JaapSuter

Why would they be sued? It doesn't necessarily have to be Dainese rip-off. It could be vice versa. Or perhaps they both license the same design from a third party? Just guessing here, but I do know that Velocity Gear goes though more extensive testing in Europe (getting the CE2 certificate iic) than Dainese does. Dainese relies on brand-name too much, asking 400 bucks for the exact same thing that Velocity Gear charges less than 150 for. I jump a Velocity Gear body-armor top (from motorcycling), Dainese tailbone, ass and hip-protector, and Fox knee and shin-guards. For more information on body armor and a link to a good Velocity Gear deal, see BASE WIKI on body armor and on other protective gear. Cheers, Jaap

It depends on the model of the crane, you just have to poke your head out on all four sides and make a judgement call. I've had to climb around a cab three times on two cranes, out of eight jumps from five cranes. All were easy. Usually you climb on the sides, because the front and back have the boom and counter-weight-boom in the way. Make sure you are wearing your rig and have it ready to go. If you do fall, you can pitch and pray. It is also recommended to wear gloves while climbing. There is a lot of grease and oil around that part of the crane. Your hands will get shit on them and this can cause your pilotchute to stick to it. My two cents..

Hey, that wasn't mentoring! I was just sharing the excitement, as all of us beginners too from time to time. I certainly would never consider telling another BASE jumper (even if it's a first timer) what to do. Not in real life anyway...

I wasn't aware I had a reputation. Nothing I've ever done is logical, and morals, ha! I laugh in the face of morals. No Morals, No Ethics, No Conscience, No Guilt So go ahead; show me what blackmail you have. I'm actually curious now... Remember, you can't out ackward a Dutch guy.

Actually, it was Collin on the first jump. Mark and Tom did the second jump. Collin's last name is Scott. He doesn't mind me posting it here, as he usually goes by the name of Ms. Mashaal or Spanky Mc Spank'a'lot. Hope that helps...

Yes, possibly. I'll have to experiment with that. The primary stow does create a nice bundle you can grab, but it might be better to leave it off. Thanks for the idea.

Fair enough, they're more like TLRDs; totally lame rapid deployments... However, I think setting up a just jumped stashed rig for a TARD takes longer than doing some prep at home and having it ready to go when you're at exit. Being able to setup as quickly as possible is absolutely necessary on this particular object, because twenty cars drive by every minute, every hour of the day.

I may stand corrected. Here is my reasoning: 1. There is no pilotchute pulling the canopy away from your body. 2. With the lines in the tailpocket and using a primary stow, the canopy is going to be bundled together for a little longer (after releasing from your hand) compared to having a lines outside already. 3. On a low jump, I want fast inflation. 4. Ergo, I want my lines to come out quickly, so the canopy can start inflating. Line dump maybe too strong of a word. But in the low altitude and low airspeed environment without a pilotchute yanking my canopy in the other direction, I want my lines to feed out of the tailpocket as smoothly and quickly as possible. I don't want to waste valuable feet because the hole in my tailpocket is not wide enough. Mind you, I might be greatly overstating the effects of a pilotchute pulling in the opposite direction, or grosly underestimate the canopy's desire to catch air and inflate as fast as possible. Btw, I have rarely seen a non-tailpocketed TARD that didn't show some form of line-dump. It all happens in a few short moments, but usually the canopy is inflating way before the lines are taut. So to conclude; it is not line-dump I am after. But I do want my lines to be available out of the tailpocket as quickly and smoothly as possible.

He certainly did a lot better than you guys did. Pffff....

I'd go for one if you can fit it in your schedule. Let's discuss tomorrow, if we're still in.

Hey, are there any people with advice for speedy unpacked jump setups? On the Potato bridge you tend to have lots of time and room to setup, but on other objects it's often less than ideal. Me and Abbie once spend close to twenty minutes on the sidewalk of a less-than-legal span trying to untangle the lines so I could TARD it. Obviously that was about as bad as could be (it was the fifth object we visited that night and we had gotten pretty desperate), and since then I've been thinking about ways to fix this. Here's what I do for my TARDs these days... First, I do some quick flaking over my shoulder, making sure the lines are in the center and the fabric on the outside. I gently put it down trying not to disturb anything. I take quick peek in every flake and so some gentle redressing. Definitely not as clean as for a regular packjob though. I then set the tailgate, making sure I only do two lose wraps (to avoid a hangup on low airspeed deployments). After setting the tailgate and making sure all the lines are in the center, I make the packjob a little less wide by rolling the flakes to the inside somewhat. I then put the tailpocket towards the bottom and figure-eight the lines into it. However, I leave about two feet out of the tailpocket, because that's going to hang over my shoulder. I also tear of two corners of a napkin and put those on the velcro near the opening of the tailpocket. This makes sure the opening of the tailpocket is a little wider than usual, promoting line-dump (which you get on a regular TARD anyway) versus sniveling (this applies more on low jumps than on high TARDs, note that it's still slider-down). I then carefully grab my gearbag and slide the packjob in. I make one fold and put that half in. I then slide my container on top of it. When I get to the exit-point. I carefully take the packjob out, stash away my gearbag, step between the risers and put my gear on. Done... The tailgate helps avoid a line-over, and because most of the lines are in the tailpocket, climbing and one-handed TARDs are a lot easier (which is good for climbing over railings). You can do one handed TARDs with your lines in your hand, but it's a little trickier. Does anybody have any other advice that'll make a TARD faster to set up? Thanks! Jaap

Does Moe Viletto post on here? He should tell the story about the time he fooled Jaap Suter into believing he was just some old dude about to make his first BASE jump at Bridge Day. Jaap Suter continued to give him some encouragement and told him what a great time he was gonna have. What a moron, that Jaap guy... Thanks Moe, good to meet you too... Maybe BASE WIKI should have a gallery of old-timers so newbies like us can give them proper respect.

