NickD

No one can say who made the first successful fixed object jump using a parachute because it's lost in a blur of history and misunderstanding. However, there’s a more recent date we can and should observe. Twenty five years ago on August 8th 1978 (this Friday) a small group of jumpers stood atop Yosemite’s El Capitan. Several reconnoiters to the top, hours spent looking over the edge, calculations and reckoning all say it’s possible. There’s nothing left to do, but to do it. Kent Lane stands and tightens his leg straps. He glances back at second off (to be) Tom Start, third off Mike Sherrin and fourth off Ken Gosselin, friends he’s known all his jumping life. And they are looking at him in a way he’s never seen before. Quietly, “rolling,” is heard in the morning air as Carl Boenish’s cameras whirl into action and Kent takes a deep breath and a few steps, and disappears over the edge. And then, one by one, so do Tom, Mike and Ken. They all four track away from the big wall going ten to eleven seconds before using ram air canopies to land smoothly, no fuss, no muss, in the meadow below. This is the day fixed object jumping became repeatable and the day it became a sport. Kent later said it is the most memorable jump of his career. He says he’s, “dosed by pure velocity.” Carl’s films of that morning bowled jumpers over when he first showed them later at the drop zone. His films not only conveyed the magic and beauty of the whole thing, it also made it look rather easy and fun. Guys in the sport for thirty years are walking around saying, “Man, I never even thought of that.” So I suppose as we credit Carl for giving us all a path to follow we must also acknowledge he’s also the first site blower, in fact he blew the whole frigging sport! Be, I think, more concerned with saving lives rather than sites, places that in the long run never really go anywhere anyway. Happy Birthday! Nick BASE 194

More Injustice from the NPS Morning Report http://data2.itc.nps.gov/morningreport/ "Yosemite National Park (CA) BASE Jumping Arrests" "At dusk on July 15th, Valley rangers were dispatched to the Mirror Lake area in response to a report of BASE jumpers seen coming off Half Dome. About 30 minutes later, three men, each carrying full backpacks that were consistent with concealing BASE gear, were observed briskly walking down the Mirror Lake Loop trail. When rangers questioned them, they gave answers that did not make sense. Kirby W. Hughes, who was holding a head-sized, ball-shaped object tightly wrapped in a shirt, told rangers that it was just his sweatshirt. Further investigation revealed that it was a skydiving helmet with a digital camcorder attached. Hughes and his cohorts, Allan D. Fox and Brian K. Cork, were all arrested for conspiracy and air delivery. A search of their packs incident to arrest revealed another skydiving helmet and camcorder, three parachutes and harnesses, and two Birdman wingsuits (flight suits with cloth "wings" under the arms and between the legs used to greatly increase horizontal glide and freefall time)." BASE Jumping is not a Crime . . . Nick BASE 194

>Dennis got a real job in Reno, as a Security Guard. As improbable as the above sounds it makes one realize that life does indeed move on. Could this be our Future . . .? Dwain retires from BASE jumping after 10,000 jumps. He opens his own company and becomes a multi-millionaire selling his line of innovative trampolines. Space chooses the Army over going to jail. Twenty years later he becomes General Tracy and distinguishes himself leading the U.S. invasion of New Zealand. JJ retires to a South Pacific island, still a very young man, after writing the great American novel, a book the N.Y. Times calls, “a brilliant piece of fiction.” Robin purchases SKYDIVING from Mike Truffer and goes tabloid. The first headline is, “Two-Headed Baby Skydives!” Jean Boenish marries into money, runs, and is elected Vice-President of the United States in 2016. Her first official act is abolishing the NPS. Mick became editor of PARACHUTIST magazine but is fired after just two months. “How the hell are we gonna explain this,” asks USPA President Jan Meyer after Mick is caught jumping from the Washington Monument. Vertigo, BR, CS, Morpheus, and the rest conglomerate into The BASE Company and reap lucrative government contracts after the Marine Corps implements low-altitude combat envelopment techniques, both airborne and foot launched. In 2023 Rick and Joy report awarding BASE number 5000. Also this year Wing suit BASE jumping is again allowed in downtown Manhattan after a dispute is settled concerning jumpers blowing through too many red lights. Nick_D is killed in 2018 after a shoot out with Homeland Security’s newly created Air-Police in downtown San Diego. Cornered in a building under construction and ordered to surrender Di Giovanni shouts, “Come in and get me, coppers!” Nick BASE 194

The road to Todd Shoebotham’s house and the birth place of TNT Rigging is a windy two laner and Southern California this night is warm, smells of oranges and violet, and is perfect for BASE jumping. I see it for the first time across his living floor. Leaning against a chair. It’s the third one. “You can keep it, but never sell it.” Todd says. It sat there, packed, black, and all wicked looking. The Tool . . . Velcro closed containers are first used in skydiving in the form of front mounted Jerry Bird Rip-Off Reserve Containers (aptly named for this thread) in about 1977. In 1982 Carl Boenish is thinking of launching a tethered hot air balloon to 300 feet over Lake Elsinore and jumping small rounds into the water. He looks down at his Handbury skydiving rig and thinks, gee, metal ripcords, springs, hard housings, and a last hope rope, this isn't the right tool for the job at hand. He approaches Master Rigger Jim Handbury and before he could finish explaining, Jim holds up his hand and says, “I know exactly what you need.” The next morning Jim Handbury hands Carl Boenish two brand new rigs. They are novel as both are single container systems. They are held closed by their own bridles which are covered with a very narrow strip of Velcro. “Don’t jostle the rigs around too much,” Jim said, “once you have them on,” and almost as an afterthought he added, “hold the pilot chutes in your hand and jump.” On June 7, 1984, in a small trailer in a dusty Arizona desert the phone rang. Rich Stein, BASE 74, picked it up and heard the awful truth of it. Phones began lighting up all over the smallish BASE community. It spread from jumper to jumper, and one by one, they all heard the news that Carl Boenish was dead. Prior to Carl’s death a cottage industry of BASE gear manufactures began to spring up from nowhere out of garage lofts across the country. The best of them survived and are the BASE gear manufacturers of today. In those days you could send a skydiving harness to one the earliest outfits (none of them capable of building a harness at the time) so you’d spend a weekend picking the stitches out of an old skydiving rig and a few weeks later they would send it back, shrivel flap equipped, with a new container, and it was, for the times, a for-real BASE rig. The ultimate airworthiness of the harness was your own look out. They sold for as low as 70 bucks and became the model-T of BASE rigs. They came in any color, as long as you wanted black. Like the idea for the first airplane, how BASE equipment should be manufactured came to a lot of good people at about the same time, but only fully to those who could recognize the new technology, and more importantly, knew how to implement it. They were free to dream something up in the loft one afternoon, and had the courage to try it, off a building downtown, that night. We are fortunate to have these wizard class riggers among us. When I came to BASE most people are still jumping skydiving gear. The only consolation to BASE is a larger pilot chute and longer bridle nonetheless plugged into a bag deployed Wonderhog or Racer, or something like that, topped off with a 7-cell like a Cruislite, Fury, Pegasus, or Unit. The hot setup. None of us, I think, can fully take credit for too much, except for this: We truly are the very first generation of human beings who can fly . . . Nick BASE 194

