NickDG

Please PM me . . . or someone shoot me his contact info. Thanks, NickD

I'll be there tomorrow . . . NickD

Hi Chuck, The last time I faced cancer (my second time around) I caved in . . . You think to yourself, what? Did I miss some part of the experience the first time? Hang tough, Brother . . . NickD

Close . . . It was, "That's Incredible" and it was a pick-up truck, a Piglet round, and local So Cal bridge. Some years later, and from the same bridge, stuntman/BASE jumper, David N. rigged up a pneumatic plate he stood on that launched him out of the bed of a moving pick-up truck. NickD

And don't forget the story of his scheduled flight out of the Middle East that he missed because he had a broken leg. That flight was to connect later at Heathrow with Pam Am Flt.103, the 747 that was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. NickD

>>Sorry to read your post and your complete misunderstanding. Are you grounded and frustrated or what?

That's cool . . . but the point is going out of ones way to deny the fact that you're BASE jumping by calling it something else . . . What are they ashamed of? NickD

From the clicky Tom Posted. . . >>Being distinguished from the activity "base-jump" by the fact that it is not jumps from urban or public buildings but only in natural environment, this new sport takes today its place in the activities of mountain like the paragliding or the climbing.

>>I need a canopy A.S.A.P what do i do?I am looking for something in the 220-245 range.Does anyone have a canopy for sale.

Wow, I get it now . . . I never thought much about the fact USPA was headquartered in San Francisco when I first joined up. And I never understood the strange facination USPA has with the Army Parachute team . . . but I suppose that photo (which could have really used an "S" tacked on to it) explains it all . . . I'm so dense. NickD

Well, there's a silver lining in this one. The headline reads: "Base Jumper Gets Past Eiffel Tower Safety Measures" Except for the last year or so, the media has usually referred to us as parachutists, sometimes skydivers and even parachuters (which shouldn't even be a word) to nowadays mostly calling us base jumpers. Gee, that only took 28 years . . . And it'll probably be another 28 years before media writing guides catch on to the fact BASE is an acronym and is always capitalized. Aside from that (I don’t know Johan) this jump, what Jeb did, and even down to that other John who was found swinging in the wind – are all good things . . . Keeping BASE a secret in the beginning was necessary to the growth of the sport as we weren’t yet ready for a coming out party. We weren’t ready gear wise, we weren’t ready skill wise, and we weren’t ready attitude wise. What these high profile jumps say today is, “Hello - we’re here!” “And there’s nothing in the world you can do about it.” And if we keep doing these types of jumps everyone will eventually realize BASE is a fact of life. And the time will soon come when these jumps won’t even be newsworthy anymore. And bingo – that will be two problems solved at once - we’ll be able to jump more and it will drive people with the wrong motives out of the sport to find another way to get attention for themselves. The other side of the coin are the BASE jumpers who get bent about these types of jumps. But they may be falling into the “skydiving” trap of “we must protect the sport!” Protect it from what? BASE jumping will never end, no decree from on high, no proclamation, no new law written anywhere can ever stop us . . . We are in such a good position I can hardly believe we wound up here, especially since there was never a long range plan in the beginning. The only original sin left in BASE jumping is burning a quiet local site that jumpers have been using for years. The next big test we face as BASE jumpers, and it could be our downfall, is going to be how much freedom we give up in order to protect “legal” sites around the world. We’ll know we are blowing that one when jumps done in one place start to effect jumps done in another. Yes, it’s cool to follow a few local rules but it’s a fact that power over you breeds more power over you - In other words when the authorities come to us and says, “Well sorry, but because Jeb tried to jump the ESB, you can’t jump this bridge anymore.” And if we cave in to that, if we forget we are only a “loose band of brothers” beholding to no law save nature’s law then flick off the lights as we’ll be doomed to internal squabbling for another twenty years. The only thing worth protecting in this sport, are our young ones, and our freedom. We need a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: AMENDMENT XXVIII Originally proposed May 18, 2006, Ratified (Not Yet) No law, shall take effect, to prevent parachuting from fixed objects as the United States underscores the spirit of human accomplishment and sees such action as beneficial to the understanding and growth of the human condition. NickD

I had the opportunity to listen to Jason Bell's Skydive Radio interview last night, along with several other people, and about ten minutes in they were all saying how alike we both sounded. It wasn't so much what he was saying, but how he was saying it . . . I think maybe after all the years of communicating with each other we BASE jumpers have developed our own way of talking. I'm calling it Hucklish . . . a mix of urban hip, with a dash of rebellion, and a trailer park twang . . . Me:http://media.libsyn.com/media/skydiveradio/sr15_11_15_05s.mp3 Jason:http://media.libsyn.com/media/skydiveradio/sr36_04_11_06.mp3 NickD

