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BASE jumping is a sport involving the use of a parachute or the sequenced use of a wingsuit and parachute to jump from fixed objects--with the parachute unopened at the jump (else see paragliding). A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag. Paragliding is a recreational and competitive flying sport A paraglider is a free-flying foot-launched Aircraft. "BASE" is an apronym that stands for the four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump:

The acronym "BASE" was coined by film-maker Carl Boenish, his wife Jean Boenish, Phil Smith, and Phil Mayfield. A backronym (or bacronym) is a Phrase that is constructed "after the fact" from a previously existing word or Abbreviation, the abbreviation Carl Boenish ( April 3 1941 – July 7 1984) considered the father of modern BASE jumping, was a freefall Cinematographer Carl was the real catalyst behind modern BASE jumping, and in 1978 filmed the first BASE jumps (from El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park) to be made using ram-air parachutes and the freefall tracking technique. El Capitan is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end While BASE jumps had been made prior to that time, the El Capitan activity was the effective birth of what is now called BASE jumping. BASE jumping is significantly more dangerous than similar sports such as skydiving from aircraft, and is currently regarded by many as a fringe extreme sport or stunt. Extreme sport (also called action sport and adventure sport) is a media term for certain activities perceived as having a high level of inherent A stunt is an unusual and difficult physical feat or any act requiring a special skill performed for artistic purposes in TV, Theatre, or cinema

BASE numbers are awarded to those who have made at least one jump from each of the four categories. When Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield jumped together from a Houston skyscraper on January 18th, 1981, they became the first to attain the exclusive BASE numbers (BASE #1 and #2, respectively), having already jumped from antennae, spans, and earthen objects. Span is a section between two intermediate supports eg of a beam or a Bridge. Jean and Carl Boenish qualified for BASE numbers 3 and 4 soon after. A separate "award" was soon enacted for Night BASE jumping when Mayfield completed each category at night, becoming Night BASE #1, with Smith qualifying a few weeks later.

During the early eighties, nearly all BASE jumps were made using standard skydiving equipment, including two parachutes (main and reserve), and deployment components. Later on, specialized equipment and techniques were developed that were designed specifically for the unique needs of BASE jumping.

Contents

History

A for Antenna
A for Antenna

There are isolated examples of BASE jumps dating from the late 1700s.

However, these and other sporadic incidents were one-time experiments, not the systematic pursuit of a new form of parachuting. After 1978, the filmed jumps from El Capitan were repeated, not as a publicity exercise or as a movie stunt, but as a true recreational activity. It was this that popularised BASE jumping more widely among parachutists. Carl Boenish continued to publish films and informational magazines on BASE jumping until his 1984 death after a BASE-jump off of the Troll Wall. The Troll Wall ( Trollveggen) is part of the mountain Massif Trolltindene (Troll Peaks in the Romsdal valley near Åndalsnes By this time, the concept had spread among skydivers worldwide, with hundreds of participants making fixed-object jumps.

Comparison with skydiving

E for Earth
E for Earth

BASE jumping grew out of skydiving. BASE jumps are generally made from much lower altitudes than skydives, and a BASE jump takes place in close proximity to the object serving as the jump platform. Because BASE jumps generally entail slower airspeeds than typical skydives (due to the limited altitude), a BASE jumper rarely achieves terminal velocity (that speed achieved after twelve seconds of acceleration). A free falling object achieves its terminal velocity when the downward force of gravity ( Fg)equals the upward force of drag ( Fd) Because higher airspeeds enable jumpers more aerodynamic control of their bodies, as well as more positive and quick parachute openings, the longer the delay, the better.

B for Building
B for Building

Skydivers use the air flow to stabilize their position, allowing the parachute to deploy cleanly. BASE jumpers, falling at lower speeds, have less aerodynamic control, and may tumble. The attitude of the body at the moment of jumping determines the stability of flight in the first few seconds, before sufficient airspeed has built up to enable aerodynamic stability. On low BASE jumps, parachute deployment takes place during this early phase of flight, so if a poor "launch" leads into a tumble, the jumper may not be able to correct this before the opening. If the parachute is deployed while the jumper is tumbling, there is a high risk of entanglement or malfunction. The jumper may also not be facing the right direction. Such an off-heading opening is not a problem in skydiving, but off-heading opening that results in object strike has caused many serious injuries and deaths in BASE jumping.

