TVPB

I get the impression that the French were doing a lot of jumps a while ago and keeping a low international profile at the same time. Also, the first 1000 jump jumpers I met were French. Then came the Aussie/Yankie contingent. I have to add the proviso that I was snotty nosed teenager in the eighties. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Thanks mate. I am but an oily drop in the big BASE ocean. There are many greater than me. And I am sure I would learn more from you than you would from me. r.e. the BASE numbers. There is no real reason why not. I think that I was just subconsciously exercising my right to laziness. I guess another obscure reason is that I value the self reliance, independence, and personal responsibility thing. I like to have some aspect of my life where its just me - no other organisations/registrations/etc. Its kind of ironic that I have been to a number of organised BASE events. Overall, I think its all good. I would and actually do encourage people I know to get their BASE number. BTW - I have a secret burning desire to be BASE number 100000 (no typo - one hundred thousand ). That tells me I am going to be around for a long time and that there will have been many people introduced to the sport in the meantime. Just don't tell anyone in case they get the same idea. There was I am also secretly awaiting for Croatian BASE number 1. Robert???????? Do I have to send lots of Kuna over for this???? If you want to give it to someone else, that is fine by me too.

I have NO BASE number, but first completed BASE around 10 years ago. I have total respect for the early pioneers such as Carl Boenish, et al. I think getting a number is a personal choice. It is neither right, nor wrong. Even more so, no one has the right to tell another it is right/wrong. But I also think it is a wonderful thing to record history and the level of participation in the wonderful sport/activity. As long as Nick D DOES NOT give me a number, I will be a very happy man. I feel privileged to be a part of this sport, and I also believe that the sport is privileged to have welcomed so many beautiful people into its fold. There are MANY people without numbers who have qualified. Shamefully, there are a few people that have got a number that shouldn't have one. It is what it is. Enjoy. Respect.

Aaahh don't worry about it all. Your perception is your reality. If you are happy within your own heart and mind that something happened the way you think, then it did happen. Enjoy CRW.

I think dirt bikes can be just as dangerous as BASE. Our area of the world producers a huge number of world class riders. In fact, the current AMA champion (MM) is from here (also an in-law of mine). The highest paid motorcross rider in the USA is also from down under. There have been many accidents/injuries/deaths in that sport/activity over the years. Let me tell you about 4 years olds on motorbikes. They spend years learning to crawl and walk. Then they spend ages on 3 wheelers, then two wheelers with training wheels, then two wheelers, then mtorbikes. All along, there parents and/or coaches are guiding them. This is a little different to saying, here's a bike and a gnarly motorcross track kid, go for it. You are absolutely correct, it is her decision in the end. BUT WHY TEMPT HER??????? If someone offers a kid sex or drugs, do you think we could share the responsibility around a little? Or should we do something about the person who offers??? Yes, we already do. Laws have been made accordingly. BTW - its good to see that Jimmy is open enough to listen r.e. legal repercussion and has changed his stance a little. This shows that he does have an open mind. We just need to work on filling it with the correct information. Then he would be an awesome guy who showed his human side in the past and made one silly mistake. That would be a happy ending. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Perhaps you are correct r.e internet yelling. I can be a real arse (ass) sometimes when I get on my soapbox. But a total lack of respect for someone else's life is not human behaviour. Remember, the Americans are trying to catch those type of people in all parts of the world.

I AGREE TOTALLY

Agree totally Tom. What I am saying is that people need learn in a logical / sequential manner. If a person decides to go it alone or go from never seeing a parachute to wingsuit jumping severly underhung cliffs in 10 jumps, that is NOT learning in steps. IMHO - jumping without ANY prior parachuting experience is not the best overall teaching strategy. When you teach your course (I'd love to sit in one day), I bet you teach along the lines of: 1 - ethics 2 - show me your previous parachuting experience and show me that you have at least picked up XY skills 3 - equipment & configuration 4 - short/no delays with basic boxman /equivalent body position 5 - longer delays, BOC. etc etc And I think you are correct. It is better to learn more in a thorough course that will prepare you better for the real world. Purely because jumpers tend to be independant spirits. All the best. Stay Safe Have Fun Good Luck Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

