Basejumper.com - archive

No joke.

I found this sign in the window of a tanning salon downtown today.

For those of you who don't want to check out my digital photos on the linked page, here's the text of the sign:


Is this the future of BASE? Is this where we're going with "mainstreaming" the sport? Or perhaps there really is a tanning salon operator here who's just way more hardcore than any of us, and has been flicking this thing for the last two and a half decades?

Maybe I'll stop by tomorrow when they're open and see if I can sign up. Heck, if I'm lucky, maybe I can get a tan, too.

Thoughts?

I think it's funny that in the same day, I read this post and another unrelated one talking about possible regulation at the Perrine Bridge (the burning thread). I'm not a BASE jumper, so maybe my opinion doesn't count, but I think anyone will agree that this kind of thing should not be happening. And there's really no way to *stop* it, short of regulation. I'm not really jumping to any conclusion here, and I certainly hate regulation in anything just as much as the next guy - but I've also learned through the years that there are many necessary evils in life.

Whoa...*Flashback* to the local High School BASE Club there not so long ago.

I was actually wondering if it might be the same guy.

My thoughts would be that it wouldn't take too long to find out who the instructor is - just book yourself in...

Don't tell him who you are, don't act like you know anything...it could be humorous.

Wow! Check it out and get back to us, Tom. When you speak with them, be sure to use phrases like "can I pull my own cord?" and "do you offer tandems?"

I'm sure this one will be interesting

Shoot...I turn up in TF Sunday...I'm going to miss Saturday's Deathcamp

Jason, don't miss out on the fun, the salon's phone # was easy to find on the net. Why not give them a call?

I met that guy last year. He was static lining high school students into the water. I believe the canopies were T-10s but I don't recall. I only saw one from a distance. I met the students later at the park.

Can you imagine going home to mom

"Hi Mom, I need you to sign this note"

he he heres an idea...

ask some one not so well known but still a great jumper to sign in for this,take the course and either smoke it low or do some arials

What is happening at that S???

and i thourght i would jump it one day,but if this continiues it will soon be burned

Tom you have to go in and check this out. As as service to the worldwide BASE community!

Gus

Faber, I have to agreew with you on that note. I was planning on going back out for Labor Day, but at this rate, I'm afraid it will be shut down by then. If I bbok my trip and then they close the bridge, I'll be really pissed. Probably not as pissed as those who have relocted there though...

Ganja

I thought we'd been asked not to s/l from the bridge structure? ie not to attach anything to the bridge.

We have. Last time I saw the high school "BASE club" they were PCAing. Still, I've seen actual static lines used, too.

Is this a rule also? I wonder if it's okay to use a static line and have ground crew remove it as soon as the deployment is completed.

I wanted to spend some time doing static line, PCA, and other low deployment method testing with lasers and cameras.

I guess I'll have to scratch out the static line tests or do them at another object. Of course, it will be difficult to bang out 10 jumps a day for testing at another object.

Any info on this?

BASE jumping for tourists? What's next?

I did a bunch of canopy test jumps a few years ago with static lines, using the "remove right away" method you suggest. Enforcement on static lines is pretty much non-existent (the bungee guys, for example, hook their setup directly to the bridge), but the official word from the State Engineer is "please don't". I'm not sure if the local cops have heard this or not (I suspect not).

Your call.

Last I head the local librarian was going to take tourists out pylon racing P-51 Mustangs.

oops created a stir.. I was wide asleep when I wrote that. Static line flowed from my finger tips when in really it was a pilot chute

He PCAed the kids.

Threw a life jacket and a parachute on them and tossed em over (not literally on the toss)

Nice. No packing, no flaring, no counting, no pitching. It's about time. Hey. I'll be out there this weekend. I'd love to see if they put on a deathcamp.

It's hard enough to get 10 skydivers to go do a BASE jump. 10 whuffos are going to get together, lured in by this sign in front of a tanning salon? They've got the target market nailed, though. Because everyone who gets a tan also wants to BASE jump. Right?

Wouldn't this operation be more of a danger of getting the site closed down than anything a clueless and/or asinine base jumper would do by dropping stuff, jumping from the rail, etc.?

BTW, about someone dropping a surfboard or whatever from their feet when jumping the bridge, shouldn't a jumper wait for spectators to pass before jumping *just* in case everything goes wrong and the jumper creams into a spectator at 100mph straight down?