What do do , who to trust?

[NickD 1]

I don't know, Tom. I run hot and cold on legal sites . . .

There are many issues to be addressed, but the most important one is this; we are right now in the midst of a BASE fatality spike that coincides with the leap in BASE participation that began between 1999 and the year 2000. Why?

If it's a simple matter of more BASE jumps equals more deaths, we are doomed. Or, is it more a product of our own actions over the last 15 years? By this I mean the mainstream advertising by BASE gear manufactures the availability of BASE first jump courses, the BASE competitions, and the airing of BASE videos once held very close to the vest. (BTW, I'm guilty as anyone of all those things).

We are, in a way, sending the message to the uninitiated that BASE is an "everyman's" sport. Even as we know in our hearts it isn't and never will be. I'm trying to be careful here and weigh whether I'm an old fart lamenting past glory days, or someone capable of comparing then and now because I've been to both places in time.

Regardless of what caused the upsurge in BASE participation (and I think it had a lot to do with Madison Avenue getting kids to buy into the whole "extreme" thing) we are handing out BASE like candy to children when it used to be the kids had to search out the candy for themselves. Those not resourceful enough, not self reliant enough, or not wanting it bad enough, were excluded right off the bat.

In terms of progress and safety, I know our biggest leaps in those areas came long before the advent of their being so many legal sites. Bridge Day notwithstanding, tailgates, pin rigs, vents, and so forth were products of an earlier time. Since then we have become more spectacular with aerials, tards, and wing suits, but any safety advances are being cancelled out by people doing too much too fast. Of, course this could be one big growing pain that will pass in time, and I hope it is, but I also think we are paying a terrible price for access.

I think legal sites have their place. I like the way the Go Fast Games are run. This is not a come one, come all event. In a sense it's a reward for those experienced jumpers who've paid their dues. The flip side is a legal bridge were you pay your money, make your jumps, promise to get a mentor once back home, and then get turned loose. Are we fooling ourselves into a believing a "skydiving" type of training program is even applicable to BASE jumping? In skydiving, student status used to be so difficult it weeded out those who couldn't hack the program. This was considered a good thing but it ended when we allowed profit to trump safety. Are we going down that same road?

Then there is the chicken and egg thing. Do we jump so much in PotatoVille because its not so much allowed, but not disallowed? The current PotatoBridge was built around 1973. I remember someone showing me photos of it back in the late 1980s. When I asked that person if they jumped it, the response was no, as it was too exposed. There is no thought of whether it would be legal or not, it was more a matter the secret was not to be exposed. The big sea change in BASE is when we got away from that idea.

Of course, this all makes for interesting discourse, but it's academic in the sense we can never go back to what was. BASE has grown to the point where it has a life of its own. However, we'd be remiss if we don’t figure out a way to take what worked in the past and blend it into what's happening now.

BASE jumping is a priceless thing in my opinion. Now that the cat's totally out of the bag we need to make it harder to participate. Someone always says if we don’t teach they will go out and do it themselves. I find that wrong on many levels. After all you can’t automatically say that's a bad thing. It's the way an entire generation of BASE jumpers learned the sport. Second, I think the number of people willing to go it alone these days is smaller than in BASE's earlier days.

So I have a bold suggestion. (And before you crap your pants, remember this is us jawing over a couple of beers.) Let's stop training 3 or 4 students at a time for free or for a few hundred bucks. If you want to be a true BASE mentor take one person at a time, charge them five thousand dollars, and take them all the way to a BASE number. Get them to the point where you can let go with a clear conscious. Make that commitment to the sport or stop doing it because it's not working . . .

NickD BASE 194

[TomAiello 25]

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Let's stop training 3 or 4 students at a time for free or for a few hundred bucks. If you want to be a true BASE mentor take one person at a time, charge them five thousand dollars, and take them all the way to a BASE number. Get them to the point where you can let go with a clear conscious. Make that commitment to the sport or stop doing it because it's not working.

Do you think the five thousand bucks is important in that equation?

What if you took someone on for free, and worked with them until you felt comfortable that they were reasonably competent to be let go on their own (maybe a hundred or a hundred and fifty jumps, from a good spread of objects)?

What if, instead of cash, what you required from them was a commitment to the learning process, that they would not go out and jump on their own until both student and teacher agreed that the time had come?

Just a thought...

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[NickD 1]

>>Do you think the five thousand bucks is important in that equation?<<

I was trying to get students to match the level of commitment of the mentors . . . anything else no matter the good intentions are just promises . . .

