NickDG

Keep in mind Basic Research (now Apex BASE) and the other manufacturers instituted that 150 jump rule years ago on themselves when there were no rules. It really means, "We won’t sell, not you can’t buy." They knew there was no way to effectively prevent anyone from privately buying BASE gear. However, lately I have made up my mind to stop using the 150-200 jump number. I fully believe 500 jumps is more like it. Both Strong and the Relative Workshop won't issue a tandem master rating to anyone with less than 500 jumps. And like tandem isn’t just another skydive, neither is BASE jumping. In fact BASE, in view of decision making, is more complicated than tandem in the long run. I'm not going to start a campaign to get the manufactures to up the numbers, but hopefully, as the sport grows in interest the manufactures may be able to start slowly raising the number from 150 without too much bottom line effect. Remember we all have an interest in seeing they stay in business. I think while jumps under BASE-like gear is important the thing 500 jumps gives you is a much greater awareness level. Even though the gear and training is better nowadays I fully remember how I was at 150 jumps. I wouldn't allow a family member to start BASE at 150 jumps, so in good conscious I'll stop giving that advice to anyone else. Now, anyone who knows me knows I hate rules in general, but not when lives are at stake. The boom in BASE jumping we worried about and predicted for years is really here now. We have to saddle up for it. I don’t know how many first time Bridge Day jumpers are at the allowed 50 jump level, if any, and I know BD is a sacred cow, but maybe it's time to change the message that is sending. BTW I had 650 when I first BASE jumped . . . NickD

>>i have never skydived but i was told that i need to take a skydive class before i can base jump

Hi Jim, While tandem passenger harness' have improved over the years sometimes they aren't fully adjusted for comfort. It'll get better when you start AFF, and better still when you get your own gear . . . Welcome to skydiving! NickD

Every few months I check in at rockclimbing.com and type "BASE jumping" into their search page. It's interesting to me what people outside the sport perceive about BASE and as I've tracked this website for a few years I've noticed some changes. Climbers as a group are very aware of BASE jumpers. They encounter them in the field and climbing magazines frequently run stories on BASE. At first, years ago, they weren't too knowledgeable about what we do, but I notice a change in that now. Due to the spread of BASE knowledge they, most of them anyway, seemed to have developed a respect for the sport. There are a few BASE/climbing types on the site who set things straight, and I've seen more than a few posts from our own Tom Aiello doing the same. So take a look here http://rockclimbing.com/forums/newsearch.php and type in "BASE jumping" with the quotation marks. If you decide to register and post, in order to correct something or add a comment, please play nice, as we need the climbing community on our side in the fight against our common foe who they refer to as, "the Tool" . . . NickD

>>I find myself a bit eager to experience the rush of a skydiving fatality firsthand.

>>Remember when all it had was a dirt floor?

Hi Jaap, Yes, re-reading my post it was a bit harsh . . . sorry. And you made some good points. I'm just always thinking of my friend Jeff who I think was worrying more about getting caught than he was about his performance when he was killed in Yosemite. And I think about Frank being chased down like a dog until he drowned. And I think of all the rest who paid fines and served time. And I get frustrated . . . NickD BASE 194

>>It is also interesting to note the slider stops(?) moving up the suspension lines. That is some ugly stuff there.

>>ok....what about the movment factor of the A..?? Its got to be really moving at 600ft on up....that has to really add to the jump....I've felt bridges

>>What's the Bombshelter?

Hey, be careful you guys. I think we are fast approaching the day when BASE jumpers split off into two camps. The legal and the illegal. I am going to be careful with the following as I've already been accused by someone who misunderstood me (and BASE in general) that the reason we jumped in the first place was the illegality of it all. BASE jumping is where it is today because the first generation said "Fuck You" to those who said BASE jumping was a bad thing and we shouldn't do it. Our freedom to BASE jump is rooted in illegal jumps and illegal jumps will always be your refuge. Take a look overseas. BASE jumpers there are quickly backing themselves into coffin corners. We are starting to see legal sites being jumped in illegal fashion, i.e. don’t jump during certain hours, don’t jump when there's tourists about, be careful when you jump as the locals don’t like the helicopter noise when it comes to rescue you. This is wrong on so many levels. Stop thinking about yourselves and start thinking about sport. We, as human beings, have an unconditional right to jump. Sure, it's okay to work with locals, but when they start dictating when and where you can jump that's too much, and it's dangerous. Too many already get hurt and killed when they jump in the available conditions rather than the best conditions. The people who bend over backwards (call them the collaborators) to make sure their nice little scene stays intact are the ones making it harder for future jumpers. Our ability to BASE jump is a war against people who don't want us to BASE jump. Appeasement will only prolong the battle . . . NickD

