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We were discussing this at a very internationally flavored event the other day. What country has the on average sketchiest jumpers in your opinion and why? This is meant to be a fun discussion, so please share stories and examples or explain your selection.

It's a toss up between the Kiwi's and the English, specifically the Stotish. I marked Austraila. That's close enough right? I mean it's just a couple of coastal islands.

They are the only ones I've ever met that would designate a tree as a landing area.

Lee

The entire commonwealth lead by the Aussies, followed closely by all of eastern Europe lead by the Russians. Least the Aussies seem to know they're being dumb and sketchy, many of my fellow Americans just do dumb shit cause they don't know any better, and we can definitely claim the skechiest jumper, Mr. Lewis.

Hmm all these votes for russians without any comment. Ive found that aussies are sketchy because their jumps force them to be. Having visited there, basically every jump is fairly sketchy. Russians seem to have more of the ill jump this ex USSR round off a building in a rig I made myself in a 40 mph headwind kind of sketchy, but they are indestructible.

Australia? Isn't that the west island of New Zealand?

At first I though Australia, no contest, and was suprised by the poll results, but after thinking about it, the answer is IRAN.

http://youtu.be/L_6YnPixihM

Canadians.....

that's like saying America is just the lower part of Canada

Dont antagonise from the comfort of Idaho Tom. Australians are the devil's spawned cabbage farting scum of the earth. Clean a petri dish with your finger and the goo you collect is the DNA of the population. Cursed, vile and infected. Their women are worse. Flame away. Ps feral is an exception

I clicked Russians because I have seen so many videos of those crazy fuckers doing 3 more rotations on flips than anyone else would do, pull lower than anyone else, and, occasionally, do front flips into snowbanks with PCs in tow. As for the aussies, we have the sketchiest landing ares. Makes for good canopy pilots!

It's more like saying that Oregon is Idaho's Portugal.

why?

every jumper was solid on exit, PC throw and landing, and they all had perfect openings.

And most likely, these were the first BASE jumps for all of them, and most likely, they have way less than 200 total parachute jumps.

So I'm very curious to know how you arrived at your "sketchiest" conclusion based on this video.


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U.S. special forces call them Skeet.

Yes. In other words Australia is a little island, off the coast of New Zealand.

my opinion isnt based on this video, i couldnt find the ones ive seen of them jumping skydiving rigs with dbags in full millitary gear.

Unfortunately, most of the Russian base videos I've seen are in russian, so finding them is kind of a bitch.

But shit, even their skydiving is sketchy. Every rig I see on their backs are all different and all unidentifiable. I'm pretty sure these hardcore mothertruckers make their own rigs/parachutes lol

They were all taught by a Russian

Definitely Russian ! But they are the most luckiest too :)

And that makes them sketchy because...


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luck comes with the sketchiness.. try it

I always thought that luck goes with sketchines. And ones your bag of luck is empty, you die

I was at High Nose about 4 weeks ago and the weather was complete shit. 7 or 8 of us were standing around and represented about 5 countries. We needed a wind dummy and I said "where is a Russian when you need em". It translated to everyone there. Russians are the sketchy ones.

Ody

We hiked out since there wasn't a Russian around.

I voted Russians based on the mohawk sporting russian from the Kjerag heliboogie last year. Running wingsuit barrel roll exit followed by a 3rd attempt deployment. Ranting in Russian for the entire ~5 sec canopy ride into the water, carrying through the boat rescue and on to shore. At least that's how I remember it.

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

Americans, I rest my case.

Think proportional representation, Ronald.

Of course there will be more American fatalities. The US is the birthplace of BASE, it is by orders of magnitude the largest of the affluent countries (from which almost all BASE jumpers come), and probably is home to about half of the world's total BASE jumpers.

So until you correlate the raw numbers to these mitigating/aggravating factors, the BFL number mean nothing in terms of gauging which country has the sketchiest jumpers.


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There are more Honda Civics in the junk yard than any other auto. But that's because there are more Honda civics than any other car.

Not sure how this is debatable. Russians and Eastern Europeans jump nuclear meltdown sites and land pilot chutes as mains. Threads/

After working the rescue boat for Stavanger BASE Klubb for 2 seasons, I can say, without a doubt, that Russians are the sketchiest jumpers around.
A Russian girl almost drowned during the heliboogie one year after deciding that her best option was to fly back to Lysebotn (from Kjerag NOT Smellveggen) in 15-20 knot westerlies. About halfway to smell she realized water landing was imminent, so she elected to cut away from 30+ ft. Meanwhile I'm getting air-born trying to pound through white-caps. When I got to her I asked "What the fuck are you doing out here?" She just looked at me kind of blankly and said "I thought I could fly back to town." #dumbestshitiveeverseen

LOL...

real world trumps free-floating statistics any day (pun intended)...

What's that old BASE saying, which is of course an unfair generalization but is too funny to pass up:

Russian BASE jumpers are just like Australians, except without the skill.


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aside of the fact that such pool is...let say childish ( to be polite )
aside of the fact that this whole discussion is looking like ''who has the longest''...but i am alwasy amaized how you Robin look the world only through US binocular like everything is there and only from there (and that habbit is getting helpless ) ..
Just for your thinking...
In one big eastern city there is more BASE jumper than in few US states together..
In Europe there is at least 80% of the jumpers who were never ever been on DZ.com nor they will be.
Almost entire French BASE society does not care about what is going on here as well.
For the end..
Sketchy can be the jump or situation
Jumper can be eiter: stupid, smart or careless....( continue... )

Its totally childish, ignorant, and maybe a tad prejudice...

But who did you vote for?

Hi Robin,

As if I don't know that. But, like Robert said, it is not that simple. Internet does not give the whole picture. Number of jumpers, number of jumps, number of posts. All I did was post the number of fatalities, which to me is sketchy enough. And also a bit of a finger to the poll.

