Why I Am Going to Bridge Day

[guest]

OK, Tom, Gardner, You guys have way too much time on your hands to write out these HUGE posts...
You care WAY too much about Bridge day. Get over it, try to spend more time jumping...

JIM J
:-)

[base311]

Point well taken. However I would disagree with your statement that [I] care way too much about bridge day; I don't really give a ##### whether it happens or not. I just don't like people asking for my ssn when it's not necessary - and bd isn't necessary.

cya
gardner

[imported_Tom Aiello]

>Get over it, try to spend more time jumping...

I'm trying, but I just keep driving around back roads looking for objects...

What are you doing this weekend? I've got Sunday and Monday free, plenty of moonlight, and lots of jumping planned.

[guest]

Well..... Unfortunately, I live in southern CA. I have to work this weekend at the dz, but sunday morning will get the old reliable rudidoux a couple of times - freefall...

How 'bout Perrine in a couple of weeks???

:-)

[guest]

<I don't really give a ##### whether it happens or not. I just don't like people asking for my ssn when it's not necessary - and bd isn't necessary>

This I never said...

I hope it happens, but not that much and I would never give my ssn to the nps...

BD is not necessary. Maybe we could start a new BD type event at say foresthill bridge where there are no NPS a##holes....Ever think of that??? Or maybe we could tweek it a bit and create a minimum expereince level requirement and forget those first timers who survive there first BASE jump through luck, height, etc.

Wow, great idea Jim! I propose we charter a new event at foresthill....Who knows....maybe this could be the beginning to a new "perrine!" Will somebody start a new thread on this subject? Tom I elect you! You live in the area and are into all that research BASE site/political crap...

bsqd
JIM J
:-)

[guest]

AMAZING!!!
A complete post without the mention of porn once.

[guest]

Get hard Ya (unt.

[guest]

##### THEM YOUR GOVT> AT WORK. I'M OUTTA HERE

[space]

My statement;
. Tom wrote: “first jump opportunity. This is especially true for the (unfortunately) large number of jumpers who cannot or will not pay the price for first-rate instruction.”

I have no respect for these people, as I have seen 2 explode on impact trying to save the money that can buy a few pizzas in lieu of first rate instruction. Though USA is well behind the power curve in a structured beginners program than in Europe, There are many first rate instructors there. Tom, You are as I, selling out primo life saving info to persons who …..don´t giva fu(k.. Where is the limit for “jumpers who cannot or will not pay the price”? Would letting them die save more lives than helping them live long enough to misguide others to death?
Please consider the impact.. I imposed an instruction program at Kjerag, Norge, to maintain legality after one not willing to pay exploded. Since this person was a well known profi at skydiving, The others from the same country took heed and were most always requesting instruction as opposed to trying to deny instruction as she did..By her death, her high status in the skydiving community proved that BASE is different sport, needing different instruction. She has probaly saved more lives in BASE than you or I could ever hope for by serving the “don´t giva fu(k” people with being a bad example.

IMHO, we should sit out and let a skydiver run BD and compare statistics
I could do just as well of a job or maybe better than Dennis and Co.and /or Robin Heid at organizing BD as I come from the same roots and maybe have more experience. But BDC should call me. Why should I pay to help another? I absolutely agree with Dennis/Avery BDC Fu(k off!. Tom, why should you pay to help another entity to profit at the expense of our sprt for those who “cannot, will not pay”? I judge not. But please explain the implications of your decisions.
Take care.
space

[guest]

Space:

I think it's extremely important for good and comprehensive training when the object being jumped is a cliff with a landing area full of rocks, but New River is a different deal.

It's 900 feet of open air with mostly water at the bottom and perhaps the best thing Avery & Co. did at BD over the years is preach their mantra: "You dry off faster than you heal" to illustrate that it's better to land in the water and be definitely safe than try for the rocks and maybe bust yourself up.

So BD is a great place for people with minimal BASE experience, regardless of skydiving experience -- and great in two ways:

1) They'll probably live and not get hurt (much); and

2) they'll realize that if they want to continue BASE jumping, they better get that "first-rate" instruction.

