RE: lost another one - kjerag.

[guest]

Since writing my last entry I learnt a few more details from my colleagues. As I mentioned, even though we were there, details were sketchy.

Terry had folded up his main on the ledge where he was stuck and had placed it under a rock. When he was found his reserve was out. All I can say is that in my opinion he jumped intentionally from the ledge with his reserve. I do not know what the status of his reserve ripcord handle was, ie where it was or if it was found. I can imagine that Terry did not get a good exit as his legs were damaged, maybe he could not even stand up, but that is pure conjecture. I do not know the degree of verticality under the ledge from where he jumped, but it looks acceptable.

Considering the circumstances, the weather, his health, being in a possible state of shock, possible major blood loss, it was a pretty hardcore decision to take and I respect him for that. I am sorry he couldn't wait.

The rescue effort involved so many Alpinists and regular cliff jumpers, some of which were out all night. Anybody who has been to the fjord knows how tempestous the weather can be there. It was pointed out to the organisers from the local police, that any subsequent rescue efforts would be delayed 48 hours due to the teams fatigue. With this information the Helicopter boogie organisers felt it in order to prevent further use of the helicopter, thus morally ending the boogie.

Stein and Lasse did mention that they would try again next year.

[space]

Hi Looperman Lukas and to the other posters on this thread.
My experience with a jumper in shock is worth sharing IMHO.
I was waiting for the jumper before me to get clear before I jumped, since one can´t see over from this particular exit point, I couldn´t see the object strike, but I knew something was up when I didn´t see the canopy for ten extra seconds
when I did see it, he was waylow to make the normal LZ 1mile away, I exited and followed him and watched him do a controlled landing into the forest, circled over him to watch for movement and saw none after the landing, after I landed at the normal LZ I contacted him by radio and the only response I could get was "I think so". Regardless of any question I asked, whether asking him his name, injuries, age etc, when our team got to him he was only sitting and looking at the object he had struck, His injuries was a bruise, on the entire left side of his body, one or two nights in the hospital and he was out and walking like an old man, which is not the point (i was just lettin ya know he was okay).

The point is that shock can affect the mind, judgement, and responses. Please keep this in mind when considering this accident as Lukas has.
Hope to cya there in July and August.
BASE DZ manager #1(?)
space

[guest]

thank you for this information.

i sincerely hope that none of us need to make such critical decisions while alone and deep in physiological or psychological shock.

not a pretty scenario.

stay safe,

kleggo

[guest]

Terry Forrestal
Norway

Terry was a good friend and I will miss him a great deal. I have thought of what happened many times since the accident and I still cant believe it happened, I was sure he was going to be rescued and Terry would have had another story to talk about. It is hard to understand how Terry survived his 8th BASE jump and died 11 hours later due to not being rescued from the mountain ridge he was stranded on.

Terry was one of those rare breeds of people who was a very genuine person and I know he will be missed dearly. Terry died doing a sport that he loved and even though this does not make the pain any easier, it is sort of comforting to know that he loved what he was doing.

Over the last few days my mind has been spinning with the last week we spent together, everything we did is so clear and I feel that every one should know what happened in Terry's life before he died. I am writing this for Terrys Family and Friends and to try and make sense of what happened. If someone has never done such an extreme sport like Base jumping it may be hard to understand why Terry decided to do such a thing. I hope to explain his thoughts and plans during the last few weeks as well as explaining the actual accident and Terry's attempt to save himself.

I first met Terry during a skydiving holiday at a parachute centre in California in 1998, it was during this holiday that we saw a video in the parachute centre bar all about base jumping. Terry said he would like to do that one day and I agreed with him saying its something that I have wanted to do for a long time but never got around to.

It was a year later when Terry called me and said he has some free time and was I serious about going base-jumping and of course I was, we booked a weeks base jumping course in Auburn, California to learn all about this new sport that we wanted to do. What an adventurous week it was however it was not a happy time for Terry as he was depressed about his personal life and this became more obvious as the week progressed, especially during the evenings when we had a lot of time to talk.

