TVPB

Cranes are great fun. If you want more spotting practice Nick, may I recommend a nice cable car in the French Alps. It travels above variable terrain and there is one spot where distance to impact becomes more acceptable for a multiple person exit. p.s. another thing about climbing onto crane cabins. Remember that the fact that a mechanical device had to rotate often means that lubrication is required in and around the sections that are in contact. This means that the area is often VERY greasy. This is a slip hazard and can damage / soil your gear. So wear protective clothing etc. The next important point is this - it is slippery, be ready to slip off (it has happened both accidently & deliberately ). Have you rig ready to deploy (p/c & canopy packed ready in case you fall off). Also try to make sure that your right hand (assuming that is the side you deply on) is free of grease if possible, because that stuff sticks to your p/c when you grab it. This can be a very unnerving feeling - trying to shake your p/c off your hand whilst falling in an unstable position not that far from mother earth. TBBRE.GIF

And at no stage am I saying to people that they should stop doing what they are doing. I have a strong belief in freedom of expression and the right to pursue the activities you want to pursue, in whatever form you choose. I also have a strong belief in pushing personal envelopes - balanced with a strong sense of personal responsibility, awareness, & preparation. I have been fortunate to witness personally & film a lot of this in our sport. BUT WHAT I AM SAYING IS THIS - IF PEOPLE CHOOSE TO DO THINGS WELL BEYOND THE SCOPE OF WHAT THEY KNOW AND ARE REALISTICALLY CAPABLE OF, WE SHOULD NOT EXCEPT THAT IT WAS JUST BAD LUCK. Thay have consciously decided to either make or not make decisions on information they possess or have chosen not to attain. In the last 4 years or so, the sport has gone from only a few gifted &/or brave individuals performing advanced techniques to the better part of the whole jumping community doing the same thing at a much earlier stage of their jumping career. There are very sports with such a steep "progression" curve in such an "uncontrolled manner". By progression I mean attempting advanced manouvres earlier. By uncontrolled I mean without adequate coaching and/or structured skill development. You don't see people drive formula one cars in their first season of driving. You don't see people surf pipeline during the peak winter months in their first season, there are very few people who climb K2 just after starting mountaineering, not many fighter pilots out there with no cessna/light GA experience, etc. AND IF PEOPLE DO WHAT IS CONTRARY TO THE ABOVE - it is usually heavily funded and supported by a team of experts with intensive development programs. Yet, there are many BASE jumpers who jump wingsuits off underhung cliffs with minimal wingsuit experience, many jumpers who jump in winds without a true appreciation of what affects turbulence has on their deployment & canopies, many people doing aerobatics without any dive/gymnastic experience/training. Accidents that result are not bad luck. These are the type of things that I am saying the individual CAN control. If they really want to. If people are unsure, they can get a second opinon. Being naive is choosing not to pursue other sources of information or blindly believing the first thing you are told. Either way, these are all decisions (both conscious &/or subconscious) that we have made. It is your choice. Choose life!!!!!!!!! Choose it wisely. Stay Safe Have Fun Good Luck & Go Hard after you have done adequate preparation. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Hi Skypuppy Yep - sashays are back. Logically, the best method has to have the following characteristics: - shortest distance (hence time - hence points) from top to bottom. Over the top means you have to go up. And then you have to stop and change direction to go down. This equates to more distance and time. - maximum consistancy between each person in the team and for each individual (not have one person rotating in 4 secs & the other in 8 - two 6's ae actually better). This helps with rhythm. - attempt to keep your wing flying as much as possible. Don't shut it down as you lose performance and it is more difficult to be consistant. This is one reason for going out to the side. - repeatability. - when doing sashays, get your hand to the inside front riser as fast as you possibly can. If you can pull down on this sucker BEFORE the full affect of the inside toggle comes into force, you will already be heading down to your slot. If you are slow, you tend to suspend in the air for a second. - targeting is important. Hit with centre cell at all costs. - smoothness (minimal momentum) helps the