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The Story of the Acronym BASE.

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Actually, I am really hoping Nick will fill this thread in. It's a very fascinating story and every time I hear it, I'm inspired to get in the car and go object hunting.

PLEEEEEEEEEASE tell the story Nick.... will ya?

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Actually, I am really hoping Nick will fill this thread in. It's a very fascinating story and every time I hear it, I'm inspired to get in the car and go object hunting.<

PLEEEEEEEEEASE tell the story Nick.... will ya?



Around the kitchen table at Phil Smith’s house in Houston, Texas, Carl and Jean Boenish, along with Phil and a few others are planning something special. Something none of them had done before, something they had never even considered before. They are going to jump from the top of building under construction, the Texas Commerce Tower. The year is 1981.

At this point in fixed object jumping’s young life bridges, towers, and cliffs have already been jumped and they, especially Phil Smith, thought tall building are the next logical step. Phil Smith should be credited for opening the world to low objects after a return from his first El Cap jump.

El Cap is considered doable by most skydivers because there is time for a reserve deployment if needed. Phil Smith is about to change all that. He says, “After returning from California I was driving to work and I saw something. It was something I drove past daily, but never took much notice. Now it’s like I’m seeing it for the very first time. It’s an eleven hundred foot radio tower and Phil jumped it the very next morning. He is the first to realize that if jumpers are willing to forgo the reserve option it would open a whole class of new jumpable objects.

While Phil is excitingly talking about the downtown building jump Carl Boenish gets an idea and begins scribbling on a notepad. Jean then mentions a building jump wouldn’t be a first and talks about Owen Quinn who jumped from New York’s World Trade Center towers in 1975. That jump is remembered as more of a stunt, and Owen is somewhat unfairly branded a nut job. “The world,” Jean said, “wasn’t ready for this sort of thing in 1975.”

Carl Boenish is only half listening to the rest until he says, “Hey, look at this.”

He passed the notepad around the table and there is a large word all in caps and circled.

The word is BEST.

“Well,” they all said?

“Don’t you see it. It’s an acronym for the objects that are being jumped. B is for Buildings, E is for Earth or cliffs, S is for Span or bridges, and the T stands for Towers.

“BEST Jumping?” Phil said.

“I like it,” Jean said.

Carl, had by that time, realized what they and others were doing wasn’t skydiving anymore. It was a new sport and it deserved a new name. When the word BEST wasn’t really accepted by the group, Carl picked up a small dictionary knowing now what he was looking for, an acronym, and it wasn’t long before he found it.

How about this one, “BASE?”

Phil Smith is the very first one to say it out loud, “BASE jumping.”

They all just looked at each other for a little while.

“I don’t like it,” Jean says. “Not all towers are Antennas and the second definition of BASE,” she says picking up the dictionary, “is evil and vile.”

But it’s too late.

It was too cool and Phil later says he felt chills just saying the word. The boys are repeating it over and over. “A BASE jump, BASE jumping, a person doing this would be . . . a BASE jumper!”

A few weeks later Carl Boenish announces the new name along with the sequential BASE number award program in SKYDIVING Magazine. Phil Smith, who did indeed jump the building in Texas becomes BASE number 1. BASE number 2 went to Phil Mayfield and Jean and Carl became BASE 3 and 4 respectively.

Nick
BASE 194

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Nick thats a way cool storry which i like,could i copy and paste it to my Web?

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

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great story!!! we want more early BASE jumping stories B|:D

---------------------------------------------
let my inspiration flow,
in token rhyme suggesting rhythm...

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Nick...you rock!
You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone.

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Yeah, how about a thread like the one going in the History forum...There has to be some great scary BASE stories!
...FUN FOR ALL!

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If anyone wants a fascinating read. Back in the early 80's Yosemite climbing legend, John Long, was working on a film project of his that involved a then World Record Troll Wall jump by Carl and Jean Boenish. It was Johns job to find exit points that would work. The day after the project finished Carl made his last jump. This story, in full, is in John Longs book "Gorrila Monsoon". It shows a glimpse into the pshyche of what proppelled the early B.A.S.E. pioneers.
"It takes a big man to cry, it takes an even bigger man to make that big man cry"

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what is crazier than the story is there is only 813 in the whole world! that is unreal!