If you were the parent of an injured/dead person, I am sure you would appreciate someone coming to your door and blankly saying. Your child is dead. Its all cool. (S)he was relaxed at the exit point just before going in. Never mind that your child missed a few learning opportunities prior to going on. The calmness was important. Every now and again, people need reality to slap them in the face BEFORE the consequences become too great. Being nicey, nicey all the time does not work for everyone. Ask JJ, Spacy Tracy, etc. The "incensed emotion" is a product of the total disregard for common sence, BASE ethics, and human life itself. "It was worth it". Come on. That is weally warped thinking! >>> You are right. He does not have to unlearn any bad habits. But the problem is, he actually may be teaching them from the in the first place!!! Lack of respect for human life is one of those bad habits!!!! I have made no real comment on his training program. I don't know the details. It may be wonderful. I am VERY concerned about his devil may care attitude of "it was with it" when referring to the question of how he would feel if his "experiment" as he called it, failed. No loss of human life is worth it when the end result is not beneficial to the advancement of mankind and has known results/outcomes already. This would be a simple case of repeating mistakes. I would not want my child ANYWHERE near him!!!!! You Sir, may think differently. Would you allow your kids to be trained by Jimmy? Honestly. Would you??????????? BTW - could you explain to me how the experiment / it was worth it angle is acceptable human behaviour??? I don't really understand your stance on that? p.s. I suggest you look up the word "SARCASM". You may have a clearer understanding of what/why I have written!!!!! Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Aaaahhh but its worth it. At least that is what Bubba Butt is saying. MMMmmmmmmm - white boy jailbait. Come over here and create a fluid removing vacuum around Momma's . . . . . . Some people never get it!!! Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

I wonder Jimmy?? If you partner was depressed and wanted to commit suicide, you would just let it happen and/or support that person? What if they wanted to make wild passionate love to a dead monkey whilst you watched? You'd probably say, hey, give it a go, who am I to discourage your individual freedom. Hey, what if they wanted to just kill somone??? So I'm guessing that you TOTALLY support terrorism too. Come on Jimmy, they just want peace for their people and to be considered as hero's. Who has the right to stop them. Now drink driving, that's heaps of fun. Don't worry about the potential innocent victims. What about. . . . . . . . . . .? >> I also wonder Jimmy - you have a survivor from a statistical pool of ONE person. And you think that validates your argument or proves your point? What if one person dies BASE jumping because they have no prior skill development program/experience (this has happened!!!!!!!). What does that prove to you? We already know that people have BASE jumped before they have skydived. YOU obviously don't know ANYTHING about the sport or its history if you are trying to prove something that we already know has happend but his just plain idiotic. My suggestion, leave science to other people who know how to systematically develop and implement thorough and reliable testing regimes. >> Aaaahhhh the journey of discovery and progression and development. After all, its worth every risk isn't it. Lets not worry about the potential of our experiment failing and robbing a persons family of their loved one. Lets not worry about potentially depriving this young person with so much zest for life the opportunity to live it for a long time and contribute something positive to this world. After all, you are just doing what the hell makes you feel good. That's it buddy. Your arse is satisfied. Congratulations on your fabulous, selfless, contribution to the sport. p.s. Personally, under highly specific circumstances, I am not opposed to BASE jumps first or younger people participating. But each person has to be judged on their merits. But considering the population as a whole, the combo you mention (young / no experience) is very dangerous for the average person and should not be condoned on a general level. Just my opinon. p.s..s edumacated - is that a word Tom A??? edit to remove personal attacks, and references to and threats of physical violence ~TA Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Hi PerFlare >>>>>> I partially agree and somewhat disagree. In the way that you see risk, anything we do in life may end up getting us killed or injured (my perception of what you are saying). In that sense, you can never be sure if that game of golf, that drive down the freeway, that restaurant meal, or whatever else you may be doing - could lead to your death. Control is certainly NOT an illusion. Again, in the context above, you can never be 100% in control of anything if you look at the absolute worst possible scenario. But you can maintain a VERY HIGH LEVEL of control in anything you do. The mere fact that we have some humans who can excel at something and others who are absolutely hopeless at the same thing, indicates that some of us do have a higher level of control - and conversely, others have a lower level of control. e.g. Roger Federer can blast a tennis ball from any angle back into a defined area of the court with the appropriate physics parameters. Occassionally, he does miss. If I tried to play Roger. . . . well. . . .lets just say that I would probably embarass myself. He has control, I don't. Believing that you can NEVER get killed on a BASE jump is a detrimental attitude as it may induce such characteristics as complacency. But believing that you may be dead on every jump is not really encouraging/rewarding/realistic/healthy either. Why in heavens name would any sane person want to put there life at risk on EVERY jump and suffer the anxiety that goes with it??? Some like this, most don't. Now, when you start pushing the limits of your skill and the development of the sport, sure, death is a consideration and an imminent possibility. But most mortal, sane human beings aren't in it for the afterlife. It is for this life. This is where the power of "NO" plays such a vital role in this sport. You can decide to limit the risk on a jump to a level that you are more likely to die from a heart attack caused by an attack by 1000 ravenous Amazonian sexual predators. When we introduce the reality of human beings into the equation, sure, there is a chance you may die on some BASE jumps, but not all. It is only when we decide as individuals to go to the beyond, that luck becomes a greater component of survivial than skill. Its kind of fun there sometimes, isn't it?? But not a place where we should be all the time. As always, just my opinion. Could be crap, could be thought provoking, could be useful, could be just shit stirring. I'll let you all decide. Stay Safe Have Fun Good Luck Tom

