I put this over on basejumper.com... I figured I might as well put it here:
Here's my response to the interview and the subject in general. Note, the following are my personal opinions on the matter. I have never met Sonic, never spoken to Sonic, nor do I have a personal war-waging vendetta against him. He seems a likable enough guy, but my personal opinion is that he is not suited, nor has he earned the privilege to manufacture or market BASE gear.
For all intensive purposes, he has a rather brilliant business model. He's essentially an order-taker with a direct line to JumpShack who manufactures the rig using a TSO'd wonderhog harness beneath an otherwise 'anything-goes' container and slaps a TSO'd reserve on the front. The only thing stopping me from personally ripping apart one of my skydiving rigs and doing the same is that I lack an FAA Master Rigger's ticket. I could get someone governmentally qualified to do this for me, and for far cheaper than one of his rigs.
Why cheaper? [I'll get to why that's important in a moment...] Because he's using a skydiving gear manufacturer and I'm not. I saw the same thing a few years ago with the reverse-engineering of a $250 (retail) speed-flying harness that turned into a laughable $600-800 ground-launching harness. The difference? The former was made in South Korea (designed by a Korean paragliding company) and the latter by an FAA-certified parachute manufacturer. Not hard to guess who has the higher labor costs or why.
Many people keep asking or pointing out that Morpheus, Apex, Asylum have not TSO'd a rig or have not sought this 'innovation'. First, a TSO rating runs at least $40k and upwards of $60k. Granted, Sonic didn't have to TSO the gear, he essentially licensed an existing TSO. Thus, the reality for any of the long-standing BASE gear manufacturers is that their [presumed] already slim margins get even slimmer when they're licensing an existing TSO rating or are at least paying some royalty for the use of it. May not even be that simple... They'd probably have to directly order a manufactured harness to incorporate into their rigs. Beyond that--I can only speculate on the liability--I'll bet someone goes in on an FAA-certified rig and the manufacturer is looking at a legal shitstorm. Someone goes in on a BaseR, JumpShack looks fucked to me. They've got a legal, certified standing from the FAA in the square of their lower back. Might as well be a bulls-eye. Any of our long-standing BASE manufacturers are pleasantly uninsured, pleasantly unregulated.
Beyond that--and I've only talked to a couple of people on this--I'll wager the decision to not seek a TSO rating is largely philosophical in nature. BASE gear has always been somewhat difficult to come by, or if not difficult...at least qualified. For good reason. I won't say that Sonic doesn't use discretion--because I don't know--but he does market his course as an FJC. An FJC for what? It's the same term Apex, Morpheus, Nitro, Snake River, Johnny Utah, Miles, Splatula and Asylum use. But is it the same syllabus? I'll wager 'no' given that Sonic's course is designed for skydiving in preparation for BASE, not actual BASE, so not a BASE FJC. Leave that to Miles, at least.
In the meantime, what's the big deal of gear being more accessible? To me, the problem is that it's marketed to any A-licensed dickhead, whether the marketing is that explicit or not. Face it, "you can take a BASE rig out of a plane" is what this is designed for. All too often, we see "how do I get into BASE? 150 skydives and gear is so expensive!" where we should hear "how do I get into BASE and not kill myself in the process?" Budgets are more important than your ass? It would seem so. I worry about the jumpers this rig may attract, or if not attract, the jumpers that will too easily put themselves in a position to fuck themselves up, die, or more selfishly, make it more difficult for me to jump. Yes, I said it. I'm that selfish. You have to earn the ability to fuck shit up for me. I do not care about your life if you don't put forth the effort to save yourself.
On the final point where money is concerned, no, I don't think Sonic is doing this for the cash. Not so much in that he's going to get rich off this, at least. I believe in his ability to support his family, but ultimately, I view it as an outside-BASE entity taking money out of the pockets of those who have earned our business through years of innovation and toiling over sewing machines, not just one leap that makes it easier for us to skydive with BASE gear.
Nothing personal,
-C.
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Originally Posted by Para_Frog
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