Malibu-based adventurer and extreme athlete Johnny Strange died on Thursday, Oct. 1, while BASE jumping in a wingsuit in the Swiss Alps. Strange was 23.
Strange was in Switzerland to film videos of BASE jumping, a sport similar to parachuting wherein athletes jump off cliffs and buildings, when “something went wrong,” according to various news reports.
“A spokesman for Switzerland police in the state of Uri says Strange crashed shortly after jumping from Mount Gitschen in central Switzerland at noon Thursday,” a report by FOX News read.
More details about the crash were not immediately available, though various reports claim winds were high that day.
Known worldwide for his fearless enthusiasm for extreme sports, Strange first gained international fame as a mountain climber, conquering the “seven summits” — the tallest peak on each of the seven continents — by age 17.
However, Strange had already been well known in his home town of Malibu. At the time, Strange was a Malibu High student whose daredevil antics sometimes toed the line of the law. In 2010, The Malibu Times reported that Strange was reprimanded by L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputies for “street surfing” — riding on top of a moving vehicle on Pacific Coast Highway.
But Strange, even at that young age, was sensitive to the dangers of his stunts.
“I don’t want kids trying this and I don’t want other people doing it. I don’t want anybody getting hurt because of what they saw,” Strange said at the time.
Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Laura Rosenthal, a longtime friend of Strange and his mother, Dianette Wells, spoke to The Malibu Times this week about Strange’s life and calling toward adventure, which she said began at a young age.
“His parents, Brian and Dianette, did a lot of things — climbed and got involved in amazing races and different things, and Johnny would see them doing that and accompany them at the end, and he just loved that,” Rosenthal recalled. “He was always that way, even as a little, little boy. He loved jumping off things and testing limits.”
According to Rosenthal, it seemed as if Strange’s calling was toward a life of adventure, and his parents worked to keep him as safe as possible, while allowing him to live life on his own terms.
“I know his parents struggled with that,” Rosenthal said, but “there were things he was always going to do.
“What was most important to them was that he was safe and had the best equipment possible,” Rosenthal said. “We can only get through to our kids as much as we can; everybody is their own person.”
Strange and Wells were interviewed in a 2009 edition of Malibu Times Magazine in an article about extreme athletes. Wells said in the article that she wanted to prove to her children that “there really are no limits in their lives,” a lesson that Strange took to heart, summiting Everest a year later.
During his climb, Strange witnessed from afar a Sherpa guide killed in an avalanche, and reflected on the experience in a 2009 interview with The Malibu Times.
“Death is a part of life that we cannot escape, as much as we like to think we can,” 17-year-old Strange said. “But, in reality, that is what happens up there, and all I could really do was hope his family is OK and that no one else gets injured.”
Model and fellow Malibu High alum Gigi Hadid tweeted last week that “he lived more in 23 years than many do their whole life,” a statement with which Rosenthal seemed to concur.
“He was going to do what he was going to do, and he loved what he was doing, everything. It made him feel alive,” Rosenthal said. “He had become a very soulful, thoughtful man.”
Strange, who spoke during the Malibu Library Speaker Series earlier this year, was remembered during a massive paddle-out on Sunday off Zuma Beach, which was attended by over 100 people.
Another paddle-out is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 18, at Zuma Beach near Trancas, and a celebration of his life is set for Monday, Oct. 12 in Malibu.
When asked what Strange’s legacy will be, Rosenthal thought for a moment.
“Do what you love and have courage,” she said. “He had a lot of courage.”
