Basejumper.com - archive

Disclaimer: I am not a base jumper. The base jumper involved in this escapade will be named as XXX. It took place in a country where base jumping is illegal.

Saturday 4th Sep. 2004:
I am doing a Tandem video from out C182. Tandem master and base jumper XXX asks the pilot to fly over a certain part of town where a street party is taking place. XXX points out of the window as in an excited voice says "Look! there it is!".
I see a rather large crane. This crane is hauling people up to the top in a cage so they can have a birds eye view of the town. It's about 240 ft high. I know what XXX is thinking and I say there is nowhere to land. XXX says " It's tricky, but base is always a little bit tricky".

Saturday evening: I get a telephone call from XXX. He has a plan. Now think about it. You want to do an illegal base jump from a crane. You need the crane driver to operate the thing to get you up there. The crane is surrounded by parting folks and... police. I say he crazy and it will not work.


Sunday 5th Sep 2004.
The evil plan.

XXX with an accomplice drive to the street party. They approach the operator of the cage and says "O.K. I'm here to do the base jump from the crane." They have T-Shirts with BASE stunt crew written on them.
Operator.. "What base jump?"
XXX ... "What! they didn't tell you? Jesus, I have been booked to do the jump at 14:00, I have travelled a long way to get here, let's get going or I'm going to miss the 14:00 deadline."
Operator.. "eerrmm I have to talk to the crane driver"

A bit more discussion here and there and the jump is O.K.ed. The operator asks XXX if a moderator at the party should announce the jump. XXX says " ermmm no, everyone will see it anyway". He climbs on top of the cage and get's hauled to the top. Suddenly the party has all gone quiet. 1..2..3 XXX jumps to wild cheers and applause. He lands in an area just slightly larger than his canopy and says to his accomplice, Let's split".

And they're gone.

I had a real problem believing the crane operators fell for it. Maybe the police thought is really was a planned stunt. Oh, and of course it's all on video.

XXX - I love that dude
When's he making his second motion picture??

Nooo, if I had meant that guy I would have called him xXx

This technique was used successfully in the (someone help me out here?) late 80's or early 90's to jump a major stadium in the US.

I also know the Belgian guys used a similar technique to jump a building a few years ago.

I've cleaned up this thread.

This web site primarily serves the skydiving community. We (BASE jumpers) are here through the goodwill of the site's owner (who, if you haven't noticed, is a skydiver who does not BASE jump).

I think it's pretty damn rude to walk around his place, constantly expressing your contempt for a class of people that includes the owner.

We already have a place where we (BASE jumpers) primarily hang out, which doesn't have a bunch of skydivers. If you want to gripe about skydivers (sometimes I need to do that to) let's take it to BLiNC.

I guess it's not so novel then

Still, the video was hillarious.

 
When Phil Smith jumped the Astrodome in Houston it was a day they are preparing the stadium floor for a motorcycle race. Phil, and Andy Smith, and Carl Boenish walked in dressed like construction workers.

They made there way to the catwalk above the stadium floor for a look see. After figuring it was doable they came back in the next day or so and made the jump. (It was 192-feet, and very low for the times).

Those jumps lead to two paying gigs. First they jumped into a automobile thrill show and later into an Astro's baseball game. In that one Phil and Andy wore big league uniforms and Phil jumped carrying the game ball. This was all in 1982 and is the first major legal public display of BASE jumping.

BASE jumpers have always used inventive ways to gain access. My favorite was ARGON Helicopter Pad Inspection Services.

"Hi, we're here to do the annual inspection on your helicopter pad."

I think I still have that shirt somewhere . . .

Nick
BASE 194

What happened to the stash bag??

I'm not sure if that was serious or not, but in case it was:

A stash bag is a small, collapsible bag (basically a stuff sack with shoulder straps) that BASE jumpers use to carry gear. When you jump, you wad it up into a pocket (or wherever) and use it to stuff the gear into after the jump. You can also "stash" the gear (in the bag) somewhere, and come back for it later (so that if you get stopped by cops, you aren't carrying gear).

I was serious, but I guess I was picturing my skydiving gear bag, gigantic, with 30lbs worth of gear in it. When I show up to the DZ carrying it, people ask if it's got a body in it. There's no way I could jump with that. :)

So I wasn't sure if a BASE "stash bag" was able to be stashed itself while jumping.

>>Some rigs have a pocket sewn into the bottom of the tray so you can stuff the stash bag in there and jump with it.

Hey Speedy. Really cool story, and i now know who the xxx man is. He is a greate dude! Unfortunly you are posting on a wrogn forum. It seems everytime something cool comes up, somebody will say that it was allready don in the early eightys or somethig like that...This is more a historic&questions about basejumping forum. You should post this kind of storys on a real forum for real and crazy basejumpers, like xxx is!!! The site is http://www.offheading.com and the international baseforum is here : http://www.offheading.com/phpBB2/index.php
Here there is alot of space for cool storys like yours!We just love them!!! Lets not talk about history. The history is made now. The past is allready forgotten.
ALL RESPECT TO TOM AND OTHER GUYS THAT HELPS SKYDIVERS BECOME BASEJUMPERS AT THIS FORUM!!!

With respect, the originator of this thread chose to use the word novel in the subject line. In this context novel means new. He also finished the sentence with a '?' suggesting a question: Was this a new way to open a site?

He got answered.