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Quick question on ethics. . . . .

A friend of mine who recently got into skydiving met some BASE jumpers at the local dropzone. They decided to take my friend along with them to "watch" their jumps from an S that is known for being hot. Keep in mind, my friend was there to watch not GC.

My friend doesn't BASE and has no intention of getting into BASE.

Although I don't have a problem with them taking a non-BASEer to simply watch, I wonder what the more experienced jumpers have to say on this.

Is this considered acceptable?

Cheers,

J.P.

If it's an illegal jump; less is more. Preferably only one person for groundcrew, and no more than two jumpers. The local jumpers here all agree and we don't give each other shit for not getting invited on a load. The organizer sets the rules. If you don't like it, organize your own loads.

For legal jumps, the more the merrier. That is, I have no problems sharing the excitement of a jump. I won't go out and actively invite tons of people, but I've run into hikers at the exit point and happily agreed they could watch. As long as the jump isn't overly sketchy, I don't see harm in showing that we're just ordinary people with an extra-ordinary passion.

 

yeah well the S in question was not legal. And yep I fully agree that it does increase the chances of jeopardizing the load for the obvious reasons. I'm pretty sure this jump was a late afternoon/very early evening jump too.

Well thanks for the feedback. Personally I would never take any of my non jumper friends to watch. Period.

Let me know if you would like the details on this one; I'd be happy to pm ya.

Hello.
Please.
Taking tourists to see awesome sights may not even qualify in the ethics category.
Before anything really has an ethical value, shouldn't it have to have some sort of impact?
BASE really doesn't, unless you have witnesses.
I've taken a ton of non-jumpers on BASE adventures.
Even right out to the S you may be talking about.
God loves it when I fly.
Somebody needs to see that.
The only ethical choice I have to make is how I live my life.
BASE jumping is something to share.
God bless you.
Avery

Honestly, I think it's fine from a BASE ethics standpoint. Mostly, "Ground Crew" is just another way of saying "spectators" anyway.

I don't think it's particularly smart, especially for a high bust object, but there are lots of low bust things where folks have been bringing spectators forever.

Interesting viewpoint Avery.

. . . . .fair enough. I respect that and agree with you in some ways.

cheers,

J.P.

"Ground Crew" is just another way of saying "spectators" anyway....Hmmm...I better think about this for a minute!
Love ya anyway!

Hmm... are you sure this friend isn't interested in BASE? Is this the friend that witnessed her first jump the day before she did her first skydive and told you that she "wants to jump off bridges" when she grows up?

Is this also the person who drove the jumpers to and from the location(s) on more than one occasion?

Just curious.

Ground crew and spectating seem to be logical things someone who wants to get into the sport would do to be closer to it... rather than jumping into it without evaluating all the concequences.

I'll owe you some beers on those "firsts" btw.

Gee I wonder?

> Is this considered acceptable?
While I (almost) agree with all my BASE mates that expressed their opinion saying that that is an acceptable behaviour, I say the following.
First: we must consider "who" is this skydiver that is taken to watch a BASE mission: is he/she trusty so that he/she is NOT going to talk about it/about the object with other skydivers?
Second: from a general point of view, while it perhaps can be "within" the BASE ethics, it is NOT a great idea to take "generic" skydivers to witness BASE missions because they can talk about it and moreover thay can talk about the object, and the more he/she talks, the more skydivers come to know abnout the object and the more skydivers know about the object the more it exists of a "do-it-yourself" BASE jump.
So (I am speaking for our group (=Italian BASE)) we definitely avoid as much as possible to take any "skydiver" to witness a BASE mission.
Exceptions being:
1) skydiver who are taken to witness BASE mission because they are being trained to BASE jump
2) a person who FIRST is a true and trustful friend of one of us and THEN is a skydiver
Other that the above, I don't see any "advantage" in taking skydivers to witness BASE missions (leave alone the fact that the more "people" come to know our objetcs, the higher is the chance that "Gifts of God" come to know our objects and then here we go with broad daylight actions and stadiums crews and burnt objects, but this is another story).
Just my 0.02€