NickDG

I sail boats sometimes with composite sails and bonded seams, and you know what, they blow out too . . . NickD

No, I talked to Ranger Bill later that day about it and while I understand you don't put hands on a LEO, I explained to him what could have happened. Is a guy jumping a minute after the permit expires worth a life? I've never seen the Ranger who choked me again at Bridge Day. NickD

I remember the Moab thing and yes, we could do more to prevent that sort of thing, but we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I don't know, but I've been hanging with up and coming BASE jumpers all my life, and I know a thing or two about how they think. We all seem to have this thing where once "we" start BASE "we" then want to slam the door closed behind us. There are a large amount of experienced BASE jumpers wandering the world who got their start at Bridge Day. Sure, there are some yahoos you'll do everything you can to keep them away from BASE jumping, but most first timers can look at a parachute, look at the bridge, and look at the LZ and instinctively know it's dangerous. And how many really have fifty jumps? Most I talk to have between 150 and 300 and I find they are cautious and they go slow at first. A BASE student today is not the same animal from the 80s, or even 90s. There is so much more information available out there I find present day first time BASE jumpers much more informed. I think most of you complaining about first timers at Bridge Day are being disingenuous. We've had these discussions many times before at Bridge Day and the consensus has always been an experienced BASE jumper has the whole world at their feet. First time BASE jumpers have limited opportunities to get the help and guidance they can get at an event like Bridge Day. I lived through a time in this sport when shutting out new comers is how most thought it should be done. Thanks be it didn't stay like that as many of you might have had more trouble starting. Passing it on and giving an encouraging word to a new comer when they do something good is alright and what we are supposed to be doing. I don't get wailing on the fellow who started this topic. You think he didn't take one of the courses and didn't hear all about that? You think he didn't stand in line for a couple hours sweating it out. You think he didn't have all the same fears and worries we all did. Give the guy a break . . . He posted to share his joy and you dumped on him. We can't stop the onslaught of new BASE jumpers, that ship already sailed, and probably long before most of you started. What's left is it becomes all our responsibilities to make ourselves available and guide them when needed. The fact the "BASE Zone" title here on dz.com warns people BASE is dangerous is not a mandate to do your best to talk people out of it. Those days are over . . . Bridge Day didn't start out to be a place for new comers because when it began all were new comers. The 50 jump minimum came from a time when nobody would question how many skydives you had. Jean Boenish had about 60 jumps when she started BASE jumping and she had not yet jumped a square. I'm fine with Jason raising the minimum skydive number as I think that's where most of them are at anyway. But, I'm not for shutting out first timers in favor of experienced BASE jumpers. That's not Bridge Day. I'd give up my Bridge Day slot to any well prepared new comer anytime . . . NickD

At one Bridge Day a guy got off a minute after the permit expired and I was jumpmastering. As he launched, hand held, a Ranger reached out to grab him but only caught his hand in the bridle. I knocked his hand away and another Ranger behind me put me in choke hold. I woke up wondering where I was and I'm surprised to find I was at Bridge Day . . . NickD

>> could you make some calculation including the "leading-to-injury-incidents"? would be very interesting, wouldn't it?

I was fooling around with my calculator and I tried averaging the jump numbers at Bridge Day over the past 26 years in relationship to the danger. Most Bridge Days in the 80s recorded five to six hundred jumps. Lately they've been getting close to eight hundred. Someday there'll be a Bridge Day with a thousand jumps. So, and this is very site specific, but isn't everything in BASE, and without figuring in the bandit jumps, there's been 15,600 BASE jumps made at the NRGB. In that time there have been three fatalities, only two of which occurred on a Bridge Day. Throw out the bandit fatality (with all due respect) and considering what we are doing is being done by BASE jumpers of varied experience levels, who can tell us we don't know what we are doing? I usually get tripped up with math so if you think this is way off, let me know. I figured the average number of jumps at 600. The NRGB has been very good to us . . . Nick

