BASE a sport ?

[Ray Losli]

The weather is crap today. It's raining like Hell and the wind is blowing like a bus load of Qxxxr'x (self edit). So I am not jumping today. Just sitting hear smoking a big fatty. So bear with me on thought process hear,I can't remember if this has already been talked about.

People sometimes use the term -The sport of Base jumping- Can you call BASE jumping a sport ?

The rough definition of a sport is, A specific activity involving physical exercise and a set body of rules.
Base jumping can involve physical exercise.
There have been a handful of competitions in the past ( i.e.,) IPBC or MIXSA
Having organized competitions is a good argument to calling it a sport. So then are a lot of us out there doing a jump tonight, athletes in training ?

>Do we have a set, Body of Rules ? Hard rules on paper how to play our Sport ? ( i.e.,) Soccer, Volleyball .
>Or is it just an extreme stunt practiced (most of the time skillfully) over and over again by a small group of people in the world ?

Skydiving is called a sport but it at least has a huge paying body of members. Written tests and licensing. Training method and BSR's ( basic safety rules) on paper. Also an elected body of member representation,- national and regional officers.
To say the least -A HUGE effort to pull that off.- for a much larger group of people.
>In the beginning, Civilian Skydiving was just as raw as BASE.

The trend I see that is constantly being pushed forward, (especially on the public BASE forums), is the attempt to improve the Publics Perception of BASE and our actions, which on the large part at least here in the U.S. is illegal.

-Questions-
1. Do you Honestly think the public will ever see the activity of jumping off fixed objects with a Parachute as Acceptable social behavior ? Is there even a chance ?
2. Can we Market BASE as a Sport to try to get it more socially accepted.
3. Do you think BASE is a sport ?
4. Do you want it to be a sport ?
5. Is the best way to keep BASE underground ? At best loosely organized, with good communication (i.e.,) BASE Board.or DZ.

...Ray Losli...

[Tree]

Hey Ray,

I've talked about this a lot with friends and no, I don't think that BASE is a sport. BASE is an addiction, and therefore is more like a drug than a sport. So until snorting coke, shooting smack, or tripping become olympic events were just a bunch of freaks waiting to get that next fix. Don't bogart my exit point.. man!

Pass the fatty

Tree :-)

[Ray Losli]

So basicly you agree with:
> It just an extreme stunt practiced (most of the time skillfully) over and over again by a small group of people-(freaks)in the world ?
>Never to be accepted.
...Ray Losli

[base570]

Puff, Puff, Give...

:D Thank you <cough> :+

I don't see BASE as a sport.. I see it more of a recreational activity right now. I can see how it could evolve into something a little more structured and eventually be classified as a sport but as of now, generally no rules, no real structure and no standardized competition means no sport. I think eventually we will come to some kind of consensus on how we want competitions to be run and how we want to nurture this fledgeling 'pre-sport' but we can't seem to agree on the right path to take (if there is one) There will always be individuals that won't like the rules or choose to play by their own, which is fine. I liken it to 4 wheelers (quads) You can go and compete all day long racing and jumping them but you don't have too, you could just as easily go on some back ass trail to get your jollies. I think a sport needs both structure and an opportunity to play outside the rules, BASE only consists of one element.

As for my opinion on whether or not I want BASE to progress into a full Sport, I would have to say sure let it happen. I'll compete when I want and I won't when I don't want to. I should however not be excluded from an event if I choose to not compete, sites should not become exclusive competition arenas.
<cough>
Sorry man, I got stuck holding the mic. I'll pass it along now...:+ :+
570

[stinkydragon]

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, mountain climbing, and motor racing. All the rest are games."

-Earnest Hemmingway

[Yuri]

Yo !

The Onion had a beautiful article a while ago that totally relates to the "sport" aspect of BASE. Read it here and see if it reminds you of anybody you know:

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The Onion | Monk Gloats Over Yoga Championship
http://www.theonion.com/onion2908/monkgloats.html

LHASA, TIBET—Employing the brash style that first brought him to prominence, Sri Dhananjai Bikram won the fifth annual International Yogi Competition yesterday with a world-record point total of 873.6.

"I am the serenest!" Bikram shouted to the estimated crowd of 20,000 yoga fans, vigorously pumping his fists. "No one is serener than Sri Dhananjai Bikram—I am the greatest monk of all time!"

Bikram averaged 1.89 breaths a minute during the two-hour competition, nearly .3 fewer than his nearest competitor, second-place finisher and two-time champion Sri Salil "The Hammer" Gupta.

The heavily favored Gupta was upset after the loss.

"I should be able to beat that guy with one lung tied," Gupta said. "I'm beside myself right now, and I don't mean trans-bodily."

Bikram got off to a fast start at the Lhasa meet, which like most major competitions, is a six-event affair. In the first event, he attained total consciousness (TC) in just 2 minutes, 34 seconds, and set the tone for the rest of the meet by repeatedly shouting, "I'm blissful! You blissful?! I'm blissful!" to the other yogis.

Bikram, 33, burst onto the international yoga scene with a gold-mandala performance at the 1994 Bhutan Invitational. At that competition he premiered his aggressive style, at one point in the flexibility event sticking his middle toes out at the other yogis. While no prohibition exists against such behavior, according to Yoga League Commissioner Swami Prabhupada, such behavior is generally considered "un-Buddhalike."

"I don't care what the critics say," Bikram said. "Sri Bikram is just gonna go out there and do Sri Bikram's own yoga thing."

