3rd Year Special Annual Double Issue Vol 4 Issue 1 & 2 Jan - Apr 2 3rd Year Special Annual Double Issue Vol 4 Issue | Page 32

BASE Jumping
B
ASE jumping, also sometimes
written as B.A.S.E. jumping, is
parachuting or wingsuit flying
from a fixed structure or cliff. “BASE”
is an acronym that stands for four
categories of fixed objects from which
one can jump: building, antenna,
span, and earth (cliff). Due to the lower
altitudes of the jumps, BASE jumping
is significantly more dangerous than
skydiving from a plane. In the U.S.,
BASE jumping is currently regarded by
many as a fringe extreme sport or stunt.
In some jurisdictions or locations, BASE
jumping is prohibited or illegal; however,
in some places it is permitted such as
Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho. BASE
jumping became known to the wider
public through depictions in a number of
action movies and being featured in the
2014 documentary Sunshine Superman.
The acronym “B.A.S.E.” (now more
commonly “BASE”) was coined by
filmmaker Carl Boenish, his wife Jean
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Boenish, Phil Smith, and Phil Mayfield.
Carl Boenish was the catalyst behind
modern BASE jumping, and in 1978,
he filmed the first BASE jumps to be
made using ram-air parachutes and the
freefall tracking technique (from El
Capitan in Yosemite National Park).
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.
BASE numbers are awarded to those
who have made at least one jump from
each of the four categories (buildings,
antennas, spans and earth). When
Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield jumped
together from a Houston skyscraper
on 18 January 1981, they became
the first to attain the exclusive
BASE numbers (BASE #1 and #2,
respectively), having already jumped
from
an
antenna,
spans,
and
earthen objects. Jean and Carl Boenish
Vol 4 | Issue 1 |Jan - Feb 2019