NickDG

Since no one mentioned it . . . Before the mechanical line release mods became the norm the military color coded the four lines to be released after opening. However, that was meant to be accomplished with a knife, and most pilots, or crewmembers, under a paradhute for the first time landed with them still attached. After the military heard the same line over and over, "Hey, the parachute opened and I ain't cutting nothing with no knife!" they went to these mechanical releases. NickD

>>my suit is grey, so that will not be any problem as far as i see.. I also made the colour of the handles diffrent then the harness-webbing colour, to make it stand more clear..

We all have our ways of dealing with death. Some ignore it, while with others it guides their every move. The correct response, I believe, is somewhere in the middle. However, we (all of us) would be remiss if we let this one go by with an, "oh well, that's the way of it," reaction. My initial reason for my starting the BASE fatalities list was a foolish one – I actually thought we could educate death right out of this sport. In a time when BASE knowledge was limited and full-on BASE gear still some years away – there was a lot to learn. And it seemed, at the time, actually easy to think, what was killing us in those days could be cured with information. But, that didn’t turn out to be true because even as we became smarter we didn’t figure the failings and weaknesses of human nature into the equation. BASE is such a funny thing when compared to most other endeavors. We all practice the same sport, but we’ve managed to fracture the pursuit into a dizzying array of sub-species. Myself, I’m not an automatic “legal site” fan and I’ve always thought our lack of legal status actually made us safer and more cautious to a certain degree. You see this in the fact that many legal building jump events in countries outside the USA, and other certain high profile events here in the USA, are invitational only. But that horse has left the barn in other places where bridges and cliffs are legal and no one is in charge; and we should try to find new ways to bring prudence back into the game at that level. One major change, especially at legal sites, is when a death occurs we don’t fully engage the question of why and how to prevent it from happening again. I think we worry more along the lines of, “Okay, time for damage control, as we can’t let “them” shut this site down.” What happens then is the onus gets dumped squarely on the jumper who’s dead for making the mistake (in order to preserve the site) rather than on the root causes of why it happened in the first place. And I’m not talking about a simple weak toss of pilot chute or a packing error as anyone of us are capable of those things. It about our attitude toward BASE jumping that needs to change – no check that – it needs to evolve. Look at some of the tag lines to posts on this board – “Go fast and pull low,” – “Let your life speak loud so you don’t have to,” and so many others of that ilk, gee, are we so manipulated by Madison Avenue hogwash like Nikes’ “Just do it,” that it’s become some people’s personal mantras? There are some now who would never profess to even thinking about safety as it would somehow harm their image. And the sooner we get away from that the better off we’ll all be. Why not, “It’s cool to be schooled,” if it takes a catchy phrase to make sense. Okay, I’m not talking to all of you, I know better than that after all this time. There’s always been an unreachable percentage of BASE jumpers so forget them – For the rest, the ones capable of open discussion, debate, and dialogue here’s some things I believe would help: - Ray is right – there’s always going to be the “next” fatality. The important thing is what you do after that. Maybe a personal safety stand-down on an individual basis isn’t a bad idea. During that down time you can re-evaluate your motivations, brush up on basic safety skills, and think hard about what you’re doing. I remember a time when most BASE jumpers were indeed a certain type. They were strong willed, mostly rough around the edges, and determined to BASE jump at all costs. Stand by the launch point at any BASE boogie today and you’ll see a lot of sheep following the heard. (I don’t like the term “sheep” in reference to people but I’m trying hard to make a point). If you aren’t the type that can also walk out to the launch point totally alone and jump – then that should tell you something. If you are on your 30th BASE jump and still need to stand on the edge with your hands up like you’re under arrest that should also tell you something. If you are the type that goes through a grinder of fear and emotion on every launch with the expectation that after landing you’ll feel great, then that’s telling you something. - I think it may be time to re-evaluate the industry standard of when someone should begin BASE training. (My bosses won’t like this) but I’m convinced that right now that number is too low. What I’m saying is the that the number of previous parachute jumps is important, but maybe not as important as maturity. What number to use? Maybe 500 or 800 or even a thousand – and why – because it’s hard to take when a person who’s 19 years old with 200 jumps overall goes in – and in my mind I can’t help but think the poor soul never had a chance. Would this stop fatalities, no, but at least it would happen to the more experienced ones that are pushing it rather than the very innocent ones who are just trying to keep up. - Lastly, if you are a skydiver now, and interested in BASE, and if the person who’s helping you says, “Cool, you’re going to love it,” then turn and run as far and as fast as your can back to the DZ. Instead find a mentor that says, “no way, pal,” the first 10 times you ask them for help . . . - The numbers game – not many will say this but I will. It is OKAY to spend big bucks on a BASE trip and make only one or two jumps. Or even none when the conditions are marginal. The guy you hear boasting about his 8 jumps today, while he may be quite capable at that level, is spitting on the rest of you. Ignore him. Again, I’m not saying we should institute these things as hard and fast rules – but on an individual level, as a personal set of rules enforced on yourself by yourself it isn’t going to hurt. And maybe, just maybe, prolong your enjoyment and longevity in this world . . . NickD

