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I will hold a BASE First Jump Course on October 1st, 2nd and 3rd (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) in Twin Falls, Idaho. Course will begin at 8am Friday and conclude at 6pm Sunday.

There will be no charge for this instruction. The course will focus on basic BASE skills, with an additional emphasis on the history and ethics of BASE, and the teamwork necessary to many BASE jumps.


Course requirements:

1) Gear: I have some spare gear I can loan out, but it’s best if you can come with your own. Contact me for help finding gear, if you do not own it.

2) Mentoring: You must make a reasonable effort to find an experienced jumper local to you, who can help you with your jumping when you return home. You must provide me with contact information for this jumper, so that I can talk with them. If you cannot locate someone, I will assist you in doing so. This requirement will be waived for jumpers in an area where I am unable to locate a suitable mentor.

3) Skydiving prerequisites: You must have appropriate skydiving experience, as evaluated by me. I will ask for details of your experience when you contact me, as well as contact information for jumpers able to verify your experience.


Course Syllabus:

Day 1: Packing

Discussion: The risks of BASE
Exercise: Letter to family
Packing
Discussion: Differences between skydiving and BASE cultures

Day 2: Exits

Discussion: BASE History
Exit Training on Launch Simulator
PCA BASE jumps

Day 3: Deployment

Discussion: BASE ethics
BASE jumps: Hand held, delay nomination
Discussion: BASE community
BASE jumps: Delay nomination, stowed

Space is limited, so I will accept the best prepared applicants. If you want to come, you must contact me via PM here on DZ.com or via email (tbaiello@mac.com). If you have any questions, post here, or PM or email me.

I cannot attend, but I thank you for this.

damn how i wish i wasnt broken...

got room for any 'auditors'?

Excellent!
Way to go Tom.

way to go, Tom!

talk about going above an beyond...

it would be absolutely great if you were to offer some of those discussions in the sillabus at say, bridgeday too, as I'm sure there's plenty of newbie jumpers like me out there who would want to sit in on those

cheers
sam

Thanks Tom,

I'm working on putting the dough together for gear, I kinda on the large side to borrow. Hopefully, I can catch up with ya another time.

I have a Wonderhog with a Pursuit 215 (in perfect shape)that I will donate for Tommy A. to jump when he gets to the "History of B.A.S.E." portion of the class. This sounds great!!!

Ok, the course is full.

Demand for this was overwhelming. I received 23 requests from prospective students, and 11 requests for more information from possible future students or from other jumpers interested in some of the material.

I will try to publish as much of my course materials on line as possible, as time permits (I want to organize them a bit more before that kind of release).

I will likely hold more of these courses in the future. I am considering a November course (still trying to decide if the weather will allow that), and will hold another course in the spring. If the response is positive, I will probably continue to do this at regular intervals.

I’ve already notified all accepted students, and most of the other applicants (I’m hoping I haven’t missed anyone, but with applications coming in at least four different ways, it’s been a little chaotic).

I’ve had several requests from other jumpers to audit portions of the class. I’ll consider that and respond to those people individually.

Thanks!

very generous, its good to see this type of thing.

if you've got the room, i've got the time at the moment and i'm doing my best information sponge impression while i heal. I'll even bring beer for the post class celebration.

Tom, keep us up to date on your classes. There are probally a few people out there that have interest but have'nt contacted you yet

How'd the course go? Tom or any of the attendees or 'hangers on' willing to post a report???

I think that overall it went well. By sunday, everyone was doing unsupervised pack jobs that I'd be willing to jump off most objects. I was very happy to see that.

There were a few snafus (notably my bungling while attempting to set up a free pendulator) that I hope to work out in the future. We had a couple of "exciting" jumps when we got to the point of looking down prior to deployment (which is a precursor to stowed deployment), but overall I was very impressed with the speed with which everyone picked things up.

Perhaps some of the students can give a bit more impartial reports, though.

Big thanks to everyone who made the trip. I had fun.

Oh, and if anyone sees JP, can you help him find his wallet?

A BIG thanks back to you Tom for putting on a great free FJC (even with the pendulator problems ).

I think that overall the course was quite good and very informative. Something that surprised me was just how much I learned about canopies and their lines. My confidence in working with brake lines, four line checks, step throughs and packing have greatly improved.

Their were four of us in the course and that seemed to work out very well. We all were able to learn from one another besides learning from Tom. For me, that was very helpful. I do think that Tom learned from us as well, and though I thought his course was great, I bet it will get even better in the future.

