SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It was a jaw-dropping stunt that started with jumping out of a helicopter 5,000 feet above the San Francisco Bay. Red Bull athlete and skysurfing pioneer Sean McCormac can be seen coasting down the cables of the iconic Bay Bridge and landing on a barge minutes later.
“That was probably the most intense, wildest project I have ever done,” McCormac said.
It was a stunt by energy drink maker Red Bull that confirmed it took them “around 18 months of planning, preparation, and training.”
Over a year of heads-up that drivers waiting on the bridge early Saturday morning to cross into San Francisco wished they knew about. One blamed the drink maker on social media for missing their interview Saturday morning, and another said this stunt “was not worth the traffic delay.”
MORE: Skydiving legend Sean MacCormac ‘skysurfs’ San Francisco Bay Bridge in world-first stunt
Red Bull athlete and skysurfing pioneer Sean MacCormac made history by jumping over 5,500 feet before riding down the Bay Bridge’s suspension cables.
ABC7 News asked San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie who approved the stunt and why there was no warning.
“I will look into it, but here is what I would say: If we are going to be a global city that is on top again, we are going to have to make sure we know what’s coming, but we have to expect that there will be some inconvenience,” Mayor Lurie said.
ABC7 News made dozens of phone calls to the city, the county, the highway patrol, the local and state film commissions. Everyone pointed us to Caltrans, the state agency that is responsible for the bridge.
Caltrans declined an interview and said they would send a statement, which they never did. But we obtained the permit granted to Red Bull, which confirmed “the jump was scheduled to happen Saturday, August 23 between 6 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.”
Within that window traffic on the Bay Bridge was stopped twice. According to Caltrans, CHP stopped vehicles for 8 to 10 minutes for both attempts.
“We, of course, don’t want anybody to be stuck on the bridge or be significantly delayed in their weekend plans, as this was on a Saturday. But as far as I’m concerned, they followed all proper protocols,” said CA Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens.
The crew set up at Red Java House in San Francisco. The owner said the crew was also delayed due to the weather.
“It was all fogged in. So they weren’t sure if they were going to be able to shoot it so they had us kind of stand by,” Red’s Java House owner Tiffany Pisoni said.
This permit also listed a coordinated city effort with “CHP, an ambulance parked at Yerba Buena Island Caltrans Maintenance Yard.”
The total cost to taxpayers for the stunt is still unknown; however the San Francisco Film Commission said their projections point to Red Bull spending approximately $8,000 in city fees and over $500,000 spent in the city.
“This is great advertising for San Francisco. This comes back to, for me, it’s really about hiring our locals, and hiring local crew, and the economic impact for the city. That is huge for us,” said Manijeh Fata, Executive Director of Film SF, San Francisco Film Commission.
The drink maker has not confirmed this, but assembly member Ahrens hopes this serves as a lesson to inform the public.
“I think we can always improve how we are reaching out to folks,” said Ahrens.
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