{"id":700,"date":"2026-06-16T23:02:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=700"},"modified":"2026-06-16T23:02:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:02:43","slug":"marin-county-native-and-celebrated-base-jumper-dies-in-tandem-leap-with-client","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=700","title":{"rendered":"Marin County native and celebrated BASE jumper dies in tandem leap with client"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Renowned extreme athlete Andy Lewis and a BASE jumping client died in a tandem accident in a remote area of Utah on Sunday, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>

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Rescuers from the Grand County Sheriff\u2019s Office and two helicopters responded to the Mineral Bottom area, however both of the men succumbed to their injuries at the scene, the sheriff\u2019s office said in a Facebook post. (Mineral Bottom is on Bureau of Land Management territory between Arches and Canyonlands national parks).\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

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“Andy was tandem BASE jumping with a customer,” Grand County SAR Vice Commander Scott Solle wrote in an email to SFGATE. “I believe this to be the first fatal tandem BASE accident ever.”\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

The sheriff\u2019s office has not released the identity of the man who died and the office did not respond to SFGATE\u2019s additional questions about what led up to the two men\u2019s deaths. But Grand County Sheriff Jamison Wiggins reportedly told the Moab Times-Independent that the man was Danny Joe Kregle, 68, of Arizona.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

BASE jumping is a daredevil sport that involves jumping from a fixed area, such as a building or cliff, and deploying a parachute.<\/p><\/div>

Lewis\u2019 ex-fiancee and longtime romantic partner,\u00a0Hayley Ashburn\u00a0told SFGATE that Lewis was executing a tandem base jump with a client off of a 350-foot cliff at Mineral Bottom Canyon.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

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During the jump, their parachute malfunctioned and didn\u2019t fully inflate, according to Ashburn. The two crashed into the talus, she said, which is a hillside of broken rock, and the client died on impact.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Lewis had severe injuries including a head injury, Ashburn said, and he \u201cfought for his life.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

There was no service at the crash site, but a close friend of Lewis\u2019 drove up the cliff and made a \u201cheroic\u201d attempt to save Lewis, radioing for help, according to Ashburn.Medical personnel and helicopters arrived within an hour, she said, but Lewis died at the scene.<\/p><\/div>

Known professionally as \u201cSketchy Andy,\u201d Lewis was a trailblazer in the extreme sports community, Ashburn said, and a pioneer in the slackline world. According to Outside Magazine, he\u00a0landed the first-ever backflip on a slackline, and set and held many other records, including the Guinness World Record for the most side-to-side swings on a\u00a0slackline in one minute.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

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\u201cHe showed us all what was humanly possible, and got away with it for 40 years, almost 40 years of pushing the envelope. Andy Lewis, he was my everything, you know, he was my teacher, my mentor,\u201d Ashburn said.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Lewis was well-versed in the risks of tandem BASE jumping. He co-owned Moab Swingers with his friend Jimmy Peterson, and on the company\u2019s website, Lewis is described as the \u201cworld\u2019s most experienced tandem BASE jumper, with over 4,000 jumps.\u201d The 39-year-old, who famously performed tricks for Madonna\u2019s Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2012, also has ties to the Bay Area. According to the\u00a0Marin Independent Journal, Lewis grew up in Greenbrae, a small unincorporated area of Marin County before he moved to Moab, Utah.<\/p><\/div>

In a Facebook post, Moab Swingers\u00a0co-owner Peterson paid tribute to Lewis and said he was with him in his last moments.\u00a0<\/p>

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\u201cOh Andy there\u2019s so much I could say, 14 years of crazy incredible memories,\u201d Peterson wrote. \u201cGetting to be one of the first people to you on the talus was heartbreaking to see and beautiful to help do everything we could to save you.\u201d\u00a0Peterson did not respond to SFGATE\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

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Lewis was also the co-owner of Aerial Arts Moab, a rope swinging company. In an Instagram post, the company called him one of their best friends.<\/p><\/div>

\u201cThe number of times he told all of us he loved us and told us in very specific ways how he was grateful for each of us is something I will treasure all my days,\u201d the post read.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Lewis\u2019 death has sparked dozens of comments on both companies\u2019 social media posts and individual posts from other members of the outdoor sports community.<\/p><\/div>

Matt LaJeunesse, the founder of Tandem BASE Moab, the only other BASE jumping company in the area, posted a video on Instagram, saying the community is still processing the accident and grieving. He described the sport as \u201cone of the most dangerous activities on the planet.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

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\u201cI have lost a lot of people over the course of time,\u201d he said. \u201c…It\u2019s an emotional rollercoaster, it\u2019s a physical rollercoaster. No matter how much we enjoy it, one word I can never use to describe it would be safe. There\u2019s a very clear risk when jumping off of a cliff.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

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