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Yo!

I had a cliff strike last week in Arizona (S******, 450ft).

I thought whether to post about it or not. Nobody likes to reveal their fuckups. But without sharing the information, there will be no learning. This post and video is a tribute to those who share for others to learn and whose videos helped me to create a mental picture of the cliff strike and handle it without panic.

I have the video detailing the various stages of the strike. If anybody can host a 66MB file, PM me (skydivingmovies.com is down now).

Equipment used: Apex DP, Flik 322 Vtec (exit weight ~225lbs), 48" ZP PC. Jump: 2s delay stowed. Cliff: 450ft to impact, 600ft to landing. Wind: ~5mph from right. Body protection: Hanwag boots, kneepads, gloves, helmet.

This was my jump #38.

Jump time sequence:

0s - exit. Exit point is a little triangle sloping down, you need to make a good push to clear outcropping. When launching, I erred on the head-high side. Kicked legs in attempt to better the body position.

2.2s - symmetric pull. My body was at about 45-60 angle head-high. Tilted a little to the left, but not bad.

3.0s - my body suddenly started to rotate and made 90 left in just 0.5s. I still don't know what caused this quick turn. I didn't feel any snag on my body. It is possible for bridle to get snagged momentarily on the right bottom corner of the container (where there is a little space between the corner and main lift web attachment) in the head-high position and increase the force required to extract the pin, while rotating the body left during this momentary hesitation.

3.7s - canopy inflation. "this is probably it" moment. Canopy makes another 90 left due to low left shoulder and continuing body rotation.

4.7s - canopy is facing the wall perpendicularly. "Oh Shit" moment. I get on risers and start turning right. I got on them too quick to grab them high, making the turn non-aggressive. This was a mistake, but it was too late to re-grab.

6.2s - wall strike. I struck at about 45 degrees angle. Half a second before the strike I realized that it's imminent and pulled on both risers to slow down. Raised the legs and took most of the impact with them.

7.0s - canopy is flat against the wall, while my body is now rotating left. I regrabbed the risers higher. From video it looks like I reach for the left toggle. I don't remember that moment and whether I released the toggle or not. Canopy is shearing some rocks off the cliff and tearing itself.

7.6s - my body is facing 90 left, but despite the attempts to turn left, the canopy seems to be "glued" to the wall.

8.0s - I'm facing the wall again, continuing to fall straight down (the cliff is overhang there) and pulling on both risers to back up from the wall.

10.0s - I pull hard to turn right.

11.0s - overhung is over and the slope (~10 degrees) is coming up at me and I hit it with my legs and ass. I'm facing 90 right now and continue to pull on right riser with all my force. This finally turns me 180 from the wall.

12s - after sliding some 20ft on my ass down the 10 degree slope the canopy finally acquires some horizontal speed and I fly away from the wall.

29s - stand-up landing. Flare was weak, but not bad. It turned out I flew on 6 cells, with holes here and there.

I got away mostly unscathed: smashed elbow and a few bruises and lacerations. The canopy and its pilot are expected to make a full recovery.

My observations and thoughts:

1. I went stowed off an unfamiliar cliff with a sketchy exit point. "What could possibly go wrong?", right? Should have gone handheld.

2. I always thought head-high position is better that head-low. Now I think the opposite. (Of course, perfectly flat is the best, but sometimes we have to err.) Head-high position has more snagging possibilities (bottom corner of container for bridle, helmet and camera for canopy and lines) than moderate head-low with straight legs. Besides, in head-high position the tension in the risers is transmitted directly to leg straps on inflation, and thus the evenness of hips (which is harder to feel and control) is what determines the heading. In head-low position, shoulders take the first hit and they are easier to feel and control.

3. Can the bridle be jammed momentarily between your body and container's corner when you pull head-high? Anybody have had snags like this? If yes, the main lift web attachment should be made wider so its bottom is flush against the bottom corner of the container. I'll experiment to see if I can reproduce the snag.

4. After pull, I usually hold my hands near shoulders in anticipation of risers. So when I faced the wall, I grabbed them immediately -- and it was too close to shoulders. There was not enough range of motion to make a hard turn. Practicing at Potato bridge is one thing, the real thing is another. I'm thinking now about holding hands stretched high in anticipation of risers, so that when you get on risers quick, you have the full range.

