base428

Didn't you learn the old "sticks and stones" story as a child? It's funny to see how upset people get over a silly word. I'd be willing to bet that everyone posting to his thread has said "faggot" at some time in their lives. Sticks and stones..... (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

No need to cite drinking laws when I'm talking about the INGESTION of alcohol. It kills people through liver disease, alcohol poisoning, etc. Sure, public intox and DUI are against the law, but that's not the topic. Sure, smoking in a school might be illegal, but it's the ACT of smoking that I'm discussing. Drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes are perfectly legal to consume/smoke in your own home. Going off on tangents might do you good in some threads, but not this one....... Now, I'll repeat it one more time. Why aren't alcohol and cigarettes illegal, since they kill millions each year? If our lawmakers are so concerned about our health, they should start with Budweiser and Marlboro. Money just *might* have something to do with it eh? (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Doesn't alcohol and smoking kill more people each year? Why are there no laws to protect us from drinking or smoking too much? We should ban all alcohol and cigarettes. Don't some of you claim that alcoholism is a deadly "disease"? Immunizations are good, as I mentioned before. But don't make it a LAW to be immunized. Don't tell me my kid can't go to school without immunizations when I pay taxes that go straight to the school system. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

It won't be long before joggers will be required to wear a helmet and knee pads. They could fall and hurt themselves. Thank God the government is here to protect us.....what would we do without them. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Hep-B is not required where I live. But injecting a vaccine into a baby who just came from the womb a few hours ago is very disturbing to me. Newborns have a limited immune system, so why are we pumping them full of vaccinations that aren't needed (unless my two year old is a drug user or is having sex). "Herd immunity" sounds great on paper, but the collateral damage (kids dying from vaccinations) shouldn't be ignored. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Immunizations are a big business and drug companies lobby hard for laws that require them. Many immunizations in the USA today are unnecessary because the only cases that exist come from a complication related to the immunization process itself. On the other hand, most immunizations are good. I have a two year old daughter and we've only immunized her with what is required for her to go to school. Unfortunately, my state won't take exceptions for medical or religious reasons (1 of only 2 states in the US that does this). I performed a lot of research on immunizations in the USA shortly after she was born. I find it unacceptable that kids are getting the Hep-B vaccination at BIRTH. Hep-B is mainly transmitted by sharing needles or sex. Mainly, I feel that immunization laws are polluted by greedy drug companies and the politicians that are lobbied by them. I also have two younger brothers who are 16 and 14 and they've never been immunized. No problems so far. Just do a simple search on "thimerosal" and you'll see that all immunizations are not perfect. Here are a few good articles: Deadly Immunity The great thimerosal cover-up. Immunizations are good, but corporate greed is complicating the system. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

It IS outrageous.....I work for a US military contractor. That's outrageous. Let's sue them. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

And sometimes I feel like I should've been a lawyer rather than an engineer. It hurts to see all those wealthy lawyers when my family is barely making it each month. Maybe a reduction in engineers will boost demand and, in turn, my salary? One can only hope. PS. I just started a project where the lead software engineers are in India. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

I have to admit that I'd prefer to see all BASE forums disappear or be password protected. All the technical information that newbies claim to need can come from their "mentors", as it did in the old days. The internet has more negatives than positives when it comes to BASE jumping. Plus, the NPS might actually have to do some WORK since they'd have nothing to read each morning.... (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Sorry to hear about the recent problems you've had at DW. I jumped DW back in 1999 and it's a wonderful jump. Let's hope there are no further problems. Since we are a self-policing sport and there are no repercussions for not following the rules, why has no one listed his name yet? I'm a firm believer in public humiliation if you screw things up for everyone. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Ah, Nathan's daisy chained jump. I never get tired of telling this story. It was February 2000 in Moab and anyone else would've gone home in a bodybag. He had *maybe* two inflated cells and was spiraling into the steep, soft talus. He barely missed a few boulders, but did manage to crack his helmet on one. I have some video of the daisy chained portion of the canopy (the tailpocket was still sealing the lines when we inspected it). Scary indeed. Lee Werling (RIP) was the first one to get to him. He was very bruised and had a head laceration, but he was walking around in Moab the next day. He posts here at dz.com every now and then. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Yes, probably classified as a B. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