After the weeks-base course we stayed in touch quite a lot and ended up flying powered parachutes from Terrys land and he became very keen on learning to fly one, I took Terry for a flight over his house and stables. This was when Terry started to make plans on setting up the field across the road as a private airstrip so he could fly around the ridge way and decided to get his PPL for a powered parachute. We started to make business plans and was looking forward to setting up a new company together so we spoke a lot about the future and how we would do things.

Terry called me one day saying he wants to go to Norway as he had heard about a base jumping boogie from a 3,000ft cliff and we would have a helicopter taking us back up every time, and would I like to go as well. He said a group of British base jumpers will be there and we could learn a lot from them and get lots of jumps in, it sounded great to me so we made plans to go.

Terry had said many times that he wanted me to meet Gary Connery who is an experienced base jumper and a stunt man that he has uses and he would be with us on this trip. He said he was sure I would like him and that we should get together as we have a lot in common so I was looking forward to meeting him. It turned out that Gary had a job and had to drop out so it was just me and Terry again.

We flew to Stavanger and hired a car to get to Lysbotton which was a 2 hour drive not knowing who we would meet or what was really ahead of us. The scenery on the rout e was absolutely amazing and we talked of stopping on the way back and getting some good video and photos.

Terry was looking fit and not surprisingly as he had lost 3 stone since Auburn, he had not had a drink for over 3 months and lived on fruit and vegetables etc while training hard and felt great. He was full of life and very happy and he was certainly looking forward to all the plans we had as well as all the plans with Claire for the equestrian centre and Ian with the stunt horses. He had been telling me his plans for weeks and now it was time to catch up on the details.

It was really good to see Terry so happy and full of beans, over the last couple of years I had not seen this side of Terry before and it was obvious he was over his depression and on a high point in his life. I had only known Terry for such a small time in his life yet I knew him better than some friends I have spent years with, we seemed to be able to talk very openly.

When we arrived we met Stein who is a volunteer Instructor and also runs the Norwegian Base Association. Stein explained his position and that his aim is to make our stay as enjoyable and as safe as possible, he gave me and Terry a manual as an aid to improve our knowledge of the local area and especially the cliff jump at Kjerag.

Stein explained that the association has over 500 members and 7,000 jumps from these cliffs so they have a lot of knowledge in this area, he explained that since 1994 they have had 4 fatalities and all could have been avoided as they were all minor mistakes. I looked at Terry and we started to laugh, we found the words minor mistakes to be a bit of an understatement and we laughed at those words many times that evening. Stein then followed this statement up with, we are working hard to avoid these situations and thats why he would have to brief us and check out our equipment etc before we could join the association and jump off Kjerag.

We then had a tour of the landing area and stein pointed out the exit point from the cliff and all the local features that we should be aware of. The first jump would be of exit point 7 as this had an overhang so we would be further away from the cliff on canopy deployment. If we had a bad exit or could not track very well then we had to deploy within 8 seconds, however if we were happy that we could track away from the cliff we could gain more altitude and deploy after 18 seconds. Both me and Terry decided to deploy after 8 seconds anyway and stay as safe as possible for the first jump

The whole organisation seemed very well practiced and professional, we had to have radio communication with the safety boat at all times and was not allowed to jump unless every thing had been put in place. The whole Base community had a nice atmosphere about it, they look after each other, and spread information to help people get started as safely as possible.

I was worried about the exit and Terry was more worried about the landing area, so we had different concerns at this stage. Terry had done many jumps onto an air bag and said the exit was not a concern for him but getting onto the small landing area was. I gave him some canopy handling tips based on typical display accuracy, which gives more room for safety margins and makes it easier to arrive on target as well as having an alternative landing point when things went wrong.
We went back to base camp and met the rest of the British group, it was the lads that made the trip and had Terry in stitches many times. He said he can not remember laughing so much for a long time as being all parachute regiment, ex parachute regiment and pathfinders they had a good sense of humor that Terry associated with very well, this was the first base jump for all of them. The 2 civilians in the group were the experienced Base jumpers with 40 Base-jumps each and after watching them debrief each base jump on video. He said that Shawn looked so innocent while being so devilish as he studied everyones jump frame by frame until he found something funny to laugh at. He had Terry laughing on the floor on one debrief.

The whole group consisted of Shawn, Craig, Digger, Tex, Flaky, Woof, Mac, Terry and myself.

The weather was good the first day and we all got ready for the hike up the mountain for our first jump at Kjerag. The first hill is called wake up hill, the second is called warm up hill and the third is called hell hill and it takes approx. 2 to 3 hours depending on each persons fitness. The first time we did this hike Terry was up front all the way as fit as a mountain goat while it was a bit of a shock to my system as it was a hard climb. By the time we arrived at the top I wanted to go home and spend the week recovering, but I kept telling myself thats its the fitness that I needed and I will not complain. Terry never even had a sweat on and was looking forward to jumping and doing it again the same day but I put a stop on that, as I could not have done it twice in one day.

The first jump was a challenge that we had looked forward to and talked about a lot, Terry went before me so I could video his exit as I was wearing my camera in my helmet. Terry went head down on his first jump but as he explained later it felt natural to do so as he always looks down for the air bag etc when he has done this sort of thing before. After watching the video of Terry in a head down position for most of the freefall before deploying his parachute and landing right on target, the rest of the lads christened it as Terrys Death dive as it looked a lot more scary than what the rest of us did. Terry found this very funny and said thats whats good about this group, they say what they mean and every body gets a slagging down in a very memorable way.

My exit went well which was in contrast to my previous attempts in Auburn and Terrys briefing worked for me even though he never followed his own advise. He explained later that it would be hard to break the habit of not looking down which is essential to a good exit, but managed it on later jumps OK. Stein debriefed us all and said that Terry needs to work on both his exit and tracking and until they improve he should stay on exit 7 as the other exit points would have given him a problem. This was the first jump on the canopy I took with me and it was very slow to open so Stein told me to get a grip on that. I did so by cutting a very large hole in the slider that improved it a great deal for the rest of the trip.

When we got together on the landing site it was full of Base jumpers wanting to talk about our own jumps in detail to each other. We were all on a high and had a great time talking and laughing about what we had just done. Ribbing each other was all part of the game but it highlights the weaknesses of each and every one and makes the progression very fast, it was a steep learning curve for all of us. What a buzz its certainly an adrenaline rush to remember. Terry was very impressed with his canopy accuracy and was feeling good about going again and sorting his exit out.

That was enough for one day and we spent the rest of the day packing and watching every ones video. Out of 9 jumpers we had 7 cameras and we had to watch them all over and over again. The heckling was just good fun all round and we started to look forward to the video debriefs as they were very funny with no one taking prisoners and saying exactly what they meant. Each person did something that was hysterical to watch on video.

This was to set the routine for the week until the rest of the lads went home, they could not stay for the helicopter boogie starting the weekend. So it was back to just Terry and me for the weekend, we jumped with the Russian team on Friday when they arrived and then registered for the helicopter lifts Saturday morning.

At the beginning of the week we met Lol, Rupert and Rob who were doing a program on Base jumping for cutting edge, they had been following Shawn, Gary and some of the other British base jumpers around and interviewing every one etc for the program. Terry kindly volunteered us both to do some filming for them up the top of the mountain and jumping with their camera. He said that I would actually jump with the camera as he was not too sure of his landings and I would make sure the camera was Ok, Thanks Terry I said, its not as if I had anything else to worry about. I never had any problem with it though as once it was on I could just forget about it.

I ended up leaning over the cliff with Terry holding on to my harness so that I would not fall off and filmed some of the exits all the way to deployment and landing. Terrys professionalism came out as if he was at work and talked on the radio to the film crew with a countdown so they would not miss any exits. When Terrys turn came around I stayed on the ledge and filmed his exit and he took the radio with him. On opening his canopy the bag he was carrying decided to carry on and we lost the radio to the cliff and never saw it again. The film crew was very happy with the filming so they never really minded about the radio.

Being last of the cliff when no one else is with you was more nerve racking and It showed as I was wearing the video showing my face and to get the canopy deployment. It shows me being slightly nervous and every one had a good laugh on my behalf and Terry never let me forget it as he found it very funny. Terry never showed any nerves at all on any of his jumps until Shawn showed him a video of his wobbly legs prior to exit. Terry put this down to just being careful with his dodgy legs and I believed him even if others never.

