NickDG

>>You guys should be all right

>>sanity check:

>>In the beginning I'm pretty sure you needed at least 500 jumps and 6 hours of freefall time for an AFF rating in the US.

When Billy Rhodes, Don Yarling, and Rick Horn were the only three course directors it was a very consistent (and tough) course and a hundred percent pass rate was pretty rare, if it ever happened. We never came close in all the courses I evaluated in with Rick Horn. But there were problems even then. By nature it's a certification course not a teaching course but where do the candidates go for training? The course directors and some evaluators held training sessions, but there was a slight "smell" of bribery in that, although I never saw any cases of it. Most candidates came trained from their home DZs with outdated or questionable methods and they played catch up the whole course. And we evaluators were always biting our tongues. "Man, if I could just tell that guy a couple of things he'd be doing so much better." But, we couldn’t do that. And it went against our nature as instructors. The format for AFF certification courses should be changed. Instead of a one week test it should be two weeks of training followed by the one week test. Too many take the course once just to learn the test. Then they take it again and usually pass. Nobody passes without the air skills, but it's the nuts and bolts of how to teach and what to teach that gets overlooked. I've seen all kinds of AFF first courses, and sat in on many of them when I could. They were all mostly safe in that they covered the required material but the overall quality is all over the place from good to bad. I've seen Instructors who constantly and effortlessly keep it interesting, even entertaining, and some who drone on like that teacher from Ferris Buellers's Day Off. Instructors spend 80% of their time with people who never become skydivers. So most people on the DZ don’t see what they do from day to day. The downside is as long as the instructors don't kill anyone, nobody much cares either. Nobody has every said the AFF rating was automatic in the way a tandem rating almost is. Now someone is saying it. That's pretty scary. We had a chance for AFF training to progress to the next level. But nobody cares about it anymore. It's not sexy like Vrw, big ways, or Crw. USPA is never going to put a photo of old Joe the Instructor on its cover. I'm guessing AFF is doomed and tandem jumping is going to completely replace it . . . NickD

I rode on it several times (what New York city kid didn't) in the 1960s including in it's last year of operation which I think was 1968. The area around Coney Island was getting pretty rough in those days and for a 15 year old just getting there was the most worrisome thing. But it was a scary ride in that the seat was very small and the restraints comical compared to how you get strapped into rides today. The ride up was thrilling, and you got a little jolt at the top (like a soft opening shock) before the "trap door" effect until the parachute fully inflated. It was really a mechanical Tard for non-jumpers. In more recent times I wrote them some years ago, when they started renovating it, to suggest some real jumps for the re-opening. But I never heard back from them. However, I'm sure some modern BASE jumper already has it in their logbook . . . Tom, I've never seen Carl Boenish write, or heard him talk, about it so if you have something, I'd sure like to hear about it. NickD

A bum can still have some class. These guys are far worse. What's funny is seeing them when they were "young republicans." I remember those "types" the 1970s. In those days we didn't think in terms of liberals and conservatives, it was more a matter of being cool or being a square. And these guys were the squares of their time. While I think the Indian tribes were a bit naïve. Or at least acted that way after the fact, these republicans are using groups like the religiously confused; the people afraid of anyone with a beard, and the ignorant who never read a book or newspaper to do nothing more than make money. It's our fault too. If you are younger all this may seem rather normal. But, if you're older it's like the Nixon years again, but with a much sicker twist. In either case no one is doing much about it. It's not enough for a country to be all powerful. We have to be right too. I used to think, okay, American is very resilient and we'll survive this subjugation of democracy. It will someday be only a good history lesson on what can happen when the people don't care or pay attention. Except for the fact these guys are pushing the agenda (though I'm sure most don't really believe it) that the "rapture" is coming and the world will end in their lifetimes. Boy, there are the people I want in charge of the launch codes. I was standing on the beach in Coronado, California looking at the aircraft carrier "Abe Lincoln" sitting just off shore. The one Bush had to fly to in a plane because it was too far "at sea" for a helicopter to reach. I remember when Bush left Max Cleland (look him up) sitting in his wheelchair outside the gates of his ranch. Look at everything else and it adds up to chicanery pure and simple. Bush deserted the National Guard for the same reason many went AWOL in those days. It wasn't the Vietnam War as that was all but over at that point. He left because he was about to flunk a drug test. When he first appeared on the national scene as a candidate who didn’t notice the "automatic" snort reflex he exhibited all the time. I've lived in the Perris ghetto long enough to know who develops that habit. They must have worked for weeks to break him of that as all of sudden he didn’t do it anymore. During the Vietnam War there were two kinds of people who didn't go. The ones who burned their drafts cards and carried the signs of protest, and the ones who used their connections to avoid combat all together. I looked it up once and there were hundreds and hundreds of boys born the same year as Bush who went from Texas to Vietnam and didn’t come back. I wonder which one of them took Bush's place . . . NickD

Think this up? http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/gadgetbuzz/0,39041749,39434634,00.htm NickD

>>to name a few who are forever banned.

