Basejumper.com - archive

Hello, who was the first person you knew who went in,,,?
For me, Tom Manship, BFL 94
Met him in Twinfalls when he used to be finished for the day around 11:00 am after 4 jumps to pack his rigs and start to do stuff people do when they are retired :-)

Duane Thomas
#84
12 years today

I have one of his business cards somewhere :)))

Jeb Williams, BFL 13.
November 16, 1986.
He motivatated me researching BASE.
Take caew,
space

#27 Joe Shaw

What is the point of this thread?

Dick Pedley BFL#21 12/19/89 I knew Dick from the DZ I had made 8 BASE jumps when it happened.

Youre all old men compared with me I guess. I had met Shannon BLF #100 when I first moved to california, but before I was jumping. The first person I had actually jumped with was Shane McConkey #133, the first person, and not the last, I would consider one of my best friends was Shane Murphy #190.

I scrolled through the list for the purpose of this, and its remarkable how many dead people I know at this age for having no military ties.

Same - very inspiring jumper

Darcy Zoitsas #92, first person on the list I had talked with, never met in person though. (Not sure if that counts)

i think this can be classified into three categories, in some cases the answers will overlap.

first person you met who ended up perishing due to base jumping.

first person you knew well enough to hug that isn't with us due to base jumping.

first person you witnessed or were at the exit/lz while they went in.

I met Wioletta briefly before i heard she went in the following season.

Josh Sheppard did my first flight course in my phantom 2.. did some great jumps with that talented and noble flyer.

and that Coleman dude at HU earlier this month was closest i came to seeing a fatality, and by all accounts it was a fatality but for the miracle that he survived somehow.

i think the point is to remind us of humility and take a break from feeding the awesome captain stupid ego that brings us closer to the reaper every video we watch.

also to honor the fallen that have touched your life in a pretty traumatic way since they were the first to teach you a valuable lesson.

Sadly present for #100 day before my FJC, but

LeRoy was first I shared jumps with and were friends.

Not totally sure of the order without looking but the first jumper I met in person who would later bounce was Shannon/100/grill fall down

First I witnessed was Brian Schubert

Closest to me personally, hug-worthy, JVH.

First I thought this was a strange question. Then it made me think and I had to check the list. I had to think of the people who I knew that went in.

The first one I knew was Thor Alex, BFL #44. He was a high profile jumper but never known for pushing it (except maybe his tandem jumps ). His fatal jump was a surprise to many of us.

I also spent a couple of days with Ulla-Stina, BLF #40. I didn't know her before meeting her in Lysebotn but had known of her since I started skydiving in -84 when she was the national security officer of the Swedish Skydive Association. It was really nice to finally meet and hear her stories from when the Norwegian Skydive Association tried to force her to ban all swedes who BASE jumped. She refused. She also refused to get proper BASE instructions in Lysebotn. We tried to talk to her but her mind was made up. A couple of days later she went in.

Back in the days each BASE fatality was getting a lot of focus from most BASE jumpers. We really wanted to know what happened. We tried to learn from it. Nowadays it seems to be more statistics, we don't really learn anything from it. Some accidents are not even mentioned in this forum. It's sad.

/Micke
BASE 268

Gabi Dematte. A very sweet woman. I think it was 2003 when she left.

Lori Barr #65 was my first body recovery mission. Although I didn't know her.
Then a couple of weeks later #66 Nik Hartshorne went in just moments after we took a photo of the two of us at Nose 2. Watched him from start to finish and was first to him. The irony for me was the fanny pack he always jumped with filled with various good luck charms. It was still with him.

Rob Tomkins was my first mate, Sep 2002.

You think about what could have been accomplished in those 14 yrs since? Meet a girl, have a kid, settle down.....life is full of lost opportunities, usually accelerated by death.

Interesting question Michi as we have just gone over # 300.
For me it was Carl #7 the legend, but I made my first jump with "Dead Dave " #20, and made most of my first few hundred with Bremo #43, then the list just turns into a who's who of people I have stood on exit points with, Tom, Nick, etc. and way too many good friends in the last couple of years....

Stay safe,

Regards, B.

Jimmy Hall #113. I had just finished my FJC and was on a base trip to the mainland US prior to his death.
Jimmy Hall was also was the catalyst of Nick D stopping the " list " because Claire and Jimmy Holiday were whiny little bitches about the list.

I appreciate the current author for keeping it alive.

Darrell Dunafon #143. My jumping partner for most of my jumps.

Love you brother!

BFL #114 Mad hatter human catapult designer Jean-Marc Mouligné.

