Basejumper.com - archive

http://news.iafrica.com/sa/2353640.htm

I have a friend jumping in this area at the moment - if anyone has more info, I would appreciate a PM.

:(

Paul.

A friend of mine was also jumping there today. However he is in his 30s. If anyone has exact info (age would be enough) we would be extremely thankful. Thank you. :(

Age = 24
I know his name but not sure I should post it here until we know his family has been contacted.

 

The family of the person in question is being informed as we speak, i don't know if all the family members are available though, therefore I think we should avoid posting the name until a full report is posted from one of the jumpers that were on the load.

This is terrible news

R.I.P. dude

Same here; I have a good friend jumping there right now in his mid 30's. American. If you have any additional info, can you pm me? Thanks.

Fly free friend. :(

Family have been informed.

We started at the same time, got our BASE no's together 1284 & 1285 and did our 200th's together off of BH as the last jump of 2009.

He was doing what he lived for...

RIP Geo.

he posted under
http://www.basejumper.com/...cgi?username=goking; here.
Geo will be missed by the Swiss crew. In his short time he lived here in Switzerland he was already one of us and jumped a lot of our advanced Wingsuit jumps.
Fly free

Fuck Geo ... Fly free!
Everything is coming so close.

My condolence to the family.

A great loss that is. Thoughts are with family and friends. Fly free Geo.

A good man left us way too soon... I only got to jump few jumps with him but was looking forward on lot more to come this summer. Such a great and friendly guy who will be missed by all who knew him. My thoughts are with his family, fly free Geo!

Thanks for all the jumps my friend... You will be missed. RIP :(

Fly free Geo!

Geo was truly one of the kindest guys around. We were friends almost instantly, and i always got a kick out of how frickn nice he was. I'll admit i gave him quite a bit of shit for how "proper" he was.

Lets not also forget how damn smart he was. Like actual rocket scientist smart.

He watched me almost go in twice in 2 days, and gave me a stern warning that i need to smarten up.

much love homey, i hope your wingsuit rocket gets made some day!!

sad news.

What a genuinely nice guy he was. He was working on his thesis on wingsuit flight using GPS mapping. I lift my drink to you, you mad wingsuit scientist! See you on the other side!

A real bummer.

Condolences to his family and friends.

Fly free

Oh damn...
I only met him once or twice at ITW, but I was honestly looking forward to running into Geo again this year and picking his mind some more on the hikes up.

My condolences to his family.

An incredible person and an incredible friend. Always ultra careful and methodical in preparation. He was supposed to come back today. My deepest condolences to his family. Fly free, Geo.

I was just thinking about how I couldnt go on this trip with him the other day, and how much fun he must be having. Sucks to hear. Fly free Geo.

damn Fly Free.

Lost a friend again... GSUS... I'm shocked...

-Tony Vilko-

RIP Geo,
another good man down.
fly hard bro.

some info on the incident in this article:

http://www.iol.co.za/...0413043558861C669822

Geo my friend, i will miss you.



see you on the other side.

Pictures from last summer, taken while scouting a new jump.

 

R.I.P Geo!......was great to have known you- even for such a short time!


Condolences to your family and friends!

Reiner and Ber.

It just seems so unreal. This happened just a couple of kilometers from us... R.I.P.

Hi all

Leander and I had quite a hectic day yesterday.

Not too sure how to go about doing this thing.

Geo wanted to get one in before catching his plane.

We had met and jumped and all that but I got to know him better at the braai he invited me to. I realized there that he really knew what he was talking about and got blown away by the footage he showed me. He showed us some proximity stuff of this wall he opened. Impressive stuff! He had it as a mission to go over the saddle rather than through the gorge and was convinced he could clear this saddle by 50 to 100 metres. and join the north side of the cliff from which we normally jump.

We met with him in Stellenbosch at 4.30 yesterday morning and headed for the mountain.
The hike started at 5.15. Geo was the only one who came prepared with a headlamp.

Leander managed ok but I was stumbling and falling all over the show and huffing and puffing from my despicable smoking habit but nevertheless managed to stay somewhat together until daylight allowed me to see what the hell I was doing.

It was all jokes and laughs and we were pretty much having a good time despite the difficult hike in.

Still on the way up he looked at the exit and the saddle and said: "yes, I will clear that by at least 50metres."

