sabre210

Will and Dexter (that was a short retirement!!!) I totally agree and in fact that kind of is what i do (we do) anyway. I usually larkshead a loop in the bridle about 3ft away from the pilot chute and tie off to that. The benefit of using a specifically made shortened bridle is that it would be inherently simpler (K.I.S.S.). If you tied off to a loop 2ft from the shrivel flap or pins using a standard BASE bridle then you would have 7ft of bridle and then a big PC dangling down from the object. The more stuff flapping around down there, the more chance of a snag or hang up. You can only stow the excess bridle (using a tailgate bungee or tape) between the pins/flap and the anchor point, and not between the anchor point and the pc as this will never get popped apart and effectively renders the pc pretty useless from the altitudes we're talking about here. So what it boils down to is losing the backup (PC)and gaining simplicity and manageability on the exit point (but losing any second chance in the event of a premature breakage) or retaining the backup (which might be more of a psychological than physical advantage) but complicating the rigging and enhancing the chance of snagging the object. It's a tough call, but all said and done i have yet to static line without a PC attached so i guess we agree. laters ian

Still a lot of factors to narrow down. Headwind , crosswind, tailwind or no wind??? Vented or non vented canopy, size of canopy, jumpers weight??? wing loading????Static line attachment point: if you remove the pilot chute and 9ft bridle and attach directly to a shorter bridle of say 2feet that's a 7ft gain straight away. 7ft difference would be huge if you're jumping from 120ft Then there's a fully pressurised flying stable canopy and a landable inflated but not fully pressurised canopy. Which one are you after??? How hard a landing do you want??? ian

In a nutshell, for me at least, that's all you need to bear in mind. EXPERIENCED, in fact, VERY EXPERIENCED, no I'll go one further, MORE EXPERIENCED THAN I'LL EVER BE, jumpers die all the time. We can analyze the facts, try to learn the lessons, but i guarantee you that 10 years from now, EXPERIENCED jumpers will still be dying. Be humble, know that you are fallible, know that even if you do 1000 perfect BASE jumps, just 1 bad one is enough to bring about your end. Know that even if you do everything you perceive to be right at the time, you can still be making mistakes. Know that the bitter irony of fatigue is that one of symptons is you'll never realise you are fatigued. Know that hindsight and lists and stats are wonderful things which can be learned from but don't actually help you at THAT moment. As flippant as it sounds, and as cool as it looks on Xtreme t-shirts, there is a great amount of wisdom in the philosophy of "shit just happens". I'm sure someone somewhere in some university can provide a beautiful formula to prove it too. Don't assume the wall is vertical all the way to impact. Most walls have underhung sections or a talus which requires not just a track, but a perfect track to outfly. How do you know if you're outflying the slope. Instinct, gut, visual references, past experience. How do you accumulate a library of these without putting yourself in the proverbial firing line first. You can't. peace ian

MMMMMmmmmmmmmmm You'll have to get up a lot earlier to catch us out with that one dexterbase. 2/10 for effort ian

Same here, just a big black screen....but maybe that's cos it was shot at night...... .....Oh you gotto laugh...

Hmmmmm Not wanting to piss on your chips here but why would you expect thousands of jumpers worldwide, that's WORLDWIDE, to contribute to the purchase of this land which they will never ever see, never mind land on. I genuinely hope that Jason can form some sort of consortium of jumpers to achieve the goal.....i just think it's more likely to be a local issue as opposed to a global issue. Good luck Jason....hope you can find the investors to make the deal work. ian

The third category sounds like a reasonable solution. However it does open the door to some serious re-thinking. How could you not include people like Franz Reichelt who plunged to his death after intentionally stepping off the eiffel tower in 1912 wearing a cross between a wingsuit and a parachute??? This fixed object jump was clearly made with the faith and belief that it was achievable and survivable.....put another way, it wasn't a suicide. To not include him simply because he wasn't jumping with a conventional parachute is a bit short-sighted as who knows what jumpers will be wearing and landing in the next few decades; bear in mind the current desire to jump and land a wingsuit could lead us to the first non parachute BASE wingsuit fatality. If this were to happen would the person in question not make the list just because they weren't intending to deploy a ram air canopy to land.??? Talk about a can of worms ian

I have a work trip in South Africa for 10days coming up next week and would dearly like to talk to, meet, jump with any local jumpers in the Cape Town area. Sadly the one person I have been advised to talk to has recently been badly injured as discussed in other threads. If there are any locals there who would be up for meeting and greeting, i would love to hear from you. regards ian

Sorry to reiterate what Dexter and Tom have said, but who is this elusive "they" who are afraid to use their rear risers....i don't know of ANYONE who holds the belief that "rear risers are black death" and i absolutely can not believe that anyone teaching base these days would instill in a student the fear to not touch their rear risers. The very notion is insanity, in fact it is contrary to everything you are taught as a basejumper. So who believes this and more to the point, who the frig taught them to basejump??? That's not rhetorical either. Not trying to get on your case dude....it's just this thread might as well be entitled "who thinks slider down base jumps are black death".I'm not convinced it's a widely held view at all and as such is a non-issue. Your poll seems to back this up too.

