base jumpers in Ireland

[guest]

hi there,

my name is richard oakley, i am a journalist with a national sunday newspaper in ireland called The Sunday Tribune. I am trying to find Irish base jumpers to do an interview and i am also trying to find people who are planning to do a base jump in ireland if that is possible. i understand that any interview would ahve to be done on an anonymous basis and there is no problem with that. can anyone help? please e-mail me on roakley@tribune.ie with a phone number and i can ring you back, if necessary.

thanks richard

[guest]

Whats with all the sudden interest? I recieved a mail from the "Irish independent" recently looking for the same. I personaly have no interest in promoting that fact that there is any BASE activity going on here. Theres no point to an anonymous interview cos anyone who skydives here knows everybody who has ever, or IS currently BASE jumping. Were you looking for piccies too? Maybe you'll get lucky and get some carnage on film:*
If your looking to do a general article on BASE OR the participation of Irish jumpers in the sport {in general}, then say so and I'll give you a shout:+

[guest]

ok, ok, no need to be uppity. not all journalists are the spawn of satan and not all newspapers are into photos of "carnage" as you put it. yes indeed i would like to do an interview about the sport and about the number of irish people doing it, in fact that would be perfect. if you e-mail me i would be delighted to talk to you about that and to work out an article that you, as the person helping me, would be happy to see printed in a national sunday newspaper. As for the e-mail from the indo I can only say that i got the idea after watching a recent episode of Casualty where two Australian base jumpers had been injured while trying to climb to the top of a cliff somewhere in the UK. Maybe the person in the indo was watching it as well. you can get me by e-mail at roakley@tribune.ie or you can ring me on 01 6314308.

thanks richard.

[guest]

Yo Richard
Good luck with the article man, maybe you will have more luck than I had. Tried to put together a very positive ( for the base jumpers) story, but got such a bunch of flak from the guy's that I laughed it off.:-)

I'ts a bad 'no-one loves us', 'society and police are against us' world, but when someone tries something positive to help, they get flamed. Mixed up dudes ??

[base615]

sadly it comes from experience. A lot of us have done stuff in the past with the promise of being able to see the article/program before it goes out and "positive coverage" etc but have then been burned. A positive BASE article very rarely provides what people want to read I'm afraid and journalists wouldn't be doing their job right if they didn't give their readership what they wanted to see.

Craig

[MT]

Is he trying to tell me he loves me and that the cops are on really my side? :D

On a real note though, along the lines of what Craig said. It's not only from bad articles from your colleagues that we have learnt our lessons it is also from the bloke at a party who shows a great interest in what you do only to turn around after you have wasted your time trying to explain how great is is just to say "sounds a bit thick if you ask me". It's a very difficult sport to sell as anything other than stir crazy unless you really understand it and you wont really understand it unless you give it a go. 200 skydives first though (no smart comments on this one lads).

[guest]

With a name like Dalka I'm not surprised no-one took you seriously :*

[guest]

If the guy at a party turns around and tells his buddies it sounds a bit thick, maybe he should'nt have been at that party in the first place ? Or have you been at a whuffo's party telling everyone that you are a base-jumper ?

Secondly. base jumping is an easy sport to sell. It has awesome qualities for a well written article, in addition to stunning photographic potential. Not every journalist wants to tell a bad story. Thats a view that has been started by base jumpers.

Lastly, some journo's may have a far better understanding than you think. Like 17 years skydiving experience, not all of which involves being a follower of the 'basic rules'.

In short, I understand that a journalist with less than honourable intentions will be a problem, but on the flip side my friends, a journalist with a positive story to tell...a journalist who understands more than you may think...could just be one of the best friends the base community could have.
Think about it.

[guest]

Speak for yourself Skippy !

[guest]

Congratulations on winning over your new friends.

You must be somekind of ...Super Hack.

For someone who pushes a pencil for a living you don't seem to have the humilty to deal with people who induldge in activities which lie beyond the scope of most peoples imagination.

You must do something pretty awesome in your spare time to have nads that big. Hmmmmm. Am I right? No, didn't think so.

Something tells me the Irish crew made the right decision not to talk to you.

Go stalk a celebrity.

Don't write about it, go do it. That should provide a more insightful article...or have you no knackers?

[crwper]

"... people who indulge in activites which lie beyond the scope of most peoples imagination."

Seems a little self-important to me. I think it was Jakey who said... When you're sitting in the bar after that amazing jump, and you're looking at the people around you thinking how none of them has any idea what you've just done, you have to remember that the guy sitting next to you might just have returned from soloing the Eiger...

Maybe the guy sitting next to you just witnessed the birth of his first child. And you claim that what you do is beyond the reach of his imagination? Get over yourself.

Michael

[guest]

To 'Your consience', I do not write anything for a living. I teach AFF, and fly camera to earn my dollars.

But I guess thats all a bit mickey Mouse for a super-hero base jumper like yourself.

If you want to look beyond the scope of most peoples imagination, try spending a few years winning on Arizona Airspeed in 4-way FS, or constantly design new canopies like John La Blanc of PD, or as Michael put it, try soloing the Eiger or climbing grade 5 13d, in other words, anything that requires hundreds of hours of preparation and skill !

do'nt kid yourself, what you do is a piss in the ocean when it comes to 'things beyond imagination'.

[guest]

Your talent for missing the point is truly impressive. I don't think John LeBlanc needs you jerking him off on the BASE Board. Same for the past and present members of Airspeed (and for every team that tried hard and *never* won). And for all the mountaineers out there.

Fact is, every detail of the experience of *everybody* around you is "beyond your imagination". Even a BASE jumper. Even a skydiver. Yeah, even the guy in the cubicle next to you who just last weekend committed the cardinal sin of enjoying a barbeque, and driving there in (wait for it...) a MINIVAN. That you fail to appreciate the value of his experience (in much the same way, I should point out, as he might fail to appreciate the value of yours) is very strong evidence of that fact.

An experience does not become more valuable for having required hundreds of hours of preparation, or for having had exceptional media value. It becomes more valuable, I think, for having been more nearly an honest expression of *something* in the person living it.

[guest]

How right you are Michael,

And how much you missed the point. What makes you think that the only thing I'm good at is BASE jumping? I'm also, the guy next to you who just climbed the Eiger and soloed the 5.13.

I got over myself a long time ago.

To Dalka's point. I don't consider myself a social victim because of my activities. I couldn't give a rats a$$ what people think of me. I do it for myself. Whatever it is.

If you think that a BASE jump would be a walk in the park for anyone but a BASE jumper then you're forgetting the splendor of what you've accomplished. How many people have ever been that scared / excited and decided to return voluntarily?

Not many.

Don't devalue what you do. It's truly awesome.

Stay Safe Bro'.

[Skinflicka]

You ever BASE jump Dalka?

Just curious.

Skin.