Basejumper.com - archive

We had discussion yesterday about inexperienced instructors/mentors, so here is the poll.

What was experience of you instructor at your first jump


I think I know what you are getting at.
Sounded like Mick kind of chewed your ass a little on your advise to a first jumper in that, BASE in France post.
I think it is pretty obvious that when you want to learn to BASE.
you will seek out someone to show you how to do it.
Most of the time you take what ever you can get related to where your at.
The last few years there has been a huge amount of first FJC offered to paying learners. That is a option.
When I went out the first time the only person that I could find to drive to the object and put me off had 60 jumps.
I did 4 or 5 jumps with him that night. A few months latterI found a tall skinny Ozzy with more experience. He had 96 jumps. You take what you can get sometimes.
It is pretty obvious though that you should seek out and find the most solid jumper you can, to show you what's up and believe it or not there are B.S.R to BASE. that a Learner should be taught.

A instructor with only little or moderate experience
is surely still pushing the boundaries to find out
what is right and wrong, and still working on understanding his own limits.

But Hell you might still survive with a instructor with
the smaller amount of experience. I Did.

..Ray Losli

First off, I do not chew ass!
There is never a need to. I mearly state my opinion about what I have seen over the past 12 years.

I was extremely lucky when I started to _NOT_ have the luxury of just buying gear on EBay and flicking off something. I lived next to CR.
That gave me wealth of information to my fingers.
But, now after almost 12 years, I have the seen the best parts of BASE, and I have seen the worst!
I just hope that the newer jumpers will be willing to learn from the mistakes made in the past.

I admire this guy in the sense that he is really pushing the issue about wanting to learn. THat is great. It is all too easy to just get one not so positive thread, and just go and do-it-yourself anyways.
Unfortunately, BASE Is not as easy as Skydiving was. That is why there is so much resistance. It is not just the community being rebels, it is the sport itslef is dificult, and should be diffuclt to break into. THis would be for your own safety.

When I started, I was ground crew, and just learning for over 6 months. There are several people I know that spent over 1 year just lurking with other jumpers. NOT trying to actually jump, but just watching.
You can learn heaps by just watching.

I have to FULLY disagree with the "take what you can get" statement.
This is not the 80's or 90's anymore.
THere are several people with over 1,000 jumps. There are people with heaps of experience to be found. That is why the MFG made the FJC's.

As an accomplished student, going with jumpers with 75, 100, 200 jumps is great. But you do not have those kinds of people taking you on your first jump. THere is just NO need anymore accept impatience. But being impatient in this sport can get you killed.

As an accomplished student, going with jumpers with 75, 100, 200 jumps is great. But you do not have those kinds of people taking you on your first jump. There is just NO need anymore accept impatience. But being impatient in this sport can get you killed.
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That is a good statement ...
But... "Impatient"
BASE is all fun and games till someone gets hurt.
But, Taking what you can Get. Is and will keep happening.Maybe a lot less than it used to, but it will go on forever.
There is always people running up that are Hungry for a jump with huge Balls that cant wait.

Some people will do there first BASE jump with a jumper with lower experience than is desired by the wait and take you time BASE'ers.
-Hungry for a jump,- will Over-Ride, Waiting and taking your Time in a lot of cases, I would imagine.

I agree you should pace yourself and get experienced jumpers to show you how.
What are you going to do ???
It's the nature of the Beast.

No, it is just what people are doing. Telling someone NO, and why you wont take them jumping just does not happen like it used to. Everyone is just too accustomed to being able to do what they want without knowing what can really happen.

But you are right, it will not change until experienced jumpers start saying NO. Then telling the jumper what they need to do first.

I have had maybe almost 100 potential students want me to take them out, and I tell them to do 50 to 100 practice jumps at the DZ and I explain it pretty clear what the excercise is. I had 1 person actually do them. THat is also the only person that I ever taught to jump officially.

I also heard of several of those other skydivers getting someone else to take them out anyways. Never doing the practice.
Several of them are BURN-aholics. And a few have nice hardware piecing them back together after just a few jumps.

Tell a hungry Guy NO, but tell him why.
Wouldn't it be nice to know a jumper for 10 years, verse 10 minutes, or even 10 weeks?

The boy who helped me in my first PCA jump had just one PCA jump. My second instructor teached me to pack my canopy and made the " jumping course" for me. He has 60-80 jumps. The numbers of my jumps grown up and the experience level of my instructors become higher too. My 3rd instructor made more than 250 jumps. My work in ParAAvis company and on the dropzones did me good too. I try to find the most experience people every time than I want to learn something. I begin my search than I understand that the knowledge that I already have is not enought for the things that I'm going to do.

My base instructor had 750+ base jumps and 11000+ skydives. I was in good hands (and still am).