Basejumper.com - archive

Some time back I set Google up so it would e-mail me when there was news in the media regarding, "BASE jumping." At first these e-mails were mostly BASE related and included competitions, accidents, etc. Well, I still get those, but nowadays, many are only BASE specific in passing.

Writers are now using BASE as an example to illustrate other points. For instance, a recent piece was saying the most dangerous sport in the world, in terms of fatalities, is motor racing.

No argument there, but to make the point the following was included, "Sports like BASE Jumping, Free Diving, Cave Diving, Speed Skiing and Street Luging have fatalities, but participation is not that widespread and rock fishing claims more lives than all of them."

The point is they are using BASE correctly (a capitalized acronym) and they don't feel the need to explain what BASE jumping is. This is only interesting if you remember when almost no one outside jumpers understood BASE and reporters didn't know BASE jumping from paragliding.

I'm not saying this is good or bad, it's just what it is . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Have you ever seen the movie "To Live and Die in LA"? It's an early 80s flic and at the beginning of the movie the main character can be seen doing a fixed line rope jump off of a span. But in the movie he refers to this as a BASE jump. I just cringe at this remark everytime I watch the movie (which is pretty good by the way), because he wasn't BASE jumping.

is that legal in national parks?

I'm not sure what this movie I speak of has to do with legalities in the national parks?

can you do what he did from a bridge from a cliff? and if so can you do it in a national park?

Ever hear of Dan Osman? His jumps were deemed "an inappropriate use of the resource" meaning that it would be frowned upon in a National Park but not illegal. Just as BASE jumping, which isn't strictly illegal, fixed rope jumps would land you in a world of trouble...

jon

i rember the history of Dan,always wanted to try out ropeswing