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Bad Climber
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 6, 2015 - 06:40am PT
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Wow, Biotch, that Eiffel Tower jump is amazing. Clearly the dude had never tested it in any reasonable way--like off a bridge or cliff at lower altitude into water. Watching him psyche up...yikes. Darwin award winner for sure. Classic how the guys measure the depth of the impact crater!
BAd
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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I just had to click on the Top 10 inventions that Killed their Inventors...
Pinto in a wingsuit!?!?
Now THAT was "begging for trouble"
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Port
Trad climber
Norwalk, CT
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The ego is a strong force.
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ElCapPirate
Big Wall climber
Ogden, Utah
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It works both ways, your ego can also hold you back from realizing your ultimate potential.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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JTM, that 'Pinto' has its fuel in the wings so no worries about being rear-ended.
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Port
Trad climber
Norwalk, CT
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It works both ways, your ego can also hold you back from realizing your ultimate potential.
True. Here I was just referring to Jeb. I don't get the same impression from all BASE jumpers.
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zBrown
Ice climber
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One could engineer just as tricky a situation right over yonder on the 805 freeway. Wouldn't cost nearly as much. Not enough adrenalin? There's always the night-time version.
Quack QuACK
Good thing mama D wasn't smoking.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Gary
Social climber
From A Buick 6
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And if you quit and get a normal job, what's that going to do for Nya?"
Feed, clothe and shelter her? Is that a bad thing?
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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That was an amazing snipet, zBrown. My normal breathing was interrupted at least four or five times watching that!
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Aug 10, 2015 - 07:41am PT
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Hurray! Ammon is here.
I come from the olden days of BASE. Yes, we jumped many of the same objects, but the gear has changed so much. It might not really look like it, but the history of BASE has also had a progression of better and better gear.
Today, skydiving mains are small and very fast. In my day, we jumped a lot of 220 ft2 7 cells, which are close to modern BASE canopies. We were really used to them, because we skydived all day and jumped antennas all night on the same canopies. Today, BASE canopies are generally a little bigger (I think), and have all sorts of improvements leading to better inflation and landing characteristics.
Different canopies had their own personalities. Some would get line twists. Those were out. We picked out mains that opened fast and on heading, and then used those for BASE.
Here is a good video on what the old days were like. I jumped with all of these guys except Mike Allen. They were all funny as hell. The quiet blonde guy with glasses was from England. One of their first jumpers. Certainly he did the most back then.
It was a small community. Anyway, watch the whole video and you will get to see a lineover cleared with the new line release mod, and some other funny stuff. Two of these guys were my main partners. I used to do longer delays from Auburn than they are here, but I know it is still popular today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqH_JYM0WIM
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rwedgee
Ice climber
CA
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Aug 10, 2015 - 09:10am PT
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/jhonny-florez-colombian-wingsuit-flyer-and-hollywood-stuntman-who-achieved-a-world-record-by-jumping-from-37265ft-10447665.html
Jhonny Florez: Colombian wingsuit flyer and Hollywood stuntman who achieved a world record by jumping from 37,265ft
Sunday 09 August 2015
At the age of 32, Jhonathan Flórez, widely known as Jhonny, died doing what he loved best: flying like a bird under his own power at speeds of up to 200mph. One of the world’s fastest and longest-distance wingsuit flyers – who skydive and glide using body suits with winged arms – the Colombian daredevil slammed into the side of Mount Titlis in Switzerland while testing a new suit for the upcoming world championships in China. His family said he is believed to have died instantly.
Throughout Latin America, Flórez was known as el hombre pájaro, “the bird man”, a skydiver, wingsuit flyer and Base jumper – the latter acronym referring to those who leap from buildings, antennae, spans (bridges) or earth (mountains). He had a reputation as a “proximity” flier for gliding as close as possible to the landscape.
In 2013, he was crowned champion at the annual event of the World Wingsuit League on Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, China. “There are no Olympic medals in my sport, but I feel I got my gold for myself and my country, Colombia,” he said. (A rival wingsuit World Cup was inaugurated at Netheravon airfield, Wiltshire, in May this year, hosted by the Army Parachute Association and organised by the World Air Sports Federation, FAI).
Flórez held two world records, set on the same flight in April 2012 over La Guajira in his native Colombia: the longest time in the air in a wingsuit, nine minutes and six seconds; and the jump from the highest altitude, 37,265 feet (from an aircraft, starting at -45C and using an oxygen tank). He formerly held speed and distance records, but both currently belong to Japan’s Shin Ito, who has reached a speed of 225.6 mph and travelled almost 18 miles in a wingsuit.
Flórez won a coveted place on the elite Red Bull Air Force, a team of skydivers, Base jumpers, wingsuit flyers and ski-Base jumpers (those who ski off mountains before opening their parachutes). With the team, he “buzzed” the famous Christ the Redeemer statue above Rio de Janeiro. He and Red Bull teammate Cedric Dumont of Belgium became the first people to fly unaided, but for their wingsuits, over the famous Nazca Lines in Peru, believed to have been carved out by the Nazca civilisation around the 5th century AD, and now a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Flórez scared more than a few of his fellow Colombians who had gathered around the iconic Monserrate church on the mountain which dominates their capital, Bogotá, when he and his English pal, James Boole of Birmingham, jumped from a helicopter in 2013 and swooshed past the church tower at 100mph.
