TVPB

More than a decade in the sport, 750 odd jumps, 5 continents, many countries & sites. . . living, dead, good, average, bad, MANY awesome people, some &*%$#s, etc. I am not suprised anymore. Just disappointed on some occasions. I enjoy all the differences in the sport, except one. COMMON SENSE - this spectrum should be narrow and the bell curve should be a spike on the hard right of the scale. But alas, it isn't. And we keep reading about. . . . . . But I am still a student with much to learn, and I will always remain so. By default, sticking around longer will probably bring more surprises. Hopefully there are more good ones than bad. For all those doing good things, keep it up. You are in the majority. For the others, time for reflection. The future holds so much for you. Stay Safe Have Fun Good Luck

p.s. Jason I've got a spare chastity belt and shotgun so that you can protect her from all those %$$^((*)(*) BASE jumper boys. You know what they're like!

Whilst I wish the guy a speedy recovery and all the best of luck for the future, I can only think of terms such as "ill prepared, shortcuts, lack of respect and understanding, gene pool, & natural selection". The information is out there. It is not hard to find. If you choose not to look. . . . . well, that is the choice you make. No sympathy for really obvious shortcuts. Sorry for being harsh, but people don't seem to learn when we are overly sympathetic and nice. Flame away, but it does not fix the root cause. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Congratulations to Jen and Jason on your wonderful achievement. Welcome to the world of base parenting. Now you can have an informed opinion on the topic of "should you jump or not". Here's to happiness and health to all three of you, and to many more children. xoxoxo Tom Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

I am a BASE parent. I have two absolutely awesome, wonderful, beautiful children. They are one of the most amazing things that I have achieved/done in life. And given the quality of life I have had, that is a big statement. How has it all affected my hobbies / interests / BASE / etc? Absolutely. But it is by choice and it was not forced upon me. I think it was Nick DG that said something like "On the issue of children you do give up some freedom if you chose to have them, or you aren’t doing your job." Its not a job, its a lifestyle choice. And I'm pretty sure that money is always going out, not coming in (except from gifts from grand parents). I have to disagree with you on this one Nick. Having children is a conscious decision to change your priorities in life. And if you have consciously made that decision without accepting the fact that you will have less time to pursue other activities, you are extremely naive and ignorant. You have not lost any freedom. You do however, have to be much more efficient about the way you live your life. You can't just drop everything and go for a jump. You have to plan ahead. You also have to be flexible enough to alter your plans. You have no less or no more freedom when you have kids. You can still travel around the planet and spend all your time jumping. But, if you do this, why in hells name did you have kids for in the first place? People who think they have lost there freedom have not thought about all the consequences and responsibilities involved with children. They have made a mistake. We all have 24 hours each day and seven days each week, etc. If you fill 100% of this time with activities, you have no time left. If you want to pursue other activities or interests, guess what, something has to give. On a personal level, I jump much less now than I have in the past. When I do jump, it is usually focused training camps and international competitions with BASE jumps thrown in during my travels. I occasionally sneak a few jumps in when I do find spare time amongst all my other commitments and interests. I have mellowed somewhat in terms of the quantity and risk level of my jumps. This is due to a number of reasons. Children is one, long time in the sport making a lot of higher risk jumps has had a greater impact, losing jumping buddies (not because I lost them, but because I don't have their company anymore), changing priorities / commitments / life goals, other interests, etc. I have also been very lucky to have an understanding wife. I will never stop BASE jumping, even if I have already made my last jump. I will always be a BASE jumper in my heart. It has been an integral part of who I am during a part of my life where I have undergone immense personal development. And NO ONE can take that away from me. I think doing really high risk jumps well beyond your ability without the potential for great personal reward is a waste of human life. When kids are involved, I think this is where selfish / arrogant / ignorance / comes into it. If the jumps are very well planned for, risk managed, trained & prepared, then my opinion softens quite a bit. Its all relative. And its all about your personal opion, morals, beliefs, ethics. Should you consider your kids when you go jumping? Hell yes. You have chosen to be a part of their lives and to bring them into the world, you should stick around to fulfil the commitment. But this is just my personal opinion, which may change tomorrow. I don't think it is necessarily right. . . . or wrong. Its just an opinion. Do what you heart and your mind tells you is right. 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.

