feelopen

Hi, I posted a review of sorts of Vertigo's First Jump Course a while back. That thread is here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=530924;#530924. I would highly recommend anyone wanting to get started in BASE jumping to do it right, and to check into Vertigo's FJC... The staff at Vertigo is more than friendly, knowledgable, experienced, and helpful. They far exceeded my expectations in almost every way. They went beyond helping me learn to base jump as safely as possible by setting me up with some of my local jumpers. Jimmy and Marta will help you feel comfortable and will treat you like a friend. While they have every reason to act like they're the shizniz, they don't - quite the opposite. I know there's a lot of FJC's out there these days, and I can understand how it may look like they "are all more or less the same", but in my opinion, they are NOT all the same. Research your instructors, call them and talk to them, and I think you'll find Vertigo a very good choice. Just my biased 2 cents. Good luck, happy hummin... CP

When considering whether or not to regulate or ban base jumping at this object, I hope people realize that having this object the way it is now actually creates an overall safer environment for BASE jumpers. Without this object, students will start on more advanced objects and jump in less favorable conditions (i.e. darkness) which could arguably be the source of more deaths. Remember that this object lets an increasing number of students receive the best training available, and make instructor supervised jumps from a relatively safe legal object! Without this object, experienced jumpers won't have as ideal a situation for learning progressively difficult techniques like aerials. These jumpers will likely still pursue learning these more advanced stunts, but will do so in an environment with less safety margin. Looking at just the micro environment of BASE in Idaho, it could be easy for an outsider to perceive BASE is quite dangerous and poses such a liability that it should be banned. However, please consider the bigger picture, I think it's quite likely that this object has actually saved more lives than it's taken! That is if you believe that an object is to blame for anything. Just my thoughts, no harmful intentions. Craig Stanton Fort Collins, CO

I thought I’d tell all the other new/wanna bie’s out there about my experience with Vertigo’s FJC at the Perrine Bridge. I have found that as an outsider, it is often difficult to ask the general BASE community questions. While the online community has really helped this change, I was often hesitant to ask. I felt like if I asked the wrong question I’d either misrepresent my intentions, look silly, or risk being labeled as a general idiot. Locals are often rightfully hesitant to help newbies, especially in sensitive areas and places that don’t have many objects. Marta and Jimmy’s first jump course eliminates all of this, you are free to ask all your questions and get honest both-sides answers. If Marta doesn’t do something she’ll say why she doesn’t and then explain why she reasons other people do. After asking them questions, (they were very patient with my barrage of questions), I felt like I was armed with every angle, ready to decide for myself what is best. BASE jumping is a very technical pastime, and the amount of knowledge needed to survive is quite large. This course taught me everything from packing and proper gear selection to how to evaluate new objects. I’ve read EVERY post concerning BASE on the internet, all the archives etc... This course covered everything I had ever read, and took it all much further. Jimmy and Marta tag team the lectures in a very effective manner and while it didn’t really feel like class, I learned heaps. We each made 6 jumps during the weekend, which was pretty good for being winded out almost an entire day. I took this course with two other guys, and since learning curves differ, I imagine if you knew your packing and took the course alone, that you could get in several more jumps weather permitting. Each jump had a plan and each jump had a purpose. From the dirt dives to the debriefs, I felt Jimmy & Marta were 100% attentive and focused on my progress. I felt completely comfortable staying behind after they left and making 6 more jumps. Vertigo’s course also gave me a more or less green light with the locals, limitless training whenever I feel the need to join them, and guiding/instruction in jumping the beautiful cliffs Moab when I’m ready. Thanks Jimmy, Marta, Luke, & Lua! It was a complete blast and the best way to get into BASE! Craig Stanton Fort Collins, CO

okay okay... i didn't realize there were such hardmen out there, if any of you that have reset your own dislocated shoulder ever meet me at a legal span, the dz, or other enviro - just let me know it's you and you'll get your beer - so long as we can enjoy it together while you tell me the story. cp

If you can set your own dislocated shoulder I'll buy you a case of beer!

I'm working in a veterinary hospital as a radiology technician while I attend veterinary school and get an MBA. I don't tell many people about BASE because I'd just get criticized. Also, if I talk about base I may lose my eventual Aesculapian authority, which could be significantly valuable to my future career. I started base jumping for me alone, and I think people in society won't ever understand it to be anything less than a crazy stunt. to me it's not a stunt at all. cp

A govt. employee I know sent me this today: We have all been to those meetings where someone wants over 100%. How about achieving 103%? Here's a little math that might prove helpful. So If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented as: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26. Then: H A R D W O R K is extrapolated as: 8 1 18 4 23 15 18 11 = 98% K N O W L E D G E as: 11 14 15 23 12 5 4 7 5 = 96% But, A T T I T U D E as: 1 20 20 9 20 21 4 5 = 100% And, B U L L S H I T as: 2 21 12 12 19 8 9 20 = 103% So, it stands to reason that hard work and knowledge will get you close, attitude will get you there, and bullshit will put you over the top. But, look how far ass kissing will take you. A S S K I S S I N G as: 1 19 19 11 9 19 19 9 14 7 = 118% So the next time someone asks you to give more than 100%, you know what is required of you.

i just met my neighbor, found out why he's often gone for lengths of time. he is a professional wine taster. yeah, travels the world tasting wine at the vineyards so when he sells bulk contracts of wine to restaurants, he can recommend which wines they should buy. travels to all the good spots and drinks only the best wines. rough one. really, really rough.

