Basejumper.com - archive

so I got this PM today (I'm thinking some other people must have gotten ones very similar at some point):

(sic)

first, I have no idea why this person picked me to PM, I'm not from the area in their profile, maybe they just spammed a whole bunch of jumpers who post here?

second, that PM is just packed with the sort of attitude goodness that will make me look past my own low level of experience and take this person on as a student - NOT!

it really concerns me to to see the attitudes a lot of people have to starting base these days

to the person who sent me that PM:

How can I get into BASE jumping?
- There are many ways, ranging from buying gear with no experience or training, finding a site on the internet or by rumour and hucking yourself off unsupervised (this generally results in injury) to tailoring all your skydives and a lot of time and money to learn all you can about BASE before ever stepping up to the exit point.

I would recommend the latter. Start by reading the following articles:

Before you Post!

Getting into BASE

My First BASE Rig

funnily enough, you could have found them all through the links at the top of this page, check the attachment for more clues...

Then read all the posts in the threads, found by using the search option, below:

starting base

start base

getting started

FJC

first jump course

course

learning

THEN find your local BASE jumpers and find your nearest experienced (250+ jumps and 5+ years in the sport IMHO, opinions vary) BASE jumpers and talk to them

offer to groundcrew and be so nice and helpful that they will LET you groundcrew for a few months

the longer you groundcrew the more you will see and learn and the better you will be informed to make good decisions

at this point you will have a good idea of your options to start

I also recommend getting way more than the required minimum number of skydives.

Get your PRO rating. Do stadium demos. Compete in accuracy. Learn to be rigger.

oh yeah, 200 feet is low

skydiving reserves DO NOT make good (or even acceptable) BASE canopies

the way you described those exits, they would more likely be called INCIDENTS

do some more research guy, you have plenty of time

cya
sam

PS - I almost forgot, you also want to check out OUR BASE WIKI

edited to remove apparent sabotage of dutch BASE knowledge providers

I always ask for their address and mail them a copy of the attached book.

And as general advice to any aspiring BASE jumper who ever considers sending me an email or PM; the quality and speed of my reply is inversily related to the amount of spelling and grammar errors in your message.

My bet is you received that PM from airfury17. If I am wrong I apologize to airfury17. However, after reading his 18 posts he has made so far I bet I am right on with my prediction.

And do I give a shit for calling him out if it is him, actually...No.

Yes.
Wow good call. I was the one who asked that. Simply because I have no clue about this site.About BASE. About basically anything. I do only have 60 jumps.So thank you for understanding. Also thank you very much for helping me out. I guess I should check out the info and look on Dropzone.com, also I was not aware this site needs perfect spelling. I have been raised in the AIM world. So I do appologize for this. I am also glad to see that the skydive world is full of fun and Nice people willing to help out younger people. (newbies). I had no intentions of jumping today. My plan was to talk to people who know their shit. Then skydive alot more so i can make a smooth (safe) entrance to BASE.

Thank you

-jeff-

This aint AIM and you aint in Kansas anymore.



You will find that people are willing to help those that are willing to help themselves.


Your Welcome.

Bridge day would be a good option if you are etching to make a BASE jump. http://www.bridgeday.info/firsttimers.php
all they ask for is 50 skydives + some gear requirements, you can sit through a free FJC (an abridged version) you can have your gear checked or rent a rig from the manufacturers.
take care

Don't tempt me.







(You spelled "inversely" wrong.)

so did you!

obviously he meant: inversilly

I'd hate for this thread to degenerate into something less than entirely useful, so if you have received any entertaining PMs from people regarding BASE, do share if appropriate!

Funks - There's no point in ragging on people for asking questions.

Airfury17 - at least you are asking, don't take this thread personally, see it as a pointer on what kind of response you get based on the format and presentation of your communications.

cya

the quality and speed of my reply "are"...

Thanks guys...

amount of spelling and grammatical errors...

Apparently there are no such PMs, but plenty of frustrated English majors.

Sorry I hijacked your thread, Sam, but I think it was doomed as soon as poor Jaap made that post.


Yes, but it's darn good entertainment...and it's also what he does best. He just forgot he's not in the Bonfire anymore.

I'll see that he's properly punished...

rl

How many of these did you do before you started BASE jumping?

one

but I soon wished I had done all four

besides, you don't want to end up with my limited skillset

Don't do as I do, do as I say.

I've learned from what I did and don't see why that experience should not help others make BETTER decisions than I did

I've been unbelievably lucky to make it through the way I started basically unscathed (I had a guy-wire strike around 80 jumps which could have been entirely avoided by being better prepared).

Why would I recommend anyone else to take those same odds if they can get better odds?

I know you are implying that I, the pot, am calling the kettle black, but really all I'm doing is saying:

don't be dumb like me, be smart, because:
A - it's smart
B - you might not be as lucky

oh yeah, I'm up to 3 of those four things completed now and the fourth should be done this year..

Out of curiosity, which of the 4 did you have?

Why do so many BASE jumpers who are still alive say that?

