I just talked to Avery a little while ago and got
the latest news from his perspective:
Ill Vision has officially pulled out of the Petronas event. Cliff has gone to Thailand for
more adventures and Avery is coming back to the
states, home to me (yay!).
Avery says the trip was a great success for him
personally as he achieved all of his goals.
For all of those anticipating the upcoming
KL Tower Int'l BASE Jump 2002, stay tuned!
Details in a couple weeks.........
Jerri,
I am just curious why they pulled out of the competition.
Sparky.
dont say that they were some of the people Deemed too inexperianced to compete..........
}> :D :p
Fred,
I honestly didn't know why they pulled out of the competition. But reading some of the other stuff on the baseboard I'm getting a better idea.
Sparky
The standard to which SkyVenture operated was below that of a true World Championship. Initial safety requirements were lacking, and were raised only after a number of injuries. The rules changed on a daily basis. IV has a standard of our own.
Our freedom allowed us to walk away from this less than substantial effort.
I expected more from Mark Hewitt, as he is touted to be a forefather/pioneer of the sport. I don't know why he chose to stand behind a flawed product.
Thanks to Anne for showing up at the last minute, she performed a form of safety control that was much needed.
Special thanks to Omar for dropping out of the competition as well. He then volunteered to fill a working slot that the organizers didn't even have the forethought to see.......
Avery,
Why do you have to be such a sore loser?? Just because you and Cliff couldn't handle the pace (or the challenge) of the event then don't just go and blame the safety of the comp.
We can't help it if this event was run just as well (if not better) than your IPBC events. "The rules changed on a daily basis..." - yeah, like that never happened on the first IPBC events. Give the comp a break, dude, those who completed the event had an awesome experience and the event has done nothing but good for the image of BASE around the world.
Several Jumpers who Competed.
If you're all so proud of yourselves, why don't you identify yourselves? You must be the secret competitors who go with the secret "technical directors."
What pace was there to keep up with? If you had REALLY been there, you would know that it was an easy pace. Or maybe it's been so long since we rode the high speed elevators to the 73rd floor, that you forgot. It was even easier for Cliff and I, since we had four rigs each, and we packed at night, over on the plush carpet in the air-conditioned ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
It sure beat packing on the concrete, which is what SkyVenture supplied as a packing area. Or on the grass in the blistering heat, and the humidity.
The difficulty of the jumps? Yes, it is a gnarly building, but since Cliff and I already had a bunch of jumps from it, we were pretty comfortable up there.
As for the early days of the IPBC, they were the early days, exactly. You noticed that we didn't come firing out of the chute the first time with a "World Championship". Speaking of which, did the "several" of you find it to be a level playing field? You know, pitting guys with less than a dozen BASE jumps against guys with a bunch of dozens of BASE jumps. Some of the jumpers even had multiple tens of dozens of BASE jumps! I guess it's ok that a guy with (many) 100's of BASE jumps beats a guy with only 50 or less (way less).
I'd like to know which jumper you are, as I met everyone there, hung out with them, and talked to everybody. A great bunch of jumpers all of them. And it's not meant to be a cut on those with a lack of big building experience, but some of the guys were white-knuckling it at the exit point, "World Champs?"
I'm just saying they should have called it what it was, an opportunity to have a small boogie from the world's tallest building, and a chance for a few less experienced BASE jumpers to come on down and get some coaching and training and some flicks.
I wasn't critical of the safety specifically, it was the overall scope of the event that was misrepresented.
If you were really there, what are your thoughts on the ramp?
Also, in what ways was it better than an IPBC event?
Just curious who one the money & what was thw final criteria??
The rumour is that the Weasel won.
A secret Organiser and secret Technical Director of Sky Ventures.
The only criteria being, show up.
Overall from what I remember:
1. Jonny Utah
2. Jimmy Freeman
3. ?? (Croatia?)
4. ?? (Germany?)
5. Dwain
Judged on launch, opening accuracy and landing accuracy.
Judging was open and above board, all on video. Opening accuracy was by a senior FAI judge from Croatia.
Some pretty decent cash prizes too well spread amongst lots of categories.
F#ck american politics - it was just a great week of jumping with some great people.
Thanks Mark, Anne, Johnny, Dwain, Omar, Malaysia for a great time.
ps Good on yah Jimmy.
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