kege

I hope he makes it. As a side note, the ramp design shown in the vid is so tall, that he has ample time to steer to the side, pull and land if he misses his trajectory (he won't be wearing a skydiving rig). And then go try again. I don't believe he wants to die doing this, and I think its really fucking morbid what people say about his endeavours. Appreciate the mans effort, regardless of what you think of him as a person/jumper. And shouting "just fucking do it already" from the back row is silly. If the plan is not finished, would you? I don't think it'll happen anytime soon but it will be done. Possibly someone will beat him to it. K

I'd say very dangerous. I don't have a total number, but there have been four fatalities in the past 15 months. Plus at least two paraglider launched, base gear ws-jump deaths. Misjudged altitudes, flight paths, bad exits, bad flying, pulltime issues. There are several ways to go about basejumping in a wingsuit, and some push it more than others. But no matter how you do it, the margins of error are from tiny to non-existent. Adding a wingsuit to a base jump in most cases adds to the total risk of the jump. In some cases it can make a jump safer. Some jumps are only possible with a ws. I could argue that ws-base is n-times more dangerous than skydiving or a tracking basejump, but that would be pointless. Add the pieces together and you have to see that it's a high-risk activity. Perceived risk is a very personal thing, some think 50 skydives is enough to consider base, somethink 500 is not enough. Some don't think Bridge Day jumps or PCA's are base jumps at all because theyre so easy. Some jump and bring their kids to watch, some quit base when they have their first kids. That said, I agree that it looks amazing and feels pretty amazing too (judging from the handful of friends I see doing it). For me wingsuits are skydive-only, at least for a while. Eventhough it's a very tempting idea. I only have maybe 120 ws skydives and even fewer base jumps, and don't consider myself anywhere near ready for ws-base. But that's just me, one thing about base is that no one is going to tell you when you are ready and able to do something, you need to know that yourself, and act accordingly. I know a jumper whose 3rd base jump was a ws cliff jump and have heard of firsts. I have also heard stories about wingsuit fatalities that have made me think maybe that dude should not have been making that kind of jumps. One problem in my opinion is the amount of breath-taking video material available online of people flying down mountain sides literally only a few feet from the cliff face or trees on a steep hill side. These guys make it look soooo easy. "Hey I can fly a wingsuit and I have a handful of basejumps, I gotta try that shit!" It's made look very easy, almost effortless by these guys who are at the very top of their game. However these guys (guys like Loïc, Robi P, Dave B, Andy W, Obi (RIP), Jean-Noël, Espen and them Norgies) have massive base experience together with massive wingsuit experience. And they work towards a certain jump usually step by step, inching themselves closer to the limit and always having a way out. And because of their experience, they are sometimes willing to jump a "one try, do or die" type jump. Because they know they can pull it off. Maybe a few ws-base fatalities could have been avoided with better preparation or judgement. I'm gutted to write this, but I'm certain that proximity flying and ws-base in general will continue to harvest the base community, because the risk-level and increasing popularity. That's the way I see it, (my 2 eurocents) Kerkko edit for spelling

