Jackass B.A.S.E....

[Lloyd]

A local experienced skydiver recently decided to "get into B.A.S.E".He lives about a mile from one of the largest B.A.S.E gear manufacturers in the U.S who also offer excellent training [not cheap,but cheaper than a femur].
Instead,one night in the d.z bar he persuaded another B.A.S.E jumper [fairly inexperienced,with about 65 jumps off 6 different objects,I think] to take him for his first jump.So,after borrowing a suitable canopy and packing it into his recently-purchased used velcro container they set off for our local, silly little 180' E.
His instructor then decided that this would be a great opportunity for him to try doing a pilot-chute-assist for the first time.
I'm told the p.c.a didn't go too well and our intrepid new B.A.S.E jumper opened very low and biffed in pretty hard at the base of the wall,lucky to escape with just a badly sprained ankle.

Ok,as B.A.S.E jumpers we all have "jackass jumps" we like to tell funny, scarey stories about [oh..how I cringe...!] but there have already been 13 too many B.A.S.E fatalities this year and this could easily have been another.
Not funny.
PLEASE,if you want to B.A.S.E. jump be patient,take the time to get proper instruction,make the effort to travel to a suitable object for your first jumps [like a high span] and be carefull!
Lloyd.





:o

[motherhucker]

>PLEASE,if you want to B.A.S.E. jump be
>patient,take the time to get proper
>instruction,make the effort to travel to a
>suitable object for your first jumps [like a
>high span] and be carefull!

I agree with these wise words BUT...
The new BASE jumpers are not the ones to trust with good judgement. Most haven't a clue what they're doing. The responsibility lies with the "mentors". BE A RESPONSIBLE BASE JUMPER:

1. don't teach people who aren't ready--they should have already invested in gear/shown proficiency in good judgement, canopy skills/run ground for at least a couple of jumps (IMO)

2. A 180' E is not an appropriate place to try your first PCA. THINK ABOUT IT: are you qualified to teach another human being how to BASE jump? Having a handful (or even many handfuls) of BASE jumps doesn't make you qualified. Knowing what the fu(k you're doing does.

I think it's way too easy to learn to BASE jump these days. This has shown itself more and more as the list of fatalities (13 in a year???) grows. If we don't collectively be more cautious with who and how BASE jumps are made, we are all to blame for this sport becoming that much more marginalized, legal sites being shut down, and more people we know dying. BASE is good. Let's keep it and those who practice it ALIVE.
the huck

[Thomas]

so, can I have less jumps than you, and maybe, just maybe KNOW more than you?? even if not about BASE jumping related topics?
Everyone is their own BASE instructor. All I did was listen to what he said, CONSIDER IT FOR MYSELF, JUDGE IT REASONABLE, and then execute.
am I still talking????
Thomas :-) :-)

[guest]

Lloyd hit the mark on this one! We have the same thing going on in my neck of the woods. Skydivers who think thousands of jumps make them qualified to make a BASE jump. So, they jump the local 400 ft S. without walking the landing area, no training, just someone with 5 BASE jumps. The landing area is very tight, it requires the respect of any jumper in their right mind. Skydivers, put down your skygod ego, and get the training , and learn about BASE. It has nothing to do with Skydiving!

Mark

[K]

Yeah, this really bothers me. I'm just a new BASE jumper, actually only a SE jumper, but I've heard some stories at my desk that make my blood run cold. This guy wasn't the first to make a bad decision regarding a person's first jump (see the archived thread on training and education). Luckily in both of these cases, the "student" was only sprained or bruised, not broken or dead.

The people posing as "instructors" should get their heads out of their anuses and realize that if their "student" dies, there is no going back! "oh, it can't happen to me..." yeah, check the fatality list for this year. IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANY OF US!!! We need to use our brains instead of our egos and know when saying NO is the thing to do. If you have less that 500 BASE jumps, have never had formal training yourself, or think accidents won't happen in your sphere, then you really shouldn't be teaching anyone to BASE jump. Unless, of course, you don't mind having a dead friend on your conscience for the rest of your life.

