Basejumper.com - archive

So what do you think the Birth Year of BASE is, 1966? 1976? 1978? 1981?

The word or the activity we consider BASE?

Appx, 2000 yrs bc. Why do you ask?
Take care, space

The same year it became illegal.. 1776

God bless 'merica

Nah.... George Washington was bullet proof. I am not joking. Google it. BASE jumping goes back another 2700 years be fore GW. I mean in recorded history. It could be earlier.
Take care,
space

To narrow it down... "Modern BASE Jumping". I'm not talking about jumping off a bridge or a big rock with skydiving gear. I'm talking about, ok, four objects, one seven cell canopy, big PC, etc etc...

I rather like 1966 as the birth year, but it was not our intention to start a new sport. We just wanted to do something exciting.

Whether 1966 was the "birth of BASE" or not, it was a pretty significant milestone event that should be celebrated. BIG Respect!

too many thin lines.

It's impossible to claim that only solid object jumps made on 7 cell canopies can be considered "Modern BASE jumps". 7 cells as we know them came on the market in the late 1970's, and there have been a good amount of fixed object jumps made prior to that time with rounds, a lot of time without wearing a bulky belly reserve.

so this is like debating toggles vs. risers :) - fixed object parachuting has been around for a very long time, but only got popular in the last 30 years and somewhat mainstream in the last 10 or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_neYidAwNs

Rod Law jumped the Statue of Liberty in 1912. He also jumped the Banker's Trust Building and the George Washington Bridge. This was to demonstrate Steven's parachute system. (He was also I believe the first to jump a float plane, also as a demo jumper for stevens). I haven't found anything that said Law jumped off an earth formation, but he was 3/4's of the way there... Law died of cancer before 1920 I believe.

There were also cliff jumps galore in the 20's and 30's using parachutes, at least 2 jumpers using motorcycles to ride off. Tranum jumped cliff and bridges (multiple, some in US and tower bridge in London) demonstrating for both Russell and for Irvin in the 20's and 30's.

Don't think Tranum jumped any buildings, but again, in the late 1800's there jumps INSIDE buildings to test parachutes (Tom Baldwin) and as a carnival show - Spencer brothers in London among other. (and the Baldwin Monkey)

For the record, I have never claimed to have invented fixed object jumping.

According to Jean Boenish and Nick DiGiovanni, who were both present at the moment Carl Boenish settled on the acronym "BASE" for the sport, it was our 1966 El Capitan jump that inspired him. I'm not sure that Carl's group knew any more than we did about the prior jumps in history. They certainly didn't know any more than we did about exiting into still air at the onset, but they did know that the El Capitan could successfully be jumped. What I claim is simply that we undeniably accomplished in 1966 exactly what Carl's group did in 1978, down to even the exact geographical location. Carl never claimed they weren't copying our previous jump nearly verbatim. His desire was to start an exciting new sport, which he certainly succeeded in doing. Carl was a visionary who saw what we missed - that we weren't unique in our quest for adventure, and that there would be countless like-minded individuals who would participate in BASE jumping as a sport.

Didn't US paratroopers kinda jump from towers in jump school during WWII? I believe I saw video footage of that once, but I can't quite remember if they jumped or if the canopy was inflated and released with them hanging underneath.

Im leaning more towards MikePelkey's "1966". Yes, several people have jumped from solid objects years prior to '66, however I am looking for the Birth Year of Modern BASE. When those other folks jumped from what ever, they weren't making a "BASE" jump. People have jumped from Airships in the past, prior to the "Modern Scene of Skydiving".

I'll go with 1966.

i think 66 was a pretty good year. but unfortunately for me i was still swimming around in my dads nutsack.

Base was borned when they made the word, and accomplished all 4 objects.

Is a cliff jumper who only jump cliffs an basejumper?

from footage I've seen the chutes were inflated and attached to wires, winched up and then released to float down along the guide wires. In fact I think these were used at Benning a lot later than WW2. I'm sure there are some airborn guys around to tell us.

That's fine. I just want to make sure that people don't have the impression all early fixed-object jumps were simply one-offs. Rod Law and John Tranum both demonstrate they weren't.

As I said, Law demonstrated Leo Stevens system off the Statue of Liberty, a building and a bridge in a summer before WW 1, and Tranum did cliff jumps at Canyon de Chelly and Table Rock in SA, and bridges in Cali and the UK in the period between the wars. Other demonstration jumpers (Bowen and Orde-Lees, maybe more) more than one demo off Tower Bridge as well, demonstrating the Guardian system. Tranum makes clear that he did the bridge in california for fun as much as anything else (he claimed to hold the highest altitude parachute record and the lowest at the same time)

And a Kiwi named Vincent Taylor jumped the Falls View Bridge illegally in 1927 during a North american tour and later made a jump from a bridge in Twin Falls (I'm guessing this bridge predates the Perrine Bridge) on the same tour. I believe he did other fixed-object jumps (bridges) on that trip as well, I'd have to check to be sure.

