Basejumper.com - archive

sorry to post here as im not a BASE jumper, but i was wondering what the scariest / most dodgey moment you've all had BASE jumping. bet you guys have got some cracking stories.

You might want to check out the incidents section on the basewiki.

The full body cavity search. After I was arrested for jumping Half Dome.

That might be grounds for a lawsuit.

is that why you are nicknamed Gaper ?

His real nickname is "The Pick" which he has justifiably earned many times over.

Actualy, (not to ruin this thread with a serious post, sorry guys) my sketchiest moments have been in skydiving. BASE is either sketchy, really sketchy, SUPER sketchy, or a fatality.

Bridle under arm on slider down jump.

high speed spinning mal (slider up entanglement and perhaps a line over) from 850 feet of an A at night alone without a cell phone. I fixed it before impact.

line over slider up on terminal jump, opening at 350 feet. fixed it before impact.

getting nearly eaten by alligators when i landed in an alligator nest.

getting charged by bulls after landing on many occasions.

nearly got trampled by angry horses on approach to a site.

stalked by boars with tusks while approaching an A.

breaking femur on an A and getting eaten very badly by fire ants.

missed pilot chute on a low pull and unintentially opened at 80 feet on a terminal jump.

having a group of middle easterners pull handguns on us on approach to an A through a bad neighborhood (from dressing like a ninja and carrying a black stash bag). now i always carry my rig and helmet in an obvious way to prevent this from reoccuring.

chased by security guards in their personal 1970s cadillacs on a highway for 5 miles at over 100 mph after a building jump.

hit a 500 pound cow at 50 mph with vehicle at night immediately after making jump from an A.

etc.

Nothing (that) special :
- 180 offheading + stale (stalling ?) after a too hard rear riser pull and seeing really close tree tops
- sliding on ice-covered exit of a bridge, leading to a head down launch, followed by a landing amongst invisible white sheeps on white snow
- twists, strong wind, thick fog, bad landings, guards...

nothing but a BASE life I guess...

Realizing that I let myself get tricked by my wingsuit as to how high I was. I thought I was at 500 and realized I was around or lower than 300. I don't think I've pitched a pc so quick in my life.

Pretty good groundrush though, even if it was at night.

Sketchy jump number 1:

Jump no 9, first in WS, thought I had considered all possible eventualities and was very current in my new V1 with over 100 jumps in a relativley short period. I had practiced full flight pitches, flying well through openings, fast unziping, canopy accuracy and was at a familiar site to myself (Large terminal wall in europe) I had read the different opinions about PC handle placement (BOC or Leg Pouch). Although my gut feeling was to switch to Leg pouch as ONCE in 350 big WS jumps (S3 and V1) I had had difficulty finding the handle due to the base of the wing covering it, I decided to go with the concensus and stick to where my muscle memory was best trained. I had the feeling that I would not reach in the wrong place but for some reason I still went with BOC. It was a solo load, a wonderful evening jump in May in perfect Met. conditions. I jumped , my exit went exactly as I had practiced over and over in a foam pit, the suit pressurised quickly and off I went..... The flight was uneventful, I flew down the talus , over the tree line and headed towards a road and bar, where the landing area was. Just as I reached the landing area, I passed through what I now think with much more experience at the object was about 500 - 600 feet. No big deal. So as planned I quickly went for the handle from full flight and for only the second time in loads and loads of WS jumps my wing covered my handle. Due to closing up my wings momentarily for the pull I went through the "Trap door" while having what I knew would be my second and last attempt at the handle. It took a couple of seconds but I remained calm and while ignoring the intense visual experience (INTENSE!) I focused on "F*%K@NG" the mountain which would allow me a better reach around the wing to the handle. I got one finger and my thumb to it at what my good friend R. Collins RIP said was about 160 feet. I pitched, it opened, I had a short ride, I landed.

Lessons Learnt :

1. Never EVER use a BOC for your PC on a large suit base jump. EVER. Go with the LEG POUCH. you wont reach in the wrong place, trust me.

2. On first WS jump, Open HIGH , it doesnt matter if you are cool and get to the standard opening point or not....

3. On a personal note to myself : never EVER go against GUT feeling again.

Sketchy jump number 2:

While laughing at my good mate and mentor during foam pit training for low alti base, for suggesting that some idiots have actually managed to get their bridle around their arms on PCA jumps, I proclaimed that not only would it be nearly impossible, but you would be a complete numpty to manage it..........

1st Free stander, SW UK march 06, Ready, set GO!

Arm wrapped around bridle... 180 off heading, thought I was going in for sure. My good mate who had PCA'd me saw me entangle myself and hung on to my PC till it had all come out. then he let go. I was quick on the risers, stalled my vented blackjack , put it into reverse with the aid of the quite strong winds that day, turned 30 degrees left, flared and landed hard.

Lessons Learned :

Low base is sketchy.

I dont get any thrill from it.

Apart from being alive at the bottom.

Action: retire immediately from anything without a WS......

So how did it go from there on?

that is sound advice for ANYTHING new. don't open too high, but don't suck it down to the basement either. no matter what others think, YOU must discover YOUR limits...