Hey, It is not easy to buy a gun in Finland. You need a permit and you can only get that through the police department. A little background info from a local: For hundreds of years we were a rural country that lived off the forest, lakes and the sea, so hunting is, by tradition, a somewhat common hobby here. That's why, statistically it looks like we have 3M guns here for just under 6M people. However we have a lot less gun permits, around 600 000. That is roughly the amount sport hunters in this country (as I said, it's a common hobby). That is very different from saying 1 in every 2 Finns own a gun. Out of those 3M guns, at least 2M are hunting rifles. A hunter normally has more than one gun, just like a fisherman has different rods or a golfer has a set of clubs. Automatic weapons are illegal here. If you want to buy a gun, you need to be a member of a hunting or sport shooting club, take a test, and pass the background check by the police. You need to show that you have use for the weapon. The procedure of acquiring a gun permit is nothing like filling out a form, waiting for a month and then being able to buy a gun. I believe that in some states in the US the reality is not very far from that. Of course, if you are (medically) a complete psycho, you can fool any system, and no kind of gun control will stop you. Like in this tragic case. This guy publically (on the net) idolized the nazis, guns, the US high school killers. He told no one, just posted his "manifesto" videos online and went for it. A different kid who was teased in school for years flipped and went out with a blaze. These types can not be stopped by any measures. Fortunately they are extremely rare. Every now and then in the US, I think one in Germany now this wacko we had. Hopefully never again, but more than likely it will happen somewhere. Crazy times. I personally hate the fact that everywhere in the world idiots have access to guns. Guns are about power and many people can't handle that. More gun control is the answer. The less people own hand guns, the better. in fact, I think hand guns should be banned all together from everyone else but the law enforcement. They are of no use. I cannot fathom how some people, mostly american "patriots" and some individualist pricks who stand behind the barricades of civil liberties actually believe that the answer to your country's gun-related crime is total gun liberation, in the name of "I have rights". Shove your right to guns, pardon the expression. Instead of ME ME ME think about the big picture. If everyone is carrying a firearm, all the time, do you really believe that everyone is safer? I know some will answer yes, and all I can say to those is I'm sorry but you are horribly mistaken and by your country's mind-boggling statistics of gun-related crime, if you haven't put 2&2 together, you must be blind, deaf and possibly retarded all at once. And I hope no one you know ever gets confronted with someone pointing a gun at them. Sorry about the rant, our country is pretty shook up right now and the red wine is getting a hold of my keyboard. What I'm trying to say is that these things suck ass. Take care, Kerkko Helsinki, Finland

Hey, I'll be in Kolomna, Russia July 5-10, if any of you are there at that time, please PM. Spasiba, Kerkko

Anyone who has regularly jumped at Skydive Idaho in the past 2-3 years, could you please PM me? I need to verify a person who tells me he used to jump there really has. No big deal, I'm just trying not to be swindled. Thanks! Kerkko

There's a Morpheus ad in the December issue of Skydiving (see att.). Anyone know anything about this He container? Is it a teaser for something the are about to release or am I missing something? It is not on their website either. K

Update here: Got my copy today, saw it twice and recommend it. I think its a well-edited combo of nice jumps from a variety of objects, combined with some BASE reality. And the name fits. Its not very long but its full-tilt action. And delivery was fast all the way across the pond! K

I think it is a step forward, but would not necessarily call it a win just yet. Good job so far anyway. http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24320

If you really want to try towing a skydiving canopy, we found a fairly easy and relatively safe way of doing it. As these parachutes are not designed for being towed, if you want to try it over solid ground, be sure to have video. Our "system" consisted of snowmobiles towing canopies on a frozen lake with 10" of fresh snow on top of the old snow and ice, one driver, one cutaway guy facing rear (tow rope detaches from the snowmobile, not jumper, so this guy is paramount to the operation's safety). We decided pretty early on that we'll stick to swooping the ice/snow and not even trying to gain much altitude. Falling to the snow from 3 feet hurts a lot less than from 50ft, even when doing 30-50 mph, as we did. It was more fun that way too, me thinks. Everything went really smooth and we tried many different canopies (Manta 288, Sabre2 135, Vengeance 120, Katana 107, Velocity 103, ExtremeFX 88). Winds were light, tow rope was about 200ft long and attached to a climbing harness underneath skydiving harness, attachment point was in the chest. It sure was fun. Imagine doing a 2 mile swoop on snow, dragging your foot in fresh snow, carving it, trying some freestyle moves and so on. We made a video of it (we had headcams plus another snowmobile for video), www.kerkkohalme.com/video/virtasalmi.wmv, it's a 70mb file, but gives you a good idea of how fun it was. I personally would not do it over hard ground, ever, and do not encourage anyone else either. In this unfortunate event, I feel bad for the loss of life but also believe anyone who fails to see an accident in the making when a non-skydiver finds an old parachute from a barn and decides to strap it on and tow it behind a truck is having serious issues with reality and life expectancy. I think our system combined with some experience on parachutes worked brilliantly. Cheers, Kerkko P.S. Realizing that frozen lakes are not available everywhere one could probably do this with a boat over water, but it will bring along a whole bunch of added complexity, with issues like how to not drown, impact with water is harder and more abrupt than snow, wet gear, engine propellers etc etc..

