"Your" Biggest BASE Mistake!

[guest]

While Nathan is preparing to roast himself for our benefit (by posting how he managed to jump a field packed rig) maybe we can make it easier for him by coming clean ourselves.

So, here's an opportunity for those of us who have made grand blunders and survived to come clean for the benefit of others.

Some Background . . .

Inside the early BASE magazines like BASELINE and The BASE Gazette probably the most important and useful sections are the accident and incident reports.

However, problems arose as the reports were written by an editor and not a witness and in many cases speculation rather than fact is reported. It wasn't too unusual for the next issue to have an angry letter from the jumper involved that began, "You Stupid Bonehead Jerks."

When we started the JOURNAL we tried to get around that problem by only printing accident reports by the person involved, or if that wasn't possible, by an actual (experienced BASE jumping) witness. Even at that, accurate reporting is difficult, as two people can see the same thing yet disagree on what they saw.

(Like when an aircraft crashes whuffo witness always say conflicting things, "It was on fire before it hit the ground." "It burst into flames after hitting the ground." "It came down in one piece." "It came down in a million pieces." "The pilot was steering away from the school house." "The pilot steered right for the schoolhouse." "The engines were racing." "The engines were off," etc.

In BASE jumping it's can sometimes be the same, "He turned right and hit the wall." "He turned left and hit the wall." In the end the best reports are the ones where you survived, figured out what went wrong and then clue the rest of us in.

So, for the benefit of others, leave the ego behind and go ahead and roast yourself . . .

Nick_BR

[guest]

In New Zealand we came upon a bridge that is used for Bungee jumping. It's 120-feet high and one side is over a very inviting sand bar.

I am anxious to make my first BASE jump in New Zealand, too anxious.

"Hey Mate," I say pulling out my BASE rig, "mind if I have a go?"

"Sure," said the friendly Kiwi, "what can we do to help?"

I mounted the rail with alarm bells going off in my head, but from what? Normal apprehension? This seemed a bit more than usual, I mean I'm always scared, but something is amiss, the alarm bells are warning me of something but I ignore them and jump.

Five seconds later I'm laying under the bridge with two broken legs.

The pain is excruciating and I wonder if I'm slowly bleeding to death. A Jetboat full of Japanese tourists comes down the river and stops next to me. I'm sinking into shock as I hear one of tourists say, "Oh look, bungee no good!"

What Happened . . .

The bridge and the landing area are appropriate for a direct bag or static line jump (A bit low at 120 feet, but do-able). On the bridge the wind is blowing about 3 MPH downwind. Directly below the launch point on the bridge is a group of small boulders but unless I flat go in, I'd float over and land on the clear soft sand bar beyond.

What happened however is this:

The wind is blowing a lot stronger on the ground than on the bridge. The gorge under the bridge is bowed in toward the center and this made for a venturi effect. When the wind entered this area it is squeezed by the canyon walls and naturally speeds up.

I had what felt like a good opening, but I never really got under the canopy. The (down)wind never allowed me to pendulum under the canopy and it is like I front risered myself right into those rocks I was supposed to grandly sail right over.

Sure, I thought about going down and waking the landing area. But I didn't because it was a tough hike out and I only wanted to do it once.

I'm still paying the price today for those injuries.

What an idiot I am.

Nick_BR

[guest]

1 hot air ballon jump and 2 Bridge day jumps, i'm ready to do some real jumping. I took a road trip a couple Christmas's ago. Traveled first to AZ but the B.C. bridge at 340' seem too intimidating to jump. So I drove to California next to jump the 650' bridge. First jump during day-break went very well so I decided the next day, I will strap a camera to my head to show my buddies what it is like. Next morning I noticed the winds had picked up, maybe to 25 mph, but I figured it will just make for a soft landing since I will open, then turn 180 into the wind and land. I decided to go stowed and take a three second delay. I also wanted to try landing on the other side of the river this time. So, I jumped, went to three seconds, then threw out the pilot chute. I did not realize that going stowed and throwing and holding it in your hand and throwing makes the delay even longer. My parachute sniveled (slider up), and when it finally opened, i was far downriver, I made one 180 degree turn to my right, hooked turned right through the top of a tree and hit a second tree, a 8 inch wide tree limb hit me across the ribs instantly stopping me in my tracks. I then slid through the tree branches and was stuck. I dangled over the rocks about 25 feet high. 7am, no help and i decided to rock my way as close to the tree trunk as possible and cut-away, which i did. Not sure if I had broken or cracked ribs but they were hurting horrible for about 6 weeks. The story is much longer, but I will say that my cheap $500 car broke down and I bought a CA Suzuki Samarai to drive 2000 miles home. Holding my ribs with one hand and driving with the other. I realize of course it could have been much worse. High winds, alone, 3 base jumps, God Loves a fool i guess.

