Re: [Zennie] You Know You're A BASE Jumper When... [crossposted from Blinc]
You know you're a BASE jumper when:
1.)You find yourself standing on the steel understructure of a 155ft bridge, next to a police station, in the rain and hear a cop on his radio on the sidewalk a few feet above your head.
2.) You find yourself running from the authorities after two of your fellow jumpers were caught, and on the way up one of your friends who was caught calls and says the cops confiscated their rigs, and you wonder "is he just saying this so I have to continue hiking up this hill? Was he really caught or is he just saying he was so I have to hike up this bloody hill?"
3.) You've made two jumps and someone you've never met from Northern California invites you down to jump "real" objects. And you have one of the best and most memorable experiences ever.
4.) You stand on the arm of a power tower looking like a giraffe doing a balancing act, while being constantly shocked by static electricity, and ask yourself "How did I get here?"
5.) You believe the world is completely jumpable and your lover buys you a laser for christmas so you can prove it!
6.) You go to NRGB and hear a tourist say "It's so high", you hear a skydiver say "It's so low", then you, as a BASE jumper, reiterate "It's so high." and prove it ;-)
7.) You meet and make a terrific friend in the sport, and you lose that friend to the sport.
8.) You're the last one off and you enjoy that moment of pure serenity and connection to nature and meditate, even if just for a second, about why you jump.
9.) You go to the drop zone to pack a BASE rig and have the DZO walk up to you and tell you that it'll be $15 for the BASE manifest, and consider that his way of saying "You're alright."
10.) You drag your friends out to a tower on the one year anniversary of your first jump, to find the tower is being blown to one side by the howling winds, and you and your friends climb to exit, can't hear a thing each other is saying, understand you're not worried about object strike, and upon opening with a 180 realize you can land facing the object because the winds are pushing you backwards, have a beautiful stand up landing and smile. And finally have your friends tell you that you're not in charge of manifest anymore. ;-)
11.) You get addicted to online chat, and become skilled at web based conversations, passive-aggressive arguments, childish diatribes and forget what friendship and the sport are really about.
12.) You get offline, get out into the world, and BASE jump.
13.) You jump a 180 building with a required 90 degree turn to landing, stall the canopy, crash into a tree, run down the street in full gear, jump into a car with excellent ground crew, earn your BASE number and consider the evening a success.