And I think a good mentor deserves to make a good living. (And this is something skydiving and BASE jumping hasn't figured out yet). We need to think outside the box. I remember in the early days of AFF there is an Instructor named Dana Handbury. She was the former wife of Jim Handbury, the fellow who built the first Velcro closed BASE rigs for Carl Boenish.

She didn't work for any drop zone. She engaged AFF students privately and took them all the way through the "A" license. They traveled to different drop zones and she's able to impart knowledge that traditional instructors couldn’t in the confines of the seven levels of AFF. While she charged more for her services she turned out students who had confidence, ability, and real world experience. The way skydiving works now students are separated from their instructors way too early. I think, in BASE, we need to go more the route Dana took.

NickD BASE 194

[RhondaLea 3]

This discussion is so worthwhile, it deserves its very own thread.

If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

[NickD 1]

Also, go back and look at the original title of this thread, he unintentionally got it right.

"What Do Do."

Our innocents are crying out for help . . .

NickD BASE 194

[wwarped 0]

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Do you think the five thousand bucks is important in that equation?

as Nick said, the money would permit the mentor to make a decent living.

and unless training is moved to a Shaolin monastery, I'm betting many would leave before completing a 150, 100, or even 50 jump cycle. a large cash upfront payment would show committment to the program (or just too much free cash).

basically, it's the Mercedes-Benz vs Hyundai discussion...
high quality, low volumes, and high cost vs low quality, high volumes, and low cost.

and someone in a market based economy always seems willing to cut costs to attain higher volumes.

DON'T PANIC
The lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
sloppy habits -> sloppy jumps -> injury or worse

[leroydb 0]

very well said

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Someone always says if we don’t teach they will go out and do it themselves. I find that wrong on many levels. After all you can’t automatically say that's a bad thing. It's the way an entire generation of BASE jumpers learned the sport.

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[vandev 0]

Nick i will agree in principle but not about the money... Didnt you say that it was the wallstreet rich kids who you where talking about getting in to easy... These people have money and it is not a problem.. Dont forget that the person without $5000.00 will take his $3000.00 and go to Norway and do his FJC there... What better... the potato bridge of kjreg for the first base jump....

Thats a tough call.....

I think Tom could interject here....

In the end...the universe has a way of working itself out.... "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle"

[vandev 0]

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We are, in a way, sending the message to the uninitiated that BASE is an "everyman's" sport

I dont think you are as i have been surrounded by old time base jumpers and it never sucked me in in any way shape or form.... I think that's a more personal choice....

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There are many issues to be addressed, but the most important one is this; we are right now in the midst of a BASE fatality spike that coincides with the leap in BASE participation that began between 1999 and the year 2000. Why?

I dont think i am qualified to answer this but i will give you my opinion... and to make it short and sweet...wingsuits.....tracking suits....the passion to fly further...... longest track.....we have upgraded our technoligy from propellers to jet engines... It happed in avaition and it it will happen here....You dont see a big upsurge in Potato bridge fatalities but you do in terminal jumps...

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Bridge Day notwithstanding

This one i never understood...."come jump off a bridge with no experience" Well i can land my crossfire in a LZ the size of about 10 football fields...so i should have no problem landing a completly unfamilure canopy in a Lz the size of a living room in a "boggie" with no pressure.... thats something .... I saw the carnage video of Bridge day and it was quite the spectical.....

as for training....thats something all experienced jumpers should agree on and impelment... Look at barnstorming skydiving in the days way back. All sport progress and evolve.. You can't say that someone should learn like you had to back in the day. We are suppose to evolve into something better and more knowlegeable so that we dont repete first time mistakes...

Has anyone done a study on fatalities as ...americans, europiens, Austrailians...etc....to see if these are site specific or regional and then compair training methods..??


again, comments thrown in the mix over a few Corona's.....

In the end...the universe has a way of working itself out.... "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle"

[JaapSuter 0]

Attached is my own interpretation of the BASE fatality list classifying each fatality as beginner, experienced or unknown.

In case there was not a year known for the accident, I put it in the same year as the accident before it.

I have interpreted some descriptions to make a classification. For example, number 20; I consider somebody that has done a previous paraglide from Mount Everest as being experienced, even though I'm not sure how many jumps he had. He may have been jumping a Vega 180, but as an adventurer, Jean-Marc certainly knew what he was getting into.