We finally got to the exit somewhere before 9. The plan was for Geo to do his wall then for Leander and myself to head for the North face to our usual jump.

I know nothing about wingsuits. I am pretty much your old school kind of dude and besides I havn't done a skydive in 3 years at least. But when I set myself up to take photo's and saw this saddle I thought: "Fuck that's close!!"



At 09.08 after the usual hand slippy things and have a good one's, Geo was off. He lost some altitude pretty quickly and it wasn't like watching Jules who goes off straight away. Now remember this is from somebody who doesn't wingsuit.



We lost sight of him as he went around the corner, and two seconds later I clearly heard a "wow" shout/scream then we both heard a loud gunshot like sound resonating through the gorge.

His projected flight in green and actual flight in red



Our first feeling was anger, Leander more so than myself.
He still tried the: "If you can hear me press the button" over the radio but we both knew.

The rest was just a horrible horrible day.

Cheers Geo, nice knowing you bro.

 


Geo, you will be missed.

 
Thanks for the detailed information Patrick. Im sorry that yourself and Leander had to experience this.

Geo was a very friendly and intelligent person and I was happy to meet another South-African jumper. I know that he will be missed by everyone here in Switzerland.

Reiner.

R.I.P dude.

Terrible news. Thoughts are with his family and friends.

I think this is also the first BASE fatality to occur in South Africa.

Thank you for providing such a detailed report,
very sorry for your loss, sucks you had to deal
with that, and my condolences to his family.

BSBD - Fly Free

Hi All,

Geo was working for ETH Zurich here in Switzerland, at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control. He was doing research on wingsuit aerodynamics:

http://www.idsc.ethz.ch/Research_DAndrea/Wingsuit

We're all in shock at the institute, most of us being close friends and coworkers of Geo and used to his everyday company. He was an amazing and unforgettable person to be around.

His first-authored paper on wingsuit aerodynamics was just accepted (he learned of this before his accident)... in his memory we have decided to continue on with its publication and presentation.

At the moment we're taking care of immediate matters here in Zurich but in the future we will have some sort of more general celebration of Geo, his life and work. I'll be sure to let you guys know -- we would welcome anyone that would want to join.

We wish blue skies to Geo, wherever he is now.

With regret,
sergei lupashin , IDSC, ETH Zurich

We're also looking for family (parents, siblings) contact information as the information we have is incomplete. Please PM me if you have it... it would be extremely helpful. Edit: we got contact info for his family, thank you.

Here's a recent talk he did about his research for those interested:
http://www.zurichminds.com/videos/robson.html

-sergei

A sad time indeed.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is not only the first BASEjumping fatality in South Africa, but also the first fatality of a South African BASEjumper.

I have been dreading hearing the news of either for a while, as due to the nature of most objects in South Africa and the type of personality traits prevalent to growing up there combined with the difficulty of gaining lots of skydiving experience in SA; it would seem that South African BASEjumpers have a lot of the odds stacked against them from the get-go.

I had the pleasure of meeting Geoff and sharing a jump with him last year.

It was about a year ago, he had started BASE fairly recently and was filled with that bubbling enthusiasm that can motivate you to take on a 5am meeting 40mins from where you are, in order to take on a 5.5 hour hike for a subterminal jump with around 6 secs of freefall.

Fly free Geoff.

Another one gone too soon.

My sincerest condolences to his family and friends.


The picture attached is from the hike on that jump with Geoff. This picture makes me really nervous now, for reasons obvious to anyone who recognizes all 3 people in it.

I don't know what else to say. : (

Sam

I think there has been another South African. A guy called Mike who was UK military. Also ws I believe.

On another note, I wouldn't worry too much about you or me, because it's always the best ones that go first.

It is always sad to hear when we lose another one, even if I did not know him personally.

This news article brings to mind a very recent discussion here...

Capt Mike Warren died last August in Norway. Just before WBR. Ws from Bispen. Two days before he was part of the 49-way in Katthammar!

Fly free my friend. :´(

What a great loss of a brilliant man.

Out of words...

/Antti

that's not particularly reassuring : )

Sam, you're gonna be just fine. odds and probability don't truly exist in BASE.

fly free Goking.

Rest in peace Geo.

