NickDG

No way . . . History has shown that military jumpers never stay current enough. It's the reason the Soviet Union subsidized civilian skydiving all through the late 50s, 60s and early 70s. They knew these civilian jumpers could be quickly drafted into military service, and would need minimal supervision. "Military Paratroopers," in most cases, and who don’t participate in the sport side of parachuting, can make 50 jumps, and call it a 20 year career . . . NickD

I've a fifty dollar bill to donate to Ben Conatser if he'd agree to fill the DC-9 with food and water. Who could drop it right were it's needed better than us . . . ? NickD

During WW II Brit paratroopers, and to beat the weather, tethered balloons inside blimp hangars and practiced their jumps indoors. It was their finest hour . . . NickD

I agree. And anyway, we've bigger problems than all that. President Bush, in a speech just now, just called the "Gulf Coast," the, "Gulf Gulch." Yikes . . . NickD

>>im probaly not right but i have the right to be wrong..

BASE jumping in Europe up until Carl died in 1984, and indeed for a while after that, wasn't very active at all. I met many of the European pioneers as early as Bridge Day '85 and the amount of BASE activity there is a fraction of what it was here in the states, and nothing like it is now. I later met Stein and many others probably in '87, and as an aside we all thought he was saying "Space Jumping" and that's what we all called it for awhile, but nobody is knocking you guys. It's not about that. BASE history is all our history, and when I say this happened here and that happened there, you guys get all jingoistic. Who was cliff jumping in Europe in 1978? Sure, you had your share of "stunt" jumps prior to that just like we did, but the "sport" of BASE jumping did indeed begin here in the states before spreading elsewhere. And Faber, you've been reading my stuff long enough to know I'm not an American, right or wrong, flag waver. I only bring it up when I see people trying to re-write the history that belongs to everyone who’s ever strapped on a BASE rig . . . NickD

Where's the Boom, False Boom, and the "Real" Boom . . . ? We wondered where everyone else was in the 1980s. BASE jumping was already such a cool thing, a next step for skydivers, a place to use their skills other than the DZ, and a way to be real individuals in a sport full of individuals forced into a box of skydiving conformity. The truth is during the 1980s there are between 100 and 150 "hardcore" BASE jumpers in the entire world. I remember asking Todd as he started T&T Rigging, "What are you going to do when everyone has a BASE rig, go out of business?" Through much of the 1990s I worked at Basic Research and the phone rang off the hook. This was it I thought, surf's up, baby, all the folks who rolled the dice in the 80s and started BASE equipment companies are going to get stinking rich and start throwing up BASE dedicated towers all over the place. My magazine, The Fixed Object Journal would make a grand comeback, this time all glossy and in color, and with thousands of subscribers, instead of hundreds, I'd finally get me a new trailer in the Perris Ghetto that didn't leak like a sieve in the rain. Guess what? No boom! Gear sales, and my overall perception of the sport, showed instead only "steady" growth, enough growth that we started screening customers to weed out the walking dead, and began training people who couldn’t be counted on to go about learning the right way, what ever that was. All we knew about that in the very beginning was you just got off your ass, went downtown in the middle of the night, and jumped. If the current 90 jumpers residing on the BASE Fatality List right now had gone in during these formative years the sport would have withered and died from attrition. The year 2000 looked again, like the beginnings of a boom, and indeed the largest spike in BASE numbers issued, the amount of new BASE gear dealers, and the number of dedicated BASE events, are more so than ever before. At Bridge Day 2004 I noticed I've gone from knowing pretty much everybody who BASE jumps to knowing that will never be possible ever again. In the early days the USA certainly lead the world in all phases of BASE, but the dynamic, I thought was changing as, while a bit late to the party, our Euro Brothers had everything they needed. They had the sites, the openness to risk vs. reward, and societies that didn't automatically label them as loonies. Alright! Now this was really going to be it! I shopped my BASE history book around to several mainstream publishers and the answer was always the same. As they held the door open just a crack a voice would ask, "This is great stuff, how many do you think you'd sell right off the bat?" "Oh, a thousand copies easy." I'd say and what I thought was the boom turned quickly into the sound of slamming doors . . . I never got to add, "But, it would sell steady and maybe forev . . . SLAM, CLICK, LOCK . . . No, there is no boom in BASE jumping and probably never will be. We have grown certainly and percentage wise probably more than skydiving, but BASE jumping is always going to be what it is. Sometimes I think we confuse exposure, and the fact every kid in the world now knows what BASE jumping is, with actual growth, but Todd still isn't rich and where I live still leaks like a sieve . . . NickD

