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So I was hanging out with one of my non-jumper buddies earlier today and I noticed that he wasn’t wearing a seat belt. I asked him why he doesn’t and he just shrugged. Personally I think not wearing a seat belt is insane! I’d be more nervous about not wearing a seat belt than making a BASE jump. There are so many bad drivers out there and I also hear a lot of stories from my dad who is a Paramedic about all the terrible injuries from minor accident because someone wasn’t wear a seat belt.

So I’m curious, do you wear a seat belt?

Coco

Having seen numerous autopsies as part of my post grad pathology training, I learnt 3 things:

1. Don't smoke
2. Always wear a seat belt
3. Never get on a motorbike (excludes m/cross and trail riding).
4. Don't be a fat git ingesting a crappy diet.

To date I have followed those religiously.

At a push you could make a 5th 'learning' about alcohol & drugs but that is a bit more circumstantial and environment specific.
flame away....

nice list, but, umm, that looks like 4 things...

oh, and I wear my seat belt!
I don't want to be a paramedic's horror story.

Is this the same buddy that says he'll never make a BASE jump because it's too dangerous?

It always surprises me how skewed some people's perception of risk is and how little thought they actually put into these things.

It used to piss me of. Nowadays I just shrug...

No but I don't know who I was talking about if I said that. This guy would never BASE but would make a skydive.


Oh yea, same here. The same buddy that I was driving with today was going 90 weaving in and out of cars without a seat belt on. I think he is taking more of a risk than when I jump one of my local A's. There are more chances for unknowns and unpredictable changes for him than for a BASE jump. A car could change lanes, deer in the road, and other thing that could change and he not being able to react fast enough going 90. At least on a BASE jump I think I can better prepare myself for malfunction and off heading opening.

But I thank god I haven’t had the worst malfunction. A Nut Under. Ouch!!


I don't think I will ever be able to just shrug. Especially one I get into a Fire Department and I see the accidents first hand.

Coco

I was talking hypothetically...

No, for reasons not worth explaining.

Oh!

yes, i wear a seatbelt. only because of my own experiences.

#1 wreck - no belt - broken jaw on the steering wheel and smashed out all of my teeth.

#2 wreck - belt on - asleep behind the wheel on the highway (cruise control @75) went off the road, mowed down 6 healthy trees - unscathed.

that settled it for me.

~E

I wear a seat belt. When I was very young, I thought that it is uncool to not wear one (don’t ask me why…) and I got in a car crash. My girlfriend then was also not wearing her seat belt and hit the front window pretty hard with her head and also had to get stitches on her knee. That was the last time I did not wear it. And besides, in Switzerland you have to pay high fines if you’re not wearing it, even on the back seat.

#1 - I nearly always wear my seatbelt.
#2 - 90 mph really isn't all that fast.
#3 - A high performance driver could say the same thing about all the "unknowns" that could happen when you make a BASE jump. You couldn't possibly be able to react fast enough to deal with them. Of course, he wouldn't be very well schooled in BASE jumping. How well schooled are you in high performance driving? Then again, your buddy might not be either.

Lou

PS - I've seen 4 cliff strikes and 1 very near miss (landing on the talus in some very nasty bushes) in the last 6 weeks. All of them either didn't have enough time to react or reacted improperly to the situation.

A fellow BASE jumper(you reading this? ) told me he never wears a seat belt. He has his reasons. I don't agree but, whatever...... You know this guy Jaap.

Kris.

Yea he is definitally not a high performance driver.

Yeah, we've already discussed this after driving back from a jump a few months back. I couldn't quite understand what his reasoning was, but in the end we just agreed to disagree.

I mean, I'll be the last to tell another BASE jumper what's best for his safety...

Edited to add: now that I saw that you were from the UK I'm no longer sure if we're talking about the same jumper. I guess I know two BASE jumpers that don't wear seatbelts? Oh well...

 

It always surprises me how skewed some people's perception of risk is and how little thought they actually put into these things.

My toughts exactly

Who the hell are you jumping with? Doesn't sound like a group of guys I'd be comfortable sharing loads with. Might be time for some remedial training on the basics. A lot of jumpers are leaving TF thinking they're BASE jumpers, then stop learning. I'm not saying that's what happened in this case, but that sounds like a pretty accident prone crew.

yo Chad

take it easy bro

6 weeks just includes the Turkey Boogie in Moab, so it's entirely possible that 3 of the strikes where seen there

but then, I don't need to remind you that there was some crazy shit going down at the turkey boogie this year...

cya
sam

For those of you who do not wear a seat belt, care to explain why not?

"U too cool"?

Coco

i always wear seathbelt,even as im the best driver in the world,the rest of you are still out there on the roads

Faber's still not allowed to drive my car.

Faber dont drive small crap cars naahhh gimme Ray L.´car or "Death Bill"´s car your small "car is what the rest of us give our kids

Faber: "Chad, when do I get to drive"

Chad: "Um... in a little while."

(((long silent pause)))

Chad: "So, Peter, want to drive for a while?"

"chad"I want to sleeep,i have driven for so many miles and i cant take the 45mins back to my moms so we can sleep in a nice bed,i preffere to sleep in my small car here at this parkinglot"

"Peter AND Faber"
We know the way,we can drive both cars back(Tim´s car aswell),we are so close"

"Chad"
Nah we will sleep good in theese cars

I cant belive Americans are even more lazy than i am..

