BASE accessability

[BASE813 0]

After an entertaining thread, it got me to thinking about the reasons such politics and bad feeling occurs.

If you step back a moment and look at the issues then I feel they come down to a simple explaination - respect.

If you enter BASE having spent many years trying to enter the sport, having people make it difficult for you, having to put in the time to get the skills, having to then go out and find and scope your own objects without being taken to them (how many people can say that their first 5 or 10 or 20 objects have all been done without guidence?), having spent years learning and spent years trying to break into the community that is local to you, then I think your grounding into the sport is solid and you end up respecting every aspect and having quite a good grounding in ethics.

If you enter BASE having spent a year or 2 getting a bunch of skydives, paying some money for a FJC or even having some yahoo with less than 'x' number of jumps take you to the local tower, and you find yourself making a bunch of jumps without spending years of struggle or research to get to that point - then what respect can you be expected to have?

As this way grows and grows, you will find more and more people coming through that find their access into BASE as easy as it was doing their AFF, this is not breading the right attitude toward the sport in my opinion.

These people that day blaze an object, when was the last time you spent hours in an aircon system or basement of a building trying to find a way to the roof? when was the last time you spent hours alone in the car watching what sort of activity happens on what day of the week at the object? - in fact when was the last time you put ANY effort in yourselves to open an object?

These people who teach AFF students or teach people with fuck all canopy skills or teach people without any knowledge at all to get into jumping - how did you get into the sport? did you do your time and effort or did you have an easy ride too?

It makes me angry to see this yahoo mentality enter the sport easily as I feel I did my time (and yes I admit I did some really stupid shit in my early jumping days) - but I feel I am a well rounded and ethical jumper - more intuned about how BASE was, and how it should be. Having fucked myself up this year and seen 2 good friends die this year - it pisses me off that people are obviously not taking this sport seriously and think its just like skydiving.

Take a check of yourself.............. dont bitch, dont fight - just step back and have a look.


Apology, rant over..................

Be cool.

Michael

[SwoopnHuck 0]

I witnessed a beautiful thing last night ground crewing for some friends. I can not tell you what it was, where it was, nor can I tell you who was doing it. But in order for these people to continue to do what they did, good BASE ethics and judgement are absolutely required. But it was a beautiful sight to see.

It's a parachute, it wants to open!!!