Random thoughts about dealing with family (long)
I was watching the Fearless special on OLN featuring Jeb Corliss with my wife the other night. Her and I have had many discussions about the risks associated with BASE jumping. During many parts of the show, especially Jeb’s waterfall incident, she would nudge me with this look as if to say, “See what I mean? How can you argue that jumping isn’t crazy.” Following the show there was another episode of Fearless that documented the life of Greg Lamond and his Tour de France victories and it included a section about a hunting accident in which he almost died. It struck me later how similar the two incidents were and how even though I saw them as such, most people probably didn’t see the same parallels that I saw. In both events people were pursuing their form of recreation and doing something they find pleasure in. They were outside with friends engaging in one of their passions. Neither one of them wanted to die, but both of them came very close. In fact they were “trying to live” by experiencing something they enjoy.
Both accidents were due to mistakes, or more accurately multiple combined mistakes that led to serious, life threatening injuries. Greg’s brother in law shot at something without awareness of where his buddies were and he shot below the horizon. This resulted in Greg getting shot at close range, almost dying, and to this day he still has over 30 lead shot pellets in his body. Jeb jumped in less than ideal conditions and dropped a shoulder. This gave him his off heading opening that sent him into the waterfall and resulted in several broken bones and a long hospital stay.
The key is that they were both due to mistakes. The most important thing to note though is that hunting is considered “normal” while BASE jumping is not. The reason is that jumping taps into the primal fear of falling that all humans have. This primal fear is the root of all the problems, laws, discussions, etc. against activities like BASE. In Garret Soden’s book Falling: How Our Greatest Fear Became Our Greatest Thrill he discusses how there is this unconscious prejudice against people who participate in gravity driven sports like BASE jumping. A “normal” person can’t comprehend why someone would do something that makes most people sick to their stomachs. They can’t help but ask ‘why’ and be angry that someone would do something so ‘stupid’. They see BASE jumping as ‘unnatural’ and ‘insane’ and …”there should be regulations against things like that”. A jumper however, sees jumping as somewhat normal in the sense that it is their form of recreation. It’s their version of hunting, golf, racing, whatever. If they make a mistake, they will suffer the consequences, but they do everything in their power to avoid mistakes. Hunters take hunter safety courses to avoid getting shot or killed, but it still happens. Jumpers take first jump courses and discuss safety issues in depth with one another to avoid getting hurt or killed, but it still happens.
If one removes the emotional aspect and looks at these two incidents from a purely analytical point of view and only assesses the facts, then they are very similar in many ways. And if the hunting accident, although tragic, can be considered somewhat normal and an acceptable amount of risk, then why can’t BASE jumping and the risks involved with it be considered acceptable as well? We as BASE jumpers can understand this logic, but since this fear of falling is so ingrained in “normal” peoples’ minds they don’t even realize the basic cause for their frustration.
Sorry that this turned out to be such a long rant, but I thought it might offer someone a little help if they’re trying to explain BASE jumping to their family and friends.
This winter I hope to start AFF. Maybe, one day far into the future I will try base. 
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