jimmyh

This thread is called lodi jumpers, right? A few have even chimed in. Please don't make the mistake of believing that bill and I only talked about garbage, although we talked about that to a depressing degree. Bill taught me how to skydive when I was 16. I logged 143 jumps out of his DC-3. What did you do in it? I payed taxes to my government while working for him for 11 years. You are a tax paying American citizen while we are in this depressed economy, right? I mean, some of us need all the help we can get to buy a house right now! I did about 10,000 work jumps at his place and who knows how many fun jumps. I also, produced 3 very well known action sports videos. You ever see any of them? And I did all of this while accumulating $15,000 of medical debt that will follow me forever just cuz I went to the emergency room for 6 hours in lodi. You been hurt there? I am entitled to talk about it, and I don't appreciate the squiggly faces that you are using to try to make ur point. They too, sir, are confusing me.

Wait. Is that a question? Now ur confusing me too. This forum is filled with confusing stuff.

Wait......... So ur saying that Bill wanted to start charging more than slots for people to do tandems?????? But I thought he didn't care about making money. I thought all he wanted was to have people jump for next to nothing. You know, for the love of the sport. Now I'm confused......which is it?

Scratch me and Clair off that list, and not because we stopped base jumping.

There are some very good suggestions here. Thanks.

thank you for giving me a glimpse of the goal

Good call. Cuz then all these AWESOME! people will get well paid, right?

Sorry. We're located about 80 miles North of San Francisco along 101 in Sonoma County. Sweeeeeeeeeeet location.

Did that.

Excellent start. Thank you for that input!

Seriously, I want to hear everybody's opinion. BTW: I spelled sucessfull right, and if you can't read, I don't care about your opinion?

NICE! Thanks for posting.

Yeah the heli was definitely a highlight. Here's a pic that a jumper emailed me. Next time we'll try to advertise better, an email list or something.

We had our first boogie this weekend at NorCal Skydiving and it was off the hook! We did 37 loads from two 206's, a 182, and an R-44 heli. The NorCal management would like to thank all of the staff and jumpers that made it happen. Not only did our local crew show up, but we had jumpers from all over Northern California and even some from Nevada, awesome! And what a great party! Clair turned 21, and since we couldn't take her to Vegas, we brought the best part of Vegas to her...and I don't mean gambling. To everybody who couldn't make it, not to worry. We'll open up the 2010 season with another one. Thanks everybody! -jimmy

Hi All, We are having a Coach Rating Course Starting this Friday 6/19, followed by an AFF Evaluation Course the week of 6/22. Anyone interested should give me a call at (707) 478-8382. Our DZ website is norcalskydiving.com Jimmy

At NorCal Skydiving (Cloverdale, CA), we have permission from the management, and we do not fly our parachutes in, over, or through the traffic pattern below 3,000ft. At our location the runway runs North and South. Aircraft fly right and left hand patterns to the East, and parachutes fly right and left hand patterns to the West. That way pilots and parachutists know, unless an exceptional situation arises, what to expect from the other. I can't imagine, unless it is an emergency, why a pachutist would fly through a pattern filled with aircraft below 3K.

A 206. we should have a second plane before too long so we can run one for tandems and one for up-jumpers.

Check it out: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090327/ARTICLES/903279883 BTW, the "strict rules" that the article refers to are those found in the BSRs&FARs.

Thanks to everybody who came out and made our opening day an absolute BLAST!!!! If today was any indication of what the energy is going to be like at NorCal, then I would say we are looking at the beginning of a fantastic Drop Zone.

well, it was more than a couple of months, but we will be flying loads starting this weekend (march 28 & 29). We are very excited because there is an awesome group of Sonoma based jumpers and it will be fun to get get that group back together. Anyway, check out the new site www.norcalskydiving.com -jimmy

