Today, Pecnik is manufacturing wingsuits for his new company, Phoenix-Fly. He describes how BASE jumping was, at one point, much more under the radar. Finding mentors was more challenging, and most BASE jumpers who got into the sport had a vast skydiving background. So there are more people doing it, and there are more people getting into it very quickly without a lot of experience.
That accounts for a lot of the accidents. Pecnik agrees. Now we have a population who barely knows how to fall or how to fly a canopy [parachute], but they are already skimming rocks in wingsuits.
Perhaps one example of this approach, according to Pecnik, is Armin Schmieder—the guy who inadvertently broadcast his death on Facebook. They think getting the keys was the hard part. Dude, the hard part has only just begun. Webb says that he sees a growing community of wingsuit BASE novices who are shortcutting every step of the process, which begins by becoming an expert skydiver, then becoming an expert BASE jumper, then going back to a skydiving scenario and training to become an expert wingsuit flyer within that relatively safer environment.
Most beginners who die appear to be making variations of the exact same error, according to Webb. What ends up happening is your suit can only grab so much air, and it starts to stall. When it starts to stall, it loses lift, starts to drag, and then, splat.
Beginners tend to fly slow, and slow speed and flying is just a bad combination. Then people are screaming, But he was experienced! Well, he was, but not in all aspects of wingsuit BASE. And that even goes for the two most recent guys: Polli and Emanuele.
Davis observes one trend among beginners and pros. The skiing world has been hit hard in recent years, as several of the best free skiers and snowboarders have been lost to avalanches and injury while pushing the limits of their sport. There is no Super Bowl of wingsuit flying, skiing, or climbing. Athletes are free to define—and push the limits in—their pursuits however they want.
This freedom is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it fosters a creative, artistic approach to these amazing objectives. On the other hand, it has resulted in a culture that constantly needs to take bigger risks, make bolder decisions, and ride narrower margins of safety.
For some athletes, the fame, attention, and corporate sponsorships that come from pushing the boundaries help eke out a living—often a modest one. The Lake Tahoe region, including Squaw, has been hit hard in recent years as many of its local athletes have died pushing the limits. At the opposite end of the spectrum are companies like Red Bull, GoPro, and, most recently, Stride Gum—which backed a skydiving stunt this summer in which Luke Aikens jumped out of a plane without a parachute and landed in a large net.
But the activity that we celebrate with millions of YouTube views is the same pursuit that cut his life short. Ultimately, it will be the groundswell that will make that judgement. And we currently live in a world where double standards are plentiful. Pecnik, for one, agrees.
Davis says folks in the wingsuit BASE jumping communities are thinking about this question from entirely the wrong paradigm. I think we may be using the wrong definition. Perhaps progression means something very different. Perhaps it means refining the experience, becoming safer, more elegant, and more aware. Perhaps it means sustainability. Eventually when you make a mistake you hope you have room. And now low margins are so standard in the sport.
It just kills people. Chris McNamara, a big-wall rock climber from California, took up wingsuit BASE jumping in the early s when it was still a new sport.
After a few years, he gave it up when he realized he was probably going to die if he continued, a feeling that hit home when Dean Potter died in a wingsuit accident. To reduce fatalities, the BASE community has volleyed around a number of ideas, from increased regulation to better education. Motorcycles, like the standards of wingsuit BASE jumping, have become bigger, faster, and more daring since In that time, the number of crash fatalities has increased from 2, to 4, in , the last year for which data is available.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration estimates that motorcycle helmets reduce the likelihood of a crash fatality by 37 percent, but only 19 states require their use. But equally as important is the need for culture to change—and the same principle can be applied to action sports. There was a point in time when you were an idiot if you wore a helmet on the ski slopes. Matt Gerdes, the owner of Squirrel wingsuits, argued for more education on Facebook.
Unfortunately, what the sport also lacks is a desire by its participants to learn. People have to understand that education is a huge factor, and paying for information that may save your life is worth it. Recently, in the skiing world, there has been a huge educational outreach to improve backcountry safety and reduce the number of avalanche deaths. Interestingly, a lot of these traps could easily be applied to the wingsuit BASE jumping world.
The ski season in Colorado saw a record low in avalanche fatalities. Only one person died last year. Yes, we have a long way to go—there were several people who nearly got smoked week after week here in the Tetons last winter, including a few fatalities—but you'd hope that backcountry users are starting to get better at avoiding avalanches. I do think that awareness is growing, thanks to many different organizations like the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Still, Webb remains skeptical much will change—at least in the short term. It has also saved my life and brought me more happiness than anything else. Everything has to balance.
People give up their free time and risk the leap across the globe. They jump in secret, they trek hundreds of miles for a legal site, and they spend money on top-notch equipment and training, all to get their fix. Larry LeMaster of Skydive NRG you may have noticed him at Bridge Day; he was the one soaring above the crowd with a giant American flag fluttering behind him , says a skydive is calmer than people expect.
I tell them it's like being on a cloud of air. You're already moving in the plane, so there's not the falling sensation you'd expect. As an all-around waterman-turned-skydiver, his first BASE jumps were performed under some of the best mentors in the extreme sports industry: Erik Roner and Travis Pastrana. He estimates he performed 80 to jumps before officially hanging up his BASE parachute. He still skydives, however.
Here are the key differences. While BASE jumping itself is legal, sometimes the locations used for jumps are restricted. That said, however, there is a wide swath of legal jumping locations around the world. Unlike other providers, Global Rescue memberships do not exclude or restrict adventure activities. Toggle navigation Menu. Login Enroll. Travel Services TotalCare Telehealth. Partners Travel Operators and Associations. Custom travel risk management solutions for businesses of all sizes.
Skydivers usually open their chutes at around 2, feet, whereas in BASE jumping the minimum altitude is somewhere around feet. Parachutes: Unlike skydiving, which employs two parachutes the main canopy and the backup reserve , BASE jumpers have just one. The design of the parachute is different, as well. A skydiving parachute employs a device called a slider, which slows the opening of the chute at a comfortable, gentle speed.
A BASE jumping parachute — again, given the short amount of time they have — intentionally lacks this device as they must open fast and hard to fill with air before the freefall ends abruptly. Jumpers have to be extremely precise in their exits and establish proper body position before they pull their chute as they could slam into the side of the object they jumped from.
Such was the case for Lillard, whose parachute was tangled when deployed, causing him to repeatedly whip against the foot cliff wall he had just launched from. Your exiting and parachute piloting skills must be absolutely dialed in and skydiving allows you to work on those skills in a much more controlled and forgivable environment. The key being multiple for the exposure to countless experts to gauge every possible insight and experience. Tap into the Community: Like any sport, extreme or not, the more you can lean on other experts for insight, the more you can learn and absorb.
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