BASE Jumping Accident

June 17th, 2013


Ten days ago, our friend Stanislav, from the Sinner Team in Russia, was injured while performing a BASE jump. As many of you know, Stanislav is probably the world’s expert in Free Fall Suspension, and is also an experienced BASE jumper. Even with appropriate precautions taken, there are always dangers involved in both activities. So, we would not begin this entry without saying: Please do not attempt either activity without professional help and oversight!

From Stanislav Aksenov
7-th June we went to open a new jumping spot, it is not far from Moscow, about 120km. The place is really unique and i was dreaming to make there free fall suspensions since I’ve jumped there first time (I was base jumping there with my parachute, no hooks). The way I like to make suspensions means to make the real adventure, including the trip, the cool place, night with the fire before the jump and a chance to feel the place, to remember it for the whole rest of your life. That’s why I really love the antennas we used this time.
First of all, after going there in a car, you need to take a boat and to swim across the Volga river (this is a famous Russian river, one of the biggest ones).







After 20 minutes in the boat you are coming under the antennas, it’s a very cool feeling, the place is totally separated by the river, no people to disturb you, no police (they don’t care what happens on another side of the river), so you can feel calm and do whatever you want. There are 3 antennas, but only one has a type of construction that is safe for doing our jumps.







And one more very cool experience I wanted to share to the people who will come to jump there: to get up to the exit point (it is 73 meters, about 240 feet) you heed to take a head torch and climb all the way inside a big dark tube, the footing of the antenna.






During the climb you don’t feel the height increase at all, but when you get outside to the exit point the changing of what you see around you is awesome!










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First of all I made a base jump there, before the space between antennas was free, a back-flip without any problems.
After we stretched 400m dynamic ropes between 2 this antennas







and made a test jumps with ropes.








So when everything was prepared we made a first free fall suspension on this location with free fall about 30 meters.





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The guy who was jumping, Pavel from Ukraine had already done a free fall suspension jump, but from a small bridge, so he already had some experience.
After this jump it was time for another our guest to try his first free fall suspension. Jay Garret came to Russia from USA to get this experience. And as for me – I had a dream how to make people more calm before their first jump. Actually, I started to BASE jump with my parachute to know what people feel in such extreme situations, what mental tools do they use to overcome the fear and to know more about proper jump at all: where to watch when you are on the exit point, how to push, how to control your body in the free fall part. If we make for the people one of the most scariest jumps in the world, that means I should have the experience in something even more scary (you are not afraid so much as with hooks on the exit point before the BASE jump, but it is not the hooks, it is really dangerous and you really can die doing this, and you know it when you jump). After some practice, when I got already some experience in BASE and started to use the same instructions for the people who jumps on our hooks, I saw that it works perfect, gives much more confidence before the jump and makes the jump itself much more safe, so I decided to go a bit farther. What if I can guide our jumpers through the hardest moment too? What if i can say: “Don’t worry, I have my parachute and I will jump with you. And you know, my jump can be dangerous because I have no ropes, but nothing wrong will happen to you, you are attached”. That really makes sense on the exit point, and this is a real way of proper guiding for me.
So when we came to the exit point with Jay we both were prepared for a jump. He gave the countdown and jumped, I’ve jumped after him. One thing that made my jump dangerous – Jay did not push from the support as strong, as BASE jumpers do. it was not a problem for him, because his trajectory is known and counted, so he cannot hit anything on his way and hit antenna when he flies back. I had to push also not strong, to not fly to the trajectory of Jay’s ropes. But in BASE jumping there are more things can happen, one of them calls 180 opening. It is when the parachute opens in wrong direction and you fly back to the object you were jumping from. This is exactly what happened with me this time (just bad luck), I tried to turn from the antenna, but I was too close and had not enough time to make the turn. it was almost done, but I hit the footing tube.
And good to mention that Jay’s jump was good and safe as we usual do it for our guests, moreover he had a nice view of my antenna strike.
The hit was strong: it broke my femur bone, and my heel bone, had hurt my knee, I had strong concussion and some not serious injuries. after the hit I tried to fly to the place with the grass (there is a cement support under antenna), hit the ground there and was chilling there until the ambulance came (over 1 hour in total I think). Good that we had a mobile number of a boatman, he took doctors from another side of the river, they put me to a stretcher,




after it – to the boat and to the local hospital after. The small Russian city hospital is not the best place to stay buy the way, the only good stuff – they let me smoke in my room, because I cannot get up from my bed.








So now I am waiting for the operation to put titanium plate to construct my femur and try to keep being positive.








And you know what? I am really not sorry about what happened. It was just a bad luck, our guests are safe and for next jumps I have some more experience that I can use to help people going through some really hard steps more easy. I believe that everyone who is strong enough to accept our challenge deserves a good guide, who can be with them even in the free fall. And also I dream to learn how to make a good videos for everyone who is jumping with us. The only thing – I need to heal and not to hit anything anymore.
So now, waiting for the operation we created a PayPal account for everyone who wants to support me in this overcoming. For many people it is not a secret, that we spend so much money for preparing each new jumping spot, for transport, equipment and another stuff, that in total we almost make no money doing this jumps. We also make jumps free or with discounts for everyone who spend lot of cash for the trip. I never care about the money, i make jumps, so now when it’s really needed I almost don’t have anything. That’s why for everyone who has a possibility and wants to give a hand here is the PayPal details: https://www.paypal.com/ my account is: thesinnerteam@gmail.com
the more I pay, the faster i heal. thank you.




  • Just a quick heads up: He’s had his surgery now and is very confident about being back in full force very soon.
    This is what he wrote:
    “i want to to thank everyone who helped me with the money in this situation. my work is very sacred for me, i never care about the money, that’s why i never have lots of them. so now, when it’s really needed i have a cool support from the people who understand what and why i am trying to do. with your help today i paid for the really cool titanium implant that will be comfortable and that will help me to heal faster. Russia is funny: actually, we have the free medicine, but if you want to have a GOOD medicine, you need to pay a lot. so thank you all guys, i really appreciate it.
    and thank you everyone for the mental support, i know that i am not alone and don’t have a right to lie on the hospital bed and suffer. very soon i will be on the jumping spots!! the Russian session 2013 is not over yet, and we will continue to make all we planned!! and in august 2013 you can also join us in Europe: besides joining with our rigging stuff to 10-th Summercamp, we are planning also to make a nice surprise for all Europeans, making a first Swiss Free Fall Suspension Session. you won’t need to pay the trip to Russia for your jumps, my friends. and i am SURE i will heal enough to be there with my crew mates and to set a high jumps on the hooks in a cool location.
    so thank you all again, guys!! prepare yourself to jump with us sooner than you planned. this stupid leg has no choice: i am already counting the days until i can pierce someone’s back and throw this person from something high. and for sure to jump with my canopy after”