Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 7, 2010 - 05:12pm PT
The Great Book of BASE is here!
If you or anyone you know has ever wondered what BASE jumping is all
about, this is the book. Just the photos alone are worth buying it for.
It's part for people who are interested in starting BASE jumping (and explains why you probably never should get involved). But is also for anyone who has ever watch a BASE YouTube video and wondered what the sport is all about. It's great on a surface level (cool photos) but also goes into the history and technical details about base jumping and wingsuit flying.
I am helping distribute the book so please forward this on to anyone you
think might be interested: http://base-book.com/
If you are a retailer interested in selling the book, please email me
PS: that is Dean Potter on the cover on the world record "High-ger" exit on the Eiger where he flew almost 9000 vertical feet over almost 3 minutes. Lots of writing by climbers including from Steph Davis, Dean Potter and ME (i write about why I quit)
Below is some video shot by the Author Matt Gerdes. It is some of the best flying I have ever seen.
You can read about his exploits here http://www.matttg.com/home.html He basically travels the world doing anything cool you have ever seen on youtube that involves a parachute or para glider
Both. It's really for anyone who is Interested in BASE. There are a ton of great photos and descriptions of how base works that anyone interested onthe sport can appreciate whether u plan to actually jump or not
If you are at all interested in the book I encourage you to download the free samples. You can get a taste before you commit to the purchase
Also, the author is also self publishing the book and it's his first book. I always think ts great when people self publish which is another reason I am pumping this book. I hav given tips to some other self publishers and am always psyched to share what I have learned. If u have a project and need some beta hit me up!
Here is a note from the author about why you might consider buying the book
Hi Everyone,
I wrote a book, and you should buy it! Yes, buy it now! It’s all about BASE jumping, and is an entertaining and informative read even if you don’t know what BASE jumping is.
The Great Book of BASE is finally done. At this moment thousands of copies are on a boat from Hong Kong to California. They will arrive at the distribution center in a couple of weeks.
Please place your orders now. If you do, I can virtually guarantee that not only will your love life improve but you will also instantly become more attractive to members of the opposite sex (and the same sex, too!). You will immediately feel healthier, stronger, and more vigorous. In short, I am promising instant gratification of the sort that can rarely be found for a mere 35 bucks (or 42 bucks if you live outside the USA and want to enjoy these benefits). Ok, maybe not instant gratification… your book will arrive at your address in the beginning of August, most likely. But it’s worth the wait.
Ok… seriously though, on a more personal level I should say that this project was a major investment for me, financially and personally. I would love to have your help to break even on this, if you feel so inclined.
Order it here using major Credit Cards or PayPal: www.base-book.com
ST's overworked and underpaid distribution centre staff, at ST world headquarters in a garage near you, are waiting to take your order. Copies of the new book are winging their way to customers around the world. They're in the air, flying hither and yon.
hey there chris... oh my! congrats.... wonderful news and wonderful pics...
*man oh man, if i ever could see MY BOOKS ordered and stacked and ready to do something with... it'd be a dream come true, so i can well imagaine your joy! man oh man, and i can't even afford to buy myself one, at this point... :O
very nice for chris.... wonderful news...
best wishes for the rest, as in good sales, to follow...
:)
Yeah, the Kiguti Baffin Island BASE jump was an big on a lot of levels. It's one of the coolest exits and flights I found (definitely the coolest legal one). It's also the exit where a I saw the other darker side of BASE and became the beginning of the end of my BASE interest. Here is one of the flights from there http://www.youtube.com/flyairmac#p/u/2/3ycBGkLkEkg
I hold my breath every time I watch a basejumping/wingsuit video. Standing at the last belay on top of tribal rite two years ago (last 2 pitches on WOEML) made me think more than ever about basejumping. I looked down and thought - how could you miss? - yet people do "miss." It was strangely seductive. This book may well be on my purchase list. Thanks for the info.
Cheers,
Doug
Yeah, that jump on Baffin island was a bit wild to watch.
I actually wrote an essay on why i quite BASE jumping for the book. Ill check with the author/publisher to see if its ok for me to post it here in a few months once the initial sales push is over
Have you read, this sounds silly, but have you read the Carlos Castenada books, the "Don Juan" series. Well, I have a point.
In one, he describes very clearly what seems to be an ancient Toltec/Nazgual rite. Men in bird suits who glide off canyons. It's at the end of, I think, the last book.
By that time, Castenada was calling it just an anthropological work, but real or not, I believe ancient canyon dwellers in South America and Mexico did fly. Why not? It seems too right somehow.
Hope people I know are in your book. It's a little demeaning, dude, to think anyone needs base jumping explained still, I do congratulate you.
