willh

I would suggest taking all the advise that has been given. Get some skydiving experience first. You won't find any local base jumpers that will be willing to mentor someone without this experience. Go to the local skydive club and ask about skydiving first; you will be welcomed with open arms. You will be suprised that once you have some experience that these skydivers who told you about the dangers of base might in fact be the basejumpers.

Hanwags are great boots and I understand that they fit a narrower foot while the Crispi boots fit a wider foot. I pesonally picked up a crispi boot size 13 which have to be the most comfortable footwear I've ever owned. Both are great boots.

My most heart felt condolences to the family in these difficult times. Will

This suit is nothing i've seen in any previous posts. It looks kind of like the batman logo (The trailing edge of the wings). Checked out flybirdman.com. No photos or info on it. Haven't seen any photos that resembles what I see in this Mays issue of skydiving mag.

I was just looking through the May issue of skydiving magazine and saw a small add for what looks like the new Birdman suit called the PHI. Does anyone know anything about this suit? When is it going to be released and what kind of changes have been made? Looks kind of cool!

You know there are ways of reducing the risks in the sport of basejumping and being a parent is one of them. I would hope that being a parent would limit your the risks your willing to take because there is after alll more to lose. How many time have you or someone you know jumped in less then ideal conditions or increased there risk by introducing a higher degree of dificulty to the jump. Lets face it, if everyone had the proper training, jumped in ideal conditions, didn't try to push the limits of altitude,arials,wingsuit flight, fly a properly loaded canopy for the landing area, wore proper protective gear and didn't jump out of there ability; less would die. I'm a firefighter and if we just ran into burning buildings we would die, but we reduce our risks by wearing proper protective gear and limit our exposure to risk, doing this we can survive for a 30 year career. Safty is a huge part of our profession. Its only complacency and not following your own safty guidlines that accidents happen. Sure sometimes shit happens ,but if your an experianced Basejumper who keeps to the basics you can greatly reduce your risk and live longer. The key is keeping it simple. If your a basejumper who has been increasingly doing jumps that are more risky eventually something will happen. Once you are a parent you have a responsibility if you still jump to regress to your early days of jumping and keep it simple the way you used too. I personnaly started basejumping in 1993 at bridge day. I stopped jumping in 1996 when I got married and started to have kids, I have three. But it wasn't until 2001 when the equipment that was being offered (BASE specific) that I really could say I felt comfortable in taking the risks involved in BASE. I came back to BASE making sure that if something ever happen to me my family was taken care of. I keep my jumping simple. Its enough of a rush without adding difficulty to the jump. I would love to push the limits in the sport, but I'll leave that to the single guys.

Picking through the Austrailian Base Forums and came across this link of some Russian Wingsuit jumping. These are by far the lowest pulls I've seen. http://www.ruexp.ru/photo/displayimage.php?album=27&pid=1015&slideshow=5000

I had the opportunity to fly the demo PF pants while in Norway last summer and had no trouble with my two pin rig. I wouldn't advise using a velcro rig. Looking forward to flying my new PF suit in Norway this summer.

On a trip to Norway last year our luggage was lost in Amsterdam. Only one rig was carried on the other three were checked in. We had to miss our ferry the first day and the second day we decided that one of us would stay behind to collect the gear. The one who carried his rig on the flight jumped the second day. The rest of us didn't jump until the third day. That made me a believer of carry on. P.S. The people in the lost luggage depart. told us that Amsterdam airport had the highest rate of lost luggage anywhere that their carrier flew; My guess, something to do with all the pot they smoke. Ha, Ha,Quote

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in BMX "Old school" is used to describe the older genration and what they did and how they did it. A Base Jumper is a Base Jumper no matter what age. If you want to describe the way things used to be done including ideas, thoughts etc. The "Old School" Base jumper would be a good desciption and one that any old timer would also be proud of.

Very cool Anyone know the height of that cliff.

Hey, During your time preparing for the Norway trip. Do lots of tracking, some with video. While tracking during a base jump your going to be dumping in a track as well so be prepared. I've witnessed a jumper with lots of skydiving experience who hadn't done allot of tracking jumps prior to his trip to Norway who got away lucky. Aside from that they have a great FJ course over there with tons of experience. Just prepare yourself. Pull high, Open Low and remember Pitch Will

I've had one expierience on a 330' freestanding tower in which I opened with a line twist, My body was still facing away from the tower but the canopy was flying back towards the tower; I was suprised to find I reacted quickly reaching above the twist and hauling down on my rear riser to steer clear, kick out and land uneventfully. During my dirt dive just before I jump I go over emegency procedures. Also note that I had no problem knowing my rear riser even in the twist. Mind you, it was only a single twist.

Hey Franz, If your in the area give us a call. I'm just across the border in Canada, about 20 minutes from Buffalo. When will you be in the area. Will willh@vaxxine.com

I have to agree with Basejumperjeff the Oddssey fx 2 pin rig with dynamic corners from paratech rigging is the rig for me. Clean lines good looks all around great container whether I'm doing terminal big walls or low freefalls. Most of the Canadians I know are jumping it.

Bridge day in West Virgina is a good place to exprience a first jump. Many experience ther first jumps here. Approximatly 876' to impact.

I have information by a group who was trying to secure an expedition to the cave and was informed by the people in charge of the site that this all came about because there was a rule broken. Apparently the jumpers have to be out of the cave at a certain time so that when the birds return to the cave the birds aren't in any danger. An group who was jumping there was jumping well beyond a reasonable guideline put forward by the locals. This gave people opposed to the jumping in the first place a good argument against it.

The base jumpers in our area are all well establised and have good jobs. I personally chose a carear in firefighting, while one friend is a retired steel worker who just turned 60.

I recently had a conversation with this guy at work who used to work on fm radio transmission towers. He told me that if you can feel any sensation on your skin or in your arms there is to much power on the antenna and you should climb down (it will hurt you); it will increase as you get closer to the top. I've only come across one in my area that has that much power. P.S. all fm radio stations reduce there power by almost half at night due to less traffic in the airways. So jump at night...