Basejumper.com - archive

Just curious where people are making their first BASE jumps....

under the guidance of a mentor off of a non-local object. local to you, maybe, but not to me. and it wasn't the big one; rather, the small one.

Gardner

Speaking of objects local to me, did you know that the NPS allegedly staked out the 700'er shortly before Bridge Day 2003? They dressed as fishermen and had video cameras to document the jumps. Then, when the jumpers landed, they pulled out their guns on several jumpers.

If this is true, then it's really messed up when the NPS points a gun at you and arrests you at one bridge, then tells you to "have a nice jump" at Bridge Day a few days later. What a waste of tax dollars!! Some of the rangers in that area are OK, others apparently may still have issues with us.

My first one was at Bridge Day...though my next 10 were in I DA HOE

U DA HOE??

ME DA HOE?

I was lucky enough to have a friend with loads of frequent flier miles...he wanted someone to go to Norway with him.
My airfare was free, but my itinerary was brutal, with four flights to get there, 5 flights on the way back, and several *extremely* long layovers.
Well worth it, though!
-Josh

My first was a fluke. I had not jumped in about a year and was visiting a friend who I was going to go to the local DZ with for a jump. We woke up to low clouds and mist. I said "Let's go jump that A over there." When he said OK I about shit. For the next couple of hours figuring out how to freepack the lines and get a somewhat neat packjob into my
Wonderhog all I could think of was... How am I going to get out of this? This continued during the 1200' climb and for the next hour of knee knocking until I just went unannounced. This was on my Strato-Flyer, a 150' five cell that NEVER opened off heading. I made a few more with it and got another 5 cell called a Kestral which performed a little better and again never opened off heading. Took 18 years off and soloed a El big granite E to get back into it.

jon 593

Other: During a base camp run by a fellow skydiving instructor with 750 or so BASE jumps. The course was at a bridge in ID, and myself and another skydiver did around 30 jumps each in a week.

Price: $850 for instruction and gear usage
Extra: Travel, hotel, food
Total: $1500 and I left with 29 jumps under my belt, doing some stowed from 486, and 3.5s delays (ouch, but fun).

I voted "solo off a local object with no formal training."
Mind you, that was back in 1986 and it was a 600 foot high bridge surrounded by cow pastures.
A buddy and I read everything we could find about BASE jumping and interviewed a couple of guys who had jumped the same bridge.
These days a budding BASE jumper would be far wiser to learn under the tutelage of someone who had a few hundred BASE jumps.

If this is true, Jason, you have to tell us what happened... Did they lose their gear? Penalties?
What?

For the first few, four of us took our mentor out to the legal bridge in the western US (about 10-12 hours by car). Marta was also there being helpful.

I made my first jump the "old-fashioned way".

For 2 years, I read every single post on the BASE Board. (frequent posters back in those days were, Outrager, BASE 428, GoWayLow, Team Gargoyle, and even The Fox who came on-line a few years later)

Then I moved to Northern California and consistently, but politely, asked the owner of the BASE Board if I could ground crew for him. Being the anal-retentive geek that I am, I showed up for my first ground crew with a backpack that contained my own radio, a first-aid kit, and refreshments for the jumpers. Once the jumpers saw that, and the fact that I would drop anything on a moment's notice to ground crew, I became quite popular as a ground crew guy. I soon had several groups that would call upon me for ground crew.

I learned tons over the next 6 months. I hung out as much as possible with different groups of jumpers, soaking up every move they made and sorting out what I thought was right and wrong.
My mentor eventually took me to sites that had never been jumped before, and he would walk me through the analysis of the site. I was learning a lot, and was very happy for it.

When the phone rang early one evening in November, I had no idea that my life was about to change.

"Hello"

"Hi Bryan, this is Mick. We're going to ______ tonight"

"Cool. You need me to ground crew?"

"Nope, I was calling to see which one of my rigs you wanted to jump."

At that precise moment, time stood still.

At 3:30am that night, I made my first jump. 4 1/2 hours later, I was waiting on Consolidated Rigging's doorstep when Adam pulled into work and I ordered my first BASE rig.

I had tasted BASE, and knew that I had to have more...

Thanks Mick, it's been my life's greatest adventure.

Bryan

I've talked one of the arrestees and now the NPS. NPS says they didn't pull guns, arrestees say they did. I heard of guns being pulled in at least two separate BASE busts in that area over the years.

Rangers admit they were staking out the Gla** Cr**k LZ for BDay 2003 about the same time as a traditional ranger briefing that takes place the day before Bridge Day. Rangers say that in 2000, someone jumped the NRGB during this ranger meeting and the jumpers "might" have used the meeting to their advantage. Rangers think the jumpers timed the jump to coincide with the ranger meeting, although I told them it's probably a coincidence. Rangers were dressed in plain clothes also.

Anyway, the bottom line is that the NPS is apparently wasting your tax dollars on staking out various bridges in hopes that someone jumps.

I told NPS this is wrong. Maybe when I go on TV and radio this fall to promote BDay 2004, I should tell the public about this waste of tax money? Hmmmmm.

I don't think the jumpers have gone to court yet, but I'll letcha know what happens. They were charged with "illegal BASE jumping".

I'm very upset here in WV!!