BASE means nothing else than "base"

[Skyjester 0]

Sorry for beeing simple!

I guess somebody "very important" (not even a BASE jumper) tried once to find out what the meaning is of the four letters B A S E and the result was B ridges - A ntennas - S hit - E tc.

...and the people follow...

"base" means not from a flying/moving subject, it just means from a f***ing base.

WHO KNOWS NOTHING- HAVE TO BELIEVE EVERYTHING!

So, what´s up? Just keep it simple...

don´t pester the jester . . or better: WHY SO SERIOUS ? ?

www.pralle-zeiten.de

[jbarket 0]

I can't tell if you're just another troll or if you're actually serious.

Regardless, our own NickDG wrote a great story about how BEST->BASE came about.

http://www.basewiki.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Stories/TheAcronym

[Skyjester 0]

Thanks for the interesting history.

...and it is a pure coincidence that the opposite of jumping out of a flying object is to jump from a "base". Exact the word which will come in everybody´s mind who jumps from something fixed to the ground... from millions of possible words
Maybe this guys got base already in their subconscious from somebody else... whatever.
If the buildings - antennas - spans - earth description is the best of human´s brain result, I rather be a goblin, a dwarf or a troll

don´t pester the jester . . or better: WHY SO SERIOUS ? ?

www.pralle-zeiten.de

[Ether 0]

Quote

t is a pure coincidence that the opposite of jumping out of a flying object is to jump from a "base".

Not really -- "BASE" is a good word because it has a reasonable acronym, and a few other meanings as well. As the referenced article says, a few other names were thought of first that didn't fit quite as well.

Looking for newbie rig, all components...

[NickDG 23]

"How the USPA made me a Criminal"

Carl liked the fact that as an acronym the word BASE made sense, but he realized the first definition of BASE, "a thing on which something stands," also made sense. Jean didn’t like the second definition of BASE which was, "evil or vile," but Carl, Phil and the rest of the guys liked that part too.

By the end of 1980, the whole El Cap fiasco had past, and in 1981 when Carl announced the BASE award, USPA, and most of the skydiving community had already turned against BASE jumping. With USPA, they had lobbied hard for legal jumping at El Cap and won, but the NPS had lead them down the garden path and USPA signed on to a bad deal and soon the trouble started. The first, and so far only "legal season" lasted just three weeks.

I was at a meeting in Perris in late 1979 where the rules for jumping El Cap are being discussed. Joe Svec was there representing USPA. I hadn't, like most, at the meeting, actually made a BASE jump yet, but I was already interested enough, after seeing Carl's El Cap movie the previous year, to go to the meeting. As a group, skydivers of the day were very naïve about fixed object jumping in general and about the NPS in particular.

I didn’t realize the trouble ahead, none of us did, as everyone argued over requiring helmets, boots, D licenses, and round reserves. At the time the round reserve thing made sense as we figured if you did cutaway (remember this is long before BASE rigs) you'd be low, and might have to put your reserve in the trees of the talus. In that case current wisdom said a round was better. The real reason was probably more about we mostly still had rounds in our reserve containers. The helmets and boots thing were a tougher sell, almost everyone was insisting no one jumped with helmets or boots anymore, as that was so paratrooper and those days were over. But it passed into the rules.

I was the only one who stood and argued against the D license. I wish I could say it was because I realized BASE and Skydiving were two different sports, but that realization was also years away. I only said something because all I had was a C license.

Other rules agreed upon were no RW jumps and no night jumps. When the NPS layered on their own rules regarding permits the die was cast for failure, but none of us jumpers realized it.

USPA saw a big up tick in D license applications prior to the commencement of legal jumps and I'm sure it was the reason the D was required. You could be a Jumpmaster, and I think an Instructor too, with just a C license in those days. It was a time the money seemed better spent on a baggie of smoke. The USPA then ran a two page article in PARACHUTIST on "How to Jump El Capitan." And it was off to the races . . .

Well opening day came and three weeks later it was shut down by the NPS. We did just what the NPS knew we would do. We busted almost every rule and even thought up ways to mess up no one even considered. Jumps were made with permits for the wrong day, or no permits at all. Jumps were made after the time of day on the permit hadn’t come yet, or after it had passed. Jumps were made at night, and RW jumps were made. Then came the infamous Flat Bed Ten. A group of ten jumpers, some with permits, and some without, who were too lazy to hike and after removing a NPS barricade from a dirt road drove as far as they could before they started walking. It was the cherry on top as far as the NPS was concerned.

The jumpers can't be faulted entirely. You must remember these weren't BASE jumpers making cliff jumps; they were skydivers making cliff jumps. They were doing something they considered a lark, like making a balloon jump, or some other type of extraordinary jump. For most it would be something they would do just once. A just get in your logbook sort of thing.

To save the program USPA came down hard on the Flat Bed Ten, and whoever else they could identify with membership suspensions and revocations. The problem was not too few of the offenders were from Europe and elsewhere. The USPA was now feeling the heat from three sides. There were those who said they were being too hard on the jumpers involved, those that said they weren't being hard enough, and also from the NPS, who wondered how much power they actually had. So they folded.

