My Name is Jeff Whitt aka ‘Fluffy’. I am the owner and operator of Skunk Ape BASE. I grew up in central Ohio where I began skydiving in 2003 and BASE jumping in 2005 with over 7000 total jumps to date. During my skydiving career I graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor in Business Administration majoring in Accounting. My decision to pursue skydiving/BASE instead of accounting was due to the overwhelming love of the sport and the unappealing prospect of sitting behind an accountant’s desk all day. I currently now help manage a small DZ up in Central New York where I got the idea to open a BASE manufacturing business.
It all started in 2013 when I made my first container just for fun as a side project. When thinking of a design for the container, the growing issue at the time was container lock. My initial design for the pin cover was a cross between a velcro rig and a pin rig. I attached the pin cover flap to the actual bridle creating a 2 pin container but with a shrivel flap. While this design works very well for slider down jumps, taking it terminal was hard to keep the flap from coming open. To solve this I attached the pin cover to the top of the rig so the bridle still has a chance of loading to either side while still being able to take the container to terminal.
With the flap being attached at the top of the container, the bridle has a chance of loading to either side allowing for a clean deployment. When the container opens the flap peels out of the way and the canopy comes out clean. I personally jump with the flap closed for static line, go and throws, and terminal. But if you want, you can simply tuck the flap around back into the top of the stash pocket for an extra clean deployment.
We use industrial sewing machines to build all of our containers with all of the industry standard materials, thread, and stitch patterns. All of our products go through a thorough quality control inspection before being sent out.
The Skunk Ape, which is the smelly relative to Big Foot, is a creature who has managed to stay stealthy, leaving very little trace and living among people without them knowing. So stay stealthy out there and have some safe kick ass jumps!
