A Great Tan and a BASE jump, what's not to love?

[Tom Aiello]

No joke.

I found this sign in the window of a tanning salon downtown today.

For those of you who don't want to check out my digital photos on the linked page, here's the text of the sign:

PARACHUTE BASE JUMPING
Available from the Perrine Bridge

Now Scheduling
Saturday Mornings

Price $110 per person
Must Have Minimum of 10 Jumpers
Includes Boat Ride Out

Instructor has 25 Years Experience
Apply HERE at Native Skin

Is this the future of BASE? Is this where we're going with "mainstreaming" the sport? Or perhaps there really is a tanning salon operator here who's just way more hardcore than any of us, and has been flicking this thing for the last two and a half decades?

Maybe I'll stop by tomorrow when they're open and see if I can sign up. Heck, if I'm lucky, maybe I can get a tan, too.

Thoughts?

[Mac]

Tanning, BASE, - I guess it really is all about image.................

only in America!!

Has this been running for a while? or is this a new venture from someone who obviously feels that the risk of throwing 10 people without experience off each time from the "obviously safe" span is worth pocketing over $1000 for............. I would love to see the course content and waivers........

I guess for the ride takers ignorance is bliss.

[Tom Aiello]

I've got no idea how long the sign has been up. One of the girls who works for my wife told her about it. I think it's been up for a while, anyway.

[Mac]

I actually think you could do "fair ground rides" off that span on rounds.......... it would be quite risky for the participant, and thus the instructor..... but possible. Im not saying that its a good idea, but really what stops people from doing such things? I certainly would not throw anyone off any object in this manner, and think this sort of thing opens up other issues like the bunch of skydivers who then hear about this and grab some old rounds and throw themselves off due to them being more knowledgable than the "amusement ride participants" - I guess with the nature of this object there is no way of regulating and controlling who does what with the bridge.......... everyone blasts the experienced jumper for taking some ski's off it, or for people jumping the rail, but no one has an opinion on this use of the bridge?.......

I would be interested to see what you guys who use this object think about this amusement ride here...........

BASE rides for the blue rinse brigade.............. whatever next hey....... perhaps motorbike racing for the blind.......

[Skinflicka]

Don't worry, Tom. The instructor is a personal friend of mine and is a very knowledgeable guy who understands mechanics and aerodynamics better than most and is therefore able to judge conditions such that the participant cannot possibly be harmed. He can be reached at:

ProfessorStephenHawking@yougofirst.com

He is currently writing a local knowledge book called A Brief History of the Perrine.

PS It would help if applicants can swim. Stephen does not have his lifeguards license.

Cheers,

Skin.

[Mac]

Don't worry, Tom. The instructor is a personal friend of mine and is a very knowledgeable guy who understands mechanics and aerodynamics better than most and is therefore able to judge conditions such that the participant cannot possibly be harmed. He can be reached at:

ProfessorStephenHawking@yougofirst.com

He is currently writing a local knowledge book called A Brief History of the Perrine.

PS It would help if applicants can swim. Stephen does not have his lifeguards license.

Cheers,

Skin.

ah that explains it.. I mean he is so pretentious that he speaks with an American accent when he is originally from Essex...............

[sabre210]

First off

Skin, i always enjoy reading your posts. Keep it going.

With regards the Tanning Salon jumps, I must admit i read that with utter amazement which did get me wondering about why it bothered basejumpers so much. Really soul search and ask why it irks you so much? Honestly???

Is a large part of it simply to do with the fact that this just shows how easy it is to jump from that bridge and land in the water. You don't need to be good, you actually don't need much in the way of training. Any one can do it. Basejumpings a piece of cake. What's the big fuss. Extreme BS.

Presumably this course and others like it (the high school one you mentioned)have been happening for a while and no ones been killed yet, or at least i haven't read about them on the fatalities list and the proof of the pudding as they say is in the eating.

Is it also fair to assume that these courses and the deathcamping ones i've read about have had no impact on the accessibility and legallity of the perrine. If that's the case then why so much noise and head scratching.

