DexterBase

Or you could use the hookitt pack. The tail is micro reefed and then the center cell is wrapped aroung the tail to the width of the tailpocket. Stow the lines. This leaves the D-tail stabilizer totally outside the tail section. Then you 45 degree fold the A-B, B-C, and C-D stabilizer sections (as one) under the tailpocket. Fold the stacks in to the edge of the tail section, then fold again over the tail into the center. If this makes no sense at all...

Wow. We need to jump together more often.

Agreed. But I know enough to make educated decisions. I have made an educated decision to NOT use the black rubber bands because I've felt (for years, not three weeks) that they're unsafe. Many of the people who use your gear don't spend as much time as I have researching the sport and doing year upon year of reading, talking to very experienced jumpers, and researching the physics involved in our sport. When you teach a new jumper, especialy in a FJC, to use the black rubberbands, what do you think he/she will do when jumping out in the field? They typically don't have the experience required to determine for themselves whether a subtle detail like that could possibly be fatal. That comes with experience and learning from a mentor. The black rubberbands were in use for years. What happened that BR suddenly reversed their view on them? When the largest BASE equipment manufacturer recommends a certain method, that carries a tremendous weight in the field, especially among younger jumpers who rely on that info to be safe out there. Had that rig been taken of a slightly lower exit point, we'd be discussing this in a fatality thread. That's pretty serious.

You are correct. BASE gear is totally unregulated. There's no rules or anything about BASE gear manufaturing. I think BR would weigh the cost of admitting they were wrong about the rubberbands, vs the bad rap they'd get if someone was seriously hurt or killed from using a method they promoted. Which very nearly happened.

I'm just wondering why Basic Research continued to recommend those black bands for so long. The standard skydiving variety 1 1/4" bands (cut in half lengthwise) work exactly the way they're needed to. They're just strong enough to control the tailgate but they'll break rather than hang up. Why did BR push the black rubberbands if nothing was gained by using them? I've heard countless people talk about, "they're fine as long as you don't overlap them while... and as long as you trim them..." That's not the answer. You shouldn't have to add steps to use a rubberband. You shouldn't add three of four items that can kill you. BR knew there was a problem with those rubberbands and there were threads here talking about it. Reports from the field of tailgate hangups and other scary stuff. Why didn't BR issue a press release telling the BASE community that there was a potential problem with the bands? Most interesting to me is that BR decided to use a new type of rubberband when there was already a readily available one that works just fine. Was it an effort to have a "BASE-specific" rubberband? Was it an efort to make another $5 here and $5 there? Personally, the increased odds of a dangerous hangup far outweighs any of these perks for BR. Please tell me that there was an actual reason for BR offering those black rubberbands.

That's interesting. Why did you stop work on that?

That was a PCA into waist deep water. That gives some degree of safety factor if something doesn't go right. Doing the same jump over solid earth is quite another story. I've talked with Johnny about that jump and I've seen the video. I don't think there was time for any type of flare. Johnny, please correct me if I'm wrong. Edit: Damn typos.

Jesus Peter. I'm glad that one worked out for you. We have big plans don't go messing them up. I'll call you riiight now.

I don't buy it either. You might survive that, but you'd certainly be injured pretty badly. I know that with any sort of headwind you will come straight down because the canopy isn't flying yet. It has full bottom skin inflation but the wing is still trying to pressurize. I know that on the TARD Spence did, the parachute was never flying. It decelerated him enough to to a vertical PLF, that is, he came pretty much straight down. He presented the already staged canopy in front of him and held the lines just long enough to get some air trapped in the canopy. He then released the lines and hit linestretch while the canopy was already inflating. If he was to do the same jump with a D-bag, he would hit linestretch with the parachute tightly folded up and no air inside. It would take considerably more vertical drop and speed to pressurize the wing enough to have the forward speed for the running landing you describe. I estimate that point to be around twenty feet below impact. Try running out a partially pressurized canopy with the toggles stowed and with no flare. Actually, let me rephrase that. Don't try running out a partially pressurized canopy with the toggles stowed and with no flare. I think you'll be quite injured. Edit: Oops, accidentally replied to Ray.