5. Turn or back up? Which one is more effective? Of course, it depends on the distance to the wall. I think if I had my hands high on risers and stalled the canopy quick, I could have avoided the strike. But who knows. I was about 10ft from the wall. Interestingly, just a few days before the accident I researched the possibility of using high-accuracy GPS+ (20 measurements per second, 1/4 inch accuracy, see e.g. http://www.topcongps.com/images/GPSPlusBooklet.pdf) to imitate cliff strikes on bridge jumps and to learn how effective different methods (risers vs. toggles, turn vs. back up) are.

6. "Thanks God for vents!" The canopy stayed pressurized all the time. One can only imagine how this strike would look like without vents. No vents most likely means no writing about your accident by yourself.

7. 322 is a big canopy loaded at 0.70 lbs/sq.ft. It is noticeably slower than the 293 Fox I used to jump before. Big is good! It is less responsive, though, and requires larger inputs and more time. It's a tradeoff between the force you're smacked against the wall and the time it takes to turn it away.

8. Deep brake setting was not deep enough. I Potato-tested the DBS and was satisfied with it, but flying towards the wall provided an ultimate - almost last - test. Don't rely on "looks OK" setting. Perhaps using GPS off Potato can help to fine-tune your DBS to "minimum horizontal speed, but still not stalling" position.

9. There was no time for panic. Mind and body switched to survival mode. I wasn't even shaken, just in pain and high. Everything was in full auto. Which makes it even more important to engrave the right reflexes into your body. Engraving the seemingly looking right, but in real emergency not working reflexes doesn't help. When jumping a bridge practicing riser drills, there's time to raise hands to grab the risers. When you face the wall 10ft from you, hands automatically grab the risers where they are. I might be wrong, but now I think hands should be up high waiting for risers. If not perfectly flat, err a little bit on head low side with legs straight. Stop kicking legs before the pull. On low jumps, open pin flap and mud flaps. See if bridle can catch on the bottom of your container.

10. Body armor. Need to say more?


To jumpers I met in Arizona: you guys kick ass!!! I had a great time with you. Many thanks for everything.

Happy and safe New Year to all, and c-ya at the exit point!

Yuri

Glad about that . Thanks for sharing.

Kris.

Yo !

I'm glad that you came out of it mostly intact. Happy New Year!

I won't comment on the strike itself: from your description it is a very typical run-off-a-mill event with obvious lessons. Rather, i'd like to repeat a warning about going stowed. Large PC at low airspeed will hesitate every now and then when stowed, sometimes it will be enouh to scare or kill you. If you plan on making a large number of BASE jumps, you may want to eliminate this random factor by going handheld - especially with a 48.

bsbd!

Yuri.

 
Hey dude right on!! Never give up!
Glad to heard that you are Ok

Personally I was thought, that if I was going to do a stowed jump in wish terminal velocity is not going to be reach "1-7 Sec", to leave the excess bridle out of the container.

In my gear the shrivel tap is attach to the bridle by a knot, and these knot presents a possible snap point when you place the excess under the flap in the bottom corner, but it doesn’t present any problem when you are going terminal.

Hope this helps
.

Here it is.

Thanks, Brook!

Damn dude! Good job and glad your ok!

Coco

Yuri, glad to see you made it out of that one relatively uninjured. I will take this opportunity to try and talk you into a set of this

Good job fighting.

Edit: Add pic or armor in use. And... with your strike, after watching the video a couple times, with that jacket your arm would have been totally fine.

what an incredible video. he didn't even swear when he hit the wall and struggled to turn it around.

excellent work, yuri! glad you are relatively unscathed!

Did you go out and buy a lottery ticket? Nice job of not giving up, made it across the water and everything!

I disagree.

If you are worried about camera snag, there is a simple solution: Don't wear a camera.

Having the tension pulled through to your hips gives you a better chance to steer the canopy through an opening with body english--not worse. Have you ever tried to steer a skydiving opening by leaning? Did you use your hips or your shoulders?



