Skydiving. Rock climbing. Leaping from cliffs, bridges, and some of the world’s tallest manmade structures.
Throughout his life, BASE jumper JD Walker’s hobbies read like most people’s list of activities on their not-ever-to-do list. He even survived a jump that left him with serious injuries.
But decades of accomplishing the most physically and mentally demanding of tasks did not prepare Walker, among the pioneers of the high-risk sport, for the morning after Thanksgiving in 2018.
“I woke up and I couldn’t see anything,” Walker recalls. “I was stumbling around trying to find a light switch, thinking it was still dark …”
He spent the next five days in a hospital while doctors ran every test and examined every possible cause. They found nothing that would have caused the sudden loss of vision that struck with zero warning.
“I was a pilot. I was a scuba diver. I survived horrific situations,” Walker says. “I thought, it’ll get better, it will just take time.”
Eight years later, Walker remains legally blind. While the Chandler resident has a full field of view and can make out large, general shapes, he is unable to identify food on his plate, walk on uneven terrain, or make out facial expressions.
Walker remains active with several projects and endeavors, namely BASE 37 - Memoir of a BASE Jumping Pioneer, a memoir packed with true stories of Walker’s life growing up as fourth-generation Arizona native, helping to establish BASE—an acronym for Building, Antenna, Span (bridge or dome), Earth (or in his case, the antenna was the world's first smokestack jump)— jumping, thrilling experiences beyond the sport, and reconciling with the life changing loss of sight.
“It was very personal,” says Walker, who did his first jump more than 40 years ago. “The book is full of great stuff.”
Born in Scottsdale, Walker spent his youth in Coolidge and Tempe, where he graduated from Marcos de Niza High School. In 1980, skydiving cinematographer Carl Boenish—also the founding father of BASE jumping—came to the Valley and showed a 16mm film he made.
Walker saw it and was immediately hooked. He kept in touch with Boenish and joined him for what was Walker’s first BASE jump off Crocker Bank in Los Angeles in 1982.
Walker would spend the next four decades jumping off nearly anything and everything that posed a heart-stopping descent that allowed him to challenge gravity. In 1987, Walker did the first BASE jump into the Grand Canyon.
Family and friends kept suggesting he write a book. While attending the famous Bridge Day, where thousands watch BASE jumpers dive off New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia, Walker met the current generation of jumpers. They viewed him as a legend, a grandfather of the sport, but didn’t know the history of the art, which had somewhat changed over the years.
“I came home and thought, these guys need to know this,” Walker says. “One month later, I lost most of my vision.”
It took seven years, but his memoir was published in February. Blindness was not nearly enough to deter him from writing or BASE jumping.
His most recent jump was two years ago in Twin Falls, Idaho. Atop the bridge, Walker was able to make out the outline of the river and the bank and figured out a way to make it happen. He used a parachute that belonged to Boenish, who was killed in a solo jump in Norway in 1984, which he repaired to make the jump.
“For me, it was an emotional thing, big time,” Walker says.
Walker admits that the journey hasn’t been easy. He gets choked up talking about going through a dark time. An unexpected call from his oldest granddaughter wanting to tell him why she didn’t go to school that day changed his outlook. He calls it a divine act that saved his life.
“It reminded me that there are other people in your world who love you,” Walker says.
That’s when what started as a mission to tell the story of BASE jumping to a new generation took on a new meaning.
Walker plans to donate a portion of his memoir’s profits to the Arizona Foundation for Blind Children and nonprofits that support veterans struggling with mental health.
“I’ve survived plane crashes and comas. I’m so blessed and live a charmed life,” Walker says. “I hope to not only tell the story, but hope to inspire others to overcome obstacles in their lives.”