TVPB

Put yourself in the judges shoes. If you are looking at a 2 way sequential video, and you are unsure of a clear break or not, would you consider busting the point? Your best bet is to make it obvious, and talk to the judges. Lindy R from Oz will be able to help. She was meet director for the last World Cup and has done lots of world meet judging. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

You've made some outer extremity of bell curve assumptions here. You are saying that a s/l hook up is 20 x more likely on a pin rig? A pin rig will fail if: - the closing loop tension is far too high. This can be caused by: - mismatch between canopy and container volumes (i.e. big canopy in small container). - poor packing (messy, uneven distribution of materials, etc). - an exaggerated de-arched body position on exit / deployment. - etc. - An unstable body position could theoretically cause bridle / pin entanglement. - Packing error (pin / bridle entanglement, directional placement of pins, etc). Many people adjust gear configs for s/l pin rig jumps as follows: - ensure gear compatability - prime the pins - curve the pins up and towards the most likely pull direction - have velcro tabs for the bridle to run away from the pins (so it does not flap around them) - open the flap - etc Here is the important bit. Pin rigs are fine - IF THEY ARE USED CORRECTLY. That is why gear knowledge is a very important aspect of BASE jumping. But since so many people do not believe this, your statement about veclro rigs only becomes a little more valid. One of the major reasons for the introduction of velcro is simplicity and reduced variation (cf pins and forces). Variation is a killer. And if you do not know what you are dying it becomes a higher probability killer. wrt the above incident, if you don't check your gear properly before climbout, during climbout, after climbout / before exit, it does not matter whether you have pins or not. Remember skydiving = pin check prior to donnig your gear, pin check on jump run, protect your handles, blah blah blah. THIS IS ALL RELEVANT. And on a windy day (when you shouldn't really be jumping ), the chance of gear entanglement becomes greater and your ability to inspect and control it at the exit point becomes less. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

You spelled chump incorrectly. The chump with the plump bump on the front would love to do a jump off some hump and then dump and touch down on his rump with a thump on some grassy clump or wooden stump. Give me a call. Better still, I'll give you one. I need to visit someone special.............. p.s. where = busy with life as usual. Luv your work. xoxoxo Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

And now you are generalising. There are some intellectually challenged / uneducated jumpers who stuff up too. There is an old cliche: Gravity does not discimminate!. The amount of information in your head has an insignificant affect on your wing loading. So the educated ones probably fall at the same rate as the non-educated. And more than likely feel the same pain. Being a "know it al", is a personality trait, not something you learn at University. I am what I am regardless of how much I learn. It is possible that I may be influenced by egocentric peers, but in the end it is up to me to act the way I act. Yours Sincerely Moir BE BSc JP PHd ABC Def GHI JKL MNO pqr stu vwxyz Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Oxford huh? Perhaps you should join the DSP - M Lister was the founder I think. Unless you are already a member. The book is a good read. Includes an interesting story about the Cliffs of M in your neighbouring country. Yeah, I've got multiple paperwork too. There are lots of us, including many of our all time greats (rip). But the best thing is this: on the edge it does not matter!!! We are all created equals, and that is how we are whilst undertaking the activity. Perhaps some of us are more equal than others??? Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Onya 7. Howabout some practice ones at our local before you go? Welcome back. xoxoxoxoxoxo TB Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Congrats to K & N - baby girl Zoelle, born on 27 Jun 06. xoxoxoxo Tom Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Cool. DW and I did Europe together in 98. I hung around for an extra few weeks as he had work commitments and had to leave. I on the other hand also had work commitments but I was not very committed!!!!! This is when we checked out the 9k jump but did not go. I came back soon thereafter and did it by myself. I had to beat DW at something..... For 99, DW and I only did Norway together - I came later as I had commisssioning work on an engineering project. The rest of Europe DW travelled with other Aussies before Norway, I went there after our Norway adventures. That is when I did the c car. So it sounds like you did it a few weeks before me. This is all under the proviso that my memory serves me correctly. The Dam Skysurf jump I was not there for. All the other aussies were. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

