JaapSuter

Hi, has anybody seen any of the new Apex gear? I heard something about a new pin rig called the DP? I imagine that Vertigo and BR have merged all the best stuff from their existing line of products into some pretty cool new stuff and I'm curious to find out more. Thanks, Jaap

I can garantuee the fun part. I'll do my best on the rest.... Thanks! Anyway, I got some PM's and it seems that not everybody was familiar with the awesome videos that Han Solo has posted on his website. There are several more, check them out: http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~hansho/ Han Solo posts here as well, so I recommend sending him a PM if you want more information. Also, read this post by him. Thanks for the advice everybody. The general concensus is that I exit in a box-position. Which is what I'm most familiar with from my slider-down jump, so I'll stick with that. Thanks! Cheers, Jaap Suter

There is http://www.basenumbers.org but I doubt it's what you want. Contact Rick and Joy (their email addresses are on that same website) and they'll be able to look it up for you in the book. That information won't come available online.

Touché...

Impressive Kris... I don't even know where it is yet. I only just got the picture from one of the climbers/hikers that I've been randomly calling in this province. We might be visiting it soon. If it turns out to be jumpable, you'll have to come visit for sure. Bring some Abba though!

While seemingly interesting, stay away from that young blonde behind the fourth window in the third alley coming down from central station. She is a walking STD factory.

Those pictures aren't available. Yet... Oh by the way; als Dave Lundquist in Nederland is een dezer dagen en je doet een sprongetje met hem, doe hem dan de groeten. Zeg hem maar dat de honderdtachtig voeter op hem wacht in Vancouver. Oh hey Dave...

...feel free to come visit here. Don't know if it's jumpable. We'll find out soon. Anybody recognize it and know if it's been jumped before? PM me...

Hey, In my tracking-dives with my Phoenix suit I'm using what I'll refer to as the Han Solo style. I like the palms up aspect of it, it seems to cup my shoulders by default, and shape a better surface in my jacket. Another benefit is that the body stays more symmetrical during the pitch. You can try this for yourself. Take a default skydive track position, palms down and close to the body. Now reach for the pilotchute and notice how the elbow moves. Now do the Han Solo tracking position and reach for your pilotchute. Notice how the elbow doesn't move at all. Anyway... Pending the weather and clean undies, I'll be doing my first terminal cliff jump soon. As with any new element added to the mix, I'm back at square one, chockfull of questions, doubt and excitement. Usually, this results in me opening up IE and ranting on the forums... So I'm trying to decide how to exit. Stability-wise it seems safest to exit in a box, transition to a delta quickly and then continue into a track. However, the best trackers have developed a new exit method to start getting forward drive quicker. Unless you end up going head-low and unstable, this method seems safer because it gives more distance from the object. Check out http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~hansho/Vikesaksa.wmv and scroll to exactly two minutes into the video. It has great footage of the Han Solo style exit I'm talking about. My question is whether or not such an exit is an advanced maneuvre. Are the risks of going head-low much bigger? Would I be better off doing the standard box exit, also considering it's only an 8 or 9 second jump anyway? Thanks, Jaap Suter p.s. I'm sure that other people came up with this style of exit and tracking too, but Han Solo wrote about it in this post so that just kinda stuck. Sorry if somebody else deserves the credit.

I would defend myself, but I feel Canadian these days, so... And while I am sure you can come up with lots of snide remarks about Canada, you can't change the fact that we have legal jumping in our national parks.

Clearly you are not aware of the tiny neglectible island a little bit west of the rest of Europe. I think they call it England or something like that. Tossers, all of them... Note; my opinion of that place is solely based on a three week stay in Coventry. I hear it's not representative for the rest of the country.

I've done four base-rig terminal skydives. Two with slidergate and two without slidergate but with masking tape. Everything else the same. I'd say the ones without the slidergate were harder, but not considerably. Might not be enough statistics anyway. All four were with indirect slider control, no direct control. Large-mesh slider.

And if you use a large-mesh slider, you can use masking tape. It's what I've been doing. It kinda interferes with a possible slidergate, but I wasn't using that one anyway.

Dude, that sucks... I have an unused Mojo 260 here. It's old but I've jumped it slider-down several times. Slider-up it'll work even better. Drop me a PM if you're interested. I could FedEx it asap. Edited to add: Luke, you still have those pilotchutes? No hurries, just curious

Can anybody comment on the S-Fly Access and how it is similar/different from the Prodigy? I don't care so much about their relative performance, but more about the fact that they are both wingsuits that aim to reduce restrictions on the pilot. It seems like the Access suit could also be an interesting BASE wingsuit, would you agree? Thanks, Jaap Suter

Now there's a nugget.

Good one! Top-mounts are always screw-on, so those can be rotated by default, I imagine.

I think the lesson in this thread is that one should never include references to pr0n if one is in need of serious answers. So worth it though...

I'm worried about the image quality. However, I just realized that even a bullet setup requires a camera. So nothing is stopping me from getting a camera and then experimenting with a bullet setup. I guess that adds one requirement, ability to connect external CCD.

You have a website? You mean there is a place where I can indulge myself in your frivolous pieces of literature any time of the day? Where is this place? Is this it?

Now that I have finally come to terms with the fact that I only base jump for the girls and the glory, I decided to get a camera. Actually, it's because too many people have been telling me lately that if it ain't on video, it never happened. Seriously though, Cornishe and I will be producing a new adult movie called "horny basejumpers from outer space" giving new meaning to the terms "hand-held", "pounding in" and "tailgate". So I need a new camera... All jokes aside, I'm shopping around for a camera. Initially to film locations, the trips, the hikes, the friends, the bullshit, the laughter and other miscellaneous things. However, I imagine I will eventually be topmounting it onto my helmet. Just to get rid of that last piece of altitude awareness I have left. I did a search on this forum as well as the video and photograph forum, but the information seems very scattered and not necessarily base oriented. So in order to increase the entropy on the internet, here's another thread on cameras, with a focus on base. Here are my requirements: Good quality, sturdy, durable Small, lightweight, top-mountable Long battery life Works well in low-light conditions Capable of attaching good quality lenses (wide-angle etc.) Capable of dealing with hard openings, doesn't break the camera and doesn't intterupt filming too much Firewire-able Not too expensive Don't care much about skydiving. Aside from possible solo jumps to test the setup, I won't be taking it up in a plane ever Don't need a crosshair or ringsight. I'd turn it on way before the jump and turn it off way after landing. In between, it shouldn't be more than an ignorable solid block of extra weight on my helmet. Am I overlooking any requirements? Is there any brand and model that clearly stands out as the camera suitable for base? What if price is not a concern? What if price is a concern? Are you happy with your own camera, or is there another camera that you deem more suitable? I've looked into bullet-cam setups, but they don't seem to have quite the image quality yet. And while on the topic anyway, what are some of the problems associated with jumping cameras in base? I imagine the weight is a problem, causing neck strain on hard openings. A much bigger problem would be must-get-great-footage-itis causing you to lose track of altitude and other dangers in favour of getting better footage. Anything else I'm overlooking? Don't worry, I won't be strapping a camera onto my helmet any time soon. I'll make sure I make at least two more base jumps... Thanks, Jaap Suter

Somebody recently posted a link to http://www.summitpost.org. Another great website for North American mountains is http://www.bivouac.com/. It seems to have a focus on the north-west, but it contain some great information. Trip reports, climbing info, photos, topo-maps, lat-long coordinates, etcetera. The only drawback is that it costs 25 Canadian to get access to most of the photos and other stories. However, depending on where you live, it can be worth it. It definitely has been for me. Post links to your favourite and most useful base related websites here. Cheers, Jaap

What the ....? Last I heard the highest you guys had over there was 1300ft. Or are you wingsuiting it and including the talus?

That sounds like fun, can I come and play? What time would I have to be where? Cheers, Jaap

Glad you're stuck in Alberta these days Andrew... I'm actually in Calgary next weekend, maybe I'll drop by and give you one too?