While Nathan is preparing to roast himself for our benefit (by posting how he managed to jump a field packed rig) maybe we can make it easier for him by coming clean ourselves.

So, here's an opportunity for those of us who have made grand blunders and survived to come clean for the benefit of others.

Some Background . . .

Inside the early BASE magazines like BASELINE and The BASE Gazette probably the most important and useful sections are the accident and incident reports.

However, problems arose as the reports were written by an editor and not a witness and in many cases speculation rather than fact is reported. It wasn't too unusual for the next issue to have an angry letter from the jumper involved that began, "You Stupid Bonehead Jerks."

When we started the JOURNAL we tried to get around that problem by only printing accident reports by the person involved, or if that wasn't possible, by an actual (experienced BASE jumping) witness. Even at that, accurate reporting is difficult, as two people can see the same thing yet disagree on what they saw.

(Like when an aircraft crashes whuffo witness always say conflicting things, "It was on fire before it hit the ground." "It burst into flames after hitting the ground." "It came down in one piece." "It came down in a million pieces." "The pilot was steering away from the school house." "The pilot steered right for the schoolhouse." "The engines were racing." "The engines were off," etc.

In BASE jumping it's can sometimes be the same, "He turned right and hit the wall." "He turned left and hit the wall." In the end the best reports are the ones where you survived, figured out what went wrong and then clue the rest of us in.

So, for the benefit of others, leave the ego behind and go ahead and roast yourself . . .

Nick_BR