Bridge Day News Article

[RhondaLea 3]

Bridge Day BASE jumping in jeopardy

Nice job, Jason.

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

[BASEWife 0]

Hopefully they'll do another article after today's meeting. This has been the most stressful Bridge Day yet and October 15th hasn't even arrived.

Keep up the fight Jason!

[SpecialKaye 0]

Jason, everything you have done these past few years has been so appreciated by the jumpers. You have done a great job and should be proud of your accomplishments. Sometimes the bureacrats won't stop until they win, even though so many others lose!

Well, Tom you want to start working on the Potato Bridge for next year? I'm sure that the town of Twin Falls would love that kind of revenue.

This is all a shame and the only ones that will suffer are the locals, the people that count on this event and all the revenue. I was there in 2001 when only 12,000 people attended their event and pretty much broke the community. I remember going into places where the heat wasn't hardly on because they couldn't afford it that early in the season.

Thanks again, Jason. I hope the community gets the NPS under control quickly.

Kaye

[dmcoco84 4]

F'IN REDICULOUS!!! BD Twin falls 2006 Sounds good to me.

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“We realize no one likes to see permit costs increase, and despite recent claims, it is not our intention to eliminate BASE jumping from the annual Bridge Day event,” Hite wrote in a follow-up letter Sept. 15.

Thats some major BS


What would an insurance policy do for us? Why do we need one?


Edited to Add: Yes, just as KAYE said thanks Jason for all your hard work! Last year was my first BD and without hard work from people like you none of it would have been possible. We all thank you!!!

[NickDG 23]

I read what the Ranger said twice and boy, there's a bunch of stuff going on between the lines. He says, "We aren't picking on BASE jumpers," and then he manages to slip in, "Bridge Day wasn't started for BASE jumpers."

Bridge Day "is" advertised by West Virginia as "The World's Largest Extreme Sport's Event." The bridge is completed in 1977 and the Governor throws a small party that later becomes an annual event. The first jump from the NRGB is done by Burton Ervin in August of 1979. In 1980 Brad Smith and two others did it, also in August.

Bridge Day 1981 is the first one with legal jumps, or at least the first time jumpers are invited to come jump during an actual Bridge Day event. There are five jumpers that year, the locals go wild, and the jumps are the talk of the day. The next year 1982 saw 30 jumpers and for the first time people are coming to see BASE and the attendance at Bridge Day begins to climb.

By 1983 there are 100 jumpers and the next year 350. By 1985 the people who come to Bridge Day aren't "attendees" anymore, they are now called "spectators" and there are 250,000 of them and they leak money. In terms of economic impact, the popularity of a successful event, and in deference to the other sports occurring there, I'm sorry, Mr. Ranger, but Bridge Day "is" all about BASE jumping.

This Ranger, is either ignorant, or fibbing a bit when he says they aren't "picking" on BASE jumpers. The NPS is institutionalized in its hatred for BASE jumpers. It's so ingrained there are both young BASE jumpers and young Rangers who know they hate each other but don't really know why. The NPS will seize every opportunity to "win one" and just watch the career trajectory of the Ranger who rids Bridge Day of BASE jumping. I hate to be so blunt, but I've been seeing light and dark for so long now I can't believe anything they say . . .

NickD BASE 194

[base428 1]

I'm pretty worn out from my full day in Fayetteville today, so perhaps I'll elaborate in a later post.

-Today's Bridge Day Commission meeting had the largest attendance out of any meeting I've been to in the last four years. Three TV stations, 1 radio station, several newspaper reporters, and approximately 10-15 local business owners showed up TO SUPPORT US.

-NPS refused to lower Special Use Permit fees and refused to remove clause allowing them to charge us for all travel expenses if they decide to import some rangers from Yosemite to handle the event.

