Zennie

As I mentioned over on Blinc... I'm throwing in 5 copies of HMB's (Team Hold My Beer) first video "Hey Y'All, Watch THIS!!" for the drawing. They're free anyway, but winning something always gives a person warm fuzzies. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Jimmy, if you had just said and recommended this at the outset I doubt many people here would have had a problem with it. I know I wouldn't have. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I have a Sony PC-101 that I've had for a few years now and it works great. PC-9s and 100s have been out on the market now for several years as well. I'm sure you can find them on eBay for a couple hundred bucks. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

"Try to guess what I am right now..." **PFFFFFFTTTTTTT!!!!!** "I'm a zit!!! Get it?" This has also officially become the biggest thread yet in the BASE forum. I took a look at the threads by number of posts. This one is #1, now by a fairly large margin. Three of the top 4 are arguments over, ironically enough, training and ethics. Three are specificially about deathcamping. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I think he just has the number wrong. He first mentioned the person by name (wasn't you) but that person didn't want it published so it was redacted. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

This is indeed an interesting development. I wonder though if it's primary purpose is to remove the policy conflict that so many people have noted with respect to the Bridge Day permits. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Chris, You've probably already followed this path, but if you know who is currently the custodian of Will Forshay's footage you might try approaching them. Rick Harrison has some older stuff I'm pretty sure. Not sure about the quality, but he may be a good one to hit up. I have an old Discovery Channel documentary on BASE made back in the early 90s that had some pretty good old BD footage. Tom Sanders provided the film for the documentary so I'm guessing that footage is his. You might try him as well. Good luck!

Absolutely true. It does depend on the object. In the case of an imminent strike, you're going to want to reach above the twists and try to get turned around first before dealing withthe twists themselves. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Perhaps this one might be good to split off, but I do think the face of BASE training will change in the future. We SHOULD be constantly refining and evolving... that's what the learning process is all about. It's also where a knowledge of history is important. What you may think is a good idea may have already been tried in the past, only to find that there were unexpected side effects that ultimately made it a poor fit for the BASE environment. Spectra lines is one example. In any event, as far as training goes, I actually think Clint (in cooperation with Jimmy & Marta at Apex I believe) at Skydive Moab has the right idea and approach. I don't know how far he's gotten with it, but I do know that he was working on a skydiving training progression specifically tailored to aspiring BASE jumpers. It's a 50-jump course if I'm not mistaken. With that sort of focused, skill-intensive, approach, I could easily see one of his students being as prepared, if not better prepared, for BASE jumping than just a standard skydiver with 200-300 jumps. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

No. Except when she first experiences them on a BASE jump where there's no altitude to spare. The rest of us (yourself included Jimmy) have experienced them on skydives where we had just a LITTLE bit of time to recognize the issue and then deal with it. When it happened on a BASE jump (and yes I've had 180s with multiple line twists on a tower), I'd seen and dealt with it before and had a bit of an instinctual response to it. I wasn't doing the "whatever happens, happens" thing, I was using skills I had learned in the skydiving world. Those skills saved my life. So you can say whatever you want. You can give all the reassurances you want. You can tell people "nothing will happen to you...TRUST ME". Someone wiser than me once said "words are only worth the paper they're written on". You're all words, no substance. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Boy, hit a raw nerve, did I? Good. I was married to a narcissist. I know the personality type. I know how to press your buttons. I get it. I get that you're lying to her at worst or not fully disclosing the truth at the least. I can tell by your attitude and approach. Knowing what I know now, I am 100% conviced that you are not teaching her how to safely BASE jump. Your lack of responsiveness to our questions and "whatever happens, happens" attitude bears that out. Regardless, there's a first for everything. You obviously seem Keen 'N Able to make that happen. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Jimmy is known for a bit of theatrics. Keep that in mind. OK just so everybody knows... The "yonkels" and "seatbelts" thing is from a deathcamp video made by Shane and the rest of the Red Bull crew. I personally find it disgusting and degrading (not to us, but to the poor souls who have no idea that their ignorance is being made a mockery of). Apparently Jimmy's "training program" consists solely of this video... as Clair STILL refers to toggles as "yonkels" and risers as "seatbelts". Everything else is "we'll see how she does when it happens". So Jimmy, at what altitude did you tell Clair to "shlare them yonkels"? Oh, and Clair. Did you know that that bag of dogfood is the second take? The first bag of dogfood went into line twists and hit the wall. Just so you know... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Have YOU read The World BASE Fatalities List Jimmy? You saying you know some magical safety formula that Carl, Nik, Skypunk, Lukas, Rob, Slim, Jason and the 83 others weren't privy to? If you are, please do us all a public service and provide us with that revelation. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Hey Walt thanks for posting that! Do you mind if I put that onto HMB2 as a seperate clip? I'd love to include some old school stuff on the videos that I put out. And no I would not profit from it. All HMB videos are free. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

My main disagreement with you is on the skydiving experience front. Plain and simple. I personally believe that there are several vital survival skills that can only be learned in the skydiving environment. You obviously disagree with me, but I'm as confident in my position as you are in yours so we're at an impasse there. I also believe that putting someone off an object who does not possess those skills is reckless. Again, we obviously disagree and neither of us is going to budge on that position. However, I DO agree with you that the biggest determinant of risk in our sport is the object. So I certainly hope you're teaching her object assessment skills while you're performing this experiment upon her. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

For Clair's sake I sincerely hope I never have to. Believe it or not, I actually like that one. Beating a guy with his own gun has a hell of a lot more style than simply shooting him with it. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

It also sells sports drinks. Except to me... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Sadly, I doubt he'd get the message the way John did. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Walt, so long as dinner didn't consist of pecans from his toes... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

You've got to be joking... please tell me you are. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Fair enough. The problem with doing it that way is that you don't have enough air time to try it repeatedly and get it dialed in the way you can on a skydive. For practice for an experienced skydiver/BASE jumper, sure. But I wouldn't recommend relying on that methodology 100% as a learning tool. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

What about object avoidance? Braked turns, stall turns? Kicking out line twists? What about tracking? You'll never convince me that you can safely learn these skills outside of the skydiving environment. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I know Amanda. Brit and I put her off on her first jump and I will personally attest to her being dialed in and I also personally think she is perfectly capable of being a heads-up jumper. So what she's saying is particularly meaningful. Clair... PLEASE read all of the incidents listed here. These were real people, many of whom were very skilled BASE jumpers. All of them are now dead. BASE jumpers are, by their very nature, independent and don't like being told what to do. So those of us expressing concern here aren't paternalistic busybodies trying to tell you how to live your life. These (myself include) are very independent spirits who are also very concerned about their sport and their brothers and sisters within the sport. No one is saying "don't BASE jump". What people are saying is that this is not fun and games. This is a very serious sport. The consequences are very real and very severe. There is no such thing as a safe BASE jump. If you want to survive in this sport for any period of time you need to understand that fact and be armed with the skills to minimize that risk. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

My bad I thought you were putting her off the big tower. Re-reading I now know which one you're referring too. Things can still go wrong. If the winds are that strong, what if she winds up in line twists and downwinds it? Backwards. What if she turns back into the wind but they're honking so much that she's blown backwards? Do you honestly think she has the experience to deal correctly with these sorts of situations? - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

No thanks... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon