NickDG

He certainly knows the BASE circuit well enough not to be some wacko making it all up. But the 1979 date does sound a bit early for someone to have jumped all those particular sites. But I'm starting to get dates wrong too as I get older. I'll guess and say it may be Ron Boyles who I know jumped the Royal Gorge bridge in 1975, or Owen Quinn who jumped the World Trade Center Towers that same year. The gear issue isn't relevant. The sport didn't make a full transition to "BASE gear" until after 1990. Up until then a lot of us were still B.A.S.E. jumping with slightly "modified" skydiving gear. It wasn't until a few years later that using skydiving gear for BASE became universally accepted as "stupid." If the above names aren't right you can PM me the fellow's name. I'm sure I'd know it if he was indeed that active in that time period. In those days (the late 70's) BASE wasn't the underground activity it would became later. In those early days everyone thought BASE would be embraced as just another really cool thing we humans came up with. But by the mid-80s we realized that wasn't the case and the sport went underground for about the next 15 years. I'll give you a very short BASE time-line so you'll understand it better . . . Parachutes were invented long before airplanes and some of the first test jumps were done from fixed objects. In fact the original idea for the modern parachute was to escape fire in tall stone towers that were springing up all over Europe in the 16th century. Of course we don't have any photographic evidence for these jumps, but there are many written accounts of them being witnessed. Between then and the 1970s many one-off fixed object parachute jumps were made. (The sport wasn't called “BASE” until Carl Boenish named it that in 1981). Here's just a few of them. Fredrick Law, a New York steeplejack, parachuted from the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, and a Wall Street Bank building in 1912. In the 1930s a Milwaukee airplane mechanic made a parachute jump indoors from the rafters of a blimp hangar. In the very early sixties a Dentist jumped from a cliff in the Italian Dolomites. And in 1966 Mike Pelkey and Brian Schubert jumped El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Up until this point these jumps were seen as stunts and little else. It took sometime for us to see them as very significant to BASE history. In 1975 Carl Boenish, who was a well known and respected skydiving cinematographer, is in Yosemite Valley to film some friends parachuting from hang gliders. While he waited in the valley he looked up at the shear granite walls around him and recalled hearing about the Pelkey/Schubert jump 9-years earlier. One big difference was now we had square parachutes and for Carl it was one of those bingo moments. “We could jump here,” he thought, “and we could do it over and over again.” This marked the very moment fixed object jumping made the leap from “stunt” to repeatable act. It took Carl three years, until 1978, to make the many recon trips to the top of El Cap, and to assemble a four man team to actually make the leaps. On one of those recon trips Carl lowered himself over the edge of El Cap until he could see straight down. He was out of sight to the others on top but they heard him yell, “Eureka! We can jump here!” While we call Carl Boenish “the father of modern B.A.S.E. jumping” he didn't make the leap himself until the second expedition to El Cap. He can be forgiven for that as first and foremost, as a cinematographer, his first priority was getting good film in the can. The four men chosen were a four-way skydiving team from Lake Elsinore. Chosen really isn't the right word here. Carl was turned down flat by many of the first jumpers he approached. It was just too knucklehead an idea to most “experienced” skydivers of the day. Carl was also looking for jumpers who could keep quiet about it for the few months it would take to get the film ready for presentation. One of the jumpers was Tom Start, a fellow I was jumping with at Elsinore at the time. And to this day how he kept the secret is beyond me. So in August of 1978 the four, one by one, trotted off the rounded brow of El Cap, tracked away for tens seconds, opened their square parachutes, and landed in the meadow below. Easy peasy nice and easy! A few months later Carl showed the film of the El Cap jumps for the very first time at Lake Elsinore. I was there and remember getting ready to leave after a sunset load, but word was Carl was premiering a new film that night, and at the time, that wasn't something to be missed. So I grabbed a beer and sat down to watch. I'm sure Carl wondered, at least a little bit, how it would be received. But to say it went over big is very understated. We were absolutely floored! And that was the very night the sport of B.A.S.E. jumping was born. One big and very important reason for that is the following. Up until that point being a skydiver meant being connected to a dropzone, being connected to airplanes, being connected to the USPA and the FAA. But to our “hippie” mindset we wanted nothing more than freedom! And here is was! Carl Boenish was handing us our freedom on a plate! And as Carl's film made the rounds from DZ to DZ around the world the word spread. At first fixed object jumping, as it was called then, was pretty much all cliff jumping, both here in the States and to a smaller extent in Europe. It really wasn't until the 1980s that other objects were starting to be jumped by this latest crop of new fixed object jumpers. Phil Smith in Texas started jumping antenna towers. And this marked another milestone in modern BASE history. Up until then El Cap didn't actually seem that crazy because it was high enough that you still had a shot at a reserve parachute. But Phil figured if you were willing to forgo a reserve