Dd0g

Well, this seems a bit to me like an inherent nature of all social/pack animals. Left alone, the average pack animal is spooked and insecure. Together with pack-mates, this insecurity drops. In a sense, a solitary pack animal is an incomplete unit, just like a piece of a car engine isn't really a standalone unit with much effectiveness absent the other pieces that make a motor. So, yes, pack animals are more able to take actions - more specifically, "risky" actions - with other pack members present. As to BASE, I'd argue that many BASE jumpers nowadays are basically pack rejects, the "lone wolves" of society. We're proportionately less reliant on pack feedback, and more of a nature to assess our own risks and actions internally versus through the mechanisms of pack feedback. This is a relative think, however; there's still a "BASE community" and nearly every BASE jumper in the world is still affected by the zeitgeist of the BASE world at large. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Uh oh. . . looks like Tom got himself back to a decent internet connection Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

That's just 'cause he is such a skinny little bugger that he actually catches updrafts like a newly-fallen leaf! Seriously, glad to hear the trip has gone well. The Pantz are pimp, yo! Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Yeah, that's pretty much what we mean when we talk about "customizing brake settings" on canopies. Forward speed on opening = death, generally speaking. Yes, a canopy opening at or near stall will burn vertical altitude, as will a rear-riser turn to correct a 180. However, in most all cases we'd rather lose that altitude than impact an object, collapse the canopy due to impact, and pound/spiral down the object until smashing into the ground. Folks who are jumping canopies (vented or otherwise) without dialed-in brake settings off of vertical or only moderately overhung "hard" objects (B, A, Es mostly) are simply rolling the dice and hoping for the best. No matter what one does, if one gets a 180 from an object like that and has too much forward speed, there is no response that will consistently avoid object strike. Object strike kills BASE jumpers. It is the single-largest category of known BASE fatalities. Tune in those brake settings! Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

I was trying to think of a politically correct answer to the initial query, and you pretty much nailed it on the head. Not every good BASE jumper stared with skydiving. However, before anyone decides that this is a quicker way to get into BASE without the hassle of those AFF jumps, a metaphor: There are climbers out there who pretty much started climbing at a V8/.13a level right off the bat. From there, they quickly moved up to V10/8A climbing and have never looked back. Sharma was putting up .13d routes less than two years after starting (remember his Ubermensch in the Needles? Sick!). However, mere mortals don't follow this path. Remember, it's piss easy to make BASE jumps. It's much harder to become a BASE jumper, and to stay a jumper without dying or being mortally injured. Only by accomplishing the latter does anyone earn my respect. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

I think Dexter is referring to packing a BASE canopy into a skydiving container complete with reserve, Cypres, etc. That is legal in the US, and is a great way to learn the ins and outs of flying and landing a BASE canopy without doing so from BASE objects. I've never owned a skydiving rig, as I was one of those folks who showed up at the DZ with my goal being BASE, not skydiving. And now look at me! I'm the poster canine for why the DZ should have turned me away and blackisted me for good Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Congrats! Be safe out there - those early jumps are the most dangerous, in many respects. It's what we don't know that we don't know that can most easily kill us. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

I got word this weekend of sad news - a fatality in Italy. Condolences to friends and family. Be safe out there, BASE brothers and sisters. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

I'll certainly agree that the poineers of BASE were fools. . . or worse. It took a special kind of madness to do what they did - with the gear they had available to them at the time. I ave upmost respect for those early BASE folks who truly pioneered our sport and helped to set the foundation for what it is today. Honestly, however, calling them "foolish" is probably not inacurate. . . nor insulting, really. It sounds like your approach to BASE is spot-on. Sadly, there's lots of folks out there who don't share your balanced approach to the sport - it is those ego-driven types that I derisively referred to as "skydivers," which of course is both unfair and mean on my part. Hey, I never claimed to be either nice or fair As MH says, the skillsets and inherent proclivities that make a safe and "solid" BASE jumper aren't 100% correlated with skydiving skills. Surviving in BASE today, even with the relatively good gear we have nowadays, takes some instincts that just aren't really necessary at the DZ. Heck, there's more than a few folks out there doing BASE jumps that lack the insincts, as well. Oh, and do watch out for the Aussies. . . everyone knows they can't be trusted. I hear that several of them decided it'd be cool to go gay, but it turns out they couldn't find a single gay guy willing to date them! Not to name names Feral And the Swedes? Well, they are in a class by themselves - what more can be said? Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Absolutely spectacular! What more can be said. . . if I was tod that it was video from an intermediate wingsuit jump, I'd believe it. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Thanks for the great advice so far, folks! Some clarifying data: 1. In general, I'm looking to output only to mpeg or DVD format, either burned to a CD-R or saved as a digital file for web use - yes, I already have a DVD burner though I've never used it to create DVDs that'll play on regular DVD players (I use it for audio files nowadays). 2. The extra x86 boxes I have don't have any super-fancy stuff in them, just the usual assortment of modems, NIC cards, etc. 3. My budget is pretty much whatever it'll take to get this setup working well. If it took thousands of dollars to do it, I'd likely postpone until this fall. Anything less than $1k would be pretty cool in my book. 4. It's really important for me to be able to pull in and digitize with high quality footage from PAL/NTSC videotapes, as I have lots of archival footage that I need to digitize and index so it's accessible for folks. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Team Canine is looking to set up a video editing system this spring, and is looking for advice from follks smarter than us on how to do so efficiently. Here's the scoop: 1. Need to be able to pull in video from VHS tapes (already have a PAL/NTSC VCR), DVDs, and existing MPEG1/2 digital footage; 2. Needs to run on a Win2k foundation, as that's our current network foundation here (yes, I know a Mac would likely be a more elegant solution to this problem but I've got an office full of x86 machines that are currently unemployed); 3. Editing capabilities, nothing fancy; 4. Storage of resulting edited footage either as MPEG files (of varying resolutions), DVD, or VHS (PAL or NTSC) formats. Advice much appreciated. I'm expecting that a setup to do all this will likely involve both software and some sort of hardware codec-type PCI card. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Heya, I'd suggest you hook uip with the Morpheus folks. I know they are in Florida somewhere (all seems the same to us Left Coast hippees), and Rob and Kathy are truly cool folks and solid jumpers to boot. Their website is here, and their email address is [email protected]. Tell 'em the Dog sent 'ya! Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

As we all know, modern BASE owes alot to our Aussie mates. Low freefalls, bad landing areas, that famous "go hard" mentality. . . where would we be without them? To honor those silly sons-of-convicts, Team Canine is sponsoring a contest. Name the four Aussie jumpers performing in this snazzy little number, and win two big jars of Vegemite! {Quicktime viewer required, or equivalent codec; note that each segment is about 40 megs, so broadband is strongly suggested} First Half of Performance Second Half of Performance Wow, what a show! I especially like the "gimp," gee. . . I wonder who that really is? Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

As my friend Per knows, once you meet me in person you'll no longer think I know much of anything To clarify once again, my general comments regarding unsafe BASE gear design should not be taken as applying to modern pin rigs - I believe modern pin rigs are structurally sound, and it is my personal preference alone that leads me to use velcro rigs. I used the discussion of pin rigs to leap off into a more diffuse discussion of BASE gear design, nothing more. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

