TVPB

There can be tension in high water flows. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Hi Treejumps The 3 ring system also requires a rotation / twist / bend & stretch inspection also. See your rigger for details. Its easy. Not just the visual inspection. You are referring to checking for configuration when referring to just a visual inspection. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

L -Bars - someone has died using them. Bad in strong winds and in flowing water. or on quick getaways. Ditto for fully sewn in risers. THERE ARE TIMES WHEN YOU NEED TO CUT AWAY QUICKLY. If you use any of the systems above, make sure you have a quality knife handy. Capewells - they are outdated for a reason. Check out Poynter's manual to see how they work. You basically have to manually unclip them. They are bulkier too. 3 - Rings. Best system available at this time IMHO. It takes stuff all time to do an inspection. i.e. minutes at most. Every jumper has this time once a month or so. If you don't have this time, you are either an extremely busy executive, a pepsi max dude with a 3 second attention span, don't give a shit. or you thought that the 3 ring inspection takes longer than it should. The inspection is worht doing. Especially for faster opening canopies (BASE) and if you do water jumps. Future designs. Other designs already exist. There are a few patents out. Only problem is lack of marketing and not a lot of beneficial differentiation from the established 3 ring system. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Overall, its good to see some intelligent, objective debating, instead of personal attacks. There is hope for the sport yet. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

J Its a cultural thing in Australia. TPS. Tall Poppy Syndrome. c.f Greg Norman, etc. Americans may be loud, brash, etc. But at least they encourage and support their leaders, winners, and achievers. We support ours on the way up, and when they reach the peak, we ruthlessly cut them down. On a more personal level. . . . . I don't mind copping shit. After all, I give a lot too - so I expect it back. I certainly encourage constructive criticism. It is a very necessary part of development. Assuming that is what you are after. Positive / constructive criticism is a process that examines a system/performance/person/etc, to determine areas of improvement. You can take this on board and improve yourself. Destructive criticism has the opposite affect. It is by definition counterproductive. Insulting people for the sake of it or for purely political reasons falls into this category. Achievement oriented individuals tend to be motivated by, or move on from the negative stuff. Last year (ACA) I copped an absolute hiding from a number of "anonymous" people (BTW, IP's tracked). This I don't particularly care about as it falls into the destructive category. I don't ignore the comments, but in terms of giving them crediblity, well, not really. Its kind of like receiving junk mail. Unless you know where its coming from, you delete or trash it. Sometimes you might flick through it when bored. Feral was one of very few people who criticised in an open minded fashion without the melodrama and exaggeration of others. I actually respect Feral's opinion because he is refreshingly & sometimes brutally honest. And you know how you stand with him and more importantly, you know who you are standing with. Onya Feral. I was allegedly "sacked" from the ABA committee and described as being detrimental to the sport following ACA. This came from one of the many individuals that I took on their first jump and provided ongoing training and use of my equipment. Is that what this person meant by detrimental? The "sacking" was done publically on the internet. No personal email's, no phone calls, no nothing to actually tell me this. The notice was pulled off a few days later. I wonder why? More of the same from others. Why do I mention this? Bitter and twisted am I!! Not really, it is to raise a point by using an example. Here goes. Its strange that these same individuals are so passionately anti media lies, exaggeration, personal attacks, attacks against our sport. Yet they aggressively pursue the same strategy against one of their own. What hope is there for our sport and the organisations within when we circle like vultures waiting for the carcass of one of our family members to appear before us? There are some who can't even wait that long. They attack pre mortem. I don't get how people can be so