1315

[lcspx]

I first gained an interest in BASE after I had about 500 skyjumps. I asked around the few people I knew at the DZ and got mixed responses ranging from 'buy your gear and we'll go to the perrine' to 'if you make your first jump from an antenna I will no longer be your friend'.

I figured that I wasnt ready immediatley so I started saving money for gear. I had learned to pack while saving, from my friend 'Dave Tree'. After my fourth packjob, Dave said my method was better than his, and went off to Moab. He called me a couple days later and informed me that my packjob was jumped off a cliff by someone he had just met. It worked perfectly. That made me feel good. I contiunued skyjumping alot. I did alot of CRW and accuracy practice with a spectre, and eventually had all my gear hooked up and ready to jump. People knew that I had my gear, and I was invited to do some ground crew. over the next few weeks me and B*** went around to a couple antennas and I got to see her jump.
The time was approaching. I had nearly 750 skyjumps and I was starting to get excited about this new BASE thing.


My objects were (in order):




#1 ANTENNA, 12/04/07: 900' antenna. Was PCA'ed from 280' platform.


We were to meet in a school parking lot across the street from the entrance. I was the first to arrive, but there was another car in the lot, probably just custodians or something. I called B*** and she said she would be there soon. I waited, looking across at the red lights blinking ever so vividly. I could plainly see the platform that we would leap from, and boy it looked low. It was beginning to feel real in my mind. This was really going to happen. The butterflies in my stomach began to flutter more and more. Between my three 'jumpmasters' there were a combined total of more than 1000 base jumps. We got our gear and made our way across the street towards the antenna. The fence we hopped didn’t have any signs on it telling us not to hop it, which I thought was kind of nice. It was a lengthy walk down the dirt road to the base. I don’t really remember what was being talked about. I was leading the four of us. It’s kind of crazy how I was utterly terrified of what I was about to do, but I was at the front of the line to do it. We finally got to the fence at the base, and it was time to climb. It didn’t seem to take very long once we got climbing. The platform came rather quickly. I was the first to reach it, followed by B***, C***, and D***. B*** showed me the side we would be exiting. I looked down and the trees seemed to be awfully close. The fear was settling in more at that point. I looked out at the skyline and took a couple of deep breaths. I saw C*** was starting to get ready. D*** was flashing pictures off and I tried not to think about the negative effects on my night vision. The red flashing lights that looked small from a distance were almost as big as a five gallon bucket. Red is a lot softer light on the eyes than a magnesium flash. B*** asked me if I was ready for my first BASE jump. I said yes and she checked my pins, pulled out my pilot chute and started getting it ready for PCA. C*** shook hands with me and wished me a good jump, then got his hand held pilot chute ready. He climbed up on the rail, sat down on top of it and reached his moment of Zen. He leaned forward and jumped into the abyss, throwing his pilot chute not a moment after leaving the object. Schwooosch! His parachute opened about 30 degrees off heading to the left. No problem and he landed uneventfully in the grass below. It was my time. I wasn’t really thinking of too much, my body just kept moving. I placed my hands on the cold steel rail, and lifted my left foot up and over. Once I had my feet on the other side, I looked at B***, who gave me a reassuring nod. I remember thinking to myself, 'I need to turn around if I’m going to jump.' it was slightly awkward facing the blackness with my hands behind me. B*** instructed me to vocalize a countdown when I was ready. I looked around soaking in the view, and all of a sudden I smiled and felt at peace with the world, so I began my count. And in three, two, one, see-ya! I leapt forward and everything disappeared. I thought I would feel the drop feeling like with a roller coaster. At first it felt as if I was floating in space, for quite a while, then it felt more like I was being pulled down. It seemed like an eternity had gone by. The tree below came into my vision and was slowly getting bigger, and suddenly I felt I was being stood up and then I heard the parachute unfolding. I guess at that point, time unfroze and I remembered that I need to grab my toggles so I can safely steer my parachute and flare to land. I made a left hand turn and landed quite softly standing up in the knee-high grass. I watched my parachute fall to the ground and deflate under the same power of gravity that had inflated it moments before. The whole thing lasted about 9 seconds max. I looked over and saw C***s' silhouette, gathered my parachute, and made my way towards him. I couldn’t stop saying 'oh my god' I consider myself to be an atheist, but for some reason I just kept saying it. I couldn't think of any words to describe what had just happened. C*** was just laughing while he took a couple of pictures. We both got back by the fence and I took my gear off and stuffed it in my stash bag. The 'oh my gods' were coming fewer and fewer, but I was still incredibly psyched. B*** and D*** were still up there. I decided to call my girlfriend to tell her I was alright. 'Was it everything you dreamed it'd be?’ she asked. "Everything and more", I responded. Pretty soon the schwooosch of B***’s parachute was heard above. I guess D*** had PCA'ed her as well. She landed perfectly in the field. A couple of minutes later I saw D*** climb over the railing and make the plunge. He was going handheld like C***, so I saw him fall for a second before throwing his pilot chute. The sound of his opening seemed to be louder than C*** or B***’s. He landed in the field, and then we all got together for a picture. C*** got out another beer and opened it up for the success of the evening. We shared it as we walked back down the dirt road towards the school. I asked when the next jump would be. and B*** said soon, probably closer to the weekend or next week. We made it back to the road, and hopped the fence when the coast was clear. We said our 'good evenings' and made our way back to the safety of our homes. I had my first jump.




