strangerin

crazier yet - powered wing suit

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woodpecker

This is actually false! Unless you consider forum posts on people you might have responded too, or read a thread on...kind of like Motocycles. I personally don't know anyone who has died on a motorcycle and been riding in some fashion or another for 20 years. Unless you count the people on a forum that I've heard about, blah blah blah.

B.A.S.E. is the same way. I've been jumping for 12 years and haven't personally known anyone who has died. Sure I knew who they were...but had no personal ties to them and never met them face to face.

There are thousands of B.A.S.E. jumpers around the world and the percentage of us dying every year is actually quite low. Lower than M/C deaths. I would say partly because in B.A.S.E. you don't have to worry about the other guy...most of the time.

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woodpecker

I'll try to pull the percentage for this year (of known deaths/known jumpers) and the percentage of total deaths since B.A.S.E. started (rough estimate of course). We have an ongoing log of everyone who has bounced since B.A.S.E. started up (again only known jumpers, deaths, blah blah blah but it's something).

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taznhell

I do not see motorcycle riding as a recreational activity. It is transportation, cheap, and is better therapy for the soul than anything else I know. If you have a dirt bike then maybe truely recreational and street bike is just a mode of transport.

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Transported

I have known face-to-face at least three deceased riders since joining PNWR and have chatted with several more on the PNWR forum who have died.

In addition, I've known several times that many who have been seriously injured.

When I raced road bicycles, I had two teammates become paralyzed while racing. I knew no one who died while riding or racing.

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J0nathan

Most definitely.....BUT the level of sheer badass-ery is exponentially greater. I get pumped just watching wingsuit vids.

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PeteN95

Air racing?

Watching air racing???

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Tromatic

I'll take my chances on a bike, thanks.

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lena

When I first started riding and heard the saying 'There are only two types of motorcycle riders ..." I thought: surely I will stick to group #2, can't be that hard. Then the more I rode, the more I learned and the more I got to know the sportbike riding style, I realized, there is something to it. I don't have or even know another hobby like this. I have witnessed and helped with countless crashes by now, some more serious than others but I have grown to accept it as part of riding. Isn't it part of human nature to know the risk but to always hope it won't be you next time?

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steezy

so you never knew dwain weston, Dr. Nik or Slim... I've only done legal base- always with them Jason Zaslaw
OMRRA #199, race #302 used to race a GSXR 750 at OMRRA - he can speak to the differences in risk very well.

Having studied the base fatality list and the HURT report on motorcycle accidents. The similarities are that the vast majority of accidents are preventable. JUDGMENT is key - in each case about 2 percent is shit happens.

A legal motorcycle ride is far more dangerous than a run of the mill basejump from a bridge. Every blind turn could have a stopped truck behind it -

Mountaineering as actually the most dangerous sport based on percentage of people dying.

if we are talking turn over - people spend about 3 years in base and skydiving or they are lifers - not sure about motorcycle rider retention - I suspect the majority of cocky riders leave the sport after a few crashes.

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steezy

This article is actually very misleading - they give the rate of 21 fatalities for skydiving with 33,000 USPA members - thing is to jump in the USA you pretty much have to be a USPA member -

Whereas something like four percent of Americans ride motorcycles yet only 300,000 or so of us are AMA members.

Also there are total miles driven - total exposure - verses exporuse in terms of jumps or time in the air - on dropzone.com they have bang'd at the question: is it true that driving to the dropzone is more dangerous than skydiving - a hundred tread pages later - with many skydivers being extermly well educated - it seems that the answer is not clear - it seems that skydiving is safer but we make it more dangerous on purpose - this is called risk homostasus

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steezy

That was Dwain and his life was about a lot more than this moment - he moved to the Northwest just to jump.

when he hit the bridge in colorado with his leg - the shock broke his back instantly and deployed with parachute.

Years before gopro - he landed one two with a still living and stunning swedish female jumper - they made love with his helmet camera still on - thing was the size of a football

- Basedreams is hoping to make book about aussie jumpers of the past, hopefully that will help people remember dwain.

He worked with an olympic level diving coach three times a week and brought modern sophisticated aerials to the sport - this trend was almost solely his - non before or since have had the dedication necessary to train at such a technical level - now the wingsuit is the area of progression

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Tromatic

"The action is the juice."

Part of the fun of riding is knowing that the next time you ride could be the last. Better than being found dead on a toilet, IMO.

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mfrankpdx

If it were just a mode of transport, why does my 10 minute commute take an hour and a half?

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woodpecker

Nope, never knew any of them personally. If your still jumping we should meet up (bridge day, whatever).

Mountaneering I would agree as bein the most dangerous...I see more death/accident reports on RC.com then even this forum.

Retention...yup! After a few years people either realize it doesn't make them any cooler and quit, or have been jumping for the right reasons and continue. Of course there are other reasons, but that is the primary (IMO).

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steezy

Oh I was just a Base Tourist - some idaho hand held action. Jason, Dwain and Dr. Nik drove me there though. I never jumped with slim but my Wife and I visited the hotel he died jumping in Shanghai and had a flute of aussie sparkling wine.

That is rad your charging.

I haven't made any skydives since moving back to Oregon in 2008 - I took up snowboarding, my first snow sport. Still have a sunpath/PD set up though.

send my any cool videos of you guys raging if you care too, preferably day blazing the fu(k out of something - pack fast, pull low and date the rigger's wife

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Norainy

One of the best memories I have is when my wife said "we are going for a ride today".

It was my birthday and she took me on a ride to a destination that I did not know of.

We ended up at a sky diving shop in Molalla, Or. And went for a tandom jump as we had never done that before. She is scared of heights!

The part of the story that hits me every time is the comment from the regular jumpers. "You folks rode sportbikes to a jump site, you are f-in crazy."

We made the jump and all was good. What a women. She gits it.

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Texasl

Because straight lines are for delivery trucks.

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lena

Here is another interesting thing: can't do skydiving or mountaineering or any of those so called extreme sports if you want to have normal life insurance. No such thing with motorcycles ...

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Darvax

As a skydiver, I just have to say we call it bouncing. Because yes the human body bounces when it hits the ground at terminal velocity. Sorry just had to add it since we have our own language as riders, so does skydiving / base jumping. As for skydiving it's statistically very safe. Scuba diving has a higher fatality rate and 99% of sky diving fatalities are the jumpers error. As for the base jumping rates I cannot speak as I've only jumped out of planes.

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