Basejumper.com - archive

I have recently read a few quotes from experienced jumpers about fear - and how real it is for them.

The first time I really felt "true fear" was the first object I did that I had planned myself and jumped alone (except groundcrew) - and it was also the lowest I had ever done. Alone on top of my "A" 220' above my friends. I truely experienced absolute fear. I questioned what on earth I was doing there and thought about many many things. (obviously GC were getting annoyed by this time) This really was the real deal and what BASE means to me. You are alone and this should be for you and only you. I wish I was more of a writer as I could explain all the things I was thinking - but alas I am an accountant so cant communicate with human beings!

I only lost the fear when I "accepted" what i was about to do and got onto the edge - then I was so very much relaxed - The jump went well - but did not get laid that night so all in all a reasonable and not great day!

I wondered if the more "experienced" jumpers could relay some of the more "fear" enducing parts of BASE - cause I never imagined that I could feel fear like that until then - trouble is I like it - but can see why people stop jumping after 10 or so jumps.

Anyway - bored at home injured and slowly getting drunk!!

Be Safe................. be scared....

M

I can only reply to my self.Im scared evrytime i climb,i feel fear while im cheking my gear the least time.When it done and im on my way to jump.I feel nothing,the world just stop.Only my count 3 2 1 C YA and my attention to the jump are in focus.Then i trough my pilot chut,and i start feel my heard pumping,it tops when the canopi inflates.It feels like a lokomotiv driving around in my body.I can have that feeling up to 15minutes,then i start feel wery confomtabel.I get a smile at my face like i just had sex.For me its all thouse feelings that takes me to the object.I love the discous to my self about i should jump or not.I do belive its fear,but i some how turns it around so its a plessent feeling for me.And yes im not always vind the discous whit my self,then i just walk down again.
Maybe its becours im newbie i feel it this way?idont know,but i love it

Never been busted during a jump (yet), but I "FEAR" getting busted. oops, I thought I wasn't afraid of anything. i guess I was wrong. I admit that freely, and openly.

I was wrong.

So, I "FEAR" getting busted on a jump.
If you want some more insight into fear, let me throw out an idea, of course, "Not to be tried by anyone"
Try SOLO jumping. True SOLO jumping. Tell noone where you are going, or what you are doing. Tell noone what you did. Just go do it. Real fear comes in last part, where you are all alone on the exit point contemplating life. Then, you will realize if you want to BASE jump or not. Or BASE jump with ground crew or not. Or BASE jump without other BASE'rs. Sure, jumping in groups can be fun, but can also lead to "Complacency"
And I heard a rumor somewhere that:
"Complacency Kills"
Peace,
Thomas

in my car I've got "complacency is the enemy" just below my visor on the windshield.

true, true.

Real fear is watching someone you love battle a sickness which may or may not kill them... and being totally helpless to do something about it.

'Spose some could say that about BASE.

The thing that scares me most noawadays is the phone ringing late at night. Too many phone calls with the words beginning "I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but xxx just went in."

Those calls leave permanent scars.

Peace,

D-d0g
ddog@wrinko.com
www.wrinko.com

i'm no base jumper (hope to make some jumps soon, but not too soon), but what you said here sounds really hardcore and (don't take it to serious, 'cause i understand you 200%, 'cause this is probably on of the ultimate kicks in base jumping) STUPID!!!! ok, you could go in and dye and no one would find yuo for a while, that's not such a problem, the worst part is, that you could injure yourself just a bit, but enough to not be able to get help, thus S L O W E L Y dye in pain...
just a thought, but as i said before, i understand you 200%

Im NOT proud of jumping alone(most my jumps are so),but i would like to give MY oppinion on this.
First.Its stuppied to go alone(yes talking against my self,i know.).
Seccond.IF you deside to go jumping alone(when i say alone,i mean no groundcrew os so),Have a contact.I ussaly use my gf to this.If i havent called back whith in the time i give her,she will call rescue to the object.

I agree to you Thomas, i do also belive that groups can put a pressure on people,but they also can support and help in safty issues.

Well this has good idea written all over it!

I know a CO jumper that did just that. Then, 3 days later, a friend got really lucky to go to a jump site where he likes to go, and found him very busted up, frost bitten, and had some frontal lobe damage.

That is the stupidest thing I think you can do!

