It is not our usual practice to applaud lawbreaking, but Daniel Boria, the Victoria-born-and-raised businessman who flew his lawn chair over the Calgary Stampede on Sunday, deserves admiration for daring to dream and take a risk.
Boria, 26, attached 120 helium-filled party balloons to a lawn chair, donned a parachute and strapped himself into the chair with the intent of skydiving into the rodeo ring just before the chuckwagon races. He rose high enough that he needed to use the oxygen he brought along.
He bailed out over Stampede Park but misjudged the wind and overshot his target by about a kilometre, landing on an open hillside in an industrial area. Police arrested him and he spent the night in jail. He faces a charge of mischief causing danger to a life.
That will likely mean a fine for Boria, which is appropriate 鈥� he did indeed break the law and he put his own life in danger. He says he made every effort to ensure no one else would be harmed, but that鈥檚 no guarantee that others wouldn鈥檛 be injured. And had he met his own demise, that would have caused considerable trauma for witnesses, as well as for family and friends.
And yet, he generated a lot of smiles. And why not? Who hasn鈥檛 wanted to have, as Second World War RCAF pilot John Gillespie Magee wrote, 鈥渟lipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings鈥�? (Or colourful balloons, in this case.)
Not everyone approves, understandably. Boria has come under criticism for his dangerous stunt, including from Calgary鈥檚 police service, although the arresting officers were polite and one even shook Boria鈥檚 hand.
鈥淎lmost anything you do in the world, you鈥檙e going to get naysayers and people who don鈥檛 agree with what you鈥檙e doing, especially if it鈥檚 different,鈥� Boria told a Calgary Herald reporter.
We need dreamers and risk-takers. Sometimes the dreams work out, sometimes they don鈥檛, but if someone doesn鈥檛 occasionally cast off the shackles of conventionality and try something new, we will not learn new things; we will make no new discoveries. The spirit of adventure carries us forward.
Granted, Boria鈥檚 intent was blatantly commercial 鈥� he wanted to bring attention to his Calgary-based cleaning-products company. He succeeded in commanding attention 鈥� his story is in newspapers and on TV networks around the world. When he talked with our columnist Jack Knox, he had already done 40 interviews.
But whether that translates into more sales for his business remains to be seen 鈥� thousands of YouTube views from around the world might be gratifying, but the attention has little to do with cleaning products.
Perhaps it will result in a run on lawn chairs and balloons, but we hope not. Imitating Boria is not a good idea 鈥� the next person might not be so lucky. As Acting Insp. Kyle Grant of the Calgary police said of Boria鈥檚 stunt: 鈥淯sually, you see it on the TV shows of things not to do.鈥�
And it wouldn鈥檛 be original. Boria is only one of several people who have taken to the skies in lawnchairs since Lawrence 鈥淟awnchair Larry鈥� Walters flew his homemade airship to 15,000 feet over California in 1982. Walters garnered fame, including a movie, but little in the way of fortune, and died broke.
Still, the image of a man suspended on a lawn chair beneath a cluster of bright balloons has brightened the lazy, hazy, crazy days of this smoke-filled summer and reminded us that we should look up occasionally and dream.