I am sorry to hear the news of another jumper going in, he is the second south african to die base jumping that we know of mike warren from sth africa last year was the first, a friend of mine/also was a capt in the army

both died on wingsuits

but geoff is the first to be a fatality in the continent of africa/sth africa..

2 for 2010

compared with 5 for the same few months of the start of 2009

http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/wiki/Fatality_Statistics

It looks like he was wearing a gopro. Did anyone attempt to see if there was any video? Definitely not for public viewing, but it might shed some light on the incident.

Sorry for the loss of your friend.

Was this his first flight through that saddle? What is approximate horizontal distance and altitude drop between the exit and the saddle? How long was the flight?

We recovered the camera and this particular clip was corrupt and unviewable.

Thanks man!

With regard to the details, nowadays, since I broke my Suunto, I just drop a rock...

More seriously, the best person to ask would have been Geo himself. He got contour maps of the sites, drew up cross sections and all the other stuff you scientific nerdy guys do. It was very impressive I must say, the amount of work and preparation he put into the sites he opened.

It was his first flight through the saddle; he had flown through the gorge the week before.

I don't know the heights and stuff but his flight all together was about 15 seconds.

Seriously Dude...That's a fucked up thing to say...Fuck off.

+1

That's a great loss..such a good wingsuiter...

Just a supposition... Making turns could be very tricky cause you are losing too much alttitude..more than flying a straight pattern..
In order to get over the saddle he had turned to the right a lot...and he lost much more alttitude than he had calculated...

+1

Not only does it take lift to turn, there is a thing called an accelerated stall that has killed many square parachute pilots over the years and may have factored into Goeff's death as well.

Simply put, an accelerated stall is one where the g-force of a turn increases your effective weight to the point that the wing stalls and loses lift - regardless of actual speed or angle of attack.

In an airplane, you can demonstrate this by putting the plane in a turn, then cranking it harder and harder until you hear the stall warning horn go off. Let up a bit, the horn stops, and so on.

You can at the same time note that your airspeed is higher than level-flight stall speed, but it stalls anyway because of the extra wing loading caused by the G forces.

With parachutes, the main thing that kills people is the fact that, without a stall warning horn, you don't know when your turn has created an accelerated stall, so you can neither back off nor react to the fact that, once the wing stalls in a turn, you are no longer flying but falling, which radically changes your trajectory and thus people end up in the dirt before they expected.

Obviously, no one will ever know how hard Geoff turned to make it through the saddle, and maybe he just failed on this particular flight, but given that he thought he would clear it by at least 50+ meters and still hit it (despite his reported technical, mathematical and wingsuiting knowledge and skill), i think a case can be made that he turned so sharply that he went into an accelerated stall and transitioned from wingsuit flight into freefall.

44

Is this an example of an accelerated stall?
How do you avoid it, or is it just a case of knowing your WS's limits?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHVUJqacfAM

juanitos, robinheid: good points... see also BFL#115 (Stevo).

Looking at the map, the distance to the saddle is about 400m and altitude drop is also about 400m. 400m/400m, even for straight line of flight, puts the pilot into demanding 90%+ bracket of max performance, and this kind of level of performance is hard to nail every single time. With a hard turn, the additional loss of altitude is hard to predict and hard to make consistent.

Before reading your thoughts, I wanted to post that the calculations should not be used to say "Yes" to a non-obvious jump, but rather to say "NO" when otherwise we're not sure about the jump. But add a hard turn to the mix and short distance/altitude/time to work with, and all bets and calculations are off... Hard turn in such a "do it or die" jump should be an automatic "NO" to the jump.

BSBD Geo.

I beg to differ. by definition, a stall occurs when the critical angle of attack is exceeded. there is only one kind of stall, and weight doesn't matter. (higher weight will lead to a higher stall speed, but it all happens at the same AOA.)

many pilots seem to get confused over this because General Aviation airplanes almost never have an AOA indicator. the next best gauge is an airspeed indicator. it is a poor proxy, but provides a guide.

for those interested in a more thorough description...

most stall speeds are based on "straight and level" flight. wingsuits don't do "level flight" very well.

a turn changes the trajectory of a jumper. the force used to cause the turn is robbed from the force slowing the jumper's decent. unless a jumper modifies their body position, turning flight will adversely impact glide ratio.

it is basically why spirally under a canopy causes a noticeable loss of altitude, without stalling.

