Broken Back in Moab!

[clint 1]

Some more bad news for Moab, we were doing ok until Wednesday.

Don't know much about it. I was sitting in the bar and the manager told me that some BASE jumper broke their back. He jumped off Tombstone and was air lifted to Grand Junction. He broke L1. Ouch!

We didnt' know anyone was in town so when we heard it we didn't know who it was. According to 2nd hand info, the guy had 2 BASE jumps. I guess a friend of his from the East coast brought him out to the nice SAFE cliffs.

I guess the accident happened like this. I guess the rigger shortened the deep brake settings way too much so when it opened up, he was flying backwards towards the wall. Didn't know what was wrong. He thought it was a line over?? and then dumped his toggles. Was flying to the ground with the rear risers and then picked his feet up to land, way up above his lower back. He landed hard and broke his L1. It also happened at 2-3pm. The winds were blowing 28-38 mph all afternoon long. I thought my manifest office was going to blow away!

Very surprising to hear that anyone would be jumping.

I say 'I guess' alot is because I don't know the facts from of this incident. Just 2nd hand info.

Heal fast man.

Also on a side note, Gus Wing fly forever my friend!

-

Clint MacBeth
Skydive Moab 435 259 JUMP
M.O.A.B. Mother Of All Boogies Sept 19 - 23, 2012

[NickDG 23]

Oh boy, I'm very sorry to hear that . . .

And while it's too early for conclusions there is one general lesson in all types of parachuting. Always use your legs to protect your torso from impacts.

A good analogy is an aircraft pilot using their landing gear to absorb crash impact energy thereby protecting the fuselage . . .

I used to strut like John Travolta, but now I waddle like Elmer Fudd, but at least I can still walk . . .

NickD BASE 194

[TomAiello 25]

Talk about a chain of mistakes...

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...2 BASE jumps...nice SAFE cliffs...shortened the deep brake settings way too much...28-38 mph...He broke L1...

Any idea what the level of experience of the friend was?

It's disturbing that we still have people with 2 jumps thinking that slider down cliffs are a good idea.

And testing their DBS for the first time off a solid object?

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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Talk about a chain of mistakes...

Did you forget to add the potential strong winds to the chain of bad events?

Get well vibes being sent to the injured jumper.

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

[airtwardo 6]

I used to strut like John Travolta, but now I waddle like Elmer Fudd, but at least I can still walk . . .

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Kinda look a bit shorter too!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[manship 0]

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Talk about a chain of mistakes...

It's disturbing that we still have people with 2 jumps thinking that slider down cliffs are a good idea.

Gee Tom, I can't help but think that using a slider would just have made it worse.

I got too much time on my hands, I gotta get on the road soon.

==========================================

I didn't invent skydiving, but I jumped with the guys who did.

[skypuppy 1]

I used to strut like John Travolta, but now I waddle like Elmer Fudd, but at least I can still walk . . .
__________________________________________________
In my case, it's only one leg that's shorter. I figure if I ever get lost in the woods, eventually I'll do a complete circle and end up back where I started.

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

[nicknitro71 0]

Hi guys,

I know few more details about this jump.

Three friends of mine from the NE were in Moab this week. The guy who got hurt really had 2 BASE jumps he made at BD 2004 and 2003, one each year. He has about 300 skydives.
He and I were supposed to go to the potato bridge in two weeks so he could gain some experience.

He did not tell me he was going to Moab probably because he knew I was going to bitch at him for even thinking about going off a cliff with no experience. It was a last minute decision he made.

Anyway I am the rigger who put the DBS, the tailgate, and the tail pocket on his Raven IV. He was jumping it with a brand new Apex Vertex 2 that he had never used before. By the way I am not mentoring this guy. I was just making sure he was not going to do anything stupid and supervise his pack jobs and gear.

The guy only skydived the canopy once after me bitching at him for months to test fly it. After the mods were done I told him to skydive it first but he said it was OK and he was going to test jump it off the potato bridge.

This guy although very, very nice, he is extremely impulsive and known to make poor decisions especially under peer pressure.

I just heard the he was the one who got hurt this morning and I still can't believe what happened.

He should have not been allowed to jump off that cliff or any cliff for that matter especially with those winds.