21. breeding pythons 22. breeding claridacea beetles i know a lot about both of these things just in case you were, well, trying to breed a bunch of checkered beetles so you could, well, let em loose to eat other beetles. or in case you wanted to breed some of your pythons. cp

thank you for posting this gary! man teddy really summed up how I've always felt about this type of thing! All of my life the world has employed hundreds of "timid souls" to challenge me against fulfilling my heart's greatest desires. Often it seems where ever you are there's someone telling you that you'll never make it or your stupid for trying this or that. Even getting my degrees was like this, crimony! I think base jumpers are such rich and diverse people because they've never been the sort to obey what society is telling them, or what their fears tell them inside their head. They analyze the risks of a dream and find a way to get there despite the challenge. A base jumper isn't doing this just to prove the "timid" wrong, or rub it in their faces, it is to live their dream, eh? Unfortunately, society will always want to rub their point off on us when they see someone fall short - maybe this helps them feel better about always opting out of every challenge in their lives. cp

i heard 420 was a code word for cops - like when they'd bust a grower or something they'd announce on their radio, "we've got a 420 over here, rquesting backup". don't know if that's true or not. i've got hippy roots but you're better to ask someone even more hippy than me.

According to http://nickciske.com/tools/binary.php, this is it: 010000010010110101010101011011100110100101 110000011011110110010000100000000011010000 101001000010001011010101001101110100011000 010110100101110010011100110111010001100101 011100000010000001100100011010010110000101 101101011011110110111001100100001000000000 110100001010010000110010110101001101011101 010111001001110000011010000111100100100000 011001100110000101101100011010110110010100 100000000011010000101001000100001011010101 100101110101011000010110111000100000000011 010000101001000101001011010100110101100101 011001010110101101100101011100100010000000 001101000010100100011000101101010011110111 000001100101011011100010000001100001011000 110110001101101111011100100110010001101001 011000010110111000100000000011010000101001 000111001011010100001101100001011101000110 000101100011011000110110111101110010011001 000010000000001101000010100100100000101101 010000100110111101110111001000000000110100 001010010010100010110101000100011011110110 111001110101011101000010000000001101000010 100100101100101101010010000110111101101111 011010110010000000001101000010100100110000 101101010000010110010001100100011001010111 001000100000000011010000101001001101001011 010100001001110101011011100110010001111001 001000000000110100001010010011100010110101 000011011100100110000101101110011010110010 000000001101000010100100111100101101010100 110110000101110100011001010110110001101001 011101000110010100100000000011010000101001 010000001011010101001101101001011001000110 010101100010011011110110010001111001001000 000000110100001010010100010010110101010000 011010000110000101101100011000010110111001 11100000100000 sorta not so useful...

install a deadbolt that can only be accessed from inside for your safety at night - it's not too hard to pick the ones that open with keys. I can open most of them (yale, master, schlage, kwickset, faultless etc...) in less than 10 seconds! You would hear it though, it rattles the lock a bit - so you could shoot me if you were inside and armed! then insure your stuff for your peace of mind during the day - no worries then, actually kinda nice if they take it you have less shit and more money! work on improving your karma, whether you believe in it or not, it won't hurt to be nice and respectfull to everyone in your neighborhood. give away all your shit, except your rig and surfboard! less is best IMO cp