(3) Delivering or retrieving a person or object by parachute, helicopter, or other airborne means, except in emergencies involving public safety or serious property loss, or pursuant to the terms and conditions of a permit Jean Boenish fought the NPS for years. Early on she failed by attacking the situation on NPS terms. She keep on applying for a permit to be in compliance with the last line of the regulation. Actually a few times, over the years, she came very close. And I dare say for a while, and maybe still, every time a new Yosemite bigwig is installed somewhere in their briefing papers would up on head’s up file on Jean. Most of the time the NPS ping ponged her between Superintendents offices with, “It’s okay with me if it’s okay with Superintendent X.” And Jean would hear the same over and over. There is one time the NPS couldn’t really come up with a good reason not to issue, at least, a limited permit especially with Bridge Day occurring. So she started really hamming them on this point. Finally they said it would be okay if Jean acquired the sign off from three different environmental groups, one of which is the Sierra Society. Jean said, “They might as well have said bring me the broom of the wicked witch of the west.” Someone up board had it right, the law should be changed, or, I'll add, amended. "There's no such thing as "B" gear!" Nick BASE 194

"BASE Jumping is NOT a Crime . . ." You can climb, you can hang glide, you can fish and you can hunt, but you can’t make a parachute jump in a National Park. This NPS policy goes back to the early 1980s and is as ridiculous now as it was then. The National Park Service Morning Report http://data2.itc.nps.gov/morningreport/ has a new search feature installed and is capable of searching back to the early 1990s. The following entries below are just a few of the incidents concerning BASE jumping activities on NPS land. (None of the incidents from 1978 to 1990 are represented). As the NPS Morning Report is a public website funded by (us) taxpayers I am presenting the below as it originally appears. I thought about omitting the various jumper names but these are already a matter of public record . . . BASE jumping on NPS land despite being illegal all this time had produced a very good safety record considering the thousands of jumps that have been made. There is no valid reason to prohibit BASE jumping in National Parks. All the issues raised by Park Service officials can be addressed and managed. Their policy has not and never will stop BASE jumpers from practicing the sport in National Parks. So we have many otherwise law abiding jumpers saddled with criminal records, thousands of dollars in confiscated gear and fines, and worse, causes some jumpers to concentrated on not getting caught when their full attention should be on the jumping itself. The original law making aerial delivery within a National Park a crime is originally written and implemented to keep back country hunters from re-supplying themselves via parachute many years before the first BASE jump is made on NPS land. After you read the below, and if you agree with the above, write to your elected representatives and voice your opinion. Nick BASE 194 Arches NP (Utah) BASE Jumping: Ranger Kyle Nelson overheard BLM radio traffic about two parachutists jumping from a cliff located within Arches NP and along the Colorado River on November 11th. The BASE jumpers landed in a clearing in a campground being developed by BLM. Nelson asked that the BLM employees witnessing the incident detain the jumpers, which they did; rangers Nelson and Jim Webster arrived shortly thereafter. Investigation and interviews with the two jumpers Brian Choppin, 29, of Long Beach, California, and Dr. Michael Chesnut, 33, an emergency room physician from Lexington, Kentucky revealed that they had jumped from a high cliff facing the Colorado River called Arches Point. Both claimed that they did not know that the take off point was located within a national park. Their equipment was immediately seized and citations were issued two days later for air delivery (defined in CFR as "delivering or retrieving a person or object by parachute, helicopter, or other airborne means..."). Both paid their fines on December 12th and had their equipment returned to them on January 3rd. This is the first time that BASE jumping activity has been confirmed at Arches NP, although several reports have been taken in that area over the past three years. BASE jumping is occurring more frequently in the Moab area, and was broadly publicized by an organized event on BLM lands last spring, with at least one more event scheduled for later this year. Glacier NP (MT) Follow up on BASE Jumping Rescue: James Kauffman, a parachutist who illegally jumped off the summit of Mt. Siyeh last September 24th, has pled guilty to federal charges filed against him. Kauffman experienced problems immediately after jumping and flew into the rock face of a sheer 3,000foot cliff. His parachute got snagged on rocks and he ended up dangling beneath it at a point about 400 feet below the summit. He hung there for several hours until rangers were able to rescue him. Following the conviction, the federal magistrate placed Kauffman on two years' probation and ordered him to pay nearly $9,000 to cover the costs associated with his rescue. The conditions of Kauffman's probation require that he not violate any state, federal or local law; that he sell his parachute and apply the proceeds to the cost of his rescue; and that he stay out of the park during the period of his probation. New River Gorge NR (WV) – Follow-up: Illegal BASE Jumping: On the afternoon of December 9, 2000, visitors in the Fayette Station area of the park called 911 via cellular phone and reported that several parachutists had just jumped off of the New River Gorge Bridge and landed on park property below. The visitors took photos of two of the parachutist in mid-air, then called 911 again with vehicle descriptions when the jumpers drove off. Rangers and officers from several other law enforcement agencies responded and stopped both vehicles. Four men – Jack Kirk of Landsdowne, Pennsylvania, Richard Whitney of Alexandria, Virginia, Donald Mathis of Louisville, Kentucky, and Dwayne Bradshaw also of Louisville – were issued mandatory appearance violation notices for illegal aerial delivery. On April 6th, all four pled guilty in magistrate’s court. Each was fined $600. New River Gorge NR (WV) – BASE Jumping Injury: Shannon Murphy, 33, of Wadsworth, Ohio, parachuted from the New River Gorge Bridge at 1:40 a.m. on April 7th. It was dark and overcast at the time of the jump and very foggy within the gorge. Murphy was evidently unable to see his landing zone and landed in treetops below and upstream from the bridge. He then released himself from his parachute harness and fell 40 feet, landing on the rocky ground below. Two companions – John Maggio, 37, and Andrew Pulton, 20, also from Ohio – called 911 for assistance. Rescuers found him about 45 minutes later. He was semi-conscious and had a fractured arm and extensive head trauma. A multi-agency team comprised of rangers, county police, and fire and EMS personnel stabilized Murphy and transported him up the steep slope to a waiting ambulance. He was taken to a hospital, then transferred to a trauma center in Charleston, West Virginia, where he is listed in critical condition. Alcohol may have been a contributing factor. Murphy will be charged with illegal aerial delivery; Maggio has been charged with aiding and abetting. An investigation is underway. Yosemite (California) Rescue; Illegal BASE Jumping: At about 6:45 a.m. on April 23rd, rangers Russell Marsh and Cameron Jacobi responded to cries for help from the east face of El Capitan and found two uninjured climbers beckoning for help for a person who was apparently at the base of the cliff near the start of The Nose route. Jacobi was able to find the victim, 28yearold Chris Hartfield of Colin, California, and provide him with medical assistance for a severe head laceration and multiple fractures. During his evaluation of Hartfield, Jacobi determined that he was probably a BASE jumper, though no parachute was found in the area to confirm this. Hartfield was transported to El Capitan Meadow by a carryout team, then transported by helicopter to Modesto. Hartfield later told Marsh that he had experienced some type of parachute failure after jumping off El Capitan. The park prosecutor is reviewing the possibility of filing criminal charges against Hartfield. Yosemite NP (CA) BASE Jump; Search: At first light on June 9th, a man jumped from El Capitan and parachuted to the floor of Yosemite Valley, landing in El Capitan Meadow. Rangers John Stobinski and Tom Schwartz saw the jump. As the jumper was disconnecting his harness, they identified themselves and ordered him to stop. He looked at the rangers, smiled and fled. The rangers gave chase for approximately 500 yards until the jumper entered the Merced River, swollen by spring run off. He was swept downstream and was not seen again by the rangers. A search of a two mile stretch of the Class 3 Merced River was conducted utilizing the park's contract helicopter and ten swift water trained rescuers. The jumper was not located, and it's not certain if he got out of the river. Evidence indicates that he was an experienced and professional BASE jumper named Frank Gambalie. Gambalie is reported by close friends as reliable and punctual; he was expected home in Lake Tahoe on the evening of June 9th and had a job appointment the following morning. He didn't make either of these appointments, and, as far as investigators have been able to determine, has not called any friends or relatives. The search continued on June 10th. Gambalie's vehicle was found parked near a trailhead that leads to the top of El Capitan. No further sign of him has yet been found. New River Gorge NR (WV) BASE Jumping Arrest: Three parachutists jumped from the New River Gorge Bridge and landed on park land in two separate incidents on June 19th and 21st. On the 19th, rangers found a van parked on the dirt road below the bridge and set up surveillance. Several minutes later, they saw two men Justin McClellan of Hamilton, Ohio, and Edward Trick of Maineville, Ohio hike up a trail carrying parachutes with them. McClellan claimed that this was his first jump from the bridge and that he was new to BASE jumping and didn't log his jumps. Trick said that he has approximately 265 base jumps, is involved with a BASE jumping team, and would be helping organize Bridge Day in 1999. Trick has been jumping legally on Bridge Day for six years, but has twice been arrested by rangers for illegal jumps from the bridge. On the evening of the 21st, another ranger saw a parachutist jump from the catwalk of the bridge and land in the area below. A jeep was parked not far away. The driver was contacted and told the ranger that it belonged to her boyfriend, Steve Poehls, 25, of Keystone, Colorado. Moments later, the ranger heard the sounds of rustling nylon just below the road, then saw Poehls emerge from the bushes. Poehls' parachute was found about 20 feet away. Both eventually admitted to their part in the evening's entertainment. Poehls also said that he'd been caught by Fayette County deputies while standing on the bridge with a parachute in his possession in 1997. All four persons were cited for aerial delivery violations and the three parachutes were seized as evidence. OPERATIONAL NOTES: BASE Jumping Regulations Ruling – The Ninth Circuit has upheld several important regulations that are employed against BASE jumpers who illegally jump from