play stupid games ... dean potter and friend dead after base jumping accident

92tide

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I've kayaked the section above the bridge several times, but never when they were doing the windsuit thing. I have been through there when they were bungee jumping from the bridge and had to wait to make sure we'd passed through. I believe the takeout if right below the bridge. "New River" was always bemusing, since it's the oldest river in the eastern US...
we had a question at trivia one night, something to the effect of "what river in the continental us flows north" and i answered new river. he wouldn't credit the answer as his answer sheet only mentioned some river in florida. i pressed my case, but this was before internet capable phones were much more than a novelty, so i couldn't show him the river on the map.
 

Tidewater

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*shrugs*

Call it what you want, seems pretty stupid to me to jump off a mountain or cliff with no parachute...
I thought these guys had parachutes. They just glided with the wingsuits until a certain point, then pulled their chutes.
Maybe I'm wrong.

What I believe killed these guys is getting bored with just sailing around (more like, falling with a slight forward thrust, but I digress), so they decide to fly close to the cliff wall, through some tight spot, etc. This ends up getting them into trouble and the difference between "Wow, that was close, but I'm okay. What a rush!" and "Oh crap, oh, crap [splat!]" is pretty narrow.
 

RTR91

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jmho, but i don't classify what he did as stupid. he went too far for sure, but its not like he was trying to make out with a water moccasin.
If you don't classify it as stupid, why did you put "play stupid games" in the title of the thread?
 

dayhiker

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I thought these guys had parachutes. They just glided with the wingsuits until a certain point, then pulled their chutes.
Maybe I'm wrong.

What I believe killed these guys is getting bored with just sailing around (more like, falling with a slight forward thrust, but I digress), so they decide to fly close to the cliff wall, through some tight spot, etc. This ends up getting them into trouble and the difference between "Wow, that was close, but I'm okay. What a rush!" and "Oh crap, oh, crap [splat!]" is pretty narrow.
Now I'm picturing the discussion between Buzz and Woody about whether Buzz can fly or if it's merely "falling with style."
 

92tide

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If you don't classify it as stupid, why did you put "play stupid games" in the title of the thread?
you caught me.

in replying to ca, i am trying to differentiate between darwin awards stupid and pushing too far stupid. i see a difference between the two, i understand that others don't
 

92tide

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I thought these guys had parachutes. They just glided with the wingsuits until a certain point, then pulled their chutes.
Maybe I'm wrong.

What I believe killed these guys is getting bored with just sailing around (more like, falling with a slight forward thrust, but I digress), so they decide to fly close to the cliff wall, through some tight spot, etc. This ends up getting them into trouble and the difference between "Wow, that was close, but I'm okay. What a rush!" and "Oh crap, oh, crap [splat!]" is pretty narrow.
they do wear chutes.

i heard a discussion on the radio earlier today about this movie, Sunshine Superman (link)

it is a documentary about the guy who "invented" base jumping. it sounded like a good insight into folks who like to push these things.
 

Tidewater

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they do wear chutes.

i heard a discussion on the radio earlier today about this movie, Sunshine Superman (link)

it is a documentary about the guy who "invented" base jumping. it sounded like a good insight into folks who like to push these things.
I imagine the very narrowness of the gap between "Wow, that was close, but I'm okay. What a rush!" and "Oh crap, oh, crap [splat!]" is the attraction for most base jumpers/wingsuit flyers.
 

92tide

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I imagine the very narrowness of the gap between "Wow, that was close, but I'm okay. What a rush!" and "Oh crap, oh, crap [splat!]" is the attraction for most base jumpers/wingsuit flyers.
as a twisted man once said
But with the throttle screwed on, there is only the barest margin, and no room at all for mistakes. It has to be done right... and that's when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that fear becomes exhilaration and vibrates along your arms. You can barely see at a hundred; the tears blow back so fast that they vaporize before they get to your ears. The only sounds are the wind and a dull roar floating back from the mufflers. You watch the white line and try to lean with it... howling through a turn to the right, then to the left, and down the long hill to Pacifica... letting off now, watching for cops, but only until the next dark stretch and another few seconds on the edge... The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others- the living- are those who pushed their luck as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later. But the edge is still Out there. Or maybe it's In. The association of motorcycles with LSD is no accident of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of definition

hunter s. thompson, hell's angels
 
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TIDE-HSV

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you caught me.

