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Has it ever occured for a person to go straight to BASE jumping w/o a lot -or even ANY- skydiving experience?

Don't worry, I have no intention of doing this. Was just curious.

It's called "Death Camp"
First you put the backpack on...
then you jump...
then you grab the yonkles...
then you schlare the canopy..
it's just like driving a car

Isnt this what Travis Pastrana (sp) did?

Admittadely hes not your average guy and has oodles of body control and is used to freaky body sensations.... but apart from that... is this correct?

Why is the terminology different with "death campers"? I've been reading BASE threads for quite some time now and every once in awhile I read "Yonkles, Seatbelts, etc". Can anyone explain why?

Just a curious skydiver (soon to be BASE after the FJC this summer)

Isnt this what Travis Pastrana (sp) did?

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Probably. But that may be the only BASE jump he ever does. The reason I say that is it's very likely that he didn't run into any difficulties with the canopy, or wind, etc. on that day. I am no BASE expert, but I imagine it's possible for a zero skydive BASE student to get lucky the first couple jumps in potato land. And then on jump #3 they get a line twist, can't clear it and land hard. I realize this could very easily happen to someone 500 skydives also. But when you build some time skydiving you run into, and exeperience "problems". Some are minor and easily fixed, while others require a cutaway. In most cases though, they happen alot higher off the ground than they would on just about any BASE jump, allowing the pilot extra time to slow down and gain experience in flying the canopy through these situations. Something like line twists, a problem every skydiver regularly deals with, may not be handled as efficiently by a zero skydive BASE student.

I have very little BASE experience, but something that is inherent in the sport is when things go wrong, they go very wrong very fast! Funky wind, a toggle hang-up, whatver the issue, I'd like to think my chances are better having done a few hundred skydives.


Cheers,

J.P.

My memory is shakey but it seems to me that there was a guy from Florida in the early-mid eighties that got his number in 5 or 6 jumps total. [none] out of an airplane. I'm seeing Jimmy Tyler involved? Guys...?

How 'bout some of the Yo mountain masters? Some of them learned from doing slack rope jumps with DanO.

I believe Dennis M. got some guy a BASE number in 5 parachute jumps--a tandem from a plane and a jump from each of the four objects. As I heard the story, there was a significant monetary payment involved.

It's obviously happened, and will continue to happen. The real question is how often it happens, and how large the percentage of never-skydivers (as in, never made a skydive or made very few skydives, distinct from "used to skydive") there are amongst us.

It's obviously happened, and will continue to happen. The real question is how often it happens, and how large the percentage of never-skydivers (as in, never made a skydive or made very few skydives, distinct from "used to skydive") there are amongst us.

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Let me ask you this Tom. . . .

If you happened to come across someone that had 0 skydives but, let's say, 15 BASE jumps, but was interested in a doing a course. Would you do it?

. . .I know this question is subjective to the jumper and their attitude and all that.

J.P.

Deathcamp... it's bad stuff.





Sounds similar to a celebrity or someone with a lot of disposable income (and minimal climbing experience) paying a sherpa some ridiculous amount of money to get 'em up Everest.

But whether or not money is involved, you are taking a potentially fatal situation and increasing your odds of injury or death by jumping with such a lack of experience. What about that sounds OK?

Watched the vid. actually the teaser for it (5 minutes) from skydiving movies. Do I need to watch the complete vid. to understand the terminology? Where can I get the complete vid.?


Also, who does the song playing at the beginning of the teaser?

Sorry for all the questions, off for the holidays and bored.

Billy

The tarp/yonkel/etc terminology was invented by Shane for deathcamp. Since the deathcampers don't know what the parts of the parachute are actually called, he just made up a new set of labels for them.

There's a scene in Radix where Shane is giving deathcamp instruction using those labels: "You're wearing the backpack, and then the tarp comes out, and you grab the yonkels and schlare the tarp..."

In your very knowledgeable and respected opinion Tom, where is the line drawn for deathcamp?

I always understood it as anyone no experience skydiving OR with low jump numbers. What you implied is strictly the first because someone with even just three or four skydives knows most of the terminology but I still considered that deathcamp also. Or what about 30 jumps?

Just trying to get more clarification and increase my understanding of this.

Don't need no knowledgeable or respected opinion for that. The line will be drawn when some chick smears herself all over an Antenna wire or bounces back off the water.

I bet people won't be bitching about The 15 minute Marvel (jk) anymore if (when) that happens

Point taken, but I think I'm asking a different question than you answered. Cause someone with 500 skydives can still have an object strike and someone with 0 skydives can still survive.

I'm just wondering at what point is deathcamp considered deathcamp? I thought it encompassed low jump numbers, but what I was saying was even AFF students know terminology, so is that not deathcamp anymore? What defines it?

As for you know who... don't bring that up in this thread!! We all have enough trouble staying on topic without encouragement.

My last deathcamp had a student with more than 5000 skydives.

It's just a label. Use it as you wish.