Basejumper.com - archive

to Joy and Rick Harrison,

Where are the BASE numbers at?

Or can the most recent reciever's chime in?

thank you.

BASEnumbers.org

While you're all looking at BASEnumbers.org I'd like your opinions on something.

Why did it take 19 years to go from BASE number 1 to BASE 550 (approximately) and then only 7 years to go from BASE 550 to BASE 1200?

I've got my own opinions, but I want to hear others . . .

NickD
BASE 194

That chart is not accurate.

The chart is just based on those who have visited that web site and volunteered their information. It's not all inclusive, and I don't know if there is any error checking.

I have a theory to offer,

It seems as though B.A.S.E. started to balance out in terms of the negative publicity and outlandish response it initially received previous to the 90's. B.A.S.E. started showing up in some of the early snowboarding movies/(alternative sports in general) produced by the Hatchett brothers.

I recall my first view of base jumping when I was 9 years old watching Dave Barlia snowboard base. Perhaps as B.A.S.E. started rendering more of a balanced view of slightly acceptable publicity, it influenced a lot of folks like myself-now 24 to see it prospectively rewarding, with a small community of dedicated and close knit folks.

The BASE numbers are not accurate either... They only represent the category of people who care to be registered in BASE history.
I don't think they are real accurate in tallying or illustrating anything from a statiscal point of view.
Base is personal... for this reason some jumpers do not bother to apply.
To throw in my two cents of statistics I can tell you for a fact that the BASE numbers are off by at least 15 since I personally can name 15 jumpers who never applied after qualifying for their numbers.

We should stop worrying so much about hurrying into base history with our numbers and extreme antics and concentrate more on not becoming the next red streak on the wall...

true statement. my mentor has over 680 BASE jumps but never got a number.

i'm sure this is out there but who is BASE #1? Carl?

I think the big spike happened around number 578 or 579 that's when it all started going down hill

Everybody before that is cool

Actually I think one of the reasons for the spike is that the cat was let out of the bag about the Perrine around 1999-2000.

I would guess it has something to do with the vast amounts of information about BASE that became easily accessible after the introduction of widespread Internet usage of the late 90's. Naturally, activities that filter into the public's eye will bring about more participants than those that remain obscure. Youtube, and other such sites, may also have something to with it. With all the personal BASE videos out there to be seen with only a click of a mouse, the sport is becoming one of those "cool" things to do.

>>i'm sure this is out there but who is BASE #1? Carl?<<

Phil Smith, from Texas, is BASE number one. Carl Boenish is BASE number four . . .

And on the spike in numbers not coinciding with the spike in the sport, I know that's not true. I sold BASE gear all through those years and it was slow and steady until 2000 and then the gear started flying out the door . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Yeah ... whatever

What I meant was that when I move my cursor around on the chart, I get dates that incorrectly correspond to numbers. For instance there are numbers after my number that have dates from before my number was issued. Also I get multiple dates corresponding to some numbers. When I try to zoom in, then I get error messages, but maybe I'm not as computer literate as others on this board.

Edit to add the fact that before I got my number I looked at this chart and I noticed that it showed numbers and dates for numbers that have not yet been issued.

"I think the big spike happened around number 578 or 579 that's when it all started going down hill"

"Everybody before that is cool"

Jason I am going to kick you in your small sack!

Not a real personal attack....just means Jason need some love.

Ray
BASE #578 frikin cool #

Actually 570, it was right after #637 when it all started going downhill. (heh heh)

edited for awful spelling

Maybe just normal saturation of an ever growing population; now one in every 5.6 million people have a number.

Just think, Mayfield repersented the quickest percentage change when he got his number (# 2)

Okay, thanks all . . . good stuff . . .

One other thing I've noticed over the years is BASE jumpers now tend to be younger than they were in the earlier days. In the 1980s most BASE jumpers I knew were mostly into their 30s and the occasional teenager, like Jamie Walton at 17, made big news at the time.

I think it's because in those days no one was becoming a skydiver with their underlying interest being BASE jumping. Skydivers who started BASE in those days tended to be fairly experienced skydivers already.

