THE JUMP looks spontaneous, improvisational, like a wild existential leap, but in fact the trick was meticulously plotted and choreographed. Nigel Sylvester had scouted and schemed for weeks during the spring of 2013, riding the subway through Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, finally settling on the 145th Street Station, far uptown on the west side of Manhattan, at two in the morning, when no one was around to tell him no.
In the published photo of the jump, the one that went viral on Instagram, Nigel looks immaculate, as if he were making a BMX tutorial. In flight over live subway tracks, he’s wearing a white knit cap and a red hoodie that sails out behind him like the tail of a subterranean bird of prey. His posture is relaxed, balanced,…