next person do a fast rotation as they have an easier target to fly around. - remember the 8 points of each rotation: - pilot - exit - recover - approach - dock - catch - brakes - heading you have to do each job well as this helps you and your team mates go faster. The speed of your rotation is not the critical thing to look at for most beginner/intermediate teams. Build and maintain disciplined stacks and the rotations then naturally become fast. This is because the rotator has an easier target to fly around and dock onto. The person doing the fastest rotation is not necessarily the best person to have in the team. Quite often they put too much momentum into the stack, stretch it, make it do the tango, and make the next persons job near impossible. It is good to have discipline (smooth docks & follow the 8 points). In comp, hang on to anything that comes by you. Get to your toggles very quickly before you become pilot. p.s. check out the Russians - not the prettiest team to watch but they are fast (obviously, they are World Champs). They brute force it. Have Fun Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Dangerous Sports / Activities Where I have met/known people who have ended up dead &/or severely injured: - Rock Fishing - Ultralight Flying - "Extreme Skiing" - Running with the bulls & Matadors - Skydiving - Mountaineering - general aviation - Scuba Diving - hang gliding & to a lessor extent: - football - skiiing - motor racing - ETC r.e. your skiing comment - in your 1000 days of skiiing, did you choose to ski the 80 degree chute covered in rocks or did you just stick to the black runs? Did you go to the 90m ski jump first or did you start on moguls? Did you try aerobatics on a cliff on your 10th jump or did you stick to flat and stable p/c in hand? Did you go rock fishing during a storm with a big swell or did you fish from the beach during calm weather? You are thinking correctly - you can't control the force of mother nature or determine exactly when the killer wave is going to wash you out to sea. But you can decide to go beach fishing instead of rock fishing during these weather conditions or just buy the fish from the markets. Just like you can decide to go pca off a bridge into water instead of freefalling that underhung cliff during questionable windy conditions into a tight arese landing area. Of course you can't control everything, I am not denying that. But you can choose to control most things. Anything can happen on any jump???? Only if you make it happen. You bounce if you don't deploy. You don't deploy because you lost height awareness, or you got yourself into trouble trying advanced manouvres, or you jumped something underhung, or you forgot your rig, OR . . . . . . . . . . .. It is not about rationalisation. It is about preventing problems from occuring by recognising them beforehand and making a conscious decision to act on those problems beforehand. It is not about pretending danger does not exist, its about accepting the reality that you can control most of the things that may stuff you up. Pretending you can't control risks is not accepting reality either. Blaming "bad things" or "bad luck" is an attempt to hand the responsibility of your safety to other forces. If you choose to make an extremely risky jump, you ARE increasing the likelihood of problems occuring. But you made that choice. Bad things did not happen. Bad things resulted from your choice. Experienced people & the inexperienced alike have made poor decisions & will continue to do so. I have. Bad things happened as a result of the choice they made, not because some alien force. r.e. Nick's site - yes, look at Nicks site. Lots of bad things have happened. But if you look closely you'll see that lost of choices were made, some not so good. Often several bad choices were made at once. p.s. There is probably no need to think Tom A - these types of activities do attract the individuals you referred to. And each one of us probably has a percentage of that individual in us.

I agree - it can be a dangerous sport. But what I don't like is the fact that people are too ready to accept that it is a VERY dangerous activity and consequently don't do enough to minimise the danger & risk. To add to that, they then take excessive risk. This does not make the sport excessively dangerous, it makes the actions of the individual excessively dangerous. There is a difference. "Oh well, I could get killed doing this, stuff it, lets just do it". OR - "since this is dangerous, I might as well go the whole way". DW died because he erred on the wrong side of caution. If he had of erred 100 feet higher, the conversation would have been different. Obviously this wont affect the perception of the girlfirend and others there. 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.

