Is this humanly possible or is some trick involved?

Factual Questions
1

I’m referring to the old Barnum & Bailey poster on this page. It’s a very long page but the poster is just over a third of the way down under the title The Art of the Big Top #14.

The poster shows a man diving from a great height and heading to what looks like a ski slope. It’s captioned:

This looks like suicide. How is it possible to fall 80 feet, land on one’s chest and survive? But if there’s a trick involved I can’t imagine what it could be. This is in the ring of a circus before a live audience.

2

Easier to link directly to the image:

3

Now that I’ve had a chance to examine it some more, it’s clear he’s not landing straight down on his chest, but approaching at an angle which puts him almost parallel to the ramp initially; the ramp then levels off gradually, slowing him via friction. Done right, there should be almost no impact at all.

4

I’m thinking the “80 feet” might be an exaggeration, and that the actual height was a lot less. Furthermore, the ramp was probably constructed to be somewhat flexible, so that it would “give” after he landed.

5

Also, a 50° slope more than halves the downward force.

6

The “80 feet” was probably indeed the height from ground level to the platform but the top of the ramp was obviously higher than ground level; likely quite a bit higher. So the actual leap was less than 80 feet.

7

Presumably the same principle as skiers jumping off very high cliffs and landing on a steep slope - if you don’t hit level ground you don’t slow down as abruptly.

Edit: I just looked at the pic, and I assume the ramp was not really as narrow as it appears in the picture - your aim would have to be VERY good!

8

Looks to me to be the exact same premise as ski jumping in the olympics. Those fellows fall a rather incredible height, and do it quite safely.

I would hope the slide is lubricated in some way though… A chest full of friction burn doesn’t sound pleasant!