Incident Report

[JaapSuter 0]

Hey,

as some figured out already, it was yours truly who hit a cliff last week. I finally got around to writing the incident report and you can read it here.

The story is a little long but maybe it'll be useful to somebody. If only to show that BASE jumping ain't all fun and glory, no matter how much you try to fool yourself into believing that.

In particular, I want to warn all prospective snowboard-BASErs (like those interested in a possibly APOOPA event) to be aware of the complications that come from a snowboard-BASE exit. I've been riding for twelve years, and I've done a fair amount of freestyle snowboarding (see attached pictures). But unlike last year, this time I didn't go off as stable as I should have gone...

Then again, maybe the confidence in my snowboarding skills was actually the very thing that caused me to underestimate the seriousness of the exit. From that perspective, an underprepared jumper might actually do better.

Live, learn, be embarrassed, move on...

Jaap

[tr027 0]

My guess would be for significant delays where aerodynamics come into play it would be wise to have skyboard experience. It wouldve been cool to have some type of ramp setup at the exit, but I'm sure you were short of snow as it was.

-T

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The singing and rambling got so funny that I had to force myself to quit repeatedly to check that I still had control over it

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. " -John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, 1957

[JaapSuter 0]

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My guess would be for significant delays where aerodynamics come into play it would be wise to have skyboard experience.

Definitely. I wouldn't consider doing a snowboard- or ski-BASE jump on delays longer than two seconds.

[dqpacker 7]

That was a good read. Glad to hear things worked out. Just wondering what degrees your bindings on your board were set at. If they were 0, 0 or if they were set up more like a alpine board, both feet facing the nose of the board.

[vandev 0]

Hey Jaap,

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Definitely. I wouldn't consider doing a snowboard- or ski-BASE jump on delays longer than two seconds.

Flying the board is like have a propeller attached to your ass.... It's fun but is known to be unforgiving... Great story though... left you a comment ... actually i was first to leave you a comment on your site......

Never give up bro... Chris

Glad you are ok.....

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

[tfelber 0]

Hey, I'm unprepared and I've been snowboarding once... WHERE IS THAT EXIT POINT?

[bodypilot1 0]

Nice job writing about your unfortunate experience Jaap. Glad you didn't die.

edited to add: Glad your singing wont get you on Canadian Idol

Be safe
Ed

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[wwarped 0]

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Live, learn, be embarrassed, move on...

thanks for sharing the story. you may be embarrassed, but you ARE still sharing. others can learn. the report should add to your pool of positive karma.

the story illustrates why the jump is NOT over until safely on the ground.

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

[CanuckInUSA 0]

Well done Jaap (your writing).

This is a MUST read for all current and future BASE jumpers and no it wasn't overly dramatic. One part that really struck close to home was your comments about the risks/rewards side of the sport. As someone who's ... knock on wood ... yet to really experience anything bad in this sport, I really don't know much about the risks. So far I've only experienced the rewards. I can only imagine how shitty it must have been to be stuck on a 2x2 foot shelf on a cliff several hundred feet up in frigid cold temperatures at night. Here's to the heroic SARs for bringing our friend Jaap back to us.

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

[avenfoto 0]

dead jaap times two..

way to maintain compsure, and keep your head, when things get real.

[hexadecimal 0]

Glad you're ok, and thanks for sharing... I enjoyed reading it, and it is one more piece of info that will be stuck in my head from this point forward and come into consideration if and when I start participating in the sport.

Cool snowboarding pics, too

[Maxim 0]

Hey man,

Good on ya for surviving. after recently having a cliffstrike and holding on to the wall for 6 hours on a 45 degree slopped ledge i know how hard and how long 6 hours can be.

When i get the net back at home i will also post an incident report and put some video up.

also your comments about blending into the cliff face. the rescue chopper had a hard time finding me also. even pictures later that i saw i have trouble finding me on them.

Life is Great. Even Greater what we do with it.

[Buried 0]

hey jaap,

i believe that this is my first post in the base forum, but had to after reading your post and story. great stuff and good to hear you recovered. It never hurts to brush up on survival skills. You never know when they will be needed.

z

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

[pringles 0]

I have considered getting one of these in the past but I am sure I will now. http://www.iprepare.com/100sh77ml.html

I plan to put it in my back pad. Not only would it be useful in jaaps case but you could put it over yourself after an injury like Fabers. If I remember right Faber used his canopy to keep warm and help from going into shock.
http://www.extreme-guides.com/g/First-Aid/Treating-Shock.html

Matt Davies

[yuri_base 1]

Glad you're ok! But dude, if it's not on video, it didn't happen. I mean, the video of freezing Dead Jaap standing on a tiny ledge with both legs draped in the gearbag, with skisocks stretched above the knees, tight elastics around the waist, in goggles with only a tiny sliver of the nose exposed to the cold of a Canadian winter night, looking with hope at the stars, unzipping his pants and singing: "It’s a small world after all..." ...man, that would make the best carnage video of all times!!!!!!!