From my experience I would agree that during turns there is a tendency for the AoA to increase, making stall (or at least loss of glide performance) a possible factor in this sad incident.

Proximity flying in a steep straight line is easy* but add turns in to the mix on a flat trajectory and you need to be current*.

Geo was a great guy with an inspiring passion for human flight. I enjoyed talking to him about his research (he used small words with me )

Fly free Geo

After all his calculations and seeing that he was into gps co-ordinates was he not wearing a gps to figure out just how close he was later on in this jump .

Was he wearing anything like in his movie where he is talking to the crowd in zurich...gps...

just a thought as that would be a insight into his line of flight...

I was asked in Facebook if I know there is any photographs of Geo and Ueli together, as a reporter want's to write a story about Geo's accident. I would suggest anyone who recieves this kind of message to ignore it, unless he/she is capable of reviewing the article and it's intentions before publification.

V

 

This is a sad loss. I feel for Geo's close friends and family during this time.

We can all speculate as to what happened- and in time, Im sure more accurate details will follow.

I met Geo approximately 1 year or so ago- just before he moved to Switzerland. At that time he was based in the UK and had just started BASE jumping. He had told me that he had done his first jump a year before and had not jumped since- he was keen to move to Switzerland and do lots of jumping. He was a great guy with so much enthusiasm- and I liked it, because it reminded me of myself when I started BASE. I spoke to him a lot about jumping. He was a clever guy and was keen to learn and I respected the fact that he would ask a lot of questions and listen to advice. - and more importantly- he would take it all in and make up his own mind.

He would come to the valley most weekends with multiple rigs and wing-suits and bang out 5- 6 jumps a day. running to and from the exit. I spoke to him about the risks involved when you proceed too quickly and when you 'have-to' jump so much in one day- especially in the evening when you are tired. He explained that he had to collect data for his research.


Geo was a great guy. He was an extremely intelligent man. Yes. But he was also in his first year or so of BASE jumping and with limited experience. In that time- he had gone from a few BASE jumps, to flying advanced wing-suits. From the photos -This jump in South Africa looks like a very technical and advanced jump. ( If it is possible at all to fly over the saddle)

I'm pretty much living in the valley these days and see a lot of new jumpers come here. It used to be that people would start at yellow and, slowly work their way up to the nose side. Sadly, now you see more and more people going straight to the high-nose and others who don't put enough time into learning the basics before climbing into a wingsuit.

I think its important to remind up and coming jumpers- especially those who want to start wing-suit and wing-suit proxy flying. -It is very easy to bite off more than you can chew!

learn how to crawl and walk- before you start to run. Then always be true to yourself and know your limits.


Reiner Ebert.


R.I.P Geo!!

second that. Have seen a lot of negative experiences with reporters. BASE, skydive and other topics.

You say he planned this jump with topo maps, et al...

Did he have a plan B? Something like: "If I get to this point and I am not 100% confident, turn, pull???"

Wow... I just saw this video last week, and was looking forward to meeting with such a nice and brilliant guy... Fly Free Geo!

This was a tragic accident and my condolonces to all of his friends and family.

However (and I mean no disrespect to Geo's skills or wingsuit experience, it seems he was a great guy), when I saw the pictures Patrick posted, I thought no matter how well he planned and calculated it, that jump just screams NO OUTS. The first thing that popped to my head was that this jump looks a lot like something out of the springs hit video "Ready To Go" and the crazy lines in it. I hope atleast some aspiring proximity flier takes note of what happened to Geo. My point is, it looks like he tried a do-or-die flight. And died.

Though it could be that he hadn't even seen the vid, but these pics do resemble the jumps in it.

Again, this was tragic and I feel for everyone that knew him.