It absolutely can with some containers. This is a characteristic of the specific container. For example, my Gargoyle allows this snag (there is a relatively large inset between the harness and the bottom corner of the container), but my Prism does not (the harness is flush with the bottom of the container). In my opinion, it's better to have the harness flush, but container design involves many considerations, and there are likely to be many trade-offs made by the manufacturers that few other people have ever considered.

Bridle snagging between the body and container corner doesn't even have to be temporary. There was a student fatality from this malfunction in Europe a while ago, and in that case the snag stayed and the PC towed until impact.




Both. Backing up buys you the time and distance to make the turn. Be aware that backing up eats up a lot of altitude, though, so if you can make the turn in the available space, you ought to skip the backing up. The trick is to instinctively know if you have enough space, and unfortunately no one can get that one right 100% of the time.



In the strict sense, that is true. It's important, though, to recognize that the time it takes to turn away is not the same as the distance travelled before turning away. Taking more time to execute the turn does not mean that you are more likely to strike unless there is a headwind (viewed from exit) pushing you toward the wall.



Video from directly above is also a good tool for testing DBS. If you do a floater, the straight down video angle gives you a very good understanding of the speed with which your canopy closes on the object (or flies under the bridge).


Nice job! This is one of the big tests in BASE, and you passed. Good work!

Glad to hear your ok man...and good job pulling through that. I have some sweet ground footy of a wall strike very similar to that one that happened at the turkey boogie a couple months ago. It was one of multiple strikes but it was the one that turned out the "best". Anyways, good job pulling through.

bsbd

Why not a full body Armor for the same price??

$400 US Full Body Armor


Medusa
.

Becareful if you buy a full suit of armour. I use the Dainesse Shuttle Suit (Jacket with built in shorts). Great armour, but I have found the more you get and the more time / effort to put it on the less likely you are to wear it. I exited just before Yuri with just knee pads and helmet as protection the rest of my suit was in the trunk of the car.....................

Absolutely - There is a very old saying. . . cliche . . ."You will never live long enough to make every mistake". And another: "It is better to learn from the mistakes of others".

Well done on sharing and surviving!!!!!!


Pre plan your launch and have a logical reason for positioning, equipment configuration, etc. The kicking legs thing I think will actually be a negative thing on most occasions. Kicking your legs means you are also moving your lower torso. You are potentially twisting it. You twist it one way, then another. You may actually be contributing to a turn (similar to those occasions when you try to kick out of a line twist but actually make it worse). You are also increasing the probability of creating instability in your body by thrashing your legs around. The airflow around your body is being disturbed by the thrashing legs. Depending on the length of delay and the severity of the poor body position, sometimes it is better to know where it is at, make subtle attempts to ride it out to deployment, know the likely outcome of your position (i.e. left shoulder down may lead to left off heading), and then deal with it. This might be OK for a shorter delay when things are going just a little bit wrong. The flip side of this is that it adds to all the things you have to think about when jumping. Too much info and too many options sometimes confuses people.


I have seen a guy freefall a 57m bridge and do an unintentional full 180 degree turn from exit to swing through. His launch put a very slight lateral rotation to the left and the momentum and airspeed sped it up. In your scenario, it is possible that you have hit sufficient airspeed with a little momentum in your body position to accelerate your rotation. It is also possible that your leg movements may have contributed to the rotation (refer comments above). Regarding the pilot chute snag theory, yep, it is possible too, as long as the pilot chute was inflated during the turn. An example of this is a building jump I watched from above years ago - the jumper launched flat but about 45 left of heading. He was p/c in hand and it actually started inflating in his hand as he fell. After about 2.5 secs, his body was now 45 to the right of heading, his right should/body was higher than the left on account of the drag force of the inflated pilot chute, and he started turning faster to his right. He released the pilot chute. The body heading right and the left dipped shoulder cancelled each other out resulting in an on heading opening (I have deliberately used the offset body heading / dipped shoulder strategy for certain jump conditions and locations).


Almost anything is possible. Your head up body position seems to contradict this a little. The lower right corner of the rig is probably at a lower C of G. I think this would mean that a drag force applied to the area would cause your body to pitch forward a little. It may also lift the right side of the body. If these happened, then it probably would have contributed something to your rotation. Depending on your awareness level (sorry, but I don't know you), you may have noticed this.


