JaapSuter

The questions to which you'd find answers if you had taken a first jump course, like I recommended...

More importantly, where can I get a copy when it's done? I have some people here that I would love to show it to. Before they get their sorry asses into BASE and kill themselves off my local objects; that privilege is mine.

Climbing down because of winds is not a chicken. A chicken is mental only. Nonetheless, good judgement...

It's cool brother. I recognize what you're saying. Back in the days (yesterday) when I was still a little post whore myself, I would start threads just like the one you just wrote. In fact, here is one that I'm rather embarrassed about in hindsight. Oh well... It's a great sport and it's exciting to be a part of it. Fortunately, I'm no longer the only jumper in town here so I can share my excitiment with the locals instead of having to bother everybody on DZ.com. Keep the passion going and you'll be giving back to the sport the very thing you got out of it.

Nice...

That may be true, but if there is a really hot chick waiting for you and you need a car to get there and all you can do is put a Toyota part into your Ford, you're still gonna do it and bone the crap out of that hot chick. Good Analogy...

Haha...

Continuing a skydiving career can be as little as 20 jumps, some to test and tune your brake-settings, a few for playing around with your risers and some for odd landings (down-wind, low setups, etc.). That gives you a total of 70 skydives, 20 of which were on a BASE canopy. Combine that with 50 Perrine jumps on which you've done obstacle-avoidance drills, malfunction practice, odd landings, zero gainers and a high dose of intelligence... ...then come to my town, and I'll happily take you to a local crane. You might not be ready for the local cliff, but then again; neither am I. It's a Mr. Miyagi wax-on wax-off thing. I'll take you rock climbing and platform diving before I even jump with you.

By jumping of the Perrine many times and continuing their skydiving career alongside their initial BASE career, having a BASE canopy in their skydiving rig permanently. These people are a rarity, but I've seen them. They'd probably be safer then many of the current jumpers with 300 jumps. But that goes to what we all know already anyway; people are unique.

See, you're exactly making my point when you added the "experienced and talented jumpers" part to your story. Time and time again it's been proven that even people that know what they're doing get banged up eventually. When I say that BASE isn't that dangerous from a scientific point of view, I mean that all the knowledge in the world (the kind of knowledge you'd get from having a rigging certificate, a demo license, etcetera) isn't going to help as much as most BASE jumpers think when you're plummeting towards the earth with a solid object behind you. The knowledge is beneficial, but I would really like to see the BASE community get of its high horse and realize that the sport ain't rocket science when approached in a rational and common sense manner. The real issue is that plenty of irrational people without any common sense are trying BASE too. How to fix that? I don't know. There seem to be plenty of people willing to train them.

Woah, I'm not sure if you'll want to jump with us when you move here. None of the three active jumpers here live up to your benchmark. I guess we'll all soon be dead anyway. I've met people who I'd introduce in the world of BASE with less than fifty skydives, and I've met much more people who I wouldn't let near a BASE rig even if they had a million skydives and fifty rigger certificates. In the proper hands, BASE isn't as dangerous as many think. At least not from a scientific point of view. But I hear what you're saying, looking forward to hucking Vancouver with ya soon.

Just ignore 980... This similarly inexperienced jumper is still interested in what you have to say.

That's a little harsh. I'm sure Coco is just trying to help. It is Woodpecker's repsonsibility to synch advice with experience levels, not Coco's. That's nonsense and you know it. You have an opinion, and with that amount of jumps, given in the proper context, it can be very useful. Advice is useful at any level of experience, but it depends on how you bring it. If Coco had said the following, it would have been different all together... "I personally prefer pin-rigs, but that's based on only 15 BASE jumps. I've only once tried to pack a velcro rig and thought it to be harder than packing my pin rig. That is probably because I just haven't practiced it as much as the pin rig though. I talked to Jimmy at Apex and he mentioned that pin rigs are the way to go. That said, I'm aware there are many velcro proponents out there still, and they do offer some advantages. Research recommended."

Can you list these? How often have you packed a velcro rig, and how often a pin rig? Could it be that you just had more practice on the pin rig? I have yet to meet a beginner that thinks pins are easier to close than velcro. Especially not once they start making sure they don't distort the packjob on closing. What kind of range of objects and altitudes have you jumped? Do you know how to setup your pin tension for a sub 230 freefall, versus a terminal wingsuit jump? Can you put on a spectra closing loop? Have you thought about all the different ways you can route a bridle? Does yours come out of the middle, or from the top? Every year at Bridge Day, at least three people are caught with a total mal because they didn't leave slack above the top pin. You've done virtual groundcrew jumps already, right? Ever worried about your pin tension after you put on your rig and tightened your straps? Much less of an issue with velcro rigs. I'm not saying that velcro is better than pin, but I'm curious how much exposure to and experience you have with different gear configurations.

Yeah, BASE has become way hardcore since your jumps in Yosemite...

Hahaha... By the we found out the thread had moved both Abbie and myself were already down in the gutter. Collin and Russel; you missed out; fuckers.

N/A

...sitting in a tree.

And as usual; contact the locals. And in this case, make sure it's the active locals.

There are two landing areas. One is small and challenging, embedded between two sets of powerlines. It's fun when you feel like it. The other one is a huge open gravel field next to some logging machinery. This is the easier one. See the red circles on the attached picture. It's a 1300 foot canopy ride, close to a big wall for a large part. It's quite an amazing jump. The photograph was made by a professional outdoor photographer with impressive camera gear. He rapelled down a few meters from the exit-point to make the shot. I agree with the super-imposing. It looks as if I lay belly down on a green carpet, and then chroma-keyed on top of the picture. Edit to add the attachment.

Neah, nothing to see here. Cliff is at least partially right, and even the local pub owner recalls that incident. Hahahaha... all in good fun. Dave was being ironic in saying that it's an easy cliff. It's definitely not, imho.

Woohoo, what many people have known for a long time is now finally confirmed; I'm a media whore! This weekend a photo of one of my BASE jumps has been entered in a local contest called ARTdrenaline. The photographer asked me if he could enter, and I didn't see a reason to have him pass up on an opportunity to win some money. Especially considering I'm normally the one having all the fun on our local legal cliff. Like Dan said, it's all about me, me, and me. On an unrelated note, I recently managed to use BASE WIKI as an example of how to align a group of chaotic people talking about contentious issues. Software engineers are much the same, and the group I presented to was very interested. Who said employers didn't like BASE jumpers? Total bull of course, but I'll ride that wave while it lasts...

This makes me happy. Great work!

Only three? Holland alone has at least five similar indoor ski hills. The UK and Germany also have some.

I'm well aware of that. I wouldn't be visiting these forums if there weren't at least some people that know what they are talking about... I call bullshit. I can't imagine that a slider-down cliff jump is equally dangerous for you now as it was when you had 18 jumps. Of course if you mean that you progressively do more dangerous things as you advance in the sport, thereby equalling the risk over time; that may be true. The bottom line is that early on in our BASE career we only know that we know nothing. Later on we believe it too...