I guess I'll post an answer here... being as I am a person who has recently made this decision but has yet to start, perhaps my banter will aid someone else one way or the other. Let me reiterate: I'm only just starting BASE and have made no jumps yet, if I live for another three weeks, I'll have completely begun by taking a FJC offered by one of the manufacturers. My attraction to dangerous sports has arguably always been a part of me. I remember my mom telling me that I was climbing my dresser when I was just a couple years old, and since I was eight or ten I’ve been very attracted to parachuting. When we first got a trampoline I was in love with the repeated feeling of jumping up and falling down and I yearned for longer and longer freefalls. My sister and I would jump from an old rickety ladder onto the trampoline, and while this took the edge off the urge to fall farther, it didn’t satisfy it. I soon realized I wanted very badly to jump from the roof onto the tramp, and then having done that, I wanted the extra 4 feet altitude of not landing on the tramp, but on the ground. I realized though, that I would need a parachute. I rigged up a silver dome-tent rain-fly and jumped it repeatedly off of the trampoline, experimenting with different configurations and inflation techniques. Once I felt confident the rain-fly would slow my fall enough, I took it up to the roof and fearlessly jumped. The landing sent shuddering pain up my legs and tears streamed from my eyes as I laid there thinking I’d just broken my legs - they weren’t broken, just painful. And so I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t do such a silly thing again unless I was more properly equipped. All through high school, all I wanted to do was rock climb. While climbing satisfied many of my dangerous urges, I learned how to control the dangers and climb without the risks. Climbing became less of an endorphine pastime, and more about my body being fluid with nature. Skydiving was where my heart was dreaming. I thought it would be just about the scariest thing a guy could do, and so I saved up, went down to the DZ, lied about my age, and did my first tandem. While I was extremely disappointed by the lack of falling sensation, I was hooked by the weightless flying feeling, and knew I needed to become a skydiver. The rest of the story is intuitive, and while most think I keep pushing the limits of sanity, I feel I’ve always approached dangerous activities very carefully, always realizing that the best part of living is that you can keep living, to climb another cliff, jump another plane. So for the past few years my heart’s wandering off this other crazy dream of flight. BASE jumping is a hurricane of thought that has plagued my mind most of the time, both waking and asleep. For the last year, there hasn’t been a night that passed without me dreaming of strapping on a BASE rig atop a dream climb or a bridge and leaping off gracefully. I started asking people about the sport to find they had little to tell me that I didn't already know, that BASE is an extremely stupid pastime that should never be done, that I was silly to even think about it... I was trying to focus on other things, yet my BASE jumping dreams were increasing to a point of distraction. I have now come to a point where I know with all my heart and soul that I will start BASE jumping, and that I will love it. I feel like to fits me like a hand in a glove. I have realized that every time I’ve been way up on something tall, my spirit was jumping off of it. And so I have been selling my blood and plasma at multiple locations, weakening my immune system to the point of near failure, eating no more than $3 of food per day, and spending no extraneous money in order to purchase my BASE gear and pay for the FJC. My commitment is total and all encompassing. I've thought a lot about why I want to BASE, and writing it down really helps. I wrote a similar explanation to my mom and my sister, and I feel like the reason I’ve shared this mumbo jumbo here and with them is because I wanted people to understand the decision I’m making is not only one of the biggest decisions of my life, but the one I’ve put the most thought, time and energy into making. I wanted people to know that I’m not trying to be reckless, I don’t want my family to think I’m disregarding their interests in having me in their lives, and I am not trying to hurt myself or anyone who feels close to me. I am going to start BASE jumping for many well-thought-out reasons and while one of the principle goals I have is to continue doing it into ripe old age, I realize this may not happen, that I may die on my first or second jump. I do not feel like I am someone who will needlessly risk his life, I feel that I take calculated risks in order to live my dreams more completely and fulfill my heart’s desires. My decision was facilitated by the fact that I have no true girlfriend, very few people who I feel super close to, only two surviving family members, and a plethora of accomplished goals and ambitions. When I was 12 I wrote a list of over 450 goals, I've accomplished more than 300 of them from surfing 25' waves to skiing fourteeners - When I make a decision that limits my life, I'm satisfied knowing I've done most everything else I ever wanted to do. All the rest that comes is bonus! If this weren't the case, the decision would be different. Think about your loved ones, think about your goals in life. BASE will always wait for you to finish all your other plans... I feel that even though I'm not done living, I have to live like I am willing to be if I agree to become a BASE jumper. For the last 10 years of my life I've lived each day like it was my last. I'm well versed doing that and so now it's time to up the anti I guess. Cheers to many many more bonus moments to be enjoyed by all, CP

yeah, cool... and it's been/being discussed: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=476386;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

A famous rock climber, todd skinner, once said, just a thought...

ooh, found it: http://dougblane.members.easyspace.com/www.basejumping.co.uk/st_pauls_cathedral.htm looks like 102 static line... no broken bones...

I guess he had to buy his own trophy for that record, pretty expensive.

My BASE toggle lines are hitched to the toggle using a reinforced finger trap that then easily larks heads with itself around the grommet and toggle - it seems this is a more sound way of doing it because there's less bulk, less to inspect, and unless the fingertrap came unstitched - there's no way for it to come off the toggle. Do the knots serve as some sort of blown toggle prevention? It seems like the opposite to me: that the added bulk would make it even more likely to occur if you're using slinks or your slider goes over the bumpers.

Anyone recall how low that indoor jump from the church cieling was? I don't think he freefell, I thought maybe it was a PCA? that guy had some cajones! maybe not brains, but hey, chicks dig cajones right? so if someone can freefall a 98', couldn't it be done SL from even lower? If it was, would the lower SL count as the record, even if it were apparently the same risk?

did you acid etch the concrete? nothing will stick to it well unless you do, even then it's hard if you don't uase true epoxy and let it cure for weeks. we've had luck at the animal hospital (some lg. animal rooms have painted concrete floors with sandy texture) just acid etched it and let it cure forever, it stands up to crazy horses with metal shoes alright.. don't imagine you're interested in redoing it, but if so I can tell you all the chemicals etc... cp

Yeah, the last cell I was in wasn't big enough to pack in anyway. >actually that was a rhetorical question

what constitutes a "hot thread"? skin? boobies? ... okay, i'll abide by Faber's rule of posting and attach sum wazoos.

high: sitting on my roof watching the golden hour pass into night low: golden hour never lasts forever

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