Video: Local Stuntman Loves To Jump Off Rooftops

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 1, 2014 1:45PM

By day, Ethan Swanson works as an actuary. When he isn’t using numbers to help companies minimize the financial impact of risk, Swanson takes different chances as a stuntman with a penchant for jumping off roofs.

Swanson, who has appeared on the show American Ninja Warrior, was filmed jumping off the rooftop of an apartment building, landing on and sliding down the roof of a smaller home, and leaping to a spiral staircase with a Go Pro camera.

The shot of Swanson frozen in mid-air while the Brown Line train continues to move at normal speed has led some in the Internet Greek Chorus to claim the entire jump was fake, but these effects can be added during editing. If we were Swanson’s neighbor we’d be more pissed he thought it was a good idea to use our roof as a parkour playground.

Swanson told Fox News Chicago he’s been jumping off roofs for as long as he can remember and that he gets a rush doing so.

“You see the end product, but what you don't see is all of the hours, days and weeks and months and years that I’ve put into, in a training environment that has pads and foam pits. I can train and I do screw up, but when I do it's in a safe place so that when I fall, I don't get hurt," Swanson said.

Swanson’s video, which is simply a glorified ad for Go Pro, has been viewed over 1.7 million times on YouTube as of this posting.