base428

I'm interested in hearing any stories about jumpers who've landed in deep water with a wingsuit. Was the suit difficult to remove? Did you have to remove the suit to stay afloat? Where you able to tread water with the suit on? What is the best procedure to stay alive, or was it not really an issue? I'm just preparing for some upcoming jumps near water and I've been known to wander around a bit..... thanks. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

If you don't plan to jump at Bridge Day, there are no real arrangements you need to make other than a hotel room. The free seminars we offer are open to anyone, and you are more than welcome to attend any or all of them (this year, we've got Spiderbaby teaching a climbing/ascending/descending class). To get close to the exit point, you simply need to get out there early (9am) to beat the crowd. Getting onto the bridge at Bridge Day has always been free. An even better way for you to learn a lot and get the best viewing location would be for you to help us at the exit point. We're always looking for volunteers if you're interested. Bridge Day is Saturday, October 16, 2004 from 9am to 3pm, so you should arrive in Fayetteville early the day before to attend all the seminars. Don't forget about the BASE Videofest on Thursday night if you're into some cool videos. As for online videos, check out http://www.bridgeday.info/videogallery.php With 450+ BASE jumpers in town, you'll surely leave with tons of additional knowledge about BASE. If you are coming, you had better get a hotel room immediately. Rooms will all be sold out in a matter of weeks. I have a contract with the Holiday Inn and Comfort Inn that allows me to give registered jumpers priority for hotel rooms. To everyone who is jumping at Bridge Day this year, registration starts on July 1st at 2pm EST at this page. Cya at the bridge.... (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Carl died 20 years ago today. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to meet him. Thanks to Carl, Jean, and everyone in that era who paved the way for us. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

I agree with you Johnny.....this is valid thread and Tree's personal attacks are a bit harsh at times. Everyone take a deep breath and smile!!!

I guess I'm glad I couldn't make it there this Memorial Day. Four serious injuries does sound very, very high for such an easy jump. I do realize that we're always going to have things happen, but this is an object where most jumpers are experienced, there is a lot of calm water below that is very forgiving, and tons of experienced jumpers there to advise the low time jumpers that conditions are not favorable. I would also be interested in hearing more about the injuries. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

I'm not big into that particular type of system, but I am a techno-nerd. Sounds like a normally closed loop where any break in the wire would trigger an event to occur (alarm, camera, dial out, etc.). Since the wire is zip tied to the fence, and the wind could easily move the wire, I wouldn't think it would be any type of tamper wire affected by minor movement. Test it and see what happens next time. Good luck with those kids... (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Fabric is always in all the way into the pouch. Hackey handle was about 3/4" from end of pouch when fluttering happened. I was using a BM 28" P/C. The only way I could reduce fluttering was to have the hackey at the very opening of the pouch. If the hackey sneaks out a few centimeters, then the fluttering starts back up. I'll go back to BOC and see if that's any easier. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

I finally got to put a few jumps on my S3 this year and found it a little difficult to grab the hackey handle on my BASE pouch. It wasn't that I couldn't find it, however, it was due to the constant vibration and fluttering of the hackey handle (it's a BM pilot chute). I did a few two ways flying inches apart and the other guy was pretty concerned at the fluttering. During deployment, it took me a few seconds to "catch" the handle as it was bobbling around a bit. On subsequent jumps, I pushed the hackey handle in the pouch further that helped a little bit. I suspect the airspeed over a BASE pouch is much higher that that on a traditional BOC pouch. Any tips on reducing hackey fluttering? Velcro on the hackey? A different handle? Thanks! (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

This page shows my custom mouth switch. Tongue movement is horizontal (more natural). (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

How cool. I didn't know that was you, Mark. I didn't want to mention it before, but I took a long delay at Bday 2000 and also landed on that rock...stood it up, actually. I think Buddman gave me 1 point for a standup landing. Funny stuff. Cya in Norway in 3 weeks. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

I ran across this photo today and thought you guys might enjoy it. Every year or two, somebody can't make the LZ and they successfully land on this rock. Pretty cool.... (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Best wishes to you Adam. Thanks for your hard work over the years. Attached is a picture from Bridge Day 2003. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