Jason I love and respect you man and think you're a top bloke so please don't think i'm having a pop in any way...there's always a place for you to stay if you ever come visit. You have invited comments so here are mine for what they are worth. I think you underestimate the press and how they will stop at nothing to get the story they want, which often isn't the story that exists . I don't believe that removing the list will make one iota of difference and infact might open the gates for journalists to speculate on the figures of fatalities within the sport. I grow tired of hearing from Joe Public how basejumpers pop their clogs at a rate of 50 a year. Their perception of how dangerous our sport is seems to be hugely disproportionate to the reality, and this exists DESPITE the facts being available....not BECAUSE of them. Take the list away, and i guarantee that the figures for base fatalities will rise in press stories, not disappear. Journalists quote the fatality numbers in their articles not for the sake of the list itself but always within a context. This is usually after a high profile accident or an arrest or some other news worthy story. Without a reliable fatality reference, the story will still run, why wouldn't it.??? This time though they'll just print whatever figure they like. Danger sells Jason and don't let the absense of a lack of official figures get in the way of a good story. If it were me, and i was as ambitious and unethical as most of them seem to be, i reckon something like 1 a week would sound good.....and hey......where's the proof to contradict me. Base has had (to our knowledge) 85 fatalities since it first began about 30years ago. That's 85 deaths too many but in view of what we actually do (plunge to earth with seconds to impact) it's not excessive. The fatality list is testiment to how careful and organised we are and in no way exaggerates the danger. 3 decades, hundreds of thousands of successful jumps, 85 deaths????; One plane crash and you wipe out over 300 people in one second. Jason, i just don't believe the list is hurting BASE in any way. The problems you list, of misrepresentation, prejudice, scapegoating, bias, ignorance and scaremongering are sadly something we will all have to try to fight, educate against and most likely tolerate. At the end of the day, the average person will NEVER EVER EVER understand what it is that makes us do what we do and so they'll pigeon hole us in a way that makes sense in their world. If that means we're suicidal nutters, then that's what we are in their world and keeping or losing the fatality list won't make one scrap of difference. Truth is truth. Hide it, sweep it under the carpet, coat it in sugar and hang a bull's nut sack on it but it's still the truth baby. And yes I do view it as a list of rememberence. With utmost respect ian ps. love to Jen and hope the pregnancy is going well.

This discussion is also current over at Blinc in the technical forum http://www.basejumping.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23485 In a nutshell for those who don't venture over there, what tests point to is that a single strand of 80lb breakcord gripped and put under tension from both ends will break at 80lbs. However, for us to use this cord we have to introduce knots into the system which weaken it by an estimated 40%, as the knotted point creates a sharp edge which causes fibres in the breakcord to sever rather than snap (that's my understanding of it anyway) Therefore a single strand of 80lb breakcord will fail at approximately 48lb. By looping the breakcord we create 2 branches of 80lb = 160lb as stated but then factor in the weak point at the knot and you have a failure at approximately 96lbs which is closer to the optimum unknotted cord than the 48lb single strand. Taking into account that no jumper has as yet pulled an object down with them, but many have experienced premature breakcord failure putting them into a form of freefall assist, it makes sense to err towards the stronger setup than the weaker. As we only tend to static line lower objects, a breakcord failure at these altitudes can ruin your day. Dexter, Base689, Sum1sneaky, Ray, Tom, riggersam and many others have added valuable and frankly life and time saving advice on this subject in many other theads here at dz.com and blinc. As Gardner says, this little gem comes round about as often as the paperboy. ian

And i thought Halle Berry's oscar acceptance speach was slush.... ...and i'd like to thank my scriptwriter, and GOD, and my parents who supported me through stage school, and my agent..... yawn

I have been lucky enough to get to see 2nd BASE. I met Nikko in Iceland and purchased one of the first copies. I watched it last night. It is brilliant. Not taking anything away from any of the other BASE films out there, but this, for me, is the best of the crop. Some astonishing jumps from some phenomenal places, and they've avoided a lot of the usual sites you tend to see. A lot of great building jumps as well as the stunning big walls you would expect from the Norwegians (but to my knowledge only one jump is used from the usual legal wall we all are familiar with). When it comes to big wall flippy things Andre is simply phenomenal. The soundtrack is wonderful too and (correct me if I'm wrong guys) was scored specifically for the movie. If you liked the music in 1st BASE then this is going to meet with your approval. All in all, i think 2nd BASE is a delight to watch and comes highly recommended. Congratulations to the Norwegians on a stunning film. And like i said, this is taking nothing away from the other new films on the market like RADIX, CONTINUUM2, MID STRIFE CRISIS etc. At the end of the day, you have to have a favourite and this happens to be mine....to date. ian (UK jumper)