Now, for the fun stuff ; I HAD A FRIGGIN' BLAST!!!! I got in 2 PCA's on Saturday and 3 hand helds on Sunday. There were lots of people jumping and I didn't meet one person I didn't like. The BASE community seems to be full a very cool people. Everyone there was showing as much excitement for our jumps as their own. Very cool stuff!

Tom, I had a great time and thanks again. It was quite educational and you have some great stories too.

3,2,1, cya...1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3......

BTW, I am friggin' SORE today. Why it feels like I have been thrown off a bridge.

Jeff

Never mind. I found it......

You know, this is an excellent observation and something which is probably overlooked an awful lot but is very important.

We are pretty much our own riggers, and we are constantly changing configurations to adapt to different types of objects. Line checks are a must-know in this sport.

I can't tell you how many step-throughs I've had. Land... canopy drapes over head... try to gather up lines... get back and notice tangled up lines.

I spent some time with a local rigger leaning some of the basics when I knew I was going to take BASE seriously. As an exercise, he'd make me turn my back, he'd put all sorts of ridiculous step-throughs on the rig and then have me untangle it without removing the risers.

It was good training and I still use that stuff to date.

Glad to see Tom had you practicing that!

Yeah dude, what the hell? I was looking forward to finally meeting you in person.

Oh well, maybe next time.

Jeff

very generous, its good to see this type of thing.
No kidding seeing how Johhny Utah chared nearly a 1000 bucks for probably the same thing. I would love to attend the next one and would be willing to pay a little fee at least for your preperation effort and time. I'm not dogging Utah at all for the fee don't get me wrong he knows just about all there is to know about base jumping and is a super cool guy, maybe thats is main source of income but I think his course is a hair pricey but on the other hand I don't know what this fee covers: just lessons or food, lodging, etc. and it is an ENTIRE week! Don't get mad at me Utah I met you at Mardi Gras at NOSC. You prolly don't really remember me cause we all stayed pretty hammered. good times, good times.

Truthfully, I think that Johnny's course is the best bargain of all the commercial FJC's. His students get more jumps, more of his time, and at a lower cost than almost anywhere else.

Not trying to slate JU here but:

How can he give more quality time with the amount of people he takes on a FJC compared to a manufacturer having a ratio of 1 or 2 instructors to 2 or 3 students?

More jumps? - this is no guage to how much you get from the course - when I did my FJC I got 1 jump in, this does not mean I learnt less than someone with 12 jumps on a FJC with a shed load of other students (BASE is not just about making a jump)

In Denmark you´ll need a packers licens to get a skydive licens.To get a packers licens you must be abel to entangle a canopy from it self,hooking it up to risers etc etc I thourght this were basic all over the world??

Not that People couldnt use an update on this now and then.. but my impress is that in US you dont learn about this or how your gear works??

He gives more time by running his course for a week. In terms of individual attention per student, obviously one-on-one tutoring would be better.

However, I believe that a group of 4-6 allows some work on group dynamics and teamwork. I think that this is actually very important on many BASE jumps, and is badly overlooked in most FJC's. Johnny's is the only one where there is any real community building, becase (a) it's longer, and (b) it's got more students.

I'm still tweaking things in my own courses to try to find the optimal balance here. I think that adjusting the student group helps a bit.

Sadly true. Due to the prevalence of commercial packing at DZ's here, I've met many skydivers with hundreds of jumps who actually couldn't even pack their skydiving rigs competently. They'd "learned" to get the license, then promptly forgotten, since they never did it.

Tom your doing some cool stuff here,dont forget to have fun aswell

I then feel lucky that the only person that ever packed canopies for me(whith out my inspection) is my rigger packing my Reserve...

Perhaps people should considder this as a skill to learn while getting the minimum require of jumps,as my guess could be that people who just want to get that # of skydives to get a course,perhaps hires a packer...
I think they will miss some rigger skills doing it that way...

I attended Johnny's last BASE Camp and I think it IS a great bargain.

There were only 4 students in the class and you get his time for a full week and as many supervised jumps as you can get in. And more supervised jumps DOES mean more confidence for the new BASE jumper. In addition to all the ground schooling, exit practice, packing instruction, you get enough jumps to learn many different exits (step off, spring off, side float, reverse float) and many canopy drills with video review.

All for $750 (or was it $700), plus $200 if you need gear. Other commercial courses start at $1200 and include 1.5 days of jumping. You get one wind day, and you're out. At Johnny's class, we got winded out two days and I still got in 15 supervised jumps.

Lou

 
That was exactly the same ratio of students to instructor (4:1) we had on my BR FJC. I know a guy who did Johnny's FJC. I was there when he did his first jump back in the UK, he was rock solid. He only had good things to say about the course.