One thing that can be said about this week is that we have a lot of video footage and Lol interviewed us all. Terry explained what he was doing and why and when Lol asked about the fatal consequences if things were to go wrong. Terry had given this a lot more thought than I had, as he went in to detail about how the lord decided when and how you die and if its time then thats a decision he would accept however he would do all he can to prevent it. I on the other hand I was happy to not think about this issue. The filming that was done will be good to see as it shows how much fun Terry and the rest of us had as well as seeing Terry explain his reasons to the camera in support of his actions etc.

Saturday was going to be a fairly miserable day with the weather and we all waited for the cloud to lift so we could get started. When we received the word that its going to start we all went to the helicopter point for the lift to the top of Kjerag. Terry was wearing Shawns jumpsuit as this improved his tracking giving him more drag on his legs, he had also borrowed some kneepads as well ready for any bad landings if he got them wrong, he always jumped with his hard helmet and we were set for the helicopter boogie.

We got to the top and was joking with the rest of the lads and a lot of fun was being had by all and its all on video as usual, a lot of jumpers had already gone as we were near the back of the queue. Terry went before me again so I could video his exit, then another single jumper went and then came a command on the radio to stop jumping as we have a cliff strike.

At this point I never thought it was Terry as some one else had gone after him, we waited for approx. half an hour not knowing what was happening at the base of the mountain so we just sat on the top waiting. Stein suddenly came on the mountain saying he was Ok and we should get off the mountain before the weather gets worse, 2 lads went before me and it was getting very cloudy when I decided to go but I could still see the landing area so I jumped.

I went into cloud for approx. 1 to 2 seconds and then it was clear, I immediately saw Terrys canopy on the cliff ledge directly below me while tracking past him. I deployed and made my way back to the landing area and Stein came over and told me it was Terry, which confirmed it.

I listened to every ones description of what they saw from the ground and They said Terry had waved to the helicopter crew but pointed to his legs with a chopping motion across his neck, they decided that its because he had broken both his legs. I then asked to see the playback from a Norwegian film crew who were doing a program on extreme sports, The playback had Terrys jump full in frame all the way to his landing.

He had a head down exit again but not as stable as previous jumps and he seemed to have moved closer to the cliff, he leveled out and started to track but did a very bad track and never gained any forward movement unlike his previous jumps. He immediately deployed as he stopped tracking and it looked a little unstable as well while rushing his deployment as he was at that point where he had to have canopy before the 12 second impact point. He then had a 180 opening which turned his parachute heading directly towards the cliff, he hit the cliff and rolled down to a ledge, bounced off and rolled down again until he stopped on the ledge. His canopy still stayed inflated while he was falling which slowed down the impact. He may have broken something at this point but I thought that every one was jumping to conclusions at this point.

There was no doubt Terry cold have been injured during his landing on the ledge but the helicopter crew and some of the staff said he sat up Ok. Waved to them and after pointing to his legs he took his helmet off and pulled his parachute in to settle down until he was recovered as he had no way of getting down from where he was.

Stein had implemented emergency plans and we were told the mountain rescue unit was on the way, he said it would be a long time to get Terry down and the weather was getting worse. We all cleared the area apart from the staff and film crews and had to wait back at the base camp. At this point we were all sure he was going to be Ok and Terry would have a story to tell that we would have to wait for.

The British Embassy called Claire as Terry had put her down as next of kin and by the time we returned to the base camp approx. 1 hour after the accident I started to receive calls from the UK asking how Terry was. For the next few hours we waited to here if they had got Terry down yet and heard that the weather was causing problems for the climbers. I am not sure what was happening back at the landing area and the cliff even though we were in radio contact. We all presumed that the rescue had been started and we did not want to interfere.

It was six hours after Terry landed on the ledge that we heard for the first time how the rescue was going. One of the local base jumpers came asking for volunteers to carry the rope to the top of Kjerag so the climbers could climb down to Terry. We were absolutely amazed that nothing had been done up to this point as we were told that they had started. Whether a rescue attempt had been made up to this point and aborted I do not know.