opposed to the media slandering BASE jumping on one hand but then they use media in the same, no, worse vain to slander one of their own colleagues? The point: totally opposing morals and ethics may indicate psychological "issues", intellectual deficiencies, lack of emotive control, a preconceived bias or perception against an individual or organisation (aha) that clouds sound judgement, etc. ps. For the record, I actually resigned from the ABA. If anyone wants to know why, feel free to email me. Basically, I have other priorities in my life, I did not want to remain involved in the politics, and I had some fundamental issues with the direction the sport was taking in terms of early / student development. But mainly just other priorities. pss - the 60 minutes thing was OK by me. Was it perfect? No? But no story, no matter how written, will satisfy each member of the BASE community. Was it similar to ACA? Yes. It had better components, and worse components. I thought most of the answers were well spoken. Pete was articulate as usual. Dan and Jimmy did OK (I have an unused hair brush Jimmy ;)). Talk about Yanks being brash though. Miles is 1MdB. But guess what, he's a personality. The world likes personalities, or hates them. I was surprised to see NO COMMENTS on the ABA forum about the Garie headcam footage. What's the go there? Are people starting to see the error of their ways or were the characters in the story not of sufficient quality to slander. The footage was good. And, as always, illegal was mentioned. How a media story is received by the the jumping community depends on many factors. It all depends on personal perceptions. These include: the jumpers in the story, footage shown, locations, words mentioned, payment amounts (perceived and actual), issues raised, issues not raised, personal beliefs on legality and danger, knowledge levels, realistic acceptance of what the role of the media is and what society in general expects from the media, etc. YOu can never make everyone happy. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Yep - I hate excessive rules too. But there will always be stupid people who create controversy and there will always be beaurocracts who want to outlaw activities that they consider inappropriate. The result is often banning. There must be a way of keeping the stupid people out of sight of those beaurocrats. Perhaps the steal & bury" technique?? Just joking. r.e. the testing of advancing technologies and techniques, its ironic that you mention wingsuits. My avatar picture fully backs your philosophy of allowing people to develop equipment and then test it. I built that suit before Birdman existed and my colleague in the photo was paving the way in BASE skysurfing. Seems that you have LOTS in common with that photo. We both tested from a plane first. Everyone has this option. There are many very intelligent people in this sport (not me ). It is great when they contribute in the various areas: - technique - equipment - access - promotion - site research - etc Yes, British Columbia & Alberta. MAGNIFICENT. Even just a drive up the Icefields parkway would pump adrenalin through the veins of ANY human being. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Well done Gary. Its a shame that my colleagues couldn't extend the same courtesy, intelligence, and common sense during a very similar program last year. I guess that proves it was a subjective personal attack. Thank you for your honesty & objectivity. I would like to re-iterate what my wife said on another forum. Hypocrites. I am bitter and twisted. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Hi Jaap Peer review would be wonderful, but. . . . . . There are some intruders in the common sense gene pool. Beaurocracy will quickly follow numerous "stupid" mistakes. We need to minimise the stupid mistakes somehow. Unfortunately, there are some people who are downright stupid. Most people are sensible. Test jumping something totally new off an access sensitive site is just plain stupid & lazy. It should not even be a rule. It falls under common sense. Test jumping new gear first up on a BASE jump is not test jumping either. Its a stunt jump. A test jump by definition involves systematic aquisition of meaningful data derived from a controlled experimental situation. It is NOT a single jump followed by "Woohoo, that worked!". That's just my opinion. p.s. I was in your part of the world 6 months ago. What an awesome place. I'll be back. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

