Sadat Hussain Rafsanjani :
BASE jumping or sometimes referred to BASE jumping is a form of extreme sports where a person leaps from a manmade object with parachute. The acronym is the short form of building, antenna, span and earth. Span refers to any bridge and earth attributes to any hilly cliff or mountain. For a BASE jumper, jumping from a plane at an altitude of 15,000 feet, sometimes called freefall, is not quite challenging because they get plenty of time to open up the parachute. But in the case of BASE jumping, only couple of seconds are found by the jumper thus the risk is high and fatality rate often ends to death tolls. As per the statistics of BASE Fatality List, total 247 deaths have been recorded by the authority since 1981 until October 10.
High-rise buildings called skyscrapers are the most popular objectives for the BASE jumpers. Mostly on Sunday, people would climb to the top and jump. But in most cases, they are strictly handled by the authority as most of the high rise buildings are under security, base jumpers often go for the under construction skyscrapers. But there is another alternative to this. Bridges constructed over crater or canyons are very popular too. The height is relatively good for parachuting thus many choose span or bridges to leap off. Some chose to leap from radio or television antenna because of the close height to the skyscrapers and mostly these stations are built outside city, in rural or suburban arena. Thus the BASE jumpers are able to attract less suspicion from the authority. But all sorts of BASE jumping are extremely prohibited because of the high causality rate, and at some
extent illegal in some countries. BASE jumping and the jumpers have a notorious history. The first documented BASE jump was recorded in USA. The object was a mountain called El Captain, 3000 feet tall, a granite rocky point situated in California, now called Yosemite Valley. Two BASE jumpers made an attempt on July 24, 1966. Both the jumpers, Michael Pelky and Brian Schubert sustained broken bones as they were skydivers, had no previous experience, training and equipment for the newly found sport. They are considered the founder of base-jumping. With the growing cult, BASE jumping became so popular that; the El Captain became the prime target for the zeal seekers. A man named Carl Boenish then leapt from the cliff with four of his friends in 1978. He filmed the whole jumping process with a camera and shortly after the incident he came with an early acronym for the sport, BEST (bridge, earth, span and tower). He became a well-known and respected figure in the game and many endowed him with the title that the founder of modern BASE jumping. He developed a new concept called BASE number, a number that signifies a BASE jumper’s jumping attempts from different objects. His number was four (4) as he already leapt from all types of objects.
At some point, base-jumping was considered legal at the El Captain Mountain. Many BASE jumpers made sanctioned jumps from the cliff later and escaped unharmed. The first legal jump was made on August 4, 1980 by Dean Westgaard. But later authorities ceased the legality of Base jumping from the cliff and officially banned the point for jumpers.
BASE jumping was also well known in cities as an enthusiast jumped from World Trade Centre south tower in 1975 and was arrested upon safe landing.
BASE jumping requires a special type of parachute called ram-air. The parachute is rectangular in size. The shape gives more control over the parachute direction and speed adjustment to the jumper. Early BASE jumpers used to jump with round shaped parachute, which is much difficult to control, and especially designed for skydiving. A BASE jumping parachute costs nearly 1200$ to 1500$. Using a classic round parachute is very dangerous as it is designed to deploy at the high altitude level. A BASE jumper must be an accomplished skydiver and has proper training from a good mentor. Skydivers generally open their parachute at 2000 feet, which gives much time to open the chute and adjust the speed co-ordination. If they run by a malfunctioned parachute, they can easily use the reserve one. It also helps to reduce the jerk effect upon opening the parachute. But base jumpers have to face two distinct hindrances while jumping: low altitude parachute deployment and propinquity of the jumping object. Jumpers must open the chute accurately by adjusting the height because the time it takes to fully open the parachute can result in ground impact. Some also use pilot chute. As base jumping is done from nearly 3000 feet on average, the jumper may not achieve a freefall and terminal velocity of 193km. Low velocity may not prove well thus chances of fatality remains high.
On the other hand, pilot chutes creates more drag, opens quickly at slower velocity and covers more air to maintain balance. Lower speed means lower pressure imposed on the chute thus the jumper may find merely five seconds to open the chute. For jumps under 3000 feet, the chute is connected with a cord to the object, as freefall is not possible. When the jumper leaps, the chute is automatically deployed from the bag.
