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Okay here's a scenario:

You're happy jumping the gear you have. You love your gear in fact. You decided on your current gear based on countless hours of research and expert opinions. You bought/jumped gear from several manufacturers before deciding on the company you jump now. All is well.

You get an offer from a different gear manufacturer that wants to sponsor you by supplying you with free equipment in exchange for you spreading positive information about the company and providing them with pictures/video of their gear in use. This is a company you have already jumped and you decided on your gear over theirs.

Would you put your current rig aside and start jumping their gear exclusively?


Edit: A friend just pointed out that it looks like I got a sponsorship offer. I didn't. This is a totally hypothetical situation.

Nope. You could probably pay me enough to jump your gear, but you wouldn't be able to pay me enough to keep my opinions to myself. My mouth is just too big, I guess.

Is this hypothetical?
If not, I can say one thing for certain--I most definitely would not put a post like this on the net saying that you think their gear is second rate--especially if you're considering taking them up on their offer.

**(this is why many people call getting sponsored "selling out.")

$0.02

Tough call. Free equipment is difficult to refuse. I'd accept the gear, jump it and spread positive word regarding the company. However, who's to say you can't still keep your current rig and jump it on the 'side?' And of course, one has to firmly believe in the product he/she is using. I wouldn't jump gear I didn't like simply because its free.

I would imagine it depends on how many times you think your going to get caught.

Hey ! Easy. hehe.

I don't like using skydiving to make the point, but in that sport, an experienced jumper will jump anything in their size range (rig & canopy) as long as someone is writing them a check.

It's not automatically that way in BASE jumping.

It's not so much that BASE jumping is more dangerous, it's that skydiving manufactures, since Bill Booth gave us the Three Ring and throw out pilot chute in 1975, are all building a version of the same rig. And when skydiving whatever little differences there are you can work out. (Or, you shouldn't be a professional skydiver.)

With BASE gear the differences in a tuck here, a fold there, a toggle that sets this way or that, even down to the harness geometry (Moe Viletto scared the crap out of me explaining that one) can translate into the fifty feet that saves your life, or limb.

BASE manufacturers are still (and I hope forever) free to imagine new things in the afternoon and then go try them that night. And the comfort level one arrives at after jumping the same gear for a while is tangible.

So to answer the question, the check would have to be bigger than usual because picking up and jumping with just any BASE rig is like dancing with someone else's wife.

All of a sudden you aren't Fred Astaire anymore . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Do you have to drink RedBull too?

I would not accept a product I didn't have 100% faith in, both in quality, and functionality, nor from a company I didn't believe in, or thought had poor custoner service no matter what the sport is. I also make sure those that I would accept sponsorship from understand My opinions and the way I express them are not always exclusive to that manufacturer, sometimes the product I have is not right for certian people.....

Care to let us in on the details? (so that we can save out own lives and limbs).

I too would love to hear.

I've heard of some research reguarding burbles and weight fore/aft under the canopy in respect to inflation times, and from my experience in skydiving I could see there being some merit to that.....

I just think that that's not about the big, very famous and respected by everybody companies. (I remember the Karen's words about BR who felt itself good enough even getting no discounts and free gear).
So our object is small local manufacturer. They all (if they are not stupid) are trying to get the news about gear in time. They take the sponsorship offers not only hoping to publish the good reviews. They need a test jumpers and theirs advice discussed with the community. Not every gear manufacturing owner is a basejumper himself or a member of a base community. So he just want to get some help to make the gear his company producied better.
Anyways it is not neccesary to say only good words to your sponsor. If the gear you got from him is shit and you're sure about it and your friends have the same opinion it'd better to say it to the manufacturer to get him a chance to make some new stuff.
Is the manufacturer is experienced enough in sewing and aerodynamic theory, has the fabric, tapes and hardware of the best quality and responsible to listen the opinions of community which are coming from practice definitely i'll take his gear.
And that cause every jumper i'll meet on the exit-point and every jumper here and on the BaseBoard will be asked about the options my gear has and it's performance.

simply no...

nope..........................

Another form of base ethics, you should promote and jump the gear that has proven itself to you, not the gear someone offers you for free. I run into this "on the road salesperson for a certain manufacturer" occasionally, who is more than willing to lie to sell equipment for the manufacturer, and get "free gear". Ive been told that the "mojo is a snivelling dangerous canopy" by said persons. Yeah. Right.....