How do these work? They don't seem to have nearly as much surface area as the usual wingsuits.

Moving this video to shveddy's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

*beg

Ski jumpers do it too, but with less airspeed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfk8Nh-IBoI

Anything can produce lift (anything that isn't a sphere), some shapes are just more efficient than others. With practice, you kind of turn your body into an airfoil shape and with the perfect angle, enough speed and inflatable baggy pants you can get about a 1.4 glide ratio (1.4 meters forward for every meter downward).

It's an incredible feeling that is completely different from wing suits because your movement isn't restricted at all.

Sending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter shveddy.

So what's a good superhero name for someone who wore these to fight crime??
Look! Up in the sky! Captain Puffy Pants, you're our hero!!

*promote puff-pantses

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued - promote requested by chingalera.

*music

Adding video to channels (Music) - requested by ant.