FYI, I've been eligable for a BASE # for way over a year now, and you know what? I haven't even thought of sending my info into whoever does that list. It's a Fucking Sport. All of you that are stuck in the 80's are like anchors keeping this sport from launching itself into the future. I uderstand the desire to keep it a "brotherhood." But guess what? It isn't that anymore. Not only can you guys from the 80's not keep it a "Brotherhood," but those getting into it now can't tap into that "brotherhood" either. Unlike other sports, I think the smallish apsect of BASE holds a certain appeal. Right on. Every body in the sport will know you by name if not by face, but you better get your name out there quick cuz those days are fading. Out here in Norcal, new BASE jumpers are multiplying like little gizmos that have had gallons of water poured on them, and some are eating after midnight. Soon, there will be BASE parks all over the world and more and more sites in the US will open up. Just like wind tunnels which cost a couple of million dollars to make but turn a nice profit. The sport of BASE jumping will be able to come out of the cloak and dagger shadows and hold it's head up at action sports expos all over the world. There will be competitions and televised events, and athletes from all over the world will be recognised for the time and energy they spent getting good. I know it sounds disgusting to those of you who love knowing every other person on the BFL, but guess what? It is the future, and no matter what, the future always arrives. Growing pains always hurt. But it's a hurt that passes and this too shall pass.

yeah I did one jump with Seth Blake when I was 18 in 91. I didn't actively begin to jump until 2000 or 2001. I give myself about 6 or 7 years of real BASE experience. However my father jumped quite a bit with Mike Alderman in '90 and '91, and his adventures with Mike left him stranded with a broken back to fend for himself throughout the night in the bottom of a canyon in Arizona. The canyon floor is at like 6,000' and it was mid-November. My father should have died. Anyway, I took no offense at the HIDGAF and my name on the NWBFL, but it's really not funny and it can't be justified with references to dark humor. I know that Clair is often accused of being immature, but when it comes to BASE jumpers dealing with death in a respectul way that does the sport and the deceased justice, I see a lot more immaturity than what my wife has displayed. Like Jason, I don't laugh at death.

however going over emergency prcedures is asking a student to visualize certain types of scenarios during which he or she will need to make proactive decisions in order to stay alive. Some of this other death stuff seems like it's asking a cloud of death to constantly hang over your head, and visualising your death to the point where you are writing about yourself as if you are already gone. ick. Do you have them write a letter for each scenario so that their loved ones will more clearly understand why they died? Like a line over letter, a no/low pull letter, an object strike letter. Or a "hey I was just being a complete jackass and I did a really, really stupid thing, so now I'm dead." Or do you have them write to their family that now that they are dead, they should look up the BASE fatality list to get the details? Oh and about that main lift web thing. It just dawned on me that you might think I was unaware that Clair's main lift web was twisted? That it is an indication of a lack of attention to detail? No. We couldn't find a rig small enough for her, and that was when no one was willing yet to make her one (understandably so), and the one we were using was just a little too big so that the chest strap kept smacking her in the face on opening. So we put a twist in each side of the main lift web to take out about an inch. It was intentional. Good idea? Well it worked while we needed it to. Oh and the Mac thing and whether the jumper in question has enough experience to begin his BASE career. I meant that by MAC's standards he surely has enough experience to begin. Not by mine. And by begin his BASE career, I mean asking around to see who might be able to help him and guide him a little bit because as far as I know, that is all that he was doing when Mac got pissed at me.

point taken

Hey Tom, I realize that MurderBase just made the profile, but I was assuming that under a different name he's probably vocalized issues about my actions in the past, and I often reply to one person as though I'm replying to a whole group, cuz that saves time. Now to answer your questions, they're super easy: 1) My issue with the list is not that students learn from it and therebye begin with a stronger foundation of knowledge which will help them stay alive. If it were purely that, I would be on the side of keeping it, of course. My problem is that it reads and often is read like the Darwin Awards, except that the Darwin Awards at least change the names of people and don't post pictures, I think. I have been in rooms where people are hunched over computers laughing out loud while reading the BASE fatality List, with quite a few "Oh My God What a Fucking Idiot!" thrown in. It's not a very good memorial site in my opinion. I still believe that the person writing the list has morbid fascination with his job as list guy, I also think that BASE jumpers are fascinated to a degree of unhealthiness with it. Remember the "Who's gonna be #100" conversation? #100? Who's it gonna be? Then there was a post titled "#100 was in my back yard." Like it was a claim to fame. The writer of the list and those who love it have a thing for the process of the tragedy involved in it. But when called on it, everyone says it keeps people alive. Tom, I also have an issue with the fact that you have your students write a letter to their family before they start BASE jumping as if they had gone in. I hear your reasoning behind it, and I know why you do it, but I still find it morbid and would not reccomend your course for that simple fact. It's an obsession with death and that which we obsess on becomes reality. Again, I do not have a problem with new BASE jumpers learning from past mistakes. that leaves your HIDGAF question right? I honestly don't give a fuck whether you think I actually give a fuck about certain things. See what I mean?