At an altitude of 2,000 feet, having been in free-fall for at least 1,000 feet (300 meters), the jumper is falling at approximately 120 miles per hour (54 meters per second), and is approximately 11 seconds from the ground. Most BASE jumps are made from less than 2,000 feet (610 m). For example, a BASE jump from a 500 foot (150 meter) object is about 5. 6 seconds from the ground if the jumper remains in freefall. On a BASE jump, the parachute must open at about half the airspeed of a similar skydive, and more quickly (in a shorter distance fallen). Standard skydiving parachute systems are not designed for this situation, so BASE jumpers often use specially designed harnesses and parachute containers, with extra large pilot chutes, and many jump with only one parachute, since there would be little time to utilize a reserve parachute. If modified, by removing the bag and slider, stowing the lines in a tail pocket, and fitting a large pilot chute, standard skydiving gear can be used for lower BASE jumps, but is then prone to kinds of malfunction that are rare in normal skydiving (such as "line-overs" and broken lines).

Another risk is that most BASE jumping venues have very small areas in which to land. A beginner skydiver, after parachute deployment, may have a three minute or more parachute ride to the ground. A BASE jump from 500 feet (152 meters) will have a parachute ride of only 10 to 15 seconds.

One way to make a parachute open very quickly is to use a static line or direct bag. These devices form an attachment between the parachute and the jump platform, which stretches out the parachute and suspension lines as the jumper falls, before separating and allowing the parachute to inflate. This method enables the very lowest jumps (below 200 ft) to be made, although most BASE jumpers are more motivated to make higher jumps involving free fall. This method is similar to the paratrooper's deployment system. Paratroopers are Soldiers trained in Parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.

Legal issues

In the United States, skydiving from an airplane involves regulations set by the FAA, notably the requirement of an airplane jumper to carry two parachutes. The Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA) is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation with authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of Since BASE jumping does not involve an airplane, the FAA has no jurisdiction.

The legal issues that a BASE jumper must consider concern permissions to use the object from which the jump is initiated and the area used for landing.

Covert BASE jumps are often made from tall buildings and antenna towers. The general reluctance of the owners of these objects to allow their object to be used as a platform means many such BASE jumps are attempted covertly. While BASE jumping itself is not illegal, the covert nature of accessing objects usually necessitates trespassing on an object. Jumpers who are caught can expect to be charged with trespassing, as well as having other charges like breaking and entering, reckless endangerment, vandalism, or other such charges pressed against them. Other people accompanying the jumper, such as ground crew, may also face charges. See BASE Jumping and the Law.

In some jurisdictions it may be permissible to use land until specifically told not to. Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho is the only man-made structure in the United States where BASE jumping is allowed year-round without a permit. The I B Perrine Bridge at Twin Falls Idaho is a four-lane span carrying U For the motion picture see Twin Falls Idaho (film Twin Falls is the County seat and largest

New River Gorge Bridge
New River Gorge Bridge

Once a year, on the third Saturday in October ("Bridge Day"), permission to BASE jump has explicitly been granted at the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville, West Virginia. The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel- Arch bridge, in Fayetteville, West Virginia, USA. Fayetteville is a town in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States. The New River Gorge Bridge deck is 876 feet (267 m) above the river. An object dropped from the deck will hit the water in 8. 8 seconds. This annual event attracts about 450 BASE jumpers, and nearly 200,000 spectators. If the conditions are good, in the six hours that it is legal, there may be over 800 jumps. For many skydivers who would like to try BASE jumping, this will be the only fixed object from which they ever jump. On 21 October 2006, veteran BASE jumper Brian Lee Schubert of Alta Loma, California was killed jumping from the New River Gorge Bridge during Bridge Day activities. Events 1512 - Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Michael Pelkey (born 1940 is one of the founders of BASE jumping. Alta Loma is one of three formerly Unincorporated areas that became part of the city of Rancho Cucamonga, California, United States in 1977 His parachute opened late and he plummeted to his death in the waters below. Jumps continued following the recovery of his body. [1] He and his friend Michael Pelkey were the first to make a BASE jump from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in 1966. Michael Pelkey (born 1940 is one of the founders of BASE jumping. El Capitan is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end

