Basejumper.com - archive

I remember the my first "baggin' " hehe. I was on the balconey of the 17th floor in a hotel on the beach... I had everything I needed except... you guessed it, break cord... Being the quasi-semi-intelligent fucker I am, I looked around the room and saw a plastic grocery bag... I flattened it, cut a strip down where each of the plastic handles were... made 2 twisted links and used a french link...

Ok so I chickened out on that low Building on an untested and unknown method (to me at the time), but I did end up useing it on a 300 ft freestander...

The pull on it was almost to much... Temp was about 60-70 degrees...

I must mention that I feel that twisting the platic is integral with something to do with the strength of the pull force....

Now that I have done it from 300, I'd go back to that "B" and try it...

I may have to go find the video of me using it...

Plastic Bags = no good - too many variables in manufacture and composition and you're right about the twists. The add a huge amount of strength and even one twist from the same section of plastic bag may differ in strength from another as the number of folds in any given twist differs. They are usually fuckn strong.

Better ghetto-breakcords can be made from rubber bands. Yes they too differ in composition and can degrade over time and sunlight but you can usually get buy them anywhere and test a few. You usually have to link two or three in parallel to get the required strength. Same can be done with condoms. Of course - Aussies swear by good quality 3/4" insulation tape 4-5 wraps thru bridle loop.

But you know most of this anyway

g.