I was very sad but not very surprised. He was an incredibly nice and completely insane guy.
He got me my first job in the film industry; I pretty much owe him a career.
Then Shane, Geo, David, Bertrand...
I stopped jumping in December last year. It was a very hard decision to make. BASE has helped in many aspects of my life; mostly depression. Still, figured I had had a good run and it was time to give it a break.

I knew Allisyn 'Anne' Beisner-Martinez (152) from the dropzone. This happened right before I started jumping.

Fernando Motta (203) was the first person who went in who I had jumped with.

Leroy was the first I had shared jumps with, shortly thereafter Darrell in AZ.
Pete (BFL174) was the first really close friend and since then there's been another dozen or so that I knew and shared jumps with, many of which were good friends :(
this is a sad thread, why am I here

We have always played the game "who is next",

I think lithium in the water would improve the statistics.

I met Darcy #92 on my second trip to Norway and watched him go in while standing in the main landing area.....very hard to witness.

I met and jumped with Coombsey #99 in Norway a couple of seasons. He was very influential in my early days of tracking on giving me some great advise. I'll never forget our slick 2-way off Smell #3 and looking over just after exit watching him sub-terminal track as Im sinking out....poetry in motion.

Shannon #100 was a really good friend of mine while I was living in NorCal. Many great memories of all those after skyjumping parties in Byron.

In 1988 I witnessed #17 by chance.
When I made my first BASE jump in '06 there was 103, a few moments later I watched #104 go in after meeting and talking to him.
I kinda knew #174
Grew up watching and reading about #256
It broke my heart to hear about #277

Tom Manship, #94 was first for me. Far too many have followed.

Theresa Tran, BFL #34. She taught me how to pro pack when I started skydiving. I had a crush on her.

I pulled the BFL up and started to count. I got to 30 people I knew as friends (not counting met once or knew of), 4 being present for, and 2 that will affect me for the rest of life.

If there is a god you can bet I am definitely throwing on the gloves and telling him to come at me bro.

Stephan Grossmann#96 he got me ready for my 3 jumps.
Coincidentally I was also very close to Wingsuit #96 Juerg Liniger.

I met Pete Certain #174 on September 2 on my second trip to the perrine. Early AM On September 3 I showed him the route to the steel. That afternoon he was dead.

I was close friends with Jerad Garnett. 219

I haven't jumped since Ian Flanders. 264. He was one of my best friends but it wasn't just that. He was just all-around better than me. I don't do WS base, if that's how he went, maybe I'd still be jumping. But he died on a slider up S. That could have been me.

I think it's easy to rationalize "I wouldn't make that mistake".

I 100% could have made that mistake.

We met in the Horner the night before. We didn't jump that day because there was lowish cloud in the valley and it was damp (may have even rained) but we heard the call for help on the radios and came to the site. I'd been jumping about a year and had 45 jumps.

Too many to count after that. The worst ones for me were Gus (#123) who I'd help progress in the early days, and Neil Q (who isn't on the list but died after a fall on the way to a jump).

Max Bond. #220.

He showed up at Elsinore with Velocity 84 just having little over 200 jumps. He was throwing 270s and 450s, and we all thought that he will hook in one day.

after #220, fck load of people that I know. Jim Hickey brough me back here a year ago, Jewbag brought me back here a month ago, and Polli brought me back here yesterday, only to find out Gage's death.

How come Brian Drake isn't on the BFL?

That was a flight from a helicopter

-
This Is a Weird Thread Posted for dwelling your personal thoughts on ghosts from the past .

Nick had his lucky charm bag full and always carried on jumps , also inside bag was his most powerful charm, his 'lucky Meteorite '.
Personally I don't believe in superstitions like lucky charms for safe jumps . To me It falls into the same category as 'rolling chicken Bones' and psychic telephone readings to tell your future .
BUT . Nick had this Gear Bag on that trip with him in Swiss. when went-in . After he died, Same Gear Bag was handed down to Dwain . The gear bag was actually pretty nice and clean and latter on Dwain packed his jump gear in Nicks gear bag and took with him to Colorado and then he went-in .
That Gear Bag was then handed down to me . Even though I DON'T believe in superstitions or lucky charms . That Bag to this day sits in bottom of my gear closet and I will never pack my gear and take it anywhere with me .

1st BASE jumper I knew who went-in . who also was 1st one who let me come and watch my 1st BASE jump, I guess that person also got me wanting and doing my 1st BASE jump was ( Seth Blake ) . but he Went-In doing a Tandem back in 1998 and actually not died in making a BASE jump .
I guess the 1st BASE jumper that I knew, and same time also jumped regular with for a few years, that also died while making a BASE jump, was ( Josh McVay ) #46 on the death list .
.