How about for just a thirty day trial. Just to see what happens, or doesn't . . . ? We did learn "something" the last two times a public BASE board went down. Can we pay extra to be free? NickD

How about no moderators? At least in the BASE Zone. Let the brothers go . . . NickD

The Perrine Bridge has become the DZ of BASE jumping. And the same old DZ baloney/politics are spilling over into the real world . . . NickD

>>This DZO smiled but answered [the] question. His reply was both sad and true at the same time; "You guys [Instructors] are knuckleheads, and a dime a dozen, and you always will be . . . !" Derek, Thanks for recalling that one in your undercarriage. I'd forgotten it, but it still gives me a giggle. Now, I just have to fit it on a sign . . . NickD

I'm not advocating moving over to the BASE Board as I'm always a forward and never back sort of person. If there was a migration it would probably be to one of the password protected sites. And if it happens it won't be me doing it. It will just happen naturally like when winter comes. I was just curious to see what the thinking was. And I mentioned upboard don't take this to heart. But, I guess that didn't work . . . NickD

Barry, If you have a problem with Tom, or me, or anyone else, lay it out there. Or is that not an "efficient use" of your time? LOL . . . NickD

I fold . . . NickD

Don't read too much into this but I'm wondering who thinks the BASE Zone has run its course and should be abandoned? I ask because the question has been coming up in conversations, PMs, and e-mails of late. The topic description for the BASE Zone is a bit ambiguous: "If you plan to try your hand at BASE jumping make sure you know what you're getting into. BASE jumping is extremely dangerous and you should clearly understand the risks before you think about it, whether you're a skydiver or not!" Some will say the BASE Zone is a place for prospective BASE jumpers to get help and advice. Others say it's just a place for BASE jumpers to hang out and chat. I'm not sure that lately it's been either of those things. For myself, I think it does help those who can read between the lines, but it probably turns off those that can't. So we are probably starting as many fires as we are putting out. And while there are some of us that try and help anyone who asks, maybe we should be funneling these folks directly to the BASE gear manufactures and others who hold established first BASE courses. Tom has already mentioned the very real security concerns, so I won’t go there. We are listed here under "related sports" but those relations (skydivers & BASE jumpers) are kind of strained and we are also squabbling among ourselves. Maybe replacing the BASE Zone with Paragliding and those guys who run down hills with Stilettos would serve Dropzone.com better. I'll admit the one reason I'd like to keep it going is purely a selfish one. I float a lot of ideas here that will someday be in the BASE book I'm writing. The flames that sometimes ensue, the well meaning and the not so well meaning, often make me re-think a position so for me this place serves a purpose. Of course, it's HHs call in the end, but if the vote is thumbs down I think enough of us would leave and the BASE Zone would die on the vine like the BASE Board did. So there it is . . . Do we stay, or do we go now? NickD

It might be a strap from a stash bag that snaked its way out of the backpad pouch. NickD

>>Sleep with your new gear.

Maggotism, N, coined in 2006 to describe the general collapse of the sport of BASE jumping. A once proud endeavor infiltrated by too many people who just didn't give a fuck. NickD

Derek, Of course I agree with everything you said, except for a strike won't work. Going on strike means making a sacrifice. No pain no gain! As for all Instructors not joining in, yes, scabs are always a problem in strikes but at the larger DZs they may have to cross a good sized picket line. And DZOs can't just hire people off the street to replace us. Also students would ask what was going on before deciding if they wanted to cross it themselves. Most Instructors could be just as good at talking someone out of jumping, as into jumping. Strikes are a very dirty business, even bloody sometimes, but the DZOs and USPA have left us flapping in the wind and it's the only real shot at power we have, and it's a power that's available to us. Sure, it may take a series of strikes, the first may be small but they will get bigger. You know what my idea of courage is? One lone Instructor, who knows the score, out there with a sign walking a picket line at a DZs front gate. In a general strike the trick would be to get up-jumpers to honor our picket lines. Every experienced jumper owes, at least a bit of gratitude, to the person who taught them and now's the time to cash in that chip. Anyone would easily understand you don't get a 5 to 7 hour class in anything as technical as skydiving for 10 or 20 dollars, which is what most instructors get. How many times have you been asked by former or current students how much money you make? Did you ever feel embarrassed enough to duck the question? Most smart people would consider you an idiot if you answered the question and actually told them what you made. The funniest part might be a bunch of fat assed DZOs trying to re-new their Instructional ratings, if they ever had any to begin with. But of course the evaluators would (I hope) be on strike too. I realize this would take educating a lot of people, the newer Instructors, the students, and the public in general to what's really going on, but what's the alternative? We are losing more power and authority every day we wait. We are losing our most experienced Instructors every day we wait. Student Instruction will continually be dumbed down every day we wait. Some will argue it will hurt the sport, maybe even close a few marginal DZs, but so what? DZOs are putting Instructors out of business everyday, and the ones that stick it out are being run into the ground. Another systemic problem is Instructors spend their times looking out for everyone else, but nobody looks out for them, certainly not USPA. Where's the communication between Instructors? Everything coming out of headquarters is filtered through a lens of what's good for the DZO. The present student curriculum is so convoluted I can't even figure it out. Students should be under the direct supervision of an experienced AFF or Static Line Instructor until they are licensed - period. Not a coach, not a tandem pilot, or anyone else, no matter how well meaning they are. The only people that can help us - is us. It's sink or swim time, boys . . . NickD