They asked for 12 volunteers to carry bags with rope in, weighing approx. 35 pounds each, who could climb the mountain fast so we could get the climbers to the top to start the rescue. We had more volunteers than was needed and everybody was more than willing to help a fellow base jumper who by now was really in need of help. We then stood around for another hour waiting for the rope and climbers, while complaining about the speed of things and thought that asking for 12 quick climbers was a bit of a joke as no body else seems to be rushing.

We did the climb in 2 hours 20 minutes which was a fast pace and the climbers started to sort the kit out, when we left the top to walk back down it was approx. 11pm, Terry had been on that ledge since 1pm nearly 10 hours. The rope group started the walk back to the base camp, as it would be getting dark soon, while the climbers started the descent down to Terry.

Two of the local base jumpers found the rigs that were left up the mountain earlier and decided to jump and fly past Terry under canopy and let him know the rescuers were on the way. It was not until we arrived back at base camp in the early hours of the morning that I was told Terry had died.

I could not believe it, I was so sure he was going to be OK, we all were. It was at this point that I received a phone call from the British Embassy in Norway and I was caught up in dealing with the situation and having to inform Terry's family. I never really had time to ask those question that needed asking, how did he die, did he fall, did the rescue go wrong, what happened to turn this accident in to a fatality. These questions had to wait and no body said anything unless they had to.

I first telephoned Eileen not knowing what to say, as I was sure the telephone was not the way to break the news. The embassy said that they could not get word through as every one was on holiday and it would be worse if Terry's family read about him in the papers first. I was slightly relieved that when I called I spoke to a man but before I said anything I wanted to know who he was. When I found out it was Terry's brother Gabriel I told him what had happened and he said he would let the rest of the family know. Over the next 12 hours I had spoken to Terry's sisters as well as many of his friends to answer the questions ever one had.

It was about 3.30 am when one of the lads came up to me with a drink and invited me to stay with them for a while as a group of them were having a quiet drink together talking about the days events.
Two of the lads were the ones who jumped of the cliff just prior to midnight to try and fly past Terry and let him know the rescuer's were on the way. This was extreme as the weather was very bad but they new the area very well and were happy they would be OK.

When they flew past, Terry was not on the ledge any more so they carried on to the bottom and found Terry who was already dead. They explained that he had cut away his main parachute and tried to do another base jump using his reserve parachute but he never had the height to make it work. He was found with his reserve fully deployed, helmet, kneepads etc were all on to indicate it was a deliberate attempt to get himself down.

We then started to speculate on what could have happened as we still do not know for certain but this is my theory. After being stranded for over 11 hours on a cliff in cold bad weather, possibly injured as well Terry must have thought that every one had abandoned him. It had now turned dark, the helicopter had flown back to Stavanger so he decided that he either had to stay the night or jump again. Terry obviously tried to jump again and save himself rather than stay the night, this put a lot of doubt into the theory of him braking both legs when landing on the ledge.

What could have prevented Terry's untimely death is a massive chain of events, first he could have not gone base jumping however this was not an option at the time as it was something he was very keen on doing. Terry's skydiving ability was the cause of him landing on the ledge while having some built in habit's from stunt work to overcome. Terry was not going to stop even though he knew he was not very good as he also thought that he would be safe enough even if he gets it wrong. Nobody disagreed with this at the time and Terry improved very quickly so all seemed OK.

The real cause of events that let this accident turn into a fatality was however the rescue attempt, firstly regular communication with Terry would have probably stopped him jumping if only he had known that the climbers were already climbing down when he jumped. Prior to him jumping I asked him if he had his phone with him as I always carried mine, he said no because he had already lost a radio and he did not want to loose his phone. Apart from the helicopter flying past soon after the accident I am not aware of any further attempts to stay in contact with him and it was certainly lack of communication that was a big chain in these events. Just knowing that something is being done must be essential in a situation like this.