-If you haven't already heard, NPS requested $1,000,000 liability insurance from us last week - a mere 3.5 weeks before the event. This was based on the fact that Royal Gorge was somehow able to obtain insurance for the Go Fast Games. Preliminary verbal quotes are between $10,000-25,000. Possibly due to media pressure, NPS agreed to waive insurance requirement over the phone to me yesterday. However, they offered no official position on this at today's meeting. More than likely, insurance will be a requirement next year and it could force jump ticket prices to skyrocket. We have multiple plans in place to prevent this from occuring.

The bottom line is that WE WILL JUMP no matter what. NPS will have blood on their hands if they do not work with us on these discriminatory, last minute tactics to price BASE out of Bridge Day. Word on the street is that the insurance requirement will be waived this year.

I'm actively working with a private landowner to have a new, larger, safer LZ for Bridge Day 2006.

No worries folks. Controversy sometimes makes things exciting. Cya in 3 weeks.

PS. NPS rangers need to UNDERSTAND that Jon Dragan owned the BD landing zone until the mid-1980's. We didn't have to put up with the NPS until they essentially forced Jon Dragan to sell it to them.

Letters to/from NPS and Vertical Visions

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

[rpersi 0]

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-NPS refused to lower Special Use Permit fees and refused to remove clause allowing them to charge us for all travel expenses if they decide to import some rangers from Yosemite to handle the event.

Jason,
Why do they need to import Rangers all the way from Yosemite? Surely, there are other closer National Parks.

Also, don't the waivers we sign and videotape during registration mean anything when it comes to the insurance they want to implement?

[cornishe 0]

If you beleive the FOIA request will reap proof of discrimination or unethical/illegal activity, I will help you out with the funds. I hope others can chip in too...

Say the word. Let's get 'er dun.


Edited to add funny attached photo


.

Abbie Mashaal
Skydive Idaho
Snake River Skydiving
TandemBASE

[pBASEtobe 0]

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If you beleive the FOIA request will reap proof of discrimination or unethical/illegal activity, I will help you out with the funds..

I'll chip in too!

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Edited to add funny attached photo

Hey now, finger off the trigger.

[lifewithoutanet 0]

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I hope others can chip in too...

Count me in for some scheckles, as well.

-C.

[cornishe 0]

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Count me in for some scheckles, as well.

It's spelled Shekels. Keep it up and I'll send over the Moyel.


.

Abbie Mashaal
Skydive Idaho
Snake River Skydiving
TandemBASE

[base428 1]

I just got word that WV Congressman Rahall got involved and issued the order to the NPS to drop the insurance requirement this year. So all is well again.

I'm guessing that I won't be getting a Christmas card from the NPS this year.....

Today's Newspaper Story

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

[dmcoco84 4]

How much more support do you foresee us receiving from the federal level. Do they seam pretty apt to help us or are they more hesitant to get involved?

[base428 1]

I definately see support from the federal level, at least at Bridge Day. This is evidenced by Congressman Rahall ordering the NPS to stop their 4th quarter tactics to disrupt BASE jumping at Bridge Day. There was some discussion at the BDC meeting yesterday about approaching the state and/or federal gov't for support on issues that may reappear next year (insurance, increased fees, bus problems, etc).

I also wanted to say that I'm not totally against the insurance requirement in the LZ. Normal NPS Special Use Permits, according to the rangers, are required to have insurance. But I am against throwing the requirement in our laps with only a few weeks left. I'm also against JUMPERS having to absorb the costs of this event. After all, the Bridge Day Commission and local Chamber of Commerce host the event and maybe they should also assume the responsibility to provide us with a landing area. The people at the Chamber are absolutely wonderful to work with, but it shouldn't be OUR responsibility to find a place to host their event and we shouldn't have to fight the NPS each year. And what if the Dept of Highways wanted $10,000 from us to put up our exit point next year? That stuff should not be our responsibility.

Gotta go....the AP just called and they are doing a story.

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How much more support do you foresee us receiving from the federal level. Do they seam pretty apt to help us or are they more hesitant to get involved?

