Editing BASE jumping (section)

=== Birth of B.A.S.E. jumping ===
There are precursors to the sport dating back hundreds of years.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dewey |first=Caitlin |date=March 25, 2014 |title=The Freedom Tower skydivers weren't the first: Here's the insane, morbid history of urban BASE-jumping |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/03/25/the-freedom-tower-skydivers-werent-the-first-heres-the-insane-morbid-history-of-urban-base-jumping/ |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> In 1966 [[Michael Pelkey]] and [[Brian Schubert]] jumped from [[El Capitan]] in [[Yosemite National Park]].<ref name="johnnyutah_com">{{cite web|title=Mike Pelkey – A BASE Pioneer| url=http://www.johnnyutah.com/mikepelkey.html|publisher=Paradigm Adventures, Inc.|access-date=26 March 2012}}</ref> The acronym B.A.S.E. (now more commonly BASE) was later coined by filmmaker [[Carl Boenish]], his wife Jean Boenish, Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Rosenblatt|first=Roger|title=The Whole World Is Jumpable| magazine=Time| date=July 1999|volume=154|issue=3|page=94|issn=0040-781X}}</ref> Carl Boenish was an important catalyst behind modern BASE jumping and in 1978 he filmed jumps from El Capitan made using ram-air parachutes and the [[tracking (skydiving)|freefall tracking technique]].<ref>{{cite magazine| last=McCallum| first=Jack|title=Who Needs An Airplane?|date=August 26, 1985|magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]]| volume=63| issue=9}}</ref> 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.

After 1978 the filmed jumps from El Capitan were repeated, not as an actual publicity exercise or as a movie stunt but as a true recreational activity. It was this that popularized BASE jumping more widely among parachutists.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-05-04 |title=About BASE |url=https://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/wiki_index.php?title=About_BASE |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=BLiNC Magazine |language=en}}</ref> Carl Boenish continued to publish films and informational magazines on BASE jumping until his death in 1984 after a BASE jump off the [[Troll Wall]]. By this time the concept had spread among skydivers worldwide, with hundreds of participants making fixed-object jumps.

During the early eighties nearly all BASE jumps were made using standard skydiving equipment, including two parachutes (main and reserve), and deployment components. Later on, specialized equipment and techniques were developed specifically for the unique needs of BASE jumping.

Nowadays, recognizing the sport's growing appeal and the potential for high-impact marketing, companies such as Red Bull <ref>{{Cite web |title=BASE Jumping |url=https://www.redbull.com/us-en/tags/base-jumping |access-date=2024-04-05 |website=Red Bull |language=en}}</ref> have stepped in to sponsor athletes, further elevating the sport's profile.