I don't have 1 hair on my ass unless I start

[gantech]

OK...I've watched every single BASE video on you tube and Google Video and
extreme. I have read every thread I can find. I know the proper way to proceed. This Saturday I will go to the local DZ, pay some money. Start classes. Soak up every good thing I hear like a sponge. I will get my 100 + jumps. Then and only then will I look for a BASE mentor. I have looked at all the statistics and know it is more dangerous to drive to the DZ than to jump there. I just have 1 question.... How the hell did Slim, with all his know how and experience...go in??? How the F@#K does that happen. Why does that happen??????????

Thanks to everyone here.

Mark

[Mac]

Why does that happen??????????

...because even when the conditions are right, you are well prepared, you do everything correctly, the random black death factor may just bite you in the arse anyway...

I have read every thread I can find.

I dont think you have, you would not have asked that question if you had.

Look at the BASE fatality list some more....

I've watched every single BASE video on you tube and Google Video and
extreme.

Oh my....

[gantech]

Originally Posted by Mac

...because even when the conditions are right, you are well prepared, you do everything correctly, the random black death factor may just bite you in the arse anyway...

....That random black death factor is the thing to come to grips with.
Same random black death factor that strikes someone with lightning, gives a 3 year old leukemia or other numerous calamities that occur randomly. I understand what you are saying. It's just a mystery to me that if the same
jumper jumped KL 5000 times with his/her chute packed exactly the same way, throwing the PC at the same time with weather conditions the same etc, that one of those times he/she could go in.

[stitch]

So you still don't "see" how random things can happen with parachutes??

Start skydiving and you will find out.

[gantech]

Originally Posted by stitch

So you still don't "see" how random things can happen with parachutes??

Start skydiving and you will find out.

You're right. I start saturday and sometime this next year I'll probably "see" all too well. I know one thing in my head...but it will take experience to "feel it in my gut"

Thanks for the advice

[Mac]

take experience to "feel it in my gut"

Does sense not tell you that throwing a **** load of material with a **** load of lines into a disturbed airflow will have random unexplained happenings no matter how well you pack it everytime?

We pack to encourage a certain type of opening, we dont/cant pack to guarentee that opening...

[Mike303]

Originally Posted by gantech

and know it is more dangerous to drive to the DZ than to jump there.

You've been spending way too much time on dorkzone.com trying to make yourself feel all warm and fuzzy about the risks involved with skydiving and BASE.

[gantech]

Originally Posted by Mike303

You've been spending way too much time on dorkzone.com trying to make yourself feel all warm and fuzzy about the risks involved with skydiving and BASE.

Mike303.

Yes, you're right...I admit it. When you look at the statistics, skydiving (not BASE) appears pretty safe. The more I read the more I lose that fuzzy, warm feeling. It appears there is a million things that can (and do) go wrong. I just have to get comfortable with the fact that no matter how hard I train, how much I learn, how "perfect" my setup is...I can still go in on any given day.
Sure this is fun and exciting...blah blah blah....NO this IS serious ****. It doesn't matter if 1 out of 100,000 jumps goes in...if you're that 1.

[Mac]

...and the longer you are in the sport (skydiving) the more you will see go wrong. I have been to multpile funerals, a good few of my friends have femured in, or tib and fibbed, or done their pelvis in. Then you get to BASE, where as most of my friends sport some sort of metal work inside them (including myself), I have personally known a couple of people that have gone in, I have been in electronic contact with a good few of people that have gone in.

We dont try and scare people, we dont try to say how look how cool we are doing something dangerous, we are just ****ing sick of going to funerals or visiting hospital beds (as visitors and as patients) of people we care about. So when some yahoo comes in wanting to take up BASE you can see why we try and tell you what to do that will minimise your chances of the friends you make on the way loosing another friend. This is one reason I dont like making new friends I see as a potential liability in skydiving or BASE as I dont want to get to know them just to put on another black suit for a day or pay the charges at the hospital car park each day.

