Tom Morgan runs The Adventurists, a company involved in various crazy stunts, but his latest stunt was likely his most weird and potentially dangerous. The 38-year-old decided to take to the African skies as a test run for a competitive balloon race they are planning to hold. While hot air balloon races are already a “thing,” no one has reportedly ever launched a race using Helium Balloons. His test run saw Morgan himself, seated in a garden chair and floating just over a mile up in the air above northern Johannesburg in South Africa while attached to a big, bright bunch of balloons.

Test run for first helium balloon race succeeds

Morgan originally hails from Bristol in the U.K. but now lives in southern Africa. He recently visited Botswana to launch his test run for the helium balloon race but found the weather to be bad, leading to many of his balloons bursting. He told the BBC that it was difficult to find the perfect weather window, where the helium balloons could be protected from bursting. That attempt can be viewed here.

The crazy daredevil then set his sights on Johannesburg in South Africa, which had much more friendly skies. It reportedly took Morgan two days to fill the balloons with sufficient helium to take him to the skies.

Lift off success with a lawn chair and helium balloons

Monday, October 23 was the day he finally achieved liftoff, after tying the helium balloons to a simple lawn chair. He told the BBC that he was a mixture of terrified and elated as he finally took off. However, as he rose higher into the atmosphere, things started to get chilly as the temperature dropped, leading him to gradually start cutting away the balloons.

However, he managed to spend two hours up there in the ether before gradually lowering himself to the ground by releasing the balloons one at a time.

CBS News quotes Matthew Dickens, the Events Manager for The Adventurists, as saying they couldn’t believe Morgan had managed to do it. He admitted they weren’t sure he would get back from the experience alive.

The Adventurists and their motto

Looking at the website for The Adventurists – which hosts a full range of videos of their many crazy stunts – they describe themselves as living to make the world a little more difficult and to add chaos to their “over-sanitized lives.” The various stunts they get up to certainly make their lives more interesting – if a little risky.

Readers can enjoy the crazy helium balloon stunt in the Facebook video included here.
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