Basejumper.com - archive

Did a memorial day weekend actually pass at TF with no major incidents?

I'm actually pretty pumped about that too.

I can't count how many times I was told not to go, and after I decided to, was told to video the carnage.



it was a good weekend

even i told you not to go... i stand corrected. as usual.

 

Amazing, simply amazing.

that is called the sleep-over.or slumber party.

not just one, but the whole group came over.

Abbie coined it the "fucking riser-over." You can now add it to the BD safety vid.

Photo attached.

The jumper spun into the trees, and thankfully the trees broke his fall, and he was relatively intact (I heard a rumor that he might have broken a rib, but I'll class that with dead Jason and bionic bunghole stories until I know better).

I think JP has the important point here, which is that there were no serious injuries. Even if this was a result of dumb luck (imagine if this jumper had hit the ground or the rocks, rather than crashing through relatively soft treetops to break his fall), I'll take it.

Another "Oh Shit!!!" moment.

How did that happen? Slack in the lines or was it screwed during setup?

Perhaps a bit of both.

There doesn't appear to be too much slack in the launch photos, but they only show the jumper and a few feet of lines. I'm not sure if it was his intention to maintain line tension during the roll, or if he was trying to induce line slack.

According to another jumper who was at the exit point, the canopy appeared to invert prior to launch (due to a wind gust), and the guy at the launch point shouted something like "stop! don't do it!" but unfortunately the jumper thought that was a joke and launched immediately thereafter.

Can u show more pictures of that jump?

That's pretty harsh Tree coming from someone who wasn't even there. But I guess since your Tom's buddy and Nick is banned from this forum anyway that kind of remark is acceptable, huh?

For a little bit of truth to the story from someone who was standing there and saw the entire incident, Nick was doing an IROC where you hang the canopy below you and exit backwards flipping over the canopy. The line group over was due to having to turn himself through the lines to get everything facing the right direction.

As he launched the lines caused the canopy to spin putting him in line twists. He kicked out of the twists but was too low to clear the lineover, even if it was possible. He prepared to PLF and landed the canopy as well as he could given the lack of control. He did not hit a tree. He landed beside a tree and the canopy fell over the tree. The broken rib was from his knee hitting him in the side as he attempted a PLF in thick brush.

Here's a quote from Nick regarding the incident:

"Granted that I left the bridge with whole riser-over, the fact that I survived the landing has nothing to do with luck. For the record Mark and Tom did not see the jump, they were not even on the bridge. First I did not land in trees. Second I did not spin into the ground. Those are lies ... I had four line twists coupled with tons of line over. As I was kicking out the line twists I looked up and saw no brake lines over. So as soon as I got out the line twist I had the toggles in my hand, made a correction to the heading not to hit a ditch, flared and PLF. My canopy ended up on a tree but I PLF on ground."

Tom, for somebody that generally tries to keep the rumors to a minimum and not talk about things until you understand what really happened you sure missed it on this one.

That really makes me question some other reports you posted, like say "The center jumper exited significantly before the outer 2 jumpers." from last year. WRONG!!! And I have the video and stills from that jump to prove it.

I generally try to stay out of this petty bickering but it is reaching a level of childishness I haven't seen since the third grade. Grow up ya'll!

edited to remove text from Nick's quote that could be considered a PA.

Can you or someone post these launch pics? I started a new thread on this.

So he put the malfunction in place before he even launched?

There's a saying in aviation that superior pilots utilise superior judgement to avoid having to use their superior skills.

Kudos to the guy for having the skills to survive, but it all sounds like a major fuck up to me.

I was actually trying to avoid that, because they clearly identify the jumper, and I was hoping not to turn this into a personal discussion.

I guess some other folks didn't share that view, though.

Oh, oops. I'll just let my other thread be and see if it gets anyone to post some other pics of a reverse rollover launch.

Tony,

Remember that you are the one bringing names and personalities into this discussion. Everyone else was leaving those things out (I thought wisely).

My thoughts on the accident come from (a) viewing the photos, and (b) talking with another jumper who was about 2 feet away, at the exit point, during the launch.

I'm not sure why you want to bring up last year's incident. Can you explain what bearing that accident has on this one?

Hey Tom, if you disagree with it so much, why don't you remove the pictures?

Tony is right. You're selective implementation of dorkzone rules is getting ridiculous. Yes, its everyone's choice to come here or not, but you are creating an environment that is based on lies, misinformation, and bias.