I guess my classification is not necessarily based on jump-numbers (although it plays a large part) but more on attitude and how much a person realizes what the risks are. Probably some of my classification you disagree with.

Given my personal interpretation though, in the stretch of 1999 to 2005, I observe the following:

14 beginners died

21 experienced jumpers died

16 jumpers I couldn't judge

Three of those beginners were of the "bought-a-rig-on-ebay" type, meaning solo suicides without any prior training. A fourth one was offered instruction but refused. In my opinion, these types of accidents will be unavoidable, regardless of what we do.

That leaves 10 beginners that, judging optimistically, got into the sport the average way.

Because there are 16 unknown jumpers, we can't really draw conclusions about this, as it is bigger than the difference between the number of experienced jumpers and beginners.

Nonetheless, I see no jumpers on the list that are cliche Potato jumpers, e.g. the jumpers that do an FJC, do another 40 or so jumps at the bridge, and then turn loose in their local scene without a proper mentor. Am I overlooking anybody?

Anyway, the statistics are too minimal to draw conclusions from. I do however want to offer my own opinions:

BASE gear has become safer over the past 20 years. Nevertheless, the sport is growing faster than that gear is getting safer, meaning that the gear can't keep up with the fall in our lowest-common-denominator jumping mentality. This explains the general incline in the number of incidents.

So far, the fatality list does not show the explosion of beginner accidents that everybody is so afraid of. That doesn't mean it's not going to happen in two years from now, but so far it seems that most Potato jumpers come home to a hospitable environment that they can safely jump in.

Now everybody repeat three times: Cliffs are dangerous, Cliffs Are Dangerous, CLIFFS ARE DANGEROUS!

Edited to add; per DexterBase's post below, the analysis above is flawed because it ignores injuries. Take it with a large grain of salt.

[DexterBase 0]

It's also good to keep in mind that the fatality list doesn't include all those who are permanently disabled or otherwise horrifically injured.

You can pound in, break your femurs, spine, skull, both arms, and collapse a lung or two, rupture your liver... then spend a couple months in intensive care... yet survive...

...and not make the list.

I suspect that if all BASE related injuries were reported and graphed, there would be a large column with "low time jumpers" filling it.

Kinda like drunk driving. About 20,000 people are killed by drunk drivers annually.

At the scene of an accident, if someone in a car is killed, that fact is reported to the ER physicians when we transport other passengers from the same car to the hospital. Why? Because if one person in the car was killed, there is a high index of suspicion that there will be other serious injuries among the remaining vehicle occupants. Usually, if one person is killed, the others in the car will be seriously injured.

The news report may say that only one person was killed, but that is not meant to be interpreted as only one person injured.

A more meaningful statistic may be how many people are seriously injured or killed by drunk drivers annually. I suspect it would be a far greater number.

Just because you didn't die, doesn't mean you got off clean.

Until we can keep track of total accident numbers in BASE (that resulted in a serious injury) anysis of the list will be of little use. There are people out there who have been seriously fucked up BASE jumping. They're no on the list, but their permanent injuries are no less real.

[JaapSuter 0]

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It's also good to keep in mind that the fatality list doesn't include all those who are permanently disabled or otherwise horrifically injured.

Good observation. And you're right, it voids my analysis.

[wilmshurst 0]

There seems to be some 'attitude' towards people with money; people who appear lazy. I would suggest that most people with money have it because they have worked for it, and they have a good job to make the money because they have worked for a qualification. People working 50-60 hour weeks might want to spend their hard-earned cash making their leisure time more confortable (eg, skydivers who employ packers). Ignoring the last example, maybe there should be more concern about the 'freeloaders' with no money.

The only thing worse than a cold toilet seat is a warm toilet seat.

[RhondaLea 3]

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There seems to be some 'attitude' towards people with money; people who appear lazy.

You've started with an erroneous conclusion which invalidates the rest of your argument.

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I would suggest that most people with money have it because they have worked for it, and they have a good job to make the money because they have worked for a qualification.

Which has nothing to do with their motivation for jumping.

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People working 50-60 hour weeks might want to spend their hard-earned cash making their leisure time more confortable (eg, skydivers who employ packers).

Packing is an important part of skydiving, and very few people can reasonably justify employing packers. Exceptions in the current skydiving climate include instructors, videographers and teams, but one hopes that they pack for themselves at least some of the time just to stay current. For the rest, it is a matter of throwing money at a problem to make it go away, because these days, a lot of them never bothered to learn to pack.

