NickDG

I think you meant arrow in my quiver . . . But yes, I've spent a lifetime teaching skydiving and BASE jumping. And now, with only (maybe) twenty juicy summers left, I'm going to start paying it back . . . I'm lucky . . . NickD BASE 194

No worries, I think there is a thing about not operating on your brother . . . NickD BASE 194

You know this all started when I busted myself into little pieces off a low bridge in New Zealand. I was taken care of so well I thought man, "I'm the only amateur in the room . . ." I've a lot to learn still, but I've also been around so many BASE accidents and I just got tired of standing there with no clue and saying, "Hey man, are you all right?" Maybe now someday, I can do something (for real) to keep someone off the List. My price, however, for guiding or ground crew, just went up! NickD BASE 194

Now I am one . . . http://www.emtcity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8093 NickD

Still wrong . . . She always insisted her name be written with a small "J" as in jeannie McCombs, and she'd rip you a new one for not complying. I'm not sure what you'd call a woman like jennie today, but back then we called her, ah hem, strong willed . . . NickD

Blues, Tom . . . Big hugs, Tammi . . . NickD BASE 194

That was good, except I've never been ashamed, to walk back down . . . NickD BASE 194

>>OH NICK. i On the Building that night. That was the scariest way to walk off a building for the first time. Nothing to hang onto to . . . You did all right. And, when you were standing there, I looked over @ Eric and we both smiled at each other . . . NickD BASE 194

It's hard to fathom that "is it fake" is still being debated. It's as phony as the President's military service record. But that's a good thing. We can only hope they faked it because several BASE jumpers told Ray Ban to go "F" themselves when asked to participate. When I see BASE jumping being used in this manner it reminds me of the first time I saw this happen. And I only recount it now for those too young to remember, and to point out the differences between then and now . . . In the late 1980s we were still using skydiving canopies for BASE jumping as the first FOX and Mojo canopies were still some years in the future. At the time all jumpers, BASE & airplane, are wearing sneakers (running shoes) but it was painfully obvious we BASE jumpers needed something more because we were pounding in downtown with our too small skydiving canopies. The answer, of course, was boots, but (combat) boots were something your mother wore so we never even considered them. Our answer was to get a better sneaker. And it was the right time for it as running or jogging was the latest craze in America and the shoe companies were trying to cash in. And besides, the term "sneaker" never seemed as apropos as that's exactly what we were doing in the middle of the night. I'd read about a new shoe from a company called Airwalk. They had rubber balls of gelatin built into the soles and heels and promised to put a "spring in your step" and I thought perfect! Flubber for BASE jumpers. And they were good. So much so that I wrote about them in a BASE magazine and called them real "Ranger-Evaders." There was actually an Airwalk store in Lake Elsinore so I went down to buy a pair. I went into the combination surf/skate/hang glide storefront and walked right into the shock of my life. There on the wall was a poster. It was huge and showed a BASE jumper from a low angle running off the edge of building wearing, of course, Airwalk shoes. It needs understanding that in 1980-whatever, this just wasn't done. It was fine to be a hero inside the BASE community, but it was blaspheme to do this sort of thing out in public. Since the very first version of "Photoshop" wasn't available until 1990 it never crossed my mind to think "fake" like people always do today. And it wasn't fake, it was real, and it was John Vincent. The guy who would soon become the patron saint of glory hounds and site burners worldwide. But this was before those terms were in general use. Worse, they weren't for sale. They were free for the asking. I grabbed two of them and drove straight to Moreno Valley where Moe Viletto lived and I said, "Sit down, Moe; I want to show you something." He died. We both did a little. Right there and then in Moe's living room we were hit by the sledge hammer of change and we hated it. "So what do we do?" I asked, "I mean how do we handle this?" I'll never forget Moe looking up at me and saying, "We aren’t going to handle it at all. This is just going to happen and nothing we do will make any difference." I couldn’t believe it, or at least I didn’t want to, but he was right of course. What was once the secret of the night was now the stuff of Madison Avenue and we all, for the first time, faced walking a fine line. I know Todd thought about it when he started Basic Research. I know I thought about it when I started the Fixed Object Journal. We suddenly went from being underground because we thought we were good at keeping it quiet. But the real reason we got away with it for so long was nobody was paying any attention to us. The final straw was at Bridge Day that year. The BD trade show had, so far, been un-corporate to the hilt, but there they were. "No-Fear" and their line of tee-shirts. Andy Calistrate, who was organizing that year, got an earful from most of us, but he was riding the wave and (we felt) cashing in but it was all just so "un-BASE." But, un-BASE was something we'd have to get used to, and mainly because no one knew the difference anymore, and if you didn't go along with it you were left in the dust. But sometimes being in the dust isn’t so bad. History will clarify things as it often does once the dust settles. I know, the Agnos', the Baumgartners', and the Coreless' are jumping. But each jump they make, and publicize, for sure, is done with a Saint John Vincent medal around their necks . . . NickD

Watch for the new HBO series: "The Sopranos, Twin Falls . . . " NickD BASE 194

Got it, thanks . . . NickD

Who do I make a check out too? Is it W 4 Project W or, projectwalk.org Need to mention Koji? NickD

I'm in. Koji rocked . . . NickD

>>KIDS TODAY!