I just received word from a contact in South America that I consider reliable. There was a BASE fatality last night (Saturday) from a 250-foot cell phone tower in Brazil. The name (23-year old male) is being withheld and the report didn't make clear what type of jump it was. But it did indicate a problem with the deployment of the pilot chute. I'll wait to update the List until more facts are known, but since this is a sad milestone for us all I thought it important to say something . . . NickD BASE 194

You know what - Fuck all you lame boneheads . . . And if you're not smart enough to reply on your own without doing a word for word autopsy on my post than spare me. The bottom line is I looked, figured I wouldn't be a factor in anything going on below, and went. If that isn't good enough for you then begin reading again from line one above. Nick

Okay, Abbie, You can disagree with me, like others have in a civil way, but where’s all the hate and venom coming from . . . ? I call other jumpers “brother” because that’s how BASE always seemed to me. But, maybe you’re right and it’s time to drop it. Since about the year 2000, or so, we are getting further and further away from that ideal and I think I’ve been in denial about it. And I’m secure knowing that I’ve helped enough people in this sport, both inside the gear industry and outside of it, that your statement I took some measurements down wrong didn’t hurt me like you intended . . . Nobody likes being second guessed, and maybe I said some things in that first post I shouldn’t have – But, I’ll take my turn in the barrel, I mean, everyone finds themselves in the BASE doghouse once in a while. And there’s a lot of company in here. The saddest part is - it used to be us against them – and now it’s becoming us against us. NickD

>>The day before I hit the water, I watched as a jumper left the bridge with a helicopter in the landing area, blades spinning.

Why is everyone so surprised . . . Pilot chute hesitations have been around in BASE and also in that other sport for a long long time. And what simply turns a little "problem" into a life and death malfunction is merely time. And sometimes it doesn’t have anything to do with plot chute size as I've had tandem drogues wind up sitting on my back after a decent toss. Years ago I heard a strange theory about static electricity. Like when your knickers and socks come out of the dryer all stuck together. Say you are standing on a tower in a stiff wind. The air moving around your body creates static electricity and the same thing would happen in freefall. Except standing on a tower probably dissipates the charge while being in freefall just lets it build up until you land. Are some of these pilot chute hesitations caused by something as simple as static cling? Crazy? Maybe, but who the hell knows. For a while, years ago, I was anal about touching my rig to some part of the structure to dissipate any charge that had built up. Will we, someday, see jumpers prior to launch wiping down their pilot chutes with a sheet of Bounce. NickD

Yes, thank goddness for that . . . NickD

One bad part of doing the List is receiving emails like this one I just got today . . . Fr: tony encinas >>hey dumb fuck,doesnt this tell you something?just dont jump.U got got a death wish or what?please record your death on film ......sincerley me

>>Bob 'Fedo' Federman, Jim 'Bing' Bohr*, Roger 'Pirate' Brink

The problem with telling someone to search is the attitudes and favored techniques change very fast in BASE jumping. Many jumpers, especially the younger ones, often rethink things after a fatality. In the beginning the idea was you went stowed only if there was tracking involved. And that evolved out of the days when people actually tracked with pilot chutes in their hands. In the eighties we sometimes used "line" bridles instead of the tape kind as they weren't as draggy and wouldn't pull your pins while you tracked. (But they still did sometimes) And they also had a very high entanglement potential. That, tracking with a pilot chute in hand, was the extreme side of hand held just like going stowed from a few hundred feet is the other extreme of that practice. Stay somewhere in the middle. Maybe we should flip the equation around and start thinking, “can I jump this hand held,” rather than, “can I jump this stowed?” But one thing surely has to change. If you are the type that calls someone a weenie for going hand held – then stop that . . . NickD

If I let a bit time go by after a BASE fatality occurs before listing it, it’s either because there aren't any solid facts available, or because the person was a friend and it’s too depressing to add them. But I've never really stopped updating the List since the first time it was published in 1989. Recently a young BASE jumper I met called me the "Grim Reaper" and that really hurt - As the main reason for the List is to keep young jumpers away from the Grim Reaper. But I laughed at him and said, "No, I'm not the Grim Reaper, I'm just his administrative assistant . . . " NickD

I paid cash for a brand new Volkswagon Super Beetle in 1971 that cost $1798.00 . . . I remember counting off the 18 one-hundred dollar bills and my hands were shaking. NickD

Otay Lakes (Boarderland) in San Diego operated for decades without a traffic problem - then the FAA put an Airport Radar Service Area (we called it an ARSA-Hole) over us and a few months later we had a deal. John Nichols was hit in freefall by a Navy C-130 inbound to North Island Naval Airstation. We never found any piece of him and the C-130 pilots, who felt the impact, reported a bird strike . . . NickD BASE 194

