Cops ID two nabbed in parachuting stunt off Hilton hotel in SF

Jean Boenish, left, and Carl Boenish in "Sunshine Superman" documentary about BASE jumpers. Jean Boenish, left, and Carl Boenish in "Sunshine Superman" documentary about BASE jumpers. Photo: Magnolia Pictures Photo: Magnolia Pictures Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Cops ID two nabbed in parachuting stunt off Hilton hotel in SF 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The daring men arrested after parachuting off the 46-story Hilton hotel near San Francisco’s Union Square on Tuesday night were identified by police, and it wasn’t the first time they’ve committed such a death-defying stunt.

Brendan Weinstein, 25, of San Francisco and Joshua Glovac, 26, of South San Francisco were taken into custody on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and conspiracy when they landed virtually into the hands of police officers.

The two men leaped off the tower at 333 O’Farrell St. about 11:35 p.m. and landed near the Tenderloin Police Station, where officers quickly nabbed them. A woman also parachuted with the men, but fled before police had a chance to detain her.

The incident doesn’t appear to be the first time Weinstein and Glovac have gone to great lengths for the thrill of it. Photos of them parachuting from high spots around the country, mostly in what appears to be rural areas, were posted on their Facebook pages.

Efforts to reach the men for comment were unsuccessful Thursday.

Weinstein has posted numerous YouTube videos of himself “wingsuiting” — in which people use aerodynamic suits to glide through the air when free falling from cliffs, planes and buildings.

Videos show Weinstein gliding through trees and mountains in France, the summits and canyons of Utah, and even through the hills of the Bay Area.

Wingsuiting allows for more gliding, but is similar to BASE jumping as both sports require plummeting from the sky before releasing a parachute a few hundred feet off the ground, said Clay Bonavito, the owner of Bay Area Skydiving in Byron.

“You know that roller-coaster feeling when you are going down? It’s like that times 10,” Bonavito said, adding that San Francisco has an underground BASE jumping community. “It’s just a thrill that can’t be matched in any other way for these people. It’s like a drug to them.”

BASE is an acronym for the different categories that enthusiasts of the extreme sport jump off of: building, antenna, spans (or bridges) and earth (cliffs).

Successfully jumping off a building in the middle of downtown San Francisco earns the three daredevils street cred in the BASE jumping community, said Jimmy Halliday, owner of NorCal Skydiving in Cloverdale, who has BASE jumped in Europe.

Halliday referred to the feat Tuesday night as a “bandit jump” because the jumpers didn’t have permission and were trespassing.

“Jumping off a building in downtown San Francisco is a really bad idea for a lot of reasons,” he said, adding that causing property damage and traffic collisions are concerns for jumpers.

Halliday said that a jump in the middle of the city takes a lot of planning and training.

And though BASE jumping is illegal in many parts of the U.S., it is not illegal in San Francisco, said Officer Giselle Talkoff, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department.

“There’s no criminal charge for that. That’s why they were cited for the trespassing and the conspiracy. They did not have permission or rights to be up on the roof or in the building,” Talkoff said.

It did not appear that Weinstein, Glovac and the other jumper were staying in the hotel. Police are reviewing surveillance footage from the hotel to determine how the three were able to sneak onto the roof, Talkoff said.

“They had to be like James Bond to get to the top of the building,” Halliday said.

The uncertainty and danger are worth it, he said.

“For a moment, you’re locked in this weird space-time warp where you just feel completely free and completely weightless,” Halliday said.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani