DexterBase

We're leaving Seattle here in about an hour. We'll probably flick as soon as we're in town and then sure, let's plan on the 6AM load. We'll need to pack somewhere though. I was planning on bringing two rigs but my Asylum rig isn't ready yet. Wow, way pumped! We tried to open a new object close to our apartment last night but it didn't go yet. I need some BASE!

Excellent, Kmonster and I should be there early thursday morning.

Agreed.

No man, I drew those up. I didn't have a rig around when I was drawing them so I hope they were somewhat accurate. How about my super drawing skills? Edit: Oh yeah, I use this packjob sometimes. Sometimes I put the tailpocket on top, sometimes I use the Hookitt pack. (That's what I call it because Hookitt showed me how to do it.) I haven't noticed much difference in heading performance, so I just pack like that when I feel like it. I can't say which I prefer to use when heading is really an issue. I personally think getting the heading has more to do with your attention to detail in the packjob and body position. If you pack sloppy, either method is going to produce off-heading openings. I think the advantage to the Hookitt pack is lower probability of a line-over.

There is a 100% chance of me being at Bridge Day!

Hello, I am leaving Iraq! I will be offline for about a week while I'm in transit from here to the US. A huge thanks to the BASE community which has been super supportive while I've been away. I have a huge debt to repay to you all. Until then, Chad

Tim, if I'm back in time I'm going to be there. So if I go, you have got to go. Deal?

Hehe... um.... fu**er.

How about cutting the rope, then holding onto the end. Let the blimp pull you up as you hand-over-hand up the rope. You can bring your iPod so you'll have some good Mission Impossible tunes going. Damn, this is sounding like fun. How many will this blimp carry?

Nope

I'm going to buy a laser rangefinder. What models are you using? What do you like/ dislike about the model you have? What would your current recommendation be for a laser if you were going to buy one today?

So I'm in Moab with the Portland crew and we're in this coffee shop where Ray is waiting for his mocha to be finished. I walk over to a magazine rack and start reading an interesting article in Climbing. I'm about halfway through the article and Ray gets his mocha. He's really itching to do one more jump before the sun sets but I'm really interested in finishing the article since I don't want to buy the magazine. Ray tells me, "Dude, put that down. You'll have plenty of time to read in the hospital."

I don't introduce any slack into the system. I S-fold the bridle into my right hand and hold a similar S-folded length of bridle next to the pilot chute in my left hand. I hold the bridle pretty firmly and don't release it until it's pulled from my hand. This way I have redundancy if the first grip (right hand) slips early, but I will never subject the PC to any force. I hold the left hand less tight than the right one. One thing I pay attention to is where on my palm I S-fold the bridle. I try to fold it very neatly on my palm away from my fingers and then hold it against my palm with my fingertip pads. I try to keep the bridle away from the joints in my fingers because the bridle moves fast when it gets pulled from your hand. If the bridle cuts your fingers, which it is completely capable of doing, your instincive reaction will be to open your hand and release the bridle. The result could be a dropped PC or worse.

I think it's Cheri.

Interesting... My order is in, how many others have ordered a pair of PF pants?

This is an interesting point. How many documented linovers have occured while the jumper was using a properly configured tailgate? I am unaware of any. While I choose to continue using the line release mod and tailgate, and I will continue using it until there is solid logic to quit doing so. Personally I like the option of being able to toss a toggle to clear a linover. I disagree with this point. As soon as you realize you have a linover you can toss the offending control line and clear the malfunction. At that point you will need to be ultra-quick and on your shit to correct your heading and set up for landing. Even if you only get a 10% chance of landing the jump uninjured, this is certainly better than not being able to clear the malfunction at all because you needed to locate a hook knife, get it in your hand, and try to cut the offending line.. The middle ground would be to use line release toggles. I've heard stories of jumpers having lineovers on slider up objects with relatively conservative delays and still not having much time to clear the malfunction. On most slider down jumps (jumps that will require a slider down/off configuration, not taller objects where you elect to go slider down/off with a shorter delay), you will not have time to use line release toggles or a hook knife. The line release mod is your only realistic option for clearing a linover. Are lineovers common on properly configured BASE gear? No. Our sport is still young enough that you can still find a way to kill yourself that nobody has managed to do yet. Just because there aren't documented linovers on jumps with a tailgate doesn't mean it won't happen to you on your very next jump. This is all just my opinion and I'm curious what others think. One thing I do like is that jumpers are still questioning why we're doing things. This will lead to developments in gear and also weeding out outdated practices.

I had a toggle blow on a McConkey! Go figure... if there was a type of jump where I'd expect a toggle fire to NEVER happen, it would be a McConkey. I'm not sure if I mis-rigged something (very unlikely because I'm very anal-retentive when it comes to gear, but still possible) or dragged the toggle across the rail as I climbed over. Anyhow. I went for the toggle, I'm usually very quick on the toggles, and it was gone. I was going to hang onto the other one and flare with both risers but I decided to see how the canopy would land on just risers. That landing area ian't much different than a DZ so it was a relatively safe place to try it. I tossed the other toggle and flew it in on just risers. The landing went smoothly even though there was no wind. In the future if I still have a toggle I will keep it in my hand and flare with both risers. I don't like the idea of flaring with one riser and one toggle. I think the chances of flaring unevenly are too great and you could get hurt. Just my humble opinion.

I was bored...really bored and I was trying to make a mental list of movies that had a BASE jump, real or fake, in them. So far I have: XXX Mission impossible 2 Along came polly Cliffhanger Dropzone Cutaway I'm sure I've missed many so please add to this list if you want to. Cut and paste it, then add yours to the end.

Wait a second guys! I don't mean to nitpick, but the device you are referring to as the "carry-with-you" static line bridle was actually my idea. I figured it out in a thread a little over a year ago. look here I'm sure someone has done it in the past before we brainstormed it. I emailed a leading BASE maufacturer to see if they had any interest and offered the idea to them. They thought it was a good idea and didn't see any problems with it. They asked me if there was a demand for it in my crew and I honestly replied, "No". So! If you're planning on patenting the thing, go ahead. I posted it here as a free piece of information for the BASE community. My offer to the BASE gear manufacturer was also free. Have a good day! Note: please don't take this post seriously!

Is this a rule also? I wonder if it's okay to use a static line and have ground crew remove it as soon as the deployment is completed. I wanted to spend some time doing static line, PCA, and other low deployment method testing with lasers and cameras. I guess I'll have to scratch out the static line tests or do them at another object. Of course, it will be difficult to bang out 10 jumps a day for testing at another object. Any info on this?

Is this pretty common? Ray Losli was taking me to the top of my first E and I swear we wandered around for about an hour and a half longer than we needed to. There was a group waiting for us to show up on top and they got tired of waiting for us. I'm just wondering if he did it on purpose because I know for a fact that he's got an assload of jumps from this thing. Is there some secret tradition of getting people lost their first time to a new cliff?

Hehe, they've seen me in action over here and know I'm nuts! There's going to be a lot of BASE gear arriving at my place in the next couple weeks! Hopefully I can find your stuff in there somewhere. I'm way stoked to be getting out of here. August 20th!

Faber! I did get the videos from you. Thank you very much, they're making the time go faster. The guys in my platoon think you're nuts, pretty cool huh?

Okay, this one I have got to see.

That's some pretty inspiring footage! I will definitely be adding this one to my growing collection. That made my day.