Another thing responsible for the spurt is when BASE first started skydiving was already well established and filled with people who saw BASE as the new interloper and they had pre-conceived opinions that were mostly negative. It took another generation, or so, to come along and see BASE in its own light.

And as mentioned upboard – we blew the secret. While BASE was never really a big secret in the skydiving community, it was in the wuffo world. Up until the late 90s we saw articles in the press that always began with, "It’s a new sport called BASE," but the sport was already better than twenty years old.

When I did an interview with Dave and Stump on Skydive Radio in 2005 I was asked, "That sport [BASE] seems to be gaining a lot of interest lately, why is that?" And without thinking about it much I said, "I think it's because the skateboard kids finally got old enough to find parachutes." That was a flippant answer put probably as true and anything else.

If interested that interview is here: http://media.libsyn.com/...o/sr15_11_15_05s.mp3

NickD
BASE 194

I believe it is a function of economics more than anything else. I've never based but I am an economist. The early nineties were a boom period for allot of adult sports and activities. As we became wealthier and stopped having children possibilities such as BASE/Sky diving which, in previous generations would have been unrealistic, are now quite common.

My two cents :)

#1185 (received a couple months ago)

Congrats Rats!

Tip of the spear! . . .

NickD
BASE 194

The FJC and the explosion of popularity of Twin Falls...

>>The FJC and the explosion of popularity of Twin Falls...<<

Granted, on both counts . . . But to put it in perspective the very first BASE jump courses came from the BASE gear manufacturers themselves who realized eventually it was irresponsible to just sell the gear without offering some kind of instruction and support.. Most early manufactures sold gear only to BASE jumpers they knew. When strangers first came knocking on the door everything changed . . .

BASE historians a 100 years from now might be able to figure out if the Potato Bridge was a good thing or not. I remember when the call, "I'm moving there!" was the rage in BASE when the bridge first became known. To me then, and even now, it seemed like moving in next door to your heroin dealer. I mean how do you guys ever clean out the garage when you know you could be BASE jumping instead?

Oh no, BASE jumps should be hard to make. When you go downtown in the middle of the night you're careful driving up. You're careful getting out of the car and you're careful walking over to the site. You're careful while gaining entry and you're careful while climbing. You're careful standing on the edge and all that carefulness gives the whole deal a hushed reverence it deserves no matter how jaded you are. And you're just naturally careful about actually making the jump itself because it took so much just to get there.

I'd be afraid to move to Twin Falls – I'd be dead in a year . . . or maybe I wouldn’t, but then what I was doing wouldn’t be BASE jumping anymore . . .

We all have different ways of looking at BASE, and that's just what I know.

NickD
BASE 194

I'm not.............yet.

well said.

 
You ain't shit'n.. I'd just be happy to get there without getting a DWI.

I Agree.

I have just as much fun if not more in everything leading up to the jump itself! I love sneaking past Cameras, climbing over fences, hiding from security gaurds. And these things take just as much skill and luck to be done successfully as any jump does. But when you have to earn your jump, it always seems to mean so much more!

I must admit, the thrill of the escape did add an element of adrenalin and memories to some of our past jumps. I remember back in the ealrly 80's when I jumped a lot with Phil Smith for about 5 years. We had a habit of shaking hands or hugging upon a safe landing and then, once we got on the road and free, we always shook hands again. Now I'm older, I would rather have some good legal jumps, but alas, legal B's and A's will always be tough to come by in the US. Too many lawyers, OOPS, Im one of them, but not that kind.

On the BASE numbers, Joy and I know a lot of qualified jumpers did not get their numbers. That's OK. The numbers form a BASE timeline of the progression of BASE skills, equipment, and objects from when Smitty got BASE 1 in 1981 to BASE 1200 and beyond. It is the only real link to the start for folks who would like to be in the book as a part of the family that Carl and Jean started along with Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield. Smitty 1, Mayfield 2, Jean 3, and Carl 4.
Have fun people.
Cliffleaper

So, are we past 1200 or not quite there?


Thank You.

Yes