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Ignoring the last example, maybe there should be more concern about the 'freeloaders' with no money.

They have no money because they spent it all on jumps and equipment and beer. And, oh yeah, they kicked in their last few bucks to some guy's femur fund.

In the end, it comes down to someone's underlying motivation, not how many dollars they have. Someone who is truly motivated will come up with the cash, but how does one instill motivation in those who have a lot of money and not much else to recommend them?

There is a segment of the population that works hard all week, makes a ton of cash, and then--bored to death on Saturday and Sunday--invests it in the newest and coolest of leisure activities. In the last few years, USPA tried to market skydiving to the masses, and sure enough, it worked, much to the detriment of the sport.

Is that what you want for BASE?

rl

If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

[Faber 0]

Nick,i dont agree on the mony issue...
That would only lead to people go trying it out them self,if you then say they would have no BASE gear.. oh well people would then just die in Parafoils and other crap(BASE-crap)they shouldnt use as BASE equipment...

i do however agree that by genneral people should be taught by a mentor..
that said i think thouse 3-4 student classes are great to people outside US were it can be hard to find a mentor before you learned the basic skills...

As Chad said,no one tells about thouse who has been disabled and really smashed up..

but then again how do you define an injury?
I broke my leg and spent 15 days at a hospital, and 8,5 month outside the sport,however i dont see that as a bad injury,it were a broken leg(unlucky on a really bad way),but i see people whith broken spin and other survir injuryes... were to say its an "real"injury..
I think it were DW who once said that it were if you had more than 14 days at a hospital(sorry if i Qoute wrong),which would mean that my broken leg were "real"..

or is a injury only "true"if you nearly died?

or if your some kind of disabled from it?

its an edge...

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

[JaapSuter 0]

Hey Tom,

now that you have done several free courses with a number of students, can you elaborate on your experiences with selecting students? What percentage of students are you sending home comfortably? Have you made any changes to your selection procedures after the first few courses?

Is there much discussion among mentors and teachers both of the incognito long term local type and the commercial FJC type? Other sports have forums and structures dedicated to share didactic wisdom among the teachers of the sport.

If one FJC had a student X that did such and so and the course teachers dealt with it in this particular way, how would the others have dealt with it, and how can we avoid it in the future? Such discussions can be very valuable.

Thanks,

Jaap Suter

[kleggo 138]

nick dg wrote

Let's stop training 3 or 4 students at a time for free or for a few hundred bucks. If you want to be a true BASE mentor take one person at a time, charge them five thousand dollars, and take them all the way to a BASE number. Get them to the point where you can let go with a clear conscious. Make that commitment to the sport or stop doing it because it's not working.

and TA responded

Do you think the five thousand bucks is important in that equation?

What if you took someone on for free, and worked with them until you felt comfortable that they were reasonably competent to be let go on their own

What if, instead of cash, what you required from them was a commitment to the learning process, that they would not go out and jump on their own until both student and teacher agreed that the time had come?

Just a thought...

and a good one, from both of you, but not a new one, just one that imposes such a burden on the prospective student that very few people would buy into it, even if it were " free".

back-in-the-day, Moe Viletto blazed just this path for any worthy students that came his way.
He pretty much demanded at least 6 months of that persons life to learn all necessary aspects that he thought necessary.
it started at the DZ of course since very few people bypassed that avenue, ( take a bow richie ), with simple lessons such as spotting, wind direction awareness, landing accuracy, when to step off a load if ground conditions sucked.
and progressed to rigging skills, as in down to the level of building risers and sewing patches.
then you pretty much had to memorize some of dennis pagan's works on microweather and turbulent air theory. memorize and comprehend.

after several months of this you might be ready to go out and help with a site scouting expedition or actually be a part of a ground crew gig.
it couls easilly be 3 - 4 months b4 you made your first jump.

who among us has the time / desire / money to follow this path?
i'd guess very few.
those that do, are special people that have certainly earned their knowledge and have likely forgotten more about parachuting than many of us know.

more power to those that choose this path.

be safe

kleggo

[NickDG 23]

Yes, I was actually thinking of Moe when I wrote about commitment. Moe is, and I mean this in a good way, "anal" about things BASE related. I know he made his first BASE jump in the early 80s, but stopped and didn’t jump again for a couple of years. He told me BASE wasn't there yet, in terms of the gear and technique.

