base915

I did my first jump from Kjerag under Doogs excellent tutelage. I had 380 skydives at the time. The pendulator sorts out your initial exit position and after the first couple of (strange) seconds, once the relative wind has increased, it all becomes familiar. I'd recommend it to any first jumper, so long as you meet the SBK criteria Tom mentioned. The first slider down jump I did, jump #8, scared the shit out of me. The ground was just too close after Kjerag! Mike Tom, have you bought a supply of aquabouy's after your wingsuit swim? I liked your painkillers

Hmm, I wasn't too happy about the marketing strategy either (still in two minds). It's not pleasant to find your photo in the papers and to hear that the police actively seeking you. While I understand the film makers need to get publicity and recognition, and that the stories were mainly plants and not intentionally malicious, I agree that a mass media audience isn't the best for BASE. Still, good thing / bad thing? Hard to tell just now. I'll wait and see. Organized events seem to be taking off, China, Malaysia, Turkey, Moscow, Tokyo, Voss... Is there an events calendar anywhere?

Hullo All, The Sunday Times article was also covered in the (Scottish) Daily Record and the even more provincial Aberdeen based Press & Journal with a couple of cool photos... no faces but a readily identifiable tattoo (Doh!). The articles were placed by Graeme, an adventure sports film maker, to highlight his piece at the Mountain Film Festival to be held this week in Edinburgh. The short Scottish BASE clip will be shown at the end of Graemes snowboarding film as a taster for a much longer Scottish project next year (planning to do Scottish B, A, S, and E. Anyone up for their Tartan BASE#). Other interesting films at this festival include African BASE and the Baffin Island BASE film. Wish I could be there!! Anyhoo, check out the festival website: http://www.edinburghmountainff.com/ A couple of question for the ethicists: How can you keep a sport this exciting a secret?? Will you still jump off stuff when it's mainstream? *A Scottish pi$$ artist... very serious about his art form*

Ok, I haven't jumped the Phoenix suit, only the first generation birdman pantz. I met Andreus in Brento earlier this year when he was testing his home made version of the pressurized pantz, he was getting 20+ seconds then. I bumped into him again in Lauterbrunnen in August where he was jumping the production prototype pressurized suit. He very kindly let me borrow it for a couple of weeks: The first couple of jumps, from The Nose, were a bit hit and miss. Jump one, I exited OK but didn't have my legs quite even when I spread the leg wing so I ended up in a left turn back towards the cliff (which was exciting). No2 was a bit better but still saw the cliff, No3 was better still, only got it flying for the last couple of seconds but felt the fall rate slow and got much further than I usualy do, still not quite as far as the road. The hit and miss performance put me off a little bit so I didn't use them from The Mushroom, however I did jump them from Brento. Little bit nervous on the edge due to the previous turning experience but the first flight was awesome. Got way out on the talus. However the second jump from Brento was the decider. 100% superb. Did more of a 'student' poised exit so got them flying quicker (Note to Andi; could maybe do with bigger vents) started tracking, brought my arm back into more of a delta position and lifted my hips up a bit and took off. Felt huge lift around the crotch area, the fall rate slowed way down, it got quiet again, and I started covering ground. Awesome feeling. The jumps at Empuria were also excelent. Very similar to wing suit jumps but without the restrictions to movement. I didn't try any aerobatics, just tried to tweak the flying position, at 5000' I brought my arms forward into a stable box position ready to deploy and waited for my 3500' beeps, and waited. Eventualy I deployed thinking my pro dytter had broken, the beeps went off under canopy. Such a slow fall rate. Anyhoo thats my Pressurise experience, I will get a suit. I think the Phoenix suit is more versatile for BASE, complete mobility, but I think the flying performance of the Pressurized suit makes it the winner for me. Personal opinion only. Cheers Mike

Yup, It was me. I borrowed the prototype pressurized pantz from Andreus. Did 3 or 4 jumps from the nose in Lauterbrunnen, two from Brento and two from the blue Porter in Empuria. Mike.