Yes, I sort of agree with that, but there's been more than one fatality attributed to pilot chute malfunctions, and many more close calls . . . I was intent more on explaining the process whereby we reached the point we are at now, rather than change anything. And I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to an occasional lazy toss. One thing noticeable at TF, and a sad thing too,- is if you take into account how far we've come in 30 years, how much more we know, and how much more effectively we are at passing info around - there are still people making common sense mistakes. I cautioned several from jumping hand held with the bridle running out the bottom of their hands. And I saw others going with so much exposed mesh their pilot chutes were partially inflated before they threw, but the topper was the hand held jumper who brought both hands into her chest and then threw the pilot chute out - I mean, come on, are you trying to entangle? The problem, I think, might be as simple as Jack-ism . . . Jack is from your home DZ, he’s a BASE jumper, and he’s teaching you because he’s a really cool guy. You come to something like TF on Memorial Day and even though you’re surrounded by some of the most knowledgeable jumpers in the sport, you’re sticking with Jack. Maybe you got lucky and he’s a good Jack, but maybe you didn’t and he’s a bad Jack. How do you know? Please, are you interested in BASE? Then take a BASE course – any established BASE course, because after all you really don’t know Jack . . . NickD

I saw this from the LZ just after I landed. And, yes, he was in the trees before being fully deployed. My very first thought was, "Cool, an arboreal save . . ." NickD

An old saying in tandem jumping goes, "no drogue, no main," but in BASE jumping it’s, “no pilot chute, no nothing.” In my earlier days when toss time came I’d wind up and throw the pilot chute like Orel Hershiser flinging the last pitch in world series no-hitter. And at that time we were using, in general, larger and heavier pilot chutes, like the Hank 52. You could break a window with that bomb drogue. Of course this also led to off heading deployments especially on short delays as the weight and momentum of the pilot chute pulled your deployment off center. It was then most manufacturers and many mentors started suggesting a less aggressive throwing motion and concentrating more on a squared up body position. So now instead of launching a pilot chute like the hand grenade it is many are tossing like they are skydiving. But, pilot chutes are lighter and smaller nowadays and even if an aggressive throw skews your opening, who cares, especially off a bridge, most of us would settle for an open canopy no matter which way its facing . . . because at least it’s still an opening. If you’re going to stow, you’d better really throw . . . NickD

Her test will be Negative, Negative, Negative, Negative, Negative, Negative, Negative . . . How that for being Positive . . . NickD

It's hard to fathom sometimes, but it's an evolution. Bob Sinclair came to an early Bridge Day and jumped his regular rip corded spring loaded skydiving rig. He thought our chief problem was all the bridles and pilot chutes hanging out all over the place, and he said as much. It's probably only a coincidence Bob mentioned it, but while a few always did Bridge Day stowed, and we all did the higher stuff stowed, it was right about that time (early 90s) that now we all started going stowed lower and lower. It seemed like the next step, letting go of the security rag, and yes - it was cooler too. Four hundred eighty five-feet is BASE purgatory. No matter the object it's an awkward altitude suspended somewhere between heaven and hell. Sometimes it's a bit too high for slider down and sometimes it's a bit too low for slider up. Throw the stowed/not stowed thing into it and a glitch and you're out of time. Nothing is a lock in gear and technique progression and we are always on our way to the next place. However, I think there should be a rule that you can take back a Nugget if it's yours. I'd yank one I wrote in some BASE magazine years ago that went, "If you can go, you can stow . . . NickD

>>If only belly bands were cool.

That was outstanding, Bob and a wonderful tribute to both of you . . . And finally someone on TV talking about BASE that doesn’t sound like a knotted up, empty headed, egotistical teenager . . . NickD

I didn’t learn much about BASE that I didn’t already know – But, I certainly learned something about human nature . . . The forever smiling lady who checked me out of my TF hotel Tuesday morning had been sobbing and trying to hide it . . . The place I ate breakfast every morning for a week tore up the bill when I went to the register for the last time. . . The girls running the Outback looked up every time a woman came through the door, even though they knew Shannon wouldn’t be one of them – but they kept looking, and looking, and looking . . . For some of us, and certainly for me, the last memory of Shannon isn’t going to be of her jump, it will be of her being so eager to help out with the impromptu gear raffle held Sunday afternoon down by the boat drop-off, and it was very fitting she spent that last time with us by giving stuff away . . . I’ll also be pulling for Jason, who has a rough road ahead, and recall the kindness he showed me . . . We have now more than a few people ordering rigs and wearing that body armor and we’ve been measuring as many different body types as possible needing to know where to give the harness a little extra room. When I asked Jason, a stranger to me, if I could measure him with and without his body armor on I knew it was a lot to ask - as it’s a pain taking all that stuff off and putting it back on again. He didn’t even blink, “Sure, no problem at all,” is all he said . . . We should also mention the practical side of things, the amount of canopy control difficulties some people displayed, the fact not just a few are practicing things off the bridge that would be best worked out down at the gym, and that in bad wind conditions too few walked away and too many went for it . . . There’s a Crew mentality at work there, but in the end - even when you launch a group-way, it is still all you . . . Shannon will be number 99 on the BASE fatality list . . . Number 100 is walking around among us right now. Please, if you see this person, pull them aside and tell them to slow down . . . NickD BASE 194

Got it . . . Thanks Brother . . . NickD