Basejumper.com - archive

Stuff I have been thinking about for a while, and again after this.

BASE has a long history of not being well represented in the media, and that has hurt BASE jumpers.

It would be nice if non-jumpers opinions didn't matter, but they do as they can raise hell and get sites closed down.

One statistic that people know is how many people die. However, unlike skydiving, there are no official statistics of how many successful jumps (or even jumpers) there are, except for some places/events like Kjerag or Bridge Day.

There are a shitload of jumps being done successfully, and a shitload of jumpers out there. Just going off the industry size, how many manufacturers, who knows how many rigs and suits are sold.

If this site had a press page where real information existed then maybe that would be good. Nothing incriminating, all anonymous. Press people do look for information, but sometimes if they can't find it then they just seem to make it up.

E.g.

===

BASEjumper.com member statistics:

In 2012 there were 5133 active BASE jumpers and 103789 jumps were made.

B: 1333
A: 3000
S: 27000
E: 70000

Wingsuit: 54000

Key locations:
Lauterbrunnen: 12334
Kjerag: 21222
Romsdal: 12000
Italy: 6000
France: 8000
Americas + Canada: 23423
Asia-Pacific: 23423

Each jumper spent average $2103 on-site on accomodation, food, etc

===

Of course, they would never be perfect or anything, and gathering them would need to be some anonymous web page and mailout from basejumper.com, but it might be better than nothing.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on. Maybe we should get the truth's pants on in advance.

Would you fill out an anonymous form with the above information once a year? Give the media some balance?

Anyway, just a thought.

I haven't watched, read or listened to any news for over 5 years now, I have no interest in any medias opinion.
People will raise hell regardless of facts, partial or uniformed opinion will take over the argument as in most cases
What would the jump numbers and objects be any good for? and what would telling anyone achieve?

? I dont think the world is ready for the numbers yet conserning fatalities, it is the individual jumpers who need those, and work with it.

What do you belive is the number for a big wall fatality?

1/1000
1/2000

Just think about it. The numbers do not justify anything concernig use for valid statistic. It is a practical joke, and you jumpers have to do something about it. The game is not about living the life to the fullest with a gun to your head, it is about surviving, and it have always been. If it is not about surviving, you already gave up, and are living dead just waiting for you turn.

I'm not saying you do, or even that you should pay attention to the media, but it's a fact that many people do, including the authorities who are influenced by popular opinion.

If you can present a different side to the story then you have a chance. If you don't, then bullshit wins every time.

If you can say: well, there are x many jumps here, these problems with y are just a freak occurrence, then that is what statistics are good for.

Nothing to do with surviving, that's a different topic :)

This is to do with making sure the objects are still open once my kids are old enough to jump them with me.

Same same but different

There i no hope for humans, we are all doomed, and we are all going to die

Yeah, statistically the survival rate for life is zero

However, statistic for basejumping do not look to good, if you do not only look at organized events isolated. Kl tower and petronas now 30 000 jumps no fatalities? Kjerag heliboogie, Voss Extreme sport week, Spain Bali, so on. Those numbers is easy to collect, and use for valid statistic.

Not that I want kids, but I don't jump yet, and it's frightening to think all you reckless fuckers closing shit down. While there's still some big legal sites left, I want my turn!

But seriously, to the traditionalists this will probably sound like some mass conforming, and go against the roots of BASE etc. but, and I'm quite a traditionalist when it comes to things I take a passion in, if BASE can evolve, for better or worse, with technology and knowledge, perhaps the ethics can evolve too.

On one hand you've got a (now) large bunch of guys whoring themselves over the internet for fame and/or money, and the greater population enjoying seeing this (including most jumpers too), and then you've got the others, the majority, who keep it low key.

One way or another, jumpers can't bury their heads in the sand; this will not make any positive impact.

The one thing all jumpers have in common, I presume, is the desire to keep places like the Valley and the Bridge open. Eventually, these may be under real threat.

Perhaps something like this, is exactly what BASE needs in order to be ready for a more heated, more widespread attack in the future. Maybe waiting for it to come, then not having any empirical evidence on the sport's safety is the lazy, dumbcunt way to approach this. But Maybe not. What do I know, I only skydive.

I say put up a poll!

im sure stats could be used for good but they sure can be used for bad, what if it turns out we are a bunch of unsafe weirdos and they have the stats to prove it?

As someone thinking of getting into BASE in the future I would welcome the statistics even if the uncertainty of them is high

Currently the only reference I have for fatalities is that on the BFL
There is a good break down of these done by cause/object etc. but it is missing the number of jumps that occur from each object.

Most fatalities occur on E jumps but it would be interesting to be able to quantify that these are say 10(?) times more dangerous than S. Might make people think twice before going off to the vally with very little experience.

Has anyone put together graphs that graphically show the BFL. I remember seeing an infographic somewhere. If not I may put something together myself

WS have definitely been claiming the most people in recent years but i am more interested in minimizing the risks on traditional jumps

Every site is different, and needs to be evaluated along with the jumpers skills and weather conditions. If you need numbers to give you a (false) sense of security about particular types of jump then it's not the right game for you.

The biggest thing killing jumpers in the last few years is the jumpers themselves, not inherent dangers in the object they jumped. Poor risk assessment / over estimating their skill level and underestimating the danger. This is being feed by a hunger for fame, glory and in some cases money.

To the original poster the stats probably won't show base jumpers to be as safe as you might hope. LB gets a mix of jumpers and has a mix of jumps, I think the fatality rate was estimated to be 1 per 100 visitors in 2011 or 2012. This is only interesting as a comparison to somewhere like Kjerag where the stats are also reasonably well know but access is more restricted because of the logistics, cost and weather may also play a factor.

Paul is on the money, if you want stats to show how safe base CAN BE get the stats from the organised events and preferably leave anything with Epic TV & RedBull out of them, but don't expect the media to be convinced by that when WingSuiters are flying into cliffs all over the place next summer.

Know your limits v Push your limits; I'll give 2013 to Push your limits.

KL 2010. BFL158. Sorry. R.I.P.

That was another event and place.

Events with fatalities as I remember, Bridge day, El Cap, Jin Mao, Baffin, Heli base, WWL, At least 8 fatalities I can remember, which will give a total of how many pr jumps? Bridge day around 400 jumps each year for 30 years?

roughly numbers total world wide all events together (wild guessing) 50 000 jumps?

Kl and many other events have been lucky there have not been any fatalities. Real lucky.

BLF158 is a bit misleading.
Alor Setar and Kuala Lumpur are in two different states. It cannot be both. The fatality happened at Alor Setar which is in the northern part of Malaysia.

There has never been a BASE jumping fatality at KL Tower or even in Kuala Lumpur.

My apologies...to you and 434.
Frank.