I think that a flatter position is good for stowed and a more head up position is good for hand held. When going hand held, ensure that the bridle runs from the flap/pins to the top of the rig, to the top side of your hand. As you have suggested, don't let it hang loose around the BOC.


Wooooaaaahhhhh. There are different body positions for different situations and different people in different stages of development. You would not instruct a newbie to go head down in the early jumps as this leads to lots of potential snag and heading problems + more time required to regain control of heading / steering. In head down, when you dip a shoulder on one side, not only do you load the riser harder on that side, but as your body swings through, it has a tendency to turn on that point and start rotating - this could lead to line twists. Head high is better - you have to work on removing the snagging possibilities and not make your body position a band aid for gear configuration problems. Camera helmets should be flush and snag free. That is one reason I don't go for the side mounts. I have seen too many ripped off by riser slap and on average, BASE camera people are more likely to stick the heads in the path of the riser to get a different shot or better look at something during deployment.

Head high loadings start on the upper main lift web (which is connected to the risers), then chest strap and then to the leg straps via the rest of the harness in between. It is at line stretch that the most significant impact for heading is felt. This is where the initial force is applied to the lines and corresponding canopy mass. The stuff afterwards just adds to the original affect. Harness balance is an important point. Experienced jumpers can control headings to some extent using harness weight shift. This is particularly evident on the very small elliptical skydiving canopies (I jump an FX104 and steer my openings using hips when jumping wingsuits!!!).

Going back to the "head low, shoulders take first hit" comment. Theory is OK, but in practice, your body is more likely to be rock and rolling from this position during the swing through - you will actually have less control over the entire system if your body is wildy swinging through. It is easier to grab your risers when head up and moving about 90 degrees on a swing through than head down and swinging 180 degrees!!!


Yes. But I recomment working on your bridle routing first. And you have to take into consideration potential body positions / scenario's for this - i.e. head up/down, on back, etc.


WHen I am dialled in / current / etc this is sort of what I do. Experience and time will teach you what your body position is actually like in freefall. Then you will be able to make SLIGHT (don't overamp - think of a dampened loop control system here for all you engineer types) adjustments in freefall, or you will ride it out and know what the outcome is likely to be and be able to allow for it on opening. As my pilot chute is released, I move my hands up to the area that the risers are most likely to be (again - when experienced you can adjust your positioning when your body position is out of whack). As I am moving the hands there, I can already feel where force is being applied to my body via my harness and make an estimate of my likely heading (i.e. if the left shoulder has been whacked with a riser and the right is much looser, guess where I am going). It is here that I make the decision to follow through on the riser grab or just chill out and enjoy the on heading. But I do thoroughly recommend just going for your risers (or toggles ) on every jump.

People make the mistake of actually putting their hands behind their heads, closer to the shoulders during deployment. This is where you are likely to grab the risers very close to the three rings. The risers are likely to travel slightly above and behind your head, and that is where you should put your hands. Practice whilst undre canopy, and do some swing throughs on a makeshift suspended harness (just a few ropes from a roof and your rig are sufficient to practice this). The spot is marginally different dependant on gear and person.


This is not necessarily always the case. They do help, but it is also a function of aerfoil design, topographic characteristics of the object you are hitting, prevailing wind conditions, wing loadings, relative angle of object to canopy hitting it (in particular the nose), etc. How your nose is exposed during inflation (i.e. nose pointing down or forward), and how well the front top of the canopy stays pressurised will have a great affect on collapse versus inflation.

i.e. if you are hitting a slightly underhung section of wall with lots of snaggy things on it (trees, outcroppings, etc), there is not much apart for luck that can help you.

I like the look of greeny in the video. It was this shrug and a "shit happens" look.

What a COOL shot,looks like one of mine

Yuri_BASE
as Yuri already said DONT go stowed whith a 48´

Im not even sure what you want whith a 48 off 450ft(to impact) i know you jump a big canopy so im not the person to judge if you need a 45-46´but as im using a 42´all the way down to 300ft on my 265-266sqft canopies i tend to say that you should have taken a 42´ off that cliff,
IF you want the larger PC go handheld,the BOC aint build in the size as 45 and bigger but to 42 and smaller..