#14 SPAN, 3/24/08: Perrine. I made 17 jumps in 3 days


After my first jump, I made 12 more jumps from antennas. They ranged from 600' slider off jumps, to climbing 1800 daytime for my first terminal.. I wanted to go to the perrine to practice some things in a safer environment. My mother and I flew out to twin and arrived late at night. I wanted to jump then, but figured I shouldnt, as I have never been there before. So the next morning we get up early and make it to the bridge. we call it in, and I got geared up. We both walked out to right above the 'beach', and i got my pc ready handheld.

I climbed over and felt not half as scared as the 7 different A's I had jumped from. Told my mom see ya and leapt. After nearly a 3 second delay, I threw and had a great opening. Perfect landing in the main field. That was a fun object i thought.

So i walked east and hiked through all kinds of brush and water holding on to a rope on an overhung rock formation.. It took two hours to get out of the canyon. I ended up by some green building and giant pipe. and took this dirt switchback trail/road to the streets of some residential area.. Afterwards i figured how to climb out under the bridge.. In the remaining jumps i did several fun ones including first front flip, gainer, floater, TARD (not the smart kind). I regret not jumping while it snowed... In those three days i only saw two other travellers and we made two jumps, then they continued to MOAB.. Great trip and learning experience.. seemed like a ghost bridge though




#59 BUILDING, 6/24/08: 750ish building downtown. I opened it.