We realized, some years later, they caved in mostly because everyone at USPA headquarters who wanted to make "the once in a lifetime jump" had already done so. USPA also weighed the effects of further pissing off the NPS government who might pick up the phone and call the FAA government and decided it was a zero sum game. So not only did they not pursue it, they declared fixed object jumping to be "not" part of skydiving and thus came about the ban on the "BASE" word from even appearing in print in the magazine.

The problem was there were a lot us USPA members who hadn't made the jump yet and still very much wanted to do it. But now, every time there was a BASE accident, or high profile bust, the local media would seek out the nearest DZO for a comment, and those DZOs would parrot the USPA line, and worse, add that we were crazy, and had a death wish. The reason the media went to the DZOs in the first place was BASE had gone completely underground in those days and talking to a reporter was sport death for your BASE reputation.

So then we said fuck it. And we became the pirates of the night, Captain Hook with nylon and the Jolly Roger flag. I remember my first few night building jumps when we actually had to stop and note, "Man, we're really trespassing now, boys," and we'd giggle like schoolgirls. But we did it because we truly believed. We did it because we knew we were born to fly. And we did because if we didn’t the sport would die a quick death and it would be left to a future generation to find, or maybe not find.

It's why I'm leery of "deals," like our Euro-brothers made, and are making. It's why I'm leery of rules in this country. We agree to rules when you might as well put rules on breathing. Rules are a game played by those who want to control you. And it's a game you cannot possibly win. Flying is every human's dream and we can do it. That should be the only rule . . .

I can separate us into several generations of BASE jumper since it all began. But in geological time we are all one. And it’s up to us, right here and now, to make a stand. We have to stop thinking about ourselves and start thinking about what we do and surviving until it reaches the minds of the more enlightened. What it really means, is we, by timing and nothing else, must take the fall . . .

NickD BASE 194

[dbagdrew 0]

Quote

"How the USPA made me a Criminal"

Interesting story Nick. I enjoy reading about the history of our sport every once in a while.

Couple questions for you:
Maybe I missed something, but what does it really have to do with the topic? Is this something you wrote before and are reposting, or just something you felt you had to get off your chest?

Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid,
the vast limits of their knowledge. - Mark Twain

[NickDG 23]

No, I guess if you don't get it. Which is reasonable. Then I failed, and it means nothing.

And that's the beauty of BASE too . . .

And no, it's not a repost, I just wrote that now . . .

NickD BASE 194

[d_goldsmith 1]

You seem really depressed lately Nick. I hope some of the locals take you out for a beer and I hope everything is alright.

I've got this really hardcore group of gaurdian angels that need a free paid vacation.
~Dan Osman

[NickDG 23]

Not at all, Goldsmith, it seems more that you seem hopelessly optimistic . . .

And that's good, it will gird you as you get older . . .

NickD BASE 194

[Gaper 0]

lots of us get it Nick keep it up

Go forth now, to the promised lands, and swear much unto each other, with mighty profanity and many personal attacks. T.A.

[littlestranger 0]

nice. this definitely has to make it into the book. pretty melancholy though, guess those were the days.

Quote

It's why I'm leery of rules in this country. We agree to rules when you might as well put rules on breathing. Rules are a game played by those who want to control you. And it's a game you cannot possibly win.

win? who needs to win, i just want to compete. and trite as it sounds, rules are meant to be broken sometimes.

love you dude.

[NickDG 23]

>>love you dude. <<

I'll never forget being stuck in the elevator with you at Bridge Day . . .

Everyone else should be so lucky . . .

You Rock . . .

NickD BASE 194

[fastphil 0]

WOW, don’t be so hard on Nick just for growing old; some of us are unlucky enough to do that. Actually, all his rambling is on topic, or at least it seemed so to me. And to me, it brought back memories of Carl laughing and talking and conniving, just like the perennial teenager he was, just like it was yesterday.

Those were days when skydudes pushing for new limits were paving the road for you to follow. And Nick is right, there were those like Svec, an unintended adversary whose fame and flame ways were an overlooked obstacle (he tried to deny me my Gold Wings when I told him my 1000th jump was from an antennae). We were all just looking for BASE, with a madman cinema photographer leading us on…

[Naptown 0]

Quote

We were all just looking for BASE, with a madman cinema photographer leading us on…

That makes me think of this story, wich I have a strong connection to.
http://www.amazon.com/Never-Turn-Back-Whitewater-Blackadar/dp/1877625035/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-3574974-0784862?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173153139&sr=8-1

I love hearing our history, please keep it up!

[Skyjester 0]

Thank you for the "insight".
Looks like somebody get the message, don´t mind the words...

I don´t take myself serious- I take the gravity of the system serious but I don´t respect it.

I guess, the best way to confuse the evil (system) is to make it ridiculous. It´s so difficult to control if nobody got fear or respect.

Every minute can be the time to turn it over around

don´t pester the jester . . or better: WHY SO SERIOUS ? ?

www.pralle-zeiten.de