heights within NPS areas. The court agreed with the Tenth Circuit in holding that the rectangular shaped ram-air aeroplastic wings employed by BASE jumpers are "parachutes," in spite of the sophistication of the device and its ability to operate like a hang glider. The defendant BASE jumpers had argued that the device qualified as powerless flight and accordingly could not be prohibited by 36 C.F.R. section 2.17(a)(3). The court also agreed with the Tenth Circuit that the term "delivery" used in section 2.17(a)(3) includes self-delivery, or "moving oneself from one area to another," which would apply to a single individual who BASE jumps. The court also noted that the NPS has authority to enforce these regulations. Although the Federal Aviation Administration has jurisdiction to "develop plans and policy for the use of the navigable airspace and assign by regulation or order the use of the airspace necessary to ensure the safety of aircraft and the efficient use of airspace," the FAA does not have exclusive jurisdiction in NPS areas and nothing precludes the NPS from regulating landings within NPS areas. Most important, the court also affirmed the conviction of a defendant for disorderly conduct under section 2.34(a)(4) for recklessly creating a risk of harm to himself, other BASE jumpers and to members of the public by "creating or maintaining a hazardous or physically offensive condition." "The safety threat implicated in BASE jumping is most often the potential harm to the jumper due to the fatalities and injuries characterizing the extreme sport. We do not, however, discount the safety risks in BASE jumping to members of the public, particularly in areas where people are likely to congregate. . . We therefore affirm the district court's determination that BASE jumping can create a risk of harm to the public and defer to the courts' evidentiary findings." United States v. Albers, No. 99-10071 (9th Cir. 7/17/00). See also earlier appellate case relating to seizures by rangers on houseboat in United States v. Albers, 136 F.3d 670 (9th Cir. 1998). For more information on this case or other court decisions, contact NPS legal instructor Don Usher at FLETC via cc:Mail at NP-WASO. Yosemite NP (CA) BASE Jumping Conviction: On August 13th, a U.S. magistrate convicted John Eagle of parachuting in the park. Under the terms of a plea agreement, Eagle admitted to BASE jumping from El Capitan on June 18th. He will make a $1,500 contribution to the Yosemite Mountain Safety Fund in lieu of a fine, and will permanently forfeit his BASE jumping parachute rig, worth about $800. The fund is managed by the Yosemite Association and is used to buy rescue and EMS equipment and supplies and to fund associated training. New River Gorge NR (WV) Base Jumping, Injury: Two parachutists Thomas Ouellette, 25, and Matthew Byrd, 24 jumped from the New River Gorge bridge around 8 p.m. on August 11th. Ouellette landed on the railroad tracks below the bridge and suffered a mild sprained ankle, but Byrd's parachute malfunctioned and he landed in the trees, fracturing a vertebra in his back and seriously injuring his knee. The park received a report of a critically injured parachutist around 9:30 p.m. Rangers and fire department volunteers searched the area for over an hour, but could not find him. Around 11 p.m., a local hospital advised that they had a patient who'd just been brought in with injuries received in a fall near New River. Rangers interviewed Byrd at the hospital and he admitted to jumping from the bridge. They also contacted Ouellette at the scene when he returned to recover Byrd's parachute. Ouellette also admitted to jumping from the bridge. Ouellette, Byrd and Brian Wheatley, who drove their vehicle, were charged with illegal air delivery. Byrd was transferred to a hospital in North Carolina on August 12th. He was still in serious condition at the time of the report. Black Canyon (Colorado) Arrest; Illegal Jumping: On September 11th, ranger Amy Bergonzi was assisting with an end of season trash cleanup in the canyon, which was being done with the aid of a helicopter, when she saw a man parachute from the Painted Wall. The man, later identified as Jeffrey Rohrbacker, 32, of Portland, Oregon, apparently did not see the helicopter prior to his jump, and was surprised when it arrived at his location minutes after he landed. Rohrbacker was cited for failure to obtain an inner canyon permit and unauthorized air delivery (the regulation which deals with illegal parachuting). His chute, helmet, and helmet mounted video camera were seized as evidence. Glen Canyon (Utah/Arizona) Falling Fatality: On the afternoon of September 15th, rangers received a cellular phone request for medical assistance for a person with life threatening injuries who'd fallen from a cliff near the mouth of the Escalante arm of Lake Powell. Upon arrival, they found that Paul Thompson, 51, of Dixon, California, had already expired. Thompson was part of a group of seven BASE jumpers who'd made several parachute jumps from the cliff face just south of the Escalante confluence. Witnesses said that his chute deployed upon jumping, but that Thompson got twisted around and struck the cliff face several times because of the parachute's pendulum effect. The chute then collapsed and Thompson fell a significant distance, struck a rock, and landed in the water. Companions in a recovery boat witnessed the event and picked him up almost immediately. They said that they'd performed CPR, but that they were unsuccessful due to severe face, chest, and pelvic trauma. BASE jumping has not been a problem for Glen Canyon in past years. Yosemite (California) Fatal BASE Jump: Early on the morning of September 25th, Keith Jones called park dispatch and reported that he'd recently witnessed a BASE jumping accident at El Capitan. Jones said that he feared that the accident involved a person he'd dropped off at the Yosemite Falls trailhead the previous day. Jones claimed he didn't know the person's name, but that he knew she was planning to BASE jump off El Capitan on the morning of the 25th. He also said that he'd seen three parachutes deployed near the face of El Capitan that morning, but that he'd also seen what appeared to be a human body free fall all the way to the top of the tree line at the base of El Capitan. He'd lost sight of it, but thought he'd heard it strike the rocks there. Investigating rangers found severely traumatized human remains below the New Dawn Wall route on El Capitan with two parachutes tangled in the trees above. The victim had not been positively identified at the time of the report. Investigators subsequently determined that Jones was a principal participant in the jump; he was arrested and placed in custody on charges of illegal air delivery and conspiracy. Jones continues to deny any knowledge of the victim's identity, and claims to have no information of or connection with the three successful jumpers. New River Gorge NR (WV) Special Event: The annual "Bridge Day" event was held on and in the area of the New River Gorge bridge on October 18th. During this one day event, the northbound lanes of the bridge are closed to traffic so that visitors can walk onto it to view fall colors and BASE jumpers can parachute from the 876foot bridge to a landing area below on the New River. A special use permit is issued to a parachuting organization to allow jumpers to land on park property. The weather was nearly perfect for the event overcast, cool, and with very little wind. This year, 320 registered parachutists made a total of about 720 jumps from the bridge, including an approved, choreographed eleven person jump which went perfectly and set a world record. There were over 50 water landings in which chutists were rescued by watercraft, none of them resulting in injuries. One jumper landed in the trees when his parachute malfunctioned and suffered a fractured lower leg. Only a dozen people were treated on site for injuries, and these were limited to a scrapes, bruises, sprains and strains. There were six transports to a local hospital by ambulance for follow up treatment. Another group of about 200 people from several organizations rappelled from the bridge on seven rappel lines. The longest rappel was about 800 feet. There were no accidents or other problems with this group. During the event, rangers also responded to a commercial rafting accident eight miles upriver from the event in which a visitor suffered a fractured femur. First aid was administered and the victim was evacuated about a mile overland to an ambulance. The Bridge Day event was managed under a unified incident command system; participating were the park and several state, county and local agencies. New River Gorge NR (West Virginia) Special Event: Bridge Day: Bridge Day, the annual event in which one lane of the New River Gorge Bridge is closed to all but foot traffic, was held on October 19th. Although many visitors come to walk the bridge and view fall colors, the main attraction is the BASE (Buildings, Antennas, Spans, Earth) jumping that occurs from the 876 foot high bridge to the landing area below. On this one day of the year, the park issues a permit to the World BASE Association to allow parachute landings on park property. This year, the weather for the event was less than favorable cold temperatures, some minor rain showers, and winds from 15 to 25 mph. The winds were also erratic, making it very difficult to steer parachutes and assuring an interesting day for rescue teams. This year, 379 registered parachutists made a total of 383 jumps from the bridge. There were 81 water landings requiring rescue by watercraft, but none of the jumpers was injured. Five jumpers landed in trees, and the park's SAR team performed technical rescues to retrieve two of them. One received a severe rectal laceration which required surgery. Although a total of 25 injuries were treated, most were minor scrapes, bruises, sprains and strains. There were nine ambulance transports, including a head injury suffered by a visitor on a commercial raft tour who was hit in the head by a parachutist landing in the raft. A group of about 200 people from several organizations also rappelled from the bridge on ten rappel lines, the longest of which was about 800 feet. There were no problems associated with this group. Senator Rockefeller, ten gubernatorial candidates, and several other governmental candidates from all parties attended the event to solicit support for their campaigns, adding another dimension to incident management. The event was managed under a unified incident command involving the park and several state, county and local agencies. Yosemite NP (California) BASE Jumping Fatality: Jeff Christman, 42, of Phoenix was killed early on the morning of October 22nd while BASE jumping off El Capitan. BASE jumping is illegal in the park. Christman was one of several jumpers on El Capitan that day; six others were arrested. BASE jumping was permitted in the park on a trial basis in 1980, but was discontinued due to the high number of injuries, illegal jumps, resource damages, and problems with spectator and visitor management. Yosemite NP (CA) Demonstration; BASE Jumping Fatality: On Friday, October 22nd, Jan Davis, 60, died while attempting a BASE jump from El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. Davis' jump was part of an organized act of civil disobedience protesting the NPS air delivery regulations (36 CFR 2.17(a)), which make BASE jumping illegal in national park areas without a permit. The demonstration organizer, Avery Badenhop, who is the NPS permittee for the 300 plus BASE jumpers at Bridge Day at New River Gorge