Basejumper.com - archive

Good or Bad?

I'm mostly concerned about the bungee holder, but it seems so much more slimline than others.

Do you think it would still catch? What about taking off the clear plastic tube and tucking the bungee holder back under the laced section?

Should be fine I would think.......

I am not sure about that one, but i found this one to be the best ever!

I would prefer something with more ankle protection.

Kris.

Damn you guys are fast. Have I told you all how much I love you lately?


Hmm...... Well here in hot, humid South FL boots are hot and get your feet sweaty and become a breeding ground for stinky bacteria. Gross. I spend so much time in boots for work, I detest them. But if you guys think it's worth it.... Any good boot recommendations?

Here's a pic of the boot equivalent, whatcha think?

 

I bought my Crispis from a BASE gear manufacturer when they were the only boot stocked by any BASE company.

I'm not sure which of the Crispi's or Hanwag's is "older" or "newer" or that it makes any difference.

No.

Hanwags or Crispi's yo... no doubt.

I used to jump in tennis before I knew better. Then my hanwags saved my ankles on a couple street landings. Ankle protection is a must in my opinion Apex sells them.

 

Wow, you're so sweet. Thanks for the advice.

It's always nice to meet new people and chat about stuff, especially when you're new and learning.

Common sense tells you "yeah this or that product would be good or bad, but maybe there's something I'm missing. Maybe I'll ask some of those nice experienced jumpers I've met in that forum, where there is such a vast wealth of knowledge to tap into." I can search old threads all day but technology also changes every day, so sometimes a little extra patience with the "same old question" is nice.

If my question bothers you, simply ignore it.

There is no button on my screen that tells me to rag on someone who I think is an idiot.

Think what you want about me, I could care less. But keep your fucking opinions in your ugly mouth where the other people who like to help us newbies out don't have to read your shit.

If you can't abide by the rules of the forum and you go and get yourself banned, I can see how that's my fault and you should come back and bitch me out once your time out is over. And you want me to break my ankles as soon as possible? How mature.

Oh and by the way, the part about the gross bacteria was in jest. Who's the idiot again? Oh right, that's me.

don't sweat it about Abbie, he's still pissed that he wasn't allowed any awesome pizza (no cheese for him before sharing a car with people offended by his flatulence) recently in Moab...

I do know where he's coming from, though and he's venting about the trends in people starting base lately, not just about your question.

What concerns me most is that you posted a man's shoe - is there something you want to tell us??

That said, people have posted some good advice, avoid those shoes, get decent boots like Hanwag or Crispi and wear them every jump.

Obviously style and sleekness are important to you, so rest assured that wearing good paragliding type boots will keep your ankles and lower legs looking more stylish and sleek than jumping in fashionable lowtops indefinitely...

but then, I bet there's some freaks (probably Abbie and that's where the break your ankles comment came from) who has a deviant fetish for women with large, swollen, scarred ankles, the kind that good boots would help avoid.... you know, just check out that movie: 'Crash' and you'll know who I'm talking about..

I think you'll find the Hanwag boots (I think the Cripsi boots too) quite resistant to becoming smelly and fungus infected - could be due to the use of gore-tex.

I know I've worn my Hanwags for 17 days of jumping and hiking/climbing in a row and I never found myself wanting any other footwear on.

oh yeah, about that 'loving you all' bit, are you going to be at any of the base events next year?

cya
sam

what you need to know about Abbie is that people always pick on him,he is always the guy who get the emty beer bothle or no cheese on his pizza. that said he jumps a pink PC alot..

I guess he did get sh!t pressents at xmass aswell and he might aswell be drunk.

If he had read your name he would have invited you over to his to get a tequilla stuntman

You deafently want a pair of boots that support your ankels.Im not into hanwags or so but desent hiking boots whith a small amount or none death hooks on.

personaly i jump a pair of DM´s

Tom just to pick on Abbie i think you should ban him 2 weeks in newyear instead just as we know he wont be online the next 2 weeks anyway

Here are a few links

BASE wiki is a must read. Go to the protective gear section here
Base Wiki Protective Gear

Blinc KB Page on Protective Gear

Consolidated Rigging Document Library


ABA Website...go to the articles section.

Actually, I don't agree with either abbie or Jaap (and everyone else).

My opinion isn't coming from alot of experience landing BASE chutes... it's from alot of paraglider landing in tight areas... at higher wing loading and ground speeds than my BASE rig, and lots of experience walking around the mountains in boots while climbing.