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

[dmcoco84 4]

Thanks for the Info! Eager to hear more!

So if we secured a LZ of our own we would have nothing to do with the NPS anymore right?

[base428 1]

Not exactly. NPS has still threatened to arrest us if we land in the river. They say they share jurisdiction with the State of WV. If you ended up a bit short and missed the private property, NPS would pull you from the river and cuff you. I basically told the NPS that they would be very STUPID to enforce this. Can you imagine the safety hazard this would put on the event? Talk about having blood on your hands.

I would also attempt to get authorization to land in the river from the State of WV so that NPS couldn't touch us.

On another note, NPS has always threatened our water rescue crew with arrest if they help pull any bandit jumpers from the river. If someone jumped 10 seconds past the 3pm limit and our water rescue saved their lives, NPS would arrest all of them. When this was brought up at the BDC meeting yesterday, Gary Hartley denied my claims. BUT THEN, Tom Dragan, who operates the water rescue, emerged from the back of the crowd and told Hartley that he has personally heard this numerous times from the rangers own mouths. Hartley still danced around the main subject at hand, which is the SAFETY of any and all jumpers, regardless of whether it's a bandit jump. Hartley admitted no fault and offered no explanation for the threats of arrest.

It's very disturbing to know that the NPS would risk the safety of a jumper by threatening our water rescue personnel. This closely resembles their actions with Frank Gambalie.

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So if we secured a LZ of our own we would have nothing to do with the NPS anymore right?

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

[skydude 0]

I'll send you one !


Keep up the kick ass job U doing man !

Is it Bridge Day Yet ? :-)

[dmcoco84 4]

Wow! They are really pathetic!

Now let me ask you this. I am a newbie to the BASE community, I’m only 21 so I am not up on a lot of the History. Where did the problems between NPS and jumpers really start? I can see why BASE jumpers hate NPS because they obviously are bastards. (Arrests, harsh discriminatory policy, and a major example of what we are dealing with right now) But what did BASE jumpers ever do to the NPS to receive such harsh prejudice? Why do they hate us so much?

D

[TomAiello 25]

There is some history here.

In defense of the NPS, we (meaning jumpers generally, I doubt many of those actual individuals are still actively jumping) pretty much hosed ourselves. Driving motor vehicles onto wilderness trails, cutting down trees, and generally being a nuisance is not good community relations.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[dmcoco84 4]

Ahhhh ok. Everyone I have come in contact with in BASE has always said don't break anything and leave it as you found it. I guess the attitude has changed from older times. Are people still causing those types of problems or are jumpers more considerate to the objects today in the hopes of gaining access to currently illegal objects?

[TomAiello 25]

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I guess the attitude has changed from older times.

A fair bit. There were some low-impact jumpers then, too. But this specific incident was definitely a major event in the developing BASE culture.

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Are people still causing those types of problems or are jumpers more considerate to the objects today in the hopes of gaining access to currently illegal objects?

Both. I think that the number of incidents like that per jumper has probably dropped, but the overall number of jumpers has gone way up. On balance, I'd say we're probably doing better at that kind of thing now than we did then.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[base428 1]

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Wow! They are really pathetic!

Yep.

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Where did the problems between NPS and jumpers really start?

Problems started back in 1966 when the first known BASE jump was made in a National Park. It's been painful ever since.....maybe someone else can elaborate.

EDIT: Tom, that link you provided about 4 posts up is somewhat slanted towards the NPS and it contains a few inaccuracies. Several months ago, the webmaster agreed to update it with a better representation of our sport. I have yet to provide the update to him. If anyone is interested in helping me clean it up, please contact me.

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

[dmcoco84 4]

Thanks for the link Tom. I think this explains it fully.