I've always said, any idiot can do a base jump and this just goes to prove it....doesn't it. Step right up, $110, thank you, put this on, climb over here, 3 2 1 cya, splosh. Yehaaaaaa. Man that was so cool, wait till i tell my buddies i've base jumped.

It's 80% ego why it bothers us so much. Maybe we're not that special jumping that bridge.

Just a thought.


ian

[zennie]

I think there may be a touch of ego to it, because we all know there's so much more to BASE than being PCA'd from a 500' S. So when some whuffo does the amusement park ride & goes & tells his/her buddies he made a BASE jump... we take a little umbrage with it.

My concern would be mainly twofold:

1. What do the local authorities think of this guy's operation;
2. More importanly, does this guy really know what he's doing?

Assuming he's on the up & up on both counts, I'm not sure it's a huge matter of concern.

And as far as count 2 goes, I think Tom needs to buy one of those little spy camera thingies and impersonate a clueless tourist.

I'll donate a tropical shirt, gaudy hat and ugly sunglasses to the cause.

[skydvr18]

My problem with this guy's idea is safety. What happens when somebody "flips out," literally, and flips into the lines? A friend of mine is a skydiving instructor, and one of his students got killed that way. It was the guy's first skydive, a static line jump, and he freaked out when he left the strut. He flipped right into the lines, got entangled, and died on impact. True, that was skydiving...but is it impossible to happen on a BASE jump?

[sabre210]

What happens when somebody "flips out," literally, and flips into the lines? A friend of mine is a skydiving instructor, and one of his students got killed that way. It was the guy's first skydive, a static line jump, and he freaked out when he left the strut. He flipped right into the lines, got entangled, and died on impact. True, that was skydiving...but is it impossible to happen on a BASE jump?

Sure of course it's not impossible. But there's no guarantee that any first time baser off that bridge doesn't do what you've described, even if they enrol on a course with one of the manufacturers or have a 1000 jump mentor . How many people do their first jump at Bridge Day with little or no training. Besides, it sounds to me like he's at least minimising some risks in his choice of deployment method (PCA), canopy shape (he is using rounds right??) and landing area (slow moving water) with a safety boat to pick them up.

As Zennie said, what really pricks at us, is that we all know that that jump isn't representitive of 99% of the stuff we do. In fact it isn't representative of any jump I've done in th UK, but it is still a basejump for sure. If all you ever do is jump the perrine then i guess this guys operation might be a bit of a blow to the old ego.

Just a thought. Don't shoot me for it.

[Mac]

How many people do their first jump at Bridge Day with little or no training.

whilst I was at TF there was a group of about 10 skydivers who had a few rigs between them, non of them had any formal training or anyone one with them to help them - they just happened to have "a friend that BASE's" that got hold of the rigs for them....... on speaking to one of them, it seems its not unusual for skydivers to grab a rig and go down to the TF Span and huck some - this maybe wrong of course..........

by the end of the day of them doing their first jumps there, a couple started trying to hook and swoop the canopy as it seems they all had 1000+ skydives and were canopy gods............. and got very confident in themselves after a few good exits and canopy flights. One guy tried out a gainer, and all was cool luckily............

I was just a beginner BASE jumper when I saw this - and could not beleive what i was seeing. All this focus I had learnt about ethics, preparation and experience before making jumps seemed to be disregarded.............. this is also my feeling about BD, everyone goes on about about experience and preparation in getting into BASE and suddenly one day a year a 50 jump skydiver can go off and make a bunch of jumps with bascially sod all preparation.................. I know BD is a different beast to BASE in whole, but do the 50 skydive wonders really really understand this to be so??

Ian, was this a blow to my ego? no, it was a blow to the fact I had spent 2 years of research and probably over $10,000 in getting to this point of making my first jumps (inlcuding all the skydives and I used to prep for it) then along came these yahoos who blew away all I had worked for - it belittled my struggle and time I had spent in getting to make my first jumps...........................

