Basejumper.com - archive

I've never heard it called, "breaching the peace."

Nick
BASE 194


The Sunday Times - Scotland

October 03, 2004

Thrill-seekers stay one jump ahead of police

POLICE are investigating a secretive group of Scottish thrill-seekers after their exploits of parachuting from buildings, bridges and radio masts were made into a film, writes Mark Macaskill. The men, including an Edinburgh-based sales manager and two oil-rig engineers, are part of the underground “base jumping” group that has targeted landmarks across Scotland.

The film of their exploits will be shown at the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival this week. In a trailer for the feature-length documentary the men, who are not identified, are seen leaping from radio masts.

“If we find out who these people are, they will be arrested,” said Pat Shearer, assistant chief constable of Grampian police. “We’re very concerned about such activity because it’s extremely dangerous and generally involves encroaching on other people’s property.”

“Base” is an acronym for building, antennae, span and earth, which represent the fixed objects from which jumps are made.

To date, more than 80 people have died attempting base jumps across the world. Since the first reported death in 1981, the sport has become increasingly popular among extreme sports enthusiasts.

John Vine, chief constable of Tayside police and one of Scotland’s most senior police officers, also condemned the group’s activities.

“We are extremely concerned by these irresponsible actions,” he said. “They are not only putting their own lives at risk but selfishly could also put any bystander or member of the emergency services in peril should they attempt to come to their assistance.

“We would urge anyone who witnesses behaviour of this kind to report it to the police so that we can take further action.”

Often base jumpers have to break into buildings, evade security and climb hundreds of feet before leaping into space.

The main parachute is attached to a smaller, hand-held chute which is thrown into the air, creating drag and releasing the larger chute as they plummet downwards.

Jumps normally take place shortly after dawn to minimise the risk of being caught.

Injuries such as broken limbs and fractured skulls are common as landings are on uneven surfaces in poor light. Base jumpers can also be battered against the structure they leapt from by strong winds.

One of the most recent fatalities involved a 35-year-old man from New Zealand who failed to deploy his parachute in time after leaping from a cliff in Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland.

Despite the risks, base jumping is becoming increasingly popular. In Scotland, the Forth Road Bridge is considered the “holy grail” of base jumping and one of the most challenging targets. Base jumpers have to scale steel cables from the walkway to reach the top of the mast and carefully judge wind speeds to avoid being smashed against the bridge. A boat is used to collect them from the water before the police close in.

Other targets include the Erskine bridge and the Glasgow science tower. Last week John, 29, one of the Scots base jumpers, dismissed suggestions that they were endangering the public and said more jumps were planned in the coming months. “In most parts of Europe the authorities understand that base jumping is done by highly skilled individuals, not reckless teenagers with a death wish,” he said.

“Base jumping is just another way of getting kicks but it’s also the closest thing you’ll ever get to flying. It is a risky sport, a bit of a dark art, but those risks can be assessed.”

Catching base jumpers has proved difficult. The most popular base jumping sites are a closely guarded secret.Once a site becomes known to the authorities it is considered “burned” and will no longer be used.

Last week Graeme Chalmers, the Edinburgh-based television producer behind the film, which is due for release next year, defended the extreme sport. “It is quite secretive and subversive in Britain but it is widely tolerated in Europe through designated jump zones,” he said.

“I’m trying to highlight that it goes on in this country as well. The people are not harming anyone, they’re very safety conscious and they love what they do.”

According to the Crown Office, those taking part could be prosecuted for damaging private property and imprisoned for breaching the peace.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1291963_2,00.html

Sounds like Edinburgh has a very bored Constable.

which proves again why video of the jumps is so cool. After all, if you don't have video, it didn't happen.
Wait until they start using video of jumps in a court of law to post-emptively arrest jumpers.
Then, we can see how cool public videos of the jump are. Keep sending them to REAL TV, and to other cheap skate TV shows trying to get some publicity. Then, when the publicity bites you in the ass, well, hey, maybe video the arrest.
That would be cool, have some arrest footage on you BASE video.

BASE videos have their place, but not in the general public's hands.


Nevermind me, it's just my paranoia again.

Think of this. If a high school student video taped a hazing, would this (has this) ever been used in court?

So why is BASE different. If you show blatant trespassing, don't be surprised to be called on it.

What's the new one? Continuum II? Great, and how many people can identify the illegal objects being jumped?
Wait, the cops are stupid, and could never figure out what building that was.

The funny part......YOU provide them with the evidence needed to convict.

Never mind me.....I'm just ranting.