HI Aircanada As you said, you are talking about outdoor adventure athletes adding another activity to an already impressive physical and mental skill set. This is where minimum jump numbers becomes less relevant. The skill set is important. I am a firm believer in cross skilling or skill transfer. I too am more likely to take a rock climber with excellent fitness / skills / ethics / personality on a BASE jump than a skydiver with 150 4way RW jumps at a big DZ. BUT - advertising to the general public will attract individuals whose life experience is limited. As a result, there ability to handle themselves in BASE jumping is also limited - this in turn, means that they are exposed to much greater risk than people who have been paragliding and rock climbing for years. p.s. Canada is an awesome place (was there October 2004). Loved the Rockies. Can't wait to go back.

""The internet is the perfect place for misunderstanding and skewing public perception..."" Yes - and it can be skewed both ways!!! I don't know Miles personally. But anyone who runs courses for the general (jumping) public with students of limited/no experience IS NOT DOING THE RIGHT THING. Nice guy or not, if he is running the course as described, he is wrong. If not apologies all round. p.s. yes, there are many negative BASE jumpers out there. But there are also MANY positive ones who don't want more people added to "The List". p.s.s - if his add was just to solicit attention. Well done. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

jimmy Miles is definitely NOT the greatest contributor to the sport. There are many others ahead of him. r.e. skydiving experience & the bridge - you CAN hit hard earth or land "off course" at the Perrine, especially if you are pca or s/l. Just like on a skydive. However, if you have any deployment issues at the Perrine, you have less time to deal with them than on a student skydive. And you don't have the option of a reserve (usually). And if you have limited canopy experience, you are less likely to be able to or know how to deal with canopy issues. The margin for error and options for correcting errors are lower on a BASE jump. Even a bridge. r.e. prior experience & jump numbers - they are created just like speed limits and blood alcohol levels. We all have diffferent skill & tolerance levels. BUt you need a number to start with that satisfies the statistical norm of the population. THere are individuals who need few jumps, and others who after thousands of jumps are still not ready for BASE. THe average person IS NOT ready to start BASE jumping with little / no skydive experience. This is fact. It is irrespnsible to advertise this to the general public. It is also fraught with liability & safety issues. If the excepted norm of prior experience for the BASE community is, say 150 skydives, and one of miles students with no jumps gets seriously injured/killed - he WILL get quality Bubba Butt time. jimmy - you must be fishing for angry responses. Surely you can't be that . . . . . . . Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Given that many of us have limited experience when we do our first B / A / S / E - why should wind be a factor???? Why not take it out of the equation to start with? I think we should minimise as many risk variables as possible prior to attempting something new... It is extremely relevant to have wind knowledge and we should use it when required but for your first on a new object, ?????? The wind behind your back on an antenna is useful - AS LONG AS THE ANTENNA IS HIGH ENOUGH - this is usually the case. I don't recommend it on lower antennas (i.e. with very short canopy rides) especially with deep brake settings as you may suffer surge / pressurisation issues. r.e. the downdrafts - I wouldn't worry about canopy pressurisation problems that much. What about the pilot chute? The difference in the relative descent rate of your pilot chute and your body during a down draft is much less than in zero wind conditions. This basically means that it takes more altitude for the p/c to "anchor" and start the next part of the deployment sequence. This becames a real problem at low altitudes. Once it anchors, then you have to worry about what Tom says about the canopy. . . oohhh lah lah . . ouch . . . . . rip . . . . The order that you jump the four objects is dependant on the objects that you have to choose from and the person jumping. Most people agree with S first and B last. and argue with the A and E in between. But it is NOT that simple for individual cases in certain areas. e.g. KL tower is a B. In terms of exit, freefall, & deployment, I would recommend it over an antenna any day. But your accuracy skill must be somewhat respectable. Why? you typically have 120 degrees of freedom on an antenna - KL tower has virtually 360 degrees (unless you pick you nose for 5 seconds after you open), you have altitude to regain stability if your orientation changes, there are many places to land as long as your flight planning & execution is reasonable, etc. So the best order for objects depends on your prior experience (freefall / accuracy / canopy / other skills), how high the object is, how overhung the object is, how good the landing area is, how stress free it is, etc. Most accidents occur during deployment and landing. Hence, choose an object that is diificult to hit on opening with good landing areas, and enough height to utilise the type and configuration of equipment that you are using. Don't just focus on the letters, focus on the particular object and do an accurate risk assessment of each object. Stay Safe Have Fun Good Luck

Excellent response Tom The trick is to be honest when you reach this point. Or to attain a sufficient level of knowledge so that you can make these decisions.