Im sure you tipped your shoulder as you had to pull harder or atleast mentalt wanted to.

others has said what should be said aswell.

good job getting away the way you did

Vry very impressive ( glad you jump an HDV cam). glad you are alive. But I would second the stowed 48PC - they are HUGE - i have seen a jumper shift the whole container while pulling a stowed 48 out of tight spandex BOC - which on a light grip would mean a possible missed pull. I wouldn't want to be the jumper - but I would love to be holding the camera.

huh?
a mate of mine had a missed pull last summer messing him pretty bad up,im sure the guys who saw it and recorded it wouldnt have minded if they hadnt seen that..

Good job on the getaway. Perhaps someone else has already seen and commented on this but after reviewing the video several times, over and over again, it appears that your body position on exit was in fact, not symmetrical. Almost as soon as you exit, it appears from the video that you begin to go left shoulder low. This would account for the sharp 160ish off heading you experienced. Rule of thumb. Which ever shoulder you have low at pull time will determine the direction of the off heading opening that follows. I believe that your body position and not some random gear problem is to blame.
I'm not trying to flame you or anything, I'm just providing food for thought. As I said before. Good job on the getaway.
Kevin

black humor ... Sometimes you know the person is gonna do something stupid regardless of what you tell them... might as well be there to have a recording just in case... this is totally off-topic of course, and is not a judgemet of what Yuri did - just an explanation of the somewhat insensetive humor.

As stated above, the full suit is likely to stay in the house for all but the really scary jumps. If you have a jacket, you're a lot more likely to actually be wearing it when you smack an object.

no worryes

It's remarkable what a name change can do to increase one's cachet, veter.

Like everyone else, I'm glad you're okay. Unlike them--because I know who you are--I'm wondering why you continue to make jumps beyond your skill set.

<ponders> Perhaps we need a base version of bounce bingo.

rl

No doubt.

That's not fair. How do you know who he is? Because you have read the bounce bingo thread?? It's only the Internet!
How do you know that he is jumping beyound his skills? Everyone can fuck up a jump. In the video you can see that he droped a shoulder which has caused the ofheading. That was bad but it can happen. He did a good job saving his ass which in the end is all that counts.
I did not like veter on the bounce bingo thread but I will not judge him because of this in BASE Jumping.

 

becourse you only post and dont jump?

Im whith Mikki here,that were a shitty post
but im on the dark side so who cares

 

NickNitro, who posted an agreement, is a more experienced jumper in the same area, though. I'd guess that he knows who Yuri is.

For what it's worth, I've jumped with Yuri here, and I'd say his skillset is more or less on par with most BASE jumpers at his experience level.

Why do you tell me to feel free to jump with him and why do you need to say it does not matter to you? I don't get it. What's the conection to my post?

stating somthing about a person on the boards whith out telling about for what reasson is just like a personal attack whith out a reasson to me.

I think Yuri_BASE has posted a good post that others can learn from,bashing him on that can only lead others not to post similar,leaving us behind and not learning anything..


as i recall you commented his skills atleast he tryes to be better all i see is you beeing negative were ever you post..

 

RhondaLea, Faber,

Cut it out, guys. This thread is about a specific incident. The jumper's history could be pertinent to that. The history between the two of you is not.

ok... can u guys/gals (mikki_zh- i only reply to ur post... it`s not about u) stop with this kind of posts?
we (me and probably others) are here to learn...
this thread start (thanks Jaap) a good new thread... about going stowed with a 48 PC.
why everytime someone have to say something about X jumper or Y jumper?
can we keep (technical threads) clean of this shit?
thanks

sorry for my silly english (it`s not my native language)

PS...yuri... ur left hand goes to back just before deploy? or in the time of deploying?

Hi,

Mother Teresa Here!

Everyone is over analyzing this symphony! Cliff strikes happen, even if you do everything "perfectly"! That's the long and the short of it...

Had I known at the time that Yuri was using a 48 inch PC, I would have said something, as would have the rest of the load I am assuming!

Yuri you did do a great job in salvaging a bad situation!

Tom Dancs

I think it was Adam Fillipino a few years back who said "If you havnt had a 180 - you will!". They often come when you least expect it - my first one did! Any new jumpers - take note.

