Oddwork’s Anton Squeezer performs world record jump
When Oddwork’s wingsuit athlete Anton Squeezer told us he wanted to become the youngest person in the world to perform a sensational jump, we immediately put our founders Charlie, Niklas and Poyan on a plane to the Swiss Alps.
We have been hiking for almost two hours. The autumn sun shines through the treetops and sweat runs down our temples as we climb the steep Swiss terrain. After weeks of constant rain, we have now found a 24-hour “weather window” that allows a jump of this calibre.
Soon Oddwork’s athlete Anton ”Squeezer” Andersson, wearing a custom-made wingsuit, will throw himself off the top of the Hintisberg mountain. He will plunge straight down the rock face, his body will straighten out, and then Anton will fly down the mountain at 250 kilometres an hour. So what is special about this jump? Anton will try to become the youngest person in the world to fly through a fixed object, a so-called “target”.
Oddwork’s wingsuit athlete Anton Squeezer and Oddworkman in the helicopter before a warm-up jump over the Jungfrau.
The feat involves considerable risk, and similar jumps have only been performed a handful of times before. For the jump to succeed, Anton has to glide down the mountain with exact precision; some passages of the route are only 15 metres wide. On top of that, the object he will fly through sways just two metres above the ground.
In silence, leaning forward, we keep climbing the mountainside. Half an hour later we reach our goal, the middle of the mountain. We catch our breath and look up towards the top of Hintisberg. Up there, 5,000 metres above sea level, Anton stands on a ledge. It goes quiet. Then he jumps straight out into the air.
When Anton Andersson decided to study engineering after upper secondary school, he quickly realised student life was not for him. He started thinking about what he really wanted to do with his life and kept coming back to the same dream he had had since childhood: he wanted to fly.
In 2014 he booked a skydiving course, and since then Anton has thrown himself into the sky almost daily. Shortly afterwards he moved to Norway and worked 250 hours a month. All the money he earned went to skydiving. When he visited San Francisco a year later, he made 350 jumps in three months. At night he slept in a tent at the airfield.
During the trip he also came across wingsuit jumping. In the sport, the pilot wears a specially designed suit where the fabric turns the body into a wing profile, allowing the person to move forward while falling through the air. Jumps are usually made from fixed points such as mountains, buildings, antennas and bridges.
Anton Squeezer, a.k.a. Anton Andersson, realised his dream was to fly. Today he does.
Anton felt compelled to try, and he got to know an Australian who later became his coach. Anton’s first wingsuit jump was from a bridge in France. Soon after, he went to Italy and jumped from a mountain for the first time.
Shortly afterwards he moved to Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland, one of the most popular places in the world for wingsuit jumping. In the mornings Anton hiked up one of the mountains, then flew down and landed outside his workplace. During lunch breaks and after work, he squeezed in a few more jumps.
Over the past two years, Anton has jumped from different mountains more than 800 times. In a short time he has achieved what can take other wingsuit athletes up to ten years. For the past year he has been sponsored by Oddwork.
On the day of the planned jump, we wake up in the middle of the night to a starry sky. For the past few weeks the weather has been grey and cloudy, but now it finally looks like a beautiful day. For Anton to perform the jump with good visibility, the weather conditions must be perfect; among other things, the wind has to be steady and soft.
Soon it is light, and we look around with cups of morning coffee in our hands: brilliant sunshine and not a breath of wind.
The team gathers and we begin the hike up Hintisberg. The plan is for us to hike to the middle of the mountain while Anton takes a gondola to the summit.
Swiss friends joined us along the mountainside on the hike up Hintisberg.
We carry with us the object Anton plans to become the youngest person in the world to fly through: a thick piece of cardboard laminated with Oddwork’s orange logo. The first thing that strikes us is how small it is, only two metres wide and one metre high. We look at each other with expressions that say: “Wasn’t it supposed to be bigger than this?” The object is also attached to two bamboo poles that are not very long at all. We quickly conclude: when Anton flies through the object at 250 kilometres an hour, he will be just three metres above the ground. I myself, Niklas Kekonius and Poyan Karimi are the ones holding the bamboo poles. No words were needed to describe what everyone was thinking as we each assessed the risk of what was about to happen.
The hike up Hintisberg is tough. The route is steep and never levels out. We push through deciduous forest, continue up into mountain terrain and pass farms on steep slopes. Every flagpole we pass, we eagerly look at; the flags still hang still against the poles. Around us stretch massive mountains with snow-capped peaks. Despite the steep climb, it is like walking through a fairytale landscape.
When we reach our planned spot, a relatively open place in the middle of the mountain, we are worn out but focused. Only now do we see the ledge Anton will throw himself from: a massive white rock face that seems to rise at 90 degrees into the sky.
The camera team and we take our positions. The object with the laminated cardboard is unfolded and put in the right place. We take a firm grip of the bamboo poles. All that remains is to call Anton and give him the go-ahead to jump. But we cannot reach him. We try calling from every phone we have, without success. His phone has stopped working. Anton’s planning has been meticulous, but now it looks like the jump will not happen.
Oddwork’s Charles Sinclair, Poyan Karimi and Niklas Kekonius unfold the cardboard, which is considerably smaller than planned.
In the end we see only one way out: to try shouting up the massive rock face until he hears us. The sky is completely clear and we can see Anton’s orange suit as a small dot at the very edge of the mountain. The whole team shouts up at the sky: “JUMP!” No reaction. We roar again: “JUUUUUUUMP!!” We have no idea whether he can hear us. Suddenly the dot starts getting ready, and drops from the mountain.
Everyone tenses up. Our knuckles turn white as we hold the bamboo poles as hard as we can. Anton has planned this jump for weeks. He has measured the exact height, exact angles, the exact distance he will fly, the planned speed… Now the moment has come, and we all watch the small dot grow bigger as he flies towards us.
A rumble is heard far away and we see the projectile coming closer. Our hearts pound as the sound gets louder and louder. Everyone’s adrenaline is pumping. The mix of anticipation and fear is complete. Ten seconds later, it can only be described as a roaring fighter jet flying towards us with the aim of flying straight through us. Anton’s body grows at a furious pace against the blue sky. The roar is deafening.
A few seconds later we hear a massive bang, like a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier. BANG!!! There is so much force, and everything happens so fast. We look at each other in the silence that lasts several seconds. Everyone’s brains are trying to piece together what just happened.
Anton has smashed through the object and keeps flying down the mountain! The poles in our hands have barely moved.
Anton Squeezer becomes the youngest in the world to fly through a fixed object.
Watch the full “The Story Behind the Jump” here.
Behind us, Anton keeps flying down towards the valley, soon to open his parachute and glide to the ground. We realise he has done it. Roars of joy break out on the mountain, and the whole team joins in ecstatic high fives, cheers and hugs.
A few hours later, once the joy has settled a little, some uncertainty bubbles up: what did this jump actually mean? Anton calls Jokke Sommer, sponsored by Red Bull and something of an authority on the subject as one of the world’s leading wingsuit pilots. Soon it is confirmed: Anton, 23 years old, is the youngest wingsuit pilot in the world to fly through a fixed object.
Best regards,
Charles Sinclair
CEO & Head of Employer Branding
Oddwork
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