My parents are awesome. I love them to death. They have shown very conflicting reactions to all my activities, let alone jumping. When I started skydiving, they were freaked out. I set up a skydiving club at university to help fund my initial training. I received a lot of phone calls at home r.e. AFF training. That is how they found out I was going to do it. "Why are all these people calling about jumping?. I don't know mum. Wrong number I guess!" I also got my older brother to do the first jump course with me. They finally figured out I was really going to jump, but they did not know when. So I brought the video home and showed them. They bruised the bottom of their jaws. For a long time since then I'd tell them that I am going jumping for the weekend and they would not talk to me for a few days. They were usully OK with it from Tues to Thurs. And then the stress cycle continued from Fri to Mon. I organised a few 8 way demo jumps onto their property. That was the first (and I think only) time they saw me physically jump. Then I started BASE jumping. They had no idea what it was until I showed them video's and explained what the fuss was all about. Suddenly, skydiving was OK. They had something bigger and better to worry about.

One of the ABA prerequisites for potential BASE Jumping students is CRW experience. I have started developing a web site that contains a great deal of CRW information. Training programs, techniques, equipment, safety, history, etc. http://ozcrw.tripod.com/ There is a particular section related to BASE jumping: http://ozcrw.tripod.com/benefits_crw.htm#BASE Any CONSTRUCTIVE feedback is welcome via the web site.

BASE canopies do not maintain pressure as well as CRW canopies when subjected to sudden forces - i.e. bad or angled docks. You have a higher chance of de-pressurisation and wrapping than on a CRW specific canopy. You can certainly do CRW on your BASE canopy, but you have to be a little more gentle. Other issues include the lack of a retraction system for the bridle and pilot chute (these can tangle with the other jumper). longer lines (this will exaggerate any spinning of the suspended load and give a narrower but longer target area (higher wrap chance) if aiming for a stack/plane dock)), front riser grippers (many BASE canopies don't have them or they are just flat webbing which are harder to grab, etc. The benefits of using CRW specific equipment are many. One of them is you can go harder, be rougher, perform more radical manoeuvres, and perform a wider range of manoeuvres than on standard canopies. I.e. you can learn more. This is about learning fundamentals and principles of canopy flight and performance. Just remember that you have to adjust these learnings when going back to BASE gear. p.s. you can also do CRW on high performance ellipticals. BUT. . . . No offense "superstu" - but as much fun as highly loaded elliptical CRW is, IT IS NOT the way to learn and your learning curve will be LESS than on proper CRW gear. Why? Because mortal human beings are more scared on smaller canopies and tend not to perform at their limits or the limits of the equipment. More things can go wrong - bridle wraps, injury due to severe abrasion, extreme descent rates in wraps or shutdowns, all of these worries detract from your performance and this detracts from your learning potential. You are less likely to plane, make offset formations or build and fly larger formations. Have you seen a partially severed leg or fingers caused by high speed abrasion on microline? Probably not. So please don't encourage elliptical CRW for beginners. Tools are developed for specific purposes for a reason. Yes, the tools can be improved, and yes, I am a strong believer in cross skilling (see http://ozcrw.tripod.com/benefits_crw.htm#BASE), but doing something out of ignorance, wanting project an image of coolness, or total lack of desire to do something properly is not smart. Especially for beginners. Go get a lightning or Switchblade or Triathlon or Prodigy or. . . . and do it properly. Learn the right way. AND THEN go do some elliptical CRW. You will be amazed at how much better you will be and how much more you will be able to do. p.s. check out the following web site, it has a bunch of CRW info. Its a long way from completion but its a start. http://ozcrw.tripod.com/ Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Some useless technical information. There is variation in both the quality of DVD recordings and the quality of DVD machine playbacks. r.e. PLAYBACK Expensive / high quality DVD players tend to have higher quality output pictures than cheaper machines. If coupled with professionally produced DVD footage, they look outstanding, especially on large screens. The reason is that the player is able to detect the slightest variation in information produced on the DVD. This literally translates to a better resolution. And if the DVD is produced at higher resolutions. . . Beautiful . . . When you have a high quality DVD machine coupled with a cheaply produced DVD, the player picks up all the imperfections of the DVD. This translates to degradation in viewing quality ranging from pixelation, to striping, other glitches, to total inability to playback a DVD. You will especially notice these problems on pirate DVD copies on high quality players and the reason is simply that the cheaper burners are not as accurate when recording. This is even more important when recording at higher speeds (high speed means high data transfer rate). If you have a cheaper DVD player, you are more likely to be able to play the full range of DVD's from original/professional quality recordings to cheap/amateur home based burns. The laser on the cheaper player just does not pick up as much information as the high quality players and hence they miss most of the stuff ups (pixelation, lines, freeze frame, etc). It is almost like the cheaper players have a forward feedback smoothing function. They look at the future DVD data (a few seconds ahead), detect data variations, and then average out the scenes to avoid the technical glitches. They don't actually have this but that is the result. Morals of this story: - given that many people either pirate DVD's or produce DVD's on home machines, you are probably better off buying a cheaper player. - don't pirate stuff in the first place. - digital is not as perfect as people think. When its good its excellent, when its crap, its really crap. The pixelations you see on MiniDV tapes is an example of this. So Nick, you are probably not senile after all. What you saw is more common than people realise. This is my experience anyway. What do others think?