[guest]

Biggest Mistake

Not realizing that fixating on target at bridge day = Broken heel.


Second biggest Mistake

Same cliff Nathan jumped, 9 months earlier. My 13th jump. No practice or training with running exits. "Yeah, I'm going stowed. Yeah, I'm gonna do a running exit. 10 seconds. 3, 2, 1, cya." Thought to self as exiting- "what's that little lip just below the edge of the cliff." Next thought to self - "Ohhh sh*t!"

Result: Complete head down deloyment = Body-lash.
170 degree opening with 3 line twists. Stars and double vision under canopy. Pain and scar tissue in mid-back for months afterwards.

Lesson learned: 1.) Start with one step, then two steps, then three steps... 2.) Always look at horizon when exiting. 3.) Vicodin, Codeine, and alcohol mix well.

573

[guest]

Wow - I thought the cliff that Nathan had his accident on was just recently discovered. Guess you never know if somebody else has already been to the exit point your on.

You must really get around #573!

[guest]

Anon,

(Just an idea). Let's consider this thread a sacred BASE confessional where people can say what they may without anyone else commenting. (Not that you flamed him or anything, you didn't, and you did make a very good point in your reference to the fact sites can be new to "some" and "old" to others).

I'm just thinking this may work better if there is no fear of being ridiculed or questioned. (The idea is to come clean and ridicule yourself).

If something does come up that sparks someone's neurons a new thread might be better and that way the original thread will stay intact.

Nick_BR

[Nik]

Mistakes:
1.Moving to Portland the same month Slim did.

2.Not stopping Dwain from moving to Portland.

[guest]

Well....guess I can add my story.....

Way back on 5/l4/9l I broke my back on a BASE jump which cost me $60,000 plus, 2 rods in my back (which came out l8 months later), fusion of 3 or 4 lower vertabrae and l8 months of being grounded. And here's how it all happened:

Myself and a number of friends had just arrived in California after a cross-country BASE expedition which began in Florida. We arrived in CA during the 7 yr. drought that CA had been experiencing. The drought had caused a number of bridges that are usually unjumpable to suddenly turn into wonderful BASE toys of varying height, from l80 - 400 ft. Well, as I mentioned, we had just arrived after a cross-country trip which consisted of jumping anything and everything we came across. I was fairly current and feeling a bit cocky.

What was interesting was the conversation a bunch of us had the night before my accident. Someone asked if anyone had ever missed a toggle and if so, any problems associated with it? Well, I piped up...."NOoo, how could you miss your toggle?" Guess what? The very next jump I missed my toggle on opening. I was jumping a bridge at approx. 350 ft. - over water mind you. What could possibly go wrong? (that's a Dennis McGlynn nugget, I believe.) The intended landing area was just to the right, on a narrow strip of land. Well, as I stated, on opening I missed my right toggle, but had got hold of my left toggle. It was one smooth motion, so before I even realized I had missed my right toggle, I found myself turning to the left - the result of having released my left toggle. Instead of just grabbing my right riser and splashing into the lake, I made the fateful decision (thinking I still had plenty of time) to look up, reach up and release my right toggle. Just upon releasing my right toggle and making a fairly hard right turn towards the landing area, I looked down, just in time to SLAM into the ground - HARD! I hit, butt first on the edge of the landing strip. It hurt, but I didn't really think I was that injured until I tried to sit up and found myself unable to. In a panic, I checked my legs and feet... YES - thank you God, everything seemed to still work, except that I couldn't sit up.