Can somebody share how low this crane is?

This is awesome stuff guys. Thanks for sharing the link to the movie! Is this what BASE was 20 years ago? Figuring things out along the way? What rope manufacturer is going to offer a FRJC first? And will we see www.ropejumpfatalities.info in a few years? Is Dan Osman the Carl Boenish of this new sport? Whatever happens, it's great to see inventive minds coming up with new and creative ways to have fun in the backcountry. Keep the movies coming. Hopefully one day I'll get to do a jump of my own... DexterBase?

You da man, Nick! Wish I could be there....

The TSA prefers you take your rig as carry-ons. See http://www.uspa.org/news/current_news/carryons.htm. The main reasoning is that the TSA requires the owner of the rig to be there when they open the container. If your rig is checked in, it's going to be a lot more hassle to find you. I have checked in rigs with my other luggage and I've taken them with me as carry-ons, neither has ever posed a problem. BASE-rigs are really no big deal, they're just a backpack with some fabric in them. Taking a backpack with some rope and some bedsheets would raise the same suspicion; none. I've passed airport security with carry-on base rigs at least twelve times and never even had anybody ask me about it. Skydiving rigs can be a bigger problem because of the AAD which can show up as a black-box on their X-ray machines. Yet even those have never posed a problem on the six times that I've taken those with me.

Hey Calvin, from all your posts I really get the idea you are doing some bad ass shit out there in the field. Any chance you have some video lying around of some cool stunts? I'd love to see some. Thanks, Jaap

Both Emporis and Skyscraper Page were already linked on the resource section of BASE WIKI. You should become an editor by the way. Email me for the password if you want to!

Highest about point of impact, highest above landing area or highest above sea-level? What kind of jump? Freefall, PCA, static-line, D-bag or unpacked (which to some people isn't a BASE jump anymore). Over water or over hard ground? It's a big difference. But a lot more room than the guy taking a wingsuit off a really high exit point where he barely clears a little ledge. Sorry for being pedantic. I do think you asked a great question, if only because it demonstrates that numbers rarely mean anything in BASE. You will begin to touch heaven in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying at a thousand, miles an hour or a million or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfection is being there That said, I'm going to defeat my own argument by pointing you to the records section of BASE WIKI in the hope that other people will look there too and provide information for some of the unknown records.

Yes, I apologize. I have edited my post above to say tard instead of unpacked. In fact, I recently had a discussion about roll-overs at low altitudes. This person was quoting other experienced jumpers saying that both roll-overs and tards can be taken as low as 150 feet. I disagreed saying that I'd like more altitude for a roll-over. I haven't entirely ruled out the roll-over or tard-over at the 180 foot span, but I'm certainly not ready for it. It's not impossible I think, but it's definitely an advanced jump.

I stand corrected.

It depends on what kind of canopy-flight times you are comfortable with. Asking what is 'safe' in a sport like this is never quite possible. There are too many variables and much depends on the jumper himself. I regularly static-line, PCA and tard 180 feet and I find the canopy times more than adequate. It allows me to work in a solid 90 degree flat turn before landing. The lowest I've been on was a 150 foot balcony, but the owners wouldn't let me jump it. Shame... Note that if you have a line-over at that altitude, you are pretty much garantueed to spin it in with the line-over. Depending on many factors (type of the line-over, softness of area underneath object, object strike potential, weight of the jumper, body-armor and other protection, canopy size) the results can be anywhere from walking away to death. Don't count on being able to clear the line-over before landing, and if you do, you're still going to have a very rough landing. Be prepared for the worst. Wear a condom. Edited to clarify I mean tarding instead of general unpacked jumps.

I've seen as low as 8 feet per floor. I recommend buying a laser. If you don't have one, you can conservatively use 9 feet per floor, but only do this if you have a conservative freefall limit. Don't use 8 versus 9 if it makes the difference between static-lining or freefalling. 35 stories sounds freefallable to me, altitude-wise and all other considerations left aside. I'd be surprised if it wasn't at least 300 feet. If you do a search on lasers, you'll find a lot of useful information. Mostly people use some Bushnell model. It's handy if it's small (fits in one hand and your pocket, as opposed to the larger binocular style versions) and has a lit-up display so you can read it at night. Mmm, maybe I'll expand on this and turn it into a BASE WIKI item. Seems a recurring question...

You think his ankle hurts? Think about how he injures it every time and then start worrying about Ray's ass...

Streaming ASX file here... Most of it is in Flemish and Dutch, but it shows some good footage of Bridge Day (and another nearby bridge...). It also has a short interview with Russel and footage of his first jump that day. Commentary is not too impressive unfortunately. Apparently we "live for the adrenaline rush we get from opening our parachute the last possible second." I actually enjoy pulling as high as possible. In fact, when there is a diving board, I pull above the exit point... Forgot to add, thanks for the link Thijs!