A colleague at work mentioned this today:
… you ever considered (or done any) BASE jumping? Caught a program the other week about Dan Witchalls and for some reason I thought of you! Is BASE just a bit too reckless?
An interesting question, and one I thought my answer to was worth publishing…
Hmm, BASE… When I learnt to skydive some years ago this was the plan, to go on to BASE, but it never really happened – cost, lack of time, etc. Yes, scary stuff, I think I watched the same TV program, the one where his mate crashed jumping a building in China and then again at the end of the program on a cliff in Norway? Not sure it’s reckless though, it’s one those sports where a meticulous attention detail is required, and needs to be maintained. Just one slip in this attention, a parachute cord just a millimetre out of place etc., and it’s game-over! It’s very hard to keep the attention going when you get very familiar with something, i.e. you become complacent. So in may ways the right skill set isn’t being brave, reckless, or some kind of crazy dude (although these all help), it’s having an incredibly fastidious attention to detail and being quite a little dull and a pernickety kind of person…
Any thoughts on my dismissal of BASE jumping bravery?
Having driven my car into a hedge this evening at a fair speed, I think I’ll give it a miss. :freeze:
I expect the hedge thought the speed was unfair π
I think it was used to it… it looked very battered already.
On Thursday morning I ran over a squirrel on my way to work and then it was going home on the very same day that I ended up in the hedge! Although the second event was squirrel unrelated, I think the squirrel network must be so evolved that they spread the word and hence were able to seek revenge.
You make it sound as if it would be a good option for accountants. At least they would be able to afford it! π
or Actuaries (they’d definitely be able to afford it) but not, presumably, Insolvency Practitioners (ret’d)?!
It does sound like it requires the same kind of personality as cave diving. π― Not that I’d suggest that any cave divers we know have “an incredibly fastidious attention to detail” or are “quite a little dull and a pernickety kind of person…” π