Basejumper.com - archive

How many skydivers and BASE jumpers are there in the world today?

Anyone?

quessing.... about 2500 ?!! basejumpers...i mean

you sure Pete?
i would say arround 3000 but hey.. who knows?

 
A lot!!

Medusa

Define "BASE jumpers".

How many jumps do you need to make in a week/month/year to be considered a BASE jumper? Or do you just need to have made a single BASE jump at some point in your lifetime?

If it's the latter, I'd guess closer to 10,000.

 

What would you say makes someone a BASE jumper Tom?

Coco

I've been pondering these questions myself on a few occations.

To call yourself a BASE jumper I think it's sufficient to have made a jump from the four different objects. A minimum of four jumps required.

At the same time I don't think it's wrong to identify yourself as a BASE jumper if you're an active participant in the sport and are jumping on a regular basis, but haven't jumped objects from all four categories. I'm guessing there are jumpers with 100+ jumps who yet haven't jumped, say, a building. A BASE jump is a BASE jump, and if you're doing it would make you a BASE jumper.

I think the development of the sport, and the idiomatic use of the term BASE jump, may allow people to be BASE jumpers without having received the BASE award.

Personally I wouldn't call someone who has done one or a couple of jumps a BASE jumper, but I wouldn't say anyone was wrong to do so either.

I have no idea why, but my guesstimate of the total number of people who have done one or more base jumps has been around 10 000 too.

When I started jumping, my locals defined an active base jumper as someone who did 50 or more jumps a year. Wonder how many fits this category world wide?

CJ=)

an excellent question. there are alot of skydivers with a few BASE jumps, but if you asked them i think they would identify themselves as skydivers. my take on it is a BASE jumper is someone who has jumped more than once, owns BASE specific gear and learns everything they can about BASE. their goals are BASE related, i.e. my goal this year is to get my BASE number, next year is to jump the ostankino tower. simply put, my focus is BASE, i consider myself a BASE jumper.

I agree. Case in point...Me! I've got A.S and an O but not B or E. Gonna get the E this summer but not sure when I will go for my B. Only because if I get busted, I will get kicked out of the Fire Academy. Once off probation It won't matter from what I have been told. Before I got in...I was jumping 2-3 times a week. Now I'm luck if I get 1 every 2-3 weeks.

Coco

I know that I didn't feel like a real BASE jumper until the first time I scouted and jumped an object, solo, landing on a tiny sand bar, with very few outs. It was jump 81, two weeks short of my one year BASE anniversary.

Then that feeling was reinforced 11 jumps later when I got my last letter.

And again, 14 jumps later, successfully jumping a very high bust "O" object and getting away undetected.

Before all of that (including getting my first three letters, having a "sort of cliffstrike", doing basic aerials, and getting arrested), I just didn't feel right calling myself a BASE jumper. Aynone who knew me during that time called me one (among other things) because that was my sole focus. But I'd have felt like a poser if I came out said, "Yeah, I'm a BASE jumper!"

However, if someone does one tandem and wants to be a skydiver, or jumps NRGB and wants to be called a BASE jumper, so be it. They BASE jumped, so they must be a BASE jumper.

But for me, it was different.

With that definition I've hardly ever been a BASE-jumper

Did my 700:th two nights ago

/Micke
BASE 268
Team Bautasten

What if you did B, A, S and E all unpacked? some would say that you are simply a paraglider.

an Interest is exactly that, an interest in something, you don't need to be an active participant

on my website I have "BASE jumping related stuff," as 1 of my interest, I'm always quick to point out that I don't jump if anyone may have misinterprated it

and to me it is an interest, I come into this forum everyday without fail (and usually ignore the rest of DZ.com) read as much anywhere I can get info from and have a nice growing collection of base footage.

so interest and participator are 2 diff things.
although if they consider them self a "skydiver" cos of there tandem they are almost a tool,
I so "almost" as a true tool is someone who is old enough to drive but has a myspace account, myspace is for kids, orkut.com is the original and coolest and affiliated with google

> my locals defined an active base jumper as someone who did 50 or more jumps a year
> With that definition I've hardly ever been a BASE-jumper
Ah ah ah ah the same holds true for me!!!!!!
Anyway, I make it way simple: A BASE jumper is anyone who owns a BASE rig and who conducts BASE jumping activity on a regular basis
So, regardless what people consider a "true" BASE jumper, I consider myselkf a BASE jumper because, even if I do 30÷40 BASE jumps per year, but I jump nealry every week, plus once in a while I open a new BASE site.
So, I consider nyself a BASE jumper because of my regular activity.
As well as I do NOT consider myself a kayeker because twice in the summer season I hire a kayak for few hours, or I do NOT consider myself a snowboarder because I snowboard 7 days per year, or I do NOT consider myself a soccer player because twice a year I play a couple of soccer matches with my collegues, and so on.

And some would say a paraglider who did just that was the man...

I'm definitely not a BASE jumper by the definitions above. Only 7 jumps, 3 at NRGB and 4 from a 1900 foot antenna. First one in '83 and latest in '99. But, I follow BASE jumping closely and dream of those big cliffs in Norway!

I'm still growing some balls...