NR, wrote a letter to the superintendent informing him of his intention to hold the demonstration. At a meeting with the chief ranger before the event, Badenhop was informed that the jump was illegal, that those who did it would be charged criminally, and their equipment would be seized. Badenhop would not identify the number of persons who intended to make the illegal jump, but hinted that it might be as many as 50. He also said that there likely would be a large crowd at the landing area in support of the illegal jumpers, and that he intended to attract as much media coverage as he could. With the potential for the demonstration overwhelming the park's resources, a Pacific West SET team (USPP) was called in for the incident. Davis was the fourth of five jumpers who showed up at the top of El Cap to jump. The first three made successful jumps and landed to the cheers of about 150 people, some of who were waving flags and banners in support of BASE jumping in national park areas, and were taken into custody. Davis then launched and free-fell for more than 15 seconds until she hit the talus slope at the base of the cliff. Her body was evacuated by long-line under the park's contract helicopter. Those who witnessed the fall saw no sign of her pilot chute ever being deployed to initiate the opening of her main parachute. Badenhop, who was to be the fifth jumper, opted not to continue and walked off the mountain. At least three TV camera crews and an Associated Press reporter covered the demonstration, and broadcast and print coverage has been intense. Park special agents are investigating the incident; decisions about prosecution will be made following consultation with the U.S. Attorney's Office. New River Gorge (West Virginia) Special Event: On Saturday, October 15th, the park hosted Bridge Day, an annual event in which one lane of the bridge is closed off so pedestrians can view fall colors and watch BASE jumpers and rappellers parachute or rappel from the bridge. An estimated 200,000 people attended the event this year. The 430 parachutists who registered for the event made about 560 BASE jumps from the 876 foot high bridge; another 155 persons rappelled or climbed ropes that were up to 650 feet long. A 400 foot tyrolean traverse was set up on one side of the bridge and a Canadian rescue organization led numerous traverses. There were fewer injuries and emergency incidents than in previous years, at least partly due to the beautiful weather and low winds. There were only 60 water landings, one tree landing, and 12 injuries (seven requiring transport to local hospitals for broken bones) associated with BASE jumping activities. Rangers arrested three jumpers on outstanding warrants for BASE jumping off of El Capitan in Yosemite and for failure to appear at court. Arrested were Gordon W. Legg, Jr., Jess Neuger, and John C. Hoover. New River Gorge NR (WV) – Special Event: Bridge Day: On Saturday, October 21st, the park participated in the 21st annual Bridge Day celebration. The event was attended by about 150,000 people. During Bridge Day, the northbound lanes of the world’s largest single-span bridge are closed to vehicle traffic and people are allowed to walk out onto the bridge; vendor and exhibitor booths are set up in the highway right-of-way on both sides of the bridge. The highlight of this year’s event was a 15-person BASE parachute jump, which set a new world record. Overall, 300 BASE jumpers completed 770 jumps from the bridge. Rangers joined in several water and land rescues of BASE jumpers. Twelve injuries were reported, but only half required advanced medical treatment and transport. The remainder were treated on scene. Along with these jumps, a total of 243 rappellers completed 497 rappels off the bridge, descending more than 700 feet. Among them was superintendent Pete Hart, who became the first superintendent to rappel from the bridge. The event was managed in cooperation with the Bridge Day Committee and with the assistance of state, county and local agencies. Yosemite NP (CA) BASE Jumping Arrests: Rangers and criminal investigators arrested three BASE jumpers as they landed in El Capitan Meadow at first light on October 14th. Investigators had determined that the trio would be jumping from El Cap that morning and had staked out the area. All three were charged with illegal jumping; one was also charged with interfering with an agency function, and a second with possession of marijuana. All three pled guilty. The magistrate fined each of them $500 and ordered them to perform 200 hours of community service on the illegal jumping charge; their parachutes, worth $2,000 each, were permanently forfeited to the government. Yosemite NP (CA) BASE Jumping Arrests: Andy West and Edwin Harding were arrested by rangers for illegal BASE jumping as they landed in El Capitan Meadow at 3:45 a.m. on the morning of October 25th. Investigation revealed that West has made close to 100 BASE jumps in the park and has been acting as a guide for jumpers new to Yosemite, but that this was Harding's first such jump. Both pleaded guilty in magistrate's court. West was sentenced to two days' custody, a $2,000 fine, permanent forfeiture of his parachute rig, and placed on two years' court probation. Harding received three days in jail, a $500 fine, forfeited his parachute rig (which he testified was worth nearly $4,000) and was placed on a year's probation. New River Gorge (West Virginia) Special Event: Bridge Day was held on October 16th at the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville, West Virginia. The annual event drew a crowd to the area estimated at over 125,000. The event has international fame for its high adventure activities, including parachuting, bungee jumping and rappelling off the bridge. During the period between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., 458 registered BASE jumpers made a total of 502 parachute jumps from the bridge, approximately 125 rappellers ascended and descended distances from 600 to 800 feet, and a world record bungee jump was made. A total of 102 parachutists landed in the park and required rescue by NPS personnel. There were 13 injuries from BASE jumping accidents, including nine that required transport to and treatment at a local hospital. The bungee jump was made by seven people in a custom made metal basket which plunged about 850 feet into the gorge to a point about 25 feet above the river before springing back. One injury occurred from the jump when the bungee basket did not release properly and trapped one of the participants between one of the bridle ropes and the basket. This person suffered severe rope burns across the chest and shoulder and was taken to a local hospital. Wednesday, November 7, 2001 INCIDENTS 01-591 – Yosemite NP (CA) – Illegal Air Delivery: On the afternoon of November 3rd, rangers received a report of a BASE jumper hitting the wall near the East Buttress of El Capitan. The reporting persons said that they had seen a white parachute and a person clad in a red jumpsuit hit the wall four times before disappearing from sight. Rangers investigated and just before nightfall were able to spot a white parachute attached to a red climbing haul bag stuck on a ledge on the cliff about 500 feet above the base of the wall. Rangers contacted two climbers at the base of the route who had just retreated off the wall. The climbers initially denied any knowledge of the incident, but one of them eventually admitted to pitching the haul bag with a parachute made from a porta-ledge rainfly before they rappelled off. One of them was arrested for making a false report, illegal air delivery and creating a hazardous condition. The other was cited for creating a hazardous condition and released to appear in court at a later date. The following day rangers climbed up to the stuck equipment and seized it as evidence. Zion (Utah) BASE Jumping Arrests: On the afternoon of November 6th, four people were caught BASE jumping off of Angel's Landing in Zion Canyon. Acting on a tip from Lew Hansen, a park maintenance employee, rangers Fred Hoeger, Shawn McNally, Beth Martin and Ed Dunlavey responded to the area and contacted Marta Hewitt, Paul McGreevy, Frank Le Poole, and Michael Maguire. After multiple interviews, the four admitted to the jump and were cited under 36 CFR 2.17 (a)(3), air delivery by parachute. The jumpers subsequently led rangers to four separate locations where their equipment had been stashed. All equipment was seized pending court appearances, where forfeiture will be pursued. Yosemite NP (CA) Followup: BASE Jumps: Early in November, BASE jumper Robin Heid applied for a permit for a public assembly of from 50 to 500 people to be held outside of magistrate's court and at El Capitan Meadow and for two memorial services in the El Capitan Meadow area. The purpose was to protest the Service's air delivery regulations (36 CFR 2.17(a)(3)), which make BASE jumping illegal in national parks without a permit, to show support for four individuals appearing in court on BASE jumping related charges, and to hold memorial services for BASE jumpers Frank Gambalie III and Jan Davis. Gambalie drowned in June when he jumped into the Merced River while fleeing rangers; Davis died in October when her parachute failed to open after jumping from El Capitan. A permit was issued for 50 persons to assemble outside the court and in the El Capitan Meadow area. Approximately 30 people attended the demonstration and court proceedings. There were no incidents. About eight media representatives were present. Appeals Court BASE Jumping Decision: On October 31st, a three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a previous district court decision that 36 CFR 2.17 (A)(3) was unconstitutional because it was ambiguous and did not clearly establish that BASE jumping (parachuting from fixed objects including cliffs) was prohibited. The defendants had argued that their parachutes met the definition of aircraft and were allowed to land on the waters of Lake Powell. They also argued that jumping off a cliff constituted an emergency; therefore they could deliver themselves by parachute without a permit. The appellate court wrote in its decision that the BASE jumpers clearly used "parachutes" (not aircraft) as defined in 36 CFR 2.17 and that the regulation clearly stated the BASE jumpers conduct was criminal. The final statement by the appellate court regarding the BASE jumper's case was that "that argument, of course, will not fly." This decision will allow GLCA to proceed with the prosecution of as many as 20 BASE jumping cases that have been placed on hold during this appeals process. Yosemite NP (CA) – Follow-up: BASE Jumping Demonstration, Fatality: On Friday, October 22nd, professional stuntwoman Jan Davis, 60, was killed when her parachute failed to open while attempting a BASE jump from El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. Davis' jump was part of an organized act of civil disobedience protesting the NPS air delivery regulations (36 CFR 2.17(a)), which make BASE jumping illegal in national park areas without a permit. On December 13th, jumpers Henry Boger, Mick Knutson and Joseph Weber pled no contents to charges of illegal air delivery in magistrate’s court in the park. Jumper Avery Badenhop pled no contest to aiding and abetting the air delivery of others. Under separate plea offers, each defendant agreed to a sentence of one year’s probation, a $2,000 fine, and payment of one-fourth of the $6,155 restitution for the cost of recovering Davis’ body. All parachute equipment used to make the illegal jumps was permanently forfeited. BASE Jumping is Not a Crime . . .

