BASE jumping


BASE jumping is the recreational sport of jumping from fixed objects, using a parachute to descend to the ground. BASE is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antennas, spans and earth. Participants jump from a fixed object such as a cliff and after an optional freefall delay deploy a parachute to slow their descent and land. A popular form of BASE jumping is wingsuit BASE jumping.
In contrast to other forms of parachuting, such as skydiving from airplanes, BASE jumps are performed from fixed objects that are generally at much lower altitudes, and BASE jumpers only carry one parachute.
BASE jumping is significantly more hazardous than other forms of parachuting and is widely considered to be one of the most dangerous extreme sports.

History

Precursors

is widely believed to have been the first person to build and test a parachute, by jumping from St Mark's Campanile in Venice in 1617 when he was more than 65 years old. However these and other sporadic incidents were one-time experiments, not the actual systematic pursuit of a new form of parachuting.

Birth of BASE jumping

Precursors to the sport date back hundreds of years. In 1966 Michael Pelkey and Brian Schubert jumped from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The acronym B.A.S.E. was later coined by filmmaker Carl Boenish, his wife Jean Boenish, Phil Smith, and Phil Mayfield. Carl Boenish was an important catalyst behind modern BASE jumping and in 1978 he filmed jumps from El Capitan made using ram-air parachutes and the freefall tracking technique. 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.
After 1978 the filmed jumps from El Capitan were repeated, not as an actual publicity exercise or as a movie stunt but as a true recreational activity. It was this that popularized BASE jumping more widely among parachutists. Carl Boenish continued to publish films and informational magazines on BASE jumping until his death in 1984 after a BASE jump off the Troll Wall. By this time the concept had spread among skydivers worldwide, with hundreds of participants making fixed-object jumps.
During the early eighties, nearly all BASE jumps were made using standard skydiving equipment, including two parachutes, and deployment components. Later on, specialized equipment and techniques were developed specifically for the unique needs of BASE jumping.
In recent years, recognizing the sport's growing appeal and the potential for high-impact marketing, companies such as Red Bull have stepped in to sponsor athletes, further elevating the sport's profile.

BASE numbers

Upon completing a jump from all of the four object categories, a jumper may choose to apply for a "BASE number", awarded sequentially by Rick and Joy Harrison.

Equipment

In the early days of BASE jumping, people used modified skydiving gear, such as by removing the deployment bag and slider, stowing the lines in a tail pocket, and fitting a large pilot chute. However, modified skydiving gear is prone to kinds of malfunction that are rare in normal skydiving. Modern purpose-built BASE jumping equipment is considered to be much safer and more reliable.

Parachute

The biggest difference in gear is that skydivers jump with both a main and a reserve parachute, while BASE jumpers carry only one parachute. BASE jumping parachutes are larger than skydiving parachutes and are typically flown with a wing loading of around. Vents are one element that make a parachute suitable for BASE jumping. BASE jumpers often use extra large pilot chutes to compensate for lower airspeed parachute deployments. On jumps from lower altitudes, the slider is removed for faster parachute opening.

Harness and container

BASE jumpers use a single-parachute harness and container system. Since there is only a single parachute, BASE jumping containers are mechanically much simpler than skydiving containers. This simplicity contributes to the safety and reliability of BASE jumping gear by eliminating many malfunctions that can occur with more complicated skydiving equipment. Since there is no reserve parachute, there is little need to cut-away their parachute, and many BASE harnesses do not contain a 3-ring release system. A modern ultralight BASE system including parachute, container, and harness can weigh as little as.

Clothing

When jumping from high mountains, BASE jumpers will often use special clothing to improve control and flight characteristics in the air. Wingsuit flying has become a popular form of BASE jumping in recent years, allowing jumpers to glide over long horizontal distances. Tracking suits inflate like wingsuits to give additional lift to jumpers, but maintain separation of arms and legs to allow for greater mobility and safety.

Technique

BASE jumps can be broadly classified into low jumps and high jumps. The primary distinguishing characteristic of low BASE jumps versus high BASE jumps is the use of a slider reefing device to control the opening speed of the parachute, and whether the jumper falls long enough to reach terminal velocity.

Low BASE jumps

Low BASE jumps are those where the jumper does not reach terminal velocity. Sometimes referred to as "slider down" jumps because they are typically performed without a slider reefing device on the parachute. The lack of a slider enables the parachute to open more quickly. Other techniques for low BASE jumps include the use of a static line, direct bag, or P.C.A.. 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 enables the very lowest jumps—below to be made. It is common in the UK to jump from around the mark, due to the number of low cliffs at this height. BASE jumpers have been known to jump from objects as low as, which leaves little to no canopy time and requires an immediate flare to land safely.

High BASE jumps

Many BASE jumpers are motivated to make jumps from higher objects involving free fall. High BASE jumps are those which are high enough for the jumper to reach terminal velocity. High BASE jumps are often called "slider up" jumps due to the use of a slider reefing device.
High BASE jumps present different hazards than low BASE jumps. With greater height and airspeed, jumpers can fly away from the cliff during freefall, allowing them to deploy their parachute far away from the cliff they jumped from and significantly reduce the chance of object striking. However, high BASE jumps also present new hazards such as complications resulting from the use of a wingsuit.