"Obviously winded himself" There's only one thing worse than that and it's when you get a stitch from running after a large meal. Reminds me of the "Holy Grail" fight and the Fleshwound comment. 'Tis but a scratch'. ian

Congratulations Mate. You're not a Jaffa after all. love to Jen ian

Cheers Tom Had an old email address for Benni I think. Anyway have PM'd him now. adios amigos ian

You Americans and your dental hygene!!!!!! Nice to hear from you Jason. Hope all is good. You back over in Europe any time this year. If so let me know and I'll try to hook up with you. Waaaaaaaannnngggggeer ian All my love to Jennifer.

Does anyone know of any Icelandic Basejumpers and how i can contact them??? OR has anyone made a trip to Iceland and jumped over there??? Think i've found a few cliffs which might necessitate a half day trip but don't want to just steam in there if it's someone's manor. I will be over there in 4 weeks time for a long weekend and will be taking my rig in the hope of getting at least one jump. Any info or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks ian

Hello People Just thought i'd chip in here. I also have the bulletcam from Rf concepts and naturally have experienced exactly the same issues you fellas have, blue spots in low light etc. The problem for me has always been the power supply. I have tried the 8 x AA setup and switched to the 9V setup. Neither really work for more than 10minutes before the blue spot noise starts to edge in. Keep recording and then it deteriorates into stripey vertical lines, followed by black and then finally the audio goes. I have some great footage from The Firestation in france. A large group of us, i'm about the last to exit. The power just about held out to catch everyone elses exits but by the time i reach the exit point it;s just black and the sound of the freefall and flight. Shame cos i broke my ankle on that jump and it would have been interested footage. I'm pretty close to giving up on the bullet cam entirely cos i keep missing jumps. What's the solution people. ian

Nick Now i'm not sure as i don't know US geography as well as I perhaps should, but the canyon i'm referring to is somewhere in your legal Cliff playground site. Anyway, this later footage shows them freefalling the cliffs into water , doing what seem to be very solid delays and using these various dubious mini parachute/pilot chute configurations. Yes Carl gets run over by the boat and there's some mud wrestling bonding going on with the boys. BUT.... Jean also jumps wearing what can only be described as a lurid blouse and bright red skirt. I guess goofy is the right word. edited to a/ get my facts right about the footage, b/remove a site name even though it's legal c/ explain why i edited my first post and d/ correct my spelling mistakes

Anybody who has seen CB's BASE tape 2 will have probably marvelled at some of the weird and wonderful pilot chute setups and experiments Carl, Jean, Phil (x2) and others played around with, including multiple pilot chute deployments, one from each hand. During their jumps from a particular Canyon, there seemed to be some interesting pilot/drogue configurations, including a jump which consisted of what appear to be an umbrella sized round and a slightly larger (but not by much) freebagged round. Jean also does a jump with a conventional pilot chute - round main, but holding in her left hand a further drogue which she doesn't bother to deploy. Can anyone enlighten me as to what the thinking was behind this third chute and what conclusions were drawn. The setup seemed to cause wild oscillations and unpredictable pendulumming beneath the canopy or was that just the small canopy struggling with a high loading??? I would love to hear.

Sounds like another possible job for RAY AND SPENCE'S BOUNCEPROOF SCHOOL OF BASEJUMPING111 If you mean me, then i agree. Who's paying??? ian

Ah Mr (dangerous dan) Sherry again. Your last post went down a storm I recall. You remember the one where you blabbed on about BASE jumpers being all mad . Must have caused a stink cos you embarassingly removed the comments and the moderators eventually buried the thread. You're not a basejumper and you don't even respect what we do, so stop posting these silly pointless threads. Trolling.....it's just fu(king boring. ian

Ray "Different techniques for different jumps" You talked of pilot chute presentation by the jumper (pitching, throwing, placing) for both stowed and hand held jumps. I would be very keen to hear yours (and other experienced jumpers) techniques for folding and presenting the pilot chute to the air in these different situations. This is definitely something i need to brush up on and i'm sure i'm not alone. If you're happy to share, i'd be delighted to listen. ian

If the snow is well and truly falling you will struggle to get to some of the exit points, and finding them can be very difficult if the tracks are covered. Good luck ian