It is better to be dead and cool than alive and uncool!

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813 registered as you say,
i have read that some prefer not to have a number, i think to some it means way more than just having the paperwork.

-- Hope you don't die. --

I'm fucking winning

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I heard Dwayne Westin took his moms pet Schi-tzu off all 4 objects and then got it a BASE#, and if you know Dwayne this is not far fetched at all! So some #'s might be bogus as well.
"It takes a big man to cry, it takes an even bigger man to make that big man cry"

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Hey dude congratulations to you and C! I see you got yourself a computer with a net connection. Oh hell watch out.

Are we gonna see you two at the bridge in Oct?

Hugs and Kisses,
Your favorite redneck

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What's happennin' in Johnny Reb! Yes, C and Me are really online finally and very phsyched to be at Bridge Day this year. We understand that yer better half will be at home caring for your prodgeny! She will be sorely missed Love! Love!
"It takes a big man to cry, it takes an even bigger man to make that big man cry"

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On the Antenna:

Nick makes it sound overly simplistic, and it was, but a lot of thought went into early jumps.

Time frame was pre BASE, and Phil (Smitty) was chasing his first fixed object jump at El Cap and I was not, and I was somewhat pissed at myself for not tagging along.

I was also somewhat pissed at the logistics of having to travel 2000 miles to make such a jump and also pissed at the egotistical USPA types that were pressing for control of these jumps. Because of this I was contemplating another avenue. You see, a picture had been in the back of my mind, a picture that I had first seen a year or so earlier, one that I just could not forget. The picture was of Owen Quinn at the World Trade.

The Antenna:

The antenna was right near my house. I knew well of it, but never thought much of it, at least not until now. Now I was right beside it, looking at it thru the open door of a Cessna 206. On the way to a demo jump south of Houston, while flying about 1100 feet AGL, I looked out as we were passing right beside the antenna, checked my altimeter, and had a sudden sense of what we were missing out on.

I think only a day or so later I was on top of it. I had stashed my bicycle in the weeds, jumped the fence and helped myself to a dose of altitude. This antenna was the coolest place to hang out, not flying and yet still far above the ground, with a platform big enough to have a party on. I couldn’t get enough.

The Plan:

Smitty and I were both pretty experienced airmen, he more so than I, and we both had jumps from planes and helicopters at about that altitude, so we had a pretty good feeling for the jump. However, slowing us down, Carl (Smitty had called him and told him of our impending jump) had asked us to wait till he could get to town to film. This gave us the opportunity to invite another Phil on the jump, but added a week for our sometimes bizarre planning.

Although we would wait for Carl for filming, our overactive minds decided we should make a test drop from the antenna just to see how it went and mostly just to have something to do. So we hit the tower one evening with a 24’ flat circular reserve and a back pack with about 50 pounds of barbell weights.

At about 450 feet up the 1100 foot ladder we had enough climbing with the heavy baggage and decided we were high enough for what we wanted. After a little rigging we climbed to the outer edge of the tower and away dropped our little static line dummy, stringing out into a perfect deployment and drifting quickly away right between the guy wires. The full moon made the white canopy almost glow.

The location of this antenna was well out in the countryside, and a couple hundred yards off a little used road, and although we could see and watch for traffic on this road for quite a ways a car we had not noticed came into view just as soon as our test canopy opened. Why this was such a concern was because the wind was drifting the canopy along and towards the road, and what made this even worse was the fact that that one lone car happened to be a police car.

With things now beyond our control we just stood and watch from our 450 foot perch; the canopy drifting, the police car patrolling. You know how sometime you can watch two moving objects and just know they will meet at one point, this was one of those times. And to top it off the moon made it so bright it seemed the driver would surely spot our canopy in the air. Well, after a few tense moments and to our surprise our drop missed (barely) the car, drifting directly over it by only 20 feet or so and landing on the side of the highway, not even spotted by the car’s occupants, thus delaying our arrest until another venture. Anyhow, we three Phils finally jumped the antenna about a week later (was my gold wing freefall), with Carl, Jeanie and my girlfriend Kathy filming, those were the days…

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“BASE jumping, a person doing this would be . . . a BASE jumper!”