Yuri

Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

[nicknitro71 0]

Next time use skies, snowboards are getting out of style

You also might be runnig out of lives

Memento Audere Semper

903

[JaapSuter 0]

I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to make the incident report publicly available. After seeing the reactions I'm glad I did. Even those that took the effort to lecture me through private messages and emails have done so on a basis of respect and out of concern for my well-being. Those messages are all much appreciated, and it has once again reinforced my belief that sharing knowledge and experience is a good thing.

If just a single person reconsiders his desire to do a snowboard-BASE after reading my story, it's already worth it. So thanks for the feedback everybody.

That said, there are two points that I would like to comment on. These have been raised independently by several people. Rather than replying individually, I want to address them here in the hope it starts a discussion. The two points are...

• Luck was a big, if not the only, reason you're still alive.


• You seem to have an extraordinarily amount of incidents, relative to the number of jumps you have done.

Let's consider the number of incidents I had first. The luck factor will come up along the way.

In my extremely short BASE career of only 84 jumps and 17 objects, I can recall 4 jumps that didn't work out as well as I wanted. The other 80 jumps went as planned, meaning I had an onheading opening, a predefined flight pattern, and a soft landing (optionally with a PLF).

The four unplanned events were...

1. A significant pilotchute hesitation at the Perrine.


2. An unstable exit on my second foot launched cliff jump, followed by a tree landing. Described here.


3. A 180 on a recent 300 foot crane jump.


4. The cliffstrike talked about in this thread.

The first and third incident need some qualification.

The pilotchute hesitation was due to a defective pilotchute. While I still take full responsibility for that incident, this could and has happened to significantly more experienced jumpers jumping pilotchutes of the same faulty fabric.

The 180 offheading on a recent 300 foot crane jump is arguably an incident to remember, but not something worth calling out. I had a 180, I was about 25 feet away from the building, I got it turned around in time, and I flew a landing pattern to my predefined backup landing area. Big deal for me, but no big deal for the sport. I had a nice and stable exit, there was no wind that night, and the packjob was at least as clean as all others before that, the ones that didn't give me offheadings. Anybody who is in the sport long enough is inevitably going to get a 180 at some point. I got my first one on jump 82 and managed to come out without problems. I wouldn't call it an incident of statistical significance.

This leaves the other two jumps to think about. Both those incidents were undeniably complete and utter fuck ups on my part.

The first one; the unstable exit on my second cliff jump was due to overconfidence in my BASE jumping skills. I fully acknowledged that and immediately went back to the Perrine the weekend after and did nothing but long delay stable exit practice for the entire weekend. My foot launched exits have since been rock solid. My tree landing on that jump was similarly moronic as I underestimated the glide power of my canopy. I have since improved my landing skills significantly as those who have seen me land in the advanced spot at our local cliff will attest to.

The second one; the unstable exit on my second snowboard BASE was due to overconfidence in my snowboarding skills. We could argue whether or not I should have been up there on a snowboard in the first place, but what matters is that it was my snowboarding that fucked up my BASE jumping, not the other way around.

So with this background, let's try and answer the question; do I have an above average number of incidents? I am particularly interested in answers from older BASE jumpers. I have done 17 objects in 84 jumps, 6 of which I opened myself (urban cranes). Many contemporary jumpers get up to 84 jumps and have mostly Perrine jumps. By all means this is a good and intelligent thing to do, and one may argue that I am rushing into new objects too quickly. But I'm wondering what my incident ratio is like when compared to the jumping style that the BASE roadtrips during the 90s demonstrated.

Noteworthy is my weakness to share my stupidity with the world. How many BASE jumpers out there have had an incident happen to them and never shared their story? They don't have to if they don't want to, there are pros and cons to sharing. My point is that there is a lot more shit going on out there than we tell ourselves.

For example, one popular cliff not to far from where I live has had at least five strikes in the past few years. All ended without injury, and none got much attention beyond some discussion in the local BASE community. I know several BASE jumpers who have had broken bones or otherwise injured themselves on BASE jumps, yet never spoke or wrote about it. Arguably I'm an exhibitionist...

Heck, speaking of exhibitionism. Maybe my repeated attempts to jump bridges with toggles unstowed, intentional line-twist, and other interesting side effects, have led to an reputation of being reckless. Maybe so, but I'd say these were all jumps that involved a significant degree of risk-management. You don't see me pack intentional line-twist on a cliff jump.

Now having said all that, let's try and tackle the comments on luck in the hope that I'll ultimately be able to drive this long post towards some sort of conclusion.

