maretus

My personal knowledge and evaluation of his current jumping skills. I taught his FJC, I've jumped with him on multiple occasions since then. Edit to add: I've also jumped that site multiple times, so I've got an idea of what the difficulties are, along with what his skill set is. Edit to add also: This is not meant as a general recommendation for any other person or any other set of sites. My comment was particularly directed at Jaap, and particularly at one specific site. That was exactly what I thought, thanks for the clarification Tom. http://www.ufufreefly.com

I'm a bit tired and might be getting this wrong but are we talking about the same terminal wall in italy ? I'd be interested to know how you Tom came up with a decision to give that advice to a guy who stated that he has 0 terminal jumps and very little skydiving experience and we are talking about the wall that has "a plaque at the launch point, not so much to memorialize the dead, but to forewarn the living that ITW is an advanced skills level BASE jump." ? So basically you are advicing a beginner to go to a advanced skills spot ? I've never been to that wall in italy myself but many have said that even though the full alti is huge the rock drop isn't that high on that wall. As James said the winds are tricky too and many of my friends don't consider it to be suitable for beginners. http://www.ufufreefly.com

Not that I need to contact him but I can't get to anything on his website. I just get the front page and then I can't go anywhere anymore (get connection timeouts). That's weird, seems to work ok for me. There is even a contact form which I thought could be helpful for Avery. http://www.ufufreefly.com

You might be referring to Omer Mei Dan ? At least I remeber that Iiro has been jumping with him and as Iiro and Jeb are pretty good friends we might be talking about the same guy. I'm pretty sure you can reach Omer through his website : http://www.extremesports.co.il/ http://www.ufufreefly.com

No need thank us dude. Vesa pretty much summed it up, you've shown the right attitude and approach towards the sport, you took your time to do your homework and think your things through, you took the time to make the skydives and train and train and train yourself for the job in hand. No hurry, no rush, just preparation and concentration that once at the exit point you would know that you are ready for it. It's been a pleasure to help you along the way and I'm sure it'll be absolutely sweet to jump together in future. So once again, huge congrats to you and I'm very happy to welcome a guy like you to our small finnish base community (and to slightly larger international one too). http://www.ufufreefly.com

Just few shots I thought I could share. Taken from our latest trip to few pretty well known walls in europe. Enjoy ! http://vapaapudotus.net/gallery/switzerland We had absolutely kick ass time, can't wait when I get back there... http://www.ufufreefly.com

Totally off topic dude, but you are truly oddly built. :) Eat more and get few cases of beer to your system, that should bring you to the same level with us normally built people. :) And commenting to the topic, I've never made a basejump or a skydive with the legpouch so I really can't comment on that one but as far as I think Robi, Yuri and Vesa are pretty much talking about the same thing. From my point of view it's all about being current with your deployment method and what method feels good for you. http://www.ufufreefly.com

Are you are talking about this photo http://www.bird-man.com/images/attachments/_05_26_2005-_05_26_2004-FBA%20vesa%2004.jpg ? If yes it is his regular S3 but the photo is not from the same flight. That exitshot is taken in 2004 whilst the kick ass flight was made just couple of weeks ago. But anyway, Vesa you're the man ! http://www.ufufreefly.com

Last weekend I took some toys from the birdoffice with me to DZ Hanko in the most southern point of Finland. Together with fellow BMI's Jouni and Maukka we held FFC's and 4 new birdboyz and birdbabez made their maiden flights over beautiful scenery of finnish archipelago. So congrats to Hanna, Johanna, Anne and Pamsu and welcome to the flock ! Markus http://www.ufufreefly.com

I jump gargoyle with dynamic corners and I have made all kinds of jumps with it, from PCA's and low FF's to terminal tracks and ws flights. So far with abt. 60 jumps with it (most of them slider down FF's) I haven't found any downsides conserning dynamic corners. Perhaps a small downside is that it is perhaps slightly harder to pack but once you get used to it it is no problem what so ever. http://www.ufufreefly.com

Hello all ! Just wanted to post this to publicly give credit to Rob Jones from Morpheus and also our own base Zone moderator TA. I had this pretty weird opening on my unvented Troll from this A some time ago. I was pretty conserned that what happened there and how it could be avoided in future. I posted a video of that opening to Morpheus and also to TA and explained the parameters of that jump. Both answered to me within the same day and gave very specific details from their view what might have been the case there. Rob Jones even called me all the way to Finland and kindly explained his opinion about what happened there and also explained to me pretty much everything I wanted to know about that particular jump. So thanks Tom for your assistance and thanks Rob for outstanding customer service ! Guys like you who are ready to share their knowledge to us newbies make this sport even a better one than it already is. :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

Yo Phat Boy, you shouldn't complain about how cold it was since you have your "internal sweater" well trained during the winter. Think about us with lower wingloading how cold it was to us ! :) But seriously, it was all good once again ! :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

There are couple of more snowy BASE pic's in our freeflyteam's gallery, taken from France this february. http://db.cs.helsinki.fi/~masaari/cgi-bin/ufusite/showimage.php?image=photo009&year=2005 http://db.cs.helsinki.fi/~masaari/cgi-bin/ufusite/showimage.php?image=photo010&year=2005 http://www.ufufreefly.com