Another link in the chain of events that could have prevented this is Terry was going to buy a specialised base rig but never got around to it and was happy using his skydiving rig on this trip. The big difference is his base rig he would not have had a reserve parachute and therefore the decision to jump again using a reserve would not have arisen.

The biggest chain however was the delay in starting the rescue from the top of the cliff, why did it take 6 hours before a decision had been made to walk up. What happened during this time, was a rescue attempt made from the base of the cliff or was the crew just waiting for the weather to clear so the helicopter could fly them to the top.

The weather was part of that chain as if it had been like the past week, blue sky's the rescuer's would have had the helicopter at the top in no time.

I have written a lot about the build up to the trip, the trip itself and the accident leading to Terry's, death, however I have lots more to tell as a lot of the trip was just talking and planning the future and Terry had a lot of plans. I also want to write about some of the highlights of the trip that made it so much fun for Terry, as knowing that he was having a good time is so important.

My partners and myself were working on a business plan with Terry to set up a powered parachute school in the field opposite his house. Terry had given us written permission to fly from his land in the mean time as we had the field cleared by a CAA examiner to do all our flight trial on his property. Terry was ahead of me as he had already made plans to move the gate in the field opposite his track to the hangers, he was building 2 new buildings for classrooms and talked about the club house that would be for the powered parachutes and the equestrian centre. We could not wait to finalise the plans so we talked about this a lot in Norway.

Our plans however were only a small part in Terry's future as the equestrian centre he was building was at the top of his list. He was so proud of actually having this project started with Claire running it for him and was very happy with how Claire had settled into Angels Grange. He said that the dogs were traitors as they spend more time with Claire rather than go for a walk with him. He said she is great with the animals and so full of enthusiasm and ability that he knew it was going to do well.

As well as the equestrian centre he was also working with Ian on training stunt horses and saw this as an addition to his work as a stunt coordinator. Terry had a lot of plans and life was certainly on the up and it's sad that he is not going to fulfill his plans but its also good that he was having a good time when he died. He was reading 2 scripts and trying to describe weather he wanted the job in Prague or Russia as his next job.

The people that made Terry laugh a lot while in Norway made his trip, when Digger jumped onto a snow bank to try and break it into the river it was hilarious. While we were all stood round laughing Terry said that its a typical Parachute regiment mentality, he knows that he has to break it but does not know why. When Shaun played the videos back frame by frame to catch facial expressions and unplanned noises etc, Terry said he looked so innocent while being so Devilish. Its these things that I remember during this trip and I will continue to remember Terry being happy, fit and having a good time and looking forward to a bright future.

He will be sadly missed, I will also remember Eileen helping me when I needed it most while dealing with her own grief. His death was very hard for Claire to deal with as she knew Terry had put a lot of faith in her, I spent a lot of time talking to Claire while in Norway and you could feel the pain she was going through. Speaking to Eileen and Toni was hard as they were heartbroken as I am sure was the rest of Terry's family.

I have never been one to write before and my English is atrocious. However I hope I have made some difference in trying to explain what happened and that this gives some comfort to Terry's Family and Friends to understand what Terry was doing and that he was having a great time

I do not believe that Terry would hold anyone responsible apart from himself, if he was alive today he would be pretty pissed with himself for stopping others from having a great weekend.

If any one has any questions at all please do not hesitate to contact me. Allan Hewitt, 103 Grosvenor Road, Aldershot, Hants, GU11 3EE, Tel 0252 662539, Mobile 0385 784748, E mail allan@skyscience.co.uk

[guest]

Take care people....Terry lost his life doing something we all love...lets not have another fatality for any reason!!!

[guest]

THANX FOR YOUR IMPUT ALAN. AFTER READING YOUR POST ITS VERY CLEAR THAT TERRY HADNT A BLOODLY CLUE WHAT THE HELL HE WAS WAS DOING WHEN IT CAME TO BASE-JUMPING AND SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN AT KJERAG IN THE FIRST PLACE.
HEAD-LOW JUMPERS WHO CANT TRACK SHOULD STICK TO SKYDIVING OR TALL BRIDGES OR BETTER STILL - STAY AT BLOODY HOME!!!

