Basejumper.com - archive

 
While I was at it there have been some questions about gear. A guy asked to see some pics of the infamis Alpine Rig. I finaly went by the house and picked it up. It took even longer to learn how to take pics of it with my video camera and put them on computer. I'm tecnologicaly challenged. I finally got them to him and while I was at it thought to stick them on here.

I know it looks a bit confuseing so I'll try to describe. Main tray is in the bottom. There is a good sized compartment between there and your lower back. Access from zippers on eather side. It's almost 4in thick and wraps forward around your hips. The BOC is on a compression flap that squizes it down so it is always tight and at the base of your back. The upper compartment is large and extends above the hight of your shoulders. It has an internal frame that transfers the load to the waist belt and load levelers that take the weight off your shoulders. There is a pocket for a foam pad that runs down the back and holds a section of Z Rest. The MLW is on the out side of this. and runs down behind the lumbar pad where it can tuck away. The leg straps tuck away there when you hike. There is a reinforced compartment for your crampons on the back and a snow shovel flap on top of it to help keep them from pokeing things. The compression straps run under loops to help keep you tieing down your risors. The risor covers run along the back sides of the rig and are shallow so they are not cought under the corners of the main tray. The tray fully opens at the bottom corners. The ice tools fit in reinforced tubes running down the sides of the rig. There are gear loops for a little climbing shit on the sides. Sorry I frogot to take any pics of the top knot.
Yes it is every bit as scarry as it looks. It is no shit black fucking death and feels like a tandom on your back. Exiting with it can be challanging. And yes I have jumped it. This is what I took on the last two trips up north.
You can say I'm insane. You can say I'm suasidal. You can NOT say that I can not sew.

Lee

Big ups to you for that design/execution Lee!
let's see the pics of you jumping it!

pope

Awesome job Lee.

Moe built something along those lines back in the day. IIRC, his was called the ParaPak. There exists video of him wearing it in freefall, as well as some print ads...empty and loaded.
Seems like it was pink.

359

That's awesome. Thanks.

 
These are from last year. I should have a coulpe of self portrates from a little pocket camera from the second trip in the slides. I remember them being better but dig them out and get them scanned.

Lee

By the way you'll notice I'm jumping a 266 Flick that Jimmy was kind enough to loan me for the trip in these pics. I'd just like to say that I found it to be a very nice canopy and thought very highly of it eaven if the damn thing did say Apex on the bottom of it.

Lee

very cool man. never seen one, only heard of it before. looks useful and inconpicuous. (sp)?

 
Your thinking of the "StealthRig". That's totaly diffrent. Some people know that I have one of those as well. They've asked me to see it. let me put it this way. I've sent base jumpers, base jumpers mind you, out to my car with spicific instructions. "It is on the floor of the back seat behind the drivers seat.", etc. They came back to tell me that there was nothing there. That they had searched the whole car and there was no base rig in the car. Thats how good it is.

Lee

sweet. i have seen a jansport velcro rig. i think it was made out of a jansport backpack. very cool.

I wonder if you made a rig out of a big name company's colors and used their logo all over it, if that would be less conspicous. Like Costco or Walmart

Could you post pics of the "stealth rig?" It sounds sweet!

Fuck yea.

 
NO. And lets not discuss this over the internet any more or whats the point. The whole idea is people do not and can recanise it. There was a time when you could through a rig over your shoulders tuck the leg straps up out of the way and just walk in any where. Why do you think we have covers over our three rings? That used to be all you needed. I don't know why we bother now. their really in the way.
But now thanks to all the meadia hogs and fuckers blabing on sites like this we have to build all of our secret shit. Which will remain TOP FUCKING SECRET. Maybe you little shits should learn how to sew. I don't know why more people don't. The things you can build... the base rigs, climbing shit, hell the sex toys alone justify the effort to learn. It really sucks that now all you have to do to be a base jumper is throw down a CC. I've got a 5000 sqr foot shop with a big cutting table and full of sewing machines. I was thinking about gearing up to build base rigs again but a trip to Perrion and the last Turkey Boogie made me stop and think again. That and the fact that the people that were aproaching me for rigs and training were not people I wanted to sell to. In short we've moved on to diffrent projects. I just don't feel like being a base rig manufacterer right now.
I didn't mean to get up on this soap box but we really should drop this line of descusion.

Lee

oh... so true.

i just yesterday finished my first ilot chutes. as far as i can see, the first ever vented and vaned orbit free pilot chutes, 41 and 36"

PC are a bitch to make, and man, those vanes are really, really a bitch.

yes, all I need to do is invest in a 20u sewing machine and a harness machine, set up a loft, buy all the necessary other tools, spend day after day learning to deal with fabric take up, blah blah blah and there, yes, we'll all be able to make rigs. in actuality, making a soft suitcase base rig was my project when i got trained in the loft, but the harness machine was damaged and wouldn't work for me. i simply couldn't find the carbon steel part that was broken. it seemed like so much of a time investment beyond what i could faithfully do.

dude, I have 2 sewing machines, one is a 1983 brother(no idea on price, moms), the other is a 2004 brother(128$ at target). both stock off the shelf stay at home mom machines. I have been able to build harnesses for climbing and parachuteing, pilot chutes, canopy repair, I have tested risers and sling i have made, and their tensile strength is equalt to or surpases that of commercial slings. i dont have a harness testing machine, so i dont know about those. I break a lot of needles, and the old brother's motor is making noises it shouldnt, but i can do pretty much anything a rigging shop can, minus bar tach, and push through 8 layers of harness webbing. but creativity in design is fun.

working on whimpy machines is very tedious, and half the time requires hand cranking to push through, but it is fun, and i can fix my own parachute, or change a lineset, instead of leaving it at the loft for a month.

It's not a real sewing machine unless you can hear the flywheel come up to speed when you hit "on", and keeping your fingers out of the way is a survival skill. Bonus points if it has a sticker prominently displayed that says "Always wear safety glasses."

hey, if real men can sew, then real bad ass men can do the same things with whimpy machines.