Nick
August 4th, 2002, 08:00 PM
Buildings are the shooting stars of BASE objects.
A period of brief, but easy, access while under construction, where by merely eluding a guard or two, one can jump to their hearts content, before the concrete and glass tops out, the people move in, and BASE jumpers move on to easier pickings.
I climbed alone four times to the top of Great America Plaza, a 34-story building being built in San Diego. The first time it was too windy, the second time I went too early and there where too many people around. The third time it was perfect. But when I got to the top it just didn’t feel right.
The fourth time, on the way, I passed by a closed tattoo parlor in the street and there was a girl sitting in the doorway. Her eyes where dead and she looked but didn't see me. No one saw me go over the fence or duck into the stairwell. I stopped halfway up on the 17th floor, walked to the perimeter and peered over the side for a look-see. Nothing, nobody and no wind.
The crane attached to the building had a wooden planked catwalk that crossed over on the twentieth floor. The crane, which was higher than the building itself, was the better jump, if one could get to the boom part of it. The plank is 3-feet across and about 8-feet away from the crane. I figured since I’m alone, I’m twenty stories up, and I’ve had a few beers, maybe I should put my rig on.
I did, and gingerly crossed the ramp, at the same time thinking BASE jumping allows one to do things where there is just no justification to do so in any other endeavor.
I started up the same steel ladder the crane operator climbed every day and came to a sort of large wooden platform, a nice launch point right here, but instead I climbed another four floors to the bottom of the crane’s cab. The hatch was padlocked.
There’s a climbing move some BASE jumpers have perfected to by-pass the cab and gain access to the boom, once at the tip, you’d have 4 to 5 hundred feet of clean air, but at that stage of my BASE career I was more a jumper and climbing was only something I occasionally saw on PBS.
I backtracked down to the ladder, back to the wooden platform and carefully walked to it’s edge. Buildings under construction are dangerous enough during the day, but at night, they are treacherous. I always kept more then one point of contact lest the next step you take is your last.
I sat and dangled my legs 30 stories over Broadway and Kettener Blvd.
At 3 o’clock in the morning there are only two types of people in the streets. The kind who won’t call the police and the kind who are the police. The conditions are perfect and after all the previous tries, when I tightened my leg straps I began to experience the calm that comes from knowing your going.
I paced off the three steps backwards and checked myself over. I ran off the edge almost in auto-mode and thinking, wow, you really did it. (BASE jumping allows living in the very moment like that). I pitched, opened and landed happily in the street below.
The girl I’d seen earlier in the doorway ran up to me shouting, “Oh, man I saw you, oh man!” and her eyes had life and she kissed me.
Probably the most dangerous thing I did that night . . .
Nick
BASE 194
:P
A period of brief, but easy, access while under construction, where by merely eluding a guard or two, one can jump to their hearts content, before the concrete and glass tops out, the people move in, and BASE jumpers move on to easier pickings.
I climbed alone four times to the top of Great America Plaza, a 34-story building being built in San Diego. The first time it was too windy, the second time I went too early and there where too many people around. The third time it was perfect. But when I got to the top it just didn’t feel right.
The fourth time, on the way, I passed by a closed tattoo parlor in the street and there was a girl sitting in the doorway. Her eyes where dead and she looked but didn't see me. No one saw me go over the fence or duck into the stairwell. I stopped halfway up on the 17th floor, walked to the perimeter and peered over the side for a look-see. Nothing, nobody and no wind.
The crane attached to the building had a wooden planked catwalk that crossed over on the twentieth floor. The crane, which was higher than the building itself, was the better jump, if one could get to the boom part of it. The plank is 3-feet across and about 8-feet away from the crane. I figured since I’m alone, I’m twenty stories up, and I’ve had a few beers, maybe I should put my rig on.
I did, and gingerly crossed the ramp, at the same time thinking BASE jumping allows one to do things where there is just no justification to do so in any other endeavor.
I started up the same steel ladder the crane operator climbed every day and came to a sort of large wooden platform, a nice launch point right here, but instead I climbed another four floors to the bottom of the crane’s cab. The hatch was padlocked.
There’s a climbing move some BASE jumpers have perfected to by-pass the cab and gain access to the boom, once at the tip, you’d have 4 to 5 hundred feet of clean air, but at that stage of my BASE career I was more a jumper and climbing was only something I occasionally saw on PBS.
I backtracked down to the ladder, back to the wooden platform and carefully walked to it’s edge. Buildings under construction are dangerous enough during the day, but at night, they are treacherous. I always kept more then one point of contact lest the next step you take is your last.
I sat and dangled my legs 30 stories over Broadway and Kettener Blvd.
At 3 o’clock in the morning there are only two types of people in the streets. The kind who won’t call the police and the kind who are the police. The conditions are perfect and after all the previous tries, when I tightened my leg straps I began to experience the calm that comes from knowing your going.
I paced off the three steps backwards and checked myself over. I ran off the edge almost in auto-mode and thinking, wow, you really did it. (BASE jumping allows living in the very moment like that). I pitched, opened and landed happily in the street below.
The girl I’d seen earlier in the doorway ran up to me shouting, “Oh, man I saw you, oh man!” and her eyes had life and she kissed me.
Probably the most dangerous thing I did that night . . .
Nick
BASE 194
:P