Basejumper.com - archive

It's 10:45 pm here, and I just got home from an incredible roadtrip. I've been awake for the past 38 hours, I drove 1500 kilometers with just 3 CDs, I drank 8 Red Bulls and 5 coffee to stay awake, I got a 300 dollar speeding ticket, and I spend a wackload of money on a new helmet and radio, a car-rental and gas for the trip.

Was it worth it?

Hell yeah! I did my 14th base jump and met some incredible people. A big thanks to the ... crew for the invitation and an awesome day!

There's probably much crazier stories out there, so please share them. What did you do to make a jump?

Thanks,

Jaap Suter

Wow dude, you're wacked out! Sounds like a fun time though Not sure I've done anything that extensive for a single jump. Did however, go to 4 sites yesterday and not a damn bit of luck. *sigh*

 
4? wow and no luck? was ther weather bad or other reasons? Sorry to hear that...

Hey Jaap!

I am still buzzing and processing that jump in my mind! That was the most WAY OUT THERE(for me) jumpI think I have ever done!
It was only a 2.5 hour trip for myself and C, so Jaap gets the GUNG-HO award for sure!
I know i was feeling stoked and good leading up to everything but a bad fall getting to the exit point left me a little bloody and with a headache. I'd like to take this time to thank my helmet!!
Was feeling more tripped on this one than any other jump. I already had experienced a large adrenalin surge and was in a bit of pain.
Time to go, still jacked, maybe a little too jacked!!? The conditions were perfect but that is the first time I have heard myself say(on video) "Oh God..please..please." as I pointed my skis towards the edge and started sliding, and I had no idea I had said it until I saw the video. Which is also weird because I don't really believe in a single entity Catholic type of God.
I also let out my first involuntary kind of fear yell noise in freefall as I felt myself going much more head down than I expected or wanted. Head position was ok for a BASE jump but not a Ski-BASE jump And for the record I usually only make those noises when I am climbing over railings or such! LOL
So there I am, I have pitched and I am rolling down the windows and feeling a weeeee bit scared/tense and then it clicked....that feeling that always comes but at different times on different jumps for me and this time it was late. The settling into the jump and feeling golden. Thanks to the little voice in my head that said, "RELAX DICKHEAD!" and I did just before line stretch and I had a great on-heading opening but with some consequences!!! The opening shock blew both my skis of my feet!! My Bandits are gone........sniff....snifff, they went in! Laughing?? Something funnier?? I didn't notice for about 30 seconds into my flight!! I'll hike up in spring to gather the pieces up. That was my first semi-botched exit and it was quite humbling not that I wasn't already!! I have a large amount of fear and respect for this shit we do.
A killer front-flip by the guy we owe for making this possible!! 2 other nice launches and my flailing goose exit. Sunny skies, low to nothing winds..........it was an awesome day!! I lost some skin, some blood and my dear old Bandits but it was worth it!!!!!!!
Thanks guys! That was a life experience! Nice job on getting your "E" dude!!!
Here is a frame grab of Jaap's first "E"!

that is just sick! congrats, me so jealous! is there any video of the special occasion

A little bloody? Those road-rash skids on your arm must have been at least a centimeter deep. You definitely win the hardcore-award for continueing as if nothing happened.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out, before somebody points it out, that doing a ski-base on a 14th jump might not be the smartest thing one can do.

However, I've been snowboarding for the past 10 years, having spend several seasons in the French Alps, and having done many contents. See http://www.jaapsuter.com/snowboard for some pictures.

That's just to explain that I am convinced that me exiting on a snowboard was going to be more stable than any exit I will ever do on foot. It would also give me more separation because of the extra speed. I've landed many cliffs over 20ft on my snowboard, and I would never go headdown on this one either. That combined with a massively overhung exit, great weather conditions, a huge landing area, and money set aside for a helicopter rescue mission in case I decided to back out at the exit-point, made me decide to make the trip.

Shit , this whole previous paragraph sounds like one of those typical "guy that doesn't know what he's doing trying to convince himself he didn't do something stupid" arguments. I'll crawl back into my cave now. My next jumps will be at the potato bridge again. Flame away...

Cheers,

Jaap Suter

I forgot to mention. On the way driving to xxx, I saw a huge billboard saying the following:

Get Vertical, Go Apex

That's how much trouble the people from Vertigo and Basic Research go through to encourage their customers!

Apex is a ski-resort not even close to where I live or where we jumped, but they were advertising beside the road there.

Cheers,

Jaap

 

Shit , this whole previous paragraph sounds like one of those typical "guy that doesn't know what he's doing trying to convince himself he didn't do something stupid" arguments. I'll crawl back into my cave now. My next jumps will be at the potato bridge again. Flame away...

Cheers,

Jaap Suter

Jaap you are a humble man! Your form from preparation, to riding your board, your launch and pitch was all 10/10!! I wish I could say the same for myself!

You did awesome dude, you were ready!

Hey Jaap!

Thanks for the vid, nice stuff. Congrats on your E! Sorry dude, but I can't share a much crazier story. That's not fair asking for when you make your first E on your 14th jump with your feet strapped to a board..

just curious:

what delay did you do?
Do you have skysurf experience?
Did you have any cutaway system on this board?

1.5 seconds.
No , the whole jump was sub-terminal anyway.

No. I thought about this for a while before deciding to go. The two problems I saw with this were line-twist and deploying headdown between my legs. The latter I discarded, knowing that I wasn't going to go headdown (famous last words), and if I did, I wouldn't have time for a cut-away anyway. The line-twist scenario worried me more, and I discussed it for a bit with some friends. I came to the conclusion that the real problem with line-twist is obstacle strike. That can be fixed by climbing up the lines and steering away, regardless of having a snowboard attached to my feet. The actual line-twist is a secondary problem, and that can be kicked out of, even with a snowboard on my feet, albeit a little slower.