If they don't, then maybe they can be good examples like the lady you mention, but I don't think it's legitimate to think or demand that first-time Bridge Day jumpers or only-at-Bridge-Day-BASE-jumpers get comprehensive instruction, because it just ain't that big a deal.

Neither do I think it matters whether a BASE jumper or skydiver oversees the event; what's needed is a good event manager who will farm out the BASE-knowledge-critical areas like gear checks and skill sets.

What IS a big deal is expanding our constituency: Every skydiver who makes a one-time-only or once-a-year jump at New River becomes another person that supports our little piece of the parachuting world (a bigger piece, by the way, than CRW or style and accuracy, or even serious canopy swoopers).

We need these people to advance our interests not just in the parachuting world but in the larger world too. Some high-ranking NPS people I've talked with were astonished to find that USPA has more than 35,000 members - which is a politically useful number of individuals scattered across every state and almost every one of the 435 Congressional districts. Bridge Day gives BASE access to those people who want to make a BASE jump once or once a year, and provides an entree to those who might then get "bitten by the bug" and continue the sport. As Gardner or someone else has mentioned, NPS no doubt is aggravated by the fact that its own "sole exception" BASE venue is creating more people every year who now want to jump in the rest of the NPS system -- and are asking their elected representatives why they can't.

Unfortunately, the "other" big deal is the police state mentality and practices being visited by the Bridge Day Commission (of which NPS, the state police and the state transoportation department are voting members) upon anyone who wants to be involved in Bridge Day this year, jumper, rappeller or otherwise. The SSN requirement is illegitimate, illegal, and ill-advised, if for no other reason than basic public relations.

If BDC would simply drop this ridiculously useless and unnecessarily confrontational requirement, the rest of the changeover to different management would go a lot smoother and without the rancor and misundertanding being generated now.

Valid as the "alternative" Bridge Day suggestions are (imagine the whole month of October devoted to a Bridge Day circuit, starting in Perrine (earliest because it gets cold there quicker, followed by Auburn and finished at New River!!!)), it's important also for us to retain our "beachhead" in West Virginia because when we jump there, we are, in fact, forcing NPS to directly contradict its own policies and assertions (according to its own 2001 Management Policies document) that BASE jumping is "is not an appropriate public use activity within national park areas and is prohibited by 36 CFR 2.17(3).”

So while your training concerns are well-founded in general, I think they are subordinate to Tom's contentions, the police state issues based on psychotic "security considerations," and the general political ramifications vis a vis both the parachuting and general American community.

At the same time, I'm convinced that the "training exception" represented by Bridge Day is, in fact, the exception that proves the rule as to how important it is for anyone planning to jump anywhere OTHER than Bridge Day to get that "first-rate instruction" that was the heart of your post.

Robin Heid
BASE 44

[guest]

sooo............. how did your moonlight and all your jumping go? rumor has it that you did not look both ways before you crossed the street.
this is a very bad thing. go back and read a book on "how to be a ninja".
this sucks for everyone else.
}>

[JOMAN]

I would like to know how the BDC plans to check the thousands of non jumpers on the bridge. You don't have to be a jumper to be a terrorist. :+

JOMAN

[guest]

Id like to know why BDC is excluding all foreign jumpers--Non U.S. citizens dont have social security numbers.

[guest]

The spectators will not be allowed to carry anything onto the bridge (backpacks etc).

Anyone carrying anything they werent born with will either have an offical ID on their chest or they wont be allowed on the bridge.

[guest]

BD provides such a distorted view of base for first time jumpers and spectators that it is useless as a tool for adding awareness and providing education for those who wish to learn about the sport. The hysterical antics of organizers (petty napoleons)and the commercial agenda of the event itseld undermine all of the reasons that I got into base in the first place.

I say boycott BD for the simple reason that it has bloated and distorted into something other than a base event.

Leave this sad, twisted tale to those petty individuals who have staked their ego on controlling others and go find an object without fanfare or surveillance. At BD, the most you can do is a Base 44-style foot launched skydive. Go somehwere else and try the real thing.