Do what you want, but dont expect people to be your friend along the way.... most people dont want to be friends with a potential grid reference...

Gravity does not give a toss who you are, he will bite your arse if you dont get a stalemate in the battle one day...

[gantech]

Thanks MAC for all the insight. I guess I don't have any hair on my ass because I've decided that for me, personally, the risks are too great to justify my participation. I read THE LIST for the third time last night and the real tragedy is for those left behind. I've got 2 little girls 5 and 6. Now why should I put their future in jeopardy? Now granted, the random black death factor can get me in innumerous other ways, but why should I give it one more arena in which to work? I'll keep reading this forum and hopefully go to bridge day to observe. I'll admire you guys from afar, and take my hat off to the sport after every successful jump. Maybe if I would have gotten the urge years ago before so many responsibilities erroded my free time my guts and my money.

Take Care

[Mac]

've decided that for me, personally, the risks are too great to justify my participation.

Excellent! Someone has taken on board things we have said and thought intelligently about the sport!! AT F'IN LAST!!!

I've got 2 little girls 5 and 6. Now why should I put their future in jeopardy?

That is such a nice thing to hear. I know people jump when they have kids, and I respect that choice, but for me, the day I have children is the day I stop jumping (I think, at this moment with out knowing how the drive will actually take me verses the internal feelings of having a kid).

The reason I say this is that my GF chooses to be with me even though I BASE, my family are grown ups who although they dont choose to be in my family accept what I do with logic, my friends are all BASE jumpers or skydivers (except maybe a handful that are not that close to me), but my (future) children who will actually depend on me have no choice, and I would never add additional risk to leaving my children fatherless because of a sport which, lets be honest here, is one of the most selfish acts that one can do.

Many BASE jumpers (not so much skydivers) have given up due to becoming a parent, but some also dont... I am not saying that they are right or I am right, it comes down in the end to what YOU feel right.

[gantech]

MAC,

I never would have believed it, but kids really do change everything. I thought people who said that were FOS but it's true. They change everything.
What you used to accept as the norm is now out of context for children. You become superfluous. It is now all about them. You become (believe it or noti)
insiginificant...an appendage for them. ...You won't mind...wait and see.
And it's worth it.

[maggotrules]

Dude
theres no need to spend money to learn to BASE jump Ill teach u for free
Ill take u on Tandem teach u how to fly a parachute give u a few PCAs of a bridge and i promise u nothing will happen to u
except for the fact that u will be supper cool
hell ill even throw in some NINJA training
the main thing is not to listen to all of the ****ing pussy's on these forums there just pissed off because im really really good looking and get laid all the time. not to mention im ****ing ninja

with my school I can garutee u a base # with in 2 weeks of your first jump

[gantech]

Originally Posted by maggotrules

Dude
theres no need to spend money to learn to BASE jump Ill teach u for free
Ill take u on Tandem teach u how to fly a parachute give u a few PCAs of a bridge and i promise u nothing will happen to u
except for the fact that u will be supper cool

with my school I can garutee u a base # with in 2 weeks of your first jump

Dude...you DO rule! Thanks for the offer but I'm still "layin low" at the moment. If anything changes for me in the future I'll get back to you.

[Faber]

Maggot
Again you promise stuff you cant keep
First off you promise a tandem jump as far as i know your banned at most dz´s in your area.. doing facelandings on tandems aint the way not even if they through up at you..

Then you promise to give them their BASE# whith in 2 weeks..
First off i heard you burned most of your objects,you still need a packer as you dont know how to do it your self..
second if your PCAíng the student whos gonna pca you? i didnt think you were abel to SL as of yet..
Getting the # in 2 months dosnt mean you went up all 4 objects just to climb down again..

Come on dont promise stuff you cant keep..
Gantech,you might rather drink the beers your self(yeah maggot usaly demand that you pay his beer and food,no leftovers..).