lifewithoutanet

Not without prior skydiving training... Or at least some canopy time under a paraglider. If not that, you better be an acrobatic pilot, a 16 year old girl, or a bag of dog food. Without any of those qualities, you're just asking for trouble. -C.

That's not bold. That's being true. If you can't be friends because they don't reciprocate the feelings you have for them, then it's not love. It's lust or infatuation, but not love. -C.

Is this part of the conversation I missed while I was catching up tonight? -C.

Can't fault him for not expecting support from here, but you can count on a pledge from me. Go Miles. -C.

For a short while, I began to think that BASE had ruined certain parts of my life, as well. Nothing else felt as fun as it had before I started BASE jumping and the days following a jump rode an exponential curve from the highest highs to the bottom of a toilet in a shitty, basement, studio apartment without a view. BASE was all I thought about, all I wanted to think about and at times, all I talked about. This proved particularly difficult when I just couldn't explain it to non-jumpers. When I got over myself, it served to enhance everything... I can appreciate the passions of non-jumpers, regardless of what they are (well, almost). I re-found passion in those things in my life which had lost their luster on account of BASE. It heightened my appreciation for and experiences outside of jumping. It may have been what was missing all along, but it brought other pieces of me back to life, rather than replacing them. Your experiences may differ...and I think that's one of the things I love most about BASE. -C.ya

Dude, Jason does a good job of organizing the event, but it's not THAT organized. You should be fine with just the one slot. -C.

Who the fuck are you and what have you done w/ Abbie, bitch!?!? -C.

Well said, Dennis...but man, I can't wait for Abbie to get a hold of this post. The anticipation of his response is killing me. -C.

What the deuce? Don't you have some freefall and exit skills to work on? -C.

Marty, You're a class act, man. It was a pleasure meeting you over Labor Day weekend. -C.

There is? Which vid? Russel sat on a d-bag containing a 50 sq ft round (used for recovery of big-ass model rockets) it was attached to the chair by 1/4 inch tubular webbing, and clipped to another piece of webbing between his leg straps. Gravity did the rest. Yours truly. -C.

Third. Wait...huh...what? Let's back up a second... -C.

Yeah...and the funny thing is, Russel's disproving a lot of this. I don't look at him and think, "It sucks that he can't..." I look at him and think, "It kicks ass that he does". Well, we got that pretty well covered w/ the platform and that is something the town and IDOT have approved. -C.

If I'm reading you right (my Faberspeak has gotten rusty since I saw you a few weeks ago ), this reminds me of the Brittish Alpinist, Alison Hargreaves. When she died on K2 in the early 90's, there was an uproar of criticism because she left two young children behind. "How could she be so selfish?!?!?!" Countless fathers have died on K2...and they didn't face a fraction of the criticism. -C.

I gotta admit that Faber is onto something...and I don't think Russel will take any of this personally. Sitll, the differentiating factors in the jumps are recovery parachutes involved in one and not in the other, and to some extent, the preparation. When Miles hucked a bag of dogfood off the bridge under parachute (it takes serious kibbles to BASE jump ), no one went up in arms about it...because a parachute was involved, maybe? Everyone was arguing about training paraglider pilots at that time, if memory serves me right. This did spur an interesting personal debate for me, though. As the so-called "Stunt Russel", I was practicing taking his wheelchair off the deck at the visitors center, in order to practice a wheelchair stowed jump (after much convincing from the usual suspects). If I'd had a bit more than 50/50 success/failure rate of riding a wheelie off the deck, I'd have gone stowed to test out what would have happened--theoretically--when he goes to do it. Alas, I'm not that talented, so I didn't go. But what if I had? Otherwise, I think the debate is mostly spirit of the ethics [law] vs. letter of the ethics [law]...a debate we've proven incapable of settling on the Internet. Regardless of any of this, the fact remains that Russel is furthering the sport, not just doing stunts. He's kicking some serious ass along the way. -C. Edit to add: PS... "When the time comes that you people feel the need to tear someone apart I suggest you hold your fire until you know more about the facts and the people involved." I gotta agree with this, too.

No, we know...we just choose not to speak about it. -C.

Heard that from Clem and Denise (Sanders) after Jaap pulled himself onto the boat a few trips back. Didn't realize it was Dennis that coined it. I think that's probably my favorite BASE quote of all. -C.

Actually, I'm partial to the little whuffo kid you hear in the background at the beginning of the first clip: "Why don't they just push him off?" -C.

Quite a bit, actually. That round was designed for recovery of model rockets. And with a 5' diameter, I'm not talking about your ordinary ones made of cardboard and balsa wood. Where's the fun in that? Abbie exists for our amusement and abuse. Nick's replacement of a full beer with an empty one in Abbie's BOC was well done. -C.

I just uploaded a short series of clips from wheelchair jumps 1 and 2 to SkydivingMovies.com. The file is WheelchairBASE_med.wmv, entitled "Russel's Wheelchair Jumps". If anybody else who was in Twin over the weekend has footage of these jumps, please let us know. We'd like to get copies. Way to fcukin' go, Russel. Massive cajones. Well planned and executed. -C.

Well, Fuck. Note to self: Get the details before post-whoring your thoughts on the changes. From Yahoo News. -C.

The debate which will certainly surface is "Who gets to decide who can jump? And what if I don't agree with their policies?" Given the contentious nature of this community, let's just assume that someone, somewhere is going to "fuck it up for the rest of us" at least as far as our own personal opinions are concerned. I propose we skip that debate and focus more on the consequences of jumping without a permit/certificate if such a system comes to life. When climbing restrictions are imposed on certain routes at different times of year due to nesting, etc, and climbers climb the routes anyway, the climbers who are caught face their own charges. Let's put all the effort we'll put into making sure others "don't fuck it up for the rest of us" into preserving the current injustices of the NPS. At least in the current model, they charge the jumper, not the group. Targetting the individual is at least one thing we would want them to maintain. Not sure this is the direction I want it to go (regulation), but on first glance it does look like they might be making small concessions towards us... -C.

Who gives these out? The Jumping Ranger? -C.

While I don't agree with these methods of teaching, I don't view Jimmy's use of "test-jumper", "experiment" or whatever as a semantic error or crass, devil-may-care attitude. I actually find the blunt honesty refreshing. And probably pretty effective for a 16 year old and her parents. Also, for whatever it's worth, when Jimmy's had the time and has been able to sit down and really answer our questions, I think he's done so and done a pretty good job of it. Better than the one-liners or short quips all over this thread. Remember this when you're wondering why he hasn't responded immediately. Lastly...guess what! He changed his mind. And he didn't do it because of emotion or volume. Some people cautioned him about the legal ramifications, he sought advice and made a wise decision. He deserves credit for that much. No need to bookmark this thread. It will come back to life when Clair turns 18. -C.

Placing blame's not my point. You can discuss consequences of actions without placing blame. Nor do I, but I've decided that it's pointless for me to expect to change Jimmy or Clair's minds in this. Countless others have tried/are trying and I don't have anything else compelling or magical that might influence them and I can't expect volume to have an effect, either. Tree, on the other hand, I think does mean well and I'm just pointing out some differences that I have with his approach. On that it seems we agree. -C.