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I have hesitated to post this, until my sister was able to find Verona's phone number in Dad's address book and I called her and she gave permission for posting this. This was as close to a fatal accident as you can come without being fatal (my memory is that she coded more than once). Now she is married with children, making me think her surgeons were really really good!

http://youtu.be/IZZ4WK_qdqk
Bob

 
She didn't pitch, rotated to face the wall, then pitched. Why?

Cause they both have no fukin idea

More accurate to say that there was a massive case of complacency.

The exit for this wall was curved like the rim of a bowl, so there was a natural tendency for them to not exit parallel to each other. In freefall, Verona found herself directly over the other jumper's back and over-delayed trying to clear him.

The lessons to learn here:
1. Do not do jumps that are well beyond your experience and skill level.

2. If you see someone about to do a jump that is beyond their experience and skill level, be the asshole who says something and try to stop the jump from happening.

3. Water, when hit at high speed, is not nearly as soft as it is when hit at low speed. Take that into account when thinking that jumping over water contributes a big margin of safety to an otherwise marginal jump.

Walt

that video was on my BASEcourse; we've learned a couple lessons on that one.

walt pretty much summed it up nicely!

how many BASEjumps between the two!? something like 35 if i remember correctly, possibly even less!?

as a friend always says: "there are NO easy BASEjumps!"

The low jumper was pretty experienced but I have no clue about the number of jumps Verona had but it's probably safe to say she had far fewer than fifteen BASE jumps.

The bad thing about scenarios like that (low walls over water, jumping rounds) is that it is very easy to get complacent and rationalize behavior you would never consider doing or even tolerate from others if the jumps were over hard dirt or rocks.

When jumping over water, you think about the forgiving landing the water will provide if your main malfunctions, and the water *will* do that. What the water can also do when you have just enough drag to pull you into a vertical position but not enough to significantly slow you down, is literally rip a new asshole for you.

The video underscores the fact that we all need to look out for each other--even when it means being the only person willing to be a dick and speak up; even if it means that you might not be invited on future loads.

For you low timers, if someone advises you that a jump may be beyond your skill or experience level, even if they are a bit of an ass about it, figure out a way to set your ego aside and seriously consider what they are saying. Even if you don't agree with them, even if you fully intend to ignore their advice, suck it up and thank them for saying something.

BTW, if you *do* decide to ignore the advice or more experienced jumpers, wear a shit ton of GoPros!

Walt