JohnnyUtah

Just got my new Hanwags delivered to my door and Im wearing them right now as a matter of fact. Man are they sweet! This will make my Norway adventure all that much better.

Umm, gee, everyone posting on this forum has gone fully public. This is the World Wide Web. Look at the number of post I make. I dont post that much. Sad thing is, sometimes when I share knowledge with people they tell me to post it, but I dont because certain people will just pick it apart and flame. You know what Im talking about Mark. I dont want to start any kind of pissing match, never have. I would like it to end. Sometimes what you consider funnin is going too far, especially when you make false accusations. Tree, if you really meant what you said there, then Im all about burying the hatchet. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Ok sure, we dont get to vote who the moderators are or what the rules are. However I think that moderators of a credible forum should be consistent in the way they moderate. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Faber, havent you noticed that Tom plays favorites and is unfair as far as who and what he deletes or what threads he locks, etc. He is playing politics and being wrong to some people. How can you respect the fact that he censors us BASE jumpers according to his will? Censorship is wrong! He has no good excuse. He is guilty of flaming people himself. What really sucks is that since he is the moderator of the BASE Zone, he deletes threads and posts just because he doesnt like them, even if the post do not break any rules. On the other hand he allows certain people to make personal attacks against others repeatedly. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

And he(Tom) performed an extreme act of censorship on his fellow BASE jumpers. And it was wrong! Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Hey Zennie, Youre a cool guy. Would you mind clarifying that for us a bit? When you say Who do you mean by he? You do mean the Lord, Right? If any man should be credited for saying It should be Carl Boenish. After all he is the one who came up with the acronym BASE and started calling it BASE jumping. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

First time I ever heard of Carl Boenish I saw him on TV 20 years ago. If I remember correctly it was the Wide World of Sports. They were jumping in Norway shortly before he passed away. The TV episode made a huge impression on me as a young lad...very inspiring. I wish I would have had the chance to meet him too. In the 2001 world cup in Malaysia I got to wear his old helmet during the whole event. For me, it was a privilege and an honor. I have Mark Hewitt to thank for that. Jason, thanks for reminding us of what today is. BASE brotherhood is good!!! Spread the love.

Im interested to know where this wind report comes from. Perhaps it comes from the airport which is what, about 8-10 miles away. Some of the wind figures on the report are not reflective of what the winds were at the visitor center, the bridge, and in the canyon. Tom you called me at 6:22am on Sunday morning and said you had just returned from the bridge. We were there at 7:20 am and the wind was very calm. Right away I called down to Don who was in his boat by the landing area and he said the wind was 1-2 mph. The wind on the top was about 3-5 mph. We did the first jump right away and the wind was basically calm. This was definitely the sweet window for jumping. Conditions were prime. We did two rounds before the winds started really picking up and that was around 9:30-10:00 am. There were some jumpers there that early but not a whole lot. A lot of jumpers seemed to show up right when the wind started picking up. For those who may be unfamiliar with the weather trends there, here is what I have noticed. I have been jumping that bridge since the mid-90s and on many occasion when a day is windy, the sunset usually gets real nice and the early mornings are often decent. Also you will probably notice that the weather can change drastically multiple times in a single day there. Hopefully we will have better weather Labor Day and next Memorial Day. Thanks for all the fun jumps. Great visuals on some jumps as well. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

PM sent Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Right on!! Congrats to both of you!!! Brit, I had a blast jumping with you at TF. Sweet visuals. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

I teach people that they should not jump with the wind going down the wire. I also explain why and the dangers involved. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Tree... Knock Knock Is anybody home??? Wakey Wakey pal. Read the first post keeping in mind what it is that we do... Tree, why do you always have to be dissing people and trying to find fault in people? You were so busy trying to find fault in FIREFLYR that you totally missed it. Whats up with the security_dork.net bit? Seriously dude, why dont you chill the freak out and quit being such a Nancy Negative. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Here is a link to a post I made a while back about doing your first gainer. How to train for a gainer? Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Here you go zootoggles. The d-bag video can be found in the Library section of my website. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Something high enough to gain enough airspeed to recover (800 feet or higher would be ideal). BD is a good place to try your first. Maybe a tall tower in the right wind conditions. 486 is not that high if you should have a problem. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

