Basejumper.com - archive

I'm interested in releasing a primer on aspects of BASE jumping that relate to quick responses with 180s and some tricks used by race car drivers and professional fighters.

I'm semi-retired and am interested in sharing a bunch of tricks of BASE survival, but I am discouraged by a certain moderator on this forum. Please let me know if you are interested.

Yes, please share.

Thank you,
~Tom

Yes. I'm interested.

great pic. was it fun like a rollercoaster?

I'm interested, count me in.

interested

definately interested in what you hae to share!

Yeah, count me in.

I'm definitely interested!

Yes, I'm interested.

Very interested. :-)

very interested in any useful tips!

if you wish to contribute, I'm sure management might consider elevating your authority as well.

TLN was made an editor over the articles. why not you?

ok, i'll do the write up and post it. it will take me week or two but i think it's worth sharing to help keep people out of trouble in very hectic situations.

You don't have to be an editor to submit articles for posting. Any forum member is welcome to contribute to the articles section.

Click on "submit a new article" on the articles main page and enter your information along with the article.

XMESOX who is the forum content manager/administrator will then validate it for publishing. You will receive an email announcing it's been approved or the reason for declining it.

It's that simple, no extra authority needed, just well written articles that fit into the suggested topics.

Yes, please share

Since my response so far has been panic...pound in...I would like to see some better trix

i haven't forgotten about posting this. i've been very, very busy. i don't have time to compose it properly.

i find this vision trick to be amazing. summary ideas: i call it the medusa effect. try an air hockey trick. don't look at the puck. look at your opponent. you will be much faster looking away that at the thing that you think is important. we are hardwired to respond to threats, like putting your hand on a stove, and you respond before you conscionce brain realizes it. some thing with vision. when you look at something on a perfect 180 in daylight, you will sit there interpreting the image instead of using your instincts. it happened to me on my first jump in 1992, off a 600 foot cliff. throw a ball in the air; notice that you can catch it by looking elsewhere. same thing applies to base jumping. for really short delays, you are not dealing with any of this, it just happens because even Bruce Lee couldn't deal with it. there was a little speed test on here where you press a button when a light changes. i looked away and my response time went from 0.20 seconds to 0.14 seconds. seconds matter. when one looks at the object, your brain will spend a bunch of time thinking "wow, let me discern those curves, that rock" and such when it needs to be thinking "holy shit. wall strike imminent"

Interesting. It reminds me of the experience I had a few months ago. I was lying on the bed, ready to sleep, when I've noticed something blinking in the room. I've looked at it and I couldn't see anything. But as soon as I've moved my point of view just a few centimeters to any side, I could instantly see something blinking. I got up and realized that it was a tiny battery led on my laptop. The interesting thing is, that from further distance it's impossible to see it by looking directly at it, but peripheral vision catches it without much problems. I guess it's because when you look directly at it, the vision is focused and only a few neurons can "see" that light, but when you aren't looking straight, then the vision is less focused (ie view is more blured) and much more neurons can catch the same light. As you say, it could lead to the situations, were instincts are more eager to take action in "oh shit" moments, because peripheral vision looks at the bigger image of what's going on, instead of trying to pick out the details.

I guess it's off topic, but another interesting thing about vision are blind spots: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/blindspot1.html

I think what you were noticing there was the rods in your eyes (which play a big part in night vision and motion detection) picking up the blinking in your peripheral vision while the cones in the centre of your eye weren't sensitive enough to see it clearly when you look straigh at it. That's why if you're trying to pick up detail at night, it's better to try look at something at an angle or look in figure 8s around the object.

I sort of get what 460 is driving at though. Kind of an extension on the "look away, turn away" to avoid target/object fixation.

A combination of that and those moments where you can knock a beer off a bench and catch it before you've even had a chance to look at it, but then make a total mess of things when someone kicks a footy to you even though you're staring straight at it.

ok, so here's more on it. Ever notice that when you have like a 120 degree off heading opening, when you land, you tell you buddies, man that was a scary 180?

when you are jumping a not tall cliff and are relatively close to the wall when you open, upon having a perfect 180, a lot of time, your vision system will spend a bunch of time interpreting the image. I remember Marta describing this when she jumped a cliff in Moab. She said was astonished that she got very, very close to the wall and attributed it to the wall image just making her really slow. She just went straight down without turning and landed on the talus. Same thing happened to be on my first jump. It also happened to me another time and I shattered my femur as a result. Now, I just kind of look at my parachute or downward somewhat.