While reading through some of my back issues of PARACHUTIST I came upon what is now the very first modern BASE fatality. This fatality occurred in 1981 and predates what I thought was the first BASE fatality by about a year. I have updated the List to reflect this fact and the List now stands at 72 fatalities. World BASE Fatality List http://juliabell.home.att.net/ Nick BASE 194

Rig Before Rating . . . Working for Don Muma down at Otay Lakes in Southern California a hundred years ago it’s New Years Eve and we cap the days jumps by pulling Jim Perry’s Helio Stallion up on the grass and blasting the stereo we’d just installed. Don came running out and yelled at us and rightly so as he’s sowed a fine grass in an era when grass meant everything in the desert. So the next morning we quit and flew away. “I hear Deborah Blackman is re-opening Elsinore.” “Let’s go there.” The Stallion is a brute of a single engine turbo-prop tail dragger controllable down to thirty knots and used by the CIA during Vietnam to delivery whatever into small jungle clearings. We do a short field landing at Gillespie Field for some Jet A and the controller is talking when he hears Led Zeppelin blasting on the stereo behind us and says, “Cool.” We landed on the dirt in Lake Elsinore around sunset and Debbie came running out to greet us and she said, “Okay,” looking at Jim, “You are my chief pilot, and you,” now looking at me, she says, “You are my chief instructor.” We follow her into the fading light and I’ll never forget Jim looking my way and saying, “Timing is everything.” Fast forward two years and Tandem rigs are appearing on the market for the first time. Debbie buys one of the first Strong tandems. The first day we had it, after Debbie put it all together, as it came component wise, Mark Hewitt and another fellow who’s name I can’t remember took the rig up for it’s first jump. After getting out of the Beech D-18 at 12.5 neither one could get the drogue out and going through 1500 feet at tandem terminal Mark, who’s up front is reaching up over his left shoulder and clawing for the reserve ripcord handle he says later, “ I’m looking at right where we’re going to crater.” Finally up-top gets the drogue out. The only problem now is he’d already pulled the drogue release and the brunt of a tandem terminal opening almost breaks Mark’s neck and as he lies limp in the harness he hears, “Shit, we gotta cutaway.” After landing safely under the reserve we all figured the rule in tandem jumping is always use the main, even if you blow it up, as so you don’t use the reserve going too fast , and blow that up too. Debbie had paying customers lined up already for the next day and she took the broken main home and Betsy Rossed it back together. The next morning I woke to her asking me to go up and jump it and make sure it is alright. A for real continuity check. “ Sure, no problem, it’s just another rig.” Ernie Villanova and a bunch of Elsinore regulars are doing a early morning demo as I sit back on the floor of the Beech and contemplate just what the heck all these handles do. A few Rw loads get out and I walk toward the door. “Get the drogue out,” is all I’m thinking because that’s what started those other guys problems. Stepping out the door, I grin at Ernie, reach back and throw out the drogue. Like I was doing a hop and pop. All of a sudden I felt myself stable but not arching. Wow, I thought, that drogue is so big you don’t have to arch, I was just hanging. It’s then I notice the horizon is right above my toes and I look over my should and there’s the Beech right behind me. I’d thrown the drogue over the tail, and I’ll never forget when my brain told my body I was in tow. Nothing bad was happening at the moment and I remember thinking don’t make the next mistake that will kill you.” I looked down on the myriad of handles and deduced none did what I needed to do. I looked again at my feet and the horizon is sinking as I wrapped the elevator of the Beech and she’s nosing over, Bobby said later, “It pulled the yoke full forward and I couldn’t pull it back, at first I thought you Knuckleheads had figured a new way to mess with me.” Meanwhile self preservation is clicking in and I figure, okay, we’re still high, but if it starts going hey wire I’ll cutaway first and then pull the drogue release. It would mean leaving Bobby with the mess, or, if the main inflated the end of him when it pulled the tail from the aircraft. All of a sudden I came off. I arched and flipped over and looked at the altimeter and saw all that nonsense that started at 12.5 took until 8000 feet to sort it self out. I looked up over my shoulder and see 15 feet of bridle and no drogue. I thought I’d better start now. I reached and pull the student ripcord and it comes a ways and stops. I pull until I’m afraid I’ll break something and throw it away. I grab the tandem master’s ripcord and it too comes out a ways and then jams. I’d pulled both cables through the grommet on the drogue Three Ring release when I was in tow. I looked at the altimeter and decided that no matter what was happening at 4000 feet I was going to pull the reserve handle. That way I’d have some time to hack on things with my hook knife if it all went wrong. I went back to pulling on the drogue release. At about six thousand feet I finally forcibly managed to clear one of the cables. I could feel the side flaps of the main container hitting me and tried to push the huge bagged main away from me. However, it went without a pilot chute or drogue in slow motion as I watched one and then another stow come off the bag until I looked again and I’m coming up to the point where I’m thinking about looking for the reserve handle when bam I get a opening on the main. After landing Bobby and stare at the dents I put in the horizontal stabilizer of the Beech and all agree we got away with one. Debbie deducted $80 from my next paycheck to cover the cost of the drogue I destroyed. Watch it . . . . Nick D-8904

