Good Morning America Nov. 6

[guest]

Hey if anyone is interested Good Morning America is doing a spot on BASE and Building escape systems that involve parachutes tomorrow morning.

[guest]

UnFucking believeable!

I saw this spot on GMA! Jason was great!

That other #####...the Foster dude...ought to be shot!

He is just out to cash in on the tragedy of 9/11...he looked like a total idiot and the worse thing...people will actually believe his bullshit and buy these things.

He did a demo with a dummy from a crane and that dummy smashed into the ground like a sack of potatoes! Mr. Foster should have jumped it himself!

Does Executive Chutes have a website? Getting ready to go check that out now! Nope...just checked...they bought the domain name but no site yet...this oughta be good...

love you guys...

[base428]

Too bad the folks at Good Morning America (GMA) decided to twist the story into something a bit negative for emergency parachutes.
I went to NYC last week to provide my unbiased opinion on emergency parachutes and jumping. Greg Hunter, the ABC correspondant, was apparently displeased with the ExecutiveChute system because he had seen the system and interviewed the CEO the day before my interview. I guess I'd be sceptic after looking at a system that has a 16' round in it (can you say "ankle/leg-breaker"?). Anyway, I agreed with GMA that training needs to take place before people use these things, but I totally disagreed with GMA's stance that you need to make a bunch of skydives before buying one. GMA got pissed at me during my interview because I wasn't giving them "what they needed" and I told them they're "only trying to lead me".
The best part was when I told Greg Hunter that if this building was on fire right now, that I could sell him my BASE rig for $1,000,000 and he would JUMP WITHOUT FORMAL TRAINING! (I brought my base rig along for the interview). Greg unconvincingly said he wouldn't jump in that situation. Yeah right....
So the bottom line is this......
(1) ExecutiveChute needs get rid of 16' rounds.
(2) Emergency parachute manufacturers should do live test jumps from buildings and they will show the world that it really works. People are not convinced by dummy drops from cranes.
(3) Training does not need to involve skydiving or base jumping, although if the user wants to do this - great! If the flames from the building are nipping at your ass, are you going to NOT jump because you didn't make some skydives? Heck no. Will you survive if you jump using the training provided by the respected emergency parachute manufacturers? Probably so. If my mother worked on the 75th floor, I'd be happier if she had a chute there just in case.....

Jason Bell
base428
jbell@vertical-visions.com