Jumping off Laie Point with YouTube Sensation Devin Graham

From filming people jumping out of planes to testing out hydro-powered jet packs, Devin Graham, also known by his YouTube username as “devinsupertramp” has done them all. Graham is a professional videographer from Portland, Oregon who studied film at BYU. He has created numerous videos of his adventures in Utah; several visits here in Hawaii as well as a trip to Tahiti and to the Maldives just to name a few.

Graham’s YouTube channel has nearly 630,000 subscribers; his channel has garnered 117 million video views. His videos are mostly comprised of offbeat sports such as wing suit racing, salt boarding and tricycle drifting. Graham’s most successful video, “World’s Largest Rope Swing,” is as the name suggests. Filmed with a group of thrill-seekers in Moab, Utah the video shows people swinging off a giant rock formation. Many of the comments on Graham’s videos are along the lines of, “I wish I had your life.”

Graham’s newest project brings him to Laie’s backyard at Laie point. A Facebook event was sent out, word spread quickly. This project goal is to get exposure for Proof Eyewear, a wooden sunglass company owned by Taylor Dame and his brothers. “We want to promote Proof Eyewear in the vid as well,” the Facebook event description said. A trampoline was set up out on the point. It was secured by ropes and sand bags, the trampoline had the Proof Eyewear insignia on it to promote the brand. Since the stunts that Graham records are dangerous, participants were asked to sign a waiver before jumping. About a hundred people showed up to the point to get a chance to be in Graham’s video.

“I just started watching these videos, I was like, ‘this guy does everything cool!’ Everything that there is fun and cool to do, this guy does. I get to be in one of his videos,” Britton Winterrose a sophomore majoring in business management from Richland, WA said. Winterrose jumped off the point on the trampoline twice. The first time went off without a hitch. After the second jump, he started to cough up blood and had ruptured his right eardrum. “It was rad,” Winterrose added.

Garrett Kerr, a ‘10 BYU Hawaii alumnus from Eagle, Idaho came out to participate in the video. “It is definitely inspiring to go out and do something creative, whether it is as epic as Devin Graham’s videos, or something you just enjoy doing yourself, it just goes to show that you can make a cool video and have a fun time filming,” Kerr said. “[The jump] turned out as everything that I expected and a little bit more. A lot of energy, a lot of fun and a lot of crazy risk involved, for sure,” Kerr added.

“Oh it was a thrill! It was fun! To be in a video, that’s pretty sweet,” Ally McClaine, a junior from New Jersey majoring in intercultural studies said. McClaine was one of the few girls who jumped off the point. “[The jump] was scary; I had a pit in my stomach. It was crazy, it’s a really long fall just waiting to hit the water,” she said.

Danny Birch, a transfer student from Syracuse, UT majoring in business management did the jump in a gorilla suit. “I had to get the gorilla suit going! [The suit] got really water-logged, it was super, super heavy but there were a couple dudes who helped me out,” Birch said.

“I just started making YouTube videos in Hawaii when I was working on a documentary, and I just started doing these for fun and fell in love with it and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Graham said. Graham started his videography career by recording snowboarding and other extreme sports.

“I love seeing people get happy and stoked to watch [the videos] and share them with their friends, so I try to choose things that people would like to share,” Graham said. “For me, that is the most rewarding thing is to see filmmakers and people stoked on it and sharing it with their friends.”

“I feel that life is for living, have fun and enjoy it,” Birch said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py-yRjM0le8&feature=share&list=UUwgURKfUA7e0Z7_qE3TvBFQ