Thanks for vid bro, very nice flight indeed. 60 secs from that exit (from my point of view) in any case is very impressive indeed but the more important thing in WS BASE obviously is the distance he covers. Were did he land ? Did he fly to the camping area ? Petter B has flown from that same exit to the camping area but don't know the FF time he got on that jump. I've seen one underweighted finnish BMCI pull some 45 second flights from exits 4 and 5 with S3 but he wasn't going for hang time, he was going for distance. But it's just what you are aiming at. Still, from my point of view, in WS base it's the distance that matters. Obviously the delay is easier to measure of course. But any case, mighty good flight there ! http://www.ufufreefly.com

Don't mean to be rude or anything but I just don't get this ? My only comment on this would be "Why ?" and even if it would be classed as "proper base" I would still ask "So what ?". I mean what would you possibly benefit from that or why would you want to do it ? To get yourself a base number and brag about it to your friends or score some chicks at the bar ? I mean what's the point really in stuff like that ? I'd say that get your skydives, do your homework and if you still want to get into base, then get into base and then you might just see what it's all about... And from my point of view... It's not about base numbers or chicks at the bar... :D http://www.ufufreefly.com

There's a nice flight off famous big wall in southwestern norway by Sensei Vesa Toropainen from Finland in birdman.com. Check it out http://www.bird-man.com/video/mekkovideo_wmv.avi U the man Vesa !

Just picking on you... But it was my first S, not my first B. :) Huge thanks to you dude for me being able to be there for your first jumps and for GC'ing for me when I was doing that E later. I really felt priviledged to be there. You really made good ones and the whole trip was absolutely amazing. Just good time, fun jumps, absolutely beautiful places and good friends. Basically just what BASE is all about. For everybody who is interested, there are couple of holiday pics and couple of videos from that trip in http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/masaari/ranska/ http://www.ufufreefly.com

What seems to be the problem ? Do you get an error message or what ? Works ok for me at least. I wasn't there but if it was Vesas whisky I'm pretty sure it was Scotch Single Malt, not Irish. :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

Just received Radix two days ago and I must say that very nice work indeed guys ! Impressive jumps and all. One little note though, I don't think that Miles D's bicycle jump was a "worlds first". There is a finnish (quite famous aerial photographer) Jussi Laine and he has done several jumps with bicycle in the mid-late nineties and also landed them (as did Miles too). Not to take anything away from Miles, a very nice stunt indeed, but just a piece of history. :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

Hosting provided by University of Helsinki, Computer Science department so it's a fair guess that thay have quite good highway to the internet. :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

Hello ! I'd definately say go with SBK course. I took the course at 2003 and it was very good indeed, the people at SBK are very nice and the quality of instruction is exellent. It's their big wall and they jump it regularly, who would know the details about jumping it better ? They also have very good BASE simulator, the Pendulator, where you can (and will) train your exits before you take your ass to exitpoint. The price of the course was last year 1500 NOK which at the moment is something like 240 USD (www.basekjerag.com -> information -> prices). The one thing worth mentioning about the course however is that it hardly qualifies as a thorough first jump BASE course. The course focuses on terminal big wall jumping at well known Norwegian wall and has very little info about other kinds of base jumps. (Or at least this was the situation couple of years back). The course is very good as I previously said but I consider it more as a site spesific course to make first BASE jumps at that terminal wall. When going to other kinds of objects and jumps after the course you have to find yourself a qualified mentor to give you instruction on the jump in hand. Just my feelings on the subject. http://www.ufufreefly.com

Like Vesa said, or use something like tinyirc (http://www.tinyirc.net/). Of course if you use tinyric or mirc or any other IRCclient you need to have irc-server that you can connect to. Most ISP's (Internet Service Providers) offer IRC as standard service, check your ISP for details wheather it offers IRC and how to connect to your ISP's IRC-server. http://www.ufufreefly.com

Hello all ! We were just thinking that are there any fellow basejumpers online and chatting via IRC ? If you are we would like to welcome you to channel #basejump in IRCNET. Feel free to join in and share your thoughts ! Since in IRC we are having an online discussion conserning basejumping we would like that everyone would first read TA's excellent article about guidelines on posting here at dz.com (http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=366457). I think that the same guidelines should be followed at IRC too. Also since we want to get an open minded and honest discussion going on we would like people to set their realname to show who they really are. You can use the same nick you use in dz.com for example (like me) but feel free to pop in with any nick you choose ! http://www.ufufreefly.com

Happy new year to you Jussi and everybody at the new birdoffice. Glad to see you in this forum also ! Have you already got sober from the small Xmas party and again are able to write or say whole sentences ? "Today, the punch is GOOD !".

That's pretty much the way I've thought about it too. That is an important point and point indeed worth of making. Still I'm glad that this discussion took place cause I mainly got the opinions I looked for. I've always thought about PC decisions on delays near 2 secs and on objects round the 300 ft mark. http://www.ufufreefly.com