Jhonathan Flórez Patiño (the Christian name spelling is common in Latin America because the “Jh” produces the sound of the soft English-style J, rather than the more guttural Spanish J, or jota) was born on 3 April 1983 in Medellin, the picturesque Colombian city whose name was long sullied by the murderous cocaine cartel of Pablo Escobar. Flórez was only 10 when Escobar was killed by the Colombian police and Medellin gradually ceased to be the most dangerous city in the world. As a joke, after taking up skydiving, he called one of his teams “the Colombian Cartel”.
In his latter years, he was in demand in Hollywood, both as an aerial stuntman and as a cameraman with a POV camera attached to his helmet. Shortly before his fatal accident, he had been stunt-skydiving for an upcoming remake of the popular 1991 action movie Point Break. In the original, the FBI character, played by Keanu Reeves, skydives from a plane, without a parachute, to chase the bad guy played by Patrick Swayze. In the new movie, due out at Christmas, Flórez is in action doubling for one of the new lead actors.
“Before I jump, of course I am nervous,” Flórez said shortly before he died. “But the moment I jump, I have the biggest smile on my face.”
Jhonny Flórez lived the last few years of his life in Sacramento, California, with his wife, Kaci, a yoga instructor. But the couple spent most of their time travelling the world to extreme sports events and competitions. They had no children. He is survived by Kaci and several brothers and sisters.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Aug 10, 2015 - 10:55am PT
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Ammon, that Men's Journal article caught the spirit of it by delving into motivations.
I gave up climbing and jumping when my son was about two. I couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if I bounced.
I remember one time where a haulbag tag line got stuck, and I had to rap down in the dark. I had to rap down the tag line as far as I could and then I just cut the damn thing.
Doing the changeover in the dark spooked me. The tie in for the tag line was at the top of the pig, and it was a mess of attached gear, a water bottle, and the like. It was a mess.
I remember thinking to myself: "What the hell am I doing? I gotta kid at home..."
Then I had a close call where I flew through the wires of an antenna because I was using an insanely fast canopy, not made for BASE.
It sucked, though. I was never very good at anything, but it was always an adventure to me, and I was always thinking about or having adventures. Soloing a lot, BASE, you get it. After I quit I felt like I was going to crawl out of my skin, so I started doing these long solo mega hikes in country where people just don't go, like Cabeza Prieta or the Brooks Range. A good dose every year helped.
I've just worked every day since my last Alaskan trip. Those trips were expensive and I have to worry about bills and mortgages. I spend my day working in front of an array of monitors analyzing well logs which look like a zillion squiggly lines to a lay person.
I really miss the adventure. My boy just graduated from college in May, so I have been thinking of a change of lifestyle. Getting some adventure back.
For whatever reason, I needed my dose of Dopamine to be happy. I look back and feel like I was self medicating by having adventures. There is no doubt that these things make me happy, and without them, even with all of the joy and pride of being sort of responsible, it felt like I cut out a piece of my heart.
I dunno if I can go BASE again. I'm not sure if my mind is still good for it. I would have to skydive a lot first, which is expensive. I still have the house payment to make. Damn. I'm trapped. And it sucks.
I've been pulling out the maps again. Looking for a place to go. Those experiences keep the monkey off of my back, but damn. Once you start feeding the monkey, you can't just stop. It is worse than any addiction.
For some people, that hungry monkey never goes away.
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Bad Climber
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 10, 2015 - 11:56am PT
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Hey, BASE, congrats on your son graduating from college. That's a big deal.
Re. adventure: Well, you're talking to the addicted on this forum, of course. Get back into climbing. Sport, trad, done at a reasonable level, are pretty darn safe and as much juice as I can take.
Rock on.
BAd
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micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
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Aug 10, 2015 - 01:36pm PT
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Thanks for the introspective post BASE104. We all deal with those thoughts on some level. I can really relate. I have 4 kids. Still climbing a lot, but choosing trade routes, bolted belays and less committing missions in the past few years. I hate being out there with fear in my gut and a nagging desire to go home, despite six months of planning and stoke pre-trip. Climbing (or any outdoor adventure) should be fun, freeing and full of joy first and foremost.
Scott
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ElCapPirate
Big Wall climber
Ogden, Utah
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Aug 10, 2015 - 03:52pm PT
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Thanks for sharing 104/MH! I know your feelings well. Anytime you want to climb or jump, let me know. It would be an honor and quite the full circle with the past we have with each other.
There's so much anti-base jumping on this site. Nobody is going to argue that jumping is more dangerous than common rock climbs. If I pushed jumping like I did/do climbing I probably wouldn't be here right now. So, I'm satisfied with the style of jumping that makes me feel comfortable and learned to listen to that inner voice when it doesn't seem right. I have walked away from MANY exits that others felt comfortable with.
I DO NOT want to die jumping (or climbing). I have family, a beautiful and amazing gf. I have SO much to live for. But, I will continue to follow my dreams, to do the things that make me happy.
Would people rather we live miserable lives because we aren't fulfulling our full potential?
IMO, that is more devastating than being killed jumping, after living as happily and rich with experience as you possibly can.
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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Aug 10, 2015 - 04:16pm PT
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I think a lot of people here hate on others who choose different paths mainly due to their own insecurities. Personally I celebrate my lack of balls for such things! Incredible videos...
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Aug 10, 2015 - 07:10pm PT
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Jumping seems like an incredible thing to do. Flying seems incredibly cool. flying as close as you can to solid objects at 100+MPH seem like a real bad idea. Kind of allong the same lines as trying to see who can hang their portaledge off the smallest single piece and make it through the night. No hate just an acceptance of reality.
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