Basejumper.com - archive

hey guys,
i'm not a BASE jumper but i must admit it fascinates me and i try to absorb all i can about it, i came across a quote the other day - don't remember where - saying that 'there is only one step to get into BASE and you'd better sure as hell know what you are doing', which started me wondering, do any of yuo guys regret making your first jump or getting involved in BASE?

never,

added:

There will be times that are trying, but its the good times that make it more than worthwhile.

not so much regrets, but I would never encourage someone else to get involved with this sport..... it really is hard and nasty at times............

I was once told by someone when I was about to do my FJC - "prepare for your world to be turned upside down" - never a truer word spoken..........

Pay no attention to Leroy...

...he's an idiot

HELL NO!! Being involved with skydiving and BASE are what I live for!

23 years after my last BASE jump it's back flowing through my bloodstream just like before and I may well jump again - there's no escape and I'm not looking for one!

once bitten, forever smitten..............

you need to get out more!

Sometimes when I'm climbing I get the feeling that I never should have started, that I should just go home and sell all my gear. You have a lot of time to think on the way up and your mind can go to some strange places. I usually get over all that at the exit point though.

let me know when youre ready mate...got a rig here for you and some nice objects to renew your vows with!

I get out plenty, as soon as the green light turns on.

careful young jedi, carefull dont piss on or in 813...

I roll out of bed every morning on creaky and swollen limbs and regret the first time I ever saw a parachute. I Frankenstein my way to the coffee pot always thinking the same thing; I should have done something more sedate with my life like accounting or vacuum cleaner salesman. It'll be a good half hour before I can walk without hanging on to something.

With coffee in hand I'll work on the book for a half hour and then check in here. I'll think of "Brit Al" making another BASE jump after his first one twenty years ago, I'll think of Jeb's dream of landing his wing suit or Yuri tracking so hard he becomes a Sputnik orbiting the earth forever. I'll compare the aerials, pin rigs, and roll overs with our first humble attempts at BASE using the wrong gear and the wrong skills. I see Bridge Day rolling into its second quarter century and can't look at a potato without smiling.

Every day it's the same, the aches and pains replaced by the wonder of it all. Not a morning passes I don't pause to think of our brothers and sisters on the fatality list, that our biggest access fights are still ahead, that we are doing something monumental most of the world will someday comprehend and embrace.

As I rub my knotted knees and down a second cup of coffee I realize if the pace of achievement over the next twenty years comes anywhere close to the last twenty I want to be here to see it. And by now my legs don't ache so much anymore. I've gone from gimp to gandy dancer with the knowledge the best of BASE is still ahead of us.

My Julia will always ask over breakfast, how do I feel this morning, and the answer is always the same, "I feel fine . . ."

NickD
BASE 194

Then you'd be regretting that you were a fat old bastard with an old biddy wife and ungrateful kids. Besides which, Nick, you don't regret who you are, you revel in it.


On a more general note, people who are unhappy with the course they've charted need to chart another course. It's that simple.

Regret is for wussies.

rl

exactly that either love it or leave it..or as faber would say if you dont like it f**k off.

hey, I am an accountant..... its not that bad........................please, its really not that bad?!?!? - Vince, please step in here! BASE jumping Accountants stand together!!!!

Hey Vince, maybe we should start a BASE jumping accountancy forum!



What are you trying to say here?

Bad? Who said it was bad?

It's nothing more than engineering with numbers. How can that possibly be...

<covers hand with mouth> I said the "e" word.


If you get an answer to this, I have a few others I'd like him to explain as well.

rl

Hehehehehe!

Every morning I limp and gimp my way to the shower.............. I need at least 20+ steps to warm up my ankle each morning to a "non gimp non limp" state......

I have to do exactly the same......and once I can move without "Frankensteining", every step I take the rest of the day is painful, so I am reminded everyday that I took a trip to a big, beautiful bridge one day in 2003.
I only made those 2 BASE jumps, and will be in worsening pain every day of my life because of it, but I don't regret it. I regret that I will never experience a terminal wall, or the solitude of an empty antenna at night, ot the buzz of evading the police after a downtown jump, but at least I have had a delicious taste of what the sport gives you.

My very wise friend (587) told me something a couple of years ago when I was getting started that has rung true...........BASE will take you to your highest highs and your lowest lows. Ying and Yang!

NO regrets!

BASE is groovalicious!!

 

where else would your femur stick out of?

i feel the same way Gregor, but one time i didn't make it to that exit point.

i don't regret that either. because i didn't have to repack for the crane.

~E

Ditto

Yo!

