TomAiello

Was there a tailwind on the PCA? Wind effects on deploying canopies work in a (rough--not linear) relation to the airspeed of the deployment. So less wind at PCA speed will have more effects (if that makes sense). A tailwind effectively "deepens" your brake settings, and the PCA makes you more susceptible to it. I wonder if this might have had something to do with the different opening experiences you had. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

To clarify, as I have been asked this 3 times now, so I'm sure there will be others wondering: This is not a requirement for a specific number of skydives. Canopy experience can be gained in a number of ways, including skydiving, but also including ground launching and paragliding. I will take the best prepared students, exercising my own judgment as to what that means. Skydiving experience is a very big plus if you want to come. But a very experienced paraglider with 20 skydives will have superior canopy skills to a skydiver with 150 skydives and no other canopy experience. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I think it's really a matter of personal choice. If you know, and accept, the extra risk, then you are making a choice. If, on the other hand, you are an inexperienced jumper who is doing it to be "cool" without really understanding the risks, I think that's not not so good. I think that very many experienced jumpers have done things like this, or gone through stages where they were doing these kinds of things all the time. I do understand the problems with setting an example, and they are large, but my opinion has been that most of the experienced people I see doing these types jumps are not doing them for the effect on the onlookers (i.e. they don't care if the jumpers watching think it's "cool", they are doing it for themselves). So long as you're not doing it specifically to impress newbies with how "cool" you are, I don't think you're going too far. You should still consider the site (and potential effects on other jumpers of the extra risks you are taking--so avoid access sensitive sites with these jumps). I do not think that we can eliminate this type of jumping. Even if we could, eliminating it might fundamentally alter the feel of BASE jumping. This kind of risk taking is part and parcel of who we are and what we do. Would we, or BASE, be the same without it? Without eliminating this, though, we can control it. That means we can do it in places where an accident will have minimal effect on other jumpers (i.e. the site will stay open), and in ways that will not encourage new jumpers (who may not fully understand all the risks) to emulate it. I think that perhaps this is the reason that you sometimes appear to see very different reactions to this kind of thing, depending on the jumper, and the circumstances of the jump. In this particular case, the cause for concern I see (on the above criteria) is that the two Swiss jumpers to have posted both expressed concern I wonder if this has to do with their concern for access issues in the area, and the effect an accident might have on them? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Headed to Ogden tomorrow for some of them airplane jumps to get acquainted. Then I'll proceed to other, undisclosed locations. I'll post some photos and thoughts when I'm done. Honestly, after putting the suit on, it wasn't nearly as huge as my memory had made Shaun's. Or maybe this one really is smaller. Regardless, here comes fun, or trouble, or both.

