JaapSuter

The problem is not in our training methods or with our mentors. The problem is in our students. A good student completing a poor training program will always be a safer jumper than the poor student in the best training program. There are those that realize that a training program is just that; a collection of guidelines and advice. They won't take anything for granted, and first and foremost rely on their own prudence, intelligence and judgement to make decisions. And there are those that think a training program is a liability insurance that will keep them safe. It's the "I paid money so I won't die, right?" motto. Improving training methods is not going to reduce the number of accidents. At most it will make the first category of jumpers progress faster in their BASE career. What will reduce the predicted number of beginner accidents is filtering out the second category of jumpers; those are much better of doing safe jumps out of airplanes and playing video games. Damn, I'm a snob. Sorry... Edited to add: I don't believe in the common argument that this second category of jumpers will get into BASE on their own if we filter them out. Perhaps a few lone dumbasses might go ahead and do so, but I think we're actually quite successful in scaring away a large group of people that aren't quite fit for BASE (yet).

Pfff, bullshit. They just want you to do stupid shit and promote their business in the process. And for those that don't see the clicky, insert a huge here and realize that nobody would play Fifa 2005 if it wasn't for that particular drink. Awesome plan Russel. I'll do my best to be there! I think you should spice it up a little and jump with a Sabre 170 instead of a proper BASE canopy.

We'll be doing that this weekend. I have a Dane and an American visiting, and I have quite the collection of objects lined up.

That was Cornishe. The whole story can be found in this post.

Furthermore, I had somebody recommend me to just stow the lines in the tailpocket, partially covering some of the velcro to make the opening wider if I was too worried about them coming out. This will make a single-handed TARD easier. Can anybody comment on that suggestion?

And for those that didn't quite catch BASE813's message, I've filled in the blanks.

Never. I have a personal harddeck of 250 feet for freefalling. I wouldn't know. I have at least ten sub-10 second canopy rides. I'm comfortable with those. I'm also quite comfortable leaving my brakes stowed and landing on risers. I don't think my ride will be any shorter than on the PCA's and static-lines that I have done from this object. Nope, wasn't planning on it. Thanks Faber! Jaap

Hey Tom, now that you have done several free courses with a number of students, can you elaborate on your experiences with selecting students? What percentage of students are you sending home comfortably? Have you made any changes to your selection procedures after the first few courses? Is there much discussion among mentors and teachers both of the incognito long term local type and the commercial FJC type? Other sports have forums and structures dedicated to share didactic wisdom among the teachers of the sport. If one FJC had a student X that did such and so and the course teachers dealt with it in this particular way, how would the others have dealt with it, and how can we avoid it in the future? Such discussions can be very valuable. Thanks, Jaap Suter

3, 2, 1, here comes Faber...

Hello, this post has stupid written all over it, but with a lack of experienced unpacked jumpers in my neighbourhood, I guess I'll have to ask here. I've done one TARD and one roll-over at the Potato bridge. Both went well. I would like to practice more TARDs, but I won't be visiting the Perrine for a while. We have a 180 foot bridge here with a massive grass landing area underneath it, in all directions. There is no steel underneath the bridge so hitting the bridge-deck is impossible. Offheadings are no problem in nearly all directions since you can land anywhere. The only potential dangerous offheading problem is the 100 degrees right, since that aims you at the concrete pillar. Ever since tarding the Perrine, I have a craving to TARD my local bridge. I feel that altitude wise I will do as good, if not better, as the eight static-line and PCA jumps I have done of it. One problem is that there is no platform. So I need to do a one-handed TARD (both the coiled lines and the canopy in one hand) while my other hand holds on to the railing. Does anybody see any other problems with TARDing this object? What are the chances of a line-over on a TARD compared to normal packed jumps? What are the chances of offheadings on zero-wind TARDs, compared to normal packed jumps? I feel that at on a TARD there is much less black-magic involved, and it's more your own throwing skill. How much altitude does a properly performed TARD suck up until full pressurization? I'm hoping Spence the 110 feet TARDer will read this and chime in with some advice. I don't need to hear anybody say: "Go ahead, that's perfectly safe." I know it's not. I'm trying to find out if I'm overlooking anything that makes a TARD from this altitude significantly more dangerous than the PCAs and static-lines I have done from this object. Thanks, Jaap Suter

Mmmm, I can only draw two conclusions from this picture. He doesn't get a hard-on when he sees a rig with that much sex appeal, which has me question his motivation as a base jumper. That is a hard-on which means he has a really small penis, which has me question his suitability as a base jumper. Which one is it?

Good observation. And you're right, it voids my analysis.

Attached is my own interpretation of the BASE fatality list classifying each fatality as beginner, experienced or unknown. In case there was not a year known for the accident, I put it in the same year as the accident before it. I have interpreted some descriptions to make a classification. For example, number 20; I consider somebody that has done a previous paraglide from Mount Everest as being experienced, even though I'm not sure how many jumps he had. He may have been jumping a Vega 180, but as an adventurer, Jean-Marc certainly knew what he was getting into. I guess my classification is not necessarily based on jump-numbers (although it plays a large part) but more on attitude and how much a person realizes what the risks are. Probably some of my classification you disagree with. Given my personal interpretation though, in the stretch of 1999 to 2005, I observe the following: 14 beginners died 21 experienced jumpers died 16 jumpers I couldn't judge Three of those beginners were of the "bought-a-rig-on-ebay" type, meaning solo suicides without any prior training. A fourth one was offered instruction but refused. In my opinion, these types of accidents will be unavoidable, regardless of what we do. That leaves 10 beginners that, judging optimistically, got into the sport the average way. Because there are 16 unknown jumpers, we can't really draw conclusions about this, as it is bigger than the difference between the number of experienced jumpers and beginners. Nonetheless, I see no jumpers on the list that are cliche Potato jumpers, e.g. the jumpers that do an FJC, do another 40 or so jumps at the bridge, and then turn loose in their local scene without a proper mentor. Am I overlooking anybody? Anyway, the statistics are too minimal to draw conclusions from. I do however want to offer my own opinions: BASE gear has become safer over the past 20 years. Nevertheless, the sport is growing faster than that gear is getting safer, meaning that the gear can't keep up with the fall in our lowest-common-denominator jumping mentality. This explains the general incline in the number of incidents. So far, the fatality list does not show the explosion of beginner accidents that everybody is so afraid of. That doesn't mean it's not going to happen in two years from now, but so far it seems that most Potato jumpers come home to a hospitable environment that they can safely jump in. Now everybody repeat three times: Cliffs are dangerous, Cliffs Are Dangerous, CLIFFS ARE DANGEROUS! Edited to add; per DexterBase's post below, the analysis above is flawed because it ignores injuries. Take it with a large grain of salt.

I'm totally hammered and really should stay away from the keyboard right now, but... Fucking eh, brother. Fucking eh...

I bought a brand new pilotchute three months ago. I've used it ten times since. Should I replace my pilot chute? I mean, at the end of the day, it's my ass on the line. Sorry, I couldn't resist....

I don't think there are many people with over 500 BASE jumps, so if you PM around a little (don't drop his name here) you should be able to find out more about his reputation. I personally feel that most people with 500 jumps will probably know what they're doing, regardless of hospital stays. BASE has a very small margin for errors so if they wouldn't know what they were doing, they'd already be dead or paralyzed. Unless, of course, their luck bucket was fully loaded. Either way, other people will know. Don't forget that you have always your own intelligence too. Even if you could fully trust your mentor, there is no harm in treating everything he says with a healthy dose of skepticism. I've met plenty of "do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do" people that, from my perspective, do reckless things. It's within their comfort zone though. As long as I don't imitate them, I can still learn from them.

Holy crap is that a sexy wingsuit or what? It almost makes me want to buy one already. Not to fly it, but just to wear it when I'm out in town for some drinks. The measurement documents includes some rig measurements. What if you jump multiple rigs, like a skydive and a base rig? If I skydive with a huge container because it holds a large reserve and a BASE canopy, will my BASE container completely sink in and be gone? I'm not actually considering to do wingsuit BASE, I'm just satisfying a curiousity here. Thanks, JAap

Some people have pointed out that Fixed Object Jumping started well before August 8th 1978 with jumps from other objects. Others have pointed out that El Capitain has been jumped before that date as well. Finally, some pointed out that the BASE acronym was invented on not that actual date, but a while later. I know all of that. And I'll be the first to pick any other random day to have an anniversary. Heck, every day should be a celebration. What's important is that we realize that our sport has a history full of great sacrifices, a present full of great people and a future full of great adventures! And I'll drink to that!

This upcoming Monday we celebrate the 27th anniversary of BASE. On August 8th 1978, Carl Boenish and his friends stood on top of El Capitan to make history. Regardless of whether other people have parachuted from El Capitan before then, I consider August 8th the birthday of our sport. It is the day that we declared the entire world to be our dropzone. While I do have a strong interest in the history of our sport, I don't know enough to do this special day justice. Undoubtedly, Nick will come in here and share with us great stories and even grander ideas. Meanwhile, I'll stick to this message. People say it's impossible Friends say it's inadvisable The brain says it's acceptable Your heart says it's unavoidable Go ahead; do it! Celebrate the Human Spirit. You won't regret it. This Monday, take a moment to think of the friends we've lost and the sacrifices that have been made. Do a jump in their honour. Have a beer and toast to safe jumps in the future! Enjoy BASE, it's a great thing. Enjoy the people, they're even greater. Enjoy life, it's the greatest thing of all. Never forget that BASE is just a small part of it.

Faber told me that cats and dogs are safe. It's chickens we need to worry about...

Hey Katie, how much longer are the Danes going to be in town? I'd like to come visit some night this week. Cheers, Jaap

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Man, why make your main a safer canopy when cutting it away is your one chance of experiencing a thrill, opening low, flying a one-canopy system, and not get harassed by your DZO, after all "I had a line-over!" I recommend skydiving with WLO toggles to test, experiment and play with them. Other than that, I don't see skydivers adopt them any time soon.

Given that some of the best people are getting PF performance that is comparable to early wingsuits, my initial recommendation is not to do it. If your velcro flap tucks away into the top-flap, and your PF performance is not well developed yet, you might get away with it. That is just my opinion, and not based on any experience or wisdom. Please ask other, more intelligent, people.