RISK: you CAN rate the risk of a series of individual acts. You need to develop a system of ratings and use a calibrated pool of people to make that rating realistic and fair when considering a range of acts. Compare the rock climbing difficulty rating system. I believe that it is extremely difficult and unjust to give an overall rating of risk for an activity such as BASE jumping because there are too many variables to compare and the spread amongst individual members of the community is far too great. What do I mean by this? Easiest to explain with examples. Consider a highly skilled, yet conservative jumper who has a list of criteria that MUST be met at all times prior to a jump being executed. Consider a very inexperienced, athletically challenged individual, who does not even know that lists of criteria exist, who has no concept of safety or learning or progression, who believes in immortality, who has a firm belief that "it can't happen to me", who emulates the actions of other people without thought, etc. The risk factor between these individuals is immense. Both of these types of individuals DO exist within our beloved sport. And there are many people that exist between. Consider the general public. They think that BASE jumping is dangerous. Why? Quite simply because they have no idea, they have not and will never try the sport, because the act of flight and falling scares them. Their "risk rating" is borne from fear and lack of knowledge. Lets consider an inexperienced jumper. They also have limited knowledge. Their experience is tempered by all the recent additions to The List, especially of experienced jumpers. Contemporary jumpers are attempting much more diificult jumps much earlier in their jumping careers. They are more prone to accidents and injuries because of the wider range of skills that they are attempting in shorter time periods. All this leads them to beleive that it is dangerous. Perhaps danger and risk (perceived or real?) is what attracted them to the sport in the first place. They think it is dangerous. Then you have people who are skilled and experienced at assessing risk. They are vary capable and systematic about saying yes or NO. They find a potential jump location and run it through certain criteria. It either meets the criteria or not. If it does not meet the criteria, its not a BASE jump, hence it does add to the overall risk of the sport. If it does meet the criteria, then it exists within the acceptable risk quotient of the jumper concerned. For that person, the risk of the sport has been defined. If you choose to freefall a hill that has a 45 degree slope, guess what? If you choose to static line a bridge into water, guess what the outcome will be. Finally, if someone tries a jump that is incredibly risky with minimal chance of survival, then you can't really call that a BASE jump and include it into the risk profile. It is just plain suicidal stupidity. Otherwise we'll have to start adding general suicides to that stats. After all they did jump from a bridge or building. Regarding rules. Although I have enjoyed sneaking around on BASE jumps in the past, nowadays, it is a much less palatable option. However, one of the main attractions of BASE jumping for me is the fact that I am totally responsible for my behaviours and actions. WIth the exception of a few public BASE events, once I stand on the exit point, I am the rule maker. I am totally responsible for my actions. And I take pride in the fact that I am capable and able to do this. But we DO need rules. And unless we are striving for inclusion in the Darwin awards, each one of us probably does and should have a set of rules that we should abide by. I have been arguing this point for a long time and have been trying to push it in a former role as A BASE Association safety Officer. What do I mean by this? The rules are simple. Self preservation, respect of self/sport/environment/other jumpers/society. They are the BASE ethics!!!! You can break these down a lot further into more detail. Self preservation can be broken down into: using appropriate equipment, undertaking the right/structured training program, building your skills & progressing sequentially, being realistic about your self assessment, combining the word AND ACTION of "NO" in your repertoire, etc. Not following BASE ethics is not about freedom. Everytime someone does not follow the ethics, they are potentially robbing another person of their freedom. This is selfish. Most people think of the laws of society when they think of freedom. Given that their are laws that range from extremely fair and reasonable all the way down to downright stupid, I don't care either way what people do in terms of laws. However, you must not adversely affect another persons life, their property, or the environment. You SHOULD consider the affect that your actions will have on other people and the environment. Imagine of sometime robs YOU of the opportunity of jumping a site or undertaking an acitivity that you truly love. They would be robbing you of your freedom. Don't do this to others. THIS IS ALL ABOUT RESPECT. If you don't have a basic modicum of respect and ethics. you DO NOT have the right to exericise your right to freedom. If a site is legal within certain time frames. Respect that. Do not blatantly thumb your nose up to the authorities by blazing away in their faces. Use more appropriate timings and behaviours. If you don't have the time to be ethical in this sport r.e. jump sites, the sport should not have the time for you!!!! Stay Safe Have Fun Good Luck Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Main reason is keeping away those zippy little ellipticals. Bit dangerous on deployment, especially if you have spiraling line twists and you didn't track too well. I think its a waste anyway. They take longer to open which is a waste of freefall altitude. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