To me these types of places where this happens help fuel the aguement against trying to get across to people that they need more preparation and knowledge before BASE jumping.........

With the 1000 BASE number coming up soon, and the influx of BASE jumpers coming through with what I see as minimal knowledge and canopy skill.......... are we about to embark on a dark time?

I hope not.

Michael

[Tom Aiello]

Sure of course it's not impossible.

When the first time skydiver flips out, it's possible that a single DZ could get closed down.

When that happens here, we lost a lot more (proportional to our sport) than skydiving would lose from the loss of a single DZ.

[BASE_689]

> whilst I was at TF there was a group of about 10 skydivers who had a few rigs between them, non of them had any formal training or anyone one with them to help them

> no, it was a blow to the fact I had spent 2 years of research and probably over $10,000 in getting to this point of making my first jumps (inlcuding all the skydives and I used to prep for it) then along came these yahoos who blew away all I had worked for...

Mac,
do you know what my friend and mentor BASE #657 tells me when I, quite worried, report to him about stupid/not so prepared "jumpers" having done stupid things?
Very relaxed and very philosophycally he tells me: "Don't worry, gravity will stop stupid people".

I agree. Whatever you and myself may think about training and preparation and right gear and so, we can only preserve our own sites, not revealing them to the stupid. Period. We cannot do more than this.
With "public" BASE sites we simply cannot do anything.
We can get angry, we can throw bad words against the offender, but in the end, about "public" BASE sites we cannot do anything. "Public" BASE sites are there, without an defense, ready to be "stubbed" on the back by "anybody".
We cannot stop stupid (according to our point of view, maybe the "stupid" folks think we (me and you) are old farts and we are the stupids to waste all that time and money...) people from going somewhere out there and commit disasters, in all senses. Simply we cannot. Simply we cannot police all available BASE sites.
BASE in terms of approach and "usability" is much like climbing.
The mountains are there, the walls are there, there will never be any police nor anyone that will stop you from climbing a wall well beyond your capabilities and/or without the right gear.
If you start climbing a wall well above your capabilities, at the very first inconvenient, gravity will refrain you from going further, possibly gravity will punish you. Nobody will ever close any climbable wall.
On the opposite, authoirities could shut down a "public" BASE site. That's the very big difference with climbing.
So, let it be. Beyond the fact that me and you will NEVER advertise BASE jump, nor reveal our own exits to "wannabies", we cannot do more. We must accept this, even if "this" means that some stupid/selfish/whatever is going to ruin/shut down few BASE sites.
Let's just keep our "secret" BASE sites as they are, secret, with the only knoowledge to us and our crew and our FRIENDS, shall reveal them only to trustworth people.
More than the above, like it or not, accept it or not, we cannot do.
There are certain folks, as JT, as Italian "gifts of God", others, that are simply unstoppable: any close call they had makes them think that they are cool instead of very lucky, so keep on going!!!!!

GRAVITY WILL STOP STUPID PEOPLE

[Mac]

GRAVITY WILL STOP STUPID PEOPLE

aint that the truth...........

love your work always Andrea!

speak soon!

Michael

[jason]

I'm a little curious as to what the general perception is here. Which scenario do you figure is more dangerous to the jumper (both from the S in question):

(1) Jumper with 50 BASE jumps, 2 second delay, ram-air BASE canopy, landing in the grass (over the trees), questionable winds; or

(2) Jumper with no experience, PCA by an experienced jumper, round canopy, landing in the water, little or no wind.

I watched a bunch of #1 being done a couple of months ago, and for my part did a few myself. But I've given and received my fair share of PCA's, and #2 seems only marginally more risky than a bungee jump from the same object. Perhaps less risky than the first. Perhaps I'm mistaken.

Yeah, #2 bugs me a little. But I'm pretty sure that's all ego. I think the important question here is, who is holding the pilot chute in that scenario. If the guy's reliable, I think I could appreciate this as another mildly risky way for folks to get their kicks.

Your mileage may vary.