JaapSuter

Hey John, kudos for commenting in this thread. I'm not going to comment on your jumping skills. I suck at BASE myself, fortunately I have a huge luck bucket. As far as your 911 call goes, different people react in their own way in different scenarios. All the macho talk in the world won't prepare you until you face an emergency situation for the first time. While there are many people around that have faced grave danger and painful injuries as tough motherfuckers, I'm not one of them. All I did when faced with a long pilotchute hesitation was brace for impact and scream: "Oh shit!" I'm not ready to jump with you quite yet (if only because I'd get the collective BASE community to beat the crap out of me), but I'd drink a beer with you any day. If only to hear your side of the story... Take care and happy birthday! Jaap

It can help, but what is more crucial is a solid understanding of physics and engineering. Maybe his assumptions are wrong, maybe not. But people expose the flaws and in the process he (and potentially some other people including myself) learned something. I think we're jumping to conclusions too early here. Can you explain why you think there would be increased chances of friction knots? It is easily proven in a simple experiment that a disc resting on top of a single axis is easier to spin around than a disc resting on top of two pillars that have an outward force applied to them. Whether or not this idea translates to a parachuting environment is an interesting thought experiment at the very least. Why is this dangerous? I don't see anybody sewing up his design and test jumping it with a life human. In fact, 87SupraT himself mentioned the use of a test dummy. See it more like somebody throwing toys off a bridge for fun. As BASE jumpers we should welcome these enthusiastic people with open arms, however inexperienced they may be. If their ideas are stupid, we can tell them politely. BASE is supposed to be a sport with open minded people willing to go against the society induced tradition that it is impossible and suicide to leap from fixed objects. I'm a little dissappointed to see ideas like this shot down so hostile. Why treat these ideas the same way society treats BASE? Assuming that 87SupraT is going to be the next Leonardo Da Vinci would be silly, until he proves us wrong. But flat out denying there might not be a Leonardo Da Vinci among the many excited people that come up with funky ideas goes against the spirit of BASE.

Seconded; the man has skills!

I'm just a lame video game developer struggling with the question on whether or not I should try and get my employer to develop a BASE jumping game. One part of me thinks that a BASE game would be a ton of fun (pick your gear (real canopie models) and setup (slider-down, up, etc.), scope objects, sneak around security guards, jump, deal with malfunctions, etc. Allow over the top wingsuit flying through downtown and crazy low pulls. Make it free-roaming like GTA. Earn reputation to get invited to new areas and objects with other locals. Play online and try to do a nighttime jump with several people without being seen by security guards. Or be the security guard and try to stop other jumpers. The other part of me thinks it would be the ultimate BASE sell-out. We're already complaining that BASE is used by the media in inappropriate ways. Furthermore, if (and that's a big if in an industry that is very tough for new IP) such a game would be succesful, it could be disastrous for the amount and type of people trying to get into the sport. Opinions are welcome. Ultimately somebody somewhere will develop a BASE jumping game. It's a matter of time. Perhaps it's better to have it being done with a BASE jumper involved directly with the game? Other than that, I have no skills. And girls only like guys with great skills....

But you don't have to run before you theorize about running. In fact, sometimes it can be beneficial to have never ran before so our minds are not yet clouded by the age-old tradition of having to put one foot in front of the other. And so he did.

Anybody else hear the Outlook Express You've Got Mail sound effect at 7 minutes 25 seconds? I wonder what email she received?

It's that part that I find lacking in skydiving. I don't mind the politics so much. I like to think that I'm quite the politician myself and like you say; you can easily stay out if it if you want to. People that complain about politics are often those that enjoy getting a piece of the action too. I love skydiving, but it doesn't satisfy my craving for survival. The advent of the RSL, the AAD and the blind trust in reserves has taken a lot of the pioneering spirit and responsibility out of skydiving. I find self reliance in other sports like BASE, climbing and mountaineering. What I miss in climbing and mountaineering is the crazy wackiness and the speed that skydiving offers. You'll find a lot of tradition in climbing and few people willing to try new things. Just look at the general climber's attitude towards rope-jumping. It's generally rather negative. Perhaps that's why I'm so attracted to BASE. It combines the best parts of climbing and skydiving without bringing along the bagage. It's truly a unique sport. I'm keen on getting into shark-fucking, but I'm still looking for an FJC that will let me try it without the required 150 scuba dives as a prerequisite. I hate scuba politics and Red Bull told me short-cuts are the way to go. I've already tuned my deep-air-settings to my own body-weight and fin-loading. I've also been practicing octopus-avoidance-drills in my local swimming pool.

To all; nudge nudge...

I've heard stories about Dwain doing floaters off an antenna in 30 mph winds. He opened facing the antenna and was just blown backwards away from the antenna. As long as the landing area still allows a nice setup, preferably landing into the wind, I would imagine jumping in 18 mph is fine. See BASE WIKI on antennas.

Because the inertia required to turn a canopy with the risers and lines seperated is bigger than with the lines and risers together. How do you fix line-twist (aside from making sure you're flying away from the object)? By pulling the risers apart (and kicking your legs if you can). This would effectively do this, all the way up to the top of the canopy (where they would still come together to where the slider is quartered I imagine). I'm just doing some hand waving here, but I think it's an interesting idea.