Just heard his "speech" on the disaster. Change the word Louisiana to Iraq, and it was the same thing. "It's hard . . ." NickD

>>Fatalities is much higher than thought...

Just an observation and maybe, to some, a heads up. It used to be fairly routine when a news story, where information being broadcast could spell the difference between life and death for so many, would be broadcast without commercial interruptions . . . However, now that the broadcast media is so corporate driven it's all about the bottom line. Think about that when they tell you anything about what's going on in the world today. NickD

My bill from last year, I checked in Thursday and checked out Sunday, and including the person ( I know who you are, LOL) who ordered up the porno film while partying in my room, was $479.25. NickD

>>As long as Nick D DOES NOT give me a number, I will be a very happy man.

Carl Boenish named it the "World BASE Award" and a casual glance at the first few hundred BASE numbers issued shows a good representation from Great Britain, Canada, France, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden. Numbers 150 to 167 is a run belonging almost exclusively to Australia. I don’t know the nationality breakdown of the entire list, and maybe Joy Harrison can provide us with that information. It's a bit natural that as we get further away from the beginning overall interest in the award would begin to wane. On the other hand I see the excitement of someone who just recently earned their number as the same as for anyone back in the day. I'm a bit dismayed when you say you know BASE jumpers who don’t know about the BASE award. There are many BASE jumping websites in other than the English language these days so it would worry me what else they don’t know about . . . And nobody is saying you aren't a BASE jumper without a number. People are people everywhere and some jumpers go all their lives without anything but a license and membership in their home country's parachuting organization. Other's put in for every honor, award, and badge that's available. There is one thing that hasn't changed. In terms of difficulty, danger, and the effort it takes to earn the BASE award, it has remained a great personal achievement and nothing to belittle. Keep in mind few people earned the award in just four jumps. In fact, most have many more than that before bagging all four objects. A few people earned BASE in 24 hours, some take 24 years. We've become a bit more diverse in how we practice the sport over the years. Some people can happily jump cliffs all their lives, and nothing else, and those people are still BASE jumpers. I've more building jumps in my logbook than anything else and it's no matter. It's where in the world you live and what's readily available to you. To me the coolest thing about the BASE award is the brother and sisterhood it creates and, as said many times, the link it provides in the BASE timeline. I'll go a step further and say those who disparage the BASE award, and you know who you are, are eating at the buffet without paying the check. I find when explaining the virtues of BASE I have a problem when telling people we've been at it for 27 years and the BASE numbers now stand at around one thousand. That really isn’t representative of the scope of this thing we do. In a sport that celebrates the individuality of its participants the BASE award is the one single thing that binds us together. So no, the BASE award isn't about anybody in particular, it's about all of us . . . NickD

Hey Jason, This is just a suggestion, but you, because you are the organizer of Bridge Day, might want to stay above stuff like this. You still have to deal with the Bridge Day Commission, a body that might lean toward the NPS once we start throwing around the word, "pussies." Sure, I know how frustrated and betrayed you must feel, but, at Bridge Day you are our front man, the liaison between us and everyone else. We'll take care of dirty work, you should just think of keeping yourself in a position somewhere between heaven and hell, while staying effective and viable . . . Yeah, I know it sucks, but that's the price you pay for the job you asked for . . . You know they count on the Bridge Day organizer to implode and then they start anew on the next one, all the while the agenda of the NPS rolls merrily along. Let’s break that cycle . . . NickD