These seem to be out of order...

If you tried to open high enough(15-20 sec delay in a big wingsuit at that object is plenty) in the first place the location of the PC would not have been that important.

The key thing about BASE is even when we intend to pull high, sometimes we get sucked low. I can go into a detailed explanation of how I got sucked low on a jump from Smell but it won't make sense to anyone else.

The key bit is don't pull low.

Learning to identify the ways in which we bullshit ourselves into doing things that we are not ready for is a survival skill.

Kris.

>>Go with the LEG POUCH. you wont reach in the wrong place, trust me.<<

Good post, and I'll defer to your wing suit experience as I have none. But I will take a bit of exception to the above.

We don't see this problem much because we fixed it, not because it doesn't exist. BOC has become the standard in both skydiving and BASE at all levels (skydiving students have BOCs or BOC positioned ripcords) so we've eliminated the transition problems. Prior to that I've seen many fouls ups, at all experience levels, when making the switch. Even after what's considered sufficient ground practice they still mess it up.

And remember what happened to Jan Davis at El Cap.

I'm not saying you can’t do it right the first time, but due to the corner you can find yourself in, a transition of this sort should be taken seriously . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Thx for the sigline

dude.. you forgot the front flip to sit fly in a v2?1 this fall.. hows australia?

I never missed the leg pouch either, after 60 V1 jumps.

This one .

Kris.

Yeah I was hoping to keep that one secret it was a bad day all round. I thought one of you that was present may "out" me but hoped you had forgotten....

SO , Sketchy jump 3....;

Bad weather, rain, several pissed off jumpers waiting 2 hours (not that long i know) but it was very cold.... eventually a gap was reported by our ground crew as approaching so I made my way to the exit and waited for a hole. As the hole opened up I spotted the ground and as the wind was also relativley low jumped. However somehow even though I always triple check all my gear prior to shuffling down to the exit point my left bootie came off as I left. I suspect it snagged on some of the sharp rock at the exit, as I remember doing my final visual check of my suit once I was stood ready to jump and it was certainly still on then. I over rotated ( a speciality of mine) but thought not much of it as I am comfortable with a head low ( maybe down) exit at that particular object. However , my zip had come undone half way up to my calf and the leg wing caught air and flipped me over almost onto my back. This was interesting visually. I closed everything up, waited for some speed and then used my arm wings to gently pull out of the dive and off towards the LZ. I knew something was up due to the slapping I was receiving on my outer L leg, and the very loud flapping sound! I managed to fly to the hill at that popular object though before opening a little high as I was a little worried about stability during the pull due to the crazy stuff I could feel the leg wing doing during the flight. It remains the only time I have ever flown the V1 without all the wings attached and I was pleasantly suprised at how well it flew with just a little twist of my body and extra effort in the arm wing area required to produce suit balance and what felt and looked like a reasonble flight. It's forward speed was not that much lower and glide angle can't have been that much worse as my exit sucked and it took me a while to get going.... I think this proves that If we maintain a good AoA with our BODIES and stay as still as possible the suit will do the rest. By concentrating on our bodies as the flying surface as one entity, small areas of turbulence such as this I do not believe make much difference to overall performance.

Aus is cool buddy, skydiving every single day when not in work and thats an all year round thing! also no objects around here suitable for WS so by default I might live a few more years! cant wait to get back to europe for some fun this summer though, I really miss the mountians! Went to scope out a big wall on Indian subcontinent at Xmas but after an amazing hike through the countryside and along a table top mountain I decided to climb down after seeing the object. There are some people who would have jumped it but I felt it slightly too technical considering my excellent WS exit skills and track record!!!! But one day soon ill go back there I know..

Darren

Nice exit!

This is a picture one frame before his exit. Not an error that happened while wearing the suit...it could happen to any of us...the bootie coming off.

It did have something to do with the way he exits, IMO.

Kris.

Reading his description and then seeing the pictures, I can see how that could happen during push-off. Looks like his left foot has slipped backwards on exit catching the rock or something like that.

Still, interesting exit shots though

Well, I actually trained body and arm movement If that happens.
To be more precise, I was tired, and I jumped that day, just because I dd not had much free time, so I wanted not to loose it.
I decided to do full floater (sp? to jump facing object if it is that what it means?) and to geek the camera for the moment. I was aware before the jump that If I keep looking to camera longer, my body will start to rotate, and that I will end up in a stand position eventualy. So pre jump plan was to do a short look to camera, and then look at the ground. But when I lounched, and did what I planed (atleast first part of the jump) I changed decisio, and I kept loking to a camera. I noticed rotation, and I pulled the PC, released it and at that moment I was aware what I did. Then I executed what I trained to do in that situation. I waited to bridle tightens up (to avoid entanglement with arm) and I svinged whit my right arm behind my head to clear the way for the bridle and canopy eventualy, then I moved (whit my right forearm) bridle behind my arm and in corect position. At the same time, (just to be sure- if i could not clear the bridle) i initiated the turn whit my body - legs infront of me (to end in a back to earth position) and body spin in the left to recover from that position.
I hope that you understand what I mean, english is not my first language.