Basejumper.com - archive

http://www.blincmagazine.com/...g_id=20503&page=

wow... i like the imagery...

 

78 deaths gives 78,000 total BASE jumps ever, call it 100,000.

Some of us have over 1000, some have a lot less.

How far out is it? An order of magnitude? Have there been more than a million base jumps yet?

Nick and Craig, over to you.



Jules

Norway 2004 Heli-boogie = 525 jumps in three days
Bridge Day 2003 = 836 jumps in six hours
Idaho Bridge = 2000+ jumps per year (approx.)
Norway 1994-2003 = 15,353 jumps made

Just a few numbers to show that we are probably well over 1,000,000 BASE jumps. I would estimate 1 in 10,000 is a better ratio for fatalities.

add a couple hundred combined (that no one over sees) per local crew per year and the numbers rise quickly.

One must stand in awe at the truly brazen display of bullshit that dear Karin displays in this particular fluff-piece. Perhaps she thinks that if the same garbage is repeated enough times that it will inch closer to being true. Such is not the case; dishonesty doesn't wash clean.

I dropped a note to the author of the piece, clarifying the actual circumstances surrounding Dwain's death. Somehow, I'm not surprised that Karin couldn't quite muster the courage to speak the truth. I doubt she ever will.

Perhaps the plan is that she and Jeb can become the TeeVee stars they've always dreamed of being? What price fame? Well, disregard for honesty I suppose is the down payment.

Some of us haven't forgotten, haven't pretended, haven't stuck our heads in the sand. . . and NEVER will.

Ciao from the Land of Integrity,

D-d0g

I just wonder why non-jumpers waste their time figuring us out. I just want to jump, pure and simple. Maybe if the good doctors tried a tandem, they would have a better understanding...

Not a bad article, I was getting ill from the first couple paragraphs, but it got better with the theoretical medical gibberish...

To all doctors and researchers: You don't have to waste your time anymore, trying to figure out why I love something so much that you can't even comprehend... Just make it legal...

Well put! The psychiatrists / psychologists i've met are the craziest , weirdest fuckers I have ever seen. They're scary! I'd rather smack into another tower than have to hear one of those idiots ramble on and on and on and on....................

I'd say that qualifies as a "bad day".

Which would only make us ~10 x riskier than the figure quoted for skydiving (where did that come from?)

I guess the (78 x 1000) argument is flawed as we are probably (hopefully) a lot safer now having learnt from the early accidents.

I know Craig is enjoying Moscow at the moment but are you getting enough data from basenumbers.org to be able to estimate how many jumps are being made worldwide each year these days?

Jules

“Johnny Hangs-Up on Crane after Night Building Plunge”

Like most pieces written by whuffos it's the same story over and over. It's like they have this template and they plug in new names and sites. The rest is filled in with death, death, and more death . . .

To a degree we’ve been reading this same story for over twenty years.

BASE jumping occupies a position in atmospheric sport that is least understood. Where we see joy and progress in pure human flight, the whuffos can’t get past seeing themselves tumbling to a tragic and terrible end. However, there are advantages to this exposure.

When was the last time you met someone who didn’t at least have some idea what BASE jumping is. This exposure (yes, even the unabashed self promotion we get from Felix) is what mellows the powers that be. It’s partly the reason for the potato bridge, the many high profile BASE events, and the softening of the NPS. We now have the ability to state our case for permission to jump without starting from scratch.

Some may not see that as improvement, but twenty years ago trying to explain jumping off a building (in the middle of the night yet), to a cop or a judge, who has no idea what the hell you’re talking about, and well, after about the tenth time it starts to sound far-fetched, even to you.

Karin and Jeb are assets to BASE jumping and surely deserve some time in the light. And these soft pieces balance out the “Johnny Hangs-Up on Crane after Night Building Plunge” stories that appear from time to time. There was a time when participating in stories like these would get you grief in the BASE community, but that time is past. BASE jumping isn’t a secret anymore . . .

Sometimes the people who love me say I should write about other things besides parachute jumping, but jumping is what I know best. So yes, I cringe when I read whuffo pieces on BASE. If these talented writers would stick to what they know, instead of just throwing stuff out there (that further the stereotypes) there would be a lot less books in your local bookstore, but they would all be worth reading.

Nick
BASE 194

 
>How far out is it? An order of magnitude? Have >there been more than a million base jumps yet?

>Nick and Craig, over to you.

In a purely non-statistical sense, although it seems very real to me, I know more dead skydivers than BASE jumpers.

I wouldn’t want to be the keeper of that list . . .

Death is like a wave that stays just ahead of the skill and technology level. At first making it to 100 BASE jumps is everyone’s goal. And very few did it without a major plaster drama. Ritchie Stein made his 300th BASE jump (when only one or two had that many) standing on a 300-ft. microwave tower in the desert with a round parachute saying, “All I know is when you make your 300th BASE jump, you’ll still be scared.”

Carl Boenish, in a stretch, and not seeing the future clearly just this once, said in a 1984 interview, “Within ten years they will be blocking the streets below the World Trade Center Towers in New York City every Sunday morning and hundreds of BASE jumpers will rain down.”

The hard reality of BASE jumping hadn’t sunk in at that point. It’s still too fresh and new to have any boundaries. My thoughts on how truly dangerous BASE jumping is haven’t changed since the day I made my first one. Your personal risk level (the only one that counts) is determined by how current you are balanced by how often you do it. That will always be the way of it.

I don't think there’s been a million BASE jumps made yet, but I'd say we are closer rather than further . . .

Nick
BASE 194

Wouldn't you agree that whuffo's - in regard to climbing, jumping, kayaking, or any such activity tries to figure out the reasons we do it to justify why they DON'T?

It seems like many people theorize on our risk taking behaviours and MOA and childhoods etc. to see why we can do things they are too scared to do. I am personally scared to BASE jump. But I know why people do it, and I don't try to make excuses for not doing it. I'm too scared to climb some routes my buddy climbs with ease, but I know why he does it, and i'm not making excuses, except for "I dunno bro, thats pretty scary stuff your doing".

Some of my buddies think I"m crazy, others understand. Some ask why, and I don't even try to explain.

Do what you think is fun. If you enjoy soccer, football and basketball, good for you, there is a lot of practice and skill involved. If you enjoy jumping out of planes or off of cliffs, good for you, there is a lot of risk calculation and guts involved. Do what you want to enjoy, and be at peace with it, quit trying to figure people out and you'll be allright with me

Really? What contracts does he have, if any of you know... Must be nice to make good money doing what you want and be able to travel the world to do what you love...