Nobody with two BASE jumps (slider up), not many skydives, and poor canopy control skills, has any business off any cliff.

The good news is that he does not have spinal cord injury, the surgery went well, and he will recover.

Please guys learn from this and watch out for the people who you care for and who cannot make good judgment on their own.

Memento Audere Semper

903

[nicknitro71 0]

Updates:

I just talked to him. He's at St. Marie's in Grand Junction, CO.

His back surgery was 6.5 hours long. He had a piece of bone that broke from L1 in the spinal canal. They had to remove it and use a piece of hip bone to reconstruct the vertebra. It's my understanding they braced L1 laterally with two other vertebrae, but I don't know the exact details.

Luckily he has no nerve damage.

He might get released in 10 days-two weeks.

He is in good spirit and sedated heavily.

His mom and girlfriend flew there.

About the jump he told me the winds were gusty. There were five people on the jump. Three jumped, he was the fourth, and the last one did not jump.

According to him, his canopy opened on-heading but felt mushy and start veering to one side. He did not know what was wrong with it, thought he had a line-over, so he released the toggles and landed on his butt with rears. It took the ambulance over two hours to arrive and then he was airlifted to his current location.

Memento Audere Semper

903

[doucette 0]

hey nick
i'm originally from NE my self. but live in salt lake city now (1 1/2 yrs now).i jump in moab often.just wondering which DZ there from in case i may know them. i'm not gonna kick a man while he's down
I WISH HIM A SPEEDY(full) RECOVERY!!!....but the more experienced jumper(FRIEND) that allowed him to jump moab w/two base jump(one per yr.)is a different story.i know what it's like to be busted up bad . haveing broke my pelvis in 4 places on a tower jump(it sucks)also know what it's like to be rescued off the face of a 300 ft wall after a 180 & strike just recently.so please ALL be VERY CURRENT & have enough experience to play on these rocks here in UT (or any where)...peace.play hard..be safe..hope to see my buds in TF ON MEM DAY....EDGE-EE#762

[TVPB 0]

Whilst I wish the guy a speedy recovery and all the best of luck for the future, I can only think of terms such as "ill prepared, shortcuts, lack of respect and understanding, gene pool, & natural selection".

The information is out there. It is not hard to find.

If you choose not to look. . . . . well, that is the choice you make. No sympathy for really obvious shortcuts.

Sorry for being harsh, but people don't seem to learn when we are overly sympathetic and nice.

Flame away, but it does not fix the root cause.

Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck

The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

[ZegeunerLeben 0]

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The information is out there. It is not hard to find.

If you choose not to look. . . . . well, that is the choice you make. No sympathy for really obvious shortcuts.

Sorry for being harsh, but people don't seem to learn...Flame away, but it does not fix the root cause.

>>It's not really all that harsh. Not as harsh as the reality of having a broken back. We are all ultimately responsible for own decisions. If you find yourself standing at the edge of a cliff looking down at the road with gusting winds contemplating a jump, the realities of what of you're about to do cannot fail to hit home. You either choose to jump, or choose not to jump. It's up to you.

[base587 0]

QUOTE "the realities of what of you're about to do cannot fail to hit home"

Stick around a while longer....there's all types in this sport......you may be surprised.

[TVPB 0]

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"Stick around a while longer....there's all types in this sport......you may be surprised."

More than a decade in the sport, 750 odd jumps, 5 continents, many countries & sites. . . living, dead, good, average, bad, MANY awesome people, some &*%$#s, etc.

I am not suprised anymore. Just disappointed on some occasions. I enjoy all the differences in the sport, except one. COMMON SENSE - this spectrum should be narrow and the bell curve should be a spike on the hard right of the scale. But alas, it isn't. And we keep reading about. . . . . .

But I am still a student with much to learn, and I will always remain so. By default, sticking around longer will probably bring more surprises. Hopefully there are more good ones than bad.

For all those doing good things, keep it up. You are in the majority. For the others, time for reflection. The future holds so much for you.

Stay Safe
Have Fun
Good Luck

Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck

The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

[cornishe 0]

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He should have not been allowed to jump off that cliff or any cliff for that matter especially with those winds.