Cheers,

Jaap Suter

Dude when I stared BASE jumping I had @ least 800 Skysurf jumps and was curent.
I never had the -BURNING- desire to jump a Board & BASE
Even saw Dwain and Slim/somtimes do standing launches off Earth/ slider-down .
Dwain had a hand full of skydive/Surf and Slim had none.

I think because I did do some Skydive/Surf... I knew enough to be Scared Shitless....
.
.

Thanks!


I was actually curious about stories leading up to the jump. Long drives, long waits for good weather or waits for that security guard to go away, disguises you used to gain entry, elaborate escape plans, etcetera.

Cheers,

Jaap Suter

I believe the best I've heard in that regard was BPS, who, several years ago, drove something like 800 miles, spent a whole night driving, went to 3 (or was it 4?) objects, and finally got to jump. The funny part was that none of the objects were more than 2 hours from home--he just kept getting denied and driving to the next one. Now that's persistence.

Dan The Man,once had a visit in Copenhagen(gf),he gave me a bell to hear if i were ready for a jump(rember he only had the weekend in copenhagen).im always up if the weather premits so he and the gf took the car drove from copenhagen to my location(1,5-2 hours drive plus 2 times road tax for a BIG S in this country)hooked up just in the city arrenge the cars then go to the object,climed 400ft we both jumped in total darkness as the sky were black+ night.Soon as the jump were done and we were back at the cars he couldnt stay as they had an arrengement in Copenhagen same night
I thourght THAT were cool done,considdering he could have got the same A(same build dif location) near Copenhagen..

I still wear my Team Crank T-shirt prouly as i were told to

Thanks Dan,looking forward to hook up soon

im hurt faber, you dont remember the miles and hassles we went through trying to get you your BSEO? Fuck that was a hard week!

Groundcrew was especially hard on that B!

Do you have skysurf experience?No , the whole jump was sub-terminal anyway.

yeah i do rember but it were planned and it wasnt just to get 1 jump
We sure did work for it(specialy trying to get my S,which never happened),but it were more like a lifestyle which i expected to go through to get them jumps.

Baa that B,im sure you got a blowjob on that topfloore,thats why JD and i had to wait forso long down on the grass

Nothing spectacular I'm afraid, mostly just waiting. A month or so ago I spent 45 minutes at the top of an A, freezing my nuts off in the British winter, waiting for a couple to finish shagging in their Transit van that they'd (very incosiderately) parked in my landing area. I know what you're thinking: 45 minutes?! Well done to the lad. Respect.

Gus

not really but we aint from UK either

I had to recruit several people to help build and install a platform so I could push (and eventually drop) myself off.

Oh wait, that's every jump so far.

After working a 12 hour shift at work, I drove 730 miles from Seattle to pick up my girlfriend at her college in Montana, then we continued on to Twin Falls the same day for a total of 1080 miles (I did all the driving). We got there just in time for me to pack a rig and we did a dawn load. We stayed and jumped for two days then I did the trip again backwards.

I think we got in about ten or twelve jumps that weekend.

We did this every other weekend for a month and a half, with small variations. Sometimes we'd meet in Twin Falls.

I'm sure glad we live together now!


Edit: I left a couple details out, now added for dramatic effect.

Dude...get KMonster to drive next time!

ok. i didnt read all of those stories. only the first one.

hard times:

Last October. Me, Girl A and Jaakko took the plane from Arctic Circle Rovaniemi Lapland Finland to Helsinki. 4 hours waiting at the airport. Flight to Amsterdam. 3 hours waiting. Flight to New York 6-7 h. 3 hours waiting. flight to Charleston via Washington 3 hours. Getting rental from airport. Drive to Fayetteville. Sleep !!!!!
2 jumps in Bridge Day in Fu....ing hard rain.. !! what?

after BD, drive to Charlotte....couple of Bs and As(s) ;)
6 h flight to Salt lake C. and 4 h drive to T Falls.
12 Jumps there. Flight to NY....1,5day there...6-7h flight to Paris, F...ing running at there airport....4h to Helsinki....and 1,5 h to Rovaniemi Home Arctic Circle.

How`s that?

FastPete
www.pete.fi
pete@pete.fi

Ok. second one!!!
Driving from A circle rovaniemi to Turku at the southest part of finland (900km).
Ferry to Stocholm. (2h sleep)
Driving from St holm to Tr veg...dont remember the distance, but its something like 1400-1600 km....5 days there looking at snow, falling rain,storm,clouds,...0 JUMPS...
Drive back....Ferry....Drive Home to AC Rovaniemi...

NICE...
www.pete.fi
pete@pete.fi

Ouch. What did you do when you came home?

well...i took couple of vodkas and sleeped a lot....its -34 celsius now in here. p-r-e-t-t-y cold.

www.pete.fi
pete@pete.fi

Not very crazy, but I will always remember this:

One time I had packed slider off then had to unpack... then repack with the slider, then unpack, then repack without slider, then unpack then repack with the slider, then unpack, then repack without slider, then unpack then then repack with the slider, then unpack, then repack without slider, then unpack then repack with the slider, then unpack, then repack without slider, then unpack then repack with the slider, then unpack, then repack without slider, then unpack then repack with the slider, then unpack, then repack without slider, then unpack then repack with the slider, then unpack, then repack without slider, then unpack then repack with the slider, then unpack, then repack without slider...

...and then...

...after 17 packjobs...

...I finally got mother nature's cooperation and made a jump!

I did get some damn good "packing memory" in that parachute, and after that I had pleanty of motivation to get to the plasma center twice a week to save for a second rig!!!