Re: [cpoxon] Missing wingsuiter - WWL, Zhang Jiajie, China - 8th October 2013
Today it is one year since Vick has left the ground behind forever. A true legend of our kind, an inspiration and a person who made the world a little les black and a little more orange.
Still the only person to ever posthumously compete in a Wingsuit competition, acoording to the WWL homepage.
It is one year that I failed to deliver my account, which as the person standing behind him I surely owe. There would be much easier things to do today and I think Vick wouldn't blame me for getting wasted instead, but some things have been ventilated in ways which I cannot tolerate.
A great tradition in BASE-jumping is to learn from the mistakes of the others instead of blaming them, cherish their lifes instead of only mourning their death. The source of this tradition, which manifests itself in the Fatality List is the belief that not the individual commits errors, but that they are the symptoms of our collective misconceptions.
To make this clearer, being floating individuals we are a swarm, like birds or fish. Now in a swarm each and everyone takes part in the process of directing the whole, and not our individuality but the position we assume relative to the swarm will determine our fate. There cannot be another word but avantgarde to decribe Vicks position, he definitely was a force pulling others in direction of an open and positive attitude. I deeply respect his passion and I feel priviledged to have had the possibility to swim after him.
So I cannot accept people putting the blame for the accident solely on him. For example, I personally probably bear more guilt for what happend then he himself. Had it been for him, the race course would not have looked like this. The course with two turns, as it was laid out was the dream of a different, of an ambitious kind of pilots. When he rightfully uttered his concerns about it, I swept it away, more even, I didn't give him the information I had about how to fly it, partly because I thought he would know it, partly because I didn't want to spoil my chances in a race which soon developped into a farce anyways.
So yes, I killed Vick. And I deserve every punishment I got and I will get. But as a swarm we should learn from our past and hold in high value those who paid for our ambitions and dreams.
Now let me just clarify. I did not see when Vick hit, solely because I didn't need to. I was standing at the exit and when he headed for the first gate I just hoped he wouldn't actually do the turn. When I saw that he was actually doing the turn, so did I, because from there on I already knew what would happen.
The course layout as two consecutive turns in itself is not a problem, it has always be the thing I was longing to do. But what we all didn't see (what I as a ski instructor and trainer should have seen), is that after the second turn there was no runout, but the hill which ended up being fatal for Vick. Even though there was meant to be an emergency exit flying straight out Vick had no chance from the moment he turned. This is because of a simple effect that happens to most people when they first ski through two consecutive gates. They try to save distance before the first gate, therefore only being able to start the turn in the moment they have passed the gate. As every turn takes a certain time and radius (even more so in wingsuit flying), they are in the best case on the same level as the second gate. For Vick that means, he was already below the emergency exit and the only possibility he had to try and safe his life was to fly into the gully. He never actually had the time to finish the first turn in order to be prepared for the second one. This is the reason why he drifted into the mountainside which bordered the course.
This for most people is evident. And some will say, still, it was his personal fault. Of course, but what has to be acknowledged is that at any given point during the competition on this trajectory someone would have tried to safe some time by getting closer to the first gate and would hav ended in the exact same mountainside. As it happens even in alpine skiing highly trained athletes.
I do not expect the WWL to actually show any sign of respect towards our fallen friend. I let them know the mistake on their homepage already in May and there was no change. I do not expect that they stand with their history instead of blindly trying to move ahead.
But I hope that the swarm, we as Basejumpers show respect to the person who made it clear that we cannot race through walls, as it is fit to our tradition.
I wear orange today.
In loving memory.