I just updated my Xray Collection and was wondering which object kicked your butt all the way to the hospital. Perhaps there is a trend, and certain objects have a special affinity for BASE jumper blood? Bonus points to anyone with 3 or more objects! Anyone got their "Busted Up BASE" or "Broken Bone BASE" number yet? (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Hey Faber, check out the updated XRAY WEBSITE (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Sorry about that Faber......between building a new house for the last 3 years and doing Bridge Day for the last 2 years, I've put off a few things. I have a bunch of new ones to post, so I'll get them all up for your viewing pleasure. Consider it DONE tonight. Check the site tomorrow. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Damn, you did have it rough. Breaking "anything" sucks and can be a major hassle, especially if you're alone. When I was 5, I jumped off a swivelling bar stool and broke my right arm. I had a cast from wrist to armpit as well. Now if I can just work on the left side of my body for full length casts, I'll be complete

You guys got off easy.......I was looking at the bottom of my foot after snapping my tib/fib in a spiral fracture. I opted for not having surgery and chose the wonderful long leg cast. Did you know you can't take a shit with a long leg cast without first taking off your pants and underwear? Sad, but true. Geez, you should have seen me craw on top of my wife with that "toes to testicles" cast on that one horny night. A sight to see...... (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Ahhh, another good reason to post my Xray collection website.... Xrays here Enjoy. One is mine, by the way (long leg cast from another BASE jump gone bad). (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

I work for Electronic Warfare Associates GSI as a senior mechanical engineer. Anyway, they would not be modified units. The design would utilize some components on existing systems like the GPS receiver and some programming. Otherwise, the circuit board, additional programming, and enclosure would be completely custom. I'm not looking to make any money from this. I'm just seeing if everyone is happy with their Garmins, or if I can offset my costs by making 20 instead of 2. EDIT: Price is unknown, but shouldn't exceed $200. CF = Compact Flash card. The CF option may be replaced with onboard memory to make the system smaller. We are in the design stage at this time. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

I work for a government subcontractor and we design GPS tags (ie. tracking devices) for the military. I can't get into more detail without getting in trouble. I design the enclosures for the circuit boards and GPS receivers. Anyhow, we have some pretty small stuff, all custom. I've been talking to the programmers about getting a custom unit that will upload data to a CF card (2GB max.). Our systems run on 3.3VDC (downconverted from a 9V battery) and a complete unit would be about the size of a D-cell battery. I'm debating on having some fellow engineers make some mods for me for wingsuit jumps. I'm curious if there would be a decent market for these to offset some of my costs? Anyone interested? It would mainly provide date, time, altitude, lat., long., # of satellites, and a few other parameters every second. I may be able to sample it every 0.5 second or so.....we'll see. Data would then be taken from the CF card to your laptop. The GPS unit would have no fancy screens, however, it would contain status LED's and a on/off switch. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

It sounds like a lot of extra drag with that big ass logo on the bottom. I wouldn't sweat it, though. It's not like the NPS can identify you from your canopy, as I'm sure there are other suckers out there as well who got the free logo option. We used to ask BR to remove the small FOX logo they put at the leading edge of new canopies. Of course, I'm not saying that BR has anything to do with your new canopy.... PS. If you come to Bridge Day, we'll make fun of you on the loudspeakers after your canopy opens....just kidding.

I've got the solution: Let gays get married, but tax the shit out of them. Basically, a gay marriage penalty. Everybody wins and the gov't can reduce the deficit.

There's no better feeling than to have one security guy frisking you while another guy is ripping apart your BASE rig. If they have to inspect your rig, ask them if YOU can carefully open the packjob and show them. Most often, they are interested in your connector links (metal). Otherwise, I've had no out of the ordinary experiences with BASE rigs on flights. Good luck. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Even worse, a similar thing happened to my wife and I when travelling from Pittsburgh to Salt Lake City last year. We arrived at our gate at 6:00am only to see about 25 cops and bomb sniffing dogs. Some lunatic got onboard the aircraft early in the morning and was found sitting in one of the seats. He was discovered by one of the flight crew. They searched the plane, found nothing, and we boarded the flight a few hours later. So, talk about being friggin' scared on a flight! Then again, the time we had to dump fuel on a 737 wasn't exactly a walk through the park either. So much for security..... (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

I don't make a BASE jump without wearing a full face helmet. I actually jump the Z1 as well, sometimes with the plexiglass visor pulled down and sometimes up (for slider off stuff). Many jumpers have received jaw/face injuries as the result of an open face helmet or no helmet at all. I can think of two in the last 6 months. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.