1352

[FreeFallFiend]

How i got my BASE Number.

Joe - 1352

October 18, 2008. Bridge Day. First Span. Jumper number 1. 876 ft.(NRG)
My first span was also my first BASE jump. I had wanted to do Bridge Day for years but always had other commitments. In 2008 a trip down to Paraclete was scheduled for the same weekend as BD and canceled last minute. So I start making some calls, signed up for BD, and borrowed gear from my now really good jumping buddy Andy 1338 but at the time didn’t know very well. So I show up Thursday night and my head is spinning. There were so many people helping me, giving me advice, and looking out for me. I knew many people there from skydiving. So I went through Tom A’s single day bridge day course and Saturday morning stood in line. As I approached the exit I was excited to see both Shawn Kindle and Sporto who both gave me quite a bit of freefly coaching. Sporto walked me to the X, told me to look down, made sure I knew the landing pattern, and gave me words of encouragement. While the three of us are looking down I said “Wow that doesn’t look very high.” Shawn laughs and says “That’s because it’s not…have fun.” So I lock on to the horizon, countdown, and jump. After what I think was 2 sec I realize I was so excited I forgot to count. So I do a quick mental calculation and pitch at what I thought was 4 seconds. (After looking at the video it was 4.5) Canopy opens great and I do a quick pattern and land on the shore.

March 22, 2009. First Antenna. Jump Number 9. 1500ft.(French Whore/Zipper in the Sky)
My first Antenna was my 9th jump. It was also my first stowed, first terminal, first night. This is one of our crown jewels as it’s an 1800ft tower with an elevator. I can honestly say I have never been more scared on a jump. The thought of freefalling to almost terminal velocity in complete darkness scared the hell out of me (at the time I had not yet received the surgery to correct my night blindness) but I felt I was ready and so did my mentors. So we take the elevator up and get ready to go. There were 3 of us on this load with me going 2nd. As soon as my mentor jumps I immediately lose him in the darkness. Now I’m really freaking out. I climb up to the exit and then it hits me what I am about to do. I cant see the ground at all so I have no idea where the tree line is. The part about the jump that concerned me the most was the amount of new factors I was going to experience all in the next 6 to 8 seconds. After spending about 5-6 minutes at the exit I jump. After accelerating for 3 seconds I start my track and hold it for 3 more seconds before reaching for my pc, holding it 1 second then pitching. I did a 180 and landed back towards the tower.

August 22, 2009. First Earth. Jump Number 42. 450FT(Echo)
My first Earth was my 42nd jump and was also unexpected. My friends and I planned a trip out to the Perrine to get some practice in and have some fun. Because of work constraints they all arrived a few days before me. I was to fly in to SLC Friday night and drive straight to TF. Unfortunately my flights were delayed big time and I didn’t get to SLC until 2AM local. Not wanting to drive all night to TF then jump all day I called Ryan Cutter and asked if anyone would be jumping nearby in the next 12 hours. To my surprise he said yes and told me where to meet him. So I drove from SLC to Park City and slept about 2 hours in the rental car in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I meet up with Cutter, Pickle, and Hartman and we hiked up to Echo. The scenery was amazing to me as we don’t have anything like it back east and all my trips out west previously were ski trips so it was all covered in snow. We get to the exit and I am quite nervous. It’s a little more underhung than I imagined or would have liked for my level of experience. It was also my first time going stowed from a non terminal jump as I didn’t want to do a running handheld exit. Exit order was me 3rd with Cutter filming me and going last. I shocked myself at how little time I took at the X. As soon as Cutter said he was ready I took a deep breath, gave me a last fist pound, said my famous line of “this is stupid” and before I knew what was happening my legs were taking me off the edge. I had a nice 2 second delay then BANG, canopy. I flew over the raod, over the RR tracks, and had a nice soft landing. It was so awesome I begged to do it again so we did. The second time I asked to go last. It was just me and the scenery and it was breathtaking and amazing. I counted my self down, gave a solid launch, awesome 3 second SD delay (I really didn’t want to pull it was so awesome!) and then flew the canopy to the LZ. When I got down everyone was laughing at me because they knew the delay hurt but I didn’t care it was worth it.

September 4, 2009. First Building. Jump Number 53. 160ft(Thunder Fuck)
My first building was my 53rd jump. Ever since I got my E I really wanted to get a B as that would complete BASE for me. We have some B’s in C*** but they are all really high profile with super high bust factors. We had another really easy one but It was recently burned when a couple jumpers dayblazed it and the media made a story about it. So I start making some calls to some areas that I know how jumpable B’s. I call some friends and C*** and D***and get the nod but the winds were crazy for a couple weeks because of the hurricanes and tropical storms. Then my friend Josh tells me he recently opened a 160ft B in L***. Now I know 160ft is low, especially for a B, but at the time had at least half a dozen static lines from the lower deck of a local bridge that is about 160ft. So I tell him I will go down with him and check it out and if I like the conditions then I will go for it. So we go down, get ready, and get to the top of this B. It’s right on main street with bars all around it. We decided to jump around 2am because the LZ was the street and last time Josh did it there was no one around. Well Josh neglected to mention he did it on a weekday night and we were there at the start of Labor day weekend. This meant the streets were full of drunk people that just got kicked out of the bars. We had a good getaway plan though so we decided to do it. I asked if I could go first. I exited, had a moment of panic when I thought my canopy was sniveling (later we determined it was a simple the crosswind turning into a rotor and slowing it a fraction of a second) but then it opened, I cleared the toggles, and had about a 4 second canopy ride before landing softly in the street. As I was flaring I heard people start to cheer. The drunkies had no idea what was going on but they knew they just witnessed something amazing. They immediately ran into the street where I was frantically pulling my pc in before a taxi who had just turned the corner was about to run over it. I ignored the drunk people turned to the car and starting running. Josh was about 20 feet in front of me and his lines caught on a concrete pillar. I stopped to clear the lines which allowed the drunk people to catch up with us. “Where did you guys come from? Did you jump a building? Which one? That’s awesome! I went to airborne school you gotta talk to me!” This was some of the things I heard being yelled at me as I frantically tried to shake them off and get my gear and josh’s gear (it was now all entangled together) into the van. We actually hit one of the drunks with the side mirror pulling out because he wouldn't move. Ten minutes later we pulled into where we had geared up earlier and my legs were still bouncing.

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