Opening the chute on right time is very important as it will send the jumper off balance and make an impact to the surrounding rock or building. Skydivers only bother about the ground impact but BASE jumpers must be aware of their surroundings. An early opening can send them towards a tall object. This problem is called off-heading opening. Ram air parachute are very useful in this case as it has a slider device that can be used to compensate an off-heading. Jumping techniques bears all the success for the jumper. The jumper must jump off the object in a manner that he must increase the distance between him and the jumping object otherwise he will slammed to the foot f the object. Also the jumper should leap properly, keeping the body horizontal to the ground, face downward which is mandatory to open the chute. Somersaulting on the air can be dangerous as the heaviest body part of human is head can distract the person from the centreline.
BASE jumping is an extreme sport, which comes with extreme measures. Although evolved from skydiving, but because of its dangerous nature, skydivers feel that BASE jumping miss credits skydiving so many avoids the sport. Skydivers define base-jumping as rebellious, outrageous and alluring. Leaping from the antenna or high-rise building is illegal in almost all countries as it often results in pedestrian injury and traffic disasters. Mostly manmade objects with legality of base-jumping are hard to find, in Norway it is legal. There are many schools that teach and provide proper guidance to the enthusiasts. In USA, there is a long tradition to observe one-day festival called Bridge Day. It is organised in West Virginia, Fayetteville on the New River Gorge Bridge where on this day base-jumping is legal.
BASE jumping requires skydiving first. It is the prerequisite. A person who has minimum 200 or some more or less skydiving experience is good to go. Without learning skydiving first, it is like trying to become a formula one-race car driver without learning to drive a normal car. Some clubs marks 200 as the skydiving experience number. Then once should acquire much knowledge then the person should go for FJC or first jump course. This way he will be getting acquainted with BASE jump gears, special skills. Normally BASE jumping is performed less than 2000 feet where the El Captain and Angel Falls, two of the most popular spots to the jumpers, have higher height base jumpers calls the buildings ‘the great vertical playground.’
Mostly BASE jumpers like to jump from buildings at dawn or in the middle of the night to avoid attraction. Sometimes they protect their privacy and the jumping site through this process.
Statistics show that most of the accidents are either from earth objects leap or antenna. High-rise buildings has relatively low death rate. Most death rates are recorded in USA (66). Another statistics show that, 8 per cent faces off-heading opening, 85 line twists that is wrapping of parachute also called canopy on the air, 9.5 per cent strikes to the object, 3 per cent slips while about to leap from the edge of a cliff, 38 per cent impact to ground while unable to pull parachute. 10 per cent people chose bridge or span, 71 per cent chose cliff, 12 per cent chose antenna and 6 per cent buildings. n
BASE jumping or sometimes referred to BASE jumping is a form of extreme sports where a person leaps from a manmade object with parachute. The acronym is the short form of building, antenna, span and earth. Span refers to any bridge and earth attributes to any hilly cliff or mountain. For a BASE jumper, jumping from a plane at an altitude of 15,000 feet, sometimes called freefall, is not quite challenging because they get plenty of time to open up the parachute. But in the case of BASE jumping, only couple of seconds are found by the jumper thus the risk is high and fatality rate often ends to death tolls. As per the statistics of BASE Fatality List, total 247 deaths have been recorded by the authority since 1981 until October 10.
High-rise buildings called skyscrapers are the most popular objectives for the BASE jumpers. Mostly on Sunday, people would climb to the top and jump. But in most cases, they are strictly handled by the authority as most of the high rise buildings are under security, base jumpers often go for the under construction skyscrapers. But there is another alternative to this. Bridges constructed over crater or canyons are very popular too. The height is relatively good for parachuting thus many choose span or bridges to leap off. Some chose to leap from radio or television antenna because of the close height to the skyscrapers and mostly these stations are built outside city, in rural or suburban arena. Thus the BASE jumpers are able to attract less suspicion from the authority. But all sorts of BASE jumping are extremely prohibited because of the high causality rate, and at some
extent illegal in some countries. BASE jumping and the jumpers have a notorious history. The first documented BASE jump was recorded in USA. The object was a mountain called El Captain, 3000 feet tall, a granite rocky point situated in California, now called Yosemite Valley. Two BASE jumpers made an attempt on July 24, 1966. Both the jumpers, Michael Pelky and Brian Schubert sustained broken bones as they were skydivers, had no previous experience, training and equipment for the newly found sport. They are considered the founder of base-jumping. With the growing cult, BASE jumping became so popular that; the El Captain became the prime target for the zeal seekers. A man named Carl Boenish then leapt from the cliff with four of his friends in 1978. He filmed the whole jumping process with a camera and shortly after the incident he came with an early acronym for the sport, BEST (bridge, earth, span and tower). He became a well-known and respected figure in the game and many endowed him with the title that the founder of modern BASE jumping. He developed a new concept called BASE number, a number that signifies a BASE jumper’s jumping attempts from different objects. His number was four (4) as he already leapt from all types of objects.