That would entirely depend on object profile and your launch.

Exactly.

They're the ones you'd use to stow microline on your d-bag. Just buy a bag from your DZ. I usually have a bag or two around at any one time.

Then Spence was right. You're next buddy.

I voted for you Mick.

I played with a black band for about thiry seconds before throwing the whole bag in the garbage. I wouldn't even keep them around the house for use on other non-BASE stuff. Just in case I was out of standard small rubberbands and would be tempted to use one, "just this once." They're too strong and don't have a place in BASE. Throw them away. If you're using them, throw them away, PM me your address and I'll send you some standard bands. I feel that strongly about this. I almost lost a good friend over this. Throw them away.

Hey ! Easy. hehe.

Okay here's a scenario: You're happy jumping the gear you have. You love your gear in fact. You decided on your current gear based on countless hours of research and expert opinions. You bought/jumped gear from several manufacturers before deciding on the company you jump now. All is well. You get an offer from a different gear manufacturer that wants to sponsor you by supplying you with free equipment in exchange for you spreading positive information about the company and providing them with pictures/video of their gear in use. This is a company you have already jumped and you decided on your gear over theirs. Would you put your current rig aside and start jumping their gear exclusively? Edit: A friend just pointed out that it looks like I got a sponsorship offer. I didn't. This is a totally hypothetical situation.

Up by the yoke, there's several rubberbands to stow the multi bridle. If one of these hangs up, the PC is pulling on the stow and can't extract the canopy until the stow releases.

Thank you, it's appreciated. Have a good one.

What good jumps that morning! I enjoy jumping there very much. Just a really nice object with beautiful surroundings and good company. That afternoon... I've been witness to some amazing things. All I can say about that jump was... holy crap. I was standing there at the bottom watching you guys talking. I could hear your voices, I couldn't make out what you were saying, but I could hear you talking. I thought to myself, "Damn, they're so close." That thing lasers at precisely 34 yards, not meters. That's 102 feet. 102 feet! The more I looked at that bridge, the more I thought that maybe the jump wasn't such a good idea. If I didn't know Spence and his abilities, I might have elected to go home and not be a part of that jump. Because I do know that he's highly experienced in these jumps I chose to stay and help out. If anybody could pull off what he was attempting, surely it's Spence. What followed was the most impressive display of low-altitude parachute deployment I've ever seen. I can tell you what, If I've ever willed a parachute to inflate it was yesterday. I'm also pretty sure Ray had something confidence inspiring to say just before Spence exited. hehe... Spence, respect dude. I want to know where you find pants to fit over your giant balls.

I don't think you're going to accomplish anything by posting the identity of the jumper in the video. It's cool that you're sharing something with the DZ.com community but I think that's as far as you need to take this particular one. Many BASE jumpers are reticent and don't like to be named in public while some don't care and actually like it. I think it's best to leave it up to them. If that person wants their name posted here for anyone to see then I believe they would come post it here. If you post a name a BASE jumper here I will ask the moderators to delete the name from your post. It's just considered bad form in the BASE community. No hard feelings to you, I'm just not sure if you're aware of this.

I've got a pretty good idea of who that is. He's not a DZ.commer and I think he'd prefer to remain nameless.

Unfortunately its not uncommon that you hear someone has passed away in our sport. Sometimes you think that's sad but it's a part of our sport. Sometimes you think, "That just doesn't make sense." There's some jumpers you don't imagine will ever die BASE jumping. They're too good, too careful, or too friendly. I never imagined I would hear that Jason died. I liked him very much and I'm glad we got to share some jumps before he left us. My deepest sympathy goes out to the OZ community, it's been rough few months.

Do you have a teaser up anywhere online we can look at before buying?

P.S. Skydvr18, your 13 base jumps hardly makes this "our bridge".