I'm going to let Jason decompress a bit before bothering him to ask, but I think there were more first time jumpers this year than ever before. There's usually around a hundred, but I heard one hundred and forty. There sure were a bunch of happy campers at the Holiday Inn Saturday night. I've always thought first timers coming to Bridge Day, meeting everyone at once, and getting in a jump or two, is the best part of Bridge Day I think it sends these folks home with a very broad and positive view of the sport. We were laughing and thinking about how the week following Bridge Day probably sees more BASE jumps than any other as everyone returns home to rape everything in their hometown. piercewhat, you did good, Brother . . . NickD

You're right. Russel is a Nugget . . NickD

A person can't be a Nugget . . . . . . Can they? NickD

"Russel, kick'em out . . . " Is the Nugget of the Year. NickD

First off thanks all those who helped me get to Bridge Day. I'll never forget that kindness. I'll say I was a bit surprised when I saw the banner go up. I first thought, "Yikes, Jason?" Yet, I thought about it on the plane home, and you know what, I'm cool with it. Earlier that day I'm huddled up with Mike Pelkey talking about his and Brian's talk later that night, and we discussed almost this same thing. Mike and Brian received some rough Ranger treatment back in 1966. Mike, now all caught up on the latest developments, wanted to say something about how unfair he thought the NPS is being. And I think I talked him out of it. I'm not so sure now I did the right thing. Since the NPS took over the LZ it's been an extra layer of hassle for sure, but besides a few ugly confrontations at first, things settled down, and I suppose we had sort of a truce going. However, after the new fees they now want to impose, and something else I saw on the bridge Saturday, I say they've broken the truce. I spent almost the whole day on top and throughout the afternoon worked the back media gate of the launch point. (Thanks for that RhondaLea, it made me useful). When the winds came up the Ranger walked over every fifteen minutes or so with his Radio Shack wind meter. I don't know what the magic number is, or even if there is a magic number, but every time he checked the wind he seemed really disappointed. I didn't say anything to him the first time, but the second I said, "You know, it matters more what the wind is doing down there," and he nodded. The third time I told him, "Come on, it's getting better . . ." In any case I had the impression if the NPS could find a reason to halt the jumping they would. So the No-NPS banner is just us pushing back a little bit, and that's alright . . . and while Donk manned up for doing it, (good one, brother) what's done is done, so let's just enjoy the ride . . . NickD

alanab + 10 antipinkchrissy base515 BASE516 base698 base704 blair700 brits17 brothermuff65 cajones conoro djl erik jmpnkramer jumpchikk kevin922 ladyskydiver levin le Roydb lewmonst lifewithoutanet mickknutson missg8tordivr mnischalke NickDG nicknitro71 plfking pullhigh riggersam SkyFlyer skypuppy skyrose7 stevebabin swooper120 + 3 tomaiello treejumps vid666 weegegirl zennie NickD

Yes there was a net back then. Type Cypres, (or Cypress as some couldn't spell it) into this search box and you'll get many Cypres related posts from the early nineties. http://www.recskydiving.org/search.asp NickD

This is a tough one to explain, but in an otherwise thoughtful FJC sometimes using a little "shock treatment" is okay. Especially in a small aircraft where an errant handle grab, pull, or snag could doom all aboard. We aren't talking about showing them dead people, but that one photo that shows the side of a Cessna ripped away does get the point across. There are all kinds of skydiving instructors in the world and there are many ways to be effective. You'll develop as an Instructor over time. I've seen comedy FJCs that had the students rolling on the floor in tears of laughter. I've seen others, that were so serious, the students were reduced to quivering masses of terrified jelly. I've seen FJCs paired down to nothing but the essentials and all done before lunch. While others I've followed lasted through dark and the students come back the next morning anxious and overloaded. To be a good Instructor you need several personalities. You need to know when to reach out, when to be stern, when to speed up when they get it, and when to slow down when they don't. You need to know when to just let a student be a student. But, sometimes jarring the right student, just a bit, is a useful tool. Experience can only tell you which those are. Find the right mix of fun and serious, classroom stuff and outside stuff, keep the time reasonable and make sure in the end they know the important stuff from the fluff. Sometimes a mistake new FJC Instructors make is thinking they are teaching someone to skydive. What you are really doing is teaching someone how to make student jumps. You teach them how to make a first student jump, a second, a third and so on. Students, especially first jump students are like hard drives. They can only store so much new information. The more you put in there the longer it takes them to sort through it all should they need a high speed answer. Think about it. You must absolutely teach a person who's never parachuted what to do in case any one of those things you know can go wrong, does so. Maybe even more than one. Write the essentials down on something and tick them off as you do them. I've JM'd level ones before that missed entire sections of the FJC like "Two out" or something similar because an experienced Instructor just thought they'd covered it. While it's frustrating and thankless for the most part, being a skydiving Instructor is one of the coolest things you can do in this sport . . . NickD