than a whole spectrum of new objects suddenly became jumpable. So after that it was buildings getting jumped too and this was when we started sneaking around in the middle of the night. This is when the problems between skydiving and fixed object jumping began to surface. It wasn't so much the illegality of it all, it was fixed object jumping being in its infancy, and regularly making the newspapers for spectacular mishaps. And local reporters would automatically run to the nearest DZ for a comment. It needs to be understood we didn't see fixed object jumping as a separate sport from skydiving. We saw these jumps as just “extra-special” like night, water, or demo jumps, just really another form of skydiving. But we were wrong about that and it took us many years, and unfortunately many lives, to learn that most important lesson. So DZO's would give their comments to reporters from the standpoint of people trying to protect their businesses. “Oh, those Bozo's aren't skydivers like us, those guys are assholes!” Then the USPA after a brief flirtation with legal jumps at El Cap, sided with the DZOs and banned any mention of B.A.S.E. jumping in PARACHUTIST and officially made the statement that BASE was not sport parachuting. And that ban lasted over twenty years. It's sort of ironic the powers that be saw BASE and skydiving as too different things before we did. But they were just distancing themselves from the bad press. What we learned as time went by was BASE is indeed a new and different sport, with it's own rules, techniques, and equipment. You can still say they are sister sports, but that's about it. And B.A.S.E. jumping with only skydiving knowledge can easily kill you. But now we didn't care what anyone on the DZ thought. If B.A.S.E. jumping wasn't going to be accepted we were going to do it anyway. The genie was out of the lamp and there was no re-corking it. Carl started the first BASE magazine and in 1982 when he and Phil Smith started jumping buildings in earnest he came up with the acronym “BASE” for the four objects they were now jumping. And forever more the sport would be known as B.A.S.E. jumping. And it wasn't until 1982 that a Lake Elsinore skydiving rig manufacturer named Jim Handbury built the first two Velcro closed single container BASE rigs for Carl and Jean Boenish. The funny thing about Jim is, even though he was building popular skydiving rigs at the time (the Handbury rig) he never actually had a rigger's ticket himself. But it mattered little. In those days it took more than a piece of paper from the government to make you "locally respected." In the mid-80s when I felt experienced enough to actually start B.A.S.E. jumping myself the war between the sports was in full fury. I was already making my living as a skydiving instructor and I, and others across the country, had to keep our nocturnal pursuits to ourselves. Being outted as a B.A.S.E. jumper on the DZ could easily mean losing your job. It was that bad. So for about the next ten years BASE went almost totally underground. We banded together, became the air pirates, hoisted the jolly roger, and kept everything to ourselves. We communicated through the few BASE “Zines” that were available and I published one myself from 89-92 called The Fixed Object Journal. And we used a new medium of communication called e-mail to pass on BASE how to's and don't do's around the country. The rate at which we were learning was astounding and often last week's hot tip quickly became this week's black death idea. And before the web went graphical I also started the very first BASE forum on a web service called “GEnie”. All the BASE magazines, and the early BASE video, were all circulated around the BASE community but it was all kept “in house” as possible. If there was such a thing as Youtube in those days posting our stuff to it would have been shooting ourselves in the foot. We were getting arrested regularly in those days. But BASE was pretty much unheard of by people outside the jumping community. So a judge would laugh you out of the courtroom with no penalty or just a small slap in the wrist. We were seen by them as one-off lunatics that didn't need to be made examples of, after all, how many other people, they thought, are actually jumping off buildings in the middle of the night? So basically the less we talked about it the more we could get away with it. This is when the first few people who didn't care about BASE, and only wanted fame for themselves, began to use B.A.S.E. jumping for the publicity it garnered themselves and the term Gloryhound was coined. In general the only “legal” B.A.S.E. jumping in the States at the time was at Bridge Day. And it had been an annual event since the late 70s. But what really started to change things is jumping from cliffs in Europe exploded in the early 90s. Suddenly you could get on a plane, or even pull up stakes and move there, and your “legal” BASE worries were over. Around this time the first few BASE equipment manufactures also emerged from the shadows. As now they had a legal market in which to advertise. Knowing everything that went on in the early days of BASE is hard for any one person to know. Obviously a lot of what went on was done in secret. For instance. Just a few days ago someone posted to B.A.S.E.jumper.com about how cool it would be to jump the Washington Monument in DC as it had never been done! But I know personally that it has been done, wink-wink! I mention that because I've never heard of the Sear's Tower (now called the Willis Tower) in Chicago ever being successfully jumped. I know a few people who tried it and were caught, but that's it. Does it mean it hasn't been done? No, it just means it may have and we just never heard about it. So anyway, your guy may be telling you the truth, and just being a little fuzzy on the dates . . . NickD