El Capitan and the Merced River
El Capitan and the Merced River

However the National Park Service has the authority to ban specific activities in US National Parks, and has done so for BASE jumping. The authority comes from 36 CFR 2. 17(3), which prohibits, "Delivering or retrieving a person or object by parachute, helicopter, or other airborne means, except in emergencies involving public safety or serious property loss, or pursuant to the terms and conditions of a permit. " Under that Regulation, BASE is not banned, but is allowable if a permit is issued by the Superintendent, which means that a mechanism to allow BASE in National Parks was always in place. However, National Park Service Management Policies have stated that BASE "is not an appropriate public use activity within national park areas . . . " (2001 Management Policy 8. 2. 2. 7. ) This meant that there could be no permitted air delivery. It is noted, however, that this policy has a proposed change that strikes the language banning it outright and replacing it with a different test. Whether this will be approved, and whether this will make the granting of permits easier, is open to speculation.

In the early days of BASE jumping, the Service issued permits under which jumpers could get authorization to jump from El Capitan. This program ran for three months in 1980 and then collapsed amid allegations of abuse by unauthorised jumpers. Since then, the Service has vigorously enforced the ban, charging jumpers with "aerial delivery into a National Park". One jumper drowned in the Merced River while being chased by Park Rangers intent on arresting him. Merced River (pronounced "mer-SED" is in California. Its headwaters are in the southern half of Yosemite National Park. Despite this, illegal jumps continue in Yosemite at a rate estimated at a few hundred per year, often at night or dawn. El Capitan, Half Dome and Glacier Point have been used as jump sites. Half Dome is a Granite dome in Yosemite National Park, located at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley — possibly Yosemite's most familiar sight Glacier Point is a viewpoint above Yosemite Valley, in California, USA.

Other US public land, including land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, does not ban air delivery, and there are numerous jumpable objects on BLM land.

The legal position is better at other sites and in other countries. For example, in Norway's Lysefjord, BASE jumpers are made welcome. Lysefjord (or Lysefjorden, the suffix "-en" is a form of the definite article in the Norwegian language) is a Fjord located in Many sites in the European Alps, near Chamonix and on the Eiger, are also open to jumpers. Some other Norwegian places, like the Troll Wall are banned because of dangerous rescue missions in the past. The Troll Wall ( Trollveggen) is part of the mountain Massif Trolltindene (Troll Peaks in the Romsdal valley near Åndalsnes

BASE jumping today

Upon completing a jump from all of the four object categories, a jumper may choose to apply for a "BASE number", which are awarded sequentially. [2] Base-1 was awarded to Phil Smith of Houston, Texas in 1981. The 1000th application for a BASE number was filed in March 2005 by Matt Moilanen of Kalamazoo, Michigan. [3]

Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower

BASE jumping is often featured in action movies. The Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel /tuʀ ɛfɛl/ is an Iron Tower built The 2002 Vin Diesel film xXx includes a scene where Diesel's character catapults himself off a bridge in an open-topped car, landing safely as the car crashes on the ground. Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent; July 18 1967 is an American actor writer, director, and producer. XXX may refer to XXX an identifier for Pornography, especially X-rated movies 30 (number, XXX in Roman numerals Since the 1976 Mount Asgard jump featured in the pre-credits sequence to The Spy Who Loved Me, James Bond movies have featured several BASE jumps, including one from the Eiffel Tower in 1985's A View to a Kill, the Rock of Gibraltar in 1987's The Living Daylights, and in Die Another Day, 2002, Pierce Brosnan as James Bond jumps from a melting iceberg. Mount Asgard is a twin peaked Mountain with two flat-topped cylindrical rock towers separated by a saddle The Spy Who Loved Me, released in 1977 is the 10th film in the James Bond series and the third to star Roger Moore as MI6 agent The Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel /tuʀ ɛfɛl/ is an Iron Tower built A View To A Kill (1985 is the fourteenth Spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional The Rock of Gibraltar (sometimes called the Pillar of Hercules or by its Latin name Calpe) is a Monolithic Limestone Promontory The Living Daylights, released in 1987 is the fifteenth Spy film of the James Bond series, and the first to star Timothy Dalton Die Another Day is a 2002 film the 20th in the James Bond series, and the fourth and final film to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE Honour and so holds an honorary OBE James Bond 007 is a Fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve Novels and two Short story Of the James Bond jumps, though only the Mt Asgard and Eiffel Tower jumps were filmed in reality; the rest were special effects.