Yeah, its amazing how the Gambler was pretty much connected to every California BASE jumper by 1 or 2 degrees. I remember meeting him in 97 at the bottom of the Troll Wall in norway. he had just done the longest track in the world which i think was 32 seconds. Just about every cali jumper i know learned from someone he taught, including myself
If anyone who has read the Great Book of BASE book could post a review on Amazon that would be awesome and really help us out. Many thanks!! Here is the link http://amzn.to/bXJhwL
say, i dont have money to buy stuff... and can hardly buy my own books, when i need to, but, i will surely "plug" the book as best i can---being that folks, many that i know, do NOT even know what this is...
so, alas, i cannot review it, or i gladly would... :)
also,
oh my, yes, i hope you can post the bit about why you knew it was time to stop jumping...
After watching the video showing Corliss' track I have to say aerodynamics and glide ratio have to be a complex function of altitude, velocity, humidity and temperature. All requiring the same extremely disciplined development used to establish the flight envelope of a new airplane.
The splat factor is going to be awful if this goes really big in civil air.
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 3, 2010 - 02:05pm PT
I actually wrote an essay on why i quite BASE jumping for the book. Ill check with the author/publisher to see if its ok for me to post it here in a few months once the initial sales push is over
Any progress on posting here? I'd like a nice reminder why I shouldn't get into BASE.
Found my essay! This is from the Great Book of BASE jumping
A SHORT AND TOO EVENTFUL JUMPING CAREER
by Chris McNamara
I saw my first BASE jumper while hanging out 2000 feet up El Capitan on the unrelentingly steep ‘Dawn Wall’. After sunset, my partner and I were on our portaledges eating dinner. Suddenly, we were shocked to hear a freight train heading right at us. It was either that or a big falling rock was about to clean us off the wall and kill us. But as we looked up, we a saw not a freight train or a giant rock but a falling body—perfectly horizontal and perfectly composed. The body didn't make a "whishing" sound. Instead, there was a violent ripping noise as though the air was being torn apart. Before we knew it, the jumper had passed 30 feet away and was gone. We were terrified, gripping the edges of our portaledge with hands and feet. Then, once we realized we weren't going to die, we turned to each other and I said, "That’s the coolest thing I've ever seen!"
In the beginning, I had no intention of jumping. But my girlfriend did, and one night I went along and climbed a 500-foot power tower with her and her ‘mentor’ who was giving her a first jump. After that, it seemed so easy to start that I just had to do it. I didn't even have skydives, which is of course how you’re supposed to do it. Standing at the exit point, I half hoped we could both just back off because of the sketchiness of the entire situation. But then it was my turn, and if figured… Sh#t, everything is worth doing once. And it was. While physical time is finite, mental time is quite elastic. Those two seconds before my canopy opened lasted forever.
After making a few BASE jumps I was into the sport but not grabbed by it. The rewards didn't seem to outweigh the risks. Then, I saw ‘SuperTerminal’, a video created by the Norwegian VKB jumpers. They were terrain flying with homemade tracking suits (modified wind breakers). Not only were they flying, they were flying CLOSE to stuff. That movie changed my whole perspective of BASE from a sport about falling to a sport about flying. Who doesn’t want to fly!? Clearly, I had found the inspiration to wingsuit BASE jump.
I’m a climber, and climbers always wish they were a part of the Golden Age: That period in the 60's and early 70's when all the big firsts were being done in Yosemite, and all previous standards were being shattered. That period in BASE jumping started with the first commercially available wingsuit in the late 90’s and will probably continue for another five years, or maybe a decade. After that, in all likelihood the progression will continue at a much slower pace. Climbing progression didn't end after the early 70's, But climbers with a sense of history realize that the sport will never again evolve that quickly and with that much excitement. The Golden Age of Wingsuit BASE is now.
When evaluating a jump, fear is your friend. It knocks some sense into you. However, once you have committed to the jump, fear just makes you tense and can reduce you to half of your self. At times, while standing on an exit, I decided to jump but my head was not straight. Sometimes, in those cases, I said, "Ah, f*#k it." Not because I really meant it - but because it cleared my head and let me relax. Once you have committed, you want to be like Robert Duval in the movie "Apocalypse Now." Bombs are going off all around him but he puts what he can't control out of his head, doesn’t seize up with fear, and generally kicks ass.
That being said, I, like many jumpers, had too many close calls. Most BASE jumpers usually have a brush with death within just a few years of jumping. For me, it was trying to out-fly a cliff band, realizing I wouldn't make it, and opening only 30 feet off the deck. There’s nothing like a three-second canopy ride to a boulder-field landing to wake you up… at least for a little while. But the truth is that when you’re motivated and progressing in BASE, a brush with death usually doesn't make you stop for too long. If anything, it reinforces your belief that things can be bleak for a split second… and then totally work out. This is a dangerous misconception.