cf attached -> You cheeky temptress!!!!!!! Aero is amazing fun. And what a place to do it... I did some high speed, variable topo + flora, ground level, chopper flights recently. It scared the living crap out of me. I love flying relative to things. It really gives you a true perspective of what you are doing. Stereotype is how the media portrays us AND more importantly, how we portray ourselves to the media. Depending on YOUR objectives and what you actually do in the sport, and who you hang with, you do have some control over the perception that the media and/or general public has of you. BASE can be another feather in your cap. Just make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. How would I explain myself or the sport? I currently have no need to. It is a personal thing for me and I do not need anyone to understand or accept what I am doing or why I am doing it. I have no need to justify my existance. What do I think about contemporary BASE? It is a different animal to 10 years ago. It is evolving from a sub culture to a mainstream activity. Whilst it is wonderful having more people to share my passion with, it is also disconcerting (but inevitable) that I am having to share my personal space with many more people. The sport seems to attract a lot of people who are both consciously and subconsciously opposed to the new world order that we are living in. They want to experience freedom, excitement, camerarderie, adventure, etc. All the things that may be deficient or missing from their daily lives. There are many high achievers in the sport: academics, techno boffins, doctors, lawyers, aerobats, pro sports people, engineers, etc. There are also bums, nomads, sea changers, motivators, druggo's, etc. Most people who are conscientious seem to portray a high level of professionalism in what they do. Most jumpers are very systematic - this is a VERY transferable skill to general society. Their is a degree of independance, intelligence, rapid decision making ability, rapid response to changing situations, etc. I think BASE today is a combination of an outlet for high achievement and self expression, as well as an acitivity that lures a monority of individuals destined for the afterlife due to lack of self control. Most of the participants are amazinf individuals in their own right. There are parts of society that don't like BASE due to it's inherent characteristic of personal independance. This is something our society is moving away from. Society wants to control and BASE jumping is the antithesis of where man is heading. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Geez, no wonder why I don't fit in. I'm old, "vincible", know I'm dumb, giving, married with kids, choose my poisons, contributor to society. What activity / sport do you recommend instead?? Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Interesting initial post. Obviously not from a political wordsmith!!!!!! Are you saying you can't be careful because it is BASE jumping? I think care is a matter of choice to some extent. Not a forgone conclusion one way or another. Is it so bad for someone to say " take care mate"? DW wrote an article quite a few years ago: http://miller28.server101.com/discus/articles/golong.html Talk about irony huh? My opinion for those that care, jumping to conclusions (pardon the pun) wrt incidents is something you must be wary of. dploi was much more tactful in what I think trae was trying to express. Ignoring lessons from the past can be to your detriment as well. You must also manage your risks when you actually jump. But the beauty of being human is just that. We are human.. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Some theoretical info to start with: http://ozcrw.tripod.com/training.htm#BegTheory But as everyone has said, it does not beat practical tutoring from people in the know. Some ways to reduce costs: - get your club / DZ to assist with sponsorship. - have a fund raiser. - get a group of people organised to chip in together to pay for a tutor. - sell something. - change you spending priorities (how important is that next piss up). Paying a little extra for tutored jumps will mean a lot to the development of your parachuting skills. 5 jumps with an experienced tutor/instructor is like 25 jumps by yourself - and you still may not have it right after 25 jumps. Faster, but controlled progression is payed back many times over by the skills you develop earlier and the fun you have. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Both amazing jumps. See my photo attached for the c car jump in 1999. It was my last jump with #49 from NDG list. You can just barely make him out in the bottom left corner. Very nice bloke and sorely missed. Some tips. There is evening warmth in technology built on the Mt and with the other jumpers. Lay hidden until the paths of transport intersect. It was interesting spotting. We had no dramas and great advice from a local / world legend. Thanks JM. With this spotting technique you comfortable make one of the meadows below adjacent to a road. http://tomarent.tripod.com/picture.htm is where this version of the photo came from. p.s. The other side I did solo. DW and I checked it out for only a day but had to depart due to a tight schedule. I had to come back. What an amazing canopy ride. My heart was pounding out of my head from the time I made the decision until I was flying over the valley. r.e. the comment about canopy flight being boring, we all do jumping for different reasons and there is no right and wrong reason. I had great fun on the canopy compnent of the car jump as I was doing some basic contact CRW and talking about our adventure whilst still undertaking it. Half the fun in jumping are the stories afterwards. This long canopy ride brought amazing Alp scenery, and stories during the jump. The canopy ride from the other one was also amazing as the locals did not seem to know of anyone jumping that point beforehand (the car had been jumped on this side of the valley but lower down). I also LOVE nature and the visuals it brings, glaciers, mountains, the expressions and emotions of shocked / amazed people, the demo towards town, having my very personal space under canopy for about 15 minutes to contemplate how scared I was, etc. It's all good. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

We did that one in 1998!!! Several people did it in 1999, and a few more have done it since. What a canopy flight. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Comp rules and dive pool at: http://ozcrw.tripod.com/comp_2way_sequential.htm Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