Kiss, Kiss, Kiss . . . NickD

All the stuff I've written here and more so over on the BASE side gets short shifted (I know most of it is over your heads ) so I do this stupid little video on the new EMS TV show called Trauma and it's going virile. If i knew 12-year old humor was the hot ticket I would've concentrated more on that. I even heard from Dr. Byron Bledsoe about it. You EMS types may know of him as he writes all the Brady EMS textbooks. He loved the video so much he passed it on to Randolph Mantooth. He was Johnny Gage in the old, and still best, TV show about EMS called EMERGENCY. If I hear from Johnny I'll have a syncope episode (I'll faint, for you layman) . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3_wLWcdLIE NickD

Actually it does. Go rent Faces of Death. On second thought don't, just take my word for it . . . NickD

Happy B-Day, Sweetheart! All Chicks Rock. But you Roll too! NickD

>>I'll bet we never see it again. Julia took it over and painted it Pink!!

>>Aff takes an hour and a half. Tandem 20 minutes with almost no training. Both pay the same. You ask how can i have an appointment and still not jump? Duhhh we're overbooked thats why. When asked what could be done about the aff situation my answer is simple.... Don't offer the aff program at skydive suffolk. Nobody wants to teach em anyways.

I'm sorry, I know it's wrong, and I'll feel guilty the rest of the day, but this has me in tears of laughter . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFw804DAt9U NickD

>>I really am sorry that I opened my mouth before talking to the owner.