...Allowed?


-A

Abbie Mashaal
Skydive Idaho
Snake River Skydiving
TandemBASE

[DexterBase 0]

Yes.

If he was my protege, I'd have looked him straight in the eyes and said, "This jump is far too technical for your experience level. The conditions are crap, even for an experienced BASE jumper. There is no reason for you to exit now. Let's go to the bridge and we can get you some more experience before we jump this together."

This sport is about free choice, but we have a duty as members of the BASE community to look out for the ones who don't have enough experience to make sound BASE decisions yet.

This includes experienced BASE jumpers who are operating out of their normal comfort zone. If a jumper is more experienced than me in a certain area, I will carefully evaluate their advice and make my decision.

I wonder if this jumper was given a no bullshit assessment of the conditions and how they relate to his experience level.

A carefully stated piece of advice could have probably prevented (or maybe just delayed) this accident.

[Sean621 0]

sounds like another case of confusing ambition with ability.think im gonna go steal me a jet fighter and take it for a spin...cant fly for shit but how hard can it be?

http://www.extreme-on-demand.com

[TomAiello 25]

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sounds like another case of confusing ambition with ability.think im gonna go steal me a jet fighter and take it for a spin...cant fly for shit but how hard can it be?

Well, it's so easy a bag of dogfood could do it--haven't you heard?

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[freakydiver 0]

I unfotunately have to agree. As much as I hate seeing fellow man get himself into trouble, its not like this guy was out in the backcountry on a low avalanche danger day and got bit by an unlucky slide. I do indeed hope he heals well, but fuck, get a clue.

-- (N.DG) "If all else fails – at least try and look under control." --

[Zennie 0]

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Well, it's so easy a bag of dogfood could do it--haven't you heard?

Lotta kibble hitting the wall lately it seems.

- Z
"Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

[cornishe 0]

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I will carefully evaluate their advice and make my decision.

Right. Not allowed/restricted... advised. And he was advised to stay the fuck away. After that, well, its all him.

It's not THAT hard to walk away from a jump. I do it all the time with Nick, Cork, Steve, and Tom laughing at me for hours (sometimes days).

-A

Abbie Mashaal
Skydive Idaho
Snake River Skydiving
TandemBASE

[DexterBase 0]

Dude, seriously, don't ever sweat that Tom giving you shit about backing off a jump.

Ask him about the morning load at the Green Giant in NorCal. HaHa!!!!

That was truly funny.

[Zennie 0]

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It's not THAT hard to walk away from a jump. I do it all the time with Nick, Cork, Steve, and Tom laughing at me for hours (sometimes days).

Or all of us mocking you from the bottom of the bridge.

- Z
"Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

[K763 0]

Hi all-

I just got a call from Bernie...

He's doing fine, happy that there is no spinal cord damage, and sorry to have caused such a stir.

I read him most of this thread, and he wanted me to express his complete understanding at the error in judgement he made in making that jump at his experience level.

For the record, as the four of them sat at the top of T...., the winds were gusty at times with the occasional lull. The 28-38 mph winds at the dz were not what they were experiencing on T.....

Bernie realizes the worst part of the whole episode is that he really felt that he could do it; that it was ok. The reports of the deployment, flight and landing are accurate with one exception; when Bernie flared with his rear risers he flared too hard and stalled backward onto his butt, the force of which broke his back.

He agrees with the comments in this thread, and also reiterated that "this sucks". He's very grateful to his girlfriend and mother for flying to be with him; I can relate with him how lonely and awful it can be lying broken up in a hospital bed.

Bernie appreciates the good wishes for his fast recovery, and says that he does plan to jump again, but next time taking things in the proper order.

You guys, let's make sure to keep looking out for each other. It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, and then the guy with the pencil in his hand feels like crap for ever.

Peace, GET WELL SOON, BERNIE!

K

[clint 1]

Glad to hear he's ok!

I hope that when you all make it out to Moab, make wise decisions. Oh, and try to have the experience too.

When I first got to Moab, I was told that you should have 30-40 BASE jumps before you start jumping in Moab because of how dangerous it is.

I firmly believe that unwritten rule.

Be safe!

-
Clint