Not many people know this, but a bunch of us Scottish jumpers were determined
that it was going to be called SABRE jumping, only we couldn't agree among
ourselves on what the R should stand for. I'm thinking here of John Norman
(who later had an illustrious BASE career in Australia and New Zealand),
but more of Ken ("no, it's _my_ name") Dalgleish, Phillip McCann and myself.
Well, maybe mostly of myself.

The most durable, and in many ways, most plausible candidate for
an "R" discipline was "railways", only we couldn't decide whether that
simply meant jumping off a railway bridge (which John and I maintained
were obviously covered off under S) or actually off
a moving railway carriage. The latter was problematic
in that none of us actually thought that we could do a moving train.
But then Ken pointed out that, at that time, southbound British Rail
trains could be relied on to come to a dead stop in the middle of the
Forth Bridge approximately one journey out of three, which left us
with the opposite problem that it would be too easy.

At this point, the "railway bridges" vs. "railway carriages" debate
reopened, and threatened to become a major rift, which we called "The Rift".
The only thing on which we had consensus was that if "R" did wind up
standing for "railways", that it would also include Range Rovers.
After a few months, we decided that, as there were only four of us,
splitting into two factions would leave us short of jumping partners
and, more importantly, of drinking partners. There was a silver lining,
though, as The Rift suggested that "R" could stand instead for "Rift
Valleys", only we weren't sure if there were any jumpable rift valleys
anywhere, and if there were we figured they would just look like any other E.

For at least a year, Phil, who did a lot of mushrooms in those days, was
insistent that "R" should stand for "rainbows", but, despite long and
boisterous arguments, he couldn't convert anyone to his cause, so this
was less divisive than it might have been.

At this point Ken and I decided that "R" should stand for "random",
meaning any object which obviously didn't count as a B, A, S or E.
But this gave John and Phil the idea that it shouldn't stand for anything
at all, and merely be used as a way of winding up the non-initiates.
Although this had some appeal, we doubted we could sell it to the American
group favouring "BASE", so to avert another rift, we settled on "random"
and tried to think of that what that might mean. The only thing
I could come up with was that there was this giant sculpture of a leprechaun
on an estate in Dumfries, but, first of all, at a bit less than 80 feet high
it wasn't jumpable, and, secondly, whenever I brought it up Phil got back
onto the whole "rainbows" thing.

By this time, the term "BASE jumping" was starting to take hold, so
we pretty much gave up. And that, boys and girls, is why today you have
never heard of "SABRE jumping".
Like a thunderbolt, he falls.

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John Long lives down the street from me. He helped the Boenish's do the super huge wall in Norway.
Looks like a death sandwich without the bread - Steve Deadman Morrell, BASE 174

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Good story, man. Never heard that one before.
If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

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Wow...I think that was the most entertaining reading I've ever done on this forum...I agree. Lets hear more history and stories!

I was having a conversation with someone the other day about how people who are young in the sport (like me) don't know much about how it came about and aren't familiar with many of the names from the first few generations of BASE. The fact that BASE jumping is young enough for us to hear stories from the people who were there in the beginning is amazing and we should take advantage of that! Thank you guys for the stories. Chad, great topic!

:)

"They will soar on wings like eagles..."

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Wow...I think that was the most entertaining reading I've ever done on this forum...I agree. Lets hear more history and stories!

Chad, great topic!

:)



please note:
Chad created this thread in 2003. it has been dormant for several years. it was revived just a handful of posts ago. you may wish to review other old threads (yes, it can be tedious...).
DON'T PANIC
The lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
sloppy habits -> sloppy jumps -> injury or worse

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you may wish to review other old threads (yes, it can be tedious...).



If Nick would get off his a** and finish his book, we wouldn't have to hunt all over hell and half of Georgia to find these stories. :)

Don
"When in doubt I whip it out,
I got me a rock-and-roll band.
It's a free-for-all."

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John Long lives down the street from me. He helped the Boenish's do the super huge wall in Norway.



Interesting since he helped Carl on his world record! Can you ask him what happend that day, and way the 24 second delay made by a sweede did not count? From what I remember Carls world record was 19?

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