Re: [StraightEdge] Drowning in Twin Falls?
Just an update on my previous post. I mentioned the issue with unpacked jumps like Tards or Tard Overs ending in a fatality with respect to the BFL. And I said I thought it hadn't happened yet.
Well obviously, I don't pay as much attention to BASE fatalities as I used to but I do read them when they pop up on FB. But somehow I missed #381. And from the description it sounds like a Tard Over fatality which I think is the very first one. I tried to look through the current BFL for another one, but the BFL is now so difficult to navigate I gave up.
Carl Boenish defined a BASE jump as being made from a fixed object with a packed parachute. So by rights #381 shouldn't be on the BFL. And that's what I want to talk about. First off, I believe #381 should indeed be on the BFL. But if I could go back in time and ask Carl Bonish about it I think he would say no. And here's why.
Carl didn't live long enough to see Tard Overs being done. And when he was figuring out what the BASE objects were to be, and what type of rig configurations were in alignment with BASE jumping he didn't figure on them. However he did have some experience with un-packed fixed object jumps. I know he is with with Phil Smith, BASE 1, when Phil is jumping rather tall cliffs into the water holding two small round parachutes unpacked in each hand. And I'm sure Phil logged those jumps as BASE jumps.
Another time is when Carl visited the bridge in Arizona in the very early 80s. He fabricated a large metal hoop, to which he attached a round parachute with clothespins. And attached to the parachute is Richie Stein, who later became BASE 74, standing on the bridge next to the hoop. When Rich jumped - at line stretch the clothespins released the already open parachute and Richie floated down safely. (Richie called these 'Coney Island' jumps.) And I believe it was these type of jumps Carl thought shouldn't be counted as BASE jumps.
But I think if Carl was alive today and saw people doing Tard Overs he might change his mind and agree to call them BASE jumps too. While not packed into a container the parachute is at least partially packed in the sense it is orientated to face the right direction and the canopy itself is at least flaked out in semi-PRO fashion, with the lines in the center, just like the start of any normal pack job. Add to that if you mess up it can be a very dangerous jump. And I think we've all seen enough vids of ugly Tard Overs where the jumper got away with it, but they could have easily ended in a fatality.
And Lastly, Atsutoshi Hanashima had made 400 BASE jumps before the jump that killed him. And he deserves to be on the BFL not because it is in any way a badge of honor, but because it's also how we memorialize our brothers and sisters. And he was definitely a brother in BASE.
NickDG
BASE 194
