Basejumper.com - archive

I recently acquired some old skydiving books. One them mentioned a BASE magazine that Carl and Jean edited.

Does anyone know anything about it? Were many issues made? Is there anything on the internet?

Meeker

Hello Meeker,

don't have any copies of BASE magazine but Milky Bar Kid has some samples of of that magazine review genre that we both enjoy (in Italian language) to give to you - let me know if the filthy prevert has kept them for himself

I think our very own BASE 23(?) has some copies, post on the uk brd. I bet glamour boy has got some also

J

I know that Nick DG has some copies of old BASE related magazines (as he used to publish one back in the day). I also believe that Zennie acquired a stack of some a while back (I think from Rick or some other old timer, but I'm not sure).

There have been several different attempts at BASE related papers/magazines. I know that Dwain once showed me one he put together early on, in Oz, and Avery and Mick at different times published a newsletter called "The Rockhopper" (I think Jason B. had final custody of that project, but I could be wrong).

I think it would be a very worthwhile project to scan and .pdf them for historical value. I'm not sure how the publishers would feel about that, and, of course, their permission would be necessary.

I have all of them in mint condition. Avery and Mick also have them I believe.

Carl and Jean Boenish's BASE magazine has a very special place in our history. Today it is hard to imagine how sensational this magazine was.

For many of us it was the first time we'd heard the word BASE. Here in the UK It's arrival into the hands of Frank Donellan (BASE 12) , turned a group of skydiving friends into hardcore would-be BASE jumpers. It became our manifesto, handbook and bible.

It was the BASE forum of the day. You'd write a letter about your BASE exploits and see it in the next issue a few months later. We were sorry when it finished at no. 6.

In '83 I started a UK BASE magazine jump as a way to share information about the sport following Frank Donellan's fatality. This mag was directly inspired by BASE magazine. Carl set a high standard to follow.

I managed one copy a year for the next 5 or 6 years which I took to Bridge Day. They were exciting times. Jumpers would send me letters and pictures telling jump stories which I'd use for the next issue.

I agree with Tom that all these early magazines are valuable historical documents and they should be preserved. I have pdf'd most of mine now and they can be downloaded from:

http://magazine.jump.co.uk/



Nigel
BASE 28

Um, just finished reading the 1983 issue.

I think I have pretty big balls climbing our As, or jumping in Moab. With my Warlock. And my vented/ valved Blackjacks. At sites that have been jumped for decades. Etc...

Early BASE must have been an experience that I cannot even begin to comprehend. In fact, I will do a jump with a Wonderhog and StratoCloud at BD'05, just to get a taste of that craziness...

WOW, thanks to the pioneers...

There are several documented cases of jumpers before WWII (this was in an age when to become a skydiver you had to sew your own parachute) making BASE jumps. I even know of one guy who rode a motorcycle off a 1000 foot cliff in the 30's.

And we like to think of ourselves as intrepid...

Oh yeah, that's a great idea...good luck with that.

I might change my mind before that.

However, I did get to work 2 hours doing gear checks at BD'04, that opened my eyes... Not everyone is jumping pimped out BASE-specific gear. For sure...

Thank you for judging my BASE experience though...

I PCA'd TM off the bridge here with a similar setup a few months ago. It was...interesting.

Hey, thats my water rig you are talking about! [ also landed it on land during higher winds a couple of times]. Theres video :) ;) :)

Phil Smith and Andy Calistrat put out BASELINE for a few years. I still have a few copies kicking around. At least when they were doing it it came out on a regular basis....

I had a bunch more but I leant them to Bob Lennox when he was trying to get permission to do legal jumps off the CN Tower into the skydome, and never got them back before he killed himself jumping off his balcony....

Interestingly enough, at one point we had permission to do legal jumps from the tower, but the day before the big event, CN's headquarters in Montreal put the kibosh on it.... Plan B was out of an airplane, but the weather turned out to be bad anyways, so we sat in a skybox and ran up their bar bill.

Nigel

Huge thanks for making your work available for download. As a UK basejumper this is pure gold.

I'm sure there are quite a few jumpers out there who would love the chance to purchase a reprint.

If you are interested. i would be honoured to arrange and fund that (profit free for me).

Email me if you are interested. Genuine offer cos i love this fu(king sport and it's history.

ian BASE 843

I would also like to express my gratitude Nigel. Thank you for sharing this valuable resource with us

Hope to meet you one day - beers on me!

J #880 Brit in Italia

Yes!
Thanks a bunch for sharing those with us Nigel.
This is cool stuff to read. Please let us know when you get the other two scanned.
Cheers.

Re-read the post...I made no judgements whatsoever.

Just wishing you luck with that...

Tom,
I can scan Boenish's BASE magazine in about a month or so if you want to make a dropzone.com link to them.

-Chris

Yes, please.

Was that the one where the slider hung up for a while? If so, then yes...that was quite interesting!

That's the one.

Um, you might want to check with Jean on that first.... Right, Nick?

Thanks, Skypuppy, I was going to say something, but I didn't want to be the kill joy.

Using Jean's stuff without permission, in anyway, even if it's educational and done for free, will absolutely flip her out. If she finds out you did it, you'll find yourself on her list.

And you'd almost want to be on my list, than hers . . .

Anyway, it is her stuff, and she may have plans for them. I doubt she'll ever do what Nigel did with his magazine and put it on the net, but if you can get in touch with her (always a quest in itself) you might be able to purchase Xerox copies.

BTW, Nigel, very cool! I want to also put the nine issues of The Fixed Object Journal on line, but that's the next project . . .

Until then, for anyone with copies of my magazine, you have my permission to copy and spread them around (just don't sell them or post them on-line).

NickD
BASE 194