So after getting more jumps under my belt, including a couple cranes I was very interested in buildings. The prospect of leaping from a building just appealed to me so much. I was scouting all different kinds of B's. The one that looked most accessible was this 300' + abandoned building on the edge of downtown. I told C*** of my scouting adventures looking for B's while making long drives to the elevator tower.. He told me of this really nice building downtown that had pretty easy roof access. He hadn't been up there for several years, but figured access should still be there. It was a ~750' class A office building. He told me the stairwell i needed to be in and what i would probably see at the top. He told me that he almost jumped it years ago, but when he accessed the roof, there were 2000 police officers in the landing area, commemorating a fallen officer. So over the next week i spent several afternoons scoping the landing area, optimal point of entry, and watching security. Once i had a good feeling about not getting questioned inside, I went for it. I took an elevator to the 52nd floor, and crossed over to a stairwell. A couple flights up i realized this isn't the stairwell i need to be in. I had to go all the way down the stairs and get back in the elevator in the lobby. Once in the other stairwell i found the access point. Unlocked. I could see the light outside, which meant there were people up there. I left the building and went to a tall buildings observation deck nearby and looked at the roof from there. Sure enough there were workers, but it was almost quitting time, and they were in the process of leaving. So i rushed over to B***'s and told her 'Ive got access to this sweet building. Come jump it with me tonight.' She thought it was a great idea, so we got our gear ready and went to access. We walked into the building and got on the elevator. Security didn't even see us. It was 5:30, and the lobby was flooded with people getting off work. Once at floor 52, we went to the access point in the stairwell and sure enough, it worked. We were on the roof within 5 minutes of being in the building. So we waited, and waited, and waited. after 3 and a half hours of waiting it was finally dark and we began our preparations. Ground crew was in place. We checked out the exit point. The landing area is 2 blocks away and is this dark park. Perfect. B*** had other thoughts. She doubted her Ravens ability to make it to the park, so we look around and choose a much tighter landing area between buildings and lightpoles and stuff. At this point I agreed that we should land in the same spot, so we had GC park by the new LZ.
I told B*** I wanted to jump first. She respectfully accepted. It was time. I climbed up onto the parapet wall, which is 4 feet tall, and 1 foot wide. "Have a good jump" I say. 'You too', she smiled. After a couple deep breaths I leapt.
Wow. I looked at the tall building in front of me- beautiful glass, The streets glowed orange from lights i could not see for once. the windows on my building were rushing by more and more. After a nice, stable 3 second delay, i opened on heading, still at least 400 feet above the city. I flew a wide, turning pattern to line up on the new LZ. All the buildings form like an ampitheater of beauty in that area. As I descended getting closer to the ground lined up with my target, i felt something funny start to happen. my parachute stopped descending but i was still cruising horizontally. At that point I started going back up a little.
'Uh-Oh. I'm going to overshoot the landing area. theres a 700 building that im fliying directly towards. I see a one way street. cars are coming. they're in the right two lanes. I'll land in the left lanes. I made a right turn downwind and lined up. our GC was right there and she looked at me with worried eyes. I returned the look and flared.CRASH. I didnt stand up, but bounced off the ground back onto my feet. A car in the right land slowed, honked, yelled, waved his arms wildly out the window and continued on with his poor miserable life. I just jumped off a building. I gathered up my tarp and ran 15' to the car.I saw B*** land in the planned spot a couple seconds later, and she ran to the car. We drove off with no authorites around. Wow. After making it back to the apartment, C*** was there. he looked very happy. He asked how it went and who went first. we told him the story and after listening, he told me. "You were the first person to ever jump that building" My body just started tingling and i almost cried. What an experience!!
Ive jumped it twice more since that crash in the street.. both times i made it to the nice big dark park with room to spare. C*** got to jump it too, although he wanted to go down.. hehee

#130 CLIFF, 3/29/09: 260' overhung water jump. Freefall


My qualifying earth jump took place the day after C*** and I Successfully made the Train Jump.

'The next morning we slept in a little bit but I had another goal in mind, my first cliff jump. The motor was still a little rough at first, but as we got closer to DMC, it picked up ok. There were other boats in this canyon when we pulled in, but we made our way to the chill spot anyways. It was kind of windy, but there were pretty consistent lulls. C*** looked at me and said, "So if you decide to make this jump, you should open as low as you can." I began to hike towards the exit, taking an easier route this time. From up there I could see the four other boats that were fishing. I hung out for 45 minutes tossing several wind indicators, which all soared away from the wall. I saw the A*** start the boat and start driving deeper into the canyon next to all the fishermen. They played loud music and made wakes, and it worked. All of a sudden, all four fishing boats started up and took off. When my rescue boat returned I geared up. I waited another 10 minutes to build myself up and prepare for the groundrush.

I looked over the edge a few times, then stepped back and took a deep breath. I took two steps and launched with everything I had. I freefell for an eternity it seemed. I threw my 48" and waited some more for the ‘whack!’ It snatched me up about 2.5 seconds before plunging into the water. I couldn’t believe I jumped off of a train, and my first cliff jump seemed less crazy at the time, because I was still high from that train. I appreciate the learning experience it was now that I’m safe. They picked me up in the boat, and helped pull my canopy in. I got it in the stash bag and we took off. The water was really choppy most of the way back to the boat launch, which made for an uncomfortable ride, but it smoothed out near the end.

We were slowly creeping toward the dock, and we saw the Law enforcement boat approaching us with their lights on. They pulled up and grabbed our vessel. One guy asked what we were doing to which I replied, "Ah we’re just enjoying the beautiful view. I tried to wakeboard some but the water was really choppy.." He nodded and began checking if our watercraft met all of the safety regulations. I noticed at least 2 AR-15 machine guns on their boat. They were Game Wardens. We had all the necessary safety devices and registration. They left us alone to hassle some other boats in the area. We loaded up and got ready to head back home.




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