Basejumper.com - archive

Absolutely not
There is loads of information archived just waiting for you to search through.....if you have the right questions to ask.

Have a question...?
Search for previous incarnations....if nothing answers that...post a new thread.
Learn who the 'derka derka dorks' are and who people are who will give you an informative web reply..(there are equal numbers on both sides)

Beware as there are many who will claim to be the latter , but without the obvious warning signs of the former ( midgets, drug , cocaine etc etc)
Thats your work to do.....take the sensible information your are given and then go do some more research on it.....and hopefully you will find answers to your questions.

when were the BASE forums NOT shit?

so why do you participate?
are you trying to elevate the forum and make it worthwhile?
or do you like wallowing in the fecal matter?

>>when were the BASE forums NOT shit?<<

Never mind, I had to edit this post out because I mixed you up with Goldsmith . . .

NickD
BASE 194

And Andy,

Yes, because of child like pot churners like you.

Please take your 74 jumps, your A license, and your one year in the sport, and go back to the bonfire . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Lest we forget, your occasional tongue-in-cheek death threats.

its fun. none of it matters, save the occasional local jumpers search, and info on new gear and ideas.

pissing people off online is kinda fun. i got banned from a few other forums for that, but not yet this one. maybe cause im nice here.

i wouldnt say im a pot churner with 75 jumps, but i do my part.


this is a cute funny argument though, it just goes to show how much these forums have gone to shit. Im sure they were great back in the day, (as in 15 years ago) when there were only a few people participating. there were no cool flips off of underhung rocks, or empire state building arrests to throw poop at, or anything else for the Real BASE jumpers to bitch to us fake BASE jumpers about ones about.

how is this not fun?

granted, there are a few of you out there that take the Dorkzone,com BASE forum as if it was your life and happiness, and im sorry to all of those who had their entire lives destroyed by people NOT taking the interslut so seriously that if it crashed or they got banned they would go all suicidal.

these forums give me something to do between classes, or on sewing breaks.
holy shite i have written a lot.

(see my sig line)

werd.
~J

You should not dismiss online characters such as Maggot & Nick Nitro just because they behave like knob jockeys on the internet.

If you are prepared to think carefully for yourself you will learn something from everybody. Some are just more hard work than others.

Ouch, now that's a burn!

Get over yourself.

Dont talk shit about other people. be nice.
people try and take this forum too seriously, and thats whats so damn funny about it. If people have issues about what size pilot chute they should use off a 350 foot A, maybe they should make a phone call to whoever taught them. or call tom aiello.
ITS A FORUM. Go scout a new object.

different people use this forum for varying purposes. many come here to research BASE and learn about our sport. unfortunately, that includes law enforcement officials (such as NPS) and news reporters.

perceptions matter to these people and I'd prefer them to have an open mind regarding the sport. they may see images of a jump and be shocked. they ask "what in the he...?" and come here for more information. I've been in non-BASE situations where you can spin such a situation to create either an ally or an enemy.

I believe the best BASE jumpers are incredibly smart, dilligent, and detail orientated. you (Calvin19) appear to have an amazing wealth of knowledge. (actually, it can appear so broad to be implausible...) but many of your posts do not display it.

each of us IS a face of BASE jumping, on a daily basis (unless you hide your activities). if you portray a reckless attitude, it will attract some and deter others. but are you attracting sloppy jumpers? the type of jumpers that will do things to make BASE more difficult?

when law enforcement officials visit this site to research possibly opening a site (o.k. it's a long shot... but evidently they DO come here.), they frequently will NOT perceive the careful, meticulous nature of solid BASE jumpers.

perception IS reality. this site helps many form their opinion about BASE. many of the people who post for a laugh provide many readers the excuse to dismiss BASE jumpers as reckless and irresponsible.

sloppy habits (including representing the sport poorly) -> sloppy jumping (maybe not you, but by others)-> injuries or worse

if you do not like all the access issues that are arising, ask yourself if you are contributing to the problem or the sloution...

as in much of BASE, it is your call.