Kerkko
BASE 1184

I realy dont know what to say...... one day you are jumping with Geo, and second day he is dead :-(
It is qiute sad when you spend with him 3 weeks day bay day jumping,exploring new exits,traveling,and you dont know that death is so close.Always cant believe this. Thanks to Geo I saw something new,jump some cool sites,and meet nice people.
Always remember how Geo was measured some sites and want to know if is possible to jump it.
Think that he was quite good with measurment and using some tools and knowing own flight.About this fatal jump we spoke and Geo was checking it many times.Few days before he jumped it and flew from left site. The
fly was amazing,really cool and proximity flyght. Than he want to fly from right site.How some of you writted probably he dont count with loosing altitude during dinamic turn..... it was probably the fatal moment about Geo dont know. When we check it Geo say ....I should have 50 -70 m reserve that is ok.... :-( What I really know is that he loves open new sites and want jump somethig what nobody jump before him. In sunday we jumped Sentinel. I was on standard exit with George and Geo say I go up check it if could it be possible jump it with wingsuit. After few minutes I say to radio so what Geo we are prepare for a jump how it looks with you ? And what I hear in radio I cant believe ......
I am just gearing up my wingsuit...... I sayed what ???
For few minutes he sayed be prepare to rescue me I dont have a cut away sistem on my hibrid.The probability that he land to the sea was wery high. We say we are prepare.... and turn on our cameras ...
It was incredible he jumped it with wingsuit.
Finaly I must say well, he jumped it,and fortunately safe lend next to the sea. Think that he loves this moment.... probably nobody before him jumped Sentinel with wingsuit.I hoped that something tell him dont go so hard. But think that if he could hear a voice inside telling him Geo dont go so hard....
He probably say I have my own way ....
Think that Geo was nice person and realy good wingsuit pilot.
Deepest condolence to his nice family which I could find in SA trip.

RIP and fly your way somewhere there ....

Dave

It was really a pleasure getting to know Geo these past few months in Switzerland. Not only was he a genuinely nice guy and always upbeat, but he was also intelligent and inspiring. Those who knew him will really miss Geo and his incredible attitude toward everything he undertook in life. He was definitely one of the good ones.

RIP

We jumped Sentinel march 13. Laser showed 120 meters. Locals always thought it was 140-150 m. Anyway, really tight for a WS jump. As tight as the Banghoek jump where he died.

Calculations are nice of course but the margin of error should be calculated and incorporated too.

Leander told me that.
This is probably another discussion.

I quote the stone drop, then I jump first. If I survive, it means you can trust me on that.
The usual exit is 5,1/2 sec stone drop to impact.
I have done 3,1/2 sec delays, open high enough above the ledge and made the landing easy. With Sentinel and other low cliffs, I have always adopted the logic that open low is safer... Not to say that I don't chicken out at 2 secs most days.

I showed Geo a 7,1/2 sec drop to impact which was quite gnarly for us normal guys; with a ws it would have been doable but not much of a flight; and he later did it from a little higher up. Personally I don't think it was a risk worth taking...

...But the cool thing in BASE, and the thing that made me very angry a short while ago is that nobody has authority to keep anybody from making their own choices...

Thanks Dave

I arrived back in Norway on Saturday after spending two weeks together with Geo and Dave staying at Geos dads house. Unfortunately I broke my ankle on my first jump, so I definitely didn't get as many jumps as I hoped, but I spent some time talking with Geo in the evenings. He seemed to know what he was talking about even though he had just jumped a short time. His confidence in his own flight were very high (the way people who have only jumped a year or two often have) and he had a scientific approach to his jumps which, as a fellow geek, is something I like. He used an advanced GPS where he measured flights and AOA and had a laser to measure heights.

Throughout the two weeks he seemed to get more and more confident and was jumping more and more hardcore. He did wingsuit jumps from several exits that only been jumped slider down before.

On Tuesday he scoped out this new exit in Banhoek which he jumped and named Devils Jaw (as the exit was overlooking, and he was flying past the mountain Devils Tooth). The flight looked pretty hardcore with some nice proximity flying. The flight pattern he tried on Monday, over the saddle, had definitely no outs and was a "do or die" jump. I'm sure he felt he had calculated everything and was confident he could make it, but it doesn't matter what the number says, when you are in a flight everything can happen.

The incident is something we definitely can learn a lot from. He was skilled and confident, but was lacking the experience and cautiousness that comes with the years of experience. Losing friends, getting hurt, going to funerals and so on will usually lower your confidence level a bit. I'm sure the jump Geo died on was possible to do, but doing many of these kinds of jumps in a row is really playing the odds.

My thoughts go out to his closest family. They were all nice people who treated us very well during our stay.

