GoPro cameras are pretty tough little suckers, but who knew that they are smart too. This skydiver managed to knock his GoPro out of its protective housing as he leaped out of a plane at 12,500 ft, yet the camera managed to survive intact, and in good time to catch its owner's landing a couple of minutes later.
Lucas Damm was out skydiving with his buddies in Canada, and wanted to capture the freefall on his GoPro camera which was inside a protective case mounted to his helmet. Everything was going fine until he managed to clip the case on the plane's door while leaving, popping it open and sending the GoPro flying.
Still, the running camera did its job. shooting its entire free fall to the ground, spinning wildly as it went. Amazingly it managed to land upright, pointed in the right direction to catch the skydivers landing.
Lucas didn't even realize that the camera was missing until after he had landed, at which point his heart sank. One of his buddies saw a shiny object on the ground and went to pick it up. It was Lucas' still running GoPro, which captured the whole even without skipping a beat.
Some people are calling this a staged publicity stunt for GoPro, but on his YouTube channel, Lucas insists that everything came down to plain dumb luck. In either case, it's makes for a pretty nifty commercial for GoPro.
Check out the video to see the GoPro's perspective of this event from leaving the plane, to Lucas' friend finding it on the ground.