I'm glad the OP got things worked out, but it brings up a larger issue (at least with me) I've never been a fan of up-front bucks programs in any form of aviation training. These types of operations (skydiving, flight training, paragliding/hang gliding, etc) are just too weather, equipment, and instructor availability dependent to allow things to go as advertised. Admittedly, with skydiving training, at a well established, well staffed, warm weather location it works somewhat better, but still not completely well. And for the same reason it doesn't work well in flight training. Many flight school come-ons say "Get your private pilot's license in X hours for one low price!" The problem is most people take longer than X hours getting ready for the FAA check ride. And the fine print says you pay extra for those additional hours. In skydiving people gulp down the sales brochure. "Our AFF course will have you skydiving in just seven jumps for one low price!" It may even say "levels" instead of "jumps". But pre-jump students just can't make an informed decision. And I run into more former students who say they wished they hadn't pre-paid than people who were satisfied with it. In a way this deal is the closest we (all of us) get to being "Skyride" like and it's very accepted. A person may save the price of a student jump ticket if you don't repeat any levels, but how many do that? And if the DZO wears the Management/Instructor hat at the same time very few of them will. "Yeah, that last turn wasn't quite crisp enough, let's do that one over, it's for your own good, ya know." So who speaks for students? The FAA and Part 105 takes care of the safety side of things, but nobody pays much attention to making sure students are getting a square deal. Some will say it's buyer beware and all that. And okay, that's fine down at Joe's used car lot, but for me, and I'm sure others, I see skydiving students differently. You see it here on these boards. "Where do I go for my first jump?" "How do I make my first jump?" "Is my Instructor telling me right?" Not to mention how many questions are asked that someone at their particular level shouldn't be confused about. The worst thing I saw in my travels was the DZO using this innovative scam. He made a deal with a local loan company (I think he was related to the company president by marriage or something). And while the students were in class, or up in the air, in addition to typing up first jump certificates, he'd also be running credit checks and typing up loan papers. And as soon as a first jump student touched down, before they could even catch their breath, they were presented with the "deal". "Hey, we'll finance all the rest of your student jumps plus brand new gear! All you gotta do is sign right here!" The interest rate was high and the gear, while safe enough, was an off brand with little to no re-sale value. But aside from that you can see the problem here. A euphoric first jump student is being taken advantage of in a big way. Christ, hand them a beer, not a loan contract! Sometimes I think it's time for some of us old timers, and there are more than few on this board that would be good at it, to hang out a shingle that says, "Skydiving Student Advocate". Maybe it should be a new rating and sponsored by USPA (if we could get them out of bed with the DZOs). And they could provide a website called Straight Scoop for Students where vetted and rated advocates could answer student's questions directly. Yeah, that's never going to happen. I'm just dreaming now . . . NickD

I've mentioned it a few times over the years . . . Across the street at BJ.com you can use embedded photos? I might be wrong but wouldn't embedding use less bandwidth (if that's the issue) as the images reside on Photobucket's (or some similar site's) server? There is one advantage to the current method. And that's the content stays intact over the years. Look at any forum that's been around a long time using embedded images and a lot of the early stuff disappears when people lose or close their photo hosting accounts. On the other hand doing it via attachment may legally give Namemedia some ownership/use rights over images that are posted. Haven't read the fine print so I'm not sure about that one. NickD

http://www.break.com/index/hilarious-answering-machine-message.html NickD

All of Carl Boenish's films are being restored right now as we speak. The master reels (some over 30 years old and not stored correctly) are in bad shape. I have a friend working on the project who's assisting Jean Boenish. And the word is all of it will be available in the near future. NickD

Harley Powell, right before he tracked into the ground at Perris, left a doozie of a note. I found it in his van along with $900 in cash. The police took possession of both. If there was a suicide note hall of fame Harley's would be displayed right in the main room. NickD

That was indeed the very ever first 50-way at Lake Elsinore in (I believe) 1978. I saw it from the ground. And it was an amazing feat back in those days. While I was looking up at it someone nearby said, "Man, that's a blot!" And that was probably the first time that word "Blot" was applied to skydiving . . . NickD

I was reading an article about Richard Strandlof, the guy who faked being an Iraq war veteran and who actually ran a veteran's organization for a while before he was found out. And I followed a link in the piece to a site that sells all kinds of ID cards. And one of the cards caught my eye. http://www.nles.com/store/catalog/Certified_Parachutist_ID_Card-p-261.html I gotta get me one of these! Should be a guaranteed poontang getter down at the local bar . . . ROTFL !!! NickD

Saturday morning surprise . . . I found a litter of kittens in the backyard out by the old shed. At first I thought there was just two, then I saw another, and another. NickD

You are "blame shifting." If there weren't thieves in the world we wouldn't need lawyers! NickD

Can't wait to hear the Top Ten List tonight . . . NickD

Way to stand up! Bro . . . NickD

Two words. Altitude Awareness. NickD

Yes, I know who they where. And I was madly in love with Dana. I confess. But I always looked away whenever she was around so you wouldn't stick a shank in me . . . NickD

I said someday, not today . . . NickD

I was Yong's AFF Instructor! And I'm very proud of her and what's she's accomplished since then . . . NickD

I got one of those for doing a bandit night jump. Except mine included a fine they said would settle the matter. I ignored it. But I framed the letter . . . NickD