I have to admit that I'd prefer to see all BASE forums disappear or be password protected. All the technical information that newbies claim to need can come from their "mentors", as it did in the old days. The internet has more negatives than positives when it comes to BASE jumping.

Plus, the NPS might actually have to do some WORK since they'd have nothing to read each morning....

Maybe so.

but

I still learn things occasionally on here though.

On a side note, years ago, the only reason I stopped posting to Mick Knutson's blincmagazine base website was because I forgot my password. His website was so difficult that I couldn't figure out how to get a forgotten password or to change my password.

thank you for the compiment, but to clarify... I am a fairly new BASE jumper, only around 230 jumps, 80 objects, 4 openings. so, pretty far down compared to a lot of you guys out there. I know VERY little about BASE and skydiving, and how it works. no more than any other jumper. However, i have been coming up with new things and getting hurt doing them since i was very little. and when i can skydive, and BASE jump, and Climb, and fly Airplanes, combining them in different ways is what i am good at.

Implausible? maybe... maybe im making it all up. but for sake of argument, lets say i am. where did i get all the video and pics?

you have a good point on these forums, participating and being a sketchball on purpose (or not on purpose?) is probably bad for the sport, at least flaunting it online.

but i have a different view of this sport. I thinks it is hopeless, not in the cool hopeless that i live for (i know some of you know what i mean!) but the bad hopeless, like in my spoof thread about whats going to happen. I really dont think there is a chance for this sport to ever be as beautiful as it was back then.



On a different note... we are BASE jumpers. as much as any of us want to trick ourselves into believing, we are all sketchballs. all of us, when compared to the rest of the human race, we are sketchballs. even you old timers out there. when you tel someone you BASE jump, you will never ever get a neutral reacion. either the person who finds out you huck your meat tells you its sweet and he or she 'wants to try that someday' OR, they polightly excuse themselves from talking about it, because they think you are a sketchball.

Zzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzzzz

what? who? talking shite again......where...er....confused....wasn't around jumping then so couldn't possible know.......fantasy nostalgia by proxy bollocks......

zzzzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzzzz

That feels like a chicken-and-egg situation to me. I'm a n00b, having done nothing but read a lot (still waiting for the rain to lighten up at my local DZ) and contacted some locals. However, I don't have a mentor. I haven't asked, because I know the answer would be "no", or "fuck off, BASE is not for you". I don't expect any locals to let me GC. show me local jump points, or *even start talking to me about BASE* until I have proven myself much much more. How am I going to do that without information from forums such as this? It's not enough to just say "go do a FJC". IMHO there's lots I need to do before a FJC, and resources such as dz.com are IMHO essential.

But perhaps I am wrong. How would you suggest I proceed, assuming that all the information you want removed was in fact removed?

[This is also leaving aside all the issues of some mentors not being as good as others, getting a diversity of viewpoints, etc etc...]

Oh sorry.

Been sleep posting again.

Yeah I agree Calvin. There's no beauty in BASE jumping anymore. Every time i stand on an exit point it just seems so......bland and pointless and well....like it's all been done before and I drift off into a time when everything was swell and lovely and warm and fuzzy and orangey coloured and the world was good.

And as i prepare to step off (shit scared cos it could be the last thing i do) I wonder in awe at how magical it must have felt back in the golden days and how i must be missing out on something now.

And when i land and my hands have got a little tremble going and i look back at what i just jumped off with exhilaration and pride I wish I could have done that 20 years ago cos in my mind it must have been sooooooo much more beautiful back then.

Man i miss those days (i don't actually have any personal recollection of). They were great days (i'm told), and what I do now is just so lame (I'm often made to believe).

Anyway, got my glass of milk, back up the wooden hill to bedfordshire. Back to my lovely dream.

No offense, but what part of "make 200 skydives" did you miss? Having read BASE wiki does not qualify you "to see local jump points". Actually, having done the things it says, might. If you're lucky.

Not trying to be a dick here, but people die doing this shit. And I don't want to have to clean up the mess.

by putting in some real effort



agreed



agreed



I disagree. not essential for learning how to be a competent basejumper at all, in fact probably detrimental to the process on average given the attitudes of most noobs now



IMHO, you are in this case



find some competent and experienced basejumpers to learn from

if you feel you have found the right people but they want nothing to do with you, find out why, remedy that situation and go from there.

