Thijs

Basejumpers do use the same terms. They do talk about toggles and risers just like in skydive. Only deathcampers use yonkels and seatbelts

Oh man, this is total crap. It is not because it CAN be done succesfully that it WILL happen succesfully or SHOULD be done. How would you feel if I drove around a school neighboorhoud at 100 mph? It can be done without harming anyone, so why not? or... Anyone can do basejumps without skydive experience, we all know that. It is just that skydive experience greatly increases your changes of survival when something goes wrong. Starting basejumping without even having done skydiving is like starting formula 1 driving without ever have riden a normal car at a moderate speed.

If feel that this post by Tom Aiello might fit in here. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=297315

Thread here on blinc about this: http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23794

Some friends and I once bougth a large surface of plastic where we put a lot of soap and water on. After taking a run you could slide for very long and would come to a nice stop. Sure would be more agreable to land, would save your wingsuit (hell, it would be cleaned at the same time ) and would sure look fun like hell foei foei Glad you are ok.

Ignorance, that is what this is just all about. When people don't know the knowledge behind some actions or don't understand it, they classify it as stupid. Is this again an anti-BASE message? The reason why so many skydivers are anti-BASE is the same why so many whuffo's are anti-skydive: they just don't know anything about it. Jeb doesn't do stunts. Stunts are something you do to show off, to impress people. People who do stunts are people who drink excessive amounts of alcohol at the dz and sy, 'well, let's jump of that brigde and show the video later at the dz'. What Jeb (and other people) do is mearly trying to do what has never been done before, in order to advance the sport, and also themselfs. People die while pussing the limits. Dwain Weston was such a person. I wouldn't call him an idiot. Dwain had over 1200 basejumps without injury when he died, idiots usually don't make it pass 100 alive. Also, not everyone finds it important to live a long and healthy life. With the current interests of me, I don't see how it will be long, and healty. I don't find that important. What I find important is that I can do what I want to do. I would rather die at 30 basejumping, then I would die at 70 of cancer, and never have parachuted out of a plane or of something. I have a huge respect and admiration for Jeb. Maybe you should look behind the jump, to 'person Jeb' instead of 'jumper Jeb'. As you have seen the OLN documentary you should know what fucked childhood Jeb had. You don't want to have that, believe me, I'm having my fair share of it myself. I don't really care what people think of me, and I don't think Jeb cares about what you think of him. Thijs

18 years old, but I feel like 40 and feel like I haven't lived at all during that first 17.5 years. Will start skydiving next week (why did my instructor had to be ill this weekend) and hope to be doing some base when I'm 23. Do a jump

In a week I will have my static line course. There are a couple of reasons why I chose static. Static is less expensive then AFF on first sight, it also depends how many jumps you need to pass both courses. Another reason why I took static is because I don't want to get everything at once. I would like to focus first on my canopy skills, and once they are good, move to freefalling. This way I think I'll be able to focus more on the freefalling, without having to much to worry about the canopy flight and landing. Since I will have a number of canopy flights then, I'll pretty much know what to expect. I think that a person who finnishes static has more experience then a person who finnished AFF7, because the static person will have more jumps. I think that 7 jumps is a little too less to start on your own. Wether you take static or AFF, I guess they are both fun. Static might be the long way, but I'll get there as well. Be save, and don't forget to have fun Thijs

Not getting sleep does kill you. During various test with laboratory animals where they were kept awake, they died after some time. Basicly, it is your brain that can't function without taking proper rest sometime. I guess the human body has some failsafe systems that prevent you from staying up too long. Offcourse, you can mess with your body, drinking coffee and red bull to stay awake. Thijs

Man, I really like that picture Now I know how Outrager survives his jumps http://maxf.net/~outrager/sa17.jpg Thijs

If he goes out the door for the first time thinking it will be just a casual skydive he'll get a shock I don't think I have done this. I want to skydive, already for a long time (as long as I can remember), it is only that fixed object jumping gets more of my attention now and in fact is a factor why I now start skydiving. Without the dream of basejumping insight, skydive would have probably waited some more years. I don't find skydiving stupid, or for pussies, or something to look down on. It's a beautiful sport and I think (and hope) it will be fun. It is just that I will probably focus on things that most skydivers not really focus on, and vice versa, for preparing me the best for base. But, I will also do things skydivers do. Right now the plan is to start jumping, complete the course, train canopy skills and tracking skills and rigging, start wingsuit, and only after that starting base. That's it for now, that plan can change anytime. I'm not really setting a number in my mind. I'm not saying that I will only jump after 200 jumps. I will jump when I feel ready, and other basejumpers (mentor(s)) say I'm ready. That could be after 200 jumps, that could easly be only after 500 jumps. Focussing yourself on a number is pointless, and most of all, dangerous. If skydiving didn't interesed me at all, why would I waste (in that case) thousands of dollars on it? I could just buy a base rig, fly to the US and give that ski-dude a call. Lot's faster and lot's cheaper. (but not really a good plan, so I won't do it ) Two weeks left, looking forward to it.