Surviving the pilotchute hesitation incident was total luck. When the deployment sequence took longer than I expected, I curled up into a little ball, braced for impact, screamed "Oh Shit!" and managed to spill just enough air into the pilotchute to open a canopy in 5.2 seconds, rather than 5.3 seconds.

Surviving the recent 180 off the crane had nothing to do with luck. If anything it was bad luck that I got a 180 in the first place, and then a sufficiently quick response to get my canopy turned away from the building followed by a flight according to a predefined backup plan.

This leaves the other two incidents to ponder about. What part is luck, what part is preparation, and what part is skill? First, this diatribe is not meant to argue that it was skill and preparation that kept me alive. On the contrary, I'm well aware both incidents involved a significant number of variables I had no control over. Nonetheless, I do feel I have put myself in a position that defies the traditional lottery-winner definition of luck. Even more so, this is not about me potentially being offended by the comments on luck. I have pretty thick skin and am well aware of my own retardedness. This post is to comment on the disservice you are doing to the sport by attributing such survival stories to sheer luck alone.

If somebody accidentally falls from a 500 foot cliff without a parachute, lands onto a steep bank of snow, tumbles down, gets up, and walks away; I would say that's luck in the lottery or Russian roulette sense of the word.

Compare this with somebody who...

• Is wearing a parachute to begin with.


• Decides to go handheld instead of stowed, such that he can pitch at the first sign of instability


• Invested money into a vented canopy, knowing such a canopy would function better when bouncing against a wall.


• Is wearing a full face mountainbiking helmet.


• Is wearing full body armor.


• Has spend some amount of time tuning his deep brake settings to minimize forward speed on opening.


• Pulls hard on rear risers, trying to turn away, or at least slow down.


• Is fully aware of the risks involved (note that in this particular incident it wasn't the incident that surprised me, it was the post-incident emotional impact it had. The risks and the incident itself never surprised me once.)

Suddenly we're looking at a vastly different idea of what luck really means. We could argue on whether or not I am putting too much trust into gear and technology to save my ass, and that I would be much better off with better exit and canopy skills. But that doesn't change the fact that at least part of the incident was heavily influenced by a decision making process that occurred before I even left the object.

I accept full responsibility for being stupid enough to hit the cliff in the first place. But I am simultaneously taking full credit for hitting the cliff soft enough to remain without injuries. How many people have gotten hurt on cliffstrikes because of excessive forward speed, because their Gath helmets didn't offer much impact protection, or because their jeans and t-shirts didn't quite have the sturdiness of a body armor suit?

So now we get to the point where I will actually agree on having been lucky. As my incident report already pointed out, my canopy could have collapsed or torn during my bumpy ride down the cliff. I don't think we should underestimate the structural integrity and floating power of a modern vented canopy, but that is no excuse to put blind trust in gear and technology advances. Nonetheless, we have seen and heard of a number of cliffstrikes in the past years in which the canopy held up remarkably well. Dare I say that not all cliffstrikes garantuee death?

I also could have hung up in a much nastier spot, unable to find a ledge to sit on. Then again, if the wall had been smoother maybe I could have turned it around. Or maybe I could have ended up near a bigger ledge that wasn't so dangerous. So maybe there was as much bad luck involved as there was luck involved.

As Jeb Corliss once said: "There are two kinds of BASE jumpers; those who have had serious accidents, and those who will have serious accidents." I never went into this sport thinking I would avoid object strike until I retired. On the contrary, I knew that one day I was going to hit an object. I did my best to prepare for the eventuality and combined with a certain dose of luck (or state of the universe if you like) I came out unharmed.

Was I lucky? Certainly! Am I grateful for being able to live another day? Most definitely. Did I learn a lesson? Yeah, absolutely. Did I go into this adventure completely retarded and unaware of what could happen? I don't think so.

Then again, maybe my denial is the true sign of my ignorance and stupidity...

A good friend told me recently...

For the record, if and when I go in, I'd prefer that you all lambasted me for inadequate preparation, than that you chalk it up to "bad luck". I'll be fighting "until my goggles fill up with blood". Please allow me responsibility for my final actions.

Thanks,

Jaap Suter

p.s. I just noticed the Mistakes Thread that was started. This offers a nice complement to my comment about the number of incidents we never hear about. I'm curious to see how that thread will develop. Believe me, there are some messed up stories out there that the majority of the BASE community doesn't know about. As Ken Miller said; "Knowledge is useless, unless shared."

p.p.s. Flame away...

[nicknitro71 0]

Jaap,

First don't be so hard with yourself, there is no reason for it.

Second, everyone fucks up: The man with the biggest balls will acknowledge it; the one with small balls will shut up; and the one with no balls will deny it and be hypocritical about it (the damn vast majority).

You are here with not a scratch on your body telling us the story...you must have done something right...being protective gear, being positive thinking, being predicting ahead, being knowing what to do and not what to do when the shit hit the fan.

God damn bravo on this one!

