Leaping For Local Business Onto Giant Airbags

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Last February, WCCO-TV's Matt Brickman stared down a giant airbag at Buck Hill...and things didn't go so well.

He and his snowboard made it over the jump, but not exactly as planned. But on Friday, as part of an event in Minneapolis called "Leap for Local Business," Brickman got the opportunity face the giant airbag again.

"We have a scissor lift where the public can come out: they can jump off the platform just for fun," said Rufus Casey, owner of US AiRBAG.

Jumping off what amounts to a four-story building. What could go wrong?

"It feels a lot higher when you're up at the top," said Casey, who admits that when you're looking down from 40 feet in the air, "it's scary."

But there were plenty of brave souls who took the plunge, like Lisa Schutzberger, who was visiting from Idaho.

"It's my 40th birthday," she said. "So this is what you do when you turn 40: You have a mid-life crisis."

In fact, a 62-year-old man set the bar for everyone else by making the leap without breaking a sweat.

The reason they're all jumping is to attract people to University Avenue businesses that have been hurt by LRT construction. And the sight of people free falling from a few stories up -- not to mention BMX riders flipping into the bag from a nearby building -- is bound to get a little attention.

Still, Brickman was a little nervous, considering how things went with the airbag last time. Watch the video to see if he made the jump.

The US AiRBAG guys will be back at it again on University Avenue Saturday from noon to 9:00 p.m. Get more information on it here.