Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016) • Hacker News Board

Re: Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)

#151

Post by ganeshkrishnan » Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 2:32 PM UTC

mark_h wrote: post #22

chrissnell wrote: post #16

I had a close call this summer whitewater rafting on the Upper Animas River in Colorado and it has caused me to re-think every serious risk I take and has changed me in a big way. I was participating in a multi-day trip run by one of the local guiding outfits through the Upper section of the river, a much more difficult and serious undertaking than the Lower Animas, which is frequently run by average day-tripping tou…

I have a couple of friends, both white-water guides and accomplished outdoorsmen, and they both put whitewater in a different category of risk: you can do everything right, and still die just due to the unpredictability of it. One of them said he had an instructor who basically said "if you stick with this long enough, either you'll die or someone you know will". They were both in the latter category.

It depends on the class of rapids you navigate through. I have done couple in Himalayas below class 5 and in most of them the guide said the risks are pretty minimal.

Re: Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)

#152

Post by amelius » Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 2:37 PM UTC

chrissnell wrote: post #16

I had a close call this summer whitewater rafting on the Upper Animas River in Colorado and it has caused me to re-think every serious risk I take and has changed me in a big way. I was participating in a multi-day trip run by one of the local guiding outfits through the Upper section of the river, a much more difficult and serious undertaking than the Lower Animas, which is frequently run by average day-tripping tou…

I've heard that skydiving triggers this experience at some point.

The first time it's frightening.

The second to fourth time it gives you an adrenaline rush.

The fifth time suddenly you think "holy shit, what am I doing?"

At least, that's what a friend told me.

Re: Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)

#153

Post by Allower » Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 2:49 PM UTC

Maybe that's because more people are trying wingsuiting

Re: Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)

#154

Post by Havoc » Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 2:55 PM UTC

NegativeK wrote: post #142

Havoc wrote: post #95

Well yeah. That's kind like saying more people are dying from Russian roulette...while Russian roulette is experiencing a surge in popularity. Do something stupidly dangerous enough & in large numbers and you get rows of bodybags. Sounds callous but that is the reality of it.

That's oversimplifying or discarding the revelation. People expected wingsuit BASE to become safer with experience; practitioners didn't expect it to be a toss of the dice no matter what.

>People expected wingsuit BASE to become safer with experience;

And I'm sure safety does improve with experience. They're still rolling the dice though. Some roll it with better odds than others sure but ultimately:

>On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

Re: Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)

#155

Post by timwaagh » Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 2:55 PM UTC

mcv wrote: post #92

PoachedSausage wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you enforce a ban on people jumping off tall objects? The Antenna part of BASE must be getting harder to achieve. When I worked in the radio and TV broadcast industry we had problems with BASE jumpers climbing masts at remote unmanned sites, but physical security is always being improved. Also, you wouldn't want to try climbing onto a live high power mast radiator, you would be vaporized.

A ban might not stop people from jumping, but it would certainly underscore that this is dangerous. I don't think there's any commercial BASE jumping, but if there is/was, a ban would definitely stop that.

the article goes on at some length on the role of coporate sponsors of jumpers.

Re: Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)

#156

Post by logfromblammo » Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 3:00 PM UTC

kogepathic wrote: post #119

JshWright wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how many people are doing it for the "internet fame" (my gut instinct is that it's a small percentage), but I'm sure there are many people who got into the sport in the first place because they watched it on the internet.

> I don't know how many people are doing it for the "internet fame" (my gut instinct is that it's a small percentage) I don't have any numbers, but as with anything else (e.g. Russian dash cams) I don't feel that the behaviour of people has really changed. The difference now is everyone has a camera strapped to them, and with social media it's much easier to hear about someone who died doing X than in previous decade…

People were white-lining with their crotch-rocket motorcycles at 135 mph before cameras got small enough to mount on their helmets.

They used to just be a page 3 story in the local newspaper. Now their final rides are re-posted to every "rekt" thread.

Perhaps eventually, enough people will absorb the lesson that doing a dangerous thing is dangerous, and will stop trying to make the "oh shit" glands above their kidneys express their "we're about to die" juice.

I have seen enough of those videos that I'm pretty sure that the way I will die is by my tiny commuter sedan being forcibly disassembled by a heavy tractor-trailer or large SUV that crosses the center line. Humans are such fragile things. Why would you intentionally do things that might get your brains splattered across a rock, when we only have another 40 to 60 years to go until you can make a backup almost as good as biology provided?

Re: Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)

#157

Post by lillesvin » Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 3:07 PM UTC

lorenzhs wrote: post #145

lukas099 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly the use of "I'd of" had authorial intent, e.g. to sound more colloquial. In my opinion this is valid usage in English.

There's nothing valid about it, it's a misspelling and a grammatical mistake.

It's language evolving. When the misspellings/misinterpretations of "a napron" and "an eekname" became common enough we got "an apron" and "a nickname".

If anyone — especially native speakers and others with a high degree of mastery of English — claims to have difficulty understanding "I'd of stayed home" then they're most likely being deliberately obtuse or needlessly contrarian.

Re: Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)

#158

Post by simonh » Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 3:12 PM UTC

e40 wrote: post #146

chrissnell wrote: post #16

I had a close call this summer whitewater rafting on the Upper Animas River in Colorado and it has caused me to re-think every serious risk I take and has changed me in a big way. I was participating in a multi-day trip run by one of the local guiding outfits through the Upper section of the river, a much more difficult and serious undertaking than the Lower Animas, which is frequently run by average day-tripping tou…

In my 30's I drove a motorcycle, the crotch rocket variety (Kawasaki 750). I had a few very close calls, then decided I had had a good run and a lot of fun, but it was time to hang it up. I could see the writing on the wall: keep doing this and I would have a serious accident, that would either leave me dead or seriously injured. I was, at the time, planning a family, and to this day miss riding but think it was abso…

A friend of mine had a relatively minor accident on his motorbike when his wife was pregnant, decided he'd been lucky and packed it all in. Sold his bike and gear within a few weeks and never went back.

Re: Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)

#159

Post by 725686 » Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 3:17 PM UTC

enriquto wrote: post #48

dvcrn wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nowhere near that close for me and a lot more soft, but still one of these “oh shit” moments was when I decided to go swimming when waves were bigger than usual due to a coming storm. It was all fun until I realized I wasn’t able to swim back to the shore to where I can stand. Every time I tried, a wave knocked me further into the ocean and my leftover stamina kept dropping. I was freaking out and had no idea how to…

It is better to swim parallel to the coast until you find an easier place to approach. Fighting the currents is exhausting.

I found that the hard way. I was caught in an outward current and was desperately trying to swim towards the beach with waves constantly hammering me. When I was about to drown a lifeguard appeared from nowhere and dragged me sideways out of the current and then towards the beach.

Re: Increasing numbers of wingsuit jumpers are dying (2016)

#160

Post by m3kw9 » Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 3:18 PM UTC

Numbers and percentage can be deceiving. Also another reason if the percentage is increasing is that there is more of a urge to try to copy what daredevils do on YouTube, maybe they make it look easy. Or they want to create highlight videos themselves but highlights are the tricky stuff others haven’t done.