At some point, base-jumping was considered legal at the El Captain Mountain. Many BASE jumpers made sanctioned jumps from the cliff later and escaped unharmed. The first legal jump was made on August 4, 1980 by Dean Westgaard. But later authorities ceased the legality of Base jumping from the cliff and officially banned the point for jumpers.
BASE jumping was also well known in cities as an enthusiast jumped from World Trade Centre south tower in 1975 and was arrested upon safe landing.
BASE jumping requires a special type of parachute called ram-air. The parachute is rectangular in size. The shape gives more control over the parachute direction and speed adjustment to the jumper. Early BASE jumpers used to jump with round shaped parachute, which is much difficult to control, and especially designed for skydiving. A BASE jumping parachute costs nearly 1200$ to 1500$. Using a classic round parachute is very dangerous as it is designed to deploy at the high altitude level. A BASE jumper must be an accomplished skydiver and has proper training from a good mentor. Skydivers generally open their parachute at 2000 feet, which gives much time to open the chute and adjust the speed co-ordination. If they run by a malfunctioned parachute, they can easily use the reserve one. It also helps to reduce the jerk effect upon opening the parachute. But base jumpers have to face two distinct hindrances while jumping: low altitude parachute deployment and propinquity of the jumping object. Jumpers must open the chute accurately by adjusting the height because the time it takes to fully open the parachute can result in ground impact. Some also use pilot chute. As base jumping is done from nearly 3000 feet on average, the jumper may not achieve a freefall and terminal velocity of 193km. Low velocity may not prove well thus chances of fatality remains high.
On the other hand, pilot chutes creates more drag, opens quickly at slower velocity and covers more air to maintain balance. Lower speed means lower pressure imposed on the chute thus the jumper may find merely five seconds to open the chute. For jumps under 3000 feet, the chute is connected with a cord to the object, as freefall is not possible. When the jumper leaps, the chute is automatically deployed from the bag.
Opening the chute on right time is very important as it will send the jumper off balance and make an impact to the surrounding rock or building. Skydivers only bother about the ground impact but BASE jumpers must be aware of their surroundings. An early opening can send them towards a tall object. This problem is called off-heading opening. Ram air parachute are very useful in this case as it has a slider device that can be used to compensate an off-heading. Jumping techniques bears all the success for the jumper. The jumper must jump off the object in a manner that he must increase the distance between him and the jumping object otherwise he will slammed to the foot f the object. Also the jumper should leap properly, keeping the body horizontal to the ground, face downward which is mandatory to open the chute. Somersaulting on the air can be dangerous as the heaviest body part of human is head can distract the person from the centreline.
BASE jumping is an extreme sport, which comes with extreme measures. Although evolved from skydiving, but because of its dangerous nature, skydivers feel that BASE jumping miss credits skydiving so many avoids the sport. Skydivers define base-jumping as rebellious, outrageous and alluring. Leaping from the antenna or high-rise building is illegal in almost all countries as it often results in pedestrian injury and traffic disasters. Mostly manmade objects with legality of base-jumping are hard to find, in Norway it is legal. There are many schools that teach and provide proper guidance to the enthusiasts. In USA, there is a long tradition to observe one-day festival called Bridge Day. It is organised in West Virginia, Fayetteville on the New River Gorge Bridge where on this day base-jumping is legal.
BASE jumping requires skydiving first. It is the prerequisite. A person who has minimum 200 or some more or less skydiving experience is good to go. Without learning skydiving first, it is like trying to become a formula one-race car driver without learning to drive a normal car. Some clubs marks 200 as the skydiving experience number. Then once should acquire much knowledge then the person should go for FJC or first jump course. This way he will be getting acquainted with BASE jump gears, special skills. Normally BASE jumping is performed less than 2000 feet where the El Captain and Angel Falls, two of the most popular spots to the jumpers, have higher height base jumpers calls the buildings ‘the great vertical playground.’
Mostly BASE jumpers like to jump from buildings at dawn or in the middle of the night to avoid attraction. Sometimes they protect their privacy and the jumping site through this process.
Statistics show that most of the accidents are either from earth objects leap or antenna. High-rise buildings has relatively low death rate. Most death rates are recorded in USA (66). Another statistics show that, 8 per cent faces off-heading opening, 85 line twists that is wrapping of parachute also called canopy on the air, 9.5 per cent strikes to the object, 3 per cent slips while about to leap from the edge of a cliff, 38 per cent impact to ground while unable to pull parachute. 10 per cent people chose bridge or span, 71 per cent chose cliff, 12 per cent chose antenna and 6 per cent buildings. n
