base736

But that is precisely not how I view it. I think each of us would do well to remember that we are all -- whether we started in 1976 or 2006 -- susceptible to the sorts of mistakes that have been made in the past, and should for that reason be very careful to educate ourselves, and not to repeat them. Going back to K's post, I fail to see how dismissing newer jumpers as a bunch of douches who are responsible for the decay of BASE does anything to improve safety. More than that, to repeat myself, I think that saying "they're not like me" does exactly the opposite.

That seems reasonable. But it only serves to underscore my point -- that it is dismissive, insulting to newer jumpers, and breeds a false sense of security among the experienced when a jumper characterizes recent injuries and fatalities as resulting from "skydivers with internet and credit cards", or "jumpers doing it just for the video." Such claims are not only largely false, in my opinion, but damaging to the safety of the sport in that they encourage jumpers to chalk up any given injury or fatality to "some dumbass doing something I would never do".

There must be a secret fatality list somewhere with all of these internet folks on it, because it seems to me that The List is largely populated by BASE jumpers very much like the folks I know and respect who made one bad choice at the wrong time. Twelve BASE jumpers have died jumping in the last year. Perhaps you could enlighten the rest of us by sharing a list of those who were "skydivers with internet and credit cards"? Edit to add: On second thought, don't. I'm not really interested in reading it.

29 years old, 5 years jumping I think?

Glad I wasn't the only one who was confused here. Thanks for clearing that up -- I won't be doing *that* anymore...

Here's the problem. Say you drop a rock. You dropped it vertically, right? If you lob it (maybe you have to clear some structure) enough to give it just a couple of extra inches above where you let it go, you'll add 1/10 second. Anyway, you record 3.3 seconds to impact. Maybe you're off by 1/10 of a second (if you're a ninja and you're using a stopwatch). If you went off of the sound of the rock hitting, you'll want to remember that sound will take 1/10 of a second to cover each 100 feet back to you. That can add up. At 3.3 seconds, the rock is moving 105 ft/second. That means +/- 10 feet of error for every 1/10 of a second you're off. Altogether, maybe you're lucky and there's 2/10 of a second of error in your number. Is that significant? Could be if you were planning to freefall an object that you now know to be between 155 and 195 feet. Laser rangefinders are cheap and give 1-yard accuracy. Rocks are even cheaper, but you probably shouldn't count on them to give better than 20 or 30 feet of accuracy even for a low jump. Rock drops only get worse from there. Edit: Stupid typos...

... Which is like saying that the way to teach a math class properly is to get in front of your students and say, "Understand math." Then leave. Your suggestion is unhelpful at best. Any finite list will miss some points. But even a list which includes *only* "Using pull up cords or rubberbands as a PC packing aid", from the first post, would be already better than an ambiguous "avoid stupidity".

Are you suggesting just sticking the nose of the toggle through the brake setting rather than using the white loop? Does this offer anything other than the obvious (but, I would argue, marginal) increase in security and savings in wear-and-tear from not involving the white loop where it's not necessary? To the list, I'll contribute, "Black elastics. Anywhere. Seriously."

Well, we're going to need a new '9'. There is a subset of the jumping community (of which I'm not a part) that feels that with the success of the tailgate, the line release mod has seen its day, and introduces more risk (from premature toggle release) than it eliminates. These folks would argue for "inside the rings on the risers". Edit to add: Of course, you mention this, but I thought I'd point out the "why", as well as the fact that it's not so much a "he" as a "they".

Especially for a jumper in brakes, 6-8 mph could be plenty of wierdness to cause this kind of behaviour. I jumped into a tight canyon once and, coming in 30 feet over the landing area in brakes with a bluff behind me, I suddenly felt myself getting pushed backward into the bluff (and dropped into the ugly streambed below). I let the brakes up slowly and made the snowbank on the far side. Anyway, there was very little wind that day. Doesn't take much if you're in a braked turn or something. Edit to add: The other two jumpers who followed me on that one had no problems at all.

Just for my own reference, how far away would you say the pillar was (horizontally) from your exit point? My apologies if I missed that in the above...

Dude! Ouch. It sounds like you're recovering okay? I'm really glad to hear that you managed the situation as well as you did.

I'm with you on the full body armour and helmet business. The first time I wore body armour, it was from an "easy" object, and I was wearing it primarily because I'd bought the stuff months before and was feeling like a bit of a retard for never having done the jumps I bought it for. It saved me significant injury, I'm sure, on that first jump. ... Since then, I've worn it even on the "easy" stuff. I can say with complete confidence that without armour and a good helmet, I would not have survived my most recent jump from the Potato bridge, of all places. In short, I wear armour, and I question the wisdom of not wearing it. That said, I've seen heads-up jumpers who jump without. BASE jumping has its fair share of retards. But it would be a mistake to assume, just because you and a buddy are jumping together and you're the only one wearing armour, that he's the retard.

I think you might be overestimating the risk involved in packing a parachute.

Pshhh.. Does nobody believe in clipart anymore? You clip them to each other. Be creative. Oh, and if you don't do it the right way, you'll bounce for sure.

That's for you to decide. On at least one occasion, I've decided at the exit point that handing my PC off to another jumper would make me more comfortable with the jump as a whole, then (having landed safely) watched two more experienced jumpers freefall it. A PCA is not a magic bullet that makes every jump instantly safe, and on some jumps it's just a bad idea. But if, having performed an honest risk assessment, you feel that a PCA puts you in your comfort zone where a freefall doesn't, then why not? ... Unless PCA's just aren't your thing, in which case walking off would be the right decision, in my opinion.

It seems somebody has placed all of the local DZ's outside of even a long walk from the Metro. What's up with that?

What a retarded opinion. I think we should argue this one out.

While it certainly is popular around here to scream "foul" at the moderator, my experience has been that posts and threads that are helpful, technical, or discuss a subject which hasn't become bonfire material are never deleted. Posts that suggest "creative" uses for a t-stake or advertise site names in ALL CAPS are sometimes, but not always, removed. And with all due respect to those involved (because some of them are friends), I'm not sure I've ever seen a user banned who couldn't reasonably have seen it coming. I'm not saying the moderation here is always blind or impartial, but I've seen plenty worse in the time I've spent on forums, and little if any better. Anyway, I've always enjoyed checking this forum and continue to do so. If certain people out there don't enjoy it, or feel that information shared here might be hazardous to the BASE community, then it's within their rights not to check it, and not to post.

Thanks for the tip. It seems, though, that that forum is for posts "en français", as opposed to "regarding french-speaking areas". Only if this post fails to catch anybody's attention will I resort to unleashing my french on the unsuspecting. I am learning, though...

I'll be living in Montreal for the next eight months or so. Though I won't be in the air again for a few months anyway, if the locals are getting together I'd love to share a few drinks...

That's probably because it's never been done in Chicago before.

Some very simple physics applies here, and a person can have a lot of fun (if this sort of thing interests them) modeling various BASE-related phenomena. The real question you need to be asking yourself when you stand at the exit point on (to take a recent example from the forum) a 250' antenna, though, isn't "Is it physically possible to take a 1-second delay from here," but "Do I want to take a 1-second delay from here". ... Generally, a jumper -- particularly a less-experienced one -- will start with a conservative rule of thumb, do the jump that way, then ask after the fact, "How much extra (or perhaps less) margin/canopy time/flight distance am I interested in eating up next time around?"

Awesome... No warnings, this time, that "this is danger", then?

That's fair. Thanks for clarifying.