International Treaty on BASE Ethics

[guest]

LETS DO SOMETHING PROACTIVE TO SAVE OUR SPORT

The international BASE community has seen very rapid changes in its relationships with site owners over the last twelve months. These changes, in general, have been negative for our sport.
Fatalities, rescues, accidents, maltreatment of property, the open disrespect for any number of authorities, poor communication with government departments and other organisations, etc. The list goes on. Each component of this list has made it more difficult for jumpers to gain or maintain fair and equitable access to jumping sites.

WHY? WHO IS TO BLAME?

Quite simply, jumpers should bear most of the blame.

Tracing the root cause of most accidents and site shutdowns points to a fundamental breach of principals or ethics that each BASE jumper should follow. These ethics are simple are not restricting.

Why should jumpers follow ethics?

- To maintain good relationships with the people and organisations who own the sites we jump off. Remember this, we do not own the sites we jump from, hence we should respect and take care of them.
- To develop and maintain a good image for our sport / activity.
- AND MOST IMPORTANTLY FOR OUR OWN PERSONAL SAFETY

I would like to propose an "International Treaty", whereby each national BASE organisation or a few representatives from each jumping country, contribute to an international Code of Ethics. We could use peer pressure or personal influence to ensure the majority of jumpers are trained in these ethics and that they follow them.

Why?

If we all followed simple BASE ethics we would be freely jumping most of todays illegal sites (El Cap, Arco, etc) and it would be easier to train people.

What do people think? Please list your suggestions for BASE Ethics.

Ethics encompass:
- environamental
- religious
- provate ownership
- insurance or self rescue abilities
- proper training
- proper equipment
- jumping within your abilities

Ethics still allows individuals in the sport to pursue their passion without organisational controls.

Tom Begic
Dir. of Safety and Operations
Australian BASE Association (ABA)

p.s. This statement is not an official statement of the ABA. It is merely my personal opinion.

[guest]

Great idea, Tom, aand with governments and private parties of good faith, a probably effective step.

I would strongly encourage you to NOT include the Nazi Punk Service in this group, however. All you need to do is look at how the situation is progressing at Brento to see the difference between the good faith of the Italian authorities and the continued bad faith of the Punks.

All the way back in 1979 and 1980, the NPS has acted with bad faith. Under the guise of creating a "legal program" for an activty that was not illegal, the NPS created an environment in which failure was assured, then used that failure to "make its management ban stick," as then-Yosemite superintendent Bob Binniweis said in Audubon Magazine, a monthly publication with a three-month lead time that published a November 1980 story about the failure of the legal BASE program just six weeks after it was shut down -- and six weeks AFTER its deadline (Binneweis, by the way, was a vice president of the Audubon Society at the time, and the article was also heavily weighted with his comments about how BASE jumpers threatened peregrine falcons who nest on El Capitan's walls).

So the NPS leadership is a bunch of bad attitude cases, regardless of what nice guys certain individual rangers may be (and I know several, including a number of them at Yosemite). Consequently, don't hold your breath expecting them to conduct themselves in an honest and ethical fashion, as there is NOTHING in their past record to indicate such a tendency, unlike many government units in Europe,which at least gave jumpers a fair chance to act decently.

Having said that,it's important to add your treaty to the mix because it will further marginalize the NPS policy, which was dishonest and illegitimate to begin with and would be quaintly antiquated now if it wasn't for the guns and jails behind that policy... and the thugs who enforce with threats of special treatment for anyone who challenges them.

Thanks for your initiative with this initiative, and for all the hard work you've done during the last few years to put BASE on solid ground (so to speak }> )

Robin
BASE44

[guest]

You know, Tom, I think much of what you have in mind has already been sketched out by Mick elsewhere on this Board. His licensing and training structure may fit what you're trying to do. I have previously given Mick a hard time about it because I thought site rating was a better way to go. HOW-EVUH, if you go beyond technical reality to political reality (they're not related, by the way, Mick's plan and yours have significant merit.

But check out what Mick has created and/or compiled so far, and I think you'll find you have a foundation document upon which to build the system you seem to have in mind.


Mick? Some site navigation help here please?


Robin

[imported_mknutson]

http://www.baselogic.com/ibf/

This is where you will find all of these documents.
--
Thanks

Mick Knutson
BLiNC Magazine

"Everything you ever wanted to know about BASE Jumping, but didn't know who to ask."
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[guest]

Tom, I don't know if the time is ready for your proposal. To many of this sports participants seem to think they are the only ones living (in the) here and now. They seem to forget that it is through the impressions we leave on others that we make an impact.

Sure revolution has caused some paradigms to shift, but history shows the only real and lasting change seem to come from reform. Slow and meticulous, working from inside, building on knowledge allready established as trustworthy. A wise woman once said : "When one comes from a defensive point of view nothing can be learned." It seems to be true. As long as everyone is busy defending the why instead of living the how, we will continue to see access denied and the cops will be tougher, harder and meaner next time. If we can't rise to the occasion and be respectful, honorable, modest, environmental and all the other things (we look for in friends) expected of self-aware creatures, then we will continue to be perceived as what we are. A special interest group and a small one at that.

Is black better than white ? Is my opinion better than yours ? Of course these questions make no sense, they are equally true, equally wrong and one couldn't exist without the other.

And Robin please, you keep pointing at the pink elephant in the corner of the room, some people see it, some don't. Some are able to talk about it and some are not. But most of them are just annoyed out of this world because you keep bringing it up. Tell us what it does, instead of focusing on the color.

Tom, and everyone else : I respect your right to do anything you want out there, just try to be responsible about it. I'm not aksing you to be at all times, but we could all win if we just tried...

We will ##### up, and it will be ok. But only if we continue to be perceived as friends will we have an influence where decisions are made. If we try to be the enemy, we become the enemy. We all have the choice in how we choose to live, and that's the beauty of it.

Captn Chaos