Why do you ask?? Crimson Mist 2003 & 2004 - Australian 4 Way Rotations. Crimson Mist did USA 1998 with other team members. Hairspeed were at Spain in 2001. No Aussies at the 2000 World Meet. No $$$$$$. Xtermin8 1996 - Australian 8 Way Speed. + I spent time with most of the British CRW guys briefly at the start of 1999 when I passed through London for a BASE / IT trip. I'm in communicado with Fielding, Marshall, etc occassionally. FYI - picture of tvpb & yourself??

Vandev - Kjerag never has been and NEVER will be a skydive. It does not matter how you validate/cut/interpret/justify/etc - IT IS A BASE JUMP and absolutely NO skydive that I know of bears even the slightest resemblance to it. Maybe if you had a balloon sitting just off the exit point at Kjerag you might be able to say its just like that particular skydive. But otherwise, IT IS NOT. elimination - substitution - isolation - engineering solutions - administrative solutions - PPE. Potential problem analysis (PPA) is basically trying to work out all the possible ways that something can stuff up. The next step is to determine if you can somehow resolve the potential problems or bring them down to an acceptable risk level. If you can, then proceed. If you can't, you have to start thinking about walking away. An individual can do a phenomenal job of risk management, or they can do a terrible job or totally ignore the concept. But in the end, we are all human beings constrained by our own personal experience, skill, and perceptions. Hence, can we recognise and manage every single risk? Probably very difficult to impossible for most mortal beings. But can we use risk management at all? OF COURSE WE CAN. And we all do. Its just the quality that varies. e.g. "bugger me its windy. I think I'll do video from the ground". "One too many last night, I might give the morning loads a miss". "I'm not feeling 100%, I'll just do a flat and stable". "Geez, the last guy that had a low pull comp with him got badly busted up, I think I might just settle for the silver medal". These are all examples of risk management!!!! You can do it Faber. Stay Safe Have Fun Good Luck Tom Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

$100 - no worries. Open at 300 ft to film someone else doing it first -little to no worries. Doing it first - no worries watching someone else and being a sheep. I must be getting old. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

In the context of his complete statement, I think when Jaap said "comfort zone" Jaap meant jumping within your own level of skills, experiences, and abilities. But I could be wrong. For example, I can be really comfortable doing something well beyond my abilities if I just don't care about anything or anyone in the world. But if I have a real passion for life and many things that I want to achieve, my comfort zone will be different as I have a need to live long enough to achieve those things. Yet my potential skill level is the same in both scenarios. RISK and its Management: A given jump scenario has a fixed number of variables at any given instant in time. What do I mean by this? At 12.34.3872 pm EST the object has this shape, these dimensions, these wind patterns, this altitude, this humidity and temperature, these hazards, the jumper is in this condition, equipment configuration and maintenance, etc. Our individual ability to determine what each of these factors/variables are and what our responses/plans of actions are determine how well we can manage the risk. The more factors you ignore, the greater the risk becomes. And the more that luck plays a role in the jump as opposed to good management. This all comes with experience, time, respect for the sport, realistic ability to assess ourselves and our equipment, etc. The mere fact that we discuss beginner objects and advanced objects emphasises this. A beginner relies to some extent on the ability of his/her instructor/guide to provide much of that information. This is normal for most activities in life. I disagree with this statement. Assuming all the variables relating to the object are the same at a given instant in time, we can start measuring the risk at a certain level (i.e. we can determine a number to measure the risk). Following on from this, the final measure or level of risk for said object/jump is then purely related to the jumper him/herself and their equipment. The absolute risk is then very dependant on the jumper. e.g. If I have great accuracy skills, then a very small landing area is a little risky. But if my accuracy skills are pathetic, that same landing area makes the whole jump VERY risky. >>>>>>>>>> These are difficult to answer. I think knowing my comfort zone is not that hard to determine. My body tells me this - perhaps nervousness is the measure of comfort. But do I know if I am jumping within my abilities/skills/etc? I have a fair idea, but I will never really know for sure. Good post! Some might say, don't think, just jump. You do what is right for you.