I started BASE jumping with a clapped out Cruiselite when you wanted a canopy with a few hundred jumps on it to soften up the slider down stuff. Finding a Peggy, Raven, or Unit with three hundred jumps for 300 bucks was the Jenny in the Barn to early BASE jumpers. I've jumped more than a few demo BASE canopies from BR that probably had a few hundred BASE jumps on them. These canopies lead the life of a rental car and BASE manufacturers get valuable data by watching how they hold up. I would think if this fellow bought a single generally accepted BASE canopy and put 150 slider up skydives on it, he would still have a viable canopy for the next hundred BASE jumps. In the old days we always put a 1000 jumps on a square before even thinking it was clapped out. The modern BASE canopy has more in common with those old war horses than some smaller and more modern wings that have line trim problems at 250 jumps. With a big docile seven cell if the trim is off you just learn to lean a little more in one direction and that's the end of that . . . NickD

>>Hannibal, Face, and B.A. are captured

This is funny in a six degrees of separation sort of way. I did some rigging for a parachuting segment of the "A Team" on location outside Los Angeles. In between takes I played poker with Mr. T and the blond fellow whose name I don't recall who played the character "Face". Mr. T, I heard someone call him Larry, is gaining in popularity. After I clipped him for a thirty dollar poker pot he jumped up and yelled, "Fool! You cheated me!" He was kidding, but all the other actors seemed to turn it on and off, while Mr. T seemed "on" all the time. We've had celebrities at Bridge Day before. Didn't Bob Denver (Gilligan) show up one year? NickD

>>I suspect that several of the people who died in the Perris Twin Otter crash were smothered by other victims.

I'm with Gary on that one. We must let the chips fall where they may. Because we shine most of the time the truth can never hurt us. NickD

I'm confirmed on Delta's morning smoker out of San Diego through Atlanta arriving CRW 8:51 PM on Thursday . . . ! NickD

Hell yes I'll come . . . !!! Jason, thanks so much, but you'd better give the jump slot away to someone else. I'm not right on top of my game right now (like I ever was) and I need to wait a bit longer . . . I'll gladly sit and do waivers all day or whatever else you need. Speechless. NickD

I didn't notice the reserve ripcord thing as much as two other things in that advert. One is your reserve is still slider deployed and you can always have a pressure knot or some other kind of slider hang-up. If somehow we could guarantee you'd never have a terminal reserve deployment and you could remove the reserve slider then it would ring more true to me. The other thing is, and I don't have the advert right in front of me, but I glanced at it, is that with a sub-terminal cutaway coupled with half way decent EPs you aren't going to loose as much altitude as the advert suggests . . . If that was my advert I would have made the first one a little shorter and the second one a little longer. I love Bill Booth and applaud anything he does. But, I'd be disingenuous if I didn't say "the skyhook" is a very radical change in how things are done, and I'd sit back for awhile before I took it up. Besides, is there an epidemic of low cutaways and "went in at reserve line stretch," incidents? NickD

Being a bit ill this year wiped me out financially. I'll be there in spirit! That's for sure . . . NickD

>>"Admit nothing, deny everything, and demand proof"

Bummed I'm not going this year, but have a blast everyone! The WX and LZ look great! If the Rafter's Bar notices their income down a few hundred this year, please make my apologies . . . NickD