douggs view on incident in mexico
Mexico incident 13/9/2006 Hello everyone,
As most of you know, there was an incident in southern Mexico recently that ended in the fatality of Adam Gibson of Australia who had approx 600 base-jumps and was a very skilled jumper.
Here is my view on what actually happened that day and how we can hopefully stop reinventing the wheel and make our sport safer.
The cliff was approx 3000 ft a new big wall in Mexico. The calibre of jumpers that were there to jump it was for the most part very high. There were to be a few exit points but not all of them were opened yet, it was a pioneering mission that was combined to form the first Mexican go fast event, it was very well organized and perfectly legal with all the requirements being met in the form of permits waivers etc.
On the day of the jump we went to the base of the cliff and cleared a landing area that was quite tight but easily doable with the water being an option also. We also studied the cliff itself and found that this was a serious technical big wall that was for tracking and wing suit flying only. There were 2 other exit points that were ok for aerials but this was not one of them. This was mentioned in the safety briefing the night before.
We then went to the lookout to view the exit point and the ledges below, it was a serious jump but way doable if you track and it had been done before by a couple of local jumpers.
Here is where it went wrong. Unfortunately in my view many of the events that I have been to around the world end in some sort of accident or worse because people don’t treat them with the respect they deserve and everyone gets a little exited because of the added things like the print media, TV cameras, interviews, crowds of onlookers and the chance to show off to your mates even if you say your not like that.
The first jumper to exit was in a wing suit and did a perfect jump like he said he would. The second jumper to every ones surprise and without warning executed a very fast front loop in a prodigy suit with some loud cheer full banter as he exited. We were very surprised at the speed of his front loop and it ended up in an uncontrolled double front that was very messy and could have easily resulted in that jumpers death had he have not got the suit flying at the last possible second.
I had still not seen over the edge at this point and was waiting for my turn to jump to study the exit and ledges below for my jump. The next 2 jumpers, which include the deceased, decided last minute to do a 2 way. Which would not be a problem as I was going to do a 2 way also. With the excitement of the jumper before them and no planning what so ever the 2 jumpers decided to do aerobatics one being a gainer which the jumper had decided to do all along and the other being a flying front loop.
Another main thing for this jump is you needed to exit precisely a certain way to have the best line and the smallest ledges, all jumpers knew this 100%.
The deceased to my surprise did not even look over the edge before the jump and as the 2 way left, although he was on the right side of the exit point, exited to the left into a quite quick flying front loop. That was the last I saw as he disappeared until 8 seconds later when we all heard a large impact sound and immediately knew what had happened. The other jumper managed to out track the talis after the gainer but only just and was unable to pull for a lot of the jump, as they were only feet from the talis.
Instantly jumping was stopped and a lengthy rescue mission began to see if he was still alive until our worst fears were realized. He had impacted the ledge at almost terminal speed.
After talking to experienced jumpers from the look out and watching a side video of the jump it was apparent that he had over rotated the front loop and went fully head down for almost the entire freefall trying to correct it. At the last second he obviously realized he couldn’t make it and threw his pilot chute but did not have time to extract anything else as he hit the ledge.
He died instantly as was confirmed by the ortopsy report.
I’m almost certain that the over rotation was caused by the excitement of the event as I have seen him do so many perfect ones in the months leading up to this. He had done over 200 jumps in the last 4 months.
It resulted in a lengthy and very difficult rescue mission that put other people in danger.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but at the end of the day respect for the sport, the event, and for the dangers of jumping from a cliff were not taken seriously enough even if it was for only a moment.
I know Adam went hard but he was also highly skilled and did have a great respect for his fellow jumpers and the sport and he would have been very disappointed for causing any negativity in the sport.
The event organizers and the Mexican authorities treated this accident very well and kept positive throughout which led us to be able to do another smaller display jump from the same cliff to show the media and the public that this was only an accident and that base jumping can be done safely. The display went off perfectly.
I haven’t been around this sport for ever but I have been around it long enough to know that it deserves a lot more respect than it is given by new jumpers joining the sport over the last few years, especially by the legal eagle jumpers that just jump the prienne and bridge day and heli boogie etc. I am not saying this is everyone but I am mealy saying that the wheel seems to be continually being re invented when it doesn’t need to be.
I’m no saint in this sport and have fucked up many a time also.
We all need to take a step back from what we think we are capable of in this sport and start enjoying the basics of base-jumping instead of always trying to push it and look cool and do better than the other guy.
The sport is moving forward but it is continually getting pushed back also because of unnecessary injuries and deaths.
Please everyone look after yourselves and each other and don’t be afraid to tell someone if you think they are pushing things too far. You never know, you just might be saving their lives.
Adams wife and family would like to thank everyone that got to spend time with Adam over the last couple of years and are truly sorry that this may have hurt the sport of base in any way.
I would also like to say a huge thank you to go fast, the Mexican crew of Gabriel, Nacho, Tacho, Laura, Jamile, and Tarzan for the amazing effort they put in throughout this time, and also to all the jumpers for their help and support of Adams wife and their professionalism towards this tragic situation.
Please everyone be as safe as you can in this sport, as you cannot have fun when you are dead.
Shine on
Douggs
www.basedreams.com