I also heard that Karin's Boyfriend likes to play on them, jumping from the second story and such. I dunno, it sounds awfully dangerous to me. I've stood and marveled at Karin's boyfriend on the tramp. If this was 40 years ago, he'd be on the Ed Sullivan Show . . . A tramp develops aerobatic awareness and is BASE jumping's wind tunnel. I've always appreciated BASE jumping has added phrases to the lexicon like, “It’s cool, there’s no traffic behind us,” and, “you’re a hundred percent,” and being able to walk into really cool bars and say, “ I’ll have line-over on the rocks.” However, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to add, “Rail ride.” Nick BASE 194

>The commission wants some information on where a trampoline has been used before.< Carl Boenish had one in the back yard of his house in Hawthorne, CA, the house he grow up in. He used it jumping from the roof of his garage . . . Nick BASE 194

Around the kitchen table at Phil Smith’s house in Houston, Texas, Carl and Jean Boenish, along with Phil and a few others are planning something special. Something none of them had done before, something they had never even considered before. They are going to jump from the top of building under construction, the Texas Commerce Tower. The year is 1981. At this point in fixed object jumping’s young life bridges, towers, and cliffs have already been jumped and they, especially Phil Smith, thought tall building are the next logical step. Phil Smith should be credited for opening the world to low objects after a return from his first El Cap jump. El Cap is considered doable by most skydivers because there is time for a reserve deployment if needed. Phil Smith is about to change all that. He says, “After returning from California I was driving to work and I saw something. It was something I drove past daily, but never took much notice. Now it’s like I’m seeing it for the very first time. It’s an eleven hundred foot radio tower and Phil jumped it the very next morning. He is the first to realize that if jumpers are willing to forgo the reserve option it would open a whole class of new jumpable objects. While Phil is excitingly talking about the downtown building jump Carl Boenish gets an idea and begins scribbling on a notepad. Jean then mentions a building jump wouldn’t be a first and talks about Owen Quinn who jumped from New York’s World Trade Center towers in 1975. That jump is remembered as more of a stunt, and Owen is somewhat unfairly branded a nut job. “The world,” Jean said, “wasn’t ready for this sort of thing in 1975.” Carl Boenish is only half listening to the rest until he says, “Hey, look at this.” He passed the notepad around the table and there is a large word all in caps and circled. The word is BEST. “Well,” they all said? “Don’t you see it. It’s an acronym for the objects that are being jumped. B is for Buildings, E is for Earth or cliffs, S is for Span or bridges, and the T stands for Towers. “BEST Jumping?” Phil said. “I like it,” Jean said. Carl, had by that time, realized what they and others were doing wasn’t skydiving anymore. It was a new sport and it deserved a new name. When the word BEST wasn’t really accepted by the group, Carl picked up a small dictionary knowing now what he was looking for, an acronym, and it wasn’t long before he found it. How about this one, “BASE?” Phil Smith is the very first one to say it out loud, “BASE jumping.” They all just looked at each other for a little while. “I don’t like it,” Jean says. “Not all towers are Antennas and the second definition of BASE,” she says picking up the dictionary, “is evil and vile.” But it’s too late. It was too cool and Phil later says he felt chills just saying the word. The boys are repeating it over and over. “A BASE jump, BASE jumping, a person doing this would be . . . a BASE jumper!” A few weeks later Carl Boenish announces the new name along with the sequential BASE number award program in SKYDIVING Magazine. Phil Smith, who did indeed jump the building in Texas becomes BASE number 1. BASE number 2 went to Phil Mayfield and Jean and Carl became BASE 3 and 4 respectively. Nick BASE 194

cRW gets you into flying a low aspect ratio wing. The closest thing in skydiving to a 7-cell BASE canopy. Nick BASE 194 http://juliabell.home.att.net/