I've broken (and watched others do the same) my ankles in big leather ice climbing boots and even plastic boots.

It's a bit of a myth that a few cm's of leather (ie. Hanwags) are going to do anything to protect your ankle from an impact of bone- breaking force. You can flex that ankle area with your hands... can't you?

The only thing that will protect you is your ability to react, roll, run, etc.

I've found that the more sensitivity a shoe offers the better it is... usually lighter is better for me. That being said, under sole cushioning is nice for those hard, but not dangerous landings.

BTW, those are ugly shoes.


-Briggs

Oh yeah... sideways impacts to your ankles from landed in large fields of nasty boulders, or hitting cliffs is a different kettle of fish...

Huh!?! What wing are you flying? Higher wing loading? a 27m^2 wing (that's a medium size wing for those non-paragliders) = ~294 ft^2. You jump a BASE canopy larger than that? And higher grounds speeds? Is this a small aerobatics wing? Because that's the only way I could see all this possible.

Help me out here.

It's not that small.

24m2 = ~258ft2 plus an aerobatics harness (heavy) two reserves and assorted other shit makes for 60lbs of extra weight on top of my 190lbs or wing loading at ~1:1

My BASE rig is a 280.

 

Actually, the Crispis have a (removable) stiff plastic reinforcement that you can't flex with your hands.



I don't think it's the _only_ thing. I do think it's an important thing that can often be overlooked.

If you can find a copy, I highly recommend Doug Robinson's essay on Running Talus.

No. No.... that's quite correct. More forward, less down. They are very different animals.

Roger. That was a bit of an exaggeration.

My basic point being, if you have enough force kicking around to break a bone... it has to go somewhere. And in the absence of a proper physical (re)action, it will break something... if your ankle is too "reinforced" to break, then your tib- fib will go, or something will...

Robinson is rad. On the subject of good movement skills, check this out:

My buddy came out prancing around with a set of ankle braces used for airfield stuff by the rangers. He jumped and snapped his tib/fib.

Ok, so it is for aerobatics. That makes sense then.

People say it's better to break your tib/fib than your ankle. Tib/fib heals faster and better than an ankle.
That's what they say, I don't know.

Funny reading this discussion. I was actually looking forward to hearing the opinions, and i was wondering which would end up to be the elected best equipment for base : hard-high or soft-low ?

As i gather, of course, pros and cons in both cases.

So just my thought here...

Years ago, to go walking around in the mountains, to approach climbing spots, or for trekks, we all used hard leather shoes - 'moutain shoes', quite comparable to the Hanwags mentionned.

Then, slowly, we drifted. From hard-leather boots to soft-leather boots (sort of like the Salomon's mentionned). Then to High-ankeled-soft-no-leather, then to soft-low-ankeld-no-leather.

Ended up walking the alps trails to approach climbing spots in Teva's (i.e. tongs with heel-cup attach). So much, that at one point, the trend was even to climb the warm-up routes with your tongs and run down the access trails for the laugh!

So finally, i suppose it's, again, the question of the balance... what are you ready to loose compared to what you gain? Do you want to favour 'react-roll-run flexibility' or 'support against shock' ? favour 'lateral protection against impact', or 'movement-heat inconvenience during the approach' ? and so on, and so on...

Choose your odds, choose your balance... but anyway : have a pair of each, take each of them with you in your luggage, and choose appropriately regarding the precise expidition you're going to do : last thing to do is consider one equipment is better than the other whatever the external situation. And that is probably why every answer in this thread is correct, even if they are in opposition !

who says, 'just my 2 cents'? same here

I'm an avid scrambler and alpinist myself and I've gone through the same transition. I now consider myself an ultra-lighter, and you'll find me running over boulder fields wearing only sneakers.

However, the trade-off here isn't just because people think that you can roll your ankles better with less support. The real trade-off in mountaineering is that less weight on your feet makes the hike more comfortable. This justifies the risk to some, but it also alleviates some of it because you'll have more energy to spend on proper foot-placement and ground-contact.

It's actually pretty hard to flex, plus even partial protection could still be better than no protection.


I'll admit that I'd love to see people do more PLFing just for the fuck of it. In fact, I remember one incident where Abbie himself slid on his ass and hurt his tailbone instead of just doing a PLF. Funny that...

But to say that reacting, rolling and running is your only protection is taking it too far. Than we might as well take of our helmets and dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge.