I did two of them from a twin otter. The direct bag parachute was a round and was a third parachute. They were intentional cutaways for some test jumps doing research. The way it was done was the skydiving rig was packed normal. Then the rounds risers(3-rings) were attached next to the mains 3-rings on the same large rings on the harness. This seemed unorthodox to me but Mark Hewitt said it would work and he was right, it worked great. In the plane the rounds risers were routed over my shoulder in front of me, and the round was packed into a d-bag. The d-bag was held by Casey D. and I think it was also hooked to the plane by a static line. I did a poised exit facing Casey. The round came out real clean and had plenty of room below the tail. Each riser on the round had its own cutaway cable that I reached up and pulled with each hand. The first jump I cutaway only one side first because I always wanted to see what that was like. The round streamered for a while and then re-inflated as the cutaway lines got tangled with the other lines. I floated around for about five minutes and then cutaway the other riser. The second jump I cutaway both risers simultaneously. Would you like to see some video of it? Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Hey everybody going to the Memorial Day Boogie, If you were there last year you know Don Mays put on a great cook out on Saturday. He is planning on doing it again this year and will also have a drawing for prizes, which are donated from various businesses in Twin Falls and also from BASE gear manufacturers. During the same time, the Twin Falls community will be having a ceremony/festival for the presentation of a new statue of Ira Perrine, the rancher that moved to Idaho in 1883, who the Perrine Bridge is named after. There will be a lot of people there this year including IDOT (Idaho Dept of Transportation). Most of the community likes us but there are some folks in high places that are opposed to the BASE activities. Don is asking a few things from the BASE jumpers. Be a good friendly example around the spectators (dont swear, dont be rude or crude, dont litter). Try to do your packing down at the bottom in the marina park. Please dont be reckless. No jumping off cliffs. Dont take too long of delays that you smack the water extra hard and get hurt. Dont try your first gainer or new aerials from this Bridge (486 feet is not that high). People have ended up in the hospital from the last two items mentioned and we really dont want all these spectators or IDOT to see the carnage of someone getting badly hurt or killed. Not to mention how bad it sucks for the BASE community when there is an incident. Of course please follow the other rules of the Bridge that have been in place for a while now which are: no standing on the rail and no jumping from the steel. I will be there all week and Marcia will be coming for the weekend. We look forward to seeing many friends again and also meeting some new people.

Gee Tree, Im just not feeling the love. Why are you always so negative to so many people by putting people down and making false accusations? Fact is, you have said some really ignorant things in the past. For example: When I read this post of yours, I was astonished by its degree of ignorance, yet I didnt post a reply and put you down over it like you do to so many others. I hope youre feeling better these days after hooking-it-in and getting all busted up on that recent BASE jump. The ground has a way of teaching respect doesnt it. Even though you are always flaming people, I hate to hear about any fellow BASE jumper getting hurt. The thing is Mark, your flaming ways are getting tired and old. You are quite the Nancy Negative these days. Get over yourself and let people have fun doing their thing. Yeah, I like promoting the Utah Drop. Its RAD!!! BTW- I have done lots of firsts. Spread the love. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Yea, BASE jumping rules!!!

The Utah Drop is a hardcore move. I did this move long before the Tahoe guys even knew what ram-air parachutes were. The Utah Drop is an under move just like the McConkey Flip is an over move. Only difference is I actually pioneered the unknown whereas Shane repeated what the paraglider pilot had already done. Dont get me wrong…I think Shane is a great guy and a great BASE jumper. In fact we were on a team together at Bridge Day 2000 and took second place. I tend to call rollovers McConkey Flips, and likewise I call this move a Utah Drop. Tom A., dont talk like you know so much about it when you dont. There are more factors involved that you have not mentioned nor considered. People, this move is dangerous! Be careful! One of the major factors involved is rotors and turbulence caused by the object. Proper timing of the exit is very important. Also, you probably should not jump with your parachute in a ball of garbage like the wind tends to blow it into. Common sense has always told me that this would increase the chance of a malfunction or severe line twist. CrazyThomas, you can time your exit to leave when its pulling you off but just be aware that the chute can suddenly blow back under you in certain wind-shadow (rotor) conditions. Exit timing is critical. I personally like to leave when the canopy is moving outward. Plus I really like falling right past my canopy in the most sickest way. Makes for some gnarly visuals and wacky thoughts. As far as the heading goes, it can be really unpredictable. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Here are a couple shots I took of my sweetie on location. The first one is right after Marcia got her E at Kjerag in 1999 and the second is at the waterfall in Switzerland 01.