In the old days jumpers learned the importance of stowing their excess brake line because the rigs of the day didn't contain the risers well enough to keep this excess line from escaping during freefall. It caused many reserve rides and a more than a few deaths. Nowadays the riser covers are better and we don't see that too often. However, in my opinion they still need to be stowed. Take a close look at the attached photo (from this month's PARACHUTIST no less) and tell me that's what you want going on over your head? Sure, it may work most of the time, but sooner or later . . . Think of how doing this can complicate an unstable opening. Think of how this could complicate things if your rig opens inadvertently in the door. Think of what could happen if you need to cutaway a violent malfunction and one of those two death loops hooked something? In a sport where you want everything in your favor is this really what you want to do? How would you feel if riggers left the brake lines like this on your reserve? And why do you think they don't? The worst part is I see some Instructors doing this and thereby passing on the message its okay to their students. What happens when Johnny Jumper first straps a camera on? Will he realize all of sudden that leaving that excess line flapping around is not good? I'll go as far as to say this practice is okay if an experienced jumper wants to save 20 seconds on a pack job and he understands the risk, but it's not alright to pass the practice along to the unsuspecting . . . NickD

Most extreme sports involve catching big air. The board sports, whether skate. snow, or kite allow one to start slow and small. You can then work up to doing bigger and higher tricks, or you can remain very conservative. However, when you pull the trigger on your first BASE jump there's no slow and small. It's the whole enchilada right from the start. This is isn't a knock on that other sport, it's just a fact that the slow and small of BASE jumping is skydiving . . . NickD

Experienced jumpers can get in trouble doing this type of thing too. I guess it was 1996 and I was aboard the Perris Otter making a fun jump. Closer to the door I saw Larry Langrand preparing to test jump a banner/flag for an upcoming demo. He looked at me and I smiled, but he didn't smile back at me. He looked a bit apprehensive but I would have forgotten it had the jump went well. Larry was carrying a pouch containing the banner/flag and I don’t recall the exact sequence but the pouch opened prematurely while he was in freefall and somehow fouled his main bridle and then his entire reserve. Larry went in off the DZ and there was a horrible story in the newspaper the next day quoting wuffo witnesses saying they heard Larry screaming as he hit. What I'm pretty sure they heard was the sound of the tangled mess he was wrapped in a dragging behind him and I know Larry would have fighting to get something to work right to the end . . . One thing I heard from a non-jumper at the DZ that puts things in perspective was this: He was watching some people dirt dive a formation and he said, "My god, it's not enough they jump from the plane, they gotta do tricks too?" Leave flag, smoke, whatever, jumping to the professional skydivers. At least if the worst happens there's still a check to be cashed . . . NickD

>>If the student goes i, then they have not followed what they were taught. Why sacrifice your life for someone who will not listen?

When I attended Northrop Aeronautical University I debated more than a few professors on the principals of flight and it was amazing how many of them had different ideas. Some called what Bernoulli' stated a theory and others called it a principal. One instructor used the example that a flat piece of plywood picked up off the ground and sent flying thru the air by a high wind disproved Bernoulli altogether. But lift being perpendicular to the relative wind (or line of flight) is one thing most of them agreed on. And it's something that's always made sense to me. But who knows, you could be right, and they can keep the logo . . . NickD

I doubt you'd find a rigger willing to pack a Safety Flyer for you. Walk away . . . I jumped a Clipper for a week or so until it collapsed on me. The nose folded under and the canopy started violently throwing me around. This was something I'd never seen any other ram air canopy do. I was going to check the trim later, but after a few beers that night I throw it into the DZ campfire. Run away . . . BTW, this was right before the same folks introduced their newest canopy, the Nova, a canopy that put a friend and former student into a wheelchair for life. The head of the company was sued so many times he had to leave the firm. He later formed another company and came up with another POS, the Dolphin harness & container system. There's an early thread on the Clipper here. Look around and you'll find more, lots more . . . After the Nova problems I noticed something about the logo they were using to advertise their canopies. It was a good demonstration someone at the firm didn't understand basic flight concepts. Lift is always perpendicular to the line of flight and not as they depict it. It's hilarious the company that morphed out of this fiasco is still using it . . . NickD

One quit, one skydives, and two BASE jump occasionally . . . I should have said we didn't totally bank on dying by BASE, we just thought with our personality types something would happen, i.e, jealous husband, car crash, etc. NickD

If anyone has contact with BASE 775 would you kindly ask him to contact me here. Thanks. NickD

>>"Odds are that one of us will be dead within the next 3 years....>>The disturbingly prescient thing about that is that the writer is dead--less than 3 years later.

In the mortal words of Marta P. "You make a lot of legal BASE jumps, and you get lame . . ." NickD

Sure, I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just pointing out how it changes . . . and it’s a statement about the human condition. I just thought it important to note . . . NickD

>>I've been wondering about this issue. Any "for instances" without being overly specific?

>> I got into my car this morning, and it smelled like my rig. :( I really do miss it. Am I nuts?

Come on, Brother, don't you think I know where I worked for years and years? It was Basic Research when they came up with the tailgate but now that BR and Vertigo have merged into one company its all Apex BASE now. (Except for Anne, it's all the same folks.) And since it was a proper business deal the new company owns all the successes of the prior two. Or, LOL, as one BASE jumper put it, "the stinking globalization of BASE gear manufacturers." NickD