified, also died. The Grand County Sheriff's Office told the Moab Sun News that both men were fatally injured during a tandem BASE jump, in which an experienced jumper and a guide descend on one parachute. Lewis owned a business in Moab that offered tandem jumps.
Lewis, originally from California and later based in Moab, was a prominent figure in slacklining and BASE jumping, holding a Guinness World Record for a slackline walk above a waterfall in China and previously setting a highline record 480 feet above Las Vegas. He performed stunts on at least three continents and once walked a slackline between two hot air balloons 4,000 feet above the Nevada desert for a Red Bull show.
Hours before his death, he posted an Instagram video of a cliff flip near Moab, writing that he was excited for "the rest of the season." A local resident described him to Fox as "a very big personality" known throughout the community. Lewis acknowledged that BASE jumping, in which people parachute to the ground from tall places like desert cliffs, was an inherently dangerous sport, the AP reports. "It's weird to think about how many people are dead, because it's like a normal thing," he said last year.
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