>>That would have been the 1st parachute jump in the USA,

That doesn’t sound like advise Eric Fradet would’ve given to anyone . . . That said, the French have had their problems at AF in the past, and in a similar way. One early expedition sought to circumnavigate the locals, and the expense it entailed, by making their own arrangements. They secured a helicopter and then using the wrong gear, small skydiving canopies that were bag deployed (in a time when they should have known better) they scored two very brutal wall strikes in a row. One of the jumpers, a well know climber and adventurer, died from loss of blood, after the helicopter pilot mistook his frantic motions for help as a sign he was all right. The two lesson here are have a pre-arranged signal that means, “Hey, I’m not screwing around, you gotta get me outta here!” And the second is don’t steal from the tribe. If the locals have things set up, just pay the money, and enjoy the ride . . . NickD

Cool . . . Less "tools" in the box . . . NickD

Jimbo knows this - In the old days it was, "Grab grass . . ." NickD

He said that because it's a general rule of thumb for AFF and SL students . . . And I beleive it's in place not so much to hold anyone back - It's so greedy DZOs don't push their Instructors and students to the limit and beyond . . . NickD

Maggot, If you'd like to retire (or burn) that Raven I'll make you a deal on a BASE canopy with a BASE Ninja logo! I'll even throw in the deep brake setting for free . . . NickD

Okay, between you and Tom, I should have said "in general," blah blah blah . . . NickD

Carl Boenish made the statement canopies had to be packed into a container in order to differentiate between what he then called fixed object jumps (and later BASE jumps) and something else people had already done many times and that was “pull offs.” A pull off was originally a way of exiting an aircraft by standing on the wing, pulling the ripcord, and letting the relative wind and the deploying canopy pull you off. This practice is later adapted by some to tall towers in stiff winds. If you’ve ever been on a 2000-foot tower in a 70 mph wind you can see how well that would work. Also, some of Carl’s early adventures in ultra low BASE jumping involved already opened round canopies attached to metal hoops with clothes pins, sort of Coney Island style. Freedom Bridge in Arizona is first jumped that way, as it seemed the only way possible at the time, while nowadays people routinely do 2-second freefalls there. So the idea that Carl was trying to get across is BASE, is not only a new sport at the time, but also quite different from what had preceded it. I believe had Carl lived he would have kept pace with the times and probably modified that position to include Tards and such as real BASE jumps. My reasoning is this; while there is a fine line between “packed” and “flaked” if we use the two words interchangeably it makes a big difference. When people are Tarding they don’t just pull a wadded up ball of nylon out of gear bag, toss it over the edge, and follow it over. No, they hang it, jiggle it, and caress it to the point it becomes a pro-pack hanging on a hook. To a large extent that’s packing and reefing even though it doesn’t get put into a container. Throw in the measure of control this type of launch requires and I’m pretty sure Carl would have considered that BASE jumping. On the point of do these types of launches count towards a total number of BASE jumps, well, be careful, as chasing numbers is something about 90% of BASE community shouldn’t even be thinking about. That’s that other sport . . . It also may be because as yet, no one has been killed doing these kinds of launches, so somehow it becomes suspect. It was the same reaction direct bag received when it was first developed. I was really scratching my head the first time I heard jumpers saying direct bag wasn’t BASE jumping with the rational being it was too safe. If anything, that way of thinking, is re-“tarded!” NickD

>>My jump numbers are low, but somehow I think that 10,000+ hours of flying a number of sophisicated jets translates into some kind of awareness of handling qualities.

Hi All, For the several jumpers who wanted more info on the direct bag method of deployment for BASE jumps, we have a instructional primer that’s ready now. It may be a few days before I can get it uploaded to the Apex BASE website, so if anyone wants it right now post your e-mail address (or PM me) and I’ll send it to you directly. I’ll only be here for another 45 minutes today, so if you don’t get it today, you’ll get it tomorrow. You can also write to: perris@apexbase.com NickD

When I stop getting the inside jokes, which right now feels a lot like today . . . NickD

Okay, what I thought at first turns out to be the case . . . I just wasn't paying enough attention to who you really were. Happy belated Birthday, Maggot . . . NickD

>>I dont think that evryone will like those first pics