I'm sure most will be aware of the toggles in their hands after opening, with out thinking about them or looking for them.

i think i understand what youre saying.

i had a 180 two jumps ago, and barely even realized it until after i was turned away.

most jumps i have toggles in my hands without even conciously going for them or actively deciding " toggles, grab, clear" etc..

you just act on instinct.

train that instinct well I guess.

Avenfoto, that is exactly what I am talking about.

Interesting topic,

I have heard this is how the medical professionals explain the sense of dejavu. When you are put in high pressure situation or feel threatened the brain has two path ways in which the information can travel from what is seen (by the eyes) to where the messages gets interpreted (by the brain). When people experience the sense of Dejavu the message from the eyes to the brain has taken both the short route (commonly used for high pressure situation or when we are threatened) and the long route giving the person the sense that they have already experienced the moment some time before although in fact it was just one message followed by another exactly the same as the first almost immediately. I guess the message getting to the brain via the “short route” is one thing the next is the ability to respond in an appropriate manner in which I guess is what you are talking about here. Looking forward to reading more in this post

I think this discussion went into two directions. As Sharpy_3 says, there are two ways for the brain to get the signal from eyes. First is a regular way, that goes from eyes to brain cortex (front of the brain), that is responsible for normal thinking. But in threat situations the signal can also travel directly to the amygdala, the part that decides to "fight or flee", or what we call instinctive reaction. This is the part were brain does not think anymore, and starts to proceed according to it's own plan. In a lot of cases this is good, because normal thinking is slow, and might endanger us. But it also can work against us. For example, at first when people start skydiving they tend to kick with legs to try and regain their balance, and this has an opposite and funny effect. :-) It is also common for people in fear just to freeze in one place. This is why training and preparing for situation like off headings are necessary, so when amygdala takes over, it would already have a familiar mental picture of what's going on and what to do next. Otherwise, you just might look and enjoy the cliff that is slowly coming at you. :-)

But what I think 460 was trying to say, is to specifically not to try to look at the object directly, but use your peripheral vision to asses the situation and this way encourage amygdala to take over if it's necessary, instead of feeding the brain with information about the nice cliff. Correct me if I'm wrong. :-)

Now I just had a thought, that reading about tunnel vision in high adrenaline situations might be a good idea also.

i think you hit the nail right on the head

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight
not relevant though interesting

There is a carnage video circulating around the world. What amazes me is how quickly people respond to a 140 off heading on cliff and how slowly they respond to a perfect 180. The vision system is just overwhelmed so I think peripheral vision is the way to go if you can use it.

 

 

Most know about the central nervous system, which is how
we use thoughts to make our hands type words or make our
feet run off of an object. When this system gets damaged
we become paralyzed.

The autonomic nervous system that regulates our reflexes,
digestion, and other functions is less well known. Not sure
why, maybe because it is usually under the controll of our
subconscious or unconscious minds.

Please see link for a summary: Autonomic Nervous System

Experienced/Skilled practitioners of Meditation, Yoga, and
some advanced Martial Arts work to re-train the body to
react differently to certain stimuli.

For example, being punched in the face usually triggers one
of two common reactions from untrained & novices fighters:
1) anger, rage, fight, kill OR 2) disbelief, fear, run, freeze.
Of course neither are ideal responses, hence combat training.

Teaching your body to react reflexively in a certain way to a
stimuli is simple but not easy (just like running a marathon).
It requires lots of time spent on focused & dedicated practice.

I have to partly disagree. I'm a not a neurologist, but what I have always read about instinctive reactions, is that Amygdala is responsible for instinctive responses associated with emotions (in this case fear). In normal cases eye signal travels to neocortex which is responsible for thinking, but in extreme situations the signal bypasses directly to Amygdala. In cases like touching hot stove, then yeah, it might be that we're simply hardwired for that at a more low level, and as I understand is a reaction to physical senses. But responses to emotions like fear (when you suddenly see a wall at your face after 180) is controlled by Amygdala, and it will be the one responsible for what you do at that moment before usual thinking process regains control again. Just google for what Amygdala is, and you'll get the same explanation.

 

 

what was surprising to me is what Marta described (and what has happened to me). she was a very, very experienced and current jumper at the time (and is now too). with her 180, she said she was shocked how close she came to wall, how the image of the wall overwhelmed her, and how slowly she reacted. she had no choice after her slow reactions to do anything but it take it straight down onto the talus.