Base jumper injured at Skippers

LATEST: A Queenstown base jumper fell 30m down a cliff after a jump in the Skippers Canyon early this morning.

Police said the jumper was 40-year-old Chris Judice.

Acting Sergeant Terry Wood, of Queenstown, said the jumper's shute opened properly and filled with air, but he hit the cliff face about 30m above the canyon floor.

``He bounced into the cliff a few times, fell into about 30cm of water and managed to drag himself on to a nearby sandbank,'' Mr Wood said.

Mr Judice was airlifted to Southland Hospital in Invercargill. He was reported to be in a stable condition in the emergency department pending surgery for a leg injury this afternoon.

Mr Judice went to a bridge in the canyon with a friend and did the 102m jump about 6.30am,  Mr Wood said.

His friend called emergency services at 7.15am. 

A medical assessment at the scene indicated Mr Judice had a dislocated femur in his left leg, cuts and grazes on his hands and elbows and a possible broken pelvi, Mr Wood said.

Mr Judice told him at the scene he had been base jumping for 15 years and this was his first accidentm, he said.
 

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