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When I read 'Groundrush' by Simon Jakeman and 'BASE 66' by Jevto Dedijer, and another early skydiving book called Endless Fall by Mike Swain (which covers among other things a chuteless skydive by Bill Cole in 1972) I thought that some of the early jumps my friends and I did back in the 1980's might make for interesting reading for some.

This feeling was cemented with the death of Jo Stanley, BASE 82 in a gliding accident in September. In the 1980's, Jo WAS Canadian BASE jumping. I thought in a way that chronicalling my adventures, with and without him and some of his other escapades, along with early Canadian BASE jumping might be interesting to people and also stand as a tribute to him and other jumpers who may or may not still be around.

The book would also cover some early skydiving stuff, mostly stacking stuff and some early sort of extreme skydives that we sometimes did (we were young and perhaps a bit foolish, we're much smarter now.) In the '80's, I at least, considered BASE jumping as simply a natural extension of other types of parachuting, like accuracy, crw, instructing... Another facet to be mastered (never really did master it).

I talked with both Jevto and Mike Swain about their books, to get their feedback.

I started the book with all the best of intentions. I am now running into some rough patches where it is sometimes difficult to keep myself going. So far I am somewhere around 27,000 words, I see the finished book as being around 50,000-60,000, but that may be a struggle.

I guess what I'm asking is should I push myself to get this done? Is there room in the lexicon on of BASE jumping for another 'There I was.... book?

The book is tenatively called "Give Me a B..."

Your insights would be helpful....

Rob 'Skypuppy' Price

BASE 92

Most definitely yes! BASE jumpers are obsessed with BASE, who's not going to buy it?!

Gus

I say yes, push on. There aren't enough books on BASE out there.

When I'm out of commission and can't jump it's nice to be able to sink into the world of another jumper and lose myself. I love reading about how the earlier jumpers got their start and the trials and tribulations ya'll went through to get where you are today.

I know these aren't instructional books by any means but Groundrush and BASE 66 actually made me think about things that are important in BASE just a little bit more . They confirm how important some things are and what to focus on. It may be just little tidbits of information. For example, we all know how important it is to think about the landing area but reading about how, early on, someone's more worried with pulling the exit off and not really thinking about the landing. Then they get tore up on landing because of it. It kind of reinforces things. Does that make sense?

Anyway, keep on writing man. I'll read it.

GO FOR IT PUP!!

Given the stories you could tell about the likes of Yourself, Jo, Steve, Mike, and Greg to name a few, would make for GREAT reading!!

Who the fuck voted no? In the light of such an overwhelming poll I feel you should explain yourself or have your vote negated.

Rob, we are so far away from the threshold of too many books (any books in fact) - crack on! Not to mention Nick's book too. This history is so precious to us...share it around some more :-)

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I sometimes feel -- disassociated -- from modern base jumpers. I didn't do a whole lot of BASE jumps, only around 50 now -- and when I was doing most of them there were no wingsuits, no aerials, hell, not even BASE-specific equipment, other then a big pilot chute and long bridle if you were really keen.

And of course after a while we had the line-release mod, but canopies really fly like shit with no steering lines.

Sometimes I think we were miles away from the guys with hundreds of BASE jumps, but I guess we had to get there somehow....

So I'll keep plodding along. I don't really have a deadline, but it took me probably over a year thinking about it before I actually started writing, so it might be done early in the new year (the first draft, anyways).

Rob

Yep - the people who truly love this sport have the utmost interest in and respect for the pioneers would love to hear your stories. Regardless of whether they were famous (Boenisch et al) or someone plying their trade quietly in some other corner of the world, the pioneers will always have a special part to play in both our history AND our future.

You probably wont get rich from it, but there will be a number of people who will appreciate your endeavours.

All the best of luck with it.