Haha!!!! Nice dude. I know I got about 5 hours sleep that whole trip. I'm such a lazy American.

Remember that after I slept in that parking lot for two hours, we drove two hours to ride rollercoasters all day!

Was that before or after we drove 400 miles round trip to jump the bridge on the coast?

yeeaaahhh the rolercoasters were great fun..

you only drowe that much as you insisted i got alot of beauty neps in the back,i never complained about that...

Katie... you still scream my name out loud?and plz tell the that you has washed the bekini i used

You guys are great fun,just sad you desided to live that far away..

btw Nikolaj got his first DK object its all fun..

I always wear my seatbelt. Especially when Riding with Chad when he's flying through Sacramento. That was scary. Or am I thinking about later that night when he took the wrong exit, well after we past the exit ramp for it. It was like this: we were driving along in the Bay all loddy doddy going about 20 over the speed limit, and then Chad say's " look, an exit." and whips his little car right across like 2 different lanes and almost into the concrete exit devide just to take the exit that we deffinetley already pasted. Then it turn out after talking to Tim, that it was the wrong exit. Yeah, I think that was more scary.

Dont judge him by that..
Look at both of them(Chad and Tim) they arent high or big are they?
They cant see over the wheel

Chad see if you can shift car whith Tom A. his mimi will fit you better and Tom while then not need to have his knees up arround his ears(sorry Cherie-spel? if its your car)

I rather sit in the back of Death Bills truck Whith Alan on our way up an mountain risking our lives and limps to save Chad and Peter..

Actualy the person i trusted most behind a wheel in USA were Spence,and his dog(sorry cant rember the name),but i did kind of got scared by the time he were chatting to a parkranger(or what it were) as 5 of us were walking towards the card whith stashbags on our bags

"dont run"-were that an officer yelling that? i were laughing my arse off as i i ran away

I never used to wear a seat belt before I started skydiving and BASE but then one day I was like...
" Man If I died in a car accident...how embarassing would that be?"
~J

Yea that would totally suck! But I have worn a seat belt from day 1!

Coco

Yeah, I hope I never Die in a CAR CRASH.

I know exactly what you're saying. Of course, three of those cliffstrikes were in Moab and I think you saw those three also.

The near miss was next (an out of towner who came by to grab a jump). And just like the jump at The Crown, I was left standing on top wondering what happened. I actually mentioned to another local that I needed to start thinking about who I jump with.

Then I got hooked up with another out-of-towner by an x-local (you know both of them, BDB who flies helicopters, and TV who climbs). Three others came along with him and one of them had a rather scary cliffstrike but ended up walking away with some blood and a tattered canopy.

After the last few incidents, I've been thinking long and hard about having to call 911. One solution is to do nothing but solos from here on out. Ugh. It's a tough thing to deal with for me at this stage. Do I jump alone and accept that risk? Or do I risk watching one of my brothers go in?

Lou

Certainly you should be doing that. There are people I have jumped with once or twice, but have decided to stop jumping with. These days I ask for references, and try to figure out through talking to the person himself what kind of jumper he is.

Furthermore, even if you do decide to jump with somebody, you can still tune what object you jump with them. I've had visitors in town that I gladly took of our local S, but wouldn't take of our local E for a million bucks.

Actually, I would for a million...

Man, that's a relief. Here i thought you just didn't love me anymore.

Haha; at the rate I was going head low on that E, it should be you guys that won't jump with me anymore.

Come to think of it, when we we did go back to that O for the second time, you only wanted to groundcrew for me.

What's going on guys, are you saying I'm a deadly BASE jumper? Hey, what else is new?

Hay guys,

http://www.metacafe.com/...h/1417/no_seat_belt/

Bouncebouncebouncebounce...

Damn straight! That is exactly why I wear a belt!

Coco

"You are crazy BASE jumping"

"Have you ever driven down the motorway without a seatbelt?"

"Yeah but, no but, yeah but...."

This question goes back to the old perceived risk v accepted risk argument that I am sure lots of us have had.

I for one will always wear a seatbelt, because I am aware of the dangers if I don’t, saying that I will also drive at 130mph in certain situations, but I am totally aware of how dangerous this is.

Most “general population” people are not aware of the risks of certain things they do day in day out, everyone has an accepted risk level, but most have a warped perceived risk level. If everyone on the motorway driving at 100mph plus were totally aware of the risk they are taking I truly think this would be outside their own accepted risk levels.

One thing BASE jumpers (or I should say most BASE jumpers as there are more and more that don’t nowadays) have is a total balance of perceived risk and acceptable risk.

When I first started BASE my auntie turned to me before she stopped talking to me for a year and said “look at your two young cousins (aged 7 and 4 at the time) how will you feel with them attending your funeral”, my response was “you travel with them in the car at over 100mph, how do you think I will feel going to all your funerals”, this actually made the light bulb switch on with several members of my family…

BASE jumpers are the most sensible people I have ever met, it’s the rest of society that is fucking nuts and are risking their lives without even being aware of it…

Of cause I do, have you seen the way I drive?

yo greeny where are you in the world right now?

drop me a pm if you want to go do some stuff...im not keeping up with you on the climbs though..

Sean