I agree with Yuri. If the parachute is not packed, then it is not a BASE jump but rather a paragliding launch, sometimes very unorthodox. Perhaps one would consider a WAD as being packed but just deployed in a very unique way. If you had a chance to see Huge at Bridge Day last year you might have notice a move I like to call a Utah Drop. Its basically when you exit the object dropping under your unpacked canopy. Usually dropping between the canopy and the object. In the clip I showed at Bridge Day I was in TF dropping between my canopy and the bridge but the first one I ever did was back in 1986 from a cliff in Provo, Utah. Back in those days I was basically a psychotic air-junkie. I had been experimenting with flying my 7-cell ram-air canopy off of slopes. Now this was before the arrival of paragliding. A skydiving buddy Mike Thompson and I were planning on doing some launches off a cliff one day in Utah County, Utah. Due to variable winds my canopy ended up blowing over the edge. I intentionally dropped off going into freefall for a second. Lucky for me I ended up flying away from the cliff since I had not made any BASE jumps yet and would have had to figure out a rapid heading correction by the seat of my pants. Mike ended up hiking down after watching it. The thing about the Utah Drop is that the heading is uncontrollable so you could easily die doing it from a cliff or a building. Also, the risk of a malfunction is probably higher. Here is some Video of two different Utah Drops found in the Library section of my website. Enjoy! Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

It's worth noting that this video is a re-edit of Will Forshay's excellent Lemmings Extreme video, collected by Will over the course of many Bridge Days. After Will's death, Johnny re-edited and re-released the footage, presumably after making some kind of arrangement with Will's family. Actually, Will Forshays Lemmings Videos are great the way they are and I would not re-edit any of his productions. The Bridge Day Safety Video is its own production with its own format and purpose. I created this video to use as a visual aid during the Safety Briefing I gave at last years Bridge Day. To create this video I thought of the many things that can go wrong during a BASE jump at Bridge Day and searched for video clips from multiple years of Lemmings videos to give examples of each. The first part of the video is meant to be a wake-up call. The second part of the video is structure in a way to aid me during the safety briefing. It goes through each problem that can occur one by one giving multiple examples of each. After each section there is a space to allow me to pause the tape and give a briefing about that situation. Some of the problems covered are malfunctions while some of them have to do with pilot error. Jason Bell has had a malfunction document on his website for years now which serves as a good reference. Dexter was working on a similar document before he went overseas. For another reference I will be happy to post a document that is reflective of my safety briefing given at Bridge Day. It will cover all the topics shown on the video plus additional advice that I can offer. I do have an arrangement with Will Forshay’s family and they are pleased that his footage can be used to promote safety in the BASE community. Every BASE jumper should see this video! The Bridge Day Safety Video can be ordered at: JohnnyUtah.com OR Vertical Visions Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com

Hey brother, Marcia and I have been thinking of you. So glad to hear you are ok. We hear about battles on the news everyday. Keep making those quick decisions and come back home alive. Im really looking forward to jumping with you again. Trevor is growing fast. He crawls like a pro, can stand on his own while hanging on to something and even started saying a couple words. Im sure he will enjoy doing some more BASE jumping with you. Here is a recent picture of him. Stay alive! We love you bro. Johnny Utah

I prefer 15 to 84 to TF. The speed limit is 75 mph once you pass North Ogden. Have Fun, Don't Die! Johnny Utah My Website email:johnny@johnnyutah.com