Making mistakes, is nothing of which to be ashamed. It's really, in this little world of ours, a badge of honor . . . Thank you. NickD

That Hat . . . One of the problems with writing a book about BASE jumping history is the amount of great stories that can't be told at this time. Not is this lifetime anyway . . . One of them involves the "Smokey Bear" hat worn by Park Rangers. I must say first that they don't deserve to wear them in the first place, as I believe it's a privilege reserved for Marine Corps Drill Instructors, and stands for the blood shed by thousands of my brother Marines. With that in mind, and as many Bridge Day attendees know, we never miss a chance to swipe one away from a Ranger. I like to think of it as rescuing them, as what those hats means to the Marine Corps precedes the NPS by many years, and it was, I felt, a duty. In fact, it's not really a "Smokey Bear Hat" It's a campaign cover. A cover worn by Marines as early as 1898. We first appropriated them from the Army, who weren't using them right, and they've become a symbol of the Corps ever since. In deference to my newer brother Marines, there was a time when the campaign cover was either worn or kept out of sight. This is why at Bridge Day whenever a Ranger would leave his "Smokey Bear" laying on a table or any place other than on his gourd, we would look at each other, raise an eyebrow, and move in for the snatch. And over the years, we've rescued more than one. I came damn close to rescuing one last year, but not being as deft as I once was, I got caught. The young Ranger, and probably an okay guy, didn’t catch on to what was happening, and bought I was just admiring it. When he explained what the hat meant to the NPS the urge to spit in his face was overwhelming . . . There's a great story of a Texas jumper who snagged one at Bridge Day '89 and that cover went along on many BASE jumps after that . . . but it’s not time for that story yet . . . NickD

>>Nick, you'll need to correct me here if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that jumping at Bridge Day continued after NPS acquired the landing area in large measure because of local pressure, i.e., base jumping is the big draw to the Bridge Day event.