It wasn't until he designed and built his own BASE gear that he started up again. Moe is the first I ever saw use clamps for packing, years before it became common in BASE. He'd even used a chalk line down the center of his loft to ensure straight was indeed straight. We giggled when Moe is unwilling to pack in the field like we all did. He would instead show up with six or seven packed rigs. Usually these rigs are all vacuumed sealed using a system he called a "Rig Saver." Moe is the closest thing to a nylon scientist I've ever met . . .

NickD BASE 194

[wilmshurst 0]

Hey RhondaLea

As you've taken the time to consider my statements, I'll take the time to explain myself better. The point I was trying to make is if people have money it is usually because they have worked for it. To get and keep a job requires skills, motivation, and generally hard work. Thus, I contend that someone having money may well be an indication of qualities that would make them a suitable skydiver/BASEr.

I did refute the packing example (see the following sentence) as I recognise that the use of packers is a contentious issue. I like your 'pack sometimes to keep your eye in' approach.

The only thing worse than a cold toilet seat is a warm toilet seat.

[wilmshurst 0]

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nick dg wrote

Let's stop training 3 or 4 students at a time for free or for a few hundred bucks. If you want to be a true BASE mentor take one person at a time, charge them five thousand dollars, and take them all the way to a BASE number.

Is there anyone doing this at the moment? Coming from a small country with an extremely limited BASE scene, the idea of doing a FJC and then gaining ground crew and jumping experience from a number of different objects certainly appeals. However, if I was travelling to the US to do this it would have to be over a fairly compact time period - otherwise there would be issues with a visa and money to live. This seems like _somewhat_ of an alternative approach to heading home after a FJC and 'starting again' with a mentor.

The only thing worse than a cold toilet seat is a warm toilet seat.

[NickDG 23]

Wilmshurst,

You hand me five large (plus expenses) and I'll get you a BASE number in a week. I can even work something out with Joy Harrison and for an additional fee you can skip upcoming numbers in the sequence in favor of picking your own . . . hell, if you want to pay more for a lower BASE number I'll sell you mine!

Of course, Wilmshurst's post shows the folly of my original comments and illustrates the problems we face in BASE training.

However, I have to say the thought of putting my own BASE number on E-bay just occurred to me. And I must phone up Phil Smith. What do you figure BASE #1 would auction off for . . . ?

NickD BASE 194

[wilmshurst 0]

I'm abit of a sucker for achieving things for myself. I wouldn't want a BASE # handed to me without me deserving it. Was thinking about a guide/mentor, not a 'servant'. If you're gonna learn to BASE why not do it in a place with experienced mentors and good objects.

Careful what you say Nick - I might just take you up on that offer. Don't imagine you as the sort of person that would involve me in dangerous shortcuts.

The only thing worse than a cold toilet seat is a warm toilet seat.

[base689 0]

> It's also good to keep in mind that the fatality list doesn't include all those who are permanently disabled or otherwise horrifically injured

I absolutely agree with this statement, Dexter. And I would humbly add the following one.

It's also good to keep in mind that the fatality list doesn't include all those who (according to the malfunction/evolution of the jump/whatever they did) were supposed to be going in (or so) by the gravity of what they were incurring into BUT, because of a huge dose of BIG LUCK they got that day, they got away with it either without any injury of any sort or with very few and minor scratches.

They DID (generically speaking) a big mistake which would have certainly taken the "doers" to certain death but because of huge luck they got away with it uneventfully: this (=the mistake) does NOT mean that same (mistake) is something to be done again, by himself/herself or by others.
You cannot count (only) on LUCK along your BASE career
A friend of ours (Italy BASE #18) few years ago, jumping our subterminal wall in windy conditions (possibly NOT doing a hell of a delay and possibly NOT doing a hell of a track, no offence but just a (=our) guess...), got a 180°, hit the wall, broke several bones, luckily remained stuck on the wall, after 6 h they rescued him in very bad physical conditions, after few years he recovered and couple of years ago he was back to BASE jump.
Few months ago, a low timer (7 or 8 off our terminal wall) taken to jump same subterminal wall by a "REPUTABLE" (to be read ironically) and famous (this is true... sadly true...) Italian BASE jump instructor, got a 180°, got stuck on the wall, was rescued with only few minor scratches.
What is the difference between Italy BASE #18 and this low timer? Apart from near death experience and months of recovering (sorry if I semplify too much...), NONE. There is no difference in terms of things NOT TO BE DONE.
What is the teaching of these 2 accidents (one being a near-death experience)? The teaching that can be drawn by these two accidents is: do not jump Italian subterminal wall:
1) if you are a low timer;
2) if it's windy and/or gusty;
3) if you don't do the right delay;
4) if you don't do the right delay caring to do a good track away from wall/protruding talus.
Walking away after a mistake in a certain BASE jump once (or twice...) doesn't mean that that sort of jump behaviour must be repeated or must be taught to beginners/students. Other 10 people doing same mistake could go in the 10 of them all.
Just my 0.02€.

