Words Worth Reading

[TomAiello 26]

I cut and pasted this from this thread at BLiNC.

It was written by Earl Redfern. Earl was one of the first BASE jumpers to make 1000 BASE jumps, and he had nearly 20 years of BASE experience. Earl died July 18, 2000, in an airplane crash in, while scouting new BASE sites.

This is great advice for any new BASE jumper, and I think it bears repeating.

Quote

My advice to everyone is to learn as much as you can about your equipment. It's there to save your life. This is not a game and this is not the drop zone.

Now some advise for low timers and their instructors. More ground
school please. If you want to BASE jump, buy your own gear and don't
jump junk. . Learn your gear. Talk to the manufacturers. Read the
manuals. Do not depend on others. They can't hold your hand in
freefall. This is not AFF ! When you jump, you are alone. You must be
SURE that you can deal with anything that happens after opening. Your accuracy needs to be top notch.

Let's discuss the exit. Body position is very important at
opening. You need to do everything possible to get a good launch. Run
if you can. It's not so important what position you use as long as
you are getting yourself as far as possible away from the wall. There
is great benefit in getting a clean exit and in getting as far away
from the rock as possible. That makes it more likely that you will
have an on-heading opening and that if you don't, you'll be a little
farther away from the wall and have more time to turn away. Taking the longest possible delay (within reason) has multiple benefits. It gets you farther away; it increases your speed, which makes for better openings with less potential for wind-induced off-heading openings. And it's more fun. Remember, rocks are usually very unforgiving.

Concerning landing; if possible, check out the landing area. Put a
wind drift indicator out. Check for rocks. Check for alternate
landing areas closer to exit in case of a short glide caused by
problems or delays. Let a more experienced jumper go first and give
you some help on a radio if possible. Learn from other people's
mishaps and avoid having your own if possible. New BASE jumpers
should realize that YOU ARE NOT AT THE DROP ZONE. You are in hostile territory and unless you are sure of your landing area and your
skills, you will be considerably more likely to get hurt. Almost all
the injuries I have seen in Moab are the result of a poorly planned or
poorly executed landing. Full body armor is in order unless you are
really sure of your landings. And even then, lineovers, off-heading
openings and other things will occur and put you into a bad landing
area occasionally. Plan for the worst. Learn to think under canopy
and do the smart thing without delay. Build your canopy skills by
skydiving your BASE canopy, even if you have to buy a separate TSO'ed container to use your BASE canopy at the local DZ. Talk to hang glider pilots and paraglider pilots to learn about wind and
rotors. Read all you can about hang gliding and paragliding from
cliffs and in wind. These groups have been doing their thing a long
time and have learned a lot; most of it the hard way with injuries and
fatalities. I would like to close by reminding everyone to ask
yourself before every jump "am I ready for this site in these
conditions?" Are you in control of your destiny? If you are not sure
about a jump, don't jump. Go somewhere safe and easy until you get
better. Think for yourself. Think about the details. STAY ALIVE -
DON'T GET HURT.

Earl Redfern

Blue Skies, Earl.

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[Shotgun 1]

Thanks, Tom... This is good reading :-)

[Zennie 0]

And a big thank you to 460 for digging that out.

- Z
"Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

[mickknutson 0]

WOW. Tom where did you get this from?

I really miss many of Earls postings....

Mick Knutson
* BLiNC Magazine "Everything you ever wanted to know about Parachuting, but didn't know whom to ask."

[motherhucker 0]

This is funny. Earl was the KING of "jumping junk" at one time (still with 8-900 BASE jumps under his belt). The part about the launch is pretty funny coming from Earl too. I remember the first time I jumped with him, I was all excited to see this dude w/ 900 BASE jumps and what his style was like. This is where I discovered the "doink." I couldn't even exit I was laughing so hard. I wish he was here to be doing it still.
This is not to say that everything he wrote here is incorrect, just the opposite, actually. Soak up these words from someone who knew what the fuck he was talking about. They are real and so is the cliff, antenna, stack, or whatever other object you are about to hit.

RIP Clint and Earl. We miss you both.
bsbd