base311 0 #26 September 30, 2004 Definitely write to: Honorable Tom Tancredo House of Representatives Washington, DC 20525-0606 Be sure to thank him for his efforts in this regard. Maybe even visit his campaign hq website and send in a donation. Also write to your own congressional representatives (whoever they may be). House of Reps member info: http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.html Senate member info: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm What to write about (talking points): 1. Don't use the term BASE. We are backcountry parachutists when we talk to the NPS. This keeps things uniform and gets us away from the "BASE" stigma. The permit language includes the term 'backcountry', hence the uniformity. 2. It's a matter of fundamental fairness that NPS end 26 years of access discrimination through blanket prohibition (historical stance and confirmed by the 2001 NPS Management Policies prohibition at 8.2.2.7 - BASE Jumping). 3. The prohibition is based on an obsolete paradigm no longer supported by common sense. 4. The New River permit/waiver directly contradicts both the premise and justification of the prohibition policy (2001 NPS Management Policies prohibition at 8.2.2.7 - BASE Jumping). 5. History contradicts both premise and justification too: NPS has for years hosted the world's biggest fixed-object jumping boogie! 6. We've grown up as a sport and as individuals within it -- just like several other sub-disciplines of parachuting, we have developed our own rules, ethics and specialized equipmment. 7. We appreciate the NPS flexibility under the leadership of Director Mainella and look forward to working with her office to move forward to a fair and reasonble access solution for backcountry parachutists. ______________________ You can BEST help by writing your congressmembers and merely informing them of NPS' past actions, that you feel it is unfair that NPS has imposed these blanket prohibitions in a discriminatory manner, and informing YOUR congressional members that Rep. Tom Tancredo is working on this. Most members probably don't know that he has been working on this. Encourage your members to speak to Rep. Tancredo and to inquire about how your member might help. Other things you can do: Avoid upsetting the NPS further by not swatting the hornet's nest during BD and at other events and places. Be courteous to NPS representatives. email me for more information: [email protected] later, Gardner Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NathanL100 0 #27 September 30, 2004 Just a thought, but how about someone who is up on all of this putting together a canned letter that everyone can print out, sign, and mail into their rep. I think there would be a lot more letters sent if it was easier. Yes, it does seem a bit impersonal, but I think that it would make more people more likely to send one in. I know I would...Base # 942 The race is long and in the end, its only with yourself. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pullhigh 0 #28 September 30, 2004 I PM'd that same thought to Gardner, he's putting something together already... PM him you're regular e-mail addy and he'll send it to you I'm sure. Ganja Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
base311 0 #29 September 30, 2004 stay tuned.... (watch this spot) Gardner Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DexterBase 0 #30 October 2, 2004 Basically, to make a very long story short, we were busted jumping El Cap after sunset on Sunday evening (the 12th). We found the exit point and waited until the sun was setting but still light enough to see what was going on, get video, and identify our reference points in freefall. We exited from the "historic" exit point in a 2-way and had a freefall just over 15 seconds. We passed the top of the spire in freefall and deployed just below it. We flew our canopies to the meadow and landed next to the treeline. We put all our gear in stashbags and were about to put a little distance between the cache and ourselves when a ranger ran up through the trees. The opposite direction there were three men in civilian clothes holding radios. It was obvious that we were surrounded and there was no need to run so we stayed put and cooperated with them. We were detained as more rangers were called. When the other rangers showed up we were searched, handcuffed, and transported to the Yosemite holding facility. There we were booked and charged with air delivery. We were released in the morning on $500 bail each and told to appear on the 14th at 10 AM at the Yosemite Magistrate. We talked to the judge and the prosecutor wanted to give us a $2500 fine in addition to complete equipment confiscation and 12 months unsupervised probation. We pled guilty to the air deliver charge since the prosecution had a pretty solid case against us (my helmet camera footage showed the whole jump and the following sprint to the woods) and we didn't really have grounds to plead not guilty. Several rangers claimed to have seen the whole jump and the person who called the rangers in the first place was a climbing ranger who was on the spire as we fell past him and deployed our parachutes. In the end the judge gave us each a $2000 fine, permanent equipment confiscation, and 12 months unsupervised probation. The $500 bail we each posted was applied toward our fines. I asked for my camera back along with the footage of the jump. My partner asked for her ProTrack out of her helmet since this gear didn't have anything to do specifically with the BASE jump. To our surprise, the prosecutor honored our request. We walked away with the camera and data logger. The oroginal tape will be mailed to us as soon as they make a copy "for their records". The case against us was pretty solid. It's the whole air delivery law that pisses me off. I honestly believe it's unfair for the NPS to allow many types of risky activities in the park but exclude BASE because it's, "so dangerous". I want to wage war against the policy that makes enjoying our national parks in the way we choose, illegal. On a sidenote, as we were sitting in court a person was charged/convicted with a DUI in the park. He pled guilty and was given a $1500 fine and six months unsupervised probation. I find it rather hard to swallow that driving drunk and endagering everyone on the road is less dangerous than jumping from the cliff and landing a parachute in the meadow. We have more BASE rigs so we can keep jumping. So HA! Marty tilly from Asylum worked really hard to get my new rig finished so I could get back in the air and Ray Losli built me a SoftCock that I threw my extra BlackJack into for Kmonster to jump. "They can take our rigs but they can never take our jump!" --Kmonster Ultimately, we knew the price and we knew the score when we decided to jump at dusk. I knew what the stakes were and I decided to jump. Kmonster feels the same. It is true that there was a ranger sitting on the spire and he did radio in our location and what we were up to. When we were arrested, we were about ten seconds from getting away. I'm confident that if there wasn't a ranger on the spire we would have been clean and gotten away. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sum1sneaky 0 #31 October 4, 2004 I found a a different address for Tancredo: Thomas G. Tancredo Colorado-6th, Republican 1130 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515-0606 Phone: (202) 225-7882 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