The NPS probably feels somewhat under siege as the government pushes to okay such practices as mining, oil drilling, grazing, and development on otherwise "protected" lands. A recent blurb in the NPS Morning Report concerning the retirement of one long time Park employee carried the message that, "The next few years may be extremely challenging for everyone in the NPS, and will require that you keep the faith and make the best of the situations that you encounter." One would think even before recent events the NPS would've had too much on their plates to mount a concerted campaign against BASE jumpers. But the otherwise is true and anyone who looks back years from now will wonder what all the fuss was about. Anyone who has dealt with the Park Service as a BASE jumper knows the NPS will lie, threaten, deprive you of your liberty, and steal your stuff. To many jumpers this alone makes it a battle worth fighting. History has always shown the biggest threat to any democracy is the tyrannical oppression of the people by their own government. The number of horror stories are too long to chronicle here, but a few stand out in my mind. These events would seem ordinary had the crimes involved murder and other forms of mayhem, but seem absolutely ludicrous when it's all about parachuting without a permit. Long time BASE jumper Keith Jones, who right now is serving in Iraq, spends three days without being charged in the Yosemite dungeon because he won't name fellow jumpers after the accident that killed Susan Oatly. He is threatened with the permanent lose of his personal vehicle, told the commanding officer of his National Guard Unit was on the phone and is ordering him to talk, and that, at best, he was looking at murder charges. He is told by a Ranger that, "We have a file and we know who all your key people are." He is berated by Rangers who call BASE jumpers, "scumbags," who always leave their injured and dead behind in order to save their own hides. Then there is what happened to Dennis and his crew at the Lake. The list of over reactions by the NPS is long and this is not to mention who knows how many quietly paid their fines and did their time while suffering confiscation of their property. I mean what are we, legitimate sportsman in an illegitimate world, or the Mafia? When the NPS took over the LZ at Bridge Day they certainly saw it as an intelligence gathering gold mine. In addition to videoing everyone, "And make sure you get the ones in the Yellow Shirts," they made getting their hands on the registration list, which contained everything down to our blood types, a priority. I remember working the launch point and we were allowing spectators to move through and video for a few minutes before moving them out for the next ones. It didn’t take long to realize they were using Rangers in plain clothes as I kept seeing the same video camera over and over again. Andy, who was now organizing and power drunk, played right into the Ranger's hands. His lack of character showed and they played him like a fiddle. They gave him a Junior Ranger Badge, the same ones they hand out to children in the Parks, and I swear he was flashing that badge around with pride. Some even say Andy was offered a NPS courtesy card, a get out of jail card, he could use in any National Park. You can look at Jason Bell's Bridge Day web site and see the lies in black and white. There are two pieces of correspondence there. One is an internal NPS directive encouraging the active gathering of personal information on BASE jumpers. The other is a flat denial they are doing it. Right now the NPS knows they are reaching the tipping point as far as BASE jumping is concerned. Where once the war between the NPS and BASE jumpers was a quiet one, one of the advantages of BASE coming out into the open is more of the public, if asked would say, "What's the big deal?" Bridge Day especially blows two of their arguments right out of the water. One is that BASE jumping is too dangerous, okay; there's been a single Bridge Day fatality in 25 years, next? That BASE jumping is not an appropriate use. Again, we point to Bridge Day and the fact that on a technical level Yosemite and other places in the NPS system are very appropriate for what we do. What they really mean is BASE jumping is not appropriate to their view of what's appropriate. Government bureaucracies fear only two things. Loss of power and loss of budget monies. The NPS is starting to realize they are now dealing with a government that wouldn't blink before installing Halliburton run information kiosks right in Yosemite Valley. When I said up-board that we need to take advantage of the confusion, I meant the NPS is going to start circling the wagons. And if they stopped to think rationally they would find, in a fight against development on public lands, most BASE jumpers, climbers, and other Park users, the same ones they have been persecuting all these years, are all in their camp. War makes strange bedfellows and they are going to need all the friends they can get. And maybe someday I can get me one of those Junior Ranger Badges . . . NickD

I've been on the group "W" bench all my life . . . NickD

The Illusion of Security . . . I was on my way into the VA Hospital (just a follow up appointment) a few weeks ago and there is a VA policewoman at the door checking IDs. I opened my knapsack and grabbed the first thing that came to hand and it was my passport. I handed it to her and I swear she looked at it like she'd never seen one before. Then she says, "Don’t you have a driver's license?" This in a state where a driver's license can be had on any street corner . . . NickD

Bridge Day, because of what it is, does from time to time create situations that could only occur there. One year (1987, I think) Lane K. smoked one down to the water and then stood dumbfounded as several Rangers "warned" him about pulling low. Lane "opted out" and never returned to Bridge Day again. Another jumper cited for landing on the RR tracks, which he deemed safer than the small LZ that year, said later, "WTF, I've made hundreds of BASE jumps and the first time I get busted is at Bridge Day? Still another jumper after dealing with line twists turned low to avoid someone not paying attention in the LZ and crashed through the windshield of a privately owned Ranger vehicle stupidly parked close by. The person not paying attention was the Ranger who owned the vehicle. BTW, did anyone notice the mob of EMT personal in the LZ last year? Who in their right mind would think that number was necessary? I mean what has happened over the last 25 years of Bridge Days that warrants that many back boards and ambulances? I can see having a large EMT presence to look after the thousands of spectators "on" the bridge but not for the jumpers below the bridge. If you have a look at Pope's excellent BD DVD from last year, about midway through or so, there is a very scary "almost" incident when a young boy is almost cleaned by a jumper swooping the LZ. The boy appeared to be with the EMT crowd and indeed he's pulled out of the path of the jumper by one of them. Anyone looking at the video can easily see he could have been killed had he been hit. He just shouldn't have been where he was in the first place. All those EMTs and the ambulances should be staged up the dirt road closer to the packing area. To me it seemed like they were just there to watch the show and it certainly didn't take thirty EMTs to save Russel's broken big toe . . . Also, and I've said this before, experienced BASE jumpers, not Rangers, should be running the LZ just like experienced jumpers run the launch point. An experienced jumper can look up at parachute in the air and more or less know where it's going to land. A Ranger can't and it causes a lot of unnecessary danger, yelling, and confusion in the LZ. Editied to add: BTW, I'm not blaming Jason for the above as I know he has his hands full with all the other BS thrown his way by the powers that be . . . NickD