yes Oz - oh darn, I've given the location away. Sorry. Nothing broken from memory. Lots of bruising and some concussion. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Apology: The comment at the bottom of this post which I posted previously on this thread was not directed at any jumper in particular and was certainly not directed at jumpers mentioned or posting in this thread. I apologise if any individuals have been offended by the comment. Specifically, JP. It was a generalisation only. Clarification: It is a fact, that many people (not all) think they are experts at the 50 to 200 jump mark. This is true in BASE, skydiving, driving cars, and life in general. Especially for younger males. It is the phase where people know enough about the sport to go it alone when attempting the basics, but not nearly enough to do advanced manouvres. Even though many seem to think so. As always, there are exceptions. Once again, apologies. -------------------------------------------------------- p.s. people should be careful about what they call experienced and inexperienced. Banging out 100 jumps in your first 12 months is certainly AN experience, but it does not necessarily make your experienced. And it certainly does not necessarily mean you are capable of teaching, imparting knowledge, leading the sport. You can however learn from ANY jumper. So consider all opinions and filter the information. Clarify or cross check the information with several sources. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

That vid was J Rooney and whuffo passenger. There have been two more tandems done from that bridge since then. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Forum abuse is one of the scourges of life on the BASE internet. It would be an interesting psychology study. PhD anyone? It seems to be borne about from paranoia, narrow mindedness, fear of rejection, defensiveness, desire for acceptance from the wider community, desire to remain external to the general community, etc. The attitude is also affected by some negative aspects of life experience in this sport (loss of loved ones or people we respect highly). For some, its just a bit of fun. A game. And many jumpers experience some/all of these from time to time. I guess its up to the individual if they want to play the game. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

To CornishChris Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Everyone is also entitled to consider that opinion or not. You have offered your opinion and people have decided not to accept it. Your facts are not in question, it is your intent and ethics that are in question. There is also some confusion as to what your point actually is. A few facts. Over the last few years several high profile jumpers eminating from Australia have died. Two of them in particular (DW + Slim), have contributed more to the advancement of the sport of BASE jumping than any other jumpers in the history of the sport. Their contributions have been in such areas as freefall technique, safety, training programs, equipment, event organisation, BASE organisations, improvement in quality of competitors, video production, NP site access, etc. The list goes on. All of these factors contribute to the safety and enjoyment of each and every one of us. Existing on the leading edge of anything exposes you to risk. These jumpers were on that edge and gave their lives for both their own personal development and the development of the sport. The fact that they are Australians is not very relevant. I could say that a number of the fatalities in Australia were British & British expat jumpers, as were jumpers in Britain, Norway, etc. And what have their contributions been? But what would be the point? Again, please specify your point and its relevance to this discussion. p.s. people should be careful about what they call experienced and inexperienced. Banging out 100 jumps in your first 12 months is certainly AN experience, but it does not necessarily make your experienced. And it certainly does not necessarily mean you are capable of teaching, imparting knowledge, leading the sport. You can however learn from ANY jumper. So consider all opinions and filter the information. Clarify or cross check the information with several sources. Stay Safe Have Fun Good Luck Tom Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Just be very aware if you are filming larger formation exits. Its C of G seems to be way out of wack for 8 ways, etc. Seems like they just lengthened the original design (Cresco) and allowed for tandem ops only. Basically, you will be floating around on the tail whilst the plane struggles for altitude maintenance and speed. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Its not a waste of time. Incomplete data is better than no data at all. Think of advances in parachuting / equipment technology. The manufacturers have incomplete data which they hypothesize and test prior to making changes, which they test pratically. Doing it by sector is probably the best way to do it. Get a world wide coordinator / moderator /etc. This could be a person or committee. Then select individuals or committees to coordinate particular regions of the world. They will have local contacts who will know . . . . . This will give a guide as to what is going on. And yes, you will NEVER get a 100% accurate figure. But there are not many areas in life where you can get 100% accuracy because data is always hidden, massaged, collected incorrectly, not provided, etc. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

