Presentiments

[katzurki 0]

As superstitious as it sounds, when you got injured on a BASE jump, do you recall feeling any presentiments that something bad would happen prior to the jump? Were the presentiments (and the resulting injury) connected with the unfavorable conditions, or were they pure intuition?

[RhondaLea 3]

Here's an old story. Tina didn't get hurt because she listened to her intuition.

I read something a few years ago that explains intuition in very ordinary terms. We all take in a lot more about the world than we're able to process. But when that unprocessed data fits itself together in our unconscious minds, the logical conclusion comes into our conscious minds as intuition.

rl

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

[TomAiello 25]

I originally posted this several years ago.

Quote

I went out with a friend to make a couple of fairly routine jumps off one of our regular objects. The object is around 650' high, but the standard delay is around 2.5 seconds (to open with maximum clearance from the object). Thankfully, the face of the object is smooth and rounded (if not exactly soft).

Anyway, the first load went off ok. Openings were good, landings were stood up. We hiked out, and my buddy commented that he "felt all wrong" about the jump. We had originally planned that he would repack, and we'd make a second load (I had two rigs along). However, on the basis of his "bad feeling" he decided to bail from the second load, but offered to ground crew for me.

That's when I started feeling a bit sketched. We wandered out to the exit point, and I, fully geared up and ready to go, checked the wind, which had dropped off to zero.

As I got onto the exit, I reached back to check my pilot chute. Something just didn't feel right. Apologizing to my friend, I backed down to recheck my gear. We headed back to the parking area, and I re-packed my PC, re-checked my rig, and generally calmed myself down.

Feeling better, I headed back out to the exit.

Once again, things just didn't feel right. I reasoned, however, that I had just fully rechecked my gear, that there was zero wind, and that this was an "easy" object that I'd jumped dozens of times. The more fool I.

Perfect launch. Totally stable. Ideal 2.5 second delay.

Full 180. Double riser stall. Object strike. Second object strike. 3/4 brake toggle turn. Pound into the hillside below the landing area.

Miraculously unhurt, the first thought through my mind is:

"Did you learn your lesson? If it doesn't feel right, it isn't."

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[base736 0]

I think if you go hunting for people who had a wierd feeling before an accident, you'll find them. I'm not saying that the two aren't connected, just that one usually finds what one is looking for. In the spirit of balancing things a little...

I've had two reasonably serious incidents in BASE (a tailgate hangup that never cleared, and a wall strike). I would classify myself as a very cautious and "tuned-in" type of jumper, but for the record, I didn't see either of them coming. No wierd inuition, no concerns about conditions that day, nothing.

[eb66to77 0]

Wall Strike, had no idea it would be that one that got me. Had a wierd feeling from the day I started flicking.

[TomAiello 25]

I think that if you have a weird feeling it increases the chances of something going wrong on that jump, because it throws off your mental state.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[lifewithoutanet 0]

Quote

a tailgate hangup that never cleared

Mind sharing those details?

-C.

[TomAiello 25]

Quote

Quote

a tailgate hangup that never cleared

Mind sharing those details?

-C.

Here.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[lifewithoutanet 0]

So, it looks like the last wrap was pushed up the tailgate, towards the fingertrap on the line and then bound/hung up on the first wrap and didn't clear. Sound about right?
-C.

[base736 0]

Quote

So, it looks like the last wrap was pushed up the tailgate, towards the fingertrap on the line and then bound/hung up on the first wrap and didn't clear. Sound about right?

Could be. What I'm absolutely certain of, though, is that it wouldn't have been a problem if I'd been using tan elastics (which would have broken in the same scenario). For some reason, the thing hung up. Because it was a black elastic, that became an incident rather than just another "Damn -- lost the elastic again."

[RhondaLea 3]

As a result of this thread, I had cause to go looking for some old literature on intuition. There are a lot of odd people who would like to tie it to psychic phenomena, but there are others who take a somewhat less foo-foo approach:

What's Your Intuition?

Cognitive psychologist Gary Klein has studied people who make do-or-die decisions. His advice? Forget analysis paralysis. Trust your instincts.

I also have the 1997 article from Science magazine and a PDF file containing the study to which it refers. This is the study that brought intuition out of the realm of the psychic and reawakened the interest of the scientific community in the subject.