Hi Yuri Perhaps my comment was arrogant. That happens when the list of the dearly departed increases too quickly and you want it to slow down. "Our decisions are usualy based on incomplete and unreliable information" Your comment above sums it up. The point I was trying to make is that a lot of the information is available (not all of course) and that many of us choose not to find that information and assimilate it into our risk management strategies. I agree, there are many factors that affect our lives that we can't control. But there are heaps that people don't try to control too. I would like to see jumpers control as many factors as possible whilst at the same time having fun, acheiving goals, etc. p.s. and yes, you are correct, we all love rolling the dice occassionally. CYA up there somewhere. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

My sincerest condolences Liv. You are a super strong person. Keep up your positive attitude and good luck with all the BASE stuff (jumps, ABA, posts, etc). CYA Tom Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Some notes on line overs: Tailgates DECREASE the risk of a line over - they don't reduce it to zero. There has been tailgate lineovers. Landing a line over is more likely to result in greater injury than a rear riser landing. Some tips: - clear your stabilisers - this has been an integral & extrememly important part of packing in both skydiving and BASE jumping for DECADES. If the stabiliser inflates prior to the brake lines moving, there is a much lower chance of a line over occuring. Most line overs start where a stabiliser inflates on the ïnside" of a brake line such that the brake line is forced towards the leading edge of a canopy. - ensure symmetry in your pack job. This means lines in the centre & tight + material outside. Ensure the lines are tight all the way up to the d attachments. Quarter your slider and use the same principle for the material - aim is to promote symmetrical airflow to the canopy during deplyment. - ensure that the tailgate is both installed and used correctly. - etc Dropped toggles occur for a number of reasons: - incorrect stowage - incompatable equipment (i.e. small toggle / large loop) - poorly maintained equipment - deployment in unsymmetrical position leading to toggle hitting other components of the equipment during deployment - people let go of their toggles due to lack of focus / concentration - etc any other ideas?

Hi gus 1000 BASE jumps - YES - its the person or incredible luck. Everything in life is risky. BASE is NOT inherently unsafe. It is the decisions that a BASE jumper makes that tends to make their perception of the sport and participation within it "relatively unsafe". i.e. you can choose to do high risk or low risk jumps. You can choose to attempt things beyond your skill, experience, & ability, you can choose to be ultra conservative and boring, you can be realistic or a dreamer, you can be patient or in a hurry, etc. The fact is that the sport is heading towards higher risk taking with minimal / less preparation. This and the current statistics are clouding the reality of how risky BASE really is. Just because a person dies, it does not mean the activity is dangerous. Look at the root cause. Check out the fatality lists and tell me what you see? Do you see conservatism or risk taking? At least you are asking questions at this stage of your jump career. That is an excellent start. Do not be afraid to ask. Do not be afraid to say no or to buck trends. Do what YOU think is right. NO, you are not kidding yourself. People don't die on BASE jumps due to acts of God or bad luck. There is always a sequence of events that leads to each accident. Each one of these steps or sequences can directly be influenced by the jumper. YOU are responsible for your own life!!!!!!!!! Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

Hi Ray Competition??? Is that what you call making up all the rules of business and politics around the world??? And then killing those who don't want to submit & follow?????? Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