The 1990s surge of interest in extreme sports saw increasing interest in BASE jumping, though unlike other "extreme" sports which have become more or less mainstream, BASE jumping retains a reputation as a stunt or daredevil activity rather than a sport. The lack of an objective standard for judging between jumps from a single object is certainly a problem here--in one sense, any jump in which the jumper survives is successful, and as jumpers rarely attain sufficient speed to engage in the kind of acrobatics that conventional skydivers do, the opportunity for distinguishing one's self beyond the mere fact of the jump is somewhat minimal.

The high fatality rate is another likely reason that the activity has largely failed to gain widespread acceptance, and though the availability of specialized equipment and wider knowledge of techniques has made BASE jumping safer than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, deaths still occur on a regular basis, even among experienced jumpers. Some deaths through ground impact in free fall or object strike do occur, but most incidents are due to hazardous landing sites or other problems which develop after the parachute has opened. Because of the covert nature and questionable legality of many BASE jumps, no reliable figures are available to assess the statistical risks of the activity, though it is by any measure one of the world's more dangerous recreational activities.

Trango Towers
Trango Towers

The Guinness Book of Records first listed a BASE jumping record with Carl Boenish's 1984 leap from Trollveggen (Troll Wall) in Norway. The Trango Towers are a group of dramatic Granite spires located on the north side of the Baltoro Glacier, in Baltistan, a district of the Northern The Troll Wall ( Trollveggen) is part of the mountain Massif Trolltindene (Troll Peaks in the Romsdal valley near Åndalsnes It was described as the highest BASE jump. [4] (The jump was made two days before Boenish's death at the same site. ) This record category is still in the Guinness book and is currently held by Glenn Singleman and Heather Swan with a jump from Meru Peak in northern India at a starting elevation of 6,604 meters (21,667 ft)[5]

The sheer variety of the nature of the challenge at different jump sites means that direct comparisons of different jumps are often meaningless. There is a Guinness entry for "oldest BASE jumper" (James Guyer, aged 74 years 47 days). Even more contentious are claims sometimes made (although not recognized by Guinness) for the lowest jump. Given that a static-lined parachute can be made to open in little more than the length of its suspension lines, jumps can actually be performed at practically any altitude down to the point at which a parachute is not necessary for survival.

BASE competitions have been held since the early 1980s, with accurate landings or free fall aerobatics used as the judging criteria. Recent years have seen a formal competition held at the 452 meter (1483-ft) high Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, judged on landing accuracy.

Fatalities

Between 1981 and 2008 there have been at least 122 fatalities related to the sport. Year 1981 ( MCMLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common [6]

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ Base Numbers
  3. ^ Skydiving And Free Fall Parachuting
  4. ^ Here meaning "greatest vertical descent," not "highest starting elevation. "
  5. ^ Leap from the top of the world - World - smh.com.au
  6. ^ World BASE Fatality List

See also

External links

Various types of Kites exist ranging from materials shape usage skill required to operate and so on The Kite is used to do certain things one kite or many kites are applied to achieve certain purposes objectives or tasks that is applications Kites have a wing and a kite line (line or sometimes more than one line A slider is a small rectangular piece of fabric with a Grommet near each corner used to control the deployment of a "ram-air" Parachute.

Dictionary

BASE jumping

-noun

  1. An extreme sport consisting of jumping from a fixed structure on land, using a parachute

-verb

  1. Present participle of BASE jump.
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