And you could cut "four-way" Window Pane into four equal pieces and it really leveled the competition playing field. Except for the bottom end. "Geeeeeee, everyone is pulling, maybe I should tooooooo!!!!!!" I've tried that "E" stuff and found it speedy and weak ass . . . NickD

I grew up on the upper westside of Manhatten (W. 82nd St.) and we had these all over the neighborhood. I've always had the connection between them and my sitting on the edge of a building waiting for my chance . . . http://www.aardvarkelectric.com/gargoyle/west1.html NickD BASE 194

Hi Jakey, I think you've hit upon it . . . Globally what you're describing was called a "California static line" and there were several variations of it. I remember using it (skydiving) in the 70s and with the earliest ones the static line wasn't connected to any part of the canopy. It just served to hold the container closed (taking the place of the ripcord pins) and the container had a spring loaded pilot chute inside. Some of these actually had pins attached to the static line, but that required a "guide ring" in case an unstable jumper loaded things up from the wrong direction and started bending pins. From that it went to removing the pins altogether and just "tying" the static line off to the cones on the container. But again the static line wasn't "assisting" the deployment other than just allowing the container to open. The problem was this method didn't prevent pilot chute hesitations or first time jumpers from grabbing (or becoming entangled) with the deploying pilot chute. So then they started attaching the bitter end of the static line to the pilot chute either with Velcro or breakable thread and calling it "static line assist". Finally, they removed the pilot chute altogether and it all morphed into the direct bag method still used today. I'm looking at what you described and trying to figure a way it wouldn't work and I can't find one (other than jumper induced mis-rigs). The coolest part is when someone asks how you jumped a particular object you could now say you, "jakey-lined" it . . . Good to hear from you! NickD BASE 194

>>You both believe that the virtual world is actually for real! I'm real. I know Tom is real. I'm pretty sure Sangiro is real. The only un-real thing is you. NickD BASE 194

I've been on the front too, like Airtwardo, when I became tandem rated, but I've done more than a few for un-current tandem masters. They have to make one with an experienced jumper, as passenger, to become current again. One time that is funny now, but wasn't then, was my then girlfriend getting re-current. We argued all the way down under canopy about which way to go. She was zigging when I thought she should be zagging. "Ain't ya watching it, for Christ sakes!!!" "We need to be over there!" "No, we don't, we need to be over here!" "Shut up!" "You shut up!" We didn't talk for a week . . . NickD

One way to look at it, in the USA anyway . . . If you are driving a car and your passenger child is killed in a garden variety accident it's just sad. If you are doing a tandem and your passenger child is killed in a garden variety accident, your ass, or the memory of your ass, is grass . . . NickD

Okay, he was really 9-years old, I'll split the diff with ya . . . And it was BASELine Magazine 1988 . . . Here's a follow up photo. NickD

>>a guy taking what appeared to be about a 5 year old...ON A BASE JUMP.

The Italian side? I was on one of the TJ demos in the early 80s. Those are for Mexican Aviation Day, aren't they? We were invited to a formal ball the night before and the whole thing was a grand time. NickD

Pelon at Perris in 2005 . . . By any measure the rest of us are lessor men. NickD BASE 194

What's probably worse is Jeb's lawyer called the suit, "an abuse of the legal system and argued the building's operators should be fined." For the rest of us - it means the next time you get popped downtown - bring your credit card . . . ! NickD BASE 194 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/06/america/NA-GEN-US-Empire-State-Building-Stunt.php Empire State Building Operator Sues Would-Be Parachutist The Associated Press Published: April 6, 2007 NEW YORK: Empire State Building officials have filed a $12 million (€9 million) lawsuit against a stuntman arrested last year for trying to parachute from the landmark skyscraper's 86th floor. The lawsuit, filed late Thursday, claims the illegal stunt attempt by Jeb Corliss caused economic loss, damaged the building's reputation as a safe venue and caused injury to security guards who prevented the jump. The lawsuit seeks to bar Corliss from ever entering the building again. Corliss' lawyer, Mark Heller, said Friday the lawsuit is a public relations move, filed because the skyscraper's officials were embarrassed. He called the suit an abuse of the legal system and argued the building's operators should be fined. Corliss, now 30, had entered the 102-story building disguised in a mask and a fat suit. Once at the 86th floor observatory, he removed the fat suit, revealing a jump suit and a parachute. He wore a helmet with a camera on top so he could document his jump. "With his face mask still on, and a black skydiving-type helmet with a camcorder attached to the top, Corliss bolted from the door of the men's restroom on the southwest corner of the building," court papers say. Security guards caught Corliss and handcuffed him to the security fence. The guards cut off his parachute after he told them his arms would be torn from his body if the wind opened his parachute. At the time of the April 27, 2006, attempt, between 250 and 350 people were at the observatory, court papers say. Police charged Corliss with reckless endangerment, a charge that was thrown out by a judge who said Corliss' actions did not rise to the level of reckless endangerment. Heller said the judge noted that Corliss had planned carefully, studying wind movements and pedestrians and vehicle traffic patterns, and had taken safety precautions to minimize the risk of injury to anyone. The Empire State Building's lawsuit says Corliss could have killed somebody on the densely populated streets and sidewalks below. James Connors, the skyscraper's general manager, defended the lawsuit Friday in a written statement. "The Empire State Building is dealing with Jeb Corliss in strong and harsh terms because it wants to discourage him, or anyone else, from ever again attempting such a dangerous — or possibly deadly — stunt," he said. Corliss calls himself a professional who has made more than 1,000 BASE jumps from bridges, buildings and cliffs in 16 countries in the past eight years. He has said he likes to swim with sharks for fun. Before his arrest, Corliss was host of the Discovery Channel show "Stunt Junkies." The network dropped him after his arrest, saying it was disappointed "at his serious lack of judgment and his reckless behavior."