No worries Vibeke & Sorry if I come across as blunt. Canopy Relative Work (CRW) does not necessarily have to involve contact. If you are flying next to someone you are still flying relative to them. Hence you are still doing CRW. Is a Sabre a good choice for doing contact CRW. Of course not. As with everything else in life, you should use the correct equipment for the job you are doing. However, you can do CRW safely with a Sabre 135. But you have to take MANY precautiones (i.e. dock in the same direction, stack dock only - don't plane, wear protective clothing, do it with an instructor who has a track record of competance, etc). Wraps??? I have seen more wraps resulting in cutaways from relative work jumpers than from CRW jumpers. Obviously I have seen more canopy deformations in CRW but CRW jumpers are more capable of dealing with this. I have done about 600 CRW jumps. In those jumps the cutaways have been due to (you've got to look at root cause not just numbers): - one person not being able to perform wing docks early in his 8 way career - a new rotations jumper on a VERY STEEP learning curve 2 weeks before a world meet - he was trying to find where the limits where (we made him do this to maximise the performance of the team). - two of us docking at 90 degrees to each other. Hence, with the wrong people, CRW can be riskier. WIth the right people, it is no more dangerous than most other disciplines. Remember - don't just look at the numbers r.e. incidents. Look at the root cause. You will often find a solution to the problem. Good luck either way.

Hi Cookie Good Post.

Hi Vibeke IMHO - everything helps everything. Being a proficient Rock Climber (RC)or Successful investor (SI) etc CAN help with your skydiving / parachuting (SP). I am talking transferable skills here. Some of the things the above 3 have in common: - preparation / planning - risk management - auditing / condition monitoring - equipment / technology knowledge - systems knowledge - rules & regulations - etc. Lets pick risk management. Having the ability to determine what all the potential problems are in any aspect of life will minmise the likelihood of failure. Hence, you will climb the appropriate route, choose profitable shares, not get injured whilst performing various landing techniques!!! Ditto for flying parachutes. Flying one DOES help with flying another. AS LONG AS YOU APPRECIATE THE DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES AND ascertain what all the potential problems are. No offense, but your post shows a little ignorance and closed mindedness. Why is CRW helpful for swooping? - for starters - you learn to fly a canopy = AIRTIME -> airtime is good time & it's educational. - you are more likely to use / learn all toggle and riser inputs whilst learning CRW. These are very useful for swooping too. - both disciplines involve flying relative to something else. The differences are: in swoop you are flying relative to a still object that is extremely unforgiving if you hit it. In CRW, you are flying relative to moving objects that tend to be marginally safer. If you can target a moving object well, the still ones are easier to fly relative to. - CRW increases your awareness of canopy traffic - traffic awareness is an excellent & extremely important survivial skill in any skydiving discipline - especially if you are fighting for some space on the laneway in the pond!!!!!!! - you can indulge in team swooping. This involves flying relative to other canopies. i.e. canopy relative work (play :) ) i.e. CRW!!!!! - it's all air time. THIS IS GOOD. Don't fight it. Don't be scared. It's O'K. The parachute is your friend!!!!!! ;) CRW is only "extreme" for ignorant people. You need to take more care than for standard skydiving but the risks can be managed to a level equal to standard slydiving. i.e. learn CRW off people who are experienced and don't be a dickhead when you do it!!!! I started doing CRW at 80 jumps. I wish I started earlier. If everyone learned CRW early in their jump careers, there would be less canopy related accidents in the sport. CRW has little to do with your canopy control skills??? Of course it has little to do with YOUR canopy skills. Because you choose not to do it. This post has got to be a baiting attempt!!!! p.s. lets take transferable a little further. How many successful individuals / businesses took an idea / product / technique / technology / etc that is used in one application, and used it successfully in another??? MANY. Without this open mindedness, an individual LIMITS him (her) self. Stay Safe Have Fun Good Luck