No, I think Tom is referring to velcro added to the closing mechanism of a pin rig. The bit of velcro you are describing is designed to control the bridle when going handheld, thereby preventing it from looping under the back corner of the rig before deployment, and causing a pilot chute in tow. There is a reported fatality due to this type of bridle "entanglement;" hence the addition of the bit of velcro to control the bridle. Previously, a poster suggested that unnecessarily complex technology is ok in BASE, since we should all be careful enough in packing to catch potentially fatal errors before they occur. This is a highly dangerous attitude to have in our sport. A key factor in the relative safety of BASE gear is both its simplicity and its design to minimize the ease with which fatal packing errors can occur. Nowadays, many jumpers around the world do hundreds of jumps a year - while some Americans think 20 or 30 a year is a big deal, this is not globally representative. With that many jumps being done by that many jumpers, any stupid gear design that makes fatal packing mistakes relatively easier will, in time, cause a fatality. Chiding jumpers for being "careless" in packing gear that is poorly designed sort of misses the whole point - the goal of BASE gear is not only safety but also consistency and ease of use. I am not referring specifically to pin rigs, to be clear - while I personally think they are marginally more complex than velcro and thus marginally more "dangerous" when used over a deep sample size of jumps, others disagree and in any case these are very small variants being discussed. However, there are other gear and/or rigging choices that can, in fact, increase danger by making it easier to make a fatal packing mistake. We need look no further than 2002's fatalities to see at least one example of a packing technique that, if done improperly, can (and did) cause a fatality. It is exactly these types of situations - where it is both easy to make a mistake packing, and that mistake would have terrible consequences - that should never - NEVER - be accepted in BASE. so-called diot-proof technolgy not only protects idiots, but also protects everyone else from the undeniable vagaries of statistical fluctuation. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

This can also be accomplished with a velcro rig by partially "priming" the velcro. Haha - you must not have jumped with many Aussies Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Drop a note any time; happy to meet up and perhaps do some jumps. I'm in PDX until mid-June, and then moving to der Schweitz after that. Regarding my distaste for pin rigs, a quick synopsis: 1. There are known fatalities caused by packing errors in pin rigs (leaving pullup cord in, etc.); I know of no fatalities caused by velcro rigs (at least since the introduction of the shrivel flap). 2. Packing pin rigs is a pain in the ass, and generally requires more pushing and shoving of the packjob to get it closed which could, theoretically, make a less-symmetrical packjob. 3. Doing a bridle check on a velcro rig is piss simple -follow the bridle to the shrivel flap, that's it. Pin rigs are harder to check before jumping, doubly so if it is dark, or if one is doing a static line jump solo and needs to manually feel out whether the bridle is routed ok, pins are ok, etc. 4. Statistically, a velcro rig opens based on thousands of individual velcro "fingers" ripping independently of one another. The collective result of the shrivel flap opening up therefore is likelty to have a highly predictable envelope within which it happens, as the sum total of those thousands of individual "tears" is governed by statistical dynamical math. In contrast, a pin rig is 100% dependent on one (or two) points of "failure" and the behavior of those points is going to have far more outliers than the collective behavior of the velcro. If even 1 out of 1,000 single-pin openings behaves erratically, that's a big issue for me - what if that is the one jump I take really low, etc? Velcro behaves like water flowing over a rock, consistent. 5. Keep It Simple, Stupid. Velcro is, my itself, simpler than a pin setup. The pin setup (outside of wingsuiting) has no benefit over velcro, but is more complex. Thus, removing the pins from the system makes it simpler, more predictable, and safer. 6. Packing a pin rig takes loger than a velcro-closed rig (even if only a minute or two), Packing a pin rig also requires one more tool (pullup cord), which is one more thing to cart around and potentially forget. Anyway, that's my highly-personal analysis of the pin/velcro situation. Others, I am sure, disagree. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Yep, wingsuit stuff is most certainly the exception. Otherwise, pin rigs are more trouble than they are worth. Just one Dogs opinion. . . Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

I hate pin rigs; they suck. Velcro is much better. How's that for brevity? Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

The only tunnel-style wingsuit jump I've heard about is down in South Africa (and one sort of like it in Norway). The beta I have on Madagascar didn't include anything like this - a friend was planning a trip there last year and he'd have been excited about something like that, for sure. Still, I'd not be surprised as I do know of some funky cliffs on that island. I am sure Robert will let us know how it goes when he's back in contact. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Pimp! Good wishes for my friend Robert. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Very useful data, Tom. The one that jumped out at me was "third party error." I'm a bit obsessive about PCA confguration, etc. - and this is likely to make me more so. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

Team Canine will be back in beautiful Pittsburgh in April, and is interested in working with local jumpers. Please contact me if you are - or know - locals so that we can adhere to site ethics and so forth. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.

I'm sure 416 knows. Peace, D-d0g +~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere.