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Just a quick thought.

You know how you go to a DZ and you jump all day and get your rigs packed by packers.
Do any BASE jumpers use packers to pack their rigs at all?

Do you trust a packer to pack your gear?

Thanks

With limited exceptions, no.

There's a lot of gravity to packing someone's only shot at surviving.

Most BASE jumpers will pack for themselves. Sometimes we may pack up a rig for a buddy if they're running late and we need to make a load, or if they're really busy helping someone out with something then they might jump someone elses packjob.

Personally, I will never jump another person's packjob (with the exception of hookitt). I don't ever want to question what would have happened if I had just packed for myself. I am the one jumping from the (whatever) and the only person who is getting blamed for me smacking that wall, is myself.

It's not that I don't trust another BASE jumper to pack for me, I just choose to carry the entire thing on my own shoulders. I guess I could try to tell myself I won't question their packjob while I'm sitting in the hospital, but I think I know myself better than that.

I will gladly pack for another BASE jumper though. My packjobs are impeccable, so if a buddy needs a rig packed to make a load, I'll do it.

At certain events there are packing concessions for BASE jumpers, but they're certainly the exception.

Also, it might take a skydiving packer 4-10 minutes to pack your main. Then you have a reserve if that doesn't go as planned. A BASE packjob takes anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour and will probably cost you $40-50. You're basically doing a reserve-level packjob for every jump.



edit:clarity

My thoughts exactly.

Pretty much 90% of my jumps have been packed by myself except for my RAPS jumps up to number 26. On jump 27 I had my own rig.

I do this not because I want to save money, not because Im a masochist, but because if it goes tits up, I dont have anyone else to blame except myself. This leads to a self improvement in the pack jobs.

I know its different as you guys and gals have the one chance and damn it you have to get it right 1st time.


Thanks for your input Dexter.

He sure will. Thanks Chad!

I do.

bsbd!

Yuri.

It pains me just to read this

Anything over 10min is a horrible overkill. As for what a pack job would usually cost... well, let's not even go there

bsbd!

Yuri.

hey Yuri
i like your style.. i pack each time but as you say it shouldt take that long to pack

Oh man, Faber. I've seen your 10min pack jobs and I hope you would never pack for anyone else!

Hey Tom did the only BASE pack i ever jumped that i didnt pack myself,one day ill pack for him and he will be more scared than jumping them silly tricks he does now days

Did Chad tell you that im ½ way through the vid and EvilIvan guided me how to convert your sh!t ntsc to a format that we can edit toghter whith the great PAL format..

by the way i offered you to pacck your rig as long i can video your jump aswell

$20 gets your rig packed where I come from.

200 Kroner will get you one in Norway thats about $30

both are perfect ram air oriented pack jobs that rarely take much less than 30 min... but who is counting

I have never seen a 10 minute base pack job that isn´t foolishly rushed

I have paid for about 25 base pack jobs, I have been paid to pack before too. In general paying others to pack you up is rare, but jumping other peoples pack jobs is common among people who know what they are doing

even at $20 per pack job, you would not bother to pay that to someone that you do not trust

skydiving is great, I mean how can you pass on a $5 pack job? that just seems like a steal to me.

jt

Hello,
You've never seen me pack.
Not a fool, not in a rush.
Avery

but, 10 minutes?

really, only ten from un packed in a stuff sack to packed and PC stowed?

I packed a BASE canopy in the phone booth at Perris (back when there was a phone booth at Perris) and jumped it off a tower that night . . .

I'll never do that again.

NickD
BASE 194

Ok, I know this is straying from the original post, but after Nick's "phone booth pack job" story, I can't resist.

So DJ, Shotgun Ray, and Manbird are driving to Idaho. Manbird's car had no air conditioning and since it was summertime, the windows in the front were all the way down.

Sitting in the backseat is DJ, and he is bored to tears. So he grabs his unpacked rig and decides to give it a back seat pack-job while they are cruising down the interstate. He dumps his stash bag into his lap and realizes that it is slider-up. Oh well...no worries mate!

Somehow, in spite of the wind and Ray's incessant comments, he manages to get the canopy into the container and closed.

Over the rail he goes and announces that he's going to take it easy on his back seat packjob. He throws a gainer and gets a somewhat decent 45 right opening.

That quirky jump set off a world of creativity for DJ and later that weekend, he brought us the infamous "Higgly Wiggly".

If only I had a dollar for each smile the Portland Crew has given me over the years...

Bryan

Why!?!

That's quite normal for a slider-up pack job... oh i forgot, you are retarded by 2 years

Regarding the price, $20 seems a bit high... I hate to pack and ask for help alot. I only trust female base jumpers (more attention to details) and offer different incentives, but those usually end up being reciprocal

bsbd!

Yuri

Well son,

How did you get the packing table in there?

I have a live-in packer. His name is Ricky, and he's a teenage Orangutan. Kind of tempermental sometimes, but I chalk that up to his age. He sweats a lot and that was a surprise to me when he drove here. Who knew Orangutans sweat under that thin fur.
Hope this helps
Mike

(usually you don't have to capitalize Orangutans but he's reading this over my shoulder)

When it comes to BASEpackers, Yuri is the man. Gets his girls to pack and drive for him. And good looking hot ones at that

you pack it, I'll jump it!!

>>Why!?! <<

I've forgotten how it went, or the why of it, but for laughs some where packing their skydiving rigs in the phone booth (with the door closed) then making a jump and timing it from the time you started to pack to when you made it back to the phone booth.

I thought it was lame, and tried to class up the gag. But, all I did was make the whole idea lamer . . . the only explanation I have is skydivers + 1980s = knuckleheads.

NickD
BASE 194