In this week's edition of Where Did It Come From? we take a look at.......(gasp!!).....BASE jumping!

So, where did it come from? Australia, right? Gotta be from Australians. They're nuts. Seeing how BASE jumping is literally a sport of jumping from Buildings, Antennas, Spans and Earth, it's not a bad guess. Much to our surprise though, it was invented by some American dude. A cinematographer named Carl Boenish.

"Carl Who? Doesn't sound very EXTREME!!"

Well, before he revolutionized the act of falling, Boenish spent his days and nights filming things boringly planted to the ground. He toiled in the monotony that was his life, known to neighbors and coworkers only as the weird guy with the camera. That all changed one fateful day, while Boenish was filming a diaper commercial. Wanting a reaction shot to the diaper's wetness (or is it dryness?) protection, he approached the commercial's lead baby. His focus was intense. So much so, that he failed to notice said baby's chew toy lying on the floor. He stumbled, sending the camera hurtling towards the ground.

After rounds of apologies to the now traumatized baby, Boenish watched the footage. He was captivated by what he saw. He thought, "how can I make this longer... and faster... and better?" Luckily, this epiphany occurred while he was standing on a bridge wearing a parachute. With that, Boenish grabbed his camera, stepped to the edge of the bridge and jumped. It was exhilarating, intense, thrilling and every other word found under the "exciting" entry of a thesaurus. Hundreds of jumps and thousands of dollars worth of cameras later, Boenish was on to something. He thought, "What if I stop filming, but keep jumping?"

On that day BASE jumping was born. The awesome acronym came later.

Learn more about BASE jumping in our "Learn" section.