That's because you're a crusty old timer. With the ever increasing numbers, a reducing percentage but growing absolute amount will actually contribute to the sport in positive ways. i.e. 10 years ago there was 500 jumpers of which 100 contributed to the technical advancement of the sport. Now there is 5000 jumpers and 200 people contributing to the sport. in 10 years it will be 20000 jumpers with 500 people contributing to the sport. Your assertion is that the gene pool is diluting. On average, this may be a correct assumption. But the total number of people contributing to the sport is increasing. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Thanks for the information & learnings. Condolences to everyone involved, family, friends, and yourself. Keep your chin up. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Time and action brings experience. More jumpers means that there are more jumps beig made and more experiences occuring. Instead of having 5 people attempting to create everything, you have 500 people creating. Hence, it takes less time for the experience to develop or if the same time is expended by each person, the collective experience pool is built at a much faster rate. So, you are correct. Another poster made the comparision with skydiving. BASE is a bit different in that the structure is much more fluid and the ability to control who learns what and who does what is a lot more difficult. What do I mean? If we learn something new in skydiving, we can institute it via regulation and enforcement by qualified people. i.e. instructors can force people to follow rules set by parachuting organisations. There will always be holes in the system but 99% of people are covered. BASE is a different beast. In theory, anyone can do almost anything they want, almost anywhere they want. So instead of forcing people to "be safe", the participants have to choose to "be safe". The sport also attracts a higher percentage of "free spirited anarchists" who increase the likelihood that incidents will happen. So, it is true to say that the increasing numbers will increase the skill base and advance the sport. But it will also continue to attract a percentage that will not follow or heed the learnings. The other factor is that many members of todays time deficient society will not absorb all the learnings. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Regarding accidents: I might go in tomorrow. Well, maybe not at the rate I am currently jumping at. Anyway, if I do something dumb. I don't want you to do the same thing. OK!!! That is what I am getting at. Each to their own. We are all adults, we are free to make decisions. And we are each responsible for the outcome. You, me, everyone else. You have the opportunity to know most of the hazards. The fundamentals are out there. You choose to learn them or not. Yes. Most potential stuff ups have already happened. Your objective is to learn from others experiences. Not to go through them all yourself. OK. So lets cut the bullshit. This might be a nugget. Leave your brain at work, and your head will make less mess when . . . . . Nobody becomes brilliant / excellent at something by chance and without hard work. BASE is not the place to stop thinking. Chill out after the jump. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

You're either fishing, or you're in a predicament that you need to resolve away from the worlds objects. Either way, you are making a lot of false assumptions, generalisations, etc about the jumping community. Most of us are here for the exact opposite reason that you mention. WE ARE HERE TO LIVE!!!!!!!!! AND MOST OF US WANT TO DO IT IN A REASONABLY CONTROLLED MANNER. MANY OF US ARE HERE TO MANAGE RISK AND ACHIEVE/SATISFY OTHER OBJECTIVES THAN THE ONES YOU MENTION. A death wish it is not. Are there suicidal jumpers? Of course. There is one prominant person who had similar thoughts to the ones you are promoting. But in general, it is not a contrived suicide pact. Good Luck with it all. p.s. there are many wonderful things to do, see, feel, touch, smell, experience, etc in this world. Search a little harder both within yourself and external to yourself and you will find amazing things in this life. Don't waste it. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

More deaths are certain. But "not really preventable"??? You are totally and utterly incorrect. Based on the info on the list (which may be incorrect ???): #100 - the proverbial "pin check". Actual bridle check. #99 - incorrect initiation of deployment sequence (p/c throw). #98 - unsure, but too close to wall. #43 had an unstable exit followed by incorrect recovery technique which left him too close to the wall. That wall gobbles people up - jumpers and climbers alike. #97 - slider up short delay with it's inherent issues leading to off heading. #96 - unstable exit. #95 - reaction time, 40 jumps, BASE school. #94 - packing aid left on p/c. #93 - OD - the BASE equivalent of an OD!!! #92 - unstable exit and heading control. #91 - unstable at deployment time - low pull. #90 - heading control. #89 - no pull a/c instability on WS. #88 - plan Z jump instead of walkign away. #87 - unstable + low pull. #86 - poor visibility + low pull. etc. c.f. Nicks comments about personal perceptions when reading the above. Now, some of these could happen to any of us. I have an old saying which I think is apt in this discussion. "Each incident was preventable, every accident is not". In laymans terms, we usually can tell what happened in hindsight, but it is hard to stop all bad things happening using foresight. So the best solution is to do your best. Arm yourself with knowledge, skills, experiences, and mentors who can positively contribute to your BASE career. Do things the right way. Stay safe. Have Fun. make your own luck. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

This is how the late great DW would have done it. 1 - Find 15 friends (or anything with a pulse and insane desire to fall off stuff). 2 - make up 15 straws and shorten one of them. 3 - make the short one easiest to access and stick out a little more than the others. 4 - when the inevitable happens and someone else draws the short straw, make a huge song and dance out of it. That way, they feel pressure to continue the trend of short straw drawers having an accident. 5 - psych them out on a regular basis, but especially before the next jump. 6 - sing the "bounce, bounce, bounce" song just before they start their exit count. 7 - once they go in, you are home and hosed. There are 14 humanoids left and one spare rig. Enjoy your jumping future. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

To ZegeunerLeben Here are a few lessons. I have S/L two people without any p/c attached. I trust with my own experience that I will do the job - AND I use double redundancy (hand held + S/L). The two people also trusted me implicitly. HOWEVER, I WILL NOT TRUST ANYONE ELSE TO DO IT FOR ME. No matter if they are way better than me, or way worse. I will walk down. I want that big p/c attached to my bridle regardless. Why? Because in the end, my life is my responsibility. And it is up to me to manage my own risks. There is a jumper who asked a taxi driver to hold his p/c off a 50 m bridge!!!!!!! The taxi driver had never seen a jump before. Would you do this??? In the end he hung on for dear life, the bridle burned his hands, and the canopy was distorted quite a bit (not such a good thing from 50m), but the principal remains. p.s. this is harder to achieve when you are inexperienced. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

FUNDAMENTALS!!!! Sad. Condolences to all involved. And that is ALL OF US!!! Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Who bent the mountain and fjord????? Nice. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.