Yup, and what part of "waiting for the rain to stop.." did you miss?
The point I'm trying to make is I think the education process would be a lot harder without online information such as dz and basewiki (or heaven forbid the fatality list).

And I think I've made it clear with previous posts that I fully expect everyone to be a dick.

I apologized to Andy. He didn’t deserve that from me.

My very first posts to an internet BASE forum were in 1987 when it was me, Mike Allen, Rick Payne and guys like that on a GEnie board which I started. Since that time many people have come and gone, and some I miss and some I don't. I hung in through those formative years, through Mick's BASE board, and here I still am at this place.

If that sounds crazy to you, maybe it is. But I've seen these boards operate at their full potential and I've also seen them wallow in the gutter. I realized that (again) when, although it was a good line of writing, I later thought through my, "stake through the heart," comment concerning Felix. I took the low road as I don't (anymore) always have the energy to back up my every single reference by re-telling the story or lesson it represents.

If Moe Viletto was standing next to me right now he'd be giving me the business, "I told you so, I told you twenty years ago not to get involved in that internet." He was right, but not for the right reasons. While things haven't changed all that much internally, they have changed by a magnitude externally. The BASE Zone is the Youtube of words, and in both cases the cosmic audience is now too large to get away with it.

I've brought up our collectively bailing out of here a few times before, and for the same reasons of security, but not enough people agreed. And either we all go, or it won't make a difference. But the stakes are higher now as besides basic security concerns it's unconscionable we dangle BASE jumping so freely in front of a larger than it used to be crowd of the young and impressionable. If you don’t agree with that then it follows you either believe BASE is an everyman's sport, or worse, you just don’t give a shit when someone is injured, maimed, or killed.

I don't believe the latter is true of most. You can see that in the posts that follow the announcement of a BASE fatality here. I've never heard, "He was a bastard, and I'm glad he's dead," like I have in that other parachute related sport so we are, no matter if you believe it or not, as Carl Boenish said, "A small band of brothers."

One poster here recently said, "I think it's kinda neat pissing people off on these boards." And I don’t get that. That may be viable in an anonymous chat room or Usenet board but here it's like walking into a Holiday Inn room full of BASE jumpers the night before Bridge Day and pissing on someone's packed rig. And if that's the only act you've got, then your act needs work . . .

NickD
BASE 194

your BASE experience it not THAT important. you typically offer advice from other areas of expertise.

your wide variety of knowledge is implausible, but by reports, true. anyone can be the exception to a rule...


straight out of the Skin school of thought. it is valid, and probably more correct. I choose to try to remain positive and attempt to help. if we don't give up until impact, why give up here?

I believe that it is each person's right to choose their own course in life, inasmuch as that course doesn't hinge on stopping others from doing the same. I also believe that BASE is among the most beautiful things I've experienced, and that such things should not be relegated to the shadows.

While the idea of people getting injured or killed bothers me, the idea of hiding something so remarkable in an ill-conceived attempt to protect people from themselves bothers me even more.

>>The point I'm trying to make is I think the education process would be a lot harder without online information such as dz and basewiki (or heaven forbid the fatality list).<<

Ether,

While that may be true, it's not necessary wrong, or a bad thing. Many started out in BASE without those things, and without mentors in their present form. In the eighties I heard lots of stories from jumpers who with no other way in, stood in the loading zones of large drop zones whispering, "BASE, anyone here BASE, psssst BASE?"

My only BASE instruction when I started was directions to the local tower. Advanced information consisted of, "Don’t touch that thing there or you'll get electrocuted." What has replaced that haphazard way of starting BASE is showing up with the perquisite skydives, money in hand, at a recognized BASE course. Not as romantic as the old days but that's the way of it. And the mentor thing should come after that.