For instance, South Afrians are by far the sketchiest jumpers... but we are also made of military grade titanium, so we don't end up dying.... FACT!

There's a few on the list. But maybe they were just regular grade titanium.

Almost as childish as doing a hobby for a living, but isnt that kind of the whole point? This sport has enough doom and gloom in it, why not some fun stories and shared enjoyment of each other, our many countries, backgrounds and experiences. When the point of this stops being to have fun, and sometimes its gotten close, ill quit.

I would have said the East Bay, but since my brother and I no longer rage Savagery or jump off inappropriate objects (or live on the homestead), I'd have to say it's a close call between Auburn and Sacto. Auburn is made significantly less sketchy because Marty is there and he's about as un-sketchy a jumper as I can envision, but, well, they also have Slambo. Sac Town has this doctor who pretty much jumps anything, all the time, without any consideration for the feelings of others. Tough call.

LOL... love ya, Robi, but who put a burr under your saddle?

I just pointed out that you can't use the BFL nationalities to determine which country has the sketchiest jumpers because there are more American BASE jumpers than there are BASE jumpers from any other country. This was a statistics- and methodology-based comment, not a comment about "who has the longest..." or where BASE stuff comes from.

As for your off-topic assertion that I look through US binoculars... well, what do you expect? I'm an American!

But you must be confusing me with some other American because I don't remember ever - ever - saying that "everything is (in the USA) and only from there."

Not in this thread, and not in any other thread. Because it is a priori not true, and you are personally Exhibit A for the affirmative.

I'm on record multiple times talking about how Europe leads in regard to the freedom with which you can do backcountry BASE in Europe compared to "the land of the free" where they lock you in jail and steal your equipment for parachuting in public parks that belong to everyone.

Ditto for Asia, where the cutting edge is for urban BASE. There with buildings as with Europe and mountains others are far ahead of the United States. And not only did I write extensively about Asia's lead in this arena, but in some part contributed to that leadership through the Malaysian events with which I was involved a decade ago.

I also wrote at great length and in great detail since the beginning of the modern wingsuit era very specifically about the accomplishments of various Euros, you chief among them, in figuring out how to make wingsuits less lethal and then flying the cutting edge to make them better.

So I have no idea how that burr got under your saddle or what my comments about raw numbers have to do with how many Euros are "on" the Dork Zone or what "French BASE society" thinks about anything.

Numbers aren't "US;" they are what they are, and the numbers say there are more American BASE jumpers out there than from any other country.

More raw numbers, all from 2012:

Population
EU: 503 million
USA: 313 million


Gross domestic product
World: $71,707,302
EU: $16,641,109,000,000
USA: $15,684,880,000,000

GDP per capita
USA: $50,111
EU: $33,083

All these numbers generally support what I said initially:

"The US... is by orders of magnitude the largest of the affluent countries (from which almost all BASE jumpers come)..."

Not quite orders of magnitude compared to Germany (81M), France (65M), Italy (60M) and Spain (47M), but three times bigger than the biggest EU country and half an order of magnitude bigger than the other three big EU countries. Also note that the US and EU combined account for nearly half of the world's GDP -- with barely more than 1/13th of the population.

"...and probably is home to about half of the world's total BASE jumpers."

Look at the per capita GDP: US citizens are significantly more affluent per capita than EU citizens.

Then look at GA numbers: The last year I could find stats was 2003, when there 211,00 private aircraft in the US, and 312,000 total in the whole world.

All of these factors determine how many people per capita will get involved in parachuting generally and BASE in particular.

Mix in basic common sense, and you cannot challenge the fact that there are more US BASE jumpers than there are BASE jumpers in any other country (for sure) and that US BASE jumpers comprise about half of all BASE jumpers (probably).

So my post was not "look(ing at) the world only through US binoculars." It was bringing basic math and common sense perspective to a suggestion that the nationalities of those on the BFL had any relevance to the poster's assertion that US jumpers were the sketchiest. PERIOD.

All of this notwithstanding, that is also why I prefaced my repetition of the joke about Russian v. Australian jumpers by saying it was an unfair generalization. Valery Rozov and Yuri Kuznetsov are Exhibits A for that.

This whole thread is sort of a silly, boys-will-be-boys thing from the very start, so I'm a bit surprised that you would respond so seriously to my comments -- especially when they were about math and methodology and didn't express an opinion one way or the other.

As for my comment that "The US is the birthplace of BASE."

It is. Period. Full stop. Not arguable.

From its US starting point, however, it has spread throughout the developed countries of the world, and even some that aren't (heck, I hear they even BASE jump in France!). In so doing, there have been many contributions made to its development by jumpers from many countries.

And in my opinion, I think the most spectacular advancements of all are those in which you, Robi, are among the most pivotal participants and pioneers.

Everyone who loves to fly owes you a great debt for the incredible vision and creativity and skill you and the other pioneers and innovators and inventors brought to the creation of the modern wingsuit.

So get that burr out from under your saddle, old friend. Those things make anybody grouchy.


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As if I don't know that.

What I don't know is why either of you think I based my comments on any Dork Zone-specific numbers or anything quantifiable at such a granular level. As I said to him, all I did was point out that your conclusion was based on incomplete methodology and that you'd have to correlate the raw numbers to the variables a little better to make it useful.

Sorry for not realizing you were just giving a bit of a finger to the silly poll. I would've saved myself a lot of typing.


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Hey Robin, Can you convert the dollar signs to Euros?
Its not like Fahrenheit meets Celsius at -40 deg. ;-)
Take care,
Space

Sorry, when I look through my U$ binoculars, I only see $$$$ signs...


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