Before the Bhutan meet, Bikram had never placed better than fourth. Many said he had forsaken rigorous training for the celebrity status accorded by his Bhutan win, endorsing Nike's new line of prayer mats and supposedly dating the Hindu goddess Shakti. But his performance this week will regain for him the number one computer ranking and earn him new respect, as well as for his coach Mahananda Vasti, the controversial guru some have called Bikram's "guru."

"My special training diet for Bikram of one super-charged, carbo-loaded grain of rice per day was essential to his win," Vasti said.

The defeated Gupta denied that Bikram's taunting was a factor in his inability to attain TC.

"I just wasn't myself today," Gupta commented. "I wasn't any self today. I was an egoless particle of the universal no-soul."

In the second event, flexibility, Bikram maintained the lead by supporting himself on his index fingers for the entire 15 minutes while touching the back of his skull to his lower spine. The feat was matched by Gupta, who first used the position at the 1990 Tokyo Zen-Off.

"That's my meditative position of spiritual ecstasy, not his," remarked Gupta. "He stole my thunder."

Bikram denied the charge, saying, "Gupta's been talking like that ever since he was a 3rd century Egyptian slave-owner."

Nevertheless, a strong showing by Gupta in the third event, the shotput, placed him within a lotus petal of the lead at the competition's halfway point.

But event number four, the contemplation of unanswerable riddles known as koans, proved the key to victory for Bikram.

The koan had long been thought the weak point of his spiritual arsenal, but his response to today's riddle—"Show me the face you had before you were born"—was reportedly "extremely illuminative," according to Commissioner Prabhupada.

While koan answers are kept secret from the public for fear of exposing the uninitiated multitudes to the terror of universal truth, insiders claim his answer had Prabhupada and the two other judges "highly enlightened."

With the event victory, Bikram built himself a nearly insurmountable lead, one he sustained through the yak-milk churn and breathing events to come away with the upset victory.

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>1. Do you Honestly think the public will ever see the activity
>of jumping off fixed objects with a Parachute as Acceptable
>social behavior ? Is there even a chance ?

It already does, outside U.S.

>2. Can we Market BASE as a Sport to try to get it more
>socially accepted.

Yes.

>3. Do you think BASE is a sport ?

No. Is yoga ?

>4. Do you want it to be a sport ?

Hell no. In order to develop into a real sport it has to lower the risks substantially, become more mainstream and regulated and rid itself of its best part: anti-social self-destructive substance-abusing criminal base jumpers! ;-)

>5. Is the best way to keep BASE underground ? At best
>loosely organized, with good communication (i.e.,) BASE
>Board.or DZ.

No. It will develop on its own pretty much ignoring our efforts to steer it one way or another. Just let it be! ;-)

There is nothing wrong with BASE competitions, and many people enjoy them. At the same time a competitive sport aspect is only a minor side dish on a rich and diverse plate of BASE jumping.

bsbd!

Yuri.

[base570]

Damn, that's a funny ass story.:7
570

[Ray Losli]

Yuri..You Say..
"No. It will develop on its own pretty much ignoring our efforts to steer it one way or another. Just let it be!"

>But Maybe the trend being pushed forward (especially on the public BASE forums). The attempt to improve the Publics Perception of BASE and our actions.
>Also the loosely organized communication between jumpers (i.e.,)BASE board or DZ.

Do you think -The Above Actions- could be the Sub-Conscience efforts of all of us to steer and develop this thing called BASE to be publicly accepted. Even move it to a self governing organization like sport parachuting.

>Maybe we are all steering it and we don't even Realize It.

...Ray Losli...

[DantheMan]

Spread the love, Ray!
Dan-the-Man (dolphin trainer #1)
Team Crank.:-)

[Ray Losli]

Yes.. Dan, as you know. Just ask anyone who knows me.
I am all about spreading the Love, while spending many a sleepless night worrying about the Human Condition.

..Ray..

[K]

>The weather is crap today. It's raining like Hell and the
>wind is blowing like a bus load of Qxxxr'x (self edit). So I
>am not jumping today.

It's Friday afternoon in Houston, it's raining a torrent and the wind is blowing like mad. We've just completed 2 jumps and are gearing up for a third. Weather doesn't bother us! Oh, wait, it's because we're in THE RELIANT STADIUM WITH THE ROOF CLOSED! :) (Sorry Ray, I couldn't resist...)

K#763

[imported_Mac]

>There is nothing wrong with BASE competitions, and many people
>enjoy them. At the same time a competitive sport aspect is
>only a minor side dish on a rich and diverse plate of BASE
>jumping.


To me BASE is a life style and a life choice - just like to some people going to the pub and getting drunk each and every day/week is a life style........

in our life style there are competitions that you can enter....

in the pub life style there are too competitions to make your life style have some more meaning to you - you can play darts, aunt sally, or pub quiz to test your "experience" in your life syle environement

in our life style you hang with like minded individuals and talk about the love and interest you have that makes you friends

in the pub life style you hang with like minded drunk individuals and talk about bollox that you both have interest in at the time and share experiences like urinating together at the same "object" and end up the best of friends who "love each other"

in our life style we talk to each other about gear progression, the cost of gear and the advantage of jumping certain types of gear

in the pub life style you talk to each other about beer progression, the cost of beer and the advantage of drinking certain types of beer

in our life style you talk about places you have jumped and how cool they were

in the pub life style you talk about places you have drunk and how cool the night was and how it was so different to any other night you got blasted and could not remember

in our life style you talk about certain canopies you tried out once and what they flew like

in the pub life style you talk about certain drinks you once had and what an effect they had on you.............


in the end we follow a life style that is special to us and unique to us and most of the world...(there is no getting away from this).......... but every sub-culture aspect of society beleives they also do this..........


anyway - far too windy and wet in the UK - so now I am posting complete $hite!!!!!

:P