The year is 1979 and I’d just blown up my Tri-Conical reserve after a total (happily landing in the water of Lake Elsinore). I later find myself in Dean Westguard’s gear van looking for another reserve canopy. I had $200 in cash and a 31-15 Singer sewing machine head to trade. "Here's what you need," Dean said, "it's a brand new reserve from Pioneer." It's all white and made of the flimsiest material I ever felt on a parachute. "Gee, Dean, you can see right through this stuff. And the lines don't even go through the canopy. I mean look, they are just sewn to the skirt!" "That material is called F-one-eleven,” Dean said, “and mark my words all canopies some day will be made of it." "Haven't you got an old Navy Conical or something in there . . .?" But Dean was right, the canopy was a Super-22, and I carried that reserve around on my back for many years and even used it once or twice. Nick D-8906

Jean is going to be very annoyed when she finds out she is dead . . . http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030608/1032257.asp Nick BASE 194

Dead is . . . I peddled my bike home one night across the open field from the Perris DZ to the Ghetto after a fun, but very long summer day doing AFF and tandem jumps, but I didn't go straight home. I stopped to drink some jug wine and play a game of chess with Larry Yohn. On the way out of Larry's place I bumped into Greg Hunter who wanted to show me his latest camera helmet and we had a few beers. After that I ran into Mark Sechler and we smoked a joint and laughed about nothing and everything for probably a half an hour. After stumbling out of Mark's place I ran into James Martin and we talked about something funny that happened on the DZ that day. After that I went back to the drop zone with Bad Spot Bill in his truck to hear Harley Powell play his guitar in the Bombshelter. Claude is sitting at the bar and as always he greeted me warmly. They are all, everyone of them, dead. They all meant something special to me and, indeed, to everyone else they touched. I will never forget them. Sweet Dreams Roger . . . All my love and support Rook and Misty. Nick Di Giovanni BASE 194 D-8904

You don’t hear wing loading addressed in BASE jumping much because the talk is more about aspect ratio. We learned long ago boxy is better for a canopy in terms of openings. That’s why a canopy called a Strato Star is popular in BASE jumping for a while. They opened with the reliability of a round, as they had only five cells and those big overhung cells gulped in the sub terminal air like today’s vented canopies. You really had do something drastically wrong to get an off heading opening on one. The only problem with these canopies is you’d always take a pasting in the parking lot. The final determination on wing loading is easily solved while standing on the roof of your local Flatiron Building at night. Looking down into the big gulp you see a lot of pointy tipped stuff staring right back at you. If the slightest thing goes wrong, your ability to come straight down, at a favorable decent rate, while still maintaining a full canopy over your head, is what’s gonna have you drinking a beer later. In the early days we went too big sometimes, to the extreme that some very light people ended up swing stalling to impact. So you don’t hear much about wing loading in, let’s say a conversation about a BASE incident, no one asks because it’s a given it’s already in an acceptable range for BASE jumping. Something else went wrong . . . Nick BASE 194 World BASE Fatality List http://juliabell.home.att.net/

>Question. >Has any military, US or otherwise, ever used BASE >jumping in any way? This isn’t about military BASE jumping, but it does show the disconnect between BASE jumpers and everyone else . . . When myself and some other jumpers are chased after a building jump here in San Diego I got a phone call from the Police Department the next morning. It seems a police Lieutenant wanted to know if a few of his men could learn to BASE jump and use it as a crime fighting tactic. Amazingly he figured he could station these men on downtown high rises, ready to pounce on crime they would see in the streets below, he actually used the term, “Batman like . . .” After I explained what is involved as far as learning, and the important matter of staying very current, he realized it wasn’t practical. Another time, Kenny Rodger’s (the singer) wife called me and said Kenny had seen BASE jumping on TV and thought it is really neat. As it is his birthday, his wife wants to buy Kenny a BASE jump. At first I thought, great, we could bag him into the water somewhere, being sure he’d write a cool song about BASE jumping. But I finally got a hold of myself, imagining the headline, “Singer Killed in Plunge from Bridge,” and told her, no, it isn’t really a good idea. I gave her the Perris phone number and suggested a skydiving tandem jump instead. When Chuck Sweeney landed a building jump in Los Angeles, one night, he is chased and actually shot at by the Secret Service who, unknown to him, are guarding the first President Bush who is sleeping in a hotel room across the street. After it is all sorted out (we’ll forget about the jump, you forget we shot at you) the agents realized Chuck could have flown right into the President’s window carrying explosives, so now this is something they always check on, the possible launch points for terrorist BASE jumpers. Nick BASE 194

Carl Boenish, BASE 4, said he lost a lot of friends when he started BASE jumping (just like skydiving to whuffos) but he always added with a laugh, "I made new ones." In a few years all your friends will be jumpers . . . And you and we, will be better for it. Nick BASE 194 http://juliabell.home.att.net/

I'll always remember the day I broke both of my legs while learning spit and the human body doesn’t react to the wind in the same way . . . Nick BASE 194

Mexican BASE, Pre-Hole . . . In 1986, when my day job is working on airplanes, my boss and I flew to Baja to repair the propeller on a customer's aircraft. This customer is a wind surfer and he and a friend often flew his Cessna-206 down there landing on the beach in the middle of no-where to enjoy a week of solitude and wind surfing. The usual practice is to fly low over the beach, drop a beer bottle out the window, and if it stuck in the sand, it was deemed hard enough to land on. This time they landed alright initially, but then found some soft sand where the nose wheel dug in, and they bent the prop. They are in an area on the Pacific side of Baja where usually there isn’t much for 300 miles in either direction. Word finally reached us back in California and we loaded a new prop, all the tools we’d need, and plenty of food and water into my boss’s twin Aero Commander and took off. Our problem would be finding the closest runway for the Commander and then finding a boat to get us to where they are stuck. Prior to that, and if necessary, as the pair is running short on food and water, I was prepared to jump into their position carrying some supplies and a few tools to begin the repair process. They specifically requested beer if I could manage it. We stopped at Brown Field on the U.S.- Mexican border to check-out of the country, as is required with U.S. Customs. This is usually an easy process but while our aircraft had fresh engines, a killer panel with all the latest gadgets, and is very mechanically sound, the outside looked rough. In fact, if casting a drug running plane for a movie, this was it. We are on the ground for 4 hours as we unloaded the entire aircraft for inspection, then suffered the indignity of waiting for the drug sniffing dogs after the somewhat frustrated agents failed to find anything. Small beads of sweat started forming on my brow as I looked at my gear bag laying on the ground. I struggled to recall, when was the last time I gave that a good cleaning out . . . As you don’t want to fly (or drive) in Baja at night, we pleaded our case, and are finally allowed to proceed, but now there’s no way to make the almost 700 miles so we stop in Guerrero Negro, about a quarter of the way down, where we spend the night. There is a small village here with a cantina, a bank, and a police station. There’s also something else you couldn’t miss. A 250-foot free standing steel tower right in the middle of town. As we entered the cantina, my boss looked at me and said, “Don’t even think about it.” As my eyes adjusted to the dark interior of the bar we notice what’s probably the entire police force and several soldiers seated in a corner, they are drinking, and there are automatic weapons leaning on the wall. My boss spoke Spanish but mine isn’t very good. Whatever it takes to learn another language I don’t have, but in answer to the fellow behind the bar I managed, “Hola señor, dos cerveza por favor.” We’d planned on sleeping in the plane, but it is early yet, and after a few cold ones I went outside for another look-see at that tower. It sat fronting the wide dirt road, there’s no wind, I had a large canopy stuffed in my Racer in anticipation of jumping all that gear later, it’s an old tower, there’s nothing on it and it doesn’t appear to be plugged in anywhere. Why not, I thought, it’s climbable and landable. All I had to do now is convince my boss to come back with me at three in morning and climb up and down the tower after he held my deployment bag. “Me dispensa señor, qué usted hace aquí?” It’s one of the soldier’s and I think he’s asking what I’m doing there. I had just enough beer to say, “Soy un paracaidista y yo pienso en saltar de esta torre.” He looked up the tower and back at me and he smiled. I found myself at their table with another beer and telling them I’d served in the United States Marine Corps. As luck would have it, it turned out these aren’t soldiers at all, they are Mexican Marines. I was in. Almost sheepishly, and certainly without boast, which is common to Mexican people, two of them said they had made a few jumps, a mix of sport and military static line jumps. They had never heard of, or even contemplated BASE jumping. I left my boss to explain the finer points as I ran, as fast as I could, back to the plane to get my rig. We cleared away the tables and chairs and I un-packed for skydiving and re-packed for BASE with the Marines helping and asking all kinds of questions. I didn’t drink enough beer not to jump, but I did drink enough beer not to climb, so I planned for dawn. We went back to drinking and laughing and I asked permission to look at their weapons and Ricky, he was the highest ranking, unloaded one of the rifles, and handed it to me. It’s a Casa from Argentina, fully automatic and it carried a 30 round magazine full of large caliber ball ammunition. It is a tad heavy but it would stop a truck. Of course I asked, but Ricky said sorry as they had to account for all the rounds and, no, we couldn’t go out back and burn off a clip. A few minutes later a policeman appeared and stood a few feet away from our table until we stopped talking. He then silently came closer and laid a medium sized box on the table. It’s full of just the ammo we needed. So we all took turns, even the policeman, out back, and I must say it was a blast. Word of the jump had gotten around the small town and a good audience is in place the next morning when with Ricky holding my deployment bag I swooped onto the dirt road nicely enough to cause cheering like I’d never experienced in my BASE career. Viva Mexico! Nick BASE 194

