Another world record was broken in Dubai this weekend as extreme athlete Ernesto Gainza successfully completing a skydive with the smallest parachute.

The Venezuelan daredevil leapt from 14,000 feet over the Gulf and descended to earth in just three and a half minutes using a parachute up to one-sixth the conventional size.

Experts usually jump with chutes measuring up to 200 square feet, but Ernesto’s was just 35 square feet.

Strong winds threatened to disrupt the stunt throughout Saturday morning and afternoon, before the jump finally took place at around 6pm in front of hundreds of expectant fans at Skydive Dubai in Dubai Marina.

Speaking afterwards, he said: “It was awesome, amazing and emotional. It’s been my long time dream to prove to other human beings it doesn’t matter how much sacrifice and effort you have to go through to achieve something that you want. You just have to go for it. I want to motivate others to fight for their dreams and fulfill mine as well.”

According to information released by experts, ‘with the significant reduction in size the opening, flight and landing characteristics change dramatically resulting in a spinning malfunction which could cause an almost instantaneous loss of consciousness. As such Ernesto needed to have the right mental and physical preparation to be able to react decisively to any situation. Across the global skydiving community, a very small percentage of competitive canopy pilots have the skill to fly these canopies successfully.”

The previous, yet unofficial, record was held by Luigi Cani who jumped a 37 square foot canopy on January 1, 2008.\