DexterBase

I don't know how many BASE jumps you've done in a day. The most I've done was eight on a mixed day of slider up and slider down jumps. My thighs were screaming from the bruises on my legs after that many openings, and my back hurt. I can't imagine doing 50 jumps in a day, even slider up. Also, if you've never climbed out of that gorge... 50 ascents in 24 hours would kill me. (I've humped for 12+ miles with a full combat load in 100 degree heat so that's an idea.)

Awesome!!! Congratulations to the winner. You've won a solid piece of equipment, that's for sure. Martin, what was the total amount raised for this cause? To those who donated money, thanks for showing once again that the BASE community is there for others in their time of need.

Ooohhhh... just wait. This is going to be good. I will be needing a test jumper though.

I'll send you details but I'm still in the early phase of my mad science.

That won't ever happen in this forum.

I'm working on a pretty simple system that I think will allow russell to land on land.

Well put. I absolutely agree.

No way. Those are my last seconds. Nobody is going to deprive me of that, and... I'm keeping my eyes open.

That happens to me. I go through periods where I don't really jump much. It's not that I don't want to jump or lose the interest, I just get sidetracked and find other stuff to do. The periods will pass and I'll find myself out there jumping regularly again. I think it happens to many of us.

Deal!

Gotta pack neater!

One thing you may want to look for while you're packing is how hard you're wrenching on the pull up cord to close the container. If you're pulling one sideflap all the way to the grommet and then going for the other flap and tugging that one all the way to the center, you're doing some heavy duty distorting to your otherwise nice packjob. I've seen your packjobs and the problem isn't coming from the way you pack, more likely the way you're closing your container. As you get more practice packing, your packjobs will get cleaner, neater, and as a result, smaller. It will become easier to close the container without distorting the nose. Did you continue closing the container top pin first? I always sink the top pin first because it locks the nose in place. The part of the canopy that's controlled by the top pin is more important to heading performance than the fabric contained by the bottom pin. (IMO) Once the top pin is in place, tugging on the pull up cord to seat the bottom pin is going to matter a little bit less. If you make your way up here to Seattle, I can show you some cool tricks to close really neatly.

Yes. I'm curious what he's raffling off. Will it affect whether I donate or not? No way.

How many up-jumpers were there?

Container and canopy?

Right on! It was nice jumping with you. Wish I could have stayed longer, but I enjoyed hanging out with you. edit:typo

While this thread is slowly changing to the point where portions of it should be moved to Speakers Corner, I agree with what you say Ody. We know why we do it. We don't need anyone to tell us we're doing the right thing because we already know we are. Keep your head down. Be sure to set aside a few of those leave days to come to Seattle and jump with us. We have a couple cool objects we'd like to share with you. Edit: Oh yeah, fix your profile. There's no such thing as a BlackJack 245.

Snake River Canyon Tours Don Mays: 208-934-8245

I made the decision to not get a BASE number out of misunderstanding of what the numbers really meant. At the time, I felt they were a way to prove yourself to other jumpers. I felt that I was jumping for myself and had no need to have a number to prove what I'd done. Much for the same reasons, I didn't log individual BASE jumps, just kept a running tally of the jumps I'd done. I've grown up alittle bit since then and I now see the valus in getting a number and logging my jumps. Unfortunately, the number I'd get now doesn't reflect when I qualified for BASE, so I won't be getting a number. I think it would upset the chronology of the numbers and now I think that chronology is important. I'm all for getting numbers, and I actually regret not getting a number back then. Of course, I didn't imagine the numbers would be over 1000 by now. I don't think any of us did. Joy, if I give you a date of when I qualified for BASE would you be able to tell me what my number would have been? Or a rough estimate of that? That would be pretty cool to know. Anyhow, thanks for keeping that torch burning.

I qualified for BASE sometime in 2000. I don't have a BASE #.

I think if you ever had to face the enemy he's talking about, you'd have to agree that they are indeed very ruthless. A lot of us realize that this world isn't cut and dry, nor is it black and white. People want simple explanations to complicated questions, and simple justifications for complex decisions. This situation we're in is absolutely fucked. None of us wanted it, but it's here all the same. We're at war that's the fact and reality of the situation. We (the US and allies) are going to see this through the best we can because we like our way of life and we'd like to see to it that our future generations will have the opportunity to experience freedom. So many are quick to criticize President Bush for the course our country is taking. I suppose that's the burden of command, but I think he's being expected to live up to some incredibly unrealistic expectations. America was pumped up to fight after September 11, 2001. America wanted revenge for the attacks. That's the truth. Our military and government leaders assessed the situation and decided on a course of action. There's no possible way that the masses crying out for blood could have possibly understood the realities of going to war with terrorists. Now, confronted with that reality, they want us to pull out because there are young men and women dying over there. This is war. People die in war. Civilians get killed in war. Resources are taxed and stretched thin in war. That's the way war has always been, and that's the way war will always be. The masses crying out for a withdrawal from Iraq didn't understand the situation before. They're not privy to a lot of the information and intelligence that critical decisions were based on. They're still not privy to that information. They don't understand the situation on the ground over there, and all they have to go with is what they see on network news. Granted, a few are more educated and are probably more capable of making a more informed decision based on the global climate, current terrorist intelligence, military capabilities, history of the region and religious values of the people involved... but those people are certainly in the minority. If those people aren't fully aware of the facts needed to make a decision on the proper course of action, why would their instinctive reaction to end the violence over there be the proper decision? I don't know much. I'm not educated. I don't have college degrees. What I do know is that our president has a job that very few people can fully appreciate. The war on terror is only one facet of the many problems we're dealing with as a country. We're at war, but our country didn't stop functioning just because of that. He's doing his best and that's what the American people elected him to do. We're all human, even presidents. I see a lot of people criticizing, but not doing anything themselves to improve the situation. War fucking sucks. I know this from personal experience, but losing this war is going to suck so much worse.

Holy shit, Ray.

There's 15 Seattle BASE jumpers?

Sterling ropes released information that the rope pens actually do cause damage to the ropes. The level of damage was small enough that they decided to make the possibilty known, but encourage climbers to make their own educated decisions. I believe the only time the mark would affect the actual strength of the rope, was if the rope caught the fall precisely at the location where the mark would line up with the caribiner that caught the fall. Just some useless knowledge for ya.

I seriously doubt that. Tom is a respected member of the BASE community, and is well known on DZ.com as the BASE zone moderator. This should earn him a little slack with us, but not in this situation. BASE jumpers are actually a very intelligent group, and I'm not inclined to believe that they would abandon their ethics and morals regardless of which jumper was pushing in this direction. BASE jumpers are, for the most part, willing to speak up when something is out of place. I'm not going to enter an opinion on whether or not Jimmy is in the wrong. That's not my place. I'm simply saying that even though Tom is well respected in the community, his judgement has been questioned in the past. He's human, just like you and me. Human, and accountable.