Tandem BASE jumps

Tandem BASE jumping is when a skilled pilot jumps with a passenger attached to their front. It is similar to skydiving and is offered in the US and many other countries. Tandem BASE is becoming a more accessible and legal form of BASE jumping.

Records

Guinness World Records first listed a BASE jumping record with married couple Jean and Carl Boenish's 1984 leap from Trollveggen in Norway. It was described at the time as the highest cliff jump. The jump was made two days before Carl's death at the same site.
On August 26, 1992, Australians Nic Feteris and Glenn Singleman made a BASE jump from an altitude of jump off the Trango Towers in Pakistan. It was the highest BASE jump off the earth at the time.
On May 23, 2006, Glenn Singleman and Heather Swan made a BASE jump from an altitude of off Meru Peak in Northern India, breaking Singleman and Feteris's previous record for the highest BASE jump off the earth. They jumped in wingsuits. In 2015, they also made the first ever wingsuit jump across the Grand Canyon, flying approximately 11km from one side to the other.
Daniel Schilling set the Guinness World Record for the most BASE jumps in a twenty-four-hour period, jumping off the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho, a record 201 times on July 8, 2006.
On May 5, 2013, Russian Valery Rozov jumped off Changtse from a height of. Using a specially developed wingsuit, he glided down to the Rongbuk glacier more than 1,000 meters below, setting a new world record for highest altitude BASE jump.
On October 5, 2016, Rozov broke his own record for highest altitude BASE jump when he leapt from a height of from Cho Oyu, the sixth-highest mountain in the world, landing on a glacier approximately two minutes later. He later died while attempting another high-altitude BASE jump in Nepal in 2017.

Competitions

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 high Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, judged on landing accuracy. In 2012 the World Wingsuit League held their first wingsuit BASE jumping competition in China.

Notable jumps

  • February 2, 1912, Frederick R. Law parachuted from the top of the torch of the Statue of Liberty, above the ground.
  • February 4, 1912, Franz Reichelt, tailor, jumped from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower testing his invention, the coat parachute, and died when he hit the ground. It was his first-ever attempt with the parachute and both the authorities and the spectators believed he intended to test it using a dummy.
  • In 1913, it is claimed that Štefan Banič successfully jumped from a 15-story building to demonstrate his parachute design.
  • In 1913, Russian student Vladimir Ossovski, from the Saint-Petersburg Conservatory, jumped from the high bridge over the river Seine in Rouen, using the parachute RK-1, invented a year before that by Gleb Kotelnikov. Ossovski planned to jump from the Eiffel Tower as well, but the Parisian authorities did not allow it.
  • In 1965, Erich Felbermayr from Wels jumped from the Kleine Zinne / Cima piccola di Lavaredo in the Dolomites.
  • In 1966, Michael Pelkey and Brian Schubert jumped from El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley.
  • On January 31, 1972, Rick Sylvester skied off Yosemite Valley's El Capitan, making the first ski-BASE jump.
  • On November 9, 1975, the first person to parachute off the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was Bill Eustace, a member of the tower's construction crew. He was fired.
  • On July 22, 1975, Owen J. Quinn parachuted from the North Tower of the World Trade Center to publicize the plight of the poor.
  • In 1976, Rick Sylvester skied off Canada's Mount Asgard for the ski chase sequence of the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me, giving the wider world its first look at BASE jumping.
  • In 1979, Santee, California skydiver Roger Worthington completed one of the first "Span" jumps when he successfully parachuted off the newly constructed Pine Valley Creek Bridge on Interstate 8 in San Diego County. Upon take off he held a red smoke flare in each hand. When interviewed afterward he claimed to know of no other "bridge jumpers" in the country.
  • On February 22, 1982, Wayne Allwood, an Australian skydiving accuracy champion, parachuted from a helicopter over the Sydney CBD and landed on the small top area of Sydney's Centrepoint Tower, approximately above the ground. Upon landing, Allwood discarded and secured his parachute, then used a full-sized reserve parachute to BASE jump into Hyde Park below.
  • In November 1983 Max Botto of Venezuela was the first person to BASE jump from Angel Falls
  • In 1986, Welshman Eric Jones became the first person to BASE jump from the Eiger.
  • On October 22, 1999, Jan Davis died while attempting a BASE jump from El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. Davis' jump was part of an organized act of civil disobedience protesting the NPS air delivery regulations, which make BASE jumping illegal in national park areas.
  • In 2000, Hannes Arch and Ueli Gegenschatz were the first to BASE jump from the high north face of the Eiger.
  • In 2005, Karina Hollekim became the first woman to perform a ski-BASE.
  • In 2009, three women—29-year-old Australian Livia Dickie, 28-year-old Venezuelan Ana Isabel Dao, and 32-year-old Norwegian Anniken Binz—BASE jumped from Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world.
  • In September 2013, three men parachuted off the then-under-construction One World Trade Center in New York City. Footage of their jump was recorded using head cams and can be seen on YouTube. In March 2014, the three jumpers turned themselves in. They were sentenced to community service and a fine.