Sure but he did not do everything right.

Frst there is no need to use a 48 off a 450 cliff when going stowed.

Second @ 38 jumps I think it's too early to jump a cliff and go stowed at the same time. His body position is a clear example of his inexperience. But hey a friend of mine jumped off a cliff with only 2 BASE prior so I guess it makes it OK.

http://www.dropzone.com/...oken%20back;#1621484

We see it every day. People jumping off cliffs with little to no experience. Jumping a cliff of any height is a serious business that many fail to realize.

In the end I think the Potato Bridge is hurting more people than helping them.

Heck yea. You get one just "because its Wednesday." I had my first one a month ago. 14th jump I believe. 900 A 6 second delay. Opened up and I had a nice view of the tower the guy wires. Plenty of tail wind though so it’s nothing like having one on an E.

Coco

I disagree with this. If a jumper has 38 jumps and is going to jump a cliff, it depends on whether or not that particular jumper is more comfortable going stowed or handheld. What kind of jumps lead up to the cliff? If it was a bunch of handheld jumps, he/she should probably go handheld, but if his/her last 30 jumps were rock-solid stowed jumps, go stowed.

When I did my first cliff I had about 40-45 jumps and the people I was there with asked if I was going to go handheld. I decided to go stowed because I was more comfortable with it. (Jumping the frozen pizza).

Yeah, Yuri dipped his shoulder. He had a 180 and he fought and fixed it. I have dipped my shoulder before too, once in awhile it happens. Maybe what we could take away from this instead of bickering is: Take an extra second to think about your exit before you jump, like you did when you were first learning.

Anyway, I should probably start paying attention...I'm in class right now

Katie.

I'm going to have to disagree with this, although I'll admit that it could be matter of opinion. I belief a jumper shouldn't be going stowed until he's absolutely comfortable going handheld. That way, it's never an issue.

I've talked to jumpers who are firm believers in going stowed. They did two handheld jumps during their FJC because they had to, but once they "got it over with" they went stowed and never looked back.

To me, this sounds a lot like AFF skydivers who get really scared when they start going lower and have to do their first hop and pop. Some day they're going to have to bail out of a plane at low altitude and they'll have trouble. Static-liners on the other hand will probably do fine.

If you're not comfortable going handheld, you have no place going stowed. Going handheld is an incredibly useful technique and it should be a mandatory skill for any BASE jumper.

But that's just my opinion as a romantic old-schooler born in the wrong day and age...

P.s. kick-ass new avatar Katie!

I love that jump. Will have to hit you guys up next time I'm in the area.

And I'll have to disagree with you, Jaap.

Are you more likely to have a solid, stable exit if you go hand-held or stowed? You could argue either side.

I believe hand-held and stowed jumps are separate skills that need to be honed independently. Also, there are sub-categories to each method. You not only have to be able to do a solid hand-held delay, but you need to be able to use it differently for different types of jumps.

You may take a longer delay hand-held in one situation, where you would take a shorter delay stowed in other situations.

Sometimes where it would be ideal to go hand-held, you have to go stowed because of the exit point.

If you're demonstrating the ability to do stable launches and you've been going stowed for a while, I don't see any reason why you should just go hand-held "just because".

If there's not a reason to go hand-held, and you're doing a jump where its acceptable to go stowed, why would you opt to pull out your PC and put it in your hand?

Would you recommend that every BASE jumper do 60 hand-held jumps before they ever go stowed? Because just because you're comfortable with something, doesn't mean you're doing it right. I'm willing to bet that if you did 100 hand-held jumps, you'd discover things you could do better and work on them. The more you learn, the more you come to understand what you didn't realize you needed to learn.

So, if no BASE jumper should go stowed until they're absolutely comfortable with it, how many hand-held jumps did you do before you decided to try a stowed jump?

Stowed and hand-held jumps should be practiced continuously. If you haven't done a hand-held jump in fifty jumps or so, it can't hurt to pull your PC out and get a little currency back. Likewise, if you're super current with stowed jumps, you might have a better exit if you go stowed.

There's a time and a place for everything. There's a perfect scenario for everything too, but in BASE, you have to build each and every jump from scratch. No two jumps are the same.

