rfarris

Hmm....I guess 1 out of 100's ain't that bad. I do remember a certain 220 left, or was it right, off a freestander. I witnessed my first tree landing that night. Almost got to see a powerline strike, and a building strike. (THUD...the sound a BASE jumper makes when he hits the ground after falling out of a perfectly good tree)

Wery nicely put.....

Thanks for the info Brit... Who knows... Try as we may, we can't keep people from day blazing. PM me with anymore news of the "high noon bandits". Rod

I noticed that too, and I thought he was wearing some blush. Then I put 2 and 2 together and realized it was probably wind burn from the "Nuclear", "Nuke'n" winds they were jumping in.

Had a similar experience. I was real hesitant about doing it. Hell I only had maybe 10 jumps myself. He was determined to make a jump, with me, or alone, even off a "B" for his first one for Christ's sake. So one night I called him up and invited him to come on a climb with me. The jump went well. He's since moved away, but last I've heard he's doing fine and still jumping. At first I was scared to let anyone know what I had done. But as I look back now, I know I did the right thing. Rod

Faber, does twad mean twat?

I guess I haven't been around long enough to have heard past debates on S/L vs. Freefall, as far as it being a "real" BASE jump or not. But I definately concur, a S/L jump is a "real" BASE jump.

After having started the thread about S/L'n the low water tower, it seemed to have branched off into a different topic, which is cool also. In defense of Zennie, having met and jumped with him, I didn't take his "purist" comment anymore than he prefers not to static line. I will agree, and I just recently learned how static line jumps are very much part of the sport. But then again as one said earlier, "BASE is personal". To me, here in my small corner of the earth, BASE jumping is about finding an object of interest, and researching it to find out the best way to get off it. I recently took that approach on a short freestander, which I first was going to freefall, but with the help of a more experienced jumper, learned the fine art of the S/L. Long story short, after I was under canopy I had the same, if not more of a statisfied feeling of just jumping off the object I've been looking at for 2 yrs. The fact that I did a static line instead of a freefall didn't matter one bit. Rod

Okay

Does anyone have any experience with these kinds of jumps? http://www.blincmagazine.com/cgi-bin/gallery/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Other&image=watertower.jpg&img=48&tt= (Tom please edit if this is inappropriate) Does anyone know the details of this particular jump in the photo? Looks like he is doing a static line? I literally walk past one every day, about 150' tall with a pond under it. Rod

Wasn't going to post this but what the hell. I mean, the chances of those 4 "high noon" jumpers reading this are slim, if not none. A friend of mine comes into work tonight and says "I saw your buddies today around lunch time, jumped from the xxxxx tower. Yea, me and some other people at the car lot saw them open and land. Four of them" "I thought yall only jumped at night, especially close to cities, so people won't see you". (Yall, generally means you, and the others here in TX) Hmmm....First off I says, those weren't my buddies. Probably just some assholes passing through, saw an opportunity to add another scene to their most awesome, never been done before, video.(Lord knows there's plenty of those out there) "And this one...this is the jump we did in xxxxx. Yea man it was awesome" Okay, I admit. I don't jump that tower. But just 20 minutes further north and you would have been in my back yard. But, maybe I'm all wrong. Maybe yall are the locals and that's the way yall do it. Maybe I'm just being too paranoid, jumping at night. Maybe I'm jumping yall's towers and didn't know it. Anyway, good job guys on a successful "high noon" fun time daytime jump. Hopefully I'll get to see the video sometime. From what I hear, the spectators really thought it was cool. Especially the dumbass who thought yall jumped out of a plane. Rod

Click here and see Are you the chicken man I think you are? If not, never mind. If so, how the hell are ya?