To make a long story short....yes, I severely broke my back and experienced l8 months of misery on the ground while everyone around me played HARD! The lessons I learned? Well, just cuz you're current, don't get cocky. And NEVER say NEVER! And, next time, splash in....(another Dennis nugget:) "You DRY a lot faster than ya heal!"

Blue Skies and Safe BASE Jumps....brenda

[guest]

Well, here's one for the thread. Isn't base jumping, but I believe it pertains to "knowing the gear" you are jumping. Skydiving-35 jumps in, time to look for a new canopy. I started jumping other rigs at the drop zone. Asking questions like what size and model canopy?? That was all I cared about. I jumped this guy's rig three times without problems during the day cause he wasn't there. He finally showed up as I was packing it up after my last jump. He asked how everything went and I said--"great, nice canopy" Then he asked if I had any trouble cocking the pilot chute cause it was collapsible. I responded-- cocking?? no, no problem I just fold it in half than thirds like always. He must have ##### bricks, cause what he said almost made me. That was the day I learned about cocking collapsible pilot chutes and that I had been using basically a scrap of nylon to open the container. I never bothered to asked about why there was a little extra bridle than I was used to or why things didn't seem to look right.
Lesson is: Ask as many questions about gear before you jump it and make sure you are asking the person who packed it last, not his friends.

[guest]

So there I was, Idaho with the big boys from the northwest. Mistake #1: Self-taught/ packing video from "Tailored for Survival". good pack job but, I never separated my brake lines. bad habits from skydiving flat packs.

left on left:right on right. BUT i did not check for twists until opening. I tried to fix it during flight but SLAMMMMM, 2 broken ribs later, I made another 8 jumps and took Ibuprofren, vicodin and codeine like candy.

Like a friend of mine said " make sure you separate your lines mate".

cRASh out.

[guest]

1988 - Sydney CBD - 39th(roof) floor of bldg. under construction - 3:00 am Friday 13th with 3 of us about to exit from N/W corner.

We're all using direct-bag deployment at the time with safety bridle running from bag to attachment point on bldg. (it's the olden-day's ya' know).

1st jumper off and lands next to a taxi who converses with Jumper. Call from a panicky assistant up top "He's gonna radio the cops - quick - go!go!go!"

This is my second base jump and have put all my trust and faith into my Mentor/bag-holder-dude!

"Am I right to go????"

"Yeah mate - go!"

.....and so I exit......

But alas my bridle cord was no longer running clean from bag to bldg. It was mis-routed around my harness so that when I jumped, it broke and ripped the bag from ####'s hands.

I have a clear memory of the intense tug that resulted and the view from being spun 180 and now facing the corner of the bldg. now in free fall with lines floating in front of my face leading to a locked bag with about three stowes left intact and a broken bridle-cord wavering pilotchuteless in the ever increasing airflow.

How did I live???? Pure luck. The bridle-cord broke at a critical time where I was in a slow swing-back trajectory toward the bldg. and pure luck of physics put me on the only possible path to the only section of the bldg. on the 36th floor that had not had windows put in yet! In fact the 36th, 35th and 34th floors themselves internally did not exist and so I was lucky that I just managed to stop myself on the edge before plummetting an additional 40 odd foot inside.

And I hit hard - taking the impact with the full force of my chest and front of my helmet. It winded me big-time and hurt like hell but I knew I was in a bad way but had stopped falling and could wait for as long as it took to get me down. I just knew I had to remain conscious.

So there I was - spread-eagled across this tiny ledge until my mates managed to rig some ropes and steel cable down to me so they could lower me to the 33rd floor where I subsequently took the stairs down and bought a lottery ticket.

You could never repeat this experiment.

The bridle was mis-routed by me on the way up the stairs whilst frigging around trying to silence the noisy Carribeena hardware as well as that from my B12 snaps. It was never checked.

Lessons learnt:

* Trust no-one. Blame no-one. Learn everything you can for yourself. Know it all and know that you will never know it all.