I always try and guide anyone who takes a course, finds me, and bangs on my door. I don’t "teach" BASE per say anymore as my methods are my own and dated, but I will "guide" you on local sites and show you how to get in, get up, and get away. I'll drink beer with you and "teach" you about your past. And so will lots of other jumpers. So it's not as dire as you make it out to be.

In a way it's now easier to get into BASE then it's ever been. If the WX is bad where you are, or money is tight, get yourself to somewhere those things aren’t an issue. Pick up trash at a DZ for the skydives and live in your car if you must. Then camp out in the parking lot of a BASE manufacturer (Or Tom's house ) until they take pity on you and give you a job picking the stitches from damaged canopies.

Then come to So Cal and see me. If I can’t help you at the time I'll put you onto someone else who can. I have a little black book full of jumpers I've helped over the last twenty years who can't refuse me, which is sad, as I remember when that book was only full of woman's phone numbers who couldn't refuse me . . .

NickD
BASE 194

 "when were the BASE forums NOT shit?"

before the banning of maggot and evil. now lets see if i get banned too, you know all you have to do is disagree with the "wrong person" i mean he even banned their friends?????? yea this place has gone to shit.

2 cents, why shouldnt he be able to see local sites on GC? I see nothing wrong with someone without alot of experience groundcrewing. does everyone you go with to ground crew you have an extensive background of base jumps and or skydives? and if so, why arent they jumping with you?

Me neither. I have friends that have never skydived (nor have an interest ever getting into BASE) that groundcrew for me.


Not at all, but I expect other things from my groundcrew. Mostly, I need to know you well to be sure you can handle the situation it things goes wrong. Secondly, if you have even the slightest inkling of wanting to get into BASE yourself, you'll need to show a lot more than "having read BASE wiki" before I will let you GC or show you my "jump sites".

cessna54tango, my girlfriend just got a Pug, so we love the avatar!

But back on topic, this place is fine and does the job it wants to do most of the time. Trying to get BASE jumpers to not get thier panties in a bunch and come to an agreement on anything is pretty freakin hard. Try not to let a small screen say anything to get you too stressed.

"those that mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind" mt.lion667

Isn't that a dr seuss quote?

My mom ground crews for me sometimes. She has no desire to skydive or base jump. I know her pretty well, and who better to trust when your life is on the line?

Honest question.... How would she handle it if she were to watch her daughter go in before her eyes?

There's a big difference between getting a phone call and seeing it all happen in living colour...

I ain't raggin on ya, just personally I couldn't do that to my own folks. Cool mum you got tho

Holly's parents ROCK!
They have welcomed many a BASE jumper into their home and seem to be supportive of her.

I dont think they have gone to shit....Without DZ I wouldnt be able to give her parents the props they deserve.
Alan

That is a good question! I have talked to both of my parents about this very thing. My dad doesn't watch my jumps in person much anymore because of this very reason. He can't stand watching his baby get hurt. My mother though is one of those people that really would rather be there, and see it herself, than get information second hand. She was with me when a fellow jumper went in literally before our eyes, and has stuck with her decision to watch my jumps, and help out, whenever possible.

I think it's very important to talk with your family about jumping, and help them be involved however they desire. Letting my family participate in ground crewing, driving, or dinners, helps them accept my jumping. The first time I asked if a jumper could stay at the house my father was really nervous, but he soon realized jumpers are respectful people. I think of it as two more people that are on our side if all the chips came crumbling down.

that is too cool.
it sounds like you appreciate the outstanding support as well.

Great response, thanks for sharing

Kinda on the same subject. . .

I started BASE when i was 18, and the rents didnt like it to much to say the least. funny, my pops always told me that i should paraglide instead...
My uncle owns a tower in WI, and the whole fam came out to watch me open this super sketchy wire stayed 360' tower, outside climb and all. it was great. legal A jumping all day long.
I just last week bought pops a gift ceritficate for a tandem paraglider flight... i hope he does not think of me visiting HIM in the hospital for 3 months...

also, in november, my parents came out to see FRASCA. they stayed for the weekend, and on the last day, my mom and sisters jumped it. pops had to leave, but he said he would like to someday.

it took them 4 years, but i think they accept it now.