I have only one time seen him wearing something that was not black. Probably because the organisers of the event he attended forced him to do so

I thauged some Norwegians did something around 34 sec from T**** wall in Norway and 50 sec delay (no wingsuit) from somewhere else in Norway. Contact Han-solo if you want to know more. Does anyone know of any good tracks in that snowplayground in the artic circle? Some very high walls there. Thijs

Concerning this: post from Tom about this: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=297315;search_string=boyfriends%20and%20base;#297315 Thijs

What will fit Flik 322? Would it fit in a tandemrig? What about using the basecanopy as a tirth parachute, and d-baging it from the plane? Thijs

I can't really explain (in decent words) what attracts me into basejumping. The fear/danger/adrenaline are defintly factors in that, but I'm also keen on the factor of traveling around the world to jump (and to combine it with other activities). Edit: I do not really feal the need to 'justify' my actions to anyone, weather it is concerning caving, diving, skydiving or basejumping. I just want to have fun. Isn't that what it is all about?

Hmm, I would have the tendence to disagree on this matter. If you are for example wanting to be good at riserscontrol, you will focus more on this then normal skydivers I guess. If you need certain skills for base, and that is your goal, then you will focus more on those skills, not? Agreed, but this is not the point here. I'm not stating that anyone who has the experience, should basejump. So, anyone who has an interest in base during their early skydive should basejump? I don't get your point really

Can you also explain why? I don't really see how this thread can be scary? With real interest in rw or in freefly, I meant more or less training in a team or so. I'm pretty sure I'll do some of both, if only to get some body awareness. Thijs

I hear Groundrush is also a good book. Haven't read it myself yet. The authors firstname is Simon, forgot his last name. I'm not sure if the book is printed anymore? Thijs

Condolences to the friends and family of the jumper. Fly free... Thijs

I thaughed that base was subterminal, while freefly is at terminal? Can freefly techniques help to recover an fucked up exit? If we leave terminal walls out of it ofcourse. Thijs

I'd agree. Until you are a comfortable solo skydiver don't mention it. The only BASE specific thing you could focus on, without mentioning it, is accuracy and riser-control. I fear that it might leak out or come to their attention pretty soon (if it already didn't). I have for the moment no real interest in RW or in Freefly, which are the most performed skydive disciplines right now. If I mainly focus on accuracy, canopy control and tracking, I think it will become pretty much obvious (at least for the basejumpers themself) what my real intentions are (gee, it sounds like I'm a criminel ) . To L_M: Thanks, and congrats on your AFF-1. So you and eli, keep your mouths shut . To Tyrion: I live in Belgium, quite far from Aussieland, but who knows, sometime... I'll guess I'll find it out all along the way

However, I have the feeling that non jumpers do not get completly accepted here. For example not replying to questions, or giving fairly agressive relpies and other things. Don't ask me to give examples of posts, not easy to search that. It's just something I noticed here. I have the feeling that you need to do some jumps first before people accept you really, otherwise they just think that your some stupid skydiver (or non) that thinks that basejumping is cool and so easy... This is just what I something think I see, I could be completly wrong (I hope so). (This is no directly intented to you Tom, defenitly not acusing you of anything) Ah, maybe I should just shut up and start jumping... Thijs

In a few weeks from now I will hopefully start with static line course in skydiving. As I'm interested in base my main focus will probably be training skills for base in skydiving after I completed my course. This made me think how the relationship between skydiving and basejumping is for basejumpers. Did you start skydiving for basejumping, or did base find you only after you started skydiving. Do you skydive 'actively' or is skydiving only an environment to test techniques out or to train your skills in a safer environment? If you did start skydiving with base as a clear goal in mind, what kind of reactions did you get at your dropzone? I've always wanted to skydive, but there was no real hurry in the matter. 5 years or so ago, skydiving was something I wanted to do once or so after I got a job and was happely married or so. I knew what basejumping was, but had no intention to do it (it was just crazy for me, at that point). My interest in base started something like little more then three years ago, after seeing a docu and when I started to search more about the sport. Things and circumstances feeded my interest in skydiving and certainly in base. It defenitly went with ups and downs, times where I said 'I'm not going to do that', and time where if someone would have given me a rig and drove me to an object, I would have jumped off. So, another question, how did you came in contact with base? And what were the reasons for you to start jumping, if there were any? Thijs

The progress in diving is much faster and the environment is more 'real' meaning that you jump from standing still position just as on a basejump, where in trampoline you jump on something that launches you up. They are both great, so I do them both (Tramp with trainer, diving without) Btw: can anyone answer my question I posted here? Didn't get really an answer there: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1725998;search_string=diving%20question;#1725998 Thijs