BASE takes you way past an ordinary life and into a life of the endless unknown and countless possibilities. It’s no surprise that something so good comes at a hefty cost. Of the roughly 150 BASE jumpers that I’ve met, more than 10 are dead now. There is no escaping the brutal fact that if you meet a lot of BASE jumpers, in a few years a shocking number will no longer be around.
BASE jumping doesn’t seem to get safer with more experience. Sure, more experience can save you from making basic errors, but more experience also brings more confidence to push yourself farther. Once BASE jumping no longer has the same excitement it did originally, you look for new ways to make it exciting by trying new things. Even worse, that adrenaline you have when you first start—that mixture of fear and excitement that keeps you focused, eventually leaves. Things become routine, which is the last thing you want to happen. I realized this, and decided I needed to get out of the sport before I died BASE jumping. Here is what I realized:
• BASE jumping is probably the deadliest sport in the world.
• It is also probably the coolest.
• The best jumps are usually when you are just a little out of your comfort zone and pushing your own limits.
• The only way to be truly safe while BASE jumping is to not BASE jump.
Most jumpers will agree with the four statements above. Usually the first two rise up in your head while the second two are off to the side, creating subtle or not so subtle tension. It’s the conflict between those four statements that makes the sport so intense, complicated, and awesome. It’s why so many people love the sport, so many people quit after a few years, and so many people die.
Is BASE jumping worth dying for? If you have to ask, then the answer is probably no. When I found myself standing at the exit point wondering if it was worth it, then I sensed it was time to quit. I have this rule about jumping, and life in general: "If you’re faced with a big question and the answer is not Yes!!!!" then the answer is no.
The stuff about pushing your limits is so true. Most of the accidents I've heard about were from tandem jumps and acrobatic exits.
The second biggest factor for me in deciding not to BASE jump (the first is I promised my wife I wouldn't do it) is there is too much objective danger. Wind gusts, line overs, 180 openings. I like to push my limits when I'm in control. I don't like to be on the edge when external factors could mess things up.
I would still like to try BASE. Probably on a bridge with little/no under-structure, over deep water, with a round chute.
Great Book of BASE Author Matt Gerdes shows some wingsuit footage from Europe shot in the last month. A lot of people these days can buzz an object. But there are only a few others guys in the world who can fly that low above the terrain for that long.
The book rules. I can't believe that he did such a good job, not only the writing, but the photographs. It explains it fairly well to someone who knows little and reads it for pure enjoyment. On the other hand, it has an incredible amount of technical information. I regularly see posts on here that are just pointless.
He did a bad ass job, and the production costs must have been sky high. It is worth every penny, even if it is going on your coffee table.
I thought that I was lucky to be jumping in the Golden Age. New objects all of the time, ten people in the world with a hundred jumps. Maybe 20 regular jumpers in the world. NOPE....
Then I started seeing the tracking suits and then wingsuits and realized....oh man. I am OLD!! I missed out!
Really, the wingsuit stuff is incredible, but if you are thinking of getting into it, go read the BASE fatality list and see how many of them are wingsuit jumps. People die like flies. It isn't something you just pick up on a whim, unless you are so stupid that you think nothing can kill you.
By the way, can a wingsuit really momentarily gain altitude? Would it be some sort of ground effect? What is the typical glide ratios of the latest suits?
You can only momentarily gain altitude if you go into a dive, gain speed, then pop out of it. Evn then, you are BARELY gaining any altitude and even then on for a few seconds.
In these video, Matt is "flying dirty" in the sense he could be flying with a better glide ratio but instead he is flying with his arms back, legs in a little. This allows him to get close to the ground but still "have an out" AKA an option to turn his body into a more efficient wing if he gets too low.
If you are always flying your most efficient that low to the ground then you have no out.
Those brief moments in the video where he goes up (barely) is where he is transitioning from flying fast and dirty to flying super efficiently.
I often have a hard time describing just how deadly BASE jumping is. I usually just say I met probably 150 base jumpers and about 15 are dead now. I think one analogy to where the sport of BASE is right now is where Grand Prix Auto Racing was 50 years ago. This movie illustrates just how gnarly it was back then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N9-QrRl1Uk Today, I think car racing is really safe. As far as I know last Grand Prix death was Senna. Hopefully BASE will come through a similar transition to becoming less deadly... somehow. And hopefully soon!
Now most of us have seen a lot of wingsuit BASE footage. And even a lot of cutting edge wingsuit footage like this. But there are very few (if any) wingsuit movies that really get into the history of the sport and tell a real story. I am psyched to see this!
Inventory alert... there are only about 40 copies left of the 1st edition. The 2nd edition won't be available until mid 2013. So if you have been on the fence about getting this book.. get it now! http://base-book.com/
I heard a cool report on BASE today on NPR's Talk of the Nation Science Friday. Partly, they were explaining how time seems to stretch out longer when adrenaline kicks in. Here's a link to the show....
Let us know!