Just for your information. The line "BASE jumping is illegal in Australia and has claimed several lives in recent years". was changed to "BASE jumpers should get permission to jump from buildings or structures such as the bridge". This resulted from an email I sent to the reporter, Jano Gibson and was changed very soon after he got the email. Well done to Jano. A positive result from the media for that particular component of the story. The story is at: http://www.smh.com.au/ ------------------------------------ Harbour Bridge BASE jumper critical By Jano Gibson and AAP April 14, 2005 Page Tools Email to a friend Printer format The public walkway on the Harbour Bridge ... where the man jumped. Photo: Jano Gibson Related BASE jumping action A 39-year-old man is in critical condition in Royal North Shore Hospital after BASE jumping off the Harbour Bridge in the dead of night. Police said a 39-year-old man jumped from the public walkway on the eastern side of the bridge about 2.30am (AEST), Thursday. Inspector Glenn Finniss, crime manager of the water police, said police initially had no idea that a BASE jump had caused the man's injuries. Ambulance officers had received a call claiming the injured man had been hit by a boat. But when he was examined at hospital doctors discovered his injuries were consistent with that of someone who had fallen from a great height. ``Once they can get X-rays they can see there's more to it than being hit by a boat,'' NSW Ambulance spokesman, Craig Watkins, said. Inspector Finniss said the man received extensive injuries to his spine and pelvis as well as internal injuries. He said Harbour Bridge security guards had seen a BASE jumper leap from the bridge and then be hauled into a small runabout boat directly below. The boat, with four people on board, then sped to Blue's Point where an ambulance met them. Advertisement AdvertisementInspector Finniss said no parachute was found on the injured man or in the runabout boat. He said police were yet to interview the boat's occupants. He said two similar BASE jumps had occurred off the Harbour Bridge in the past couple of months. ``Same scenario where a boat picks them up and speeds off,'' he said. He said the barbed wire used to stop people leaping off the Bridge was no deterrent. ``They somehow work their way over the top of it. We're talking about acts of stupidity here. If somebody wants to do an act of stupidity you really can't police it or build things to prevent it,'' he said. Police are appealing for information from anyone who may have seen the incident. Nic Feteris, who has legally BASE jumped from the Harbour Bridge on two occasions, said the accident was tragic. "(The first time I jumped) was for a Mission Impossible film. I was doubling for the hero who fell off the Bridge and miraculously opened the parachute just before hitting the water. The other time was for my own adventure documentary film production," he said. Jimmy Freeman, one of Australia's leading BASE jumpers, told smh.com.au that despite its prestige, BASE jumpers tend to steer clear of the Bridge because it is too easy to get caught. "Not many people jump it at all. I haven't heard of it being jumped for about three or four years," Mr Freeman, who has notched up close to 1100 BASE jumps in six years, said. "You've got security guards, cameras, razor wire. It's just too much of a risk to try and get around. You are almost guaranteed to get busted for it," he said. Mr Freeman said he would love to jump from the bridge if he could get permission. BASE is an acronym for the four main types of objects jumped from - buildings, antenna, spans and earth (cliffs). BASE jumpers should get permission to jump from buildings or structures such as the bridge. Among Australian BASE jumpers killed in recent years were Sydney man Roland Simpson, who died last year when a jump from a building in Shanghai, China, went wrong. Brisbane mechanic Jason Fitz-Herbert was on his way to attend Mr Simpson's funeral in Canberra last October when killed in a jump in the NSW Southern Highlands. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Yes! No pain, no gain. Just because you Sout Efrikaans can' handle anything over 0.75. Are we going to see you guys again? Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

