NickDG

Melodies’ Inn . . . Lake Elsinore, 1977 Yikes! Nick

Old Lake Elsinore hands will remember Chris Wentzel . . . http://abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/DailyNews/rocketbelt_021010.html Nick

My first BASE jump is parachute jump 561. Nick

And, Other Cool BASE Numbers . . . There is considerable jockeying for position, and I’m told, even a little good-natured coercion and bribery attempted when #69 came up. Carl and Jean, however, are sticklers for integrity and BASE 69 is duly awarded in sequence. BASE 100 goes to a jumper in Canada and #169 (not as cool as #69, but close) went to a well-known BASE gear manufacturer here in California (hint – he’s in Houston recently). BASE 200 is shipped to a brother in Australia and the holder of BASE 300 is the late great Earl Redfern. A good Kiwi friend of mine has BASE 400. There will be a BASE 1000, BASE 5000, and a BASE 10K someday, but the coolest BASE number will always be “your” BASE number . . . Nick

Hi Everyone, I have updated the BASE Fatality List. I also had to move to a different server. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but please change you links and bookmarks to reflect the new URL The World BASE Fatality List is now here: http://hometown.aol.com/base194/myhomepage/base_fatality_list Nick DG BASE 194

Yes/No Nick BASE 194

This will be nothing new to old hands but bears repeating here . . . One day in early 1990-something my phone rings and it's "Bob" an Executive Producer from CBS News (they’re all executive producers). The conversation went like this; "We are doing a story on this thing you guys are doing, (he doesn’t even know what this thing we’re doing is called) and we’d like to talk to you about being involved on camera.” “What’s the angle?” I ask. “Well, it’s new, and it’s extreme (that use of the word “extreme” is becoming popular now and I already hate it) and we think it’s of interest to our viewers.” “Bob, (he’s schmoosing me pretty good and alarm bells are going off in my head) it’s not a new sport, it’s been around for 15 years, and it called BASE jumping.” “Okay, BASE jumping. We’d want to interview you and if possible follow along on one of your jumps with a camera crew.” At this time (early nineties) any contact with the media, unless it was damage control, and even if it’s legal, is generally frowned on. So I said, “Well, the more we publicize what we do, the less we are able to do it. “We could disguise you. Your voice and everything.” I’ve already decided to bail out, so I went for broke. “My fee starts at $5500 a day with film rights to be worked out later.” “CBS doesn’t pay for news.” “You run commercials during the news, you sell news, but you don’t pay for news, that’s a pretty good racket.” Bob hung up on me and just as well. I called around to all the other jumpers I knew he’d call with a head’s up. But he found one, a young one, and I won’t re-embarrass him here and now, and he swallowed the hook. And he gave them everything they wanted and in the process put into jeopardy a long time local object (turned out nothing happened, object is open) and when he told us what he had done, we waited, and we all held out breath. The “News” Show turned out to be Connie Chung with a program called “Eye to Eye.” It opens with our hero launching from the (above) local object in Prime-Time on national TV. A jubilant jumper is hamming for the camera and throwing out good after jump one-liners when the shot suddenly dissolves to a head and shoulders suit who’s saying, “Yes, Connie, the problem of who rescue lunatics, like we’ve just seen, is becoming a problem. We are proposing a tax to cover the cost of these rescues or, in some cases, outright prevention.” This is when we are falling out of chairs, it’s ambush journalism at it’s worst, it’s leading a lamb to the slaughter, and it hit the jumper very hard when he watched what he had done. Since those days things have changed (the media’s the same, we’ve changed) and positive publicity is alright when done right, but we are waking a very thin line. It seems as we hear more talk of freedom, we also hear more talk of regulation . . . Nick

I've known Kevin for something like 12 years or more, as a co-worker, as a friend, as a jumper, and as a competitor in the BASE gear business. They don’t come any better. He’s a big man with a large heart and a fast laugh and I’ve missed the pleasure of his company since the day he moved away. Kev, have a goodie, Brother . . . Nick D