Hey Dale, keep those ideas coming man! For every ten ideas you give us, expect nine to be shot down. But who knows, maybe you'll invent the ultimate anti-offheading solution! I've been wrapping my head around the idea in this post and I have yet to find a showstopper. I don't think it'll completely avoid line-overs and offheadings, but I do believe it could lessen their chance. If you consider that some jumpers push the risers to the outside upon opening (or when doing roll-overs) this would effectively help doing the same. The inertia required to twist a canopy with its risers and lines separated is a lot bigger than with the lines all close together. It is a big paradigm shift in that we no longer stow the lines in a pocket on the canopy, but now in the container. That means the canopy pulls the lines out of the container, instead of the container pulling the lines out of the canopy. I'm not sure yet what effect this has, and I expect such a system would require new ways to stage slider-up opening sequences. Cheers, Jaap

Why would the slider not do anything? At low airspeeds, the difference between a mesh or sail slider are neglectible. It still keeps the lines together at the top delaying canopy inflation until the slider comes down, regardless of whether it is collapsed or not. As such, it turns a quick slider-down opening into a slower slider-up opening, rendering it useless for many slider-down objects.

Got it, thanks.

Somebody told me that a BASE jumper has recently done a fly by of Mount Albert in British Columbia, Canada. He couldn't tell me which BASE jumper it was. Does anybody know of any BASE jumpers who've been checking out the west coast of BC in the past few months? I'd like to get in touch with him or her. Considering Mount Albert hasn't been jumped yet and the approach is a technical three day backcountry scramble including some roped sections, I don't think this qualifies as site-naming yet.

While I'm sure an LNT seminar could teach me a few things about efficient disposal of waste and setting up camp on the right type of bottom, I don't think being respectful of our environment is rocket science. These seminars are great, but they end up teaching those people that already have the right attitude towards nature. The person that throws an empty Coke can to the side of a trail on his way to an exit point can visit a thousand seminars, but his ways won't change. It doesn't take many brain cells to realize that Coke can is gonna be there for a long time, harm the environment and make for a less appealling time in the outdoors. He'll never understand.

I may agree. There is the added disadvantage of people that would otherwise take their litter with them, will now leave it at the exit point since there is a garbage bin anyway. However, in this case the choice might be between litter on the ground all around the exit point, or centered in a single plastic bag inside of a metal bin. The latter seems more favourable, though I agree that it's still dissapointing that it's necessary.

Unfortunately, most people that litter don't understand the basic motivation against it. Worse so, they can rarely be taught this logic. There are only three things you can do: Make sure there are more garbage bins along trails near packing areas and at exit points. The question who shall empty them is a debate between local jumpers and law enforcement. Most likely the local jumpers will have to become responsible for emptying the exit-point bins, but such is the price we pay for a cleaner environment. If you see somebody litter, say something about it. Point it out to them, then pick it up yourself and throw it in a bin or take it with you. By just commenting and picking it up yourself instead of asking them to pick it up, you've just created an embarrassing situation for them by showing that you are in fact grown up enough to deal with litter. Several times a year, do a clean-the-trails day. Our local climbing access society does a volunteering day every now and then where anybody can join and help out cleaning up trails and doing basic maintainance and repairs on the trails (often nearby stairs, ropes or creek crossings). Not only does this improve the quality of the trails (littering becomes exponentially easier with the amount that is already there. If the trail is clean, it'll stay clean longer too.), it also helps create a more positive image for BASE if you can get word out that jumpers were involved in the trail improvement program. Unfortunately, littering is one of those problems that is hard to fix. I've yet to meet a person that litters and converts to an environmentalist after a lecture. It sucks, but in this case we'll just have to put in some extra effort to make up for those who litter. And occasionally, just try and see it from a positive angle; I recently found two empty beer cans at an exit point (makes you wonder, doesn't it). I took them down with me, showed them to my groundcrew after landing, and told them they were mine and drank them to muster up the courage to jump...

Any suggestions?

And perusing the same list of nuggets I ran into the following one, oddly enough credited to John Agnos: Is that the same Agnos? That would just be too ironic. If he really is going to quit BASE as he says on TV, I'm still not sure if he walked away from BASE, or if BASE walked away from him.

Bwahauhahua... Done, and done. The bottom nugget of the Encyclopedia of BASE nuggets. Thanks Nick and Bryan.

Oops, I guess I should have asked if you thought the site was ready for the extra traffic. At any rate, I think the new website is great and looks very promising. Nice work!

I hadn't seen it yet, but it may have been online for some time already. In case you haven't seen it: http://www.apexbase.com.

Clone? Pfff, whatever. Real friends share dude....

I apologize, but at the same time mentioning a DUI and a comment like "big brother is watching you." sounds rather Speaker's Corner to me as well. Don't get me wrong Bryan, it sucks you won't be able to go to the Turkey Boogie. I still owe you a beer! Just don't drive after I've bought you all that beer...

I'm not sure I understand your post. The way I read it is that you were driving under influence, got caught, and that somehow stops you from being able to go to the Turkey Boogie. I hope I am totally wrong on the above interpretation, but in case I am correct, do you expect us to have sympathy for you? I read about too many people being killed or injured because some fucker decided he wasn't too drunk to drive. If anything, DUIs are not punished severe enough. But for all I know the acronym has another interpretation and really you are implying you won't be able to make it to the Turkey Boogie because you'll be caught up in a hot-tub with seven hot and naked women while holding a beer. In that case, I apologize.