Hey there, just thought I'd comment on this a little, since I've jumped there last May. Here's some history of the place as we were told then. The dropzone in it's current form was first put together by a certain Mr. Anton Malevsky, a well-established Russian businessman in the early 90's. The airfield is an old air force base, and the city of Stupino (10 mins away) was and still is a center for Russian aerospace research. Unfortunately Malevsky died in November 2001, but his heritage is strongly present (eg. the annual International Malevsky Cup). The Russian military still uses some of the dropzones aircraft for training there. The facilities are really nice (equal or better than say Skydive City for example), plenty of skilled and cheap packers ($2 packjobs), and cheap jumps with a LET 410, two MI-8's and a brand new Turbo Finist (a Chech made copy of a Porter). I wouldn't worry about the aircraft availabilty, one morning when one of the engines on the LET gave up, another LET was flown in right away (in 1 hour). There's a nice restaurant on the DZ with a big terrace, (Russian cuisine is really tasty), there's a pro shop, manifesting works with a DZ credit card thingy, a bunkhouse, jumps were approx. $15 to 4km, and everyone is really friendly. Plus, it's always nice to have atleast a couple of world champions on the same load, as the 4-way, 8-way and skysurf champs train there (15 jumps per day, every day). I've attached a couple of photos from the dropzone. Maybe not your typical Russian setting, but any how... I will definately go again, and hopefully to this meeting too! Happy New Year Flockers, Kerkko

Hi, the suit is not and S3S, it's a regular S3 with some pretty innovative rigging. That includes a lot of sewing to make all the necessary pockets and routes for the wiring, data terminals, input controls etc. And the leading edges on the wings are just one hint of the wicked R&D that's going on. You should have seen the faces of people walking by in the park when we tested the setup on the ground... There's more to come, just sit back and enjoy.

could this sum it up: "When once you have tasted BASE you will always walk the earth drooling on anything higher than 30 meters; for there you may, or may not, have been and from there you will long to jump." - Bernardo da Norvegia (http://www.basejump.fi/forum/thread.php?id=272)

Yes, what is this? A compact sports car/suit of the skies or what? Waiting for more info...

Hey everyone, I thought I'd write something here for a change, usually I just read everything. Last Saturday I got to fulfill a long time (well, a 4-year) dream and had my pre-second wing suit jumps. Thanks to Visa and his GTi I managed to get 5 jumps in, and it was even better than what I had thought. Best flights were nice a 3-way above the sea with a beach landing (yes, there was a crowd and cold beer waiting) and an awesome solo on Sunday morning that included following our Twin Otter (last out) in a dive, skimming a huge cloud's edge and buzzing past an open tandem (safe distance though)! I couldn't stop screaming, smiling and laughing under canopy! I actually started skydiving because I was so amazed with what I saw in the spring of 2001. A friend e-mailed a link to the Bird-Man web site, which even then had photos and videos of Jari and Robi doing this incredible stuff. I remember thinking to myself "that must be the most fun anyone has ever had, I mean come on, these dudes are flying"! And now I finally got to try it myself! The only downside is that this is going to cost me, because now I gotta get me a suit. I'll post a picture or two when I get them from Julien and Visa. Oh, and we got something very similar to this http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=48448; going on here in Finland, for real. More info later... Enjoy your flights, (bird sounds here), Kerkko

For the interested, Greg Godfrey is the guy who directed and produced that Ogio commercial. He sells DVDs featuring Pastrana and has a couple of teaser trailers on his company website. They feature some pretty intense motocross action and some BASE too. Godfrey Films edit: The film with the Grand Canyon BASE scene is called Global Addiction