I sold a little gizmo called a Rapid Grip some years ago. It's just a small carabineer (or a snap-link) attached to an arm’s length of light steel cable (when we finally stopped jumping AM antenna towers, I changed the steel cable to tubular nylon). The end of the tubular nylon is bar tacked into a Cordura pouch with two Velcro (or snap-type) flaps. The bottom flap is the Rapid Grip and the top flap is a hook knife (or your comb . . .) . You then just slid the whole works onto your chest strap and there you go. I suppose you could have a rigger make you one easily enough. They could have been used in resting while hooked it (and that’s the way we tested them) but I suggested they be employed more for emergencies. In fact we lightly rigger tacked the Rapid Grips in so they wouldn’t deploy accidentally. I figured their use coming in feeling ill while climbing, or after a tower or building strike and you needed to secure your position. Luckily, I don’t think anyone actually used one for any of those purposes. The only thing on me that ever got tired while climbing antenna towers was my jaw. It came from saying, “what the hell am I doing,” over and over again . . . Nick BASE 194

BASE 802 Carl Boenish (BASE 4) would have been very proud of you, and so are all of us . . . You're at the very tip of the BASE spear, Brother . . . Congratulations! Nick BASE 194

To address the original question of this thread: There is indeed something that carried over from BASE to Skydiving. However, the device in question is originally a skydiving mod that fell out of favor, flourished in BASE jumping, and then re-appeared back in skydiving. It's the tail pocket. BASE jumpers use it now on otherwise free packed canopies and skydiving CRW jumpers use it as a way to control the lines without using a deployment bag. I remember Fred Lunquist, at Lake Elsinore, having a similar setup to the BASE tail pocket on his Nimbus skydiving rig back in the early 1980’s. Only his pocket is sewn onto a stabilizer, and not the tail of the canopy, and it’s called a side pocket. This is during a time when experimenting with deployment methods is cool. There is one fellow who just sewed a pud to the nose of his Strato Star and just reached back at pull time and grabbed that . . . Nick BASE 194

BASE gear technology can advance quickly, and it did, especially in the early years, because there’s no bureaucratic red tape standing in the way of new products and ideas. BASE riggers are totally free to dream up new ideas in the afternoon and then go try those ideas off the roof of the Flat Iron Building that night. BASE jumping is the only aviation type activity that exists (and thrives) without intervention or oversight from any outside source. You can see the negative effect oversight causes in the area of General Aviation. Newer ideas like fuel injection and electronic ignition, rather than carburetors and magnetos are still rare in small aircraft because the FAA makes manufacturers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on shake & bake testing followed by huge amounts of paperwork. Most of this documentation is worded to hold a new idea up in court, not an aircraft up in flight. The downside for BASE jumping is anyone can open up “Joe’s BASE Factory, Inc.” and sell gear. This concept would chill spines in almost any other endeavor. However, to my knowledge, no one has ever been killed by truly catastrophic failure of this gear. This is due to the fact the sport is (still) small and the peer review is brutal. As the sport grows this may not always be the case. And I think it’s inevitable you’ll one day see BASE rigs hanging next to the Kayaks down at REI. How the BASE gear industry came to be is a story in itself but the first BASE gear manufacturer is probably Master Rigger Jim Handbury from Southern Californian. In the early 1980s jumpers, who traveled to Yosemite, start to realize if they give up some altitude, there are plenty of jumps right in their own backyards. This is how Phil Smith (BASE #1) started jumping a local tower in Texas. “I drove by this darn thing hundreds of times on my way to work and never paid any attention to it. The morning after I returned from the Valley that 1100-foot tower leaped out at me like I’d never seen it before.” Phil’s probably the first person to experience the long climb thinking, “Oh man, what the hell am I doing?” Meanwhile, out in California Carl Boenish decided to tether a hot air balloon at 300-feet over Lake Elsinore and do freefalls from it. Carl went to rigger Jim Handbury and asked for a container designed for the job. Carl’s thinking is the skydiving rigs of the day are too complicated for the task at hand. Handbury builds the first rig and deliverers it to Carl a few days later. It’s a single container harness system held closed by a strip of Velcro on its bridle. Except for the shrivel flap and other further refinements it’s remarkably similar to what’s used today. My own very first BASE rig is in the style of times. You’d spend a weekend picking the stitches out of a second hand skydiving system in order to separate the container from the harness. Then you sent the harness to one of several fledgling BASE gear providers who returned it (sooner or later) with a spanking new Velcro closed BASE container attached. Put a Pegasus, Unit, or Cruislite in the container and presto, you had the hot set-up. Nick BASE 194 World BASE Fatality List http://juliabell.home.att.net/

Actually jumpers would tell Jean Boenish (the original keeper of the BASE numbers) if they wanted their names and numbers marked confidential. I have a fairly complete list of BASE numbers and about a third of the numbers issued are marked confidential. This is indicated by an asterisk next to the entry. And more of the early awardees are marked so than ones later on. Since having a BASE number isn't a crime, so far anyway, the original intent for secrecy is for those jumpers who held government, law enforcement, or military jobs. This is during an era when almost all BASE jumps were illegal. Nowadays every BASE category has, at one time or another, been legal (Buildings and Antennas mostly through movie shoots.) So it is possible to have a “legal” BASE number and not have to keep it on the down low. However, secrecy is and will always remain a big part of BASE jumping. Nick D BASE 194 World BASE Fatality List http://juliabell.home.att.net/