Helmets, body-armor, tailbone and knee protection, proper boots; they all help. There is no doubt in my mind. I've done some fucked up shit on a snowboard, mountainbike, motorcycle and other stupid shit. I've never broken a bone in my body. That's 80 percent luck, 2 percent skills and the other 18 percent is the protection I was wearing. I'll gladly sweat a little more as a trade-off.


Woah, you start your post by saying that you don't agree with Abbie and me, and then you say this. Like you say; there's more to proper boots than ankle protection, like there is more to your foot than your ankle. It's a sturdy sole, lateral support, toe protection, etcetera.

Oh, you didn't!

if breaking an ankel is worse than breaking fib n tib i hope i never break the ankel then..

it took me 8.5 months to get back up after a fib/tib and more than a year before i could work full time

i still aint good after 2 years...

i jump in Teva's like all the cool skydivers!!!

 
A very good address to buy base equipment on the internet.

http://www.wickedweasel.com/
:-)

stef

Is there a vendor you would recommend for the Crispi Airborne GTX?

I ordered mine from here.... so far I love them. Very nice boots.

Jason
570

http://www.crittermountainwear.com/index.php?id=boots

Thank You -C. and Jason. These sites are both better than what I found on my search.

Have Fun! Baz

Critter is quite talented at making all sorts of air / mountain custom gear.

Comfy and packable gear bags are something he does well.

Josh

True for me at least. I once broke both legs (tried "BASE jumping" from 10 meters with no rig ... stupidly fell in reality), one got the ankle broken and the other tib + fib. It required surgery on both legs, but 10 years later I still have less mobility in the one that had the ankle broken.

I use salomons occosionally, lower cuff though. I prefer something light weight and with softer sole than hardcore hiking boots.i think they are better for climbing around on b's and a's and aren'tas akward to jump in.

Plus... Paragliders can MOVE. and I mean MOVE. Swoopers have got nothing on an aerobatice PG wing. Funnest Ram Air things in the world.

Robinson is rad. On the subject of good movement skills, check this out:


Hey. I'm an occasional practitioner of that art. Not too bad at it either since to date I haven't broken anything, although part of that is not having the balls for some of the wilder aerial moves.
What I want to know is, who the hell is THAT? And WHERE? Abandoned housing complexes? Heavy industrial environment? Railroad trestles pipes and shit? That is hands down the most incredible jungle gym I ever failed to find and have ever been looking for. Knowing my luck it will turn out to be in the Ukraine somewhere....

fantastic pic!!! where is that at?

Hell of a lot better than what Ive been using.

I have to say that a good PLF is worth a thousand pairs of hanwags or whatever kind of boots you want to wear. There is no point in trying to stick a hard landing when you can just do a nice PLF and land back on your feet half the time. I PLF about 70% of my landings just because I've had 2 knee surgeries and don't have much shock absorption in my knee. You really can perfect it to the point where you can smoothly roll out the most devastating landings that are sure to snap something. Everyone is always fixated on ankle vs. tib/fib, but trying to stick a hard landing with forward force is a great way to blow out your acl and cartilage in your knee. ACL surgery will put you out of base and most any sport for a solid 6-8 months and you'll never be the same. I'm just saying, PLFing solves a lot of potential problems. If you are coming in so fast it's scary, don't worry about your shoes and just do a nice roll!

Awesome to know that someone else PLFs most their landings too! I thought i just sucked.

Of course a PLF is nice, but you need an acceptable space for that too. Could you PLF on the edge of a cliff? Or in a terrain full of boulders/sharp rocks, which will break your neck/spine, elbow/etc.? Yeah, yeah, I know, you should not jump there in the first place.

Ronald

PS: I did one barefoot jump in LB back in the good old days from Staubach. If those sherpa's can walk on thongs, so can we, can we?

Last time that happened to me I aimed for the softest rock.... Turns out they are all hard

I do wear full upper body armor and knee/shin protection when jumping over concrete or jagged/rocky areas. I haven't jumped a cliff yet where I had to land on the edge of another cliff. I guess you just have to aim for a spot in between the rocks and roll yourself into a really small ball. However, I weigh about 250 pounds which contributes greatly to a large portion of my landings being on the hard side. At least I moved up to a 300 now. I was crashing and burning on the 285 when things got hairy.

if a cliff was in the landing area, I probably wouldnt be jumping. But thats just me.

thats what she said.

No, no, no...she said it was a nice size!

No Kiki I'm pretty sure you just suck!