Memento Audere Semper

903

[JaapSuter 0]

Oh by the way, I should mention the generosity of at least five fellow BASE jumpers who all offered their own BASE gear up for loan. Incredible stuff guys!

It'll take me a while to get my finances together to buy new gear, but I suspect this forced break from jumping will actually be a good thing.

[vandev 0]

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Luck was a big, if not the only, reason you're still alive.

You seem to have an extraordinarily amount of incidents, relative to the number of jumps you have done.

Jaap, You are being to hard on yourself.... Luck is a tricky thing..You never know who has it and when it's not available.... Look at the Girl who on her first tandem ride went in with her instructer.... luck was not available.... who's to say , when where, how.....It's like predicting the future....you cant and will crazy trying to...


as for you jumps per incidents...thats also all predicting...

first jump ....you had no control over unless you count hucking yourself off the bridge....that you had control over...

secound and third...you hucked yourself off the objects so you made the decision....

The forth, well i would have done a bit of skysurfing first to get what it feels like controlwise... If you saw the Fottage of Dave Barlia jumping a snowboard off Kjreg...He had one jump where he went head low and had to forward flip to regain control. He also had one which he cut away the board...again headlow and lower with no time for forward flip. I can send you the fottage on dvd if you want...

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So with this background, let's try and answer the question; do I have an above average number of incidents? I am particularly interested in answers from older BASE jumpers. I have done 17 objects in 84 jumps, 6 of which I opened myself (urban cranes). Many contemporary jumpers get up to 84 jumps and have mostly Perrine jumps. By all means this is a good and intelligent thing to do, and one may argue that I am rushing into new objects too quickly. But I'm wondering what my incident ratio is like when compared to the jumping style that the BASE roadtrips during the 90s demonstrated.

You are trying to hard to come up with answers that will make know difference about your own fate... You could quit today and die tomarrow driving to starbucks after being hit by a guy who survived a heart attack because of the great surgen who operated on him...The surgen lived threw 2 days stuck at the summit of everest in 96. By the way, the surgens father survived a airline crash and was one of 2 survivers out of 240..... It really doesn't matter.

You prepaired the best you could , you did your homework and weighed the options...you can only do so much when it's just time to do it or walk away... either choice is smart either choice is nobel...

You seem to have a pretty good grasp on what you are doing so why try to fight it...Just continue and enjoy it and walk away when you feel it's taken you as far as you want to go....

as for the post impact.....get back on the bike and start ridding again..

Hope to meet you some day at the bridge....

All the best Chris

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

[JaapSuter 0]

Thanks for the replies guys.

For the record, I'm not necessarily being hard on myself. It's not like I wake up in the morning and smack myself in the head calling myself stupid. Whatever happened and happens, don't spend too much time fretting over it. Learn your lessons and then look to the future...

Like what kind of new gear should I get...

I'm mostly posting my thoughts and theories in the hope I can start a discussion. I'm especially interested in other people's opinions on how important luck is in the grand scheme of things, not just in regards to my particular incident.

I've never felt very agreeable with the Russian roulette philosophy on jumping. It doesn't do justice to the enormous amounts of time, money, blood, sweat, and tears that people have invested to get the sport to where it is today.

It's not a science yet, but it isn't quite like rolling a dice anymore either...

[TomAiello 25]

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...do I have an above average number of incidents?

No. Not given your experience level and selection of jumps/objects.

We're becoming accustomed to seeing people with hundreds of jumps from the same 3 (or 1) objects, all of which are very forgiving. If your cliff strike incident, for example, had been an offheading experienced here in Twin, it wouldn't have been an incident. Same with the 180 (in fact, it wasn't really an incident anyway). Your tree landing wouldn't be an incident by most people's standards, and in fact, wouldn't have been an incident at all for many people chosing to jump easier sites.

Short anwer: your incident rate is probably about average--it's just your selection of sites that's advanced, possibly combined with the fact that you are more forthcoming about your own experiences/incidents than 99% of jumpers.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[Mt7wildcard 0]

Let's not forget about your previous snowboard base jump from that cliff. It was perfect and beautiful. Maybe one of the best snowboard-base jumps ever done.

Who else has done any snowboard jumps? A couple mentioned here already.........anybody else?

Scott

[flr169 0]

Jaap,

Great read....

Glad u made it out of there in 1 piece...

Look forward in sharing an exit point some day...

Mike

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting - "fcuk me what a ride!"

[JaapSuter 0]

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Maybe one of the best snowboard-base jumps ever done.

Thanks, but I highly doubt it. I recall a snowboard BASE in Totally Board 7 near Interlaken. It may have been Dave Barlia but I could be mistaken. A slider up jump with a solid long delay (definitely required skysurfing experience) and a cutaway before opening. That may actually have been the first BASE jump I ever saw.

Cheers,

Jaap