Rick Stanley, #12, 1986, day after bridge day. Still miss him and his brother Joe, RIP boys

Mike Warren #136 we jumped a heap of jumps in kjerag in 2009.
After a month I left for the valley he left for northern Norway and I repeatedly asked him to come down , he died the next day in a wingsuit over Bispen..

Since then so many close friends and people I had jumped with have gone...

Sad really and I keep coming back for more..

Frank Donnellan BFL#3. Best mate. Got me into skydiving and, briefly, BASE. RIP

Very worthwhile thread to re-examine the mistakes our friends have made as this sport has progressed.

If you study the BFL you will find only a couple of incidents of unexplainable bad luck, almost every incident carries with it lessons to be learned. Somewhere along the way it was human error, bad decisions...

Regards, B.

Not sure why you'd say that. God gives us free will, the consequences of exercising it is all on us.

And sadly B......
We find lessons that repeat itself.

Bill Frogge, #74. Watched him pound into the talus with nothing out at Echo Cliff in Moab.

From climbing I knew Xaver Bongard, Rob Slater and others long before I started BASE jumping. But Bill was the 1st I remember as a BASE jumper myself..

I was shocked when I got the call about Carl Boenish, although I didn't really know him.

But I remember driving home one day and hearing that a Canadian jumper from Kitchener had drowned in the New River after jumping from the bridge, and I had to pull over for a minute and wonder who it was. Once I got home I called the dz and found out it was Rick. His brother Joe was the one I had turned to for advice a couple of years earlier when I was going to start base-jumping. He convinced me to wait for bridge day rather than just going out and starting to jump off stuff on my own...

in 2010 I knew # 157 from way back when, but not well. We'd actually met up a few times a bridge day and realized we'd known each other earlier...

there was a time, around 2002, when I was really sort of scared to turn on the computer, so many people were going in that I'd been reading about on boards or messaging myself.

Tom was with me when I made my near fatal jump at Moab.... Jim

First one I knew was Schlefy (#56).

Then Stephan (#96), Edi (#107), Ueli (#140), Bernd (#142), Mirko (#165), Nico (#176), Herve (#186), Steffen (#210) and Uli (#278).

First base-related funeral I have been: Edi.

The world would be a brighter place if that all didn´t happen ...

Darcy #92

'knew' as in 'spoken to':

BFL #260

and this month:
#291 #303 and #305

Here's a crazy one I found when I was watching an old video. I had to edit the photo to fit, so the quality sucks but there's Fernando Motta #204 (this was his last jump alive), Amber Bellows #204 and her husband Clayton Butler (died speedflying), and Graham Hunt #255.

If that doesn't show the reality of this topic I am not sure what does.

# 27 Joe Shaw

Fukn loved Joe!!

Miss you mate !

G.

Here's another crazy one.

#262 Damian
#244 Gabriel
#258 Kedley
#269 Dennis

First person I knew who went in was #165 Mirko Schmidt .
First close one was #188 Andre Sementile and many more close friends after him.

Here's what's crazy to me: I only jumped for about 4 years. Did my last one in 2011, and I wasn't very active at all (which was one of the reasons I felt I better stick to planes). During my time, I probably shared an exit point with about 100 people. Definitely didn't speak to all of them.

But 6 of those I did speak to, hung out or was friends with, well...

#146 - Geo
#177 - Valentina
#193 - Wioletta
#208 - Paddy
#260 - Jhonny
...and Ludo.

1 in 16. That's my personal experience of the odds.

The first person I knew who went in on a base jump was #2, Larry Jackson. It was 1981 during the first jumps ever made at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. BASE #1 Phil Smith and I were invited because of our experience; he had 20, I had 4. The four others with us were all on #1. Larry was second to jump. We watched Larry make four mistakes in five seconds and hit the wall under canopy. My mom took a picture from the other side of the canyon. The rest of us jumped past him to ascertain his condition but he never moved after impact.

2. I knew #3 Frank Donellan.

3. I knew and base jumped with #4 Jimmy Tyler but not on his fatal jump.

4. I knew and base jumped with #7 Carl Boenish. He was my first base jump instructor and mentor.

5. I knew #12 Rick Stanley.

6. I knew #18 Mitch Reno.

7. I knew #34 Theresa Tran.

8. I knew #43 Bob Neely.

9. I knew and jumped with #48 Jan Davis.

10. I knew #49 Roger Butler.

11. I knew #63 Lee Werling.

12. I knew and skydived with #65 Lori Barr.

13. I knew and skydived with #71 Rob Tompkins.

14. I knew #72 Lucas Knutson.

15. I knew #85 Slim Simpson.

16. I knew #87 Erich Wagar.

17. I knew #94 Tom Manship.

18. I knew #133 Shane McConkey.

19. I knew #214 Mario Richard.

20. I knew #260 Jhonathan Florez.

21. I knew, skydived with, and flew in airplanes piloted by #262 Damian Hrdlicka.

22. I knew #303 Alexander Polli.

23. I knew, skydived and base jumped with Dwain Weston (killed when he hit the Royal Gorge Bridge after jumping from a plane). I watched him hit the bridge and his right leg landed three feet in front of me. (The rest of him landed on a high ledge under an open canopy.)