As to the poster, YES- they are in order. Maybe next swoop comp or skydive boogie you're at, I'll be waiting there with a cookie Sunday night if nobody femurs in...

I said who the jumper was because he asked me to post a rebuttal. I posted my observations because they were parallel to Nick's and I was there.

I was pissed that you and Tree posted what you thought happened without even being there and Tree was being quite flammatory in his post. I also thought the goal was to keep the unknown interpretations to a minimum and let people who know what happened comment. And that's the reason I brought up the incident and interpretation from last year. Because there again you made an incorrect statement regarding what happened and you are speaking from a perceived position of authority.

Quite frankly, Nick did a hell of a job getting that canopy flying and not getting severely hurt. I told everyone watching he was going to pull it out and swoop the landing, so he let me down a little there, but he still dealt with it quite well.

I admit he created the situation but you guys act like it was a total dumbass act when it wasn't. It was a simple accident, nothing more, nothing less.

 

Maybe you should re-read your first post. I just did and it still sounds like bashing to me, regardless of who's involved.

wow, there seems to be no love loss in twin falls, how strange

Someone needs to tell ESPN to go home and give Dr. Phil a call. The camera crew can stay.

I'd like to thank all those who safely participated in this year's Memorial day event. it is refreshing to hear after last year.

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o.k., Ghetto makes a great point.

Tree posts inflammatory language such as "knucklehead" and "Apparently sheer dumb luck won out over complete lack of skill or common sense." it was predictable that such criticism would act like a lightning rod.

Tom gets attacked for NOT censoring Tree (even though Tree did not mention names. a bit of a technicality.)

the jumper lashes out, denying any responsibility, claiming it was an accident. but don't two accidents make a trend? isn't that one of the criticisms of Tom?

Tony, responding to Tree's inflammatory remarks, acts as a conduit for the jumper's denials.

truth IS stranger than fiction. if soap opera's tried this, it would be laughed as unbelieveable!

can we stop throwing stones at each other?
please?!?

unfortunately, we seem to have competing views regarding BASE.
some want to focus on safety, others on fun.
some want more legal sites, others hate the resulting compromise.
some prefer being a renegade, annoying those trying to work with authorities.

'course earlier eras had their own conflicts.
anyone hear of "tar and feather?"

peace?
doubtful, unless Dr. Phil can help.
anybody got his number?

oh my god i had no idea base jumping was dangerous
that was crazy I think im going to quit jumping

Sounds like he could have done a much better job by not inducing a line over durring set up.

Had he practiced the set up to identify the possible issues? Did he have a GC that could check and verifly his set up prior to launch?

Or did he "knucklehead" it.

He has done this jump before and magot told him "Don't go MF!" but he thought magot was just screwing around. There were other people standing near that could/should of seen the issue, and he might have listened if they were yelling at him. But either they didn't notice the problem, hadn't seen the jump executed before, or assumed "Don't go MF!" really meant don't go.

I was watching from the sidelines and didn't see the the malfunction until he was under canopy spinning. I really expected him to pull it out without a hitch or land in the water, but by the time he cleared the twists his choices were few. He made the right choices after he left the object and saved himself a trip to the hospital. He probably could have braced for impact a little more and prevented his knee from hitting him in the ribs, but he thought he was going to hit a lot harder.

There really wasn't much luck involved in this incident regardless of what others are saying.

Glad the jumper made it out ok.

Obviously the lesons that needed to be learned have been talked about here. Good comunication with a support crew when doing a stunt, and proper planning.

I don't know the jumper in question, but bet they will consider those things next time.

it seems to me that the kid messed up and didnt do a good pre-jump setup and check.

it also seems like he did a good job of bettering and landing the mal though.

Im sure he learned from it.

Yeah, he had a couple of days of pain and setting around to think about it. He kept telling me I should try it, but I just wasn't comfortable with the details of the jump.

As for the "Don't go MF!" we were talking we should have a safe word that means no joke. Something like "Watermelon" but then everyone would just start joking about that. BASE jumpers are a pretty twisted group.

Off topic a little, but I was standing on the bridge watching some people exit and dealing with their fears, legs and hands shaking before exit, thinking WTF do we do this for. Then sitting in the boat and watching people get on with the shakes happening I thought again WTF! It's no wonder it's so hard for people to understand what we do and why.

WTF! It's no wonder it's so hard for people to understand what we do and why.