Open minded???

[d_goldsmith 1]

Great points.

[sabre210 0]

I see the baton has officially been passed on. Congrats Goldsmith, you now proudly can take your place in the dz.com Hall of Fame. Step away Dmcoco....your time is up.

ian

[d_goldsmith 1]

I just didn't want the skydivers pointing her in the wrong direction. Sorry.

[TVPB 0]

No need to apologise.

It seems to me that your intent is honourable.

Why are some people questioning your input is your experience level. This is not a new phenomenon. Every now and again an excited newcomer (1 year in the sport is new) wants to help and contribute as much as possible. This is a good thing and the enthisiasm should be encouraged.

However, you must temper this with your experience level. Being a newcomer, you have not had the time to go through many of the intricacies that you need to know on order to educate others. One of these skills is to challenge newbies and question their involvement in the sport. This sport should NOT be handed to anyone on a platter. Not because they don't deserve to be in the sport or because we don't want to share the sport with others - the main reason is that when people get something with little or no effort, they do not truly appreciate what they have got. They take it for granted, they don't put effort into it . . . . . What this means for BASE jumping is that you potentially introduce liabilities to the sport. The sport does not need those type of people. Jumpers do NOT need the potential experience of serious incidents and fatalities, and most importantly of all, the families of those people should NOT go through the experience of losing a loved one.

There are many other factors too. A newcomer who is superkeen tends to overload themselves with a raft of information from many different sources. Some if that information is excellent, some contradictory, and some downright dangerous. There are some techniques appropriate to only experienced jumpers, and there are some that students must learn. This information can potentially be misinterpreted or confused with other information by the newcomer, and then delivered to another newcomer - very much like the game of Chinese whispers.

Giving information about BASE jumping to newbies involves a very high level of responsibility. Someones life is at stake!!!!!! We should all take that responsibility seriously and not lightly.

In some cases it is better to quote experienced people when giving an opinion - it gives greater credibility to what you are saying. And it will get some of those crusty oldtimers off your back too.

Other than that, keep up your enthusiasm. It is a good thing. Temper it when giving advice to newbies. And enjoy this wonderful activity that you are involved in. Spend your current time learning, don't waste it on teaching at this point. Develop the skills and experiences that you are keen to teach.

Regarding the person you are corresponding with (skyjules), she needs to put in a lot more effort before she even thinks about BASE jumping. That is made obvious to me by her lack of gear knowledge (and jump numbers etc). If skyjules is not a web troll, then I am concerned. As per her quote below, if she does not know the difference between a 9 and 7 cell and she has been jumping them at a DZ, what chance does she have of fulfilling the gear knowldege requirements of BASE jumping? This shows to me that she is not interested in what she needs to know.

A parallel - she is not interested in the climb up to the top of Everest, she only wants to stand on the top. That does NOT make her a climber!!!!!!!

Sometimes, this is how blunt you have to be. If skyjules is a reasonable person, she will take this constructive criticism on board and put some more effort in. If she is not, she does not really need to be involved in BASE jumping.

This is where experience comes in. You get to see the end result of introducing the wrong people into the sport. And you learn about the important of filtering. IF skyjules puts in the effort, great, kudos and open arms, but if she does not, well, I don't want to be standing on the edge with her.

Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck

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

[JaapSuter 0]

Quote

Regarding the person you are corresponding with (skyjules), she...

Woah, she's a girl?

Hey Jules, come to Vancouver! I'll throw you of our local objects and burn 'm to the ground. I even have a eight-cell umbrella you can borrow!

[NickDG 23]

This reminds me of an oversight and it's time to correct it. At the time this came about we were too focused on how it came about. But a Nugget is a Nugget and, "Yonkels," is a Nugget.

Mono-Nugget - or maybe just Nug – but so far the only single word Nugget.

Yonkels – it's like a whole story in one word . . .

Now we just wait for a savvy BASE gear manufacturer to actually start calling them that and it'll be set in stone.

Since evolution isn't one of those things that stops it could also be, in the future, we'll have our own language. Then I could stop saying things on the radio like, "The rats are in the cheese!"

NickD BASE 194