24. I knew and skydived with Eli Thompson (killed when he hit a ridge in Europe after jumping from a plane).

25. I knew Ludo Woerth and watched him fly over my judging station at the inaugural Tianmen Mountain Grand Prix (he was killed with Dan Vicary and Brian Drake after jumping from a helicopter and taking a too-flat route down a mountain).

This list underscores why I (and some of the other greyhairs) am grouchy and impatient when I see people who are too cool for school:

ignoring the tribal knowledge base to which many of these dead contributed in significant ways, and

disrespecting the dead by ignoring the lessons they paid for with their lives.

#34-Theresa Tran. All the guys at Perris loved her. She was a great kid.

#37-Magilla Gorilla Christman. I always loved jumping with him.

#39-Gary Dawson. He filmed our 4 way team a few times and was always around the DZ having fun.

#63-Lee "Skypunk" Werling. He worked for me at the Bent Prop in Eloy for a couple of weeks.

#71-Rob Tompkins. All the pretty ladies loved him.

#84-Duane Thomas. I loved him like a brother. We jumped Angel Falls together. What a character.

#140-Ueli Gegenschatz. I met him at the exit in Brento. He was the first dude I ever saw wing suit off a cliff. He was a great guy. He snail mailed me a picture of myself and Mark Kirkby at exit on a two way. Classy.

#219-Jared Garnet. He jumped at my DZ a week before he went in. He was on the infamous WS load that flew from the Oceanside DZ to Camp Pendleton. He hid. Others got arrested.

#220-Max Bond. He jumped at my DZ and always begged for a TI slot.

#224-Dr. Dave. Fun guy. Knew him for a long time. Great doctor.

#232-Adam Rubin. He jumped at my DZ. Such a fun kid, always smiling.

#249-Josh Sheppard. What a cool guy.

#253-Jim Hickey. I made skydives with him a lot when he first started. He was at my DZ a couple of weeks before he flamed in.

#260-Jhonathan Florez. What a human being.

#262-Damian Hrdlicka. He was like my brother from another mother. We were friends for years. He phoned me the night before he left for Europe. I told him if he got hurt on this trip I would kill him.

#263-Avi Schwartzberg. Such a nice kid. He always jumped at my DZ.

#264-Ian Flanders. Always at my DZ. Always up to something he needed my help with. Handsome. My wife loved him. His death sealed my base jumping fate with my wife and I am now retired.

#265-Fernando Goncalves. What a character. Always smiling.

#283-Kristin Czyz. I have jumped with her dad for 25 years. I think I have known her since she was 16 or 17. What a human being. The best.

#286-Chris Labounty. He jumped at my DZ. Always smiling.

#288-Jewbag. What can I say. What a character. I was proud of him for getting on the fire department.

I was also friends with Dwain Weston. We did a sit fly jump at Perris the week before he went to Colorado. Eli Thomson was a friend. Jonathan Tagle. Rami too.

Be safeish you guys...

Jimmy Tyler
then
Carl B
then
Mitch Reno
then
Dick Pedley
then
Too many more

Sigh

smart man
she was full-o-life and a beauty.

That was VERY GRIM viddy.
Glad I did not see what you saw.

Brian Schubert was a very close friend and the only person I ever witnessed going in. He and I jumped the El Capitan together some 12 years before fixed object jumping had a name. He was the best man at my wedding nearly 50 years ago, and we named our son Brian after him about 13 years later. We didn't get along perfectly in his last days on this Earth, but I will never get over losing him.

It is a sad thread, but it's part of what makes jumping special. By 1990 my brother and I listed 40 names of folks we had jumped with and were friends with some who had died from violent accidents. Most jumping, skydiving and BASE, but a few motorcycles, iron worker fall, etc. but no natural causes. Since then the BFL has gone nuts and I don't really care to count any higher.

Hey 44 forget that you know me would you just until I completely retire from BASE.
Thanks
Rick
38

First person I met was -43- Bob Neely

First fatality I was present for was -44- Thor Alex Kappfjell

First close friend was Eric Davis - committed suicide from a tower so technically he went in, he just didn't have a rig on. I miss that guy.

First fatality of a close friend that I was present for was -94- Tom Manship.

This thread makes me sad.

It makes me sad too, Jason...
Sad indeed.