TomAiello

7000 feet of blade running down a glacier. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

AdM, in France, near the Swiss Border. I've never jumped the one you're talking about, but I'll take the AdM canopy flight up against any in the world. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

In all honesty? Because it is. 9 out of every 10 posts I can just smell the red, white and blue (and I aint talking about holland or france) This thread has 28 posts including this one. Either 14 or 15 of those posts have been made by non-US folks (depends on if you count Vid666, a Russian living in the US, as an American or not). So it's right around 50%. Where are you getting your 9 out of 10 from? edit because 2 people posted while I was typing--one American and one not-American, so the ratio is unaltered. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I admit I laughed out loud here. Why is it that so many people think this is a US-centric forum? What does 980 have in common with DZ.com? They are both South African, and both "live" in Canada (DZ.com is hosted in Canada and owned by a South African). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I emailed Morpheus to ask. Here's their response: -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It would still not get down to the 3.5 to 1 that DantheMan has. My early jumping career included a lot of jumps off 4 or 5 different (but not entirely legal) sites in Northern California. I honestly think that the total number of objects is probably a better approximation for experience than either total number of jumps or jump/object ratio. The "value" of additional experience jumping an object the 2nd time drops a fair bit, I think. In all honesty, I think that total number of objects opened is probably the best indicator of true, well rounded experience. I've been to a lot of sites where you just follow some local up, stand where he says to, and hop off when he says "go." The experience value is still there, but is nothing like the value of scoping and opening an entirely new object (in which category I'm guessing DantheMan is also doing pretty well--probably better than in total number of objects jumped). Maybe it's time for yet another poll on "how many objects have you opened?" -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

My jump to object ratio is probably running around 7 or 8 to 1. I'm still looking for the folks who marked "More than 200 objects jumped" the last time we polled that, if anyone knows them. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I was the one who downloaded that tribute from headdown.net and stuck it up on SkydivingMovies.com. I did it after reading this thread and learning that the original poster had been inspired to draw those fantastic illustrations by the Fastest Motherfucker video of Lukas. It's good to know that Lukas inspired yet another person. I knew Lukas in real life for a very short time. I met him about a week before his death. Laughed with him, drank with him, partied with him, jumped with him, talked with him. Then I found an exit point that I wanted to share with him (and some other friends). Then I left town before we got to jump it (it was quite windy). Then I found out that when he had gotten up there the next day, it had turned out to be his last jump. We renamed the exit point "Cold Steel" for him. Perhaps gone. Never forgotten. Somewhere in Valhalla, Lukas is smiling. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I've got a couple of them. Road Kill Possum is definitely a classic. I think my favorite part is when Dwain is throwing rocks at Ray as he wades across the near-freezing waters of a fast moving creek (he'd landed out and had to wade back to meet them). DJ is in the background saying "here is Ray, pioneer of new landing areas, crosser of cold creeks..." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Congratulations! It took me significantly more jumps to hit 100 objects. I think I was right around 500 jumps at the time. Reading your post and Jason's makes me wonder how many jumps it takes folks, on average, to hit 100 objects. I'd guess that you are ahead of the average by a noticeable margin, but I've got no real data to support that. Nice job. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

You can PM him on this forum (username: pBASEtobe, or email him via his website. If neither of those work, PM me and I'll send you his phone number. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'll email them and ask for clarification. The last time I asked them, they told me that they were no longer offering FJC's and were instead referring all their students to another FJC. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

That's a pretty tough topic, and perhaps one that is outside the scope of this thread. The thing is that if you are forced to put your own resources (financial or otherwise) into something, you have a limited ability to help (or otherwise influence it). Then, if someone else decides that they are going to make a boatload of cash by "selling out" (however you might define that nebulous term), then they will have much greater resources to effect the future direction of the sport than you will. So, if you want to "compete" in having some impact on the future direction of the sport, you have to "sell out" for a bit of cash, too, so that you can try to have whatever you perceive as a positive influence on the sport. So then, in order to work for the "good of the sport" (again as defined by you), you are forced to "sell out" a bit. And the cycle continues... Maybe you ought to start a thread about the topic of making money in the sport, and whether it's a good, a bad, or just a reality. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I believe that Apex (the clear market leader) charges US$1100 for a 3 day course (starts Friday, usually early afternoon, but they actually start working sometime in the morning, when they pick students up from the Salt Lake City airport, and ends Sunday about the time it gets dark). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I believe that some manufacturers do offer discounts on instruction if you purchase a rig at the same time. Since the only manufacturers offering instruction currently are Apex and Asylum, it ought to be easy to phone them up and ask, though. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sure. I happen to think the quality of my instruction is fairly good. For what it's worth, the BASEeuphoria folks seem to have a reasonably good reputation. I have no personal knowledge of their course. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

700 Euros = US$825 at current exchange rates. For what it's worth, I taught a 4 day class this weekend for which I charged US$800. I also, of course, teach week long classes for which I charge US$0, a price that even you can probably agree is reasonable. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Bans are specific to a single forum. The PM function works regardless of forum bans. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I wonder if there might also be some politics at play? Was Ground Launching started by guys who were already "in" at the USPA? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Actually, you've read much of it. In general, after Skydiving rejects something, I post it here or elsewhere. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

On a tangent; Skydiving doesn't take any kind of responsibility like that either. Every "safety" type article I've submitted to them about BASE has been rejected. If Skydiving, which many seem to view as a "BASE friendly" publication, doesn't take those kind of submissions, why do we expect Parachutist to print them? Perhaps because Parachutist is seen as more "dry", so we expect them to carry safety type stuff, but Skydiving is commercial, so they have to have attention grabbing text with pretty pictures to accompany it? I don't know. As noted by others, I think we're probably better off without any USPA involvement in BASE, at this point. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I think there may be more people skiing off of things than you are aware of. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

There is an email listed on his user profile for this forum. It also shows his last login as being fairly recent. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

NPS hires a lot of seasonal rangers in that park. Typically, there are about 1/3rd the number of rangers in winter as in summer. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yes. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com