I don't say this because of where I work. I say this because I love BASE and I want it to survive at least long enough for me to get my BASE number and have lots of good times. At the rate we're going, I may just lose out.

We all paid our dues to get into the sport. Let's let the newcomers pay their dues, also. This doesn't mean blowing the guy that will take you off the cliff, either. Proper training, gear, and suitable sites are all very good ideas when learning BASE, unless you want to be another sad statistic.

Thanks, Lloyd, for bringing it up. Good topic, good discussion.

And now you are free to call me the "b" word, and I don't mean building!

Peace,
K

[imported_mknutson]

I could not agree more!

I guess I am just tired of hearing of the BASE Gods taking jumpers out and getting them busted up or dead. Why is commen sense so UNCOMMON?

[imported_mknutson]

Right on the money!

Students are without proper knowledge. That is just the facts! A skydiver with 4K jumps still knows very little if anything about BASE jumping.

The instructor needs to have all the answers.
The instructor needs to know when to chicken out!
The instructor needs to know how to read a student and know when they are in over their head.
The instructor needs to know if anything happends to that student through his career in jumping, they are responsible if it was something they could have prevented.

Take this instructor (not an instructor in my book!). He is the reason this guy is hurt. The instructor is the lucky one here as he did not have to deal with a fatality on this jump.
Think about that all you "Would Be" instructors.

Are your ready to deal with your students death on the jump? If you think about that, you will start telling your students to go to Bridge Day where it is much more appropriate than a short tower!

[BASE_689]

I agree with everything written above. And moreover, I would make my point as follows.
It is not to be blamed too much the student BASE jumper who wants to do his 1st BASE in a couple hours time. If he is an asshòle, it is not his fault. Asshòles's mothers are always pregnant.
The real guilty one here is his "instructor". Or, better: "the BASE jumper that took him to his nearly-death-experience". These are the people to really put the blame on.
Each single BASE jumper must take a look at his own ego and ask himself the question: why do I want to take this chap to make his 1st BASE jump in such a hurry, with rig taken from who-knows-where and assembled by who-knows-who, with no training in dead air exit, no training in packing and NO training at all about motivation/attitude and objects evaluation, and, not last, landing evaluation. They, maybe for their own ego, take this future "survivors" to take their own dose of adrenalin, WITHOUT the future "survivor" knowing EXACTLY what he is going to face. The student cannot understand which the risks are. The BASE jumper taken the future "survivor" knows these risks, but for his own ego they don't give a fu(k and take the chap to jump anyway.
Here in Italy we are currently having this sort of problem at our terminal wall. Yes, our terminal wall is very high. Yes, it is well overhanging. Yes, the landing is easy (if you can make it). But it is not a good excuse at all for a self-taught BASE jumper to go up and take future survivors to have their good dose of fear, doing some freefly freefall before recovering position (!!!!!) and deploy. And, obviously, once again at their home drop zone, these survivors show the video (oh, yes, the video on helmet is WAY more important than proper instruction...) to their skydiving friends, to show them a toxic and terrific story and that they have really big balls and so on so on so on. In the end, they come back with their BASE video to their home drop zone to make themselves look good and terrific at the eyes of fellow skydivers. A very wrong reason to do BASE jump. And once the self-taught BASE jumper knows the way up to the exit, who can stop him from taking other future survivors up to our terminal wall? Especially if this self-taught BASE jumper is an instructor teaching at a drop zone, where, yes, he has been banned to make proselytes for BASE jump, but who can refrain him from approaching secretly and discretely the skydivers who are likely to become future survivors? And propose them a really terrific experience? For few €? Nobody. We are trying to refrain this bad habit, but it is not easy at all.
So, to end this post: to ALL BASE jumpers out there, please, stop feeding your ego and stop taking skydivers up to an object with only a 15 min briefing.
To enter into the sport of BASE jump take much, much longer than a 15 min briefing.

Take care
Stay safe out there
Blue Skies and Soft Walls
BASE #689 :D