There are many similarities between BASE and climbing. The main thing is the transferable skills such as attitude, risk management, thinking, problem solving, equipment selection, suitable training, etc. If you do either sport correctly you plan everything you can beforehand (hand hold versus delay, plan b's, what if's, potential problem analysis, etc). Then you make a decision whether or not you go ahead with the jump or climb. This decision is based on weather, skills, equipment, etc. In both activities you must make decisions as you go. And these decisions should be automatic and based on all the plans you have already put in place. The difference is the time factor and the detail (technique) of the actions. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Hi Yuri That little mal usually happens on collapsable pilot chute systems (I assume the one you showed is a non collapsable BASE p/c). During the tail end of the pressurisation sequence, the drag of the canopy becomes greater than the drag of the pilot chute (and it interferes with its air flow and ability to remain pressurised - which is what it is meant to be). The descent rate (& air resistance) of the complete system (p/c, canopy, suspended load) becomes less than the p/c. This means that the p/c & bridle start to descend at a faster rate than the remainder of the system. At this stage you have minimal to no forward speed so the p/c does not inflate fully and "drag" behind the canopy. For a parallel, large pilot chute do not have handles on them due to the fear that the bridle will wrap around the handle and prevent it from inflating. If the brake settings on the canopy are deeper and the deployment sequence is not perfectly symmetrical (i.e. you are marginally unbalanced in your harness of there is a slight crosswind component during deployment, or the canopy does not commence pressurisation evenly on each side, etc), the canopy will buck around a bit. It may surge forward a bit, then back, perhaps you will have a bit of sideways momentum as well. While this is happening, the bridle & p/c is tensioned up, then loosened, then it gets pulled a little to the side, then it wants to accelerate again (remember that an uninflated p/c and bridle will fall faster than an inflated canopy). This sequence of events is most common on tandem canopies and you will often see a bridle and p/c wrapped around the A lines or brake lines. Sometimes, when the p/c and bridle fall again, they loop. If you can imagine throwing a rope onto the ground from some height, when it hits the ground, some of it will be coiled up, some will spread out, etc. The tail pocket is a natural catch point. Its got material that extends above the canopy material. Now, when the canopy gets to the end of the pressurisation cycle, many of you have already mentioned a possible scenario of tail inversion. The canopy may concertina and surge forward, the tail pocket flicks up and to the front of the canopy. Then it starts to surge back again and the bridle goes slack and forms a loop. Jus at that time the tail pocket (with its catch points) passes near the loop and catches it. The p/c fills with air (pressurises) and locks the loop in. Hey presto, the tail is locked into a bridle hitch knot. Anyway, that is what I have seen in the past. What do people think? How do you prevent it? - ensure your canopy is set up properly (brake settings, minimal surge on opening, no snappy openings as they will exaggerate the affect of surge and variable pressure during the pressurisation sequence, etc). - symmetrical deployments. - ensure your p/c attachment point, bridle, p/c are geometrically symmetrical and that if they are worn or stretched, that they are even (symmetrical). - etc. I don't think a rotating pilot chute will cause the problem in itself. It may however, exacerbate the movement of the bridle when it starts its accelerated descent. Note that I am talking about "RELATIVE" acceleration. Not absolute. p.s I have had a bridle do a full loop around the centre cell of my canopy on a skydive which resulted in a bow tie. The opening was not absurdly funky but it did buck around a bit. It was a collapsable p/c. I remember the canopy surged forward and then back. As it came back I could feel a little relative lift being generated. What happened? As it surged forward the p/c was already collapsed (it wanted to fall faster). The forward surge whipped the bridle and p/c forward. As it started to surge back the p/c kept going forward with the bridle attachment point acting as a pivot. Think of a horseman cracking his whip here! It surged back enough for the the bridle to be stretched but it still had momentum. Because the p/c had momentum but it had a fixed pivot point the only thing it could do was alter its motion from straight ahead to a turning moment. It rotated through the centre A lines as the canopy ended its back surge and started surging forward again. The bridle was now under the bottom skin. The canopy reached an equilibrium or "stabilised" and with a bit of input from me started flying forwards. It is only when the canopy has forward drive that the p/c starts trailing behind again. Obviously, most (I hope all ) BASE p/c are not collapsable and they will create more drag in full flight and are more likley to lock a knot in. my $0.02

Hi Folks Check out Parachuting Video Techniques & Information There is a vast amount of information about video and photography techniques for canopy pilots. Its geared towards CRW but it totally relevant to swoop, tandem, rel teams, and any other situation you find yourself in around other parachutes. Feel free to provide any constructive feedback via the link at the bottom of the page. Stay Safe Have Fun Good Luck

Older Talons have an exposed top/pin flap which snags lines. All the newer ones are tuck in of course. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Agree totally. on average, a Span is the best starting point for new jumpers. And it is about the skills you learn, not the number of jumps you do. By definition, you have to do a number of jumps to learn those skills but if you are focused, you will need less jumps to develop them. Once slight correction / question. I believe (and data I have backs this up) that object strike is our leading cause of SERIOUS INJURY and death, but landings are the leading cause of overall injuries. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Yes - I do/have done enough of both. Tandem BASE in special circumstances I have no problems with. There is no way in hell I would do it day in day out with people I have never met before. Normal Tandems punish your body enough as it is, BASE tandems will age you VERY quickly, if they don't kill you first. And for what? $50 a jump? Just my $0.01 Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Yep - that is one of the things I was thinking when mentioning modifying gear. However, it depends on the topography of the jump site. A narrow gorge with turbulent winds and inexperienced people on a round is asking for trouble. One of the locations being considered for the NZ operation is like the scenario I described. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

That's an extremely humorous response Nick.