* Now - with all that knowledge, check your gear!

* Bring a small torch along for night jumps.

* Don't bring whuffo's along.

* Mis-routing your bridle is hazardous to your health.

* Friday 13th can be your luckiest day or it can be your unluckiest day - depends on how you look at it.

* Know that life is too great a gift to lose on a BASE jump.

It took 3 years before I did anymore BASE. I now approach it with some years of wisdom and great respect for life and how stupid us humans are sometimes. Especially me! If I always recognise that I'm a stupid careless idiot at times then I'll be more on guard and careful the next time this stupid careless idiot jumps.

Thanks Nick_BR for starting this thread and your stand for the dissemenation of information.


Cya - G.

[guest]

No one hurt on this one but I couldn't believe he did it-when he was an up and coming BASE GOD, a good friend of all of us was told by me about the hotel across the highway as we were sitting and eating supper. I voiced my opinion that it was only baggable (this is when pilot chute assists were relatively new). He responded with "you got a rig packed?" The answer was yes and he said "when was it packed?" I responded with 3-4 months ago. We walked out onto the roof and I pilot chute assisted him. In looking back on all our mistakes this was one of many I've been directly or indirectly involved in. THANK GOD EVERYTHING WENT OK!!!

[guest]

Being new to this wonderful thing called Base has changed my life. However, I was too anxious one afternoon and almost paid the price. There's a nice bridge down the road and it's best if jumped in the early am(imagine that) I was unable to get off a object the night before, so I was going for the bridge at 12 noon, I wanted to jump bad.(stupid me) The winds were out of the west at 10 , no problem, they would be good at the bottom. (sure they will) Once at the exit point ,I notice IM 50ft off the spot. Screw it! I jump, one second delay, on heading. Now IM too close to the tree's, and not much altitude, turn left, cross wind did not help, time to land on the side of the hill with a big rock reaching out for me. In my attempt to avoid that rock I almost break my leg. Now IM nursing a strained knee, and thinking how lucky I was to walk (limp) away from that one. To all the new Base jumper's, don't let your desire over take your better judgement. It is easy to say, however this was a reality check for me. Thank's Nick , great idea. Gruntbase.

[guest]

Last day in a very nice place, let's say out west. GOTTA have a last go at it...10-15 knot winds at the exit point with a prob. Level 4 thunderstorm approaching fast. NO Landing area noted, and subsequently no outs. Can't go home with a packed rig though, eh?? Reasonable delay, funny how the winds die down right after exit, humm?? Can't be too bad I thought. Tossed about immediately upon opening, searching for the smallest rocks-ain't none. Dropped in hard, thought I heard a bottle break when I did--t'was my leg! What followed was three months of pain and relative inactivity. Reminds me of the Big Three Questions one should ask themselves at the exit point before each jump, something Brian C. once taught me
#1 Is my gear appropriate for the jump??
#2 Is the weather """""""""""""""""""""??
#3 Am I capable of pulling of the jump consistently and repeatedly???
I flunked 2 of the 3 and it cost a great deal.

Think before you sink.

[guest]

Head down exits suck. I had a similar event on my forth base jump off a cliff taking a nice runner. Nice view then all of a sudden a cliff appears out of no where. Lucky me I didn't hit the cliff, and it was more of an ego bruise then anything else. The thing that didn't occur to me or any of the others around me was that for the past 21 years I have been diving from the edge of a pool into the water. This was a natural position, run, plant both feet at the edge, dive in. This means that the momentum carried by the upper body goes from forward to turning about the feet as an axis. In turn this leads to a head down body position. I've seen this in some other base jumpers especially those moving from many buildings to cliffs where you can take a nice runner. They tend to "doink" off the edge of the cliff, by running and planting both feet.
After watching several of my fathering base jumpers and listening to their words of wisdom, I came to realise that one should simple run off the cliff. This allows a single foot exit, continues the inertia in a horizontal (if not more upward direction), places you further from the cliff, and prevents (to some degree) rotation around the axis known as feet.
Any thoughts.

jeremy