Hi Cookie IMHO - everything helps everything. Being a proficient Rock Climber (RC)or Successful investor (SI) etc CAN help with your skydiving / parachuting (SP). I am talking transferable skills here. Some of the things the above 3 have in common: - preparation / planning - risk management - auditing / condition monitoring - equipment / technology knowledge - systems knowledge - rules & regulations - etc. Lets pick risk management. Having the ability to determine what all the potential problems are in any aspect of life will minmise the likelihood of failure. Hence, you will climb the appropriate route, choose profitable shares, not get injured whilst performing various landing techniques!!! The person who wrote the post you quoted is showing how ignorant and closed minded they are. Why is CRW helpful for swooping? - for starters - you learn to fly a canopy = AIRTIME - airtime is good time & it's educational. - you are more likely to use / learn all toggle and riser inputs whilst learning CRW. These are very useful for swooping. - both disciplines involve flying relative to something else. The differences are: in swoop you are flying relative to a still object that is extremely unforgiving if you hit it. In CRW, you are flying relative to moving objects that tend to be marginally safer. - CRW increases you awareness of canopy traffic - traffic awareness is an excellent & extremely important survivial skill in any skydiving discipline - especially if you are fighting for some space on the laneway in the pond!!!!!!! - you can indulge in team swooping. This involves flying relative to other canopies. i.e. canopy relative work (play :) ) i.e. CRW!!!!! - it's all air time. THIS IS GOOD. Don't fight it. Don't be scared. It's O'K. The parachute is your friend!!!!!! ;) CRW is only "extreme" for ignorant people. You need to take more care than for standard skydiving but the risks can be managed to a level equal to standard slydiving. i.e. learn CRW off people who are experienced and don't be a dickhead when you do it!!!! I started doing CRW at 80 jumps. I wish I started earlier. If everyone learned CRW early in their jump careers, there would be less canopy related accidents in the sport. CRW has little to do with your canopy control skills??? Of course it has little to do with YOUR canopy skills. Because you choose not to do it. This post has got to be a baiting attempt!!!! ;) p.s. lets take transferable a little further. How many successful individuals / businesses took an idea / product / technique / technology / etc that is used in one application, and used it successfully in another??? MANY. Without this open mindedness, an individual LIMITS him (her) self. Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

We trained there prior to the world meet. Lots of fun. Say hello to Marko / Tomas / Barbara and the crowd if you go.

p.s. Chachi F111 canopies are extremely relevant and useful for certain applications. I have a strong preference for F111 when BASE jumping. Zero P introduces a plethora of unecessary risks in BASE. Why would you NOT recommend F111 to anyone? I am curious to hear your views.

Hi Chachi I've heard MANY stories of people dying whilst skydiving. Some were friends. If you do a root cause analysis on EVERY skydiving fatality, you will find that people have died during every facet of a skydive. Examples: - walking to plane (into propellar) - take off crash - mid air aircraft collision - exit - freefall - deployment - during canopy flight - landing - after landing. Going by your logic, I should never do any of the above because someone has died doing it!!! Well - looks like lawn bowls for me!!!! - - - - - - - - - - - I certainly don't consider myself immune from the possibility of death. However, I take risk analysis very seriously. I usually consider my actions very carefully prior to commiting to them. I also take into account my experience and ability. I don't do something just because someone else has done it. I've been to 3 CRW world meets and placed in the top 4 several times. I am also a national record holder in CRW - BUT I still consider myself a student with SO MUCH to learn. I consider my CRW skills to be above average. However, I know very little about swooping (even though I do swoop landings). I don't push the limits in landings because my skill level is not quite there. I HAVE ASSESSED MY SKILLS AND ACT ACCORDINGLY. I am not dead yet because of this. - - - - - - - - - - - Other factors - high performace canopy pilots may not necessarily be good at flying relative to moving targets (other canopies), but may be exceptional at flying relative to still targets (mother earth on landing). The individual needs to consider his/her own abilities prior to attempting anything. More importantly, the individual needs to be REALISTIC about his/her abilities. This is the factor that causes many jumpers to come unstuck. Either their ego OR lack of experience causes them to incorrectly access their ability prior to acting. - I would NOT catch a canopy close to the ground (

Not sure what Tom provided, BUT its great to see people being appreciative for the time and effort that other people sacrifice (eg Tom in this case).