Maybe because having tons of experience amounts to very little when it comes down to it. Intelligence and humility are the only requirements to be a safe BASE jumper. The rest is just bonus.

compete in accuracy

but it was hardly highly useful, as I did a total of 30 jumps on a 252 Parafoil and ended up using a borrowed Sabre 150, that I was jumping and loving at the time, for the actual competition

but then with all of about 100 skydives that seemed like a good idea to me at the time

ah, the happy days of jumping in England, mud, sheep and sheepshit all over the LZ, wind, clouds and rain all over the sky and whining all over the whole island

I'm almost looking forward to jumping with you damn foreigners again!

oh yeah, almost forgot - I have actually jumped an A in higher winds now than that night with you and Glamourboy! The trick is leave facing the antenna and pull silly low.

I know that there are alot of different opinions for and against this. As a new jumper I think that doing these things, though not nessisary is a very very very good idea. At the very least, doing this kind of homework shows that a person is serious about BASE and wants to do everything that they can in order to make their career a long and safe one. Personally, I think that these things have helped me the most by making me feel more mentally ready for the jump. Standing at the exit point is no time to doubt your accuracy or packing/rigging skills.

I would have told him to use the main with one riser unhooked and tied to his buddy's shirt. Then I would go on to say, if you have a video camera duct tape it to your right hand pointing back at you and tell your soon to be shirtless buddy to mail the tape to me no matter what happens.

A lot of views and discussions on this forum are very conservative. The are very good views on how to get into base and what to do as well as not to do. We all can learn from them. I did about one year of research and learning before I did my first jump.

Now I will be the Devils Advocat. I think there plenty of jumpers out there who learn to BASE in an environment with no FJC and help from a high number jumper. As I heard before Mentors are hard to find. And if you find one you are lucky if they live with in a reasonable distance. I hardly talk about my first few jumps just because I know it would bring on the coals.

I think JappSutter is very correct when he says

"Intelligence and humility are the only requirements to be a safe BASE jumper. The rest is just bonus."

Dont get complacent, be humble and never think you know everything, it will help you live longer.

Adios
D

I really agree with this! Problem is that most wannbes I meet tend not to even have these two basic requirements...

are you talking about me ??

You have a few choices in life:

1 - be open minded and try to learn a bit from everyone you meet. It does not matter if they are right or wrong, more or less experienced, better looking or uglier, faster or slower, practiced what they preach or preach what they should have practiced, etc. Absorb, assess, assimilate, discard information as it is presented.

2 - be narrow minded, bitter and twisted, question everything, always look on the negative side, and try to discredit any information as it is presented.

My suggestion, look at the advice and see what positives YOU can get from it. Don't worry about where it came from or from whom. Your objective should be to improve yourself. If you open your mind you will be surprised where help can come from.

Confucious say: "Man who can't learn from fool is a bigger fool himself".

The difference between a wise man and a fool is that when they meet, the wise man learns something.

Hi Tom B

It was an honest question, I was curious and was not trying to discredit him. My fault was not to ask it via PM. Anyway, Sam and I have no problem with giving each other shit in real life.

That's cool.

I was just being full of shit as usual.

If I have offended . . . . . . .toughen up, and just give it back to me ...

Good luck with it all.

p.s. To answer your question (being serious now ), I think that the absolute majority of BASE jumpers have not done any of the four prior to starting!!

It's just a good idea to do them.

And as someone else said - do as he says, not what he does.

No no. I am not thinking about you... You are a wanna be, who "got to be" ! Congratulations by the way!

I gotta give you crap. PM means "private message". I challenge you to justify your publicizing a private message. The guy is totally frank and asks some very valid questions for a wannabe. He could have just posted on board and get a ripping but YOU were the one he chose. You sold him out. What you did was CRAP!
CRAP!!.
Take care,
space

He didn't use the persons name, or identify them.

There might have been other people with similar thoughts or questions, but who hadn't asked them.

He shared a fairly good bit of useful information that would help people in the same situation, but who were not the original sender of the PM.

So, I'd justify it by saying he was trying to share information more widely than just a PM, and doing so without sharing the identity of the person who asked the question. I actually do that quite a lot, when I start a post with "one of my friends asked me..." and go on to post the discussion that I had originally just written as a response to them privately, but then decided that others might also find it useful or helpful.

first, I have no idea why this person picked me to PM, I'm not from the area in their profile, maybe they just spammed a whole bunch of jumpers who post here?

dude it obvious why they chose you, your a post whore hahaha stop typin and start unpackin all that nylon

I do like a challenge.

I did it for all the reasons Tom stated and also:

the guy's attitude - look at his other posts

he might ask some valid questions, but he also asks some really ridiculous ones and mentions some really bad ideas that are easy options to him

if the PM was written in better English or it included a mention that English is not his first language, I would not have posted it

we need more eloquent basejumpers with initiative and a willingness to find information

if he was any of the above he would not have needed to PM me 90% of the questions he had, as the answers to those can easily be found on your own

The last reason was to discourage PMs like that which promote a spoon-feeding of knowledge and give pointers as to where the knowledge can be found for yourself.

I guess he picked the wrong person to PM.

cya
sam

Hahaha, oh wow.