Understand the pro's and con's of everything you can anticipate, then make the decisions from there.

I don't want it to look like Chad and I are teaming up on you, but I agree with what he said.


Thanks, Tom Manship sent me that avatar awhile ago. I was thinking about him so I dug it out of the archives and decided to use it.

By all means, please do...

Interestingly enough, I don't disagree with you at all. There's a time and place for either going stowed and going handheld. We're just talking about different things.

I think the confusion comes from the difference between skill and apprioriateness versus what's comfortable to a person.

The point I was trying to make is that I've run into people who will go stowed on a jump, even when it's more appropriate to go handheld delay- and height-wise, because they're not comfortable going handheld.

I just checked my logbook and I went stowed after two PCAs and three handheld jumps. Certainly I wasn't at the prime of my handheld skills at that time. Even today I'm sure I could improve my handheld technique.

However, I was comfortable going handheld and I understood the motivation (especially when you're starting out and there is higher risk of unstable launches), the preparation (bridle-routing and PC folding) and the motions (how to pitch without inducing much oscillations or tangling the bridle).

This is what's important to me. Once you get that, by all means start doing stowed jumps. But at the same time, when you do find yourself at the top of your first cliff jump with a 48 inch pilotchute about to take a very short delay, you will know that a handheld jump is probably a wiser thing to do and you will feel comfortable switching to it.

Early on in your BASE career you will run into more scenarios where it's appropriate to go handheld than it is to go stowed, provided you don't live near Kjerag or ITW.

That's why it is absolutely mandatory, in my opinion, to be a comfortable handheld jumper before you start considering stowed. By all means make a few stowed jumps at the Perrine, but before you go home make sure you can safely go handheld.

Case in point; this particular cliff strike. Arguably he could have dropped his shoulder on a handheld jump too, but I like to think that a handheld jump would have been more appropriate in this case (based on the PC size, length of delay, object height, and jumper's experience.)

Other case in point; my first footlaunched cliff. It was jump number 44 and the first time I was to jump a cliff without a snowboard attached to my feet. I went severely headlow and the main reason I was able to come okay was because I could pitch as soon as I realized I was going headlow. I felt the canopy extract and scrape along my legs on that jump. Had I pitchd slower, like I would have on a stowed jump, I would have been pitching between my legs and consequences could have been a lot worse.

Arguably it was my unstable exit that caused the problem, but it was my decision to go handheld that saved me. Why did I go handheld? Because I was comfortable doing so.

For the record, I'm not implying that yuri_base isn't comfortable going handheld. I don't know what his motivation was to go stowed on this jump.

But I do stand by my opinion that it is important for a beginning BASE jumper, who will most likely live in a slider-down environment, to be comfortable doing handheld jumps. Skipping over handheld skills so you can go make "cool" stowed jumps sooner will only lead to disaster.

I'll team with you guys, because I agree with him as well...

Now the three of us have to find someone to team up against!

Duh! Obviously that's going to be Abbie! Hey Abbie, you done working on the highway yet? Suckah!

My first BASE was off a terminal wall. I went stowed. I had something like 60 skydives. Smart thing, I don't think so. In retrospect I just got extremely lucky not to kill myself but I did not know any better and the people I jumped with thought it was OK. Their rational was that all the pioneers started this way from this same wall and after about 6 sec I was going to find myself back in the skydiving enviroment.

Buy hey at 38 jumps he should have thrown a gainer as well. I guess I make BASE much more complicated than it really is...

i think your right,but watch out its as bad to say as "people get their BASE#´s way too early/easy theese days"...

I have been bashed from both abowe lines by time..

 

skydivingmovies.com is back up

Hey there KMonster... I like your new Logo on your post... It ROCKS :)...

I agree cool logo,
Tom M. loved them damn things. It's cool he sent that to you KMonster. We left him one at the "A"

Stay safe
Jason

Nick u have to stop being so critical everyone makes mistakes u do I mean I dont but most people do Yuri is a good guy and i'll be glad to jump with him soon as he gets his gear back and he is sensible he said to me today that he wasn't ready for bs yet and why an i still up at 530 all tweeked out on a wed night.