I think BD is a good place to make your first. But learn as much as you can about a BASE rig and how to pack it before you get there. From my experience, the mini FJC they held in '02 was short, and to the point. It served it's purpose. Afterall, your not there to learn BASE jumping. It's all about jumping off that span as many times as you can in one day, and hopefully not get hurt. Rod

The essence of BASE jumping....(a phrase robbed from a post in some other thread) will be the phone call you get Tuesday night from a traveling friend. "I'm headed your way, is anything going on tonight?" "You've been wanting to make that first S/L jump, and there is that other short freestander you've been wanting to open." Puts you off your first static line, the first jump from a different tower, climbs back down himself, partly because his student just exited with the extra break chord in his cargo pocket. He gets back in his truck and keeps on truckin. Small potatoes to some, but very classy to me. Thanks again for your help Denpar. Cya Rod

I've made several "this is my last jump" jumps. Even climbed back down several times for no other reason than "this is stupid, I can't believe I'm doing this". But I can't hang it up. It's me. I don't have a butt load of jumps, still shy of 100, most being A's, and a few B's, 2 S's, still waiting on the E. Whenever I get that "it's time to quit" vibe, I go find something new to jump. That normally holds me over for a while. Rod

I'd be willing to bet you could do this just about every time after about 5 or 10 minutes of the container being closed. I usually can. I don't normally repack after long periods of my packed rig laying dormant. It usually stays in my gear bag, untouched until the next time. I have, however, repacked several times after climbing back down after a no-go, just because I was sloppy while climbing down, bumping my rig against shit on the way down, throwing it over the fence, etc... Rod

It's okay to laugh even in times like these.

Okay Kenny, I'll try to splain the story the way I saw it... The last load of the boogie, we notice the last 5 jumpers exiting the CASA are a little long with the spot. So we hop in our cars and go to where we think they will land. Or, the other version is, we drive to this certain predetermined pond in farmer McNasty's pasture before they even exit the plane. I can't remember... The first guy to land has the video helmet to film the other 4 jumpers' landings. He luckily misses the pond, but slams hard into the ground. He's hurt no doubt. You know how it is when you can tell someone is really hurting, he was hurt. But he gets up, and I mean limps over to get in position to film the pond swooping action. First to swoop was "Robin" the boy wonder. This is the guy who went from his first practice rip cord pull in the static line course, to sit, head down transition freeflying jumps the very next day. Nails the swoop. We didn't expect any less. Then, Casie, the man with with two screen names comes in. Smacks the water like a fat kid doing a belly buster at the YMCA.

Sorry, (or glad) I missed the Saturday night drunkfest. I was there Sunday hoping to see some of the old gang, but they said you all were either too broke or too hung over to show up. The CASA was way cool. But it moved a little too fast and climbed a tad too high for me though. Got my yearly 6way skydive in. If you guys have not seen the video, or heard the story from the last load of the boogie on Sunday, you need to. Probably the most heroic deed I've witnessed in my lifetime. Thanks to Joe and Julie, and the staff for a great time. That little DZ is still rock'n. cya Rod

I don't, or rarely use mine anymore, but I was using a Pro-Tec with a camera platform on top(aka Paramount System 3), and in front. And when I did use it, I wasn't using it very much. But I'd have to agree with what has been posted previously above. For starters, I never seemed to get the snug fit. I personally don't like how loose everything feels while on the ground, much less in freefall. Probably the single most reason I'd go with a different helmet if I was shopping for one now, especially to mount a D60 on, is mine has cracks around each of the top platform mounting legs, where they attach to the helmet. And these cracks appeared after very limited use. I could only speculate how they got there. My advice if you are sticking with the Pro-Tec system, keep your cameras light, especially the front mounted still camera. I have a hunch that may be why my helmet has cracks. Hard opening(s) + heavy still camera mounted on front. Just my opinion, since I do have one. Rod

Seen these? The best I've seen in my short BASE career so far, no doubt. click edit: Dayum...makes me want to go out and buy a bunch of black clothes

I think I remember seeing something about her here, or over on blinc. If this is the girl I'm thinking, she has supposedly made some BASE jumps, according to what others had posted.

Update please!!

There really are no words that can be said to ease the pain of losing a loved one. All that friends can do is offer their support. Even from friends you've never met. Our condolences from a few hours North of you. Rod

[ Whew....I had to reread that one a few times