BSBD

I also spent the last 2 weeks with Geo and his family. Geo had a brilliant mind, and it was very obvious he loved what he did. He had so much passion, showing me his flight trajectories, videos and pages of formulas and calculations he prepared. While it’s likely a lot of his fascination and excitement probably came from his relative new-ness in the sport, it was also clear that he was very intelligent.
He was however really jumping some hardcore stuff (I did not even question attempting these things in my Prodigy). From his videos it was clear that he was really pushing it, and during the 2 weeks, it seemed to me that he just kept becoming more confident, raising the bar and pushing the limits even more so. One of the conversations I had with Geo (during my daily ride to the hospital) was if he knew how his flight performance changed in regards to mindset, and if it was possible to or how he could calculate that variable. For example how did his performance change on an easy jump where he was relaxed verses a ‘do or die’ jump where he knew he maybe only had 50m to clear a ledge and was nervous about this? I questioned if this could somehow cause a decrease in performance, because subconsciously he was flying stiffer, etc. I guess we will never know, but maybe this was a factor in his death. Nevertheless, it’s a great loss.


My heart goes out to Geo’s family… such kind people.

I got some voluble info about the wall Geo jumped from my RSA friend recently.
It is demanding exit and regardless of the turn he had to make (for which I think it wasn't the major problem) jump execution plan was ''short''.
Nobody mentioned the weather condition and there might be the answer as well, besides of not that ideal exit which for sure eat a lot more altitude than was planed.
Cold air in the morning makes ultimate potential of any WS flight way more difficult to achieve, as down draft does the same miracle as thermal but in opposite direction.
Geo was good boy. Smart and very motivated about exploring the WS flying. Unfortunately, he was way to much in to rush as well.

Fly free my dear friend and I am sad that recent emails will stay unanswered :(
condolences to family and all close friends of him

Sad news.

Interesting thoughts.

Dwain was very intelligent, Slim was very intelligent, etc.

The ability to perform at high levels consistently in one area does not necessarily translate to other areas.

There are not many people who are gifted at the highest level in all areas.

If you look at wingsuit video's, you will constantly observe changes to the pressurisation and positioning of suits and the pilots flying them. This translates to constant changes in aerodynamic performance - actual and potential.

It is very difficult (but not impossible) to calculate this for each individual.

It is also extremely difficult and takes an extreme amount of talent to be able to fly a suit consistently to the same performance level.

It is even more difficult to be able to repeat and measure performance to the level which requires margins of 10's of metres (possibile - but extremely difficult).

Like anything in life, when you reduce the margin for error, and couple that with increasing diificulty in repeatability of performance, then you increase the risk of failure significantly.

Not saying this was involved in this incident - this is just a follow on from the discussions above.

In laymans terms, your margin for error should be at least greater than you maxium level of variation + 1 unit, to ensure your survival.

Example: if it takes your BASE parachute between 5 and 55 feet to open (those two numbers being the extreme cases) over a large data pool. Then you should ALWAYS AIM TO OPEN at least 55 feet + 1 unti of safety margin.

If you open at 25 feet - you are playing russian roulette with your life because you have already proven that you are likely to experience an opening that could take more than 25 feet.

Ditto for wingsuit flights (And a lot more complex because a wingsuit flight is more 3 dimensional than a low opening scenario).

you just answered why 90% of the base jumpers makes from well known cliffs in Europe really good flights, while when they change the spot they are not even close to their previous performance.

If that is the case, and it seems 2me very, very likely, margin of error should even be higher on those kind of jumps. 2 cents.

rockdrop 120m, to the landing area 260m

 

260m........still too low for V3- or any other large wing-suit.

gotta remember pull time. Slow deployment speed.- Big burbles - hesitations.

+ I wouldn't wanna land in the water near the sentinel jump. Large seal colony nearby. Big sharks!

Just 2 cents:
Barometric pressure as well...many variables exist in real life that may not be represented in an equation that's why it takes great experience/familiarity with terrain to safely pull off a challenging line. I'd rather hang my hat on loads of past experience (and the mental benefits that brings) with the jump than some math on a new jump which may not be good enough.

Just want to say that Geo was a real sweetheart.

I hope more jumpers will think a lot, and try to make the conservative choice, not the go for it choice.
I have noticed that it takes a lot of years in the sport, more than most of us have, to fully understand all the variables involved and to plan for every possibility from the exit point, and make the jump (or not) accordingly.