When I broke myself into little pieces in New Zealand in 1992, and after a fairly significant surgery and hospital stay, I received a very reasonable bill of $8,000. I had four hundred dollars in my backpack and no insurance. At this time NZed is paying for all tourist injures as they do want people to come and do dangerous things like climb, ski, paraglide, bungee, jet-boating, etc., it’s a big part of their economy. However, they are now thinking about a new policy whereby tourists start relying on their own travel type coverage. I was like the first big test case. In the end they told me to keep my four hundred dollars and asked I send over what money I could when I could. They are all being very apologetic about it and there is a lot of staring at the floor. And then they wouldn’t even let me sign anything. Kiwis are the greatest. When rolling around in my wheel chair everyone is concerned, but not intrusively, they are just truly sorry I hurt myself while visiting their country. Three months later, and back in California, I received a letter from the NZed ACC (I forgot what that means) saying don’t send them anymore money (they returned two small payments I’d made) it’s on them, and they are very sorry about my accident and they hoped I would consider visiting New Zealand again. I framed that letter . . . Nick D

>where the silicone slider bumper came off on deplyoment and slid up the lines and choked off the slider as it was coming down. This resulted in a cutaway and reserve deployment.< Gee, run a needle and some waxed cord around the slider bumper and the connector link . . . Hello? Nick BASE 194

>you want to deploy high enough that you can actually SEE what tree you're going to land in before you hit it...< >Yuri< That's a Nugget . . . Nick

This is gonna get even Ben Stiller laid . . . Nick

>Slinks, microlines, small risers, smaller canopies... >Well, why not one day!! >Keeping stubborn approach is not good and it >doesn't contributing developing in any area. GOING BACKWARDS . . . Bringing a bunch of cheesy skydiving stuff to BASE jumping isn’t innovative. In fact, it should be the other way around, if skydivers used stronger, cleaner, less complicated gear not so many of them would be dying. Making gear smaller and lighter is all skydiving manufactures can do before they have to re-write the manuals, and in the case of TSO’d gear, go through the whole rigmarole, and spend the money, in the FAA shake and bake process. BASE riggers and manufactures are not so encumbered and have always been free to dream, cut, and sew in the afternoon and then just go try it later that night. One of the reasons you are so comfortable jumping a single canopy system right now is we (not me in particular) figured out a long time ago if you build BASE gear to be simpler to use, cleaner in design, and let the function follow the form, then you just did away with about 99 reasons why you need a reserve in the first place. In addition, the one canopy you are BASE jumping is so tough you can hang a truck on it. Sure, I’ll take a chance and jump my Stiletto once or twice without a reserve, when I’m getting paid for it. On the other hand I’ll fun-a-way to my skydiving seven cell reserve because I know between me and my knife, no matter what happens, I’ll most likely have something landable at the end. Once you go smaller (and less docile) and then break a line, split a seam, or blow a rib it’s a whole new design and you are the test pilot. Plus BASE canopies still get stashed in the bushes and slammed in car doors and trunks. There aren’t that many manicured lawns in the BASE world. Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to be around some of the brightest minds in gear manufacturing and believe me, you can’t say they aren’t innovative. In fact, we owe them a debt of gratitude for what they didn’t bring to market. I remember Todd came up to me once and said, hey Nick, look at this, and then after he explained it to me, I was floored, this was it, this is the answer, and he smiled and said, “not for a few years yet, buddy, keep it to yourself.” Cooler (and better) things are coming . . . Nick

