Two people were killed in a BASE jumping accident over the weekend in a canyon in eastern Utah, authorities said. One of the victims was Andy Lewis, the extreme sports performer who gained national attention after appearing onstage with Madonna during the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show.
Emergency crews were called Sunday to Mineral Bottom, a remote desert area near the Utah-Colorado border, after receiving reports of injuries during a BASE jump, according to the Grand County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office identified Lewis as one of those who died. He was widely known in the extreme sports world for BASE jumping, a high-risk activity in which participants parachute from fixed structures such as buildings, bridges and cliffs.
The two victims were attempting a tandem jump, meaning they were strapped together during the descent, according to a social media statement from Aerial Arts Moab. The acrobatics company referred to Lewis as its “co-owner and best friend.”
Lewis also ran BASE Jump Moab, a company that offered tandem jumps to first-time participants paired with an experienced guide carrying the parachute. Videos posted on the business’s website show jumpers stepping from the edges of steep canyon cliffs before opening their parachutes moments later.
Among BASE jumpers, Lewis was known for his bold style and willingness to take greater risks than many others in the sport, said John McEvoy, a BASE jumping instructor in Twin Falls, Idaho, who had jumped with him. McEvoy said Lewis had built a large following and a reputation for pushing the limits, often jumping into tighter spaces and delaying parachute deployment longer than many of his peers would attempt.
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Lewis’ risk-taking knew few bounds
In BASE jumping circles, Lewis had a huge following and a reputation for pushing the envelope – leaping into tighter spaces or deploying his parachute later than his peers would dare, said John McEvoy, a BASE jumping instructor in Twin Falls, Idaho, who has jumped with Lewis.
“He had an incredible level of athleticism and skill that was developed over years of practice,” McEvoy said. “But then he would take an incredible amount of risk.”
Grand County Sheriff Jamison Wiggins confirmed the other person who was killed was Danny Joe Kregle, a 68-year-old father and grandfather who was described by a family member as an accomplished businessman.
“Danny had a wonderful sense of humor and was always looking for ways to make people laugh,” relative Sydney Laverty told The Times-Independent. “One of his greatest joys was performing magic tricks alongside his granddaughter.”
Lewis was also a prominent figure in the niche sports of slacklining and tricklining, which combine elements of high-wire walking with aerial acrobatics – sometimes at perilous heights.
He went from obscure athlete to overnight celebrity when he appeared onstage in Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl halftime show. Dressed in a Roman toga, Lewis bounced and executed tricks on his inch-wide line like it was a trampoline while Madonna sang behind him.
AP Photo / Charlie Riedel, File 
“My phone actually rang itself to death three days in a row,” Lewis said soon afterward in an appearance on Conan O’Brien’s late night show.
BASE jumping much riskier than skydiving, study shows
Though there’s no official tally of BASE jumping deaths, a list compiled by the website BASEaddict.com shows 540 total fatalities worldwide since 1981 – including 30 people killed last year. Prominent deaths include BASE jumper Dean Potter and his climbing partner, Graham Hunt, who were killed in 2015 while attempting a wingsuit flight in California’s Yosemite National Park.
A study focused on BASE jumping in Norway, published in a medical journal in 2007, estimated that BASE jumping carried risks of injury or death five to eight times greater than skydiving.
Lewis openly acknowledged the sport’s inherent danger.
“It’s weird to think about how many people are dead, because it’s like a normal thing,” Lewis told documentary filmmaker Ella Warnick in an interview published last year.
Tandem BASE jumping carries additional risk because it straps together two people, one of whom generally lacks experience, under a single parachute, McEvoy said. But because they involve novices, they also tend to be the most low-risk, basic types of jumps.
“Within BASE, it’s a very controversial topic,” McEvoy said. “There’s a lot of people who say it’s the stupidest thing in the world and others arguing: `No, we’re giving people the experience of their lives.’”
No one immediately returned phone, text and Facebook messages left Monday for BASE Jump Moab.
Lewis won four straight world championships in competitive slacklining from 2008 through 2011. Lewis set a Guinness World Record for slackline surfing, swaying his feet side to side in a rocking motion that mimics surfing, while keeping his balance above China’s Diaoshuilou waterfall in 2011.
In 2014, he walked a slackline suspended between two hot air balloons more than 4,000 feet above the Nevada desert.
Lewis’ other sport made him an overnight celebrity, thanks to Madonna.