Yes. He's pretty low key, but very skillful, and a super cool guy. He's also been doing this for quite a longish while. There have been several other people skysurfing and snowboarding off big walls (and skiing). Dave was definitely one of (if not the) first, though. If you want to see some cool skysurf BASE footage, check out Beyond Extreme. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I will hold a First Jump Course and BASE skills camp from May 21-29, 2005 (Saturday to the following Sunday) in Twin Falls, Idaho. Course will begin at 8am Saturday (21st) and conclude at 6pm the following Sunday (29th). My goal is to make this the highest quality, most comprehensive, formal BASE education course offered to date. This is not a complete course in expert, or even intermediate BASE jumping. All BASE jumpers must continue to educate themselves throughout their BASE career. The course will focus on basic BASE skills, with an additional emphasis on the history and ethics of BASE, and the teamwork necessary to many BASE jumps. In addition to standard First Jump training, the course will cover appropriate brake settings, advanced packing techniques, object avoidance techniques, object evaluation, and landing skills. Time and jumper aptitude permitting, we will also cover unpacked jumps, particularly as used for emergency situations, and multi-way jumps. I will accept a maximum of five students in this course, although I would prefer to have only four. Students will be accepted based on my evaluation of their qualifications. I will give preference to students who have audited a prior FJC. This course is intended for students with no previous BASE jumps, but I will accept applications from jumpers having less than 20 jumps. I will also accept a maximum of two non-jumping auditors in the course. If you want to audit the packing and discussion segments, I will also ask you to help out with some of the other parts of the course (such as ferrying cars). Auditors should be people interested in BASE who have not yet sufficient pre-requisite experience. Course requirements: 1) Gear: Because we will customize brake settings during the course, you must have your own gear to participate. 2) Mentoring: You must make a reasonable effort to find an experienced jumper local to you, who can help you with your jumping when you return home. You must provide me with contact information for this jumper, so that I can talk with them. If you cannot locate someone, I will assist you in doing so. This requirement will be waived for jumpers in an area where I am unable to locate a suitable mentor. 3) Prerequisites: You must have appropriate canopy experience, as evaluated by me. I will ask for details of your experience when you contact me, as well as contact information for people able to verify your experience. 4) Reading: I will require all accepted applicants to purchase and read [I]BASE 66[/I], by Jevto Dedijer, and the micrometeorology portions of [I]Understanding the Sky[/I], by Dennis Pagen. Course Syllabus: Day 1: Packing Discussion: The risks of BASE Video and Discussion: Impact (Discovery Health), Over the Edge (Justin Kardi, Jason Fitz-Herbert) Exercise: Letter to family Packing Discussion: Differences between skydiving and BASE cultures Video and Discussion, Exits: Lemmings (Will Forshay) Day 2: Beginner Exits Exit Training Discussion: Logging jumps Landing Area Preview Discussion: Jumps, landing, flight patterns PCA BASE jumps Video and Discussion: 2004 ABA Compilation (Australian BASE Association) Day 3: Deployment Discussion: BASE ethics BASE jumps: Hand held Discussion: BASE community BASE jumps: Delay nomination, Hand held Video and Discussion: BASE Community Self Regulation Day 4: Floater Exits Discussion: BASE History BASE jumps: Stowed or hand held Exit simulation: Floater exits BASE jumps: Floater exits and/or stowed. Discussion and Exercise: Appropriate Brake Settings Video and Discussion: From Gravity Came Groundrush, Nobody But Me BASE Jumps Like I Do, Para-Care (John Hoover), Boenish El Cap Jumps (Carl Boenish), Gravity Sports (Dennis McGlynn) Day 5: Object Avoidance Drills Discussion: Object Avoidance Avoidance Drill BASE jumps Discussion: Insurance Avoidance Drill BASE jumps Discussion: Object Evaluation Day 6: Object Avoidance Drills Avoidance Drill BASE jumps Packing, Part 2: Packing without tools Avoidance Drill BASE jumps Discussion: Recognizing Skillful BASE jumps Video and Discussion: Radix (Jimmy Halliday) Day 7: Landing Drills BASE jumps: Landing Drills Video and Discussion: BASE malfunctions and correction. BASE jumps: Landing Drills Video: Lemmings Extreme (Will Forshay) Day 8: Unpacked jumps Discussion: Unpacked jumps in emergency situations BASE jumps: Unpacked jumps Packing, Part 3: Advanced techniques and challenging packing areas. Video and Discussion: The Ground is the Limit (Iiro Seppanen), "Aussie Pebbles" (Pete Wyllie) Day 9: Multi-Way jumps Discussion: BASE as a team sport BASE jumps: Muti-ways, instructor planned Discussion: Planning multi-ways BASE jumps: Multi-ways, Student planned Space is limited, so I will accept the best prepared applicants. If you want to come, you must contact me via email (tbaiello@mac.com). When you email me asking to come, please include: 1) Your total number of skydives. 2) Your total number of CRW and Accuracy jumps. 3) Your primary skydiving discipline. 4) The names and contact info (email of phone) of: (a) any BASE jumpers in your area who know you (b) a BASE mentor who has agreed to help you progress (c) any skydiving or paragliding instructors who are familiar with your skills (d) either the DZO or S&TA of your home drop zone 5) Any other relevant experience (paragliding, rock climbing, etc) 6) An explanation of why you want to BASE jump 7) Anything else you think I should know about you, or your preparation I will begin accepting students on April 15th, and continue until all spots are filled. Applying before April 15th will increase your chances of being accepted. I believe that all BASE jumpers should make contact with, and learn from, their local BASE communities. If you have an experienced instructor in your area who is willing to travel to a legal span to provide instruction, whatever they charge, I will not accept you into this class without an agreement with that instructor. Be aware that I will not accept anyone who tries to bypass their local instructor, and that if you are in Australia or the Toronto, Canada, area, the availability of a local instructor will reduce your chances of being accepted to my course. I will continue compiling a list of instructors in specific areas. If you are an experienced BASE instructor who wishes to be included in my list of areas, please contact me via email. I will not charge for this instruction. However, in order to attend, you must make a donation of a minimum $100 to The Alliance of Backcountry Parachutists. I will verify that you have made such a donation prior to the first day of the course. If you have any questions, post here, or PM or email me. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Find your experienced locals first, and get their advice. Then, read whatever else gets posted to this thread. From where you are, your best bet is to come out here for a FJC. Then go home and jump with the folks there. It would be best, actually, if you could get them out here for your first jumps, then spend a couple days building currency with them around. Other than that? All my advice is linked at the top of the page. I'll not bore you by repeating it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It's a launch simulator. It allows you to practice launches (many of them, repeating a very short time). It's essentially a dynamic line run between two trees. The jumper exits one tree and holds body position as he falls/slides along the line. Then he is lowered to the ground. It's a great way of (a) learning what your launch position will do and correcting it, and (b) getting a little of the psychological effects of exiting, to reduce the potential for overload when you first do it for real. I'm a huge fan of pendulator training. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