The closest I've come to jumping alone is waiting at the top of an object and then jumping when my partner shows up. The reason I choose to not jump alone is cuz of BUST factor. Let's say you break an ankle on landing or even a compound fracture, I better knock on wood, only injury in 50 jumps is slight twist of ankle. Now when it comes time to call your emergency contact, what do you do? If you have a simple fracture then yeah, all you do is wait for your contact to show up. But if you're in really bad shape and the real emergency personel have to show up then not only have you hurt yourself but now you've brought heat onto an object that maybe other jumpers might not appreciate. I can understand the rush to jumping alone, I've paddled out alone in some pretty heavy surf, which while dangerous, at least I'm not worrying about if I drown our get hurt that I'm gonna cause the beach to be shut down to other surfers.
Of course if you're jumping a legal site then I agree with Mick. Unless you trust your contact in an emergency situation, it's better to at least have ground crew that knows the quickest way to nearest hospital and at least basic CPR.

If you are in a shape where you need to contact emergency,it dossent matter if your freinds are there..I really hope that IF you get hurt that much,then your freinds wont move you,it could then harm you.Injuri/death happens what ever you are alone or not.
I do agree,that the best would be if freinds/ground crew could move you.But ONLY in the case that it dosent make the injuri worse.

Edited pert:
Just read what i wrote.Ofcours it would be good to have some one to give cpr.But els cant they matter in that peice(if you get that F##### up)

Very good statement. I think ALL BASE jumpers should do some serious thinking and talking with their "potential" ground crew. Sure, most of my friends SAY that they want to come with and watch, and most also SAY that they will do whatever they need to IF that situation occurs, but I trust very few people this responsibility.
Seriously, what is a request of ground crew? STRIP THE RIG off my dead body, then leave me there, and go home and make an anonymous phone call to call in the artillery.
This way, a BASE rig is not involved, and my friends do not have to be involved with the police questioning if they play their part well. People WILL believe that I just FELL off the tower. or jumped with no rig.
BUT, I have very few people in my life that I trust would actually be HARDCORE enough to leave a dead friend behind. Some people may think of respect issues (never leave dead behind), but respect for me WOULD BE to leave me behind.
That's a tough thing to ask anyone. Ground crew. hmmmm.....it is a good idea, but I have some different thoughts on it.
of course, if you have been reading any of my posts, you will notice I don't always share what "Society" calls a good idea.
Peace,
Thomas

As a person who has not jumped BASE, I might not understand the importance of the "site-intimacy." I understand trying to avoid bringing heat to the object, but somewhere you have to set the line also.

Ethically thinking it maby would not be such a huge crime to conceal the actual events, but by the law it is a serious crime to perpetrate.

If someone from your family would die would die would you consider the reputation of his "hoppy" (what ever it was) as a priority over the cause of his death ?

Also, I would not consider the authorities so stupid that they wouldn´t notice the actual events...

gee thomas. you're pretty 'hardcore'.
I would allow myself to be questioned, investigated, or otherwise "inconvenienced" for anyone I call a friend enough to jump with (and I won't jump with Thomas). Call me sentimental, but BASE is not about rebellion or proving to the world I am insane. BASE is about (among other things) good times with good friends, challenging myself and my fears, and learning to control my mind and body in the face of sometimes grave danger and ludicrous amounts of endorphins coursing through my body.
I don't let what others say affect whether or not I jump, but if I ever go in on an illegal BASE jump, My friends know they are welcome to my gear if they want it, but I DO NOT want it looking like I jumped w/o a rig. Life insurance doesn't pay for suicides, but most DO pay for accidental death such as in a BASE incident. I at least want some insurance company to fork out a few hundred thousand dollars to my family and friends...
Until then, I'll take solace in the fact that when I push my personal limits on a given BASE jump, I do it on my terms, and have at least a 'slight' idea what I am doing. Thomas, I wish you could say the same. Keep butting your head against the wall dude, I'm sure it will fall down on the next hit.

If someone goes in - its now game over - I dont give a shit about police or burning - my friend is dead and i have the respect for him and his family to stay and deal with the shit as it happens.

I would not jump with someone who would not do the same with me.


Be Safe........... be having respect for the people you jump with........

M

Well spoken. I have to wonder about some people (<cough>Thomas<cough>) who blather on about how hardcore they are in the event of a fatality. . . but have never been part of a fatality.