I've been crowing about this for years. And mostly on deaf ears. If we don't do something to improve the lot of AFF Instructors future students will be learning through some form of tandem and coach jumps. How long do you think it will be before some DZO convinces USPA that a student can do ten tandem jumps and then safely make a solo freefall? The DZO excuse will be he can't stay in business because he can't find and keep AFF Instructors, and the USPA will agree. We need to unionize and we need to go on strike. All of us, every single AFF Instructor must stand up for a living wage. A month of no AFF jumps anywhere in the U.S. would change things, and if it doesn't, at least we went down swinging, not whimpering . . . NickD

>>Would I be wrong to speculate that one person ratted out the other two?

We have a nice little bridge here in Southern California that gets jumped by those who are capable, but the LZ is very bad, a few very small (coffee table sized) open areas surrounded by trees and rocks. Some land on the 45 degree slopes on the sides but that's dicey too. The thought of taking a chainsaw (you'd really need a bulldozer) and making it better has come up from time to time, but no one has ever done it. It's the leave only footprints and take only pictures kind of thing. Besides, if someone did clear it out, making it an "easier" jump, the site would have been burned years ago as there's a police sub-station right up the road. One fellow that jumps the bridge knows it probably means canopy damage, but he's a master rigger, and he just goes home and fixes it. That's a lot cooler than taking a saw to the place . . . On the other hand I don’t have a problem with moving a few rocks like is done at Bridge Day, but cutting down trees is a bit much . . . And while I realize there are places in the world where no one would know you did it, it's still not right. However, jumpers, over the years, have been "manicuring" the LZ at Bridge Day, either covertly, or by the sheer number of tree strikes that happen there every year and no one says much about it. This is like busting a lock to gain entry to a roof or crane. Some people don’t think twice about it, and some would never even consider it – I think we'd be better off hanging on to the idea of the latter . . . NickD

>>Bottom line: Break the law, expect consequences.

Okay, you all can knock these guys (excuse me if one or both of them weren't) all you want. What's worrisome is whose side are you on? I'm not going to elevate BASE jumping to something more important than it is, but it seems we are losing our appreciation for people who color outside the lines. Why is there such blind loyalty to the establishment over individual human achievement? And who doesn't realize that America depends on a little healthy "sticking it to the man" to stay centered? In the case of BASE I used to think (20 years ago) that skydivers were threatened by the very existence of the sport. And I knew plenty that were. It was like BASE jumping raised the bar and skydivers were left behind. As we came to learn (the hard way) that BASE and skydiving are two completely different sports those feelings have somewhat subsided. Nowadays, I'll guess the majority of skydivers posting here never lived in a world without BASE jumping and so it's no big deal. It's like I think a cell phone is still a pretty cool thing, while others have never known life without them. BASE jumping, no matter how you feel about it, is a "for real" chapter in humankind's age old quest for flight. It's a natural thing we all deep down want to do but like most people's dreams go mostly unfulfilled. In the end, when the earth is a burned out cinder, up in God's library BASE jumping will exist only in tomes that bookend those on skydiving. The first parachute jumps ever made were from fixed objects, and when the end comes, when the fuel and food is all gone, and anarchy prevails, the last parachute jumps ever made will be from fixed object jumps. And ExAFO, I'll debate and defend my fellow BASE jumpers (or at least the concept of BASE as I'll concede some BASE jumpers are indefensible) all you want. Just don’t call me a, "Dumbass," or an, "Asswipe," and we'll go from there . . . NickD