Stay safe out there
Blue Skies and Soft Walls
BASE #689 - base_689AT_NO_123_SPAMyahoo.com

[vandev 0]

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I were in TF just 1 week ago and a dear freind of mine already were told how to do gainers even as he had under 50 BASE and all of them from that bridge.. I have 250+ i want to do a gainer but im not in a rush.. i dont want to stall out on my back as he did and nearly kill myself(now his scared about that shit).

This is something that also mistifies me as well....I would think that anyone wanting to do gainers, flips or whatever is not flat and stable would go to a pool first. Just because you have 6 or 700 base jumps doesnt mean you can do a flip. Thats like saying the guy who has 6000 belly dives can fly on his head on the first jump. I think it would be wise to work it out in the pool and then when you have it nailed...take it to the bridge and go from there..... Oh yea...i would think it is a "very good idea' to use a old beat container when you are in the pool..... Its one thing to dive...it's another to dive with something strapped to you ...It will restrick you a bit so be carefull...

Tucking and grabbing your ankels will help you from stalling on your back......i saw the diving board jumps from Bridge Day....Most of them scared me just watching...

later , chris

In the end...the universe has a way of working itself out.... "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle"

[NickDG 23]

Wilmshurst,

Sorry Mate, I was of course, just pulling your leg . . . if you ever knock on my door here in California seeking help I'm at your complete disposal.

On the subject of keeping track of injuries, near misses, and just plain lucky escapes I do realize the value, but there are problems both historical and practical.

The original intent of the Fatality List is too remember our fallen and illustrate the common mistakes that lead to bad ends. I never considered in the beginning it would grow to reach almost one hundred names. When first published the fatality number is only five or six and the figure "one hundred" represented the total number of hard core BASE jumpers in the entire world.

The historical problem is BASE magazines like "BASELine" and later the "BASE Gazette" did publish non-fatal accident reports and when they did all hell broke loose. Simply put the jumpers in question didn't take kindly to being second guessed by some editor who wasn't there and in some cases these disagreements disintegrated into blows being thrown. It is a hysterically funny and very sad time in BASE jumping.

To avoid those problems and to protect my own nose, when I published non-fatal reports in my own magazine I only did so when they came from the jumper in question, or at least from someone close to the jumper who witnessed the event. And more importantly we didn't editorialize or add a "conclusion" section where we said what we thought the jumper "should" have done. This worked, but it was a "skydiving" notion. We were going with the old, "Well, if you lived through it, you did it right." This brings up the concept of "luck" and we'll get to that later.

On the practical side the problem is in getting jumpers to provide accident reports, effectively admitting they made a mistake, and also the work involved in keeping track of these reports. However, the sport has matured since the early days and maybe the time has come. I suppose these reports could be made without the names when requested but I know its all academic if the jumpers in question don't initiate these reports themselves.

Now, onto the subject of luck. One definition of luck is, "the chance happening of fortunate or adverse events." So call it luck, call it happenstance, call it Karma or whatever you want, but I know this force is real and exists in BASE jumping. It's the X factor, the thing you worry about standing on the edge, it's the thing on your mind after you say what the hell, I've done all I can to assure a good outcome, and launch.

It's very real that new BASE jumpers, and people outside the sport, grapple and focus on the obvious problem of just screwing up the courage to leave firm purchase. As you become more experienced that fear is replaced by another and more important aspect. And that is the pesky old X factor. As BASE jumping evolves jumpers who depend on luck rather than skill and knowledge are the disadvantaged and the ones who need the most help. The problem is getting them to realize it before its too late.

So, yes please, someone out there (who can handle the work load and the responsibility of doing it right) should start keeping track of the non-fatal BASE accidents. I know I and every other experienced BASE jumper has at least one good story to tell and this body of knowledge is worth preserving and passing on, just protect your nose . . .

NickD BASE 194