The tower at Ft. Benning, GA was my first 'jump' in '82. They are still in use as far as I know. I've always counted this as my first base jump. I did NRGB in '83 for my second.

They're 250' tall. The canopy is clipped into a ring and the apex clipped into the release mechanism in the center. You're hauled up and released to practice canopy control and, most important, PLFs. No guy wires after release. You're free and descending.

Nice thing about jump school is that we spent almost one week of three just on PFLs alone. After you learn your basic PLF form, you start stepping off 8' platforms in a hanging harness that swings from your momentum. SGT Airborne then picks the worst moment to drop you from about 6'. Backwards, forwards or sideways!

Jump school has saved my ass so many times!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv4OKJO6K2E

The Fort Benning Airborne Towers were still in use when I went through Airborne School in '99 and appeared to still be in use in '04, when someone using my equipment and resembling me may or may not have free-falled one of them. I'm pretty sure Sergeant Airborne had a big cup of Grumpy Cat in the morning when he saw a landing print and footsteps in his neatly raked sand.

Ah fuck! My whole reply got erased. Previous two posts.

Summary: we all know the Ft. Benning parachute club never Based the towers after a Saturday of Skydiving and a night of mass quantities of beer! Good soldiers don't do that... Oh, my bad. They're skydivers.... To hell with Sgt. Airborne"s kitty litter!

I was surprised to see everyone landing with rear risers pulled. Every skydiver on rounds knew that trick for decades! My first rig was a 23 foot Starlite after jump school. I figured that out quickly!

Airborne!!

Thanks for the video and the coulda been jump....

Ok, I'm thinking 1966, however, Since the BFL starts in 1981, and BFL#1 is to be considered the first fatality of modern BASE, would it be safe to say the BFL is wrong or 1966 is wrong..?

BASE numbers are awarded to those who have made at least one jump from each of the four categories (buildings, antennas, spans and earth). When Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield jumped together from a Houston skyscraper on 18 January 1981, they became the first to attain the exclusive BASE numbers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASE_jumping

Why make it so complicated? From this point there where basejumpers walking planet earth, and the history began!



You are not an base jumper before all 4 is done. Sorry guys, but Moonwalking did not start with Micheal Jakson, it was Neil!

So... BASE was born in '66 but didn't grow up until '81? So none of the deaths prior to '81 were concidered BASE related deaths just because they hadn't completed all four objects?

The first jumps is written down in china history books almost 1000 years ago. Why limit it to 1966?

Still to become a base jumper, you have to do all objects.

Yes I'm aware that many people, including myself, have used parachutes to jump from things. Back in 1975 when I made a parachute from a round kitchen table cloth and jumped off the roof of my house, I wasn't BASE jumping. When I put on my BASE rig and climb something to make a BASE jump, and I start my GoPro, and say 3, 2, 1 see ya and jump and rely on BASE specific techniques and equipment, then and only then am I participating in the sport of BASE jumping. Even if you live in Europe somewhere and you only jump E's(again, BASE specific terminology, an "E"), you are still participating in a sport called BASE jumping. BASE number or not, you are still BASE jumping. If a guy comes up with a high rise emergency escape parachute and demonstrates it out of a forty story window, he is not a BASE jumper and he is not making a BASE jump. Two different animals here.

I want to know when this sport went from an idea/plan to the point that 1981 was when we started with the BFL.

Well, BASE-specific gear and the Go-Pro hadn't been invented yet in 1966 as I recall. I guess that leaves us out of the running

What is this "go-pro" of which you speak?

It leaves you with a great piece of history before the term base was discovered. Respect to you and everyone else who had the dream and dared to follow it! If Carl was inspired by you guys, then me again was inspired by Carl!

So Thank you for what you guys did

August 8, 1978

It took three more years for Carl to put together the first trips to the Valley with the purpose of foot launching parachute jumps from El Cap. The new team consisted of Kent Lane, Mike Sherrin and Ken Gosselin, and that's the order they jumped in.

The date is August 8, 1978 and this is the actual birth date of "modern" BASE jumping. (Why we don't celebrate that day every year is beyond me)!
Source; http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/wiki/Timeline

Why don't you? I know plenty of people who do, so your own decision not to shouldn't be beyond you.

I just copy/paste that statement (as reference with source link). But thanks I think I will! Cheers!

So does anybody know why the BFL starts in 1981?

Are you aware of any BASE fatalities before 1981?

I'd be very interested in learning about them.

No I'm not. I didn't know there weren't, that is why I've been asking...