I will really miss seeing Geo in Lauterbrunnen and jumping with him, and send loving thoughts to his family and close friends. :(

I began my BASE journey in Kjerag... then once back in the UK I hooked up with PJC and Geo and the 3 of us would regularly jump together.

I PCA'd Geo for his BASE number n did many UK objects with him including several 2-ways from our famous 330ft SE sea cliff... and all in all became good friends with someone I will always consider a privelege to have known.

I have quite a lot of video of Geo thru his first 100 jumps before he moved to Switzerland and will try and collect some wingsuit footage to put a small tribute video together for his family.

He was emailing us here in the UK with regular updates on the stuff he was doing there in S.A. and was utterly thrilled with what he'd done.

It certainly hits home when it's a close friend that leaves suddenly... and I'm still carrying a heavy heart after getting the news... but that said I accept that we all engage in highly dangerous activity cos we all live life with a passion that ensures we don't tiptoe our way thru it only to arrive safely at death... F*** THAT !!!

Hey 1285... I'll miss ya bro...

3... 2... 1... C ya... on the other side

Nick.... 1268

I have a video of his first jump and his FJC video. PM me if you would like them.

In early August I went with Geo on his 1st attempt to jump the Eiger.It looked like a for sure but there were heavy clouds on the mushroom.After a 2 hour wait we went back down.
Four weeks later I was solo and was above the ropes and saw jumpers coming so I waited.It was Geo,Ted Davenport and Neil Jarvis.We finished the climb(hike) together and we were there for Geo's 1st Eiger jump.
Geo loved the game and will be missed by all the people that knew him.RIP Geo till we meet again..

I met Geo in the Swiss Valley in December. He was an incredible person. He carried a great vibe and energy with him. I had two great days jumping with him in the snowy conditions. We talked about our passion for opening sites and the risks involved. I was hoping to join him again for some great flights. Geo you will be missed. Condolences to all friends and family.

Libre vuelos amigo.

I am looking for contact info of the family of Geo.Preferably his sister with whom I did a jump several years ago(other info is welcome also).If anybody could help I would be very thankful.....Here is my e mail vranklp@hotmail.com Thanks Vrank

Hi All,

We (the ETH Zurich institute where Geo worked) are organizing a memorial event. We would like to welcome anyone who knew Geo. Please RSVP if you're planning to attend so that we can prepare accordingly.

Here's the info:

Date:4th Sep, 2010 (Sat)
Time 16:00~20:00
Place:Forsthaus Waldegg http://www.immobilien.ethz.ch/...ald/seminar/index_EN

Thanks
-sergei

Ich werde dort sein!
Ich habe noch ein Video des letzten Sprungs den ich mit Geo gemacht habe... Ich hatte ihm meine Kamera ausgeliehen und er hat gefilmmt. Könnt ihr dies gebrauchen?

Gruss
Michi

Here is the official invitation to Geo's memorial event (also see attached PDF):

Dear All,

We would like to invite you to a memorial event for Geo (Geoffrey Robson) on the 4th of September, starting at 16h, at the forester’s house Waldegg, Zurich.

We are organizing this event as an opportunity for all who knew Geo to spend time together and to remember his life and work.

Please see the attached PDF for more details. RSVP by the 3rd of September to gajan@ethz.ch.

Best Regards,
Geo’s Colleagues at
IDSC, ETH Zurich

 

I really wish that i could make it to this memorial- however, i wont be in the country at that time.- i am really happy though- that this memorial event is taking place, as I know that Geo had many friends in the Base community- especially here in Swizerland.

- can everyone please have a drink for me!

R.I.P. mate!...

Reiner.

Geo my good friend... I will have a drink for you tonight... I am sorry I cant be at the memorial.

Fly free...

RIP
Fly free bruva

The sticky thread to the list of online incident videos led me to this one of a flight made by Geo one week before his death. The exit point is the same as the fatal jump. The video gives a better visualisation of the terrain and flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV88pEouZzo

So sad that the BASE and Skydive world has lost an ambassador with so much potential. The research he was conducting was brilliant and very interesting and useful to anyone considering flying a wingsuit. His approach towards tracking the orientation, alltitude, speed, and geographic positioning was superb. Hopefully someone follows in his footsteps and continues such research.

Boxhead (no BASE jumps yet, just skydives)