in replying to ca, i am trying to differentiate between darwin awards stupid and pushing too far stupid. i see a difference between the two, i understand that others don't
I understand completely. When I announced I was going to make the first descent of the Grand Canyon in a low volume kayak, among the kinder things I was called was "stupid," and "crazy." I had made an assessment of risk and felt that I could manage it. I might be wrong, but I had a damned good chance of proving it could be done. I know exactly what motivates these people and I don't call taking high, but manageable, risks as "stupid." Stupid is taking on risks where you either haven't assessed the risks or you are incapable of assessing them and choose to ignore them. The act, per se, is not "stupid." "Stupid" to me is taking a motorcycle into today's traffic. Why? It's because you don't hold the risks in your own hands. You're trusting thousands of people around you surrounded by tons of steel - and a large portion of them are, well "stupid." When I fully realized that, I quit doing it. I think just dismissing these athletes by calling them and what they do as "stupid" just demonstrates lack of insight. In the last week, a young man from a good family here, who had to play a couple of years at a small college before he transferred to Bama to play mostly ST committed suicide because he realized that he was losing it mentally from past concussions and didn't want to live through it. He was in his early '30s. So, is playing American-style football "stupid?" Probably 99.9% of the world's population would answer "yes." It's all a matter of one's perspective. Life with no risk would be, IMO, like a life of eating Pablum... YMMV...
 

Tide1986

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I was a "live on the edge" guy. For example, kayaking Section V of the Chatooga at the highest level I'd seen it, as soon as I was told that Sock-em-Dog had never been run at that level, I had to run it. My wife had already left to hike back up to the truck, so she didn't see the last second maneuver I had to make to stay alive. Then, I got caught in what's normally a fun class III rapid right below, and, with that much water coming through was a couple of classes higher. I had to make numerous rolls (in the teens, although onlookers' counts differed, before I could dig my way out backwards. (I wasn't counting; I was too busy avoiding drowning.) I did a serious reassessment after that and gave up the extremes. Well, I probably did snow-ski too fast, but I'm not counting that. I missed the adrenalin rush terribly for a long time. I just had to stop and start thinking of the ones I would have left behind, too soon...
Leaving too soon wouldn't be that bad if you had plenty of insurance. :)
 

92tide

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I understand completely. When I announced I was going to make the first descent of the Grand Canyon in a low volume kayak, among the kinder things I was called was "stupid," and "crazy." I had made an assessment of risk and felt that I could manage it. I might be wrong, but I had a damned good chance of proving it could be done. I know exactly what motivates these people and I don't call taking high, but manageable, risks as "stupid." Stupid is taking on risks where you either haven't assessed the risks or you are incapable of assessing them and choose to ignore them. The act, per se, is not "stupid." "Stupid" to me is taking a motorcycle into today's traffic. Why? It's because you don't hold the risks in your own hands. You're trusting thousands of people around you surrounded by tons of steel - and a large portion of them are, well "stupid." When I fully realized that, I quit doing it. I think just dismissing these athletes by calling them and what they do as "stupid" just demonstrates lack of insight. In the last week, a young man from a good family here, who had to play a couple of years at a small college before he transferred to Bama to play mostly ST committed suicide because he realized that he was losing it mentally from past concussions and didn't want to live through it. He was in his early '30s. So, is playing American-style football "stupid?" Probably 99.9% of the world's population would answer "yes." It's all a matter of one's perspective. Life with no risk would be, IMO, like a life of eating Pablum... YMMV...
i knew a few creek boaters who dialed it back a good bit (stopped running the hair) after getting married and/or having a kid.

once i had to switch to c-1, due to back problems, i never did anything harder than iii and a little iv and only did that a bit before hanging up my skirt.
 

TIDE-HSV

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i knew a few creek boaters who dialed it back a good bit (stopped running the hair) after getting married and/or having a kid.

once i had to switch to c-1, due to back problems, i never did anything harder than iii and a little iv and only did that a bit before hanging up my skirt.
Surviving the "Dog" at 2.85' was what taught me. I would be embarrassed at giving my age, TBF, but I still had the skill and reflexes at that age...
 

92tide

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Ahh, my bad - the initial report I read said they did not have parachutes, they probably meant to say they hadn't used them.
apparently (according to one of the reports i heard) the person at the top of the jump heard two consecutive "pops" and thought it was the chutes opening.

i sort of cringe chuckled when i heard that.
 

TIDE-HSV

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Ahh, my bad - the initial report I read said they did not have parachutes, they probably meant to say they hadn't used them.
I understand they had made the same run over the same jagged ridge before. My guess was a sudden downdraft, so they didn't have the lift to clear it. In that situation, your parachute wouldn't do you much good...
 

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