>My question is, do the BASE manufacturers sell rigs >to anyone who puts up the money? Everything about BASE jumping is always in a continuos state of change, except for its history. And there’s a timeline in that history concerning the above that might provide an answer. In the early 1980’s, as BASE jumpers began exploring the art of going lower and slower, the need for BASE specific gear becomes readily apparent. Bigger pilot chutes and longer bridles, the first two implementations, aren’t at first commercially available anywhere. Generally all BASE jumpers of the day are also active skydivers so if you needed this stuff you talked your local rigger into building them for you. Of course, these riggers are doing this for jumpers they know, not strangers off the street or through the mail. And besides BASE jumping has almost zero visibility in the whuffo community at this time, compared with today, as the whole “extreme sport” thing is still a few years away. In the mid-1980s BASE magazines like “BASEline” and “JUMP” are carrying adverts for BASE pilot chutes and bridles. These components are built by the first crop of BASE jumpers who turned to rigging in order to finance their jumping. In some cases they really are licensed parachute riggers and sometimes they weren’t. A little later Velcro closed BASE containers became available from some of these same riggers turned manufactures. This is before BR, CS, Vert, or any of the big companies now. However, BASE rigs in those days are nothing more than new Velcro closed containers sewn to old, but serviceable skydiving rigs. In this period, people of little, or no experience are kept at bay because the BASE community is still small enough that almost every one knows everyone else. Late 1980s and into the early to mid-90s, the best of the above, and a few new faces, moved from home lofts and garages into stand alone buildings and became full fledged BASE equipment manufacture. This is a time when yes, pretty much anyone could call up on the phone with a credit card and get BASE gear. However, this is before it occurred to anybody that the following could happen. #30 Andre Jewett, April 3, 1994 Age: 29 Antenna Jump (###### Tower) Jackson, Mississippi, USA "Andre is an expired USPA "A" license holder and an Army officer. There are three observers on the load, one is a buddy of his and the other two are girlfriends. Andre's skydiving gear sniveled to impact. There is nothing to suggest any pervious BASE experience or training." #47 Unknown (French?) 199? Cliff Jump, ###### ######, France "Reports describe this person has having no BASE jumps, no training, no experienced jumper with him, etc. He purchased BASE gear, chose an under-hung location to launch from (not one of the ##### regular launch points), pivoted off the launch, went on his back, and struck the cliff in freefall. This fatality caused BASE gear manufacturers to start better screening their customers prior to the sale of BASE equipment." It’s at this time when Adam from CS says, “Hey fellows, a BASE rig is a loaded gun.” After that, rules like be an experienced skydiver and you’re going to Bridge Day, or have X amount of skydives and you’re being taught by a known BASE jumper, or have X amount of jumps and you’re taking a commercial first BASE jump course, go into effect. And this is basically what exists today. Can someone still just phone up and get decked out, probably yes, but maybe that’s more about the price of freedom rather than the manufactures not paying attention. But, all in all, they do a good job, and are surely more responsible than their brethren skydiving manufactures who sell hankies to anyone and are the cause of a fatality rate in skydiving that’s (unbelievably) the same as when I started jumping in 1975. Nick

LeapFrogging . . . (Separate failure and malfunction.) Failure is like that famous hang gliding company that decided to get in on the paragliding craze and figured what’s so hard about building parachutes. One of their early customers found out while flying at 3000-feet (with no back-up system) after every line separated from the canopy at the attachment points. Failure is like that skydiving harness and container system in the late 1970s. If you cutaway and deployed the reserve the risers of the reserve would depart the harness. That system killed a half dozen people before the word (prenet) got around. There has never been a BASE fatality (that I know of) as the result of catastrophic failure of either a canopy or a harness/container system. And this goes back to even before we’re all using BASE specific gear. But, be clear now, all I’m saying is no one has died BASE jumping wholly because their stuff blew up. Malfunctions continue to kill and not only for the normal parachuting reasons, like mis-doing this or fumbling that, but sometimes because our ability keeps leapfrogging the technology, and BASE jumping has always been like that. And pilot chute malfunctions have been occurring since there’s been pilot chutes. These are the type where you stand around looking at a perfect pilot chute and wonder why it didn’t work. Spring loaded and hand deployed pilot chutes in skydiving rigs almost always work, yet still often hesitate because they invert or get hung-up. However, terminal velocity is a terrific cure for bad luck, as almost any half glob will get a deployment under way when you’re going fast enough, and you have the time. Subtract the time allotted, and the airspeed, and there we are BASE jumping. Rather then go back to our Hank 52s, which had enough heft you could almost throw your canopy to line stretch, the next great innovation in BASE jumping should be in pilot chutes. We damn near fixed everything else . . . Nick