LETS JUST HOPE HIS FOOLISH ACTS HAVNT PHUCKED UP THIS SITE PERMENENTLY FOR THE REST OF US!!

{BSBD}

ANNOYED :-{

[guest]

Dear whining web weasel:

Fooishness is a recurring event in every human life.

Moreover, 99.99 percent of the people on this planet think BASE jumping by anybody for any reason regardless of "experience and expertise" is complete and utter foolishness, so I think you should re-examine your perspective...

and maybe wait to develop enough courage to actually state your name when you make utterly foolish statements.

One more thing: Any veteran of the British SAS is an individual who has already accomplished more in his life by the time he finishes his basic training than a cowardly wanker like you will ever achieve in his entire sorry life... and if the positions were reversed, you can bet your bottom dollar/pound/lira/kronor/whatever that Terry would never, ever have discredited himself by penning such a post.



Robin Heid
BASE 44
82d Airborne Division (USA) (Retired)

[guest]

Way to go Robin....maybe its time for a protected forum here as well!!

Annoyed..maybe you need to look at the size of your nuts you Kelvin (scientific measuement of absolute zero) because if you dont have the spuds to sign your name to such a pointless but outrageous post then maybe,just maybe, they aint big enough for you to be risking other peoples lives BASE jumping.Go get a life chimp.

[Tree]

Have to agree. What a chump. Nobody goes out to get hurt or killed. When's the last time you made a mistake annoyed? Oh, you must be one of those perfect people that don't screw up.

I would hate to be standing at an exit point with your karma.

[imported_mknutson]

I have created several forums like this.
Go to:
http://www.baselogic.com/cgi-bin/forum/dcboard.cgi

You will see all of the forums that are available.
--
Thanks

Mick Knutson
BLiNC Magazine

"Everything you ever wanted to know about BASE Jumping, but didn't know who to ask."
--

[guest]

My God I have to agree with Robin....smile

Seriously how dare you place yourself in this man's shoes at such an acute point in his life.....and then play chalice keeper.
Sir you have no idea for whom the bell tolls...so please refrain and think before you react.....mistakes are just that mistakes.

Bottom line.... Terry is still dead and we can not change that so learn not to ridicule...but instead just learn...and for once do it quietly and with dignity and compassion. Terry would appreciate those simple thoughts.

Nikolas Hartshorne

[guest]

Thanks Robin, Terry would have been proud of those words.

I would recommend that this weasel jumps off as many buildings as Terry did without a parachute 130ft heigh into an air bag, approx 80 times during his stunt career.

The one thing that Terry got into the habit of doing is looking down to hit the airbag which requires a good head down fall right to the last second before flipping onto his back for landing.

This was obviously a hard habit to break and Terry's skill level may be in question but let us all learn instead of slinging insults, yes we are all selfish at some times in our lives but this is a time when the good in people should shine.

Please lets have no more whinning and be careful who you speak to in the bar because one day I could be standing behind you and with an attitude like that It would be my pleasure to exchange views on life in a manner that would not be so friendly.

Terry was doing what he enjoyed and he got it wrong, but like the rest of us he never had any intention of ruining anyones day, so lets just live with it.

Thanks again Robin, Terry had a full and exciting life and you have my respect.

Allan

[guest]

All respect to Terry, i knew him not, but this counts for nothing, He was as much a BASE jumper as any one who steps over into the unknown. If all people can do is slag off his misfortune, then it is you, the gobshite who needs to take a look at yourself. He died doing what he loved, yes, it may shed a poor light on the sport, but at least he was there. Bad light is something that can be easily removed, but a death is for ever!!! let us not argue and slag off him for venturing out, let us congratulate him for his efforts, unlucky as they may have been. I am too a BASE Jumper, with little experience, but with out the help of those who know, how can we get better? Why do people feel it necessary to bitch about the past, let us learn from it, and pass on our knowledge and skills to others, then possibly this type of mis-fortune may cease to exist!

I pass on my sympathy to all that knew him, i knew him not, but he sounds like a guy i would have liked to have known, long may his soul rest.

Blue Skies, Black Death (And get a life all those who cant accept an accident (Annoyed))