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Maybe I'm searching the wrong keywords but I can't find much. How does one go about approaching somebody that lives near an antenna? Whether it be for parking or landing area permission or whatever, do you take a chance that they might not be cool with it and are now aware or just keep hucking it at 4 am and walking back to the closest inconspicuous parking spot a mile away?

Beer usually works.

Some people approached us after an early-evening jump and invited us for a beer by their bonfire. We've been parking in their back yard and hanging out with them ever since.

I've offered to leave beer on the porch before. Some people are weird about that down here in the bible belt. Thanks for the input.

Ah, yeah. Regional differences aside, I'd just knock and ask politely.
I've always believed that 50% of people think that BASE jumping is neat, and as long as you're not destructive, would be okay with letting you park or land on their property.

And if not, just go back to the 4am jumps.

Jeez...what ever happened to actually being stealthy.... not so lazy ..... I'm sure you can approach the guy who never knew anything about it. Possibly he'll mention it to his neighbor and his nephew .... after you enjoy the cool crowd that start to gather for your weekly predictable outing... one day the wrong person(antenna owner, operator or worker on the stick , or better yet his unclue who's the sheriff ) catches wind of your activities......
Seems like a ton of unneeded attention .... that has potential to burn the object..... my question is ..... why? Do you need to regularly dayblaze the thing. Do you need the extra attention? Or are you just to lazy to do it the right way.
It's one thing if you have a run in with a neighbor, but seems silly to me to go seek out more unknown people to be involved in your illegal BASE jumps.

But hey....... what do I know ?

It can be worth it, but it depends on the object. There were a couple antennas that were too far away to be worth the night jumps as well as pretty remote with just one or two neighbors and I got permission to park on their property as well as a kind-of laissez faire attitude from them about the jumping. They thought it was neat, I explained that they had no liability and that I wasn't looking for permission to jump it but, rather, making sure they knew I wasn't up to something bad/destructive like thieving (and, subtly, that they wouldn't call the cops :p). I mentioned that I follow leave-no-trace, just climb over without disturbing absolutely anything, and would only be there briefly, just once or twice a month.

The best thing you can do is read the situation and body language of the people. There are some people that, before I even mentioned jumping or the antenna I decided to packpeddle and just asked for directions back to the interstate as an excuse and left.

If it was an object that more people would see you jumping from or if you don't have a plethora of other options for night jumps, then it's not worth it.

I generally agree with you. I'd much rather take the costs of moving around at 2 AM (isn't it more fun that way?) than risk losing it all together, possibly at the expense of people who will come there later.

That being said, I know several examples of social networking improving the safety and ease of use of objects, and it can eliminate more trouble than it causes if the circumstances are right. I don't think there's anything wrong with adding another arrow to your quiver. If the situation calls for it, asking permission can go a long way.

It might not be about being lazy. Maybe some people like to jump in the daytime.

I've spent most of my time jumping between 10pm-5am, and I can vouch to say its a nice change of pace to get a sunburn on an object every now and then.

Sure it can be a double edge sword, but I say fuck it. Go jump it and if/ when you know your going to engage the neighbor, be polite, be brief and tell them how its just something your crew does for a the hell of it. If it goes to shit, let it sit for a few months and go back to night jumping.

Being stealthy is fun and all, but sneaking around all the time sucks ass.

So does getting arrested. You never know what the legal system in America can cost you . You. Might not know the history of he object, or the attitude of the local prosecutor.
I think the sense of self entitlement these days really sux.... there are plenty of legal jumps in the world. If you choose to make illegal jumps.... try and do it with style. And I know... not everyone can travel to legal spots...... but in the big picture .... you can go to Moab, or the perrine, or Europe to improve your lighting conditions for your shitty go pro footage .
If you have a spot that you can even jump that's close by, for gosh darn sakes ..... why be lazy and bring down the heat . In my opinion .... every time you burn an object, let it cool off, and go back later..... your just stacking the chips against yourself and future jumpers of the object.


Believe me.... I jumped our "local" 2000 ft wall for 10 years(once to twice a year ... mostly when people would come to town) .... until it got heated up by another group. My first time taking the apex crew there , the rangers were waiting for us at the edge of the canyon. Federal court ... 2 year ban from national park, 1 year federal probation. A 1385$ fine, 3 visits to a federal courthouse 300 miles away, having to have a very very close personal friend explain he incident and cause headache when applying for their citizenship. All because someone else was sloppy .

Not that it stopped me from going back to cali-valley once in a while , as a close friend was the king of the valley. The only thing was that my potential penalties for being a two time offender went up way way significantly.

I guess my point is ..... until youve had to deal with your own sloppiness, or worse someone else's getting you wrapped up in headache that you don't need .... you probably won't understand..... it really sux to get yourself wrapped up into it ....... out of sheer laziness.. call it what you want .

Calculate if the risk is worth the reward. If it's your primary workhorse tower that you jump all the time, then maybe its not worth bringing attention to.

But if it's some tower out in butthole-ville, then go for it.

As long as you and your crew are all in agreement with trying to make it a dayjumper, I say go for it.

I've visited a dozen buddies all over the states that jump shit during the day. I'd ask them evertime "how did you know it was cool to jump this during the day?" The same answer came back everytime "We just jump it."