Not critical, factual, there is a difference...I think you should teach Yuri how to tard over the same cliff

its gona be so crome when i so him brotha i am thinking about tard over death camps but only on cliffs or Bs by the way do you want to buy any pics of your wife and I

oh dude, nice going!

don't forget to tell mr. purplepants that you will become the esteemed McFlonkey-BASE # 1....

I still have the last 2 that he bought. Saving them in my fridge for whenever the the time is right. Will save at least one of the tabs to carry with me from now on

hey Chad

I noticed from the pic that you wear your body armour and pads exposed.

I have similar armour (shuttle suit pro) and I used to wear bits exposed, but I looked at all the possible snag points (especially arms) and now always cover all my armour/padding with clothing.

wondering what your thoughts are on this one?

Basically, I'm not worried about it. I place my pilot chute where I want it in the air. I'm conscious of when conditions could cause my bridle to interfere with part of my body and I try to plan my jump/delay so that isn't an issue.

If there's a higher than normal possibility that snag factor may be an issue on a certain jump, then I'll wear a long-sleeve shirt over it.

hey dude

glad you came out of that OK

finally had a chance to look at the video and I noticed this:


OK, so you're trying to turn right, this seems a reasonable reaction, as the offheading was left and the initial reaction is usually to counter the offheading, instead of assessing whether going with it and turning left would have been better. Right looked like the best way to turn anyways from the video.


no dude, you don't reach for the left toggle, you reach up and end up unstowing the left toggle and letting it up, while regrabbing the right riser. I don't know if you tried for both toggles and just missed the right, or if you tried for grabbing both risers higher and unstowing the left toggle accidently??

this is where more jumps would've helped you be more precise and either have the risers high enough initially to back up, then turn, or get the toggles quickly and cleanly and go from unstowing straight into deeper brakes and stall turn if needed, not letting up.


the canopy is trying to turn right, as you have unstowed the left toggle and let it up into almost full flight, while the right toggle is still stowed and you're on the right riser, you may have subsequently given left toggle input again, but not enough to overcome the combination of right toggle stowed and right riser input


left toggle unstowed, right toggle stowed, risers gripped at about the same spot with about the same input: the canopy is still turning right due to this, which is keeping it against the wall


dude, it took you a relatively long time to realise it's not turing left and changing your plan again to turn right


you could've been off that wall way sooner if you were using both riser with the brakes stowed, or both toggles with the brakes unstowed

flying a canopy with one toggle and the other riser (with other toggle still stowed in DBS) is hard enough on it's own, doing it with the canopy dragging down a cliff face is making your life really hard


the canopy finally acquires some horizontal speed because you have now finally unstowed the right toggle too and let both up to fly


big is good and while I have not jumped a base canopy loaded less than 0.76, I can assure you that a lot of the lack of response you were trying for there was due to the way you were flying that canopy


no doubt


so you executed your planned response to a 180 in full auto?


no doubt, but as a super experienced basejumper said to me:

'assess, assess, assess'

this does not mean take precious time to analyze the situation, you don't have the time

this means assess which one of the scenarios you have planned for and played out in your head, is happening to you now and take the actions you have programmed specific reflexes for based on that

do not program any reflexive response that you do not want to execute every time you get the programmed trigger, i.e. if you program going straight for the toggles, unstowing and letting them up and reinforce this by doing it on a bunch of jumps, this is what you will try to do even when the shit hits the fan

I'd like to know if your plan was to unstow one toggle and let it up while keeping the other stowed and using that riser?


I fail to see the relevance here, even for a guy your size 450ft is not low.

It sounds like you are looking at equipment issues everywhere to explain why this did not go like you may have imagined it before.

It seems to me that the major issues here were training, skills and judgement. If you had developed those more before this jump, hopefully your reaction would've been a bit different and you would either not have hit the cliff or been off it much sooner.


no you don't, especially on cliff jumps, I hope to see more people 'dress for the crash' in the future, just remember to cover the snag points that come with pads, I have seen a bridle snag a kneepad once already.


happy new year to you too!

and it will be cool to see you at the exit point, as long as it is an exit point suited to your experience and skill level...

dude, you got lucky bigtime, I hope this is a major wake-up call for you and not something that makes you feel bulletproof