Malibu Canyon Road is green and twisty and reminds me how Southern California looked when I first saw it in the early seventies. I’m on my way to Dwain Weston’s Malibu Memorial and I can’t help think about what’s happened since the early days of BASE jumping, a time when all our futures seemed so vast, so bright, and so unlimited. Over the years. I suppose, a new reality settles in and I now see ninety nine percent of us are followers and not pioneers. Very few of us get the balance just right between ability, courage, humility, generosity and spirit. We, the lessor so, merely dabble in BASE jumping. Sitting in the shadow of our little cliff, were direct bag and static line rule, we always thought of freefalling it. One of us, after much eyeballing and figuring, even actually stood on the edge until it is said once too often that, “it don’t feel right.” With Velcro closed BASE containers sewn to old skydiving harness’ loaded with skydiving 7-cells, and topped off with Hank 52s, this little cliff isn’t ready to give it up. And while we couldn’t see the future of dedicated BASE canopies and deluxe harness and container systems we knew enough to know we had the bravado and the skill but we didn’t have the gear. The weekend I met Dwain Weston capped a long period of stagnation in the BASE community. He showed me exactly what the trampoline in my backyard is capable of doing when all I ever did on it was make love and sometimes pass out underneath it. Later that weekend Dwain is the first to freefall our little cliff and in walking away he tells me, “the trick is in throwing the pilot chute up.” We are impressed, and not so much by the fact he actually did it, but because he made it look easy. Sometimes it takes a fresh eye like Englishman Nik Feteris to remind us what freedom is all about by leaping from the upraised torch of the Statue of Liberty. And now Dwain too because he’s what we all started out to be, Dwain furthered human flight in a remarkable and measurable way. As for our little cliff, well maybe we just stared at it too long. The last time I see Dwain we are talking about BASE history and he’s fascinated when I tell him Carl Boenish is the first BASE jumper I ever saw with a trampoline in his backyard. The last thing Dwain Weston said to me (that I can remember) is, “You know Mate, I feel it. We are all standing on the shoulders of giants.” And now, Dwain, you are one too . . . Thanks to all who organized and appeared at Dwain's Malibu Memorial, October 11, 2003. Nick BASE 194

While I found people in New Zealand very receptive to BASE jumping some years ago, it seems like this Kiwi parachute club is in hot water . . . >The Royal New Zealand Air Force has grounded members of its parachute club after an airman was involved in an illegal base-jump off the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Police are investigating the risky early morning base-jump – a skydive from platforms such as mountains and buildings rather than aircraft – that happened about two weeks ago. The link to the air force was discovered when the jumpers were seen travelling in a van belonging to the parachute section of the air force's Whenuapai base aviation sports club. Squadron Leader Terry Hay said the air force was informed of the airman's involvement about a week ago and on Friday the decision was made to suspend the parachute club while an investigation was carried out. "It is just a precaution to make sure nothing untoward is going on." Squadron Leader Hay believed that only one air force employee was involved. His role in the jump of about 40m was still being investigated. The airman's future in the air force would be decided when the police investigation was completed. The club, which has civilian as well as air force members, has strict safety rules in line with Civil Aviation regulations and Parachute Federation guidelines, that are monitored by the air force. "There is no way that any activities such as base jumping is sanctioned or part of the club activity," he said. The extreme sport of base jumping has been banned in many countries and in some American states, jumpers can incur a large fine and up to 90 days in jail. Police have not yet decided if charges will be laid against those involved in the latest Harbour Bridge jump, but the offenders could face charges of disorderly behaviour, endangering themselves or the safety of others, trespass, or charges under the Civil Aviation Act. Parachute Federation president Tim Fastnedge said base jumping is not something the organisation condoned.< "BASE Jumping is Not a Crime . . ." Nick BASE 194

Zennie, Congratulations, Brother . . . Nick BASE 194

Get in. Get up.. Get off... Nick BASE 194

Faber, Feels good don't it. Howl at the moon, Brother . . . Nick BASE 194