Bridge Day Safety Video Comments

[CanuckInUSA 0]

I picked up Johnny Utah's "Bridge Day Safety Video" and it serves as a good wake up call concerning the bad things which can happen to people in the BASE environment. If I may I'd like to outline each malfunction type that Johnny shows in his video and maybe we can start a dialog as to how to try and prevent many of these problems so that newbies like myself actually have a chance at surviving some BASE jumps.

Going Head Low

This seems to be one of the chief culprits in a BASE jump gone bad. So many other bad things seem to result when a jumper goes head down. It's my understanding that when we exit, we should exit head high diving up and out looking at a 45 degree angle above the horizon? Is this correct and how often have your experienced BASE jumpers seen people go head low?

Over rotating

This is something which a newbie like myself won't be trying for a while, but what is a good way to try and prevent this? Practicing your exits at a swimming pool or just staying away from these sort of exits?

Bridle wrapped around the body

Assuming that we're not head low, when else can this be a problem and how can we prevent it?

Stalling in freefall

I would assume that one needs to get some sort of acrobatic experience (either in a swimming pool or with a gymnastics coach) before one really starts doing acrobatics. But it's also a good idea to not try acrobatics off of objects <500 feet until you really have your shit together (packing, exits, deployments, etc, etc, etc).

Line Twists

Out side of going head low (or other poor deployment body positions) and poor packing. What other comments would you people like to make about line twists?

Hard Pulls

I would assume that practice touches are paramount prior to jumping once you're going stowed, but is this also a packing thing or something else?

Bad Throws

Outside of poor deployment body positions, what else should we be thinking about here?

Pilot Chute in Tow

In most of the "pilot chute in tow" cases on this video, the jumpers appeared to be using converted skydiving containers, but what about BASE specific containers? I am aware that a certain amount of slack must be utilized on a pin closure rig (using the cheater velcro strip), but what else should one think of to prevent this ugly beast from killing us?

Snivel

Is this a packing issue and is it mainly a slider up deployment issue?

Slider Hang up

Is this another packing issue? What should one know about this malfunction type?

Tension Knot

Yet another packing issue?

Lost brake lines

This one was a little confusing in the video. We can clearly see the brake lines fluttering after opening, but was that because the brakes were not properly stowed? Did the brake lines break? If they did break, how often does this sort of thing happen and what can we do to prevent it? Obviously if our brake lines do fail, we must fly and flare the canopy with the rear risers. But what else should we be thinking about?

Line Over

On slider off/down jumps, the use of a Tail Gate can help prevent line overs. But what about slider up jumps? What must we know here? When packing, lines to the inside, fabric to the outside and the lines taunt? What else?

Canopy Collisions

Dang ... obviously we shouldn't be jumping with others until we have the necessary experience to pack well and deploy stable. Also I'm assuming that the openings must be staggered vertically and the lower person must always deploy last? What else?

Hard Landing

Not counting line twists or other canopy malfunctions, these are the sort of problems which we can prevented through proper canopy size selection, not jumping in winds unsuitable for your wing loading and just plain good canopy control? Anything else?

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[base428 1]

The Bridge Day Safety Video was born from this document:

[URL "http://bridgeday.info/malfunctions.html"]Bridge Day Malfunctions[/URL]

and it contains a fair amount of answers to your questions.

[inline icarusvx_1LR.jpg]

Malfunctions suck. Good luck.

PS. I bet your wondering how I did the inline attachment!

(c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted. <==For the media only

[TomAiello 25]

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PS. I bet your wondering how I did the inline attachment!

Um, no. It's covered in the markup help, I believe.

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-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[CanuckInUSA 0]

Thanks for the URL. Yes it did answer many of my questions.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[base428 1]

Yep, it's in the markup help file....but it's new and everyone over at the bonfire got all excited that inline attachments are now possible!

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um, no. It's covered in the markup help, I believe.

(c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted. <==For the media only

[NickDG 23]

I'll never forget . . .

My shift as staff member at Bridge Day (1986) when the first jumper climbs the rail, stops, looks down at me and says, "okay, how do I do this?"

I'm glad times have changed . . .

Nick BASE 194

[Naptown 0]

cool video, a lot of D-bag induced line twists though. Would have been nice to see some good carnage on more modern base gear.

[Sabre2th 0]

Am I just blind? I do not see a link for a video???
I looked all over the page!

Nick.

Those who dance, are cosidered insane by those who can't hear the music.

[QuickDraw 0]

Its for sale on Jason's site.

Here.

-- Hope you don't die. --

I'm fucking winning

[TomAiello 25]

Quote

...Johnny Utah's "Bridge Day Safety Video"...

It's worth noting that this video is a re-edit of Will Forshay's excellent Lemmings Extreme video, collected by Will over the course of many Bridge Days. After Will's death, Johnny re-edited and re-released the footage, presumably after making some kind of arrangement with Will's family.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[TheMonkey 0]

who is that in the pic of the vx line twists?

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Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience!

[base428 1]

I'm not sure who that lucky bastard was.

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who is that in the pic of the vx line twists?

(c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted. <==For the media only

[JohnnyUtah 0]

Quote

Quote

...Johnny Utah's "Bridge Day Safety Video"...

It's worth noting that this video is a re-edit of Will Forshay's excellent Lemmings Extreme video, collected by Will over the course of many Bridge Days. After Will's death, Johnny re-edited and re-released the footage, presumably after making some kind of arrangement with Will's family.

Actually, Will Forshays Lemmings Videos are great the way they are and I would not re-edit any of his productions.

The Bridge Day Safety Video is its own production with its own format and purpose. I created this video to use as a visual aid during the Safety Briefing I gave at last years Bridge Day.

To create this video I thought of the many things that can go wrong during a BASE jump at Bridge Day and searched for video clips from multiple years of Lemmings videos to give examples of each.

The first part of the video is meant to be a wake-up call. The second part of the video is structure in a way to aid me during the safety briefing. It goes through each problem that can occur one by one giving multiple examples of each. After each section there is a space to allow me to pause the tape and give a briefing about that situation. Some of the problems covered are malfunctions while some of them have to do with pilot error.

Jason Bell has had a malfunction document on his website for years now which serves as a good reference. Dexter was working on a similar document before he went overseas. For another reference I will be happy to post a document that is reflective of my safety briefing given at Bridge Day. It will cover all the topics shown on the video plus additional advice that I can offer.

I do have an arrangement with Will Forshay’s family and they are pleased that his footage can be used to promote safety in the BASE community.

Every BASE jumper should see this video!


The Bridge Day Safety Video can be ordered at:

JohnnyUtah.com

OR

Vertical Visions

Have Fun, Don't Die!
Johnny Utah
My Website
email:[email protected]

[hookitt 0]

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For another reference I will be happy to post a document that is reflective of my safety briefing given at Bridge Day.

Please do.

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto