Question about Golden Gate Bridge jump

[2Cats]

I have some questions about a video clip I saw today...and I thought someone here would definately know the answers.

The clip I saw first is here:



It is screwed up in so many different ways..apart from being in Dutch & incomprehensible to me.

OK...so there's 2 different bridges that the filmmakers want you to believe are the same one...Duh !! It also appears as though it's one jump that went wrong. This is clearly not so. The jumper goes off from the top and then immediately deploys 2 round canopies. He then drifts back into the bridge and lands on a platform under 2 canopies. The next frame shows him suspended from a hung up canopy and cutting away. (How did he get from standing on the platform to being hung up ?). The video then shows the cutaway and a simgle reserve canopy is beginning to deploy as he falls past the bridge deck. Finally the video shows what appears to be a safe reserve opening...only it looks totally wrong. In the final shots he's under 2 canopies not one...and he's magically well above the deck.

Clearly there is more than 1 jump here spliced together to look like one for non-jumpers who don't know any better.

Another video clip makes things a bit clearer...and it's in English, here:
http://www.spike.com/video/when-stun...54222?cid=YSSP

This shows that there were 2 jumps. The first one went OK and he landed in the water under 2 canopies. The next one went bad and he gets just one canopy out and ends up hung up on the bridge. He cuts away & presumably is OK...but this isn't shown.

So...I can see how (but not why) the 1st video put 2 jumps into one.

So.here's the questions:

• How did he wind up landing on the platform under 2 canopies in the 1st video ? He must have jumped the GGB 3 times...?
• When was this footage taken ? The release date is 2008...but the jumpsuit looks like it's from the 1980's or 1990's.
• Why was he jumping using round canopies ? I remember some really early stuff where a jumper went off a really low bridge with 2 handheld rounds ...but I'm talking about Carl Boenish's time. This video looks much more recent than this.
• My biggest question is how did he manage to jump the GGB repeatedly without getting arrested ?

Just curious.

The jumper's name sounds like "Ron Broyles"..but I Googled that name & didn't come up with anything very helpful. All I got was this dead link:

Real TV Episode Guide (1996-2001) Hosted by John Daly and Ahmad Rashad


If you are looking for anything on my Real TV episode guide on VHS or R0 ... tons of coke/In Houston, TX Ron Broyles climbs the Texas Commerce Tower 100 feet ...
geocities.com/videogamelists/realtv.html

This kind of confirms the 1990's date that the jumpsuit comes from....but we had good squares back then...???

Can anyone help me out ???

Just for the record...I'm a skydiver with just 1 BASE jump under my belt. It was a 100 foot bridge I jumped using a 9-cell Dragonfly canopy back in 1986.

Cheers, 2Cats

[lifewithoutanet]

Originally Posted by 2Cats

Just for the record...I'm a skydiver with just 1 BASE jump under my belt. It was a 100 foot bridge I jumped using a 9-cell Dragonfly canopy back in 1986.

Fuck the rest of your post. I'll admit to not even reading it...just skimmed to the end and caught this gem.

What I want to know is how the fuck are you posting from the grave? Screw everything else above...if you're not totally fucking w/ us, I want to hear about your 1 jump.
-C.

[2Cats]

No problem.

How do I post a picture on this webspace ??

2Cats

[2Cats]

Isn't there a gallery on this website I can upload a picture to ?? All I can see is how to link to an existing website.

[2Cats]

OK..have to go now..I can pick this up later

A few details:

100' railway bridge in NW England

220' 9-cell Django Dragonfly canopy

Buddy-assist deployment

Clean opening and flaired landing...in shallow water (you could stand in it !)

4.5 secs from exit to landing.

What else do you want to know ?

There was a brief report and a picture in the old Brit BASE mag "Jump!" (remember that ??)

Also a pic appeared in the US BASE mag...I think it was the Fixed Object Journal...I have to check.

No...I'm not F*cking with you ! :-)

2Cats

[2Cats]

Here it is. My one (and only !) BASE jump back in 1986. It was from a railway bridge into shallow water. You could stand in most of the water...it wasn't very deep. :-)

I can remember at the time thinking that the USA had all the cool, high BASE sites. You had El Cap, 1/2 Dome & Glacier Point..all at 2000' and all we had Cheddar Gorge at 325' (?). You had New River Gorge Bridge...650' (?) and all we had was Clifton Suspension Bridge at 250'. Anyway...I know that my BASE bridge was exactly 100' because I measured it with a length of string with a weight on it...no kidding !! :-)

I wasn't the first one to jump it. I helped 2 friends 'open' the site the week before. These guys were really experienced....they had both done 2 BASE jumps already. No sarcasm intended here. Really ! Back in 1986 in England anyone who had more than 1 BASE jump was considered experienced.

The jump went well & I was pretty pleased to have time to take the brakes off and flare the canopy on landing. Not bad for a F111 skydiving canopy, without cross-port venting. There were no special BASE canopies back in those days. The slider was packed down, of course, and we used a large 48" pilot chute. The pictures speak for themselves.

Enjoy.

Now...has anyone got any answers to my original posting about the Golden Gate Bridge jump video clips ???

[Frog]

Cool one! Respect!!!

[2Cats]

Well...whad'ya know ??? I was looking through some old BASE mags trying to find the picture/report of my 100' bridge jump. I came across a report of the Golden Gate Bridge jump that started off this thread. See scanned pdf files. Most of the questions are answered in this article, which appeared in the Spring 1988 issue of 'Baseline', an early BASE magazine which ran quarterly from Summer '86 until Xmas '88.

The successful jump from the North Tower into the water using 2 canopies took place in July 1984.

The unsuccessful jump from the South Tower using 1 canopy ending with a hangup on the bridge pier and a cutaway took place in September 1984.

This leaves unanswered the landing on the bridge pier balcony with 2 canopies open, shown in the 1st video clip. When did this happen ??

Are there any 'BASE dinosoars' out there who can recall the 3rd jump ? What was the outcome ?

Interesting to read about how access to the top of the towers was achieved.

Cheers, 2Cats

BTW..Moderator: If I am out of line with posting these pdf scans from the old issue of 'Baseline' then please remove these attachments from this post.

[dirteedave]

hahaha... thanx 2cats for bein up on your shit... eat it lifewithoutawoman... that's funny as hell oh by the way you're an ass. much props 2cats.

[dirteedave]

just to clarify... that last post gave mad props to 2cats fer doin or not doin somethin based on personal judgement, makin a scary jump, then no more. that takes much more guts than just doin something cuz its cool... though we all know chicks do dig it. an to lifewithaset you are really an ass, not a badass, keep talkin shit maybe people will think you're cool

[lifewithoutanet]

Originally Posted by dirteedave

just to clarify... that last post gave mad props to 2cats fer doin or not doin somethin based on personal judgement, makin a scary jump, then no more. that takes much more guts than just doin something cuz its cool... though we all know chicks do dig it. an to lifewithaset you are really an ass, not a badass, keep talkin shit maybe people will think you're cool

WTF is your problem? Can't you tell I was interested in hearing about his jump? No shit talking there. Total respect. You, on the other hand are welcome to the peanuts and corn out of my next dump.
-C.

[lifewithoutanet]

Originally Posted by 2Cats

The jump went well & I was pretty pleased to have time to take the brakes off and flare the canopy on landing. Not bad for a F111 skydiving canopy, without cross-port venting. There were no special BASE canopies back in those days. The slider was packed down, of course, and we used a large 48" pilot chute. The pictures speak for themselves.

Damn. Yeah, that's the thing... By today's standards (and maybe therein lies the rub), that just doesn't sound like something most jumpers would do. I know about the 93' (?) firetruck ladder jump and there are a hadful of guys freefalling low shit, but you rarely hear about something like this. I mean, I get you were dealing with the gear of the day, but I'd have a hard time convincing myself to try that with today's gear into shallow water. Good on ya, though. Thanks for all of the pics and attachments in this and other threads, too.
-C.

[2Cats]

Originally Posted by lifewithoutanet

Damn. Yeah, that's the thing... By today's standards (and maybe therein lies the rub), that just doesn't sound like something most jumpers would do. I know about the 93' (?) firetruck ladder jump and there are a hadful of guys freefalling low shit, but you rarely hear about something like this. I mean, I get you were dealing with the gear of the day, but I'd have a hard time convincing myself to try that with today's gear into shallow water. Good on ya, though. Thanks for all of the pics and attachments in this and other threads, too.
-C.

Thanks for the positive comments.

I recall that we organised a "BASE Seminar" weekend for a group of us who were getting started. There had been a high profile fatality around that time (Frank Donnellan) & information was very hard to come by. The British Parachute Association were having a very agressive attitude and were threatening a lifetime skydiving ban on anyone associated with BASE...even if you weren't a jumper ! Anyway, a known BASE jumper gave a very informative series of talks and practicals on site selection, BASE pilot chutes (hard to get !), BASE trash packing, exit technique...and so on to a group of 6 newbies. We had a balloon organised for the weekend...but the usual British weather binned this. A pity.

Anyway, at the end we asked a building owner to let us in and use the top of his 80' building. No shit ! Of course no one was going to jump it...but we hauled a huge rucksack full of rocks to the top and chucked it off the top strapped to a buddy-deployed rig. To our amazement it had a full deployment of the canopy before it landed. I have to say that the rocks hit the ground pretty hard and gave pause for thought...but we figured that it probably would have been survivable....with a couple of broken ankles !

This gave us confidence to try out the 100' bridge (without the BASE guru) a few weeks later.

Everyone on the seminar went on to do a successful BASE jump or more. Within the year. There was a 1000' mast (SE England), a 400' mast (N Wales), 200' building (NW England), 350' tower (NW England), 500' tower (NW England), 330' sea cliff (SW England). Below is a pic of the 500' tower and also 1st ever 2-way from a 250' bridge in SW England. I'm not sure if there had been a 2-way in the USA by then...probably, with all your high stuff. It was a new and exciting time to be in the BASE scene. No one got hurt ! ...not sure if this 2-way has ever been repeated from that bridge (?)

Well...that's all a blast from the past. I leave it to the younger hotshots to show how it's done now and watch from the comfort and safety of my armchair...but still an active skydiver. I have to say that I'm really impressed by the recent stuff from the blade of a wind generator. Respect to those guys. Yay!

[Shockwave]

Hi - I was just researching the Golden Gate jump story for
Shockwave on the History Channel - may be able to help with some of the questions here. We have already interviewed Ron Broyles and his crew. Story has no air date yet but I can put something up on this site.

There were a total of 4 jumps off the bridge - the first by Ron in July 1984 was successful. He went back a couple of months later to do it again with two other jumpers - Richard Berke and Spider McKenna.

Richard jumped first - was driven back into the tower and landed in a catwalk - detached his chute and climbed inside the tower and down to his rescue crew (with two broken ribs)

Ron jumped off the other side of the same tower - also got hung up on a catwalk - suspended from it but not in it. He bounced himself off the tower - cut away his chute and the reserve took him the rest of the way down.

The cause - both their military style chutes had been packed backwards by an FAA rigger. They got spun around and slammed into the tower. Spider's jump went fine (never caught on tape). He had packed his own chute.

[2Cats]

Originally Posted by Shockwave

Hi - I was just researching the Golden Gate jump story for
Shockwave on the History Channel - may be able to help with some of the questions here. We have already interviewed Ron Broyles and his crew. Story has no air date yet but I can put something up on this site.

There were a total of 4 jumps off the bridge - the first by Ron in July 1984 was successful. He went back a couple of months later to do it again with two other jumpers - Richard Berke and Spider McKenna.

Richard jumped first - was driven back into the tower and landed in a catwalk - detached his chute and climbed inside the tower and down to his rescue crew (with two broken ribs)

Ron jumped off the other side of the same tower - also got hung up on a catwalk - suspended from it but not in it. He bounced himself off the tower - cut away his chute and the reserve took him the rest of the way down.

The cause - both their military style chutes had been packed backwards by an FAA rigger. They got spun around and slammed into the tower. Spider's jump went fine (never caught on tape). He had packed his own chute.

I thought that Dutch video on YouTube was really screwed up !!! It has compressed 3 different jumps into one (as well as 2 bridges !).

Thanks for the clarification.

2Cats