No regrets on BASE, I DO regret living in a place where I must sneak around in questionable conditions, under the cover of dark just to persue my love. But hell, that's nothing that a few 10's of thousands of dollars and a few international trips can't fix
I've made some incredible and irreplaceable friends, and my journey is still beginning. And the jumps....well that's what keeps me going. Like last night, me, my mentor and a good friend from ...well all over. Nothing too exotic, slider down from 315' off an A, all hand held solos.... but we reveled in the moment, 3 guys who'd probaly have never met otherwise and I'll know them for life. And THAT'S really why I have NO REGRETS for BASE....although that's a hard sentence to swallow if you're mourning the death of a brother/sister. But that's something WE ALL should have addressed within ourselves, first time out.


Lastly, for the dude who posted....


I don't know your situation, but if you are ever willing an able, please send me an email and come visit, I'll get you everything but the terminal wall...and I know a few folks who can get you off that one too Never loose the fire brother!

I love BASE,

Later
Blair

Awww. Blair. Im not from all over. Im just hung over. Without any help from you two...

Ill never regret BASE, ever. It has given me so much without taking anything from me yet (except a good friend) that WHEN the time comes that it does; well, itll be ok.

In the realm of spirituality, there typically is the concept of "owing for the flesh", that you must pay for being alive and conscious, for experiencing joy and happiness.....I owe BIG. As do we all........

NSFW!!!

Yo thanks D,
Was a pleasure, now you know I REALLY jump, as apposed to your lucid envisionment of me solely as a drug pushin', stripper mad, ground crew from hell.
Regardless, you BETTER come back before Turkey Day, we have some multi ways to complete with sliders and shit before then. Plus, we gotta get you into the wingsuit shindig, ...either that or I'll retire early in the area in Cali you call 'home' .
Thanks again man, you looked STELLAR hummin eeerrrr I mean HAULIN it down 2+seconds from 315'ish. Just goes to show that no matter what you do right, you still may end up right.....
Take it easy man, don't be a stranger, write a book too one day as you live the life we all dream. I admire you for your journey (amongst other things), and wish you many on headings and young, willing, women ;) Plus the next time you visit, I'll support the hangover that makes u drive with one hand covering your eye that I promise....
Later
Blair

PS next time through, I'm taking some days off so we can go big, and we'll make a few jumps too So I attached pic of our packing crew, well at least WE can pack while we watch

**this post brought to you by the SOB's and the el numero uno BASE 515, without him, we'd all be walking dead or worse have been shot dead on arrival to the A. Thanks Bro!

Nope. No regrets from BASE at all....

Don't forgot about 704! Without his sister, those pics wouldn't have happened!

There's no doubt about it, BASE is a sickness.

But it's a sickness that I love having....

No shit, huh? I'll have to thank her again for lettin' us use her camera

I can't get over how photogenic your mom gets for a $20 rock...

bless her heart...

i knew knowing how to "wash up" would pay dividends eventually...........

sometimes i regret some ofthe facts i know about jumpers arround the world
however i dont regret that i BASE,if i did i jump for the wrong reassons..
If i regret a jump,i wasnt man enough to step down and not do the jump...
Yes i broke my leg on a jump,but i dont regret the jump,it were cool until the point were i made a mistake...i regret that i havnt trained rearriser landings before entering the BASEscene... But never regret that i jump..period...

i dont know your story, but is there no way of you finding out these joys for yourself? just look at a certain BASE'r that is a (sorry to use this term!!!) cripple.........what happened that you cant do this?

not yet, and i doubt i will.

but i see your point in asking...
i wrote this the other day, on my way to do another bandit load and slider up A.

...I Jump because i never forget to tell my mother i love her when im home from school anymore. I BASE because it reminds me i wont be alive for long. My tailgate is brand new, sitting on a cluttered shelf with other parachute gear, used a precious few times because for some reason i just cant stop climbing at 400 feet. We cant lie to ourselves, we are dropping like flies. but its getting safer everyday. I dont want to die young, but im not terribly savvy on the idea of old and in my sleep. I like the idea of going to class and everybody complaining about how early it is, and knowing i have been up for 5 hours. I will never fail, or Falter, I will never relent, i will never follow.



.

I shattered my heel on my 2nd jump at BD 2003 - did a really good job of it, and due to impact damage and with the help of a surgical fuck-up, I have very little cartilage left in my foot, so I have arthritis which is getting slowly but surely worse.
But the real reason I won't be pursuing BASE is that after watching that, my fiancee made the ultimatum that I'm sure many of you have heard, and she isn't worth losing.
I still skydive, but not nearly as much as before.
But I have no regrets about making the jumps, I wouldn't have been true to myself if I hadn't done at least one BASE jump.

PLF, PLF, PLF.......!!

sorry did not mean to question you............

I understand fully all you say.......


nice work

life is all about balance!!! dont loose anything special to you!

I agree - PLF PLF PLF!!!

it works and it helps the gimpy fuckers like us!

just land in trees,that way you dont need to PLF
besides if you need to plf your either too low,too fast or in other words at a place were you might dont want to be however thats a funny thing aswell

now you might take back your words about me back after my first UK trip

yep................. sorry to take the piss outta you gimping........... it comes to us all..........