I don't agree with the premise that Instructors burn out teaching students as much as they burn out on working for "beer and gas money" wages and from a general lack of respect from the skydiving community at large. Being an Instructor is full of positive re-enforcement from sending students home happy after a first jump or stewarding others through a full course and seeing them go on to be good skydivers. The only problem is you can’t eat positive re-enforcement. NickD

The fact a full time skydiving instructor can't make a decent living has bothered me for a long time. Instructing is one of the most important aspects of this sport. Even as we watch the accident rate climb we are still in the Stone Age as far as how Instructors are treated. Being a part time skydiving Instructor, which for so many is the only way to go about it, is just wrong. How many of you would seek the advice of a part time doctor? DZOs have been sucking off the work of good Instructors for far too long, Instructors who gave up family life, ate Top Raman noodles, and lived in their cars to do what they loved and were good at doing. Every year we lose too many of these experienced Instructors who give up the profession in frustration, only to be replaced with less experienced Instructors, and that's what keeps the level of teaching from steadily growing. I taught skydiving almost my entire adult life, I slept under a lot of packing tables, always drove a car that was falling apart, and it was the happiest time of my life. But, those days are gone. You can't survive these days doing it that way. Yet, we are still essentially asking today's Instructors to do the same thing . . . The general lack of support for Instructors is a problem of perception. Ninety percent of the people that Instructors interact with don’t stay with the sport and aren’t around later to sing their praises. It's the reason we tend to forget how good most Instructors really are, while we endlessly hear about some load organizer who's the best thing since sliced bread. Sure, I know many DZs are shoestring operations, but there is no reason the larger and more successful one can’t pay a living and ever increasing wage to their Instructors with benefits. And I also think an Instructor with twenty years experience should make more money than another with a month's worth of experience. I've seen many good instructors who put student safety first, bypassed or fired by DZO's in favor of younger Instructors who aren't so careful, or are too afraid to speak up. I'm not picking on Perris, but by way of example, they didn’t go out and buy a wind tunnel and a DC-9 with the money earned on up-jumpers . . . NickD

Yes, I've seen it too. In fact I have it on a VHS tape somewhere. So I guess he did get it back, or more likely he ditched it in the bushes before the Rangers became confrontational. I'd post it to Skydivingmovies.com but Jean Boenish would show up on my doorstep pitchfork in hand! NickD

The history of color coded lines goes way back. Some early ram air canopies before they had any kind of reefing (rings and ropes or sliders) used a locking mechanism to soften the openings. You'd pull the ripcord and the canopy would go to line stretch but remain closed until you reached up and pulled the usually "red" colored line that released the canopy to further inflate. Frank Mott, a long time and still active So Cal Master Rigger, still has one of these canopies and he'll let you jump it if you want. It's in a gut gear rig so don’t bother asking if you don’t know what gut gear is . . . LOL. In modern terms color coded lines first appeared on BASE canopies made by Basic Research and some other BASE gear manufacturers in the mid-90s. In skydiving a lot of early pro packers gave themselves lineover malfunctions on the ground and things like color coded lines and a contrasting center cell color do help. People who scoff are just showing their own ignorance . . . NickD