Hi Andre I forgot to add one. Freeflyers tend to be younger punks. CRW dogs are more mature (age, not behaviour). The getting out of bed thing is OLD AGE!!!! Another ten years, and I'll catch up to you!! Take care.

There called parachutists aren't they??? p.s. Many places in Europe rescue you and take you to hospital. No $$$ Then you sort it out yourself. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

As long as you enjoyed yourself? I hope the honeymoon was long enough. I better not give up my day job!!! Anyway. . . The injury thing / hard openings. Our team was training in the USA in 2003 mainly out of an Otter. We did a few loads out of a Cessna with a lessor experienced pilot and had some absolute ball tearer openings. One load in particular we had one canopy with broken lines and the rest of us were literally seeing stars (those small shiny dots moving around in front of your eyes). This has happened a few times over the years. Including one round of the world meet in 2004 out of the Turbo Let 410. Ouch. Pilot has gotta be briefed well. I had back surgery about 13 years ago so I kind of relished my slot as No.4 on our Rotations team. It meant that I could roll the living crap out of my nose (and other techniques to slow my openings) and still get to the formation as required. But in hindsight, I couldn't have picked two better sports for a weak back (BASE jumping and CRW - lucky for those soft openings). Injuries I've noticed amongst CRW jumpers: - obvious ones include bruising around the thighs and inner shoulders - brisk openings tend to compress the discs in the spine. Over time they will compress and wear out. - catching may cause sprain and strain injuries. In rotations, shoulders tend to take the brunt of a rotator wizzing past at a 100 mph. But the injuries could occur from the fingertips to the shoulders, and from the toes to the buttocks. - twisting (intentional and forced) can lead to sprains and strains around the body. - then there are the head injuries from those hard riser docks. Ever had a boot or knee in your face? - excessive weight on a jumper (due to poorly matched or collapsed canopies) could lead to further strains and sprains - aahhhhh! The notorious line burns - fingers, hands, shins, thighs, and many other places depending on what funky manouvre you are doing a poor job at trying to pull. - landings - more care is required for CRW canopy landings as the flaring potential does not seem as good c.f. freefall canopies. Coccyx, back, knees, ankles, wrists, hands, etc, have all been injured. - rsi from all that rigging work!!! And then there are the after hours injuries: - reputations. - fitness levels (too much beer and pizza). - standing in parachuting society - we are 2nd class citizens apparently. And not as cool as those freeflyers either. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

What type of injuries are you referring to? Instantaneous or developing over a long period? What is the mechanism/cause? Just curious about your thoughts. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Hi Gary I was referring to the rescue, not the ambulance services. Yes, as far as I know too, ALL ambulance services do bill their rescues. It is true to say that many/most air services do try to recoup costs as they are expensive to run. But if they did charge all the time, why are they constantly seeking donations & sponsorships, and you often hear that they are badly in debt? Yes, there are many other expenses associated but a professional business would factor all those costs into the hourly running of such an aircraft. I know for a fact that many rescues are done at the expense of the rescue organisation. This ranges from surf life saving to marine (boating) to road accidents ($$$ are generally pursued through insurance companies in this common case). r.e. the search and rescue example - a lot of S&R is done by volunteers such as the SES under the guidance/control of Police. My involvement was a few years ago now so things certainly may have changed, but we were advised by the Police that in general, tax payers and donations/sponsorships funded the rescues. I get the impression that "arbitrary decisions" are made on a case by case basis regarding many rescue activities. It also seems that if an incident makes it into media, then it has a higher chance of getting billed. Perhaps to scare people off????? I guess the best thing to do is make sure you have insurance, make sure you are not breaking the law (as the insurance often becomes invalid and you shouldn't break the law anyway), and try not to get into that situation in the first place. Easier said than done when you are a rock fisherman!!! Gary - I'd be interested to hear where you get your info from. Just to clarify the reliability of your source and the age of my info. One thing that often occurs is that some people who work for an organisation, have no idea what actually goes on in their organisation. Hence, they may give you/me misleading information. Hope the remainder of your trip went well. ps. Sean621 - no worries. I'm an opinionated prick anyway and deserve to get told occassionally. I just like to clarify what people say for my own benefit. I do get it wrong . . . .every . . . . now and. . . . . again . . . and again!!!