The design of the pond will accommodate the various exit points around the object. Hopefully, we'll be able to exit the North, South, and East sides of the object, so we'll put a large continuous pond directly below the exit points on those 3 sides. The big question is how far out should the pond extend? I'm getting some decent data so far, but could use more input. Wingsuits won't be considered for this object. I'm guessing that we'll need to extend at least 300' to be safe, maybe more. But we also want the bad trackers to be able to open their parachute and then make it over the water to land dry. Also, realistically, what is a safe water depth for someone snivelling in or with a late deployment or line-over? Deep or shallow? I'm guessing deep since there will always be people around. Thanks for the data so far. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Guys/Gals, I'm helping out on a very interesting project that may benefit us all and I have a question for the hardcore trackers out there. Let's just say you've jumped from a 1400' object wearing normal clothes and you opened low. How far "horizontally" from the exit point will you be when you're finally under canopy? We are trying to determine how far a large pond should be from the exit point in order to save anyone who snivels in, pulls low (with partial canopy inflation), or has a line-over malfunction. Your data and/or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Another Reason Why Sam's Club Blows Sam's Club deals are NOT that good. Most people can't do the math to figure out if they're getting a bargain. Besides, what kind of person actually PAYS for the privilege to shop somewhere? (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

So that was the "locals" tower? I thought it looked familiar. Jumped it 10 years ago. RIP. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Man, this has been a tough year already. We've now lost two great Bridge Day jumpers (Johnny Gates and now Jim). I'll never forget how nervous it made us to see Jim pulling a ripcord on a BASE jump. But he had done it for MANY years and quite a few BASE jumpers only knew him as "Ripcord Man". He is a legend at Bridge Day. Fortunately, I had the pleasure of spending some valuable time with him after Bridge Day 2006. He gave me some OLD photos of him wearing a custom wingsuit many, many years ago. I'll see if I can scan them in, as I'm sure many of you will enjoy them (if that's OK?) I could always count on Jim's phone call shortly after July 1st each year in order to register for Bridge Day. I am definately going to miss him. Hang in there Marty. Your dad was one of the best. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

I cannot believe that people actually thought these devices were the work of terrorists. Have we all sunk so low as to be frightened by simple electronic gadgets? I also love how the media spells out the acronym for LED (Light Emitting Diodes) in order to exacerabate the situation. And now they are arresting people because some technologically-inept person thought it was a bomb. Ridiculous. Gotta run.....I have to disable the blinking red alarm LED on the dashboard of my car, as someone in Boston might think it's a bomb. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Water = Ground = You ARE a BASE jumper. Hell yeah, Russel. You are more of a BASE jumper than most of us. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Another pic (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

To me, anyone who's made a BASE jump is a BASE jumper. It doesn't matter how many jumps you've made, how long you were in the sport, or how many injuries or arrests you've had. If you've willingly stepped off the edge of a fixed object and piloted your parachute safely to the ground, then we are one and the same..... (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Johnny was an amazing guy. Reading this post really broke our hearts. Even my mother-in-law and three non-jumping brothers knew Johnny (he was THAT cool!). Skydiving and BASE jumping won't be the same without him. We'll miss ya, Johnny. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Unfortunately, the media is bashing the judge when they should be looking at the prosecutor/DA. They charged Jeb with 1st degree reckless endangerment, which means he knowingly put people's lives in danger. Obviously, Jeb wasn't endangering anyone and the judge understood this. Perhaps if the DA wasn't so aggressive and they charged him with a lesser crime, Jeb would have been guilty. After reading many of the 100+ articles in Google news, I was stunned to see so many negative viewpoints. The media found pleasure in calling Jeb names and bashing the judge. We've still got a long way to go if BASE jumpers ever want to be "accepted" as anything other than suicidal rejects. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

Congrats Jeb! It's quite comical to see the media get their feathers ruffled over this. I've been getting phone calls and emails from "worried" media people who think that BASE jumping happens all the time in NYC and now we're going to come by the masses to jump there. (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

The BASE community never surprises me. Fortunately, situations like this make me chuckle once in awhile. I just talked to "grounded101" (aka. Jess Smith) via email. She says we ran over her mailbox THREE times, although I'm not sure who, where, or when this occurred. How do you run over a mailbox THREE times? She says she contacted me about this in the past (NOT!) and that she jumps with Joy (the WV girl who got her BD badge yanked because she lied on her gear rental application). Go figure. Personally, I think "grounded101" and "Joy" might be one and the same. If not, the are definately cast in the same mold. Anyway, it's January and here I am trying to solve the mystery mailbox caper. Shouldn't we be snowboarding or sitting by the fire this time of year? January isn't the time to deal with Bridge Day and some mystery lady's damaged mailbox. I don't drink but a few times a year. Tonight will probably be one of them..... (c)2010 Vertical Visions. No unauthorized duplication permitted.