There are some wonderful people entering the sport on a daily basis. But overall, I am concerned about where the sport is heading. My main concern lies in the psychology of the modern/contemporary "BASE Jumper". I'd like to respond to your statements and questions. Any one with a sense of reality and an honest ability in judging their own and others abilities will be able to tell you that "guru's do not exist in this sport. There are many talented jumpers out there that possess a wealth of knowledge. Yet I am yet to meet a jumper with high levels of ability in every aspect of the sport. Every person I have met has some weeknesses. Look at NdG list!!!!!! The names on there are like the who's who of the sport. Boesnisch, Kjapfjell, Weston, Simpson, Hartshorne, etc. When you meet the person who claims to be a guru, my recommendation is to turn away. If you become one, well . . . . time for some soul searching. Yes, the sport is growing and will continue to do so at an exponential rate. Is this good? I don't mind the sport growing. However, I do not like where the sport has been heading and the type of jumper that is being created. More about this later. >> Danger / Extreme???? Are relative terms. The sport is only as dangerous as its participants. Look at the fatalities and major injuries. THe jumpers themselves are attempting higher risk jumps with less and less experience and minimal training. Check out the BASE boards. Read between the lines. Respect is decreasing and risk is increasing. This brings me to the point I mentioned earlier about "BASE jumper psychology". People seem to have either less time or less patience nowadays to learn their trade/craft/sport/etc. After being injured very early in his/her jumping career (an injury that could have very easily been paraplegia or death instead of just hospitalisation), a jumper made this comment to me: "we knew there was a risk and decided it was acceptable". I talked to this jumper in depth afterwards and found that ultimately he thought that the worst that would happen would be a minor leg/arm injury. He also had the "it can't happen to me attitude" when considering the possibility of death. He did not really consider risk or consequence. And the magnitude of each. What did he do? He tried several new techniques on the one jump instead of progressing one step at a time (BOC, low opening, longer freefall, etc). CONSEQUENCE - most modern jumpers don't understand the full consequence of their actions. Consequences include the following: - death - bereaving family & friends who don't understand what you have done & have been doing - bereaving fmaily & friends who blame the sport when you die / get injured - permanent injury = loss of physical function with possible deterioration of mental function / stability. THis has flow on affects of career, relationships, work, ability to earn money, ability to participate in activites, etc. - bad publicity for the sport. Note: if someone dies, it is the media's job to report it to the public. That is what the public demands. Media would not exist if the public did not want to consume the "(mis)information" it provides. Hence - the jumper should not provide the media with "fodder" to the feed the public. A typical modern jumper has many of the following attributes: - does not want to spend time learning and watching other people - wants to jump asap - is very naive about what constitutes good training, curriculum, progression, and who is a good mentor - sees other people do manouvres and thinks it is easy and low risk just because nothing went wrong on that occasion. They don't consider the possibility that the person who performed the manouvre may just be very experience and VERY WELL prepared. - laughs it off when injury occurs - feels sorry for the last person that died - but does not consider what the root cause of the fatality was. Often he/she will go out and attempt a similar jump. - does not understand or practice affective risk management strategies. This is often due to poor instruction from a similar person. - Is all too willing to instruct other new jumpers even if they don't have all the prerequisite experience and ability. - has a low skill base due to minimal / no parachuting experience which consequently makes them a higher risk jumper. - has minimal interest and poor understanding in rigging and equipment - has entered the sport to satisfy other personal objectives as opposed to "truly wanting to BASE jump". - etc, etc. To sum it up: r.e. numbers, the sport is growing rapidly. And their is a growth in the number of Ken / Barbie / 3min attention span generation entering the sport. The sport is not becoming more dangerous. The cliffs are the same shape (mostly). The risk factor is being increased by the participants. Note that there are many new jumpers who are not like what I mentioned above!!!! Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

If you did all that, you would be way ahead of MOST BASE jumpers. Remember its not about the amount of numbers, its the quality behind those numbers. Learn the skills whilst skydiving.