YES Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

You probably disturbed the airflow around the end cells of your canopies. This may have led to variations in pressure, air speed, lift, etc around the end cells. This in turn, leads to oscillations or shudders as you call it. Changes in flying characteristics are common. But the response from the second incident you described is fairly radical and is probably due to a combination of bumping end cells too agressively or unsymmetrically (nose near tail with crossover for example), and an input from the canopy pilot to try and correct the initial "shudder". This input could be toggles or harness balance and can be either intentional or unintensinal. CRW is great fun and you can learn a lot about flying canopies and aerodynamics. BTW - the wing loadings you described are not that great. We were at 1.7 at last years world meet. I want to go to about 2.2 next time. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

There is some information at: http://ozcrw.tripod.com/comp_2way_sequential.htm#DivePool

Hi Folks http://ozcrw.tripod.com/benefits_crw.htm#BASE I'm putting together a website about CRW (Canopy Relative Work or Canopy Formation) and I have included a section that describes the benefits that CRW has for BASE. This site is a first draft, with no editing. I am interested in any feedback, good or bad, as long as it is constructive. Thanks Tom p.s. have done CRW on BASE jumps and will post some photo's iff I get a chance to find them.

Hi Deadwood We have a guy in Oz who is near your age. He got a new Fox 285 last year and has been cranking out the jumps. He hikes faster than most of us, does jumps that are just as, if not more than complex than the average jumper. He is an awesome guy, a legend in the sport, a unique personality, a pioneer, and he still thinks he is 24 yo. Keep up the good work Pete!! Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Hi Trucker - you should set up BOPS. Base jumpers over Phorty Society. I'll be glad to join if I get that far.

Kako si Darko? Evo me u 3PM na prokletni internet!!! Australia is a beautiful place, so that is where I am now. I am maybe coming to Croatia again this year. If not then definitely next year. I have frequent flyer points to burn up. Goran was a big guy. We didn't talk much as he was doing tandems and we were serious CRW training all day for the World Meet. We only talked in the plane a few times and whilst packing. to iXic - there have now been 3 (three) Croats help out this info request (Robi, 2pac & me).

He Majki I met a Serbian guy (I think his name was Goran) in Reggio Emilia - Italy, last year. He was doing tandems at the body flight university whilst we were training there in August / September 2004. I did not have much time to talk because of training and a few trips I did. If you contact Marco or Barbara at Reggio, they may have some contact details. I think the address is http://www.bfu.it/ Good luck.

I think that is how Shorts developed the infamous Skyvan. They had some pesky aero engineering student in their factory on work experience. SO they thought they would give him an "onsolvable task" to keep him occupied and out of their hair. "OK Fella, see that shipping container over there? We wreckon we can open up a new market if we can just fly those things around instead of taking them via slow ships. See if you can get it up in the air somehow"!!!! And you wouldn't have believed what happened!!!! They had to change the name from Skycontainer to Skyvan because it didn't sound right. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

I've jumped off a "ferris wheel" - parachute opened well (just) before "impact". I'll let you call that scenario whatever you like. Have you got a photo of you smling for your avatar?

Plane to Plane = Skydive Plane to Impact = Skydive They all involve freefall pre-deployment. No one said you had to deploy. I guess it was just assumed you would. This is too hard. I might just flop off or out of something and call it what all my non jumping friends call it, crazy.

Not really revolutionary as people have done it before. It would only be revolutionary if done on a massive / regular scale and in a controlled manner. Kind of like the introduction of AFF. I think it all revolves around risk management. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

ooooohhhhhhhhhh - now I get it!