People who bitch about $1 000 for a FJC are probably in for a bit of a shock further down the line. (and unfortunately the price you pay isn't always financial). FJCs are just about the only bargain in BASE.

Some days are a bouncer that won't let you in and some just fuck you up.

Will

>>So much so I want to harp on it some more. The other night I was packing and thought I had fixed all my step-thru's so no need to stack it on it's side and double-check. Well as I went to set my tail-gate I noticed a single line above the cascade on each side routed thru my control lines...it was a killpack. So I pulled it all apart (d'oh), side stacked it and did a four-line check and low and behold somehow I flipped the rig thu a set of lines on each riser. So now I check every time I don't care how it looks because as someone once told me: Sweat Saves Blood

Hides in shame.... Although I have no problems doing a simple packjob, when it comes to hooking up a pair of risers I've aptly demonstrated this weekend that a monkey could do a better job :) haha.


Yeah, it's the same in both Canada and Holland. 'm mentally handicapped when it comes to knots and lines, so I always take two times as long as other people when it comes to line-checking. And trying to keep up with other people (to make the next load) only aggravates things.

Interestingly enough, I'm wearing shoes with velcro at the moment. I guess even tying my shoelaces is too much

Anyway, I had the good fortune to be able to attends Tom's course this weekend, and it was an amazing experience. First and foremost, I met some incredibly nice and friendly people. Tom, the other students, the Twin Falls regulars, the jumping Twin Falls visitors and even the non-base jumping tourists. The vibe at the bridge is incredible.

I've learned a ton of things, and managed to get seven jumps in. Two PCA's, two hand-helds, and three stowed jumps.

I can't compare Tom's course with other courses (yet), but I can definitely recommend his course to anybody.

Thanks so much Tom!

Eipmoez

just curious:

how many people put in a load of DZ time before they go on a FJC? People who rate the fact they learnt about rigging up a system or gain knowlegdge in parachutes on a FJC - surely you could actually do this at the DZ for free and well before you decide "uh huh im gonna take a FJC"

what happened to working for it?

In Denmark you also need to show your skills to keep your packers licens=skydive licens once each year in case you dont regular pack your canopy.(on the papers it says you should show a packjob desided by a rigger alike person,in practice only people who dont pack alot needs to show this)

It varies, I think. Of the five folks scheduled to come out last weekend, two were of the "loads of time" variety, and three were relatively young. It definitely showed in packing, when the older jumper would finish way ahead of everyone else.

So, it's about time in sport (skydiving) more than jump numbers/currency? Does skydiving generally put less emphasis on gear knowledge and packing today than it has in the past?

On the time-vs-numbers thing, I know when I take it easy at the DZ, I'm much more likely - while others are on a load - to find myself talking to packers and elders about gear, or watching people pack strange rigs, or helping somebody do a line check or fix a step-through or swap canopies (or packing my BASE rig(s))...

Vintage skydiving gear is more similar to modern BASE gear. So a skydiver who has experience with the 7 cell F-111 canopies, flatpacking, and such that were staples 15 years ago is going to find it easier to pick up BASE packing skills.

guess i'm starting from scratch.. i was taught to propack from day 1...

I pro-pack my BASE rig. Well at least the initial stage of my pack job resembles the pro-pack that you're familiar with. Plus also just as in skydiving, in BASE there is more than one way to pack.

If you propack nicely, then you have a good start already.

Ever watch a rigger pro-pack a reserve? It's a lot like that.

hmm i'm very anal about organizing the lines and flaking (because honestly i dont pack that often for myself and so have to go through my mental check list everytime) but getting it nice and tiny to slide into the bag easily always gives me hell... guess thats not as much of an issue with a BASE canopy?

It's different altogether than a main skydiving canopy. but knowing where stuff is supposed to go, makes it easier to learn BASE canopy packing.

Look in the library at http://www.asylumbase.com for the packing manual. Download it and look through it. It will show you that version of an orderly pro-pack.

hmm couldnt find a packing manual per se and it seems like a few of their .pdf links are bad... but some good resources there thanks!!!

Ah.. sorry bout that.

This site is nearly identical... go to: http://www.crmojo.com

Library > Document Library
Then open ra_manual_online.pdf

Oh cool ... I just figured out how to post a direct link from the crmojo site.

Right click the following link and save as.

http://www.crmojo.com/...ra_manual_online.pdf

nice! more reading material... when i print all this out i'm going to have a nice fat BASE reference manual.....now all i need a canopy, a healed leg and some training...

cool cool....