Also see www.intuition.org.

rl

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

[dmcoco84 4]

Damn this posting!!!!

Last night I went to make a jump and had to backed down. I was fully geared up and ready to jump from the 900 platform but had a funny feeling about the jump so I decided not to go. A few thing added to my sketchy feeling right before too. While I was gearing up the winds picked up quite a bit (granted its less important the wind speed from 900 than at about 250 where I will be opening, but standing on the railing would have been tough) Also the fact that after I packed my chute, 2 hours before I left for the tower I hurt my back. I have no idea what I did but it just started hurting like a biatch! That along with my feeling and this posting I had to say, “screw it.”

I read this posting yesterday afternoon and when I was standing on the platform last night (with that sketchy feeling) all I could think about was this posting and tom’s object strike. I was standing there thinking, “watch, I’ll go against my feeling and end up hanging from a guy wire or some shit and people will be joking my ass after hearing me cry like a little bitch on my 911 tape.”

But you know what! Its all good, I made a jump the night before last, I got some damn good exercise, and I’m alive to jump another day.

Coco

P.S You know what WAS pretty cool though. My dad was my phone ground crew on the jump and when I got home he said that was a very mature and smart thing to do. He was proud of me for not jumping.

[outrager 6]

Yo!

Well, The Old And Brittle crew has abandoned an easy local object last weekend, in ideal conditions, with 4 rigs still packed. Presentiments? Hell no! Just old and lazy. Sometimes it's as simple as that

bsbd!

Yuri.

[460 0]

you know, by definition, to be called a base jumper, one must actually make a base jump.

Looks like a death sandwich without the bread - Steve Deadman Morrell, BASE 174

[eb66to77 0]

Since intuition plays from one’s subconscious it is sometimes more beneficial to not seek an explanation for it. To explain; without a full understanding of all the elements that come into play to form one’s personal intuition (i.e. personality type, life experience, etcetera) one’s conscious mind will alter the actions of your brain without them knowing it thus leading to a completely different feeling.

[nicknitro71 0]

The video tells all. Do not use the back rubber bands and do not lark-head them!

Memento Audere Semper

903

[lifewithoutanet 0]

I agree with you wholeheartedly on the black bands. Not so sure about the larkshead. I think the important factor was how the band was twisted and wrapped around the tailgate.

From the video, you see that the other end of the tailgate is inserted into the rubber band, then a twist, and that wrap is then pulled over the other end and pushed down the tailgate, towards the line, past the larkshead and first wrap.

By inserting the other end of the tailgate into the rubber band, then doing the wrap, you've completely constrained that other side of the tailgate in its own wrap of the band. By going AROUND the other side of the tailgate, then doing the twist and wrap, the other side of the tailgate is not so tightly constrained.

Sorry if my explanation is a little murky. I'll try and sketch something out and post it later to clarify.

-C.

[base736 0]

I'm inclined to agree about why the black elastic hung up. I think that's a rather dangerous red herring, though. One could change how the elastic is wrapped and still fail to fix the basic problem (tailgate hangup). Alternatively, one could change from black to tan elastics, and suddenly it's all moot.

Anyway, I think the original topic was pretty cool, and this is coming dangerously close to a threadjacking. So I'll just sit quietly over here...

[Calvin19 0]

i know its not quite the same,but...

On a local S a freind and i do a regular rope jump, a very simple 170' single point rope system known as a bridge swing.

a series of mistakes (7 to be exact, after going through everything the next day) including Laser measuring problems, grigri problems, brand new ropes, and a few just weird things that we always do correctly but for some reason all came down wrong on the same night.

before first jump at 1am, gearing up fealt weird, perfectly still night, not terribly cold. the kind that usually gives good moral. as i climbed over the guardrail i fealt like i had never rope hucked before, and i had jumped this bridge 50 or more times.

i shook it off and jumped, and then in freefall is when it really got weird, i could see everything and it looked LONG. i remember locking the grigri off hard and watching my reserve line come tight, as the system stretched out of the corner of my eye i saw the guardrail of the small bridge below at eye level and i rolled my ankle lightly on the pavement, then rocketed back into the air, ended up swinging 10' above the ground. we usualy push that one low, but never near that. and the new ropes among other things contributed. now we prestretch ropes, and i listen to my gut.