460 is talking about the story Nick is quoted telling. I believe it is John Hoover, off WP. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I call it BASE fever, after Summit fever in mountaineering. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I don't think there is a clearly accepted definition. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It depends on too many factors to provide a clear answer. I did get a video emailed to me recently that shows a static line from 113 feet, where the canopy is fully flying by landing. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Slider down. I've found that it's far easier to clear up line twists and the like without the slider wedged into the middle. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

My first thought: It's always better to learn from those near you, speaking your native language, than try to wade through a foreign language on an internet forum. There are so many little complexities here that you almost always learn more from long term, person-to-person interactions. Internet forums are good as backup resources, and checks on the current state of the art, but no substitute for real people. Slider up delays are done here pretty regularly. The primary consideration is usually wind (because if it's strong from behind, you must have altitude to turn around and set up landing). In calm winds, slider up is done regularly by many experienced jumpers. This is absolutely correct. Those numbers were gathered at the Petronas comp, and on a few weekends here. Slider up subterminal jumps have markedly worse heading and noticeably higher malfunction rates. This is likely because they are among the slowest, least predictable (low airspeed slider deployment is often not smooth) inflation sequences. This is also true. I was there. Of the 18 jumps I've logged off the PT, 3 exceeded a 4 second delay. I am not certain if this is because of ground rush, but we could argue causes all day. The real fact is that, as stated only a slim majority of jumpers took delays of 4+ seconds. Much of this is object dependent. Jumping into a clear canyon with soft water below is significantly less intimidating than jumping an underhung building. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Kinaa, Posting private correspondence into the forum, of whatever kind, is poor etiquette. In this case, you are also the translator, so it's difficult for us (i.e. those without the language skills) to read the original for nuances. Please stop this. It's starting to look like a personal issue. I'm sure it's something you can discuss with the jumper in question. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

We're using big sheets of nylon, stitched together in specific patterns and thrown out into various speeds of wind. While we can predict what is likely to happen when that nylon hits the airflow, there is no way we can be certain that it will happen exactly as we think, every time. Even in a laboratory, I doubt we could create exactly identical openings every time. In the real world, where wind, temperature, body position, etc, etc, etc, are different (even if ever so slightly) every time? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

So do you. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I disagree. I've seen bad shit just happen. The systems we use are just so complex and chaotic that we just can't control everything. In regards to #63, I do wonder if a pendulator would have helped. So, perhaps that's another bit of random we're trying to work out of the game. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

There are several people on the list who did everything right. Have you seen Iiro's movie? In it, he passes along some wisdom that I think he attributes to Dwain (I originally heard it from Slim, but I'm sure it's been going around for a while). I guess the bottom line is that there will always be some random, uncontrolled factors in BASE. You can reduce them, but so far, it's not looking like you can eliminate them. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

http://www.triaxproductions.com -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

No minis were imported into the US from 1961-2002. Everything over here until 2002 was pretty much private import, and quite rare. Now that the new MINIs are being imported, there's a rapidly growing aftermarket in importing older minis, but demand for the classics sparked by the new cars is still quite a bit greater than the supply. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I heard that poor PCA technique is the primary cause of off heading openings... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I was more thinking of practice in the BASE environment. I'd definitely recommend practicing your emergency procedures (like object avoidance) off something higher before having to do it off something that's only 200' high. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If you had a mal or offheading, wouldn't it be better to learn to deal with that at a higher altitude, rather than just "on the ground"? Ground training to 200' bridge is skipping several very important steps. One of those steps is learning to deal with problems, and that learning ought to be done, and practiced, in the air, with spare altitude, then at gradually decreasing altitudes. Theory is all well and good. But that's all your going to get on the ground. Real life practice is the thing that's going to stand you in good stead in your time of need. Skipping the practice and going straight from the ground school theory to the firing line is foolish. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Dude, I think your car is my car's grandfather or something. Note the family resemblance. And no cracks about getting a "real" mini. Those things are much easier to find over in your neck of the woods. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com