Thomas

[shrugs, and walks back to bitterness corner]

yup..he he but atleast he has some cool video to entertain him self whith

The first time I saw a BASE video I was surprised that people were not masked or "blurred". It's a big issue for sites beeing identified, but what about people ?

In the graffiti world, videos have quite the same attractive feeling towards graffiti writers. But as you never know who will get a hand on it, all illegal actions are now with people digitally blurred at least.

Even if graffiti is quite different (I do not want to make any comparison between those world, but as it sometimes involves trespassing you can make some), videos won't be stopped, it's too attractive. But why not protecting jumpers identity ? (during illegal jumps).

I worked with a guy whos friends were into "graf" - and the planning and tools they used to get "pieces" done was quite impressive. He spoke of them using night vision goggles and lock picking techniques to gain entry into compounds to spray up areas hard to get to normally. They tried not to break into anything and leave no trace apart from the hugh colourful art they left - he also said that the people doing it were from all walks of life; IT consultants, laywers, butchers, unemployed - they were all serious about their art form............ its funny I would say there are aspects quite comparable............

I took an MFR class last year. Everyone in the class was a fireman. It is my understanding that most of these people in emergency services/ rescue crews are there for the rush. They love the challenge that it gives them. So the way I look at it is, if they show up to a base accident its not because they don't want to be there. They are there for the same reason that we were there, because they love what they are doing.

Does that make sense?

Not to say that I wouldn't feel terrible if someone got hurt or killed saving my dumb ass.

some skills apply to a great many things in life... i should change my signature back...

Hullo All,

The Sunday Times article was also covered in the (Scottish) Daily Record and the even more provincial Aberdeen based Press & Journal with a couple of cool photos... no faces but a readily identifiable tattoo (Doh!).
The articles were placed by Graeme, an adventure sports film maker, to highlight his piece at the Mountain Film Festival to be held this week in Edinburgh. The short Scottish BASE clip will be shown at the end of Graemes snowboarding film as a taster for a much longer Scottish project next year (planning to do Scottish B, A, S, and E. Anyone up for their Tartan BASE#).
Other interesting films at this festival include African BASE and the Baffin Island BASE film. Wish I could be there!!

Anyhoo, check out the festival website:

http://www.edinburghmountainff.com/


A couple of question for the ethicists:
How can you keep a sport this exciting a secret??
Will you still jump off stuff when it's mainstream?

*A Scottish pi$$ artist...
very serious about his art form*

Dislaimer: I'm no more of "an ethicist" than anyone else, I don't imagine.

(1) I don't know that anyone is trying to keep BASE jumping a "secret" -- plenty of info is available for anyone motivated to look for it.

(2) Maybe "mainstream" isn't the issue...I'm around enough BASE jumpers enought of the time that I'm not sure I could tell the difference (is it already mainstream?). However, someone might have a problem with media attention if it increases the vigilance of our fine men and women in uniform and - maybe more importantly - of object owners and managers, thereby reducing our access to objects. Even if this "mainstream" thing were to eventually get the police to relax a little, it might get otherwise mostly oblivious object owners to thinking..."don't need a bunch of them punks jumpin off the roof -- maybe we should strengthen the doors and locks and get some video surveillance on the roof".

But, hey -- good luck to him with the "outlaw" film marketing scheme. Maybe once he gets rich and famous, he can set up a fund to organize legal BASE events at selected objects so they can still be jumped by someone occasionally...

In fact graffiti writers are not that perfect regarding sneaking into places without leaving any "footprints". We got exactly the same problem as BASE have, some of those writers are more considering by putting themselves in light to get recognise than to preserve places.
Nowadays all graf places are quite burned around europe, it's waaaay harder to do them, but we still do. I hope BASE will never live that kind of problem, as it would break down the amazing feeling a lot.

Hmm, I wasn't too happy about the marketing strategy either (still in two minds). It's not pleasant to find your photo in the papers and to hear that the police actively seeking you.

While I understand the film makers need to get publicity and recognition, and that the stories were mainly plants and not intentionally malicious, I agree that a mass media audience isn't the best for BASE.
Still, good thing / bad thing? Hard to tell just now.
I'll wait and see.


Organized events seem to be taking off, China, Malaysia, Turkey, Moscow, Tokyo, Voss...
Is there an events calendar anywhere?

the fundamental difference between BASE and graf is, the POINT of graf is to leave 'footprints'.... just not ones that lead back to you.....

There is an events calendar on Dropzone.com, but (rightfully) only events for beginner BASE jumpers tend to get on there.

Hey Mike,

No matter what, they won't take these jumps away from us...

Thanks for sharing mate!

J.