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Back to El Cap, in 1980 the park experimented with allowing skydiving. Some people who wanted to legalize and promote jumping off of EL Cap convinced the USPA to establish legal jumping with the NPS. Reasonable guidlines were set up like permits, liscense requirements, time of jumping, probably similar to what is happening now with hanggliding. This lasted about 2 or 3 months. There were a lot of problems such as people leaving trash and damaging the environment and not following the requirments. In general many people were not behaving responsibly. There were a few rescues and minor landing injuries but no fatalities of major injuries. While all this was happening 'the assholes' decided that they didn't want to hike all the way to El Cap so they drove there truck up an old logging road as far as they could. This must have been from Big Oak Flat. The Park may have arrested or cited them, but the USPA thought It would help our image if they took action against them and expelled the people involved. Then these people sued the USPA claiming they had no business regualating base jumping. The USPA decided to drop the whole thing. The NPS outlawed base jumping in national parks. Skydivers and base jumpers did not make a very good impression with the NPS and base jumpers alienated the USPA. Now back to the present. In 1993 a base jumping organization tried to convince the park to allow base jumping and was not succesful. I think that it would take an organization such as the USPA to convince the NPS to allow base jumping. There is little chance of this happening because of the past incident in yosemite and the liability it would place on the USPA.

.

And I do now remember someone telling me about this and the fact that they had legal jumps from El Cap but people took advantage of them and got them taken away. It’s a Shame!

You don't know what your missing till its gone! But I guess its gonna be like when you f'up on the DZ. Everyone remembers it and it takeS a long time and a lot of positive actions to show you have changed and won't f'up any longer. Hopefully that time will be soon for BASE and we can start progressing the sport even more.

[TomAiello 25]

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But I guess its gonna be like when you f'up on the DZ. Everyone remembers it and it takeS a long time and a lot of positive actions to show you have changed and won't f'up any longer. Hopefully that time will be soon for BASE and we can start progressing the sport even more.

An important difference is that when you screw up at the DZ, people form opinions about _you_. In the case of BASE in Yosemite, a handful of people screwed up, and the NPS decided to treat BASE jumpers, collectively, as responsible. I, personally, don't think that's very fair. But, I can see how it's a lot easier for the land managers to do that.

I'm hopeful that we'll get back into the park system at some point in the future. I do think that we need to be clear from the outset that no one can control all the jumpers, and that if the NPS wants to regulate the system, they need to actually punish individual offenders, rather than treating us all as a whole. I'd love to see all jumpers take some general community responsibility, and consider the impact their actions will have on other jumpers. But I really don't think that's a realistic possibility.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[dmcoco84 4]

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An important difference is that when you screw up at the DZ, people form opinions about _you_. In the case of BASE in Yosemite, a handful of people screwed up, and the NPS decided to treat BASE jumpers, collectively, as responsible. I, personally, don't think that's very fair. But, I can see how it's a lot easier for the land managers to do that.

Totally Agree!

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I'm hopeful that we'll get back into the park system at some point in the future. I do think that we need to be clear from the outset that no one can control all the jumpers, and that if the NPS wants to regulate the system, they need to actually punish individual offenders, rather than treating us all as a whole. I'd love to see all jumpers take some general community responsibility, and consider the impact their actions will have on other jumpers. But I really don't think that's a realistic possibility.

That would be nice but I agree also that it may not be realistic. That might have been possible back when the USPA was helping us out. Those who were causing the problems could have been punished then and legal jumping could have resumed at El Cap. Today it will definitely be tougher to get back.

In my opinion I think we would have a better chance of getting NR opened before than El Cap. We already have a major event that has been occurring annually with great success. If we can get an extension as Jason was going for, and Federal Support we may be able to gradually have more jump time and show we as a community are responsible. Then if we prove ourselves there maybe we will have the possibility of opening up other doors. Just gonna take time…..

I also read/heard somewhere that as some of the older rangers are retiring, new rangers who are not firm on their dislike of our sport may be more willing work with us. Any thoughts on this?