Those of us who have lost friends in BASE - and who have been present during fatalities - can't help but think that his sort of chest-beating, testosterone-substitute comments on fatalities are somehow insulting to folks who have died in our sport. For someone who is constantly threatening suicide, I'd think Thomas would understand that death is no joke. Or maybe not. . .

There is simply no way to describe the flow of events around a fatality - particularly one involving a good friend - to those who have not been there. And, for those of us who have, I think we all sincerely hope that blow-hards and good-intentioned souls alike will never actually have to face that reality. There's nothing "fun" or "cool" or "hardcore" about it. It just hurts, terribly. And it keeps hurting for a long, long time.

Peace,

D-d0g
ddog@wrinko.com
www.wrinko.com

Hi,
First of all, let me say that if anyone goes in on a load I'm a part of, I'm staying. Simple as that. you can arrest me, charge me, convict me, and sentence me. I can live with that. What I can't live with is knowing I'm leaving a brother or sister alone in the dark cold night because I don't want to deal with the situation. And besides that, I'm an EMT and abandoning a patient, dead or alive, pretty much goes against everything I stand for.
So what are the probable events that will occur after a fatality? Say you go in on an illegal object, what are the legal consequences for the other jumpers on the load, and the groundcrew?
Either way, like I said, I'm staying.

Stay safe out there. ---Dex
dexterbase@hotmail.com

I'd stick around and suffer the consequences as well, whether it be a long time jumping buddy or a new one. The only point I was trying to make is that our crew has decided where our line is when it comes time to call rescue. If it seems to be only a break, then get ready for the bumpy ride back to the hospital. If it's something more serious then we all now our plan. One of us stays with the injured breathren until help arrives while the others whisk themselves and gear away. We all accept this knowing that in some places we could ultimately be facing some sort of manslaughter charge. Now this is what I really fear, locked up and goin thru a nasty trial like that.

Even though it may offend some, I'm not saying this out of some misguided sense of machismo - it's because of my own personal beliefs.

If I go in on an illegal object, my personal preference for my friends to leave me be. Get any evidence of my jumping out of sight - take my rig and helmet off and do the smart thing and take off. Leave the object open and jump it again, remembering good times we had. Doing that would be more important to me. It'd give me more chance to live on than if you stayed with my empty shell.

Of course I'd expect you to do the right thing and tell my family and friends what happened, tell them how I went doing something that I loved, but also appreciate that I believe that I am more than just a body. In that scenario my family would need to have some idea why I went. As the last person with me you would have some idea what I was thinking/feeling as I left this life.
If you do feel a need to stay with me, then do that for yourself. The minute I pass I am no longer my body, I am everywhere else.

It's just a personal preference that relates to my beliefs - I'm more worried about the people I leave behind. But by the time it gets to that point, my body is no longer 'me,' it just 'was' me.

At the same time, I'd always respect the wishes of any of my friends. No matter how different they are from my own beliefs. If they said stay with em if they go in no matter what, then I'd definitely do that. Judge if you want, not everyone would understand and we're all the same in that we're all different.

Just my two cents.

With al respect for your opinion, I'm wondering-no offense-..:
what would you do if it's not you but someone else on the load. Someone who may not have the same thoughts about this situation.
Would you grab his gear and leave, find his family to tell you left him behind?


Again, I'm just wondering how you would act when it's not you but another jumper.

Mentioned that in my last post:
"...I'd always respect the wishes of any of my friends. No matter how different they are from my own beliefs. If they said stay with em if they go in no matter what, then I'd definitely do that..."

It's something i've asked everyone I've jumped with

Must have read it too fast.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself....

unless its a NPS ranger with a taser.

booby trap my body for the nps to find.

Dude, whether they find base gear or not, the object is still burned. Somebody jumped, they'd (maybe) assume a suicide, and they'd increase security. So in that case, you are just wanting your friends to get away safely. No harm in that i suppose, but gear is just gear. stuff. Personally, i'd stay behind and make sure that my friend's body was treated with respect. just my $.02

Depends on the object as to what effect my going in makes and if I had a canopy out when I hit whatever it was that killed me.

Real fear...my first wingsuit base, suppose to have a buddy going for sunrise, but he over slept and I decided to solo it. Took about ten minutes to clear the shaking fear out to jump with a clear mind. I was very scared to say the least, but once in flight it was probably the happiest i have ever been in freefall.