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Dear Fellow BASE jumper

My name Is Omer Mei-Dan, I am long time Base Jumper and a Medical doctor in the field of Orthopedic and sports surgery.

In collaboration with a friend, Dr. Erik Monasterio (from Bolivia/ New Zealand and an experienced, semi professional mountaineer and rock climber), we are proposing to conduct a research on a population of Base Jumpers (BJ). Erik who specializes in Forensic Psychiatry, is used to working with "risk-taking" populations and has published a number of research papers on the subject. He has recently published the first systematic study of a group of climbers. This study examined the "personality styles" of risk-taking climbers and also looked at how often they had accidents and what the death rate was (over a 4 year period).

As there are no scientific studies of BJs, we believe that it would be very interesting to conduct a study on this unique population. The study would use validated, standardized personality assessment questionnaires. The information on personality characteristics of BJs will help us understand what it is that motivates BJs to participate in such a unique and extremely dangerous sport. I am sure that there are unique characteristics which motivate us and that we don't fully understand. This study will help to shed some light on those facts. It will also give us information on the frequency and severity of accidents. The study participants must volunteer to take part and they will remain anonymous. In recognition of the volunteer's participation we will forward the result findings to all participants, with an explanation of our conclusions.

We would appreciate your cooperation by completing the attached files including the intro letter and the two questionnaires and by contacting and recruiting as many Base jumping friends as possible. The questionnaires can be answered in about 20 mins and sent back via Email. All data is to stay anonymous and will be statistically evaluated by Dr. Monasterio, in NZ.

If the community of BJs dedicate a few minutes to this important study we would be provided with valuable information that will help us understand ourselves a lot better.

If you are a BASE jumper, past or present, and willing to spend a few minutes and participate in that research, please contact us via mail and we will be happy to send you the required files.

Thank you very much for your time

Omer
omer@extremegate.com

Please stop calling us BJs . . .

NickD
BASE 194

are you kidding? i did a scientific bj experiement last nite..

How did he like it?

is that again a old thing?

Omer i hope you can use the info,im looking forward to see the results as prommised

he (being I) liked them both very much.

I've done my own study and there are three kinds of jumpers. Some are high octane risk takers and some are timid followers. And then there is everyone else in between . . .

There was a study done in skydiving, albeit a little differently, and given at a PIA convention. The presenter spent 45 minutes explaining how people can fail to cutaway, or mis-react to high speed and stress. He went on about various nerve endings and synapses with charts and slides but you could hear the Instructors in the audience snickering. We just called it brain-lock.

It's like that other thread going on about terminal velocity, with the physics and everything . Terminal velocity is like porn, you know it when you feel it . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Hi Omer

Good luck with the research.

Can you outline the publication plan and where you are planning on submitting?

Neil Jarvis

Imagine replacing the acronym above with the other synonymous word for BJ in the above thread!

shhh,, you had me worried

We would appreciate your cooperation by completing the including the intro letter and the two questionnaires
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Did I miss the attachment here?

Send Omar an email and he will send you the attachements.

Congratulations on naming the phenomenon. You must take great pride in your achievement.

Seriously, there's a world of difference between experiencing a thing and studying it in detail. Having done one of those does not diminish the value of the other... As for the value of naming a thing, well, that's pretty trivial now, isn't it?

My response to the questionaire will be on its way...

Yeah, what's up with that? Oh how I yearn for the good ol' days when we would just sew a bunch of nylon together any which way, without regard for this "physics" bullshit, and take it out for a jump to see if we got it right. A functional parachute is like porn. You know it when you feel it.

Michael