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I still enjoy it but havn't been in ages.

I have lost my jump masters rating and only recently did I give my reserves to 980 to pack because I want to get into wingsuiting.

The thing is, it's become very expensive here, I am in a lot of debt and my wife works on week-ends so I just can't leave for the dz any more. Also I was sent to Namibia last year on a job and had a lot of disposable money on top of my salary. I could just go to the dz on my day off and not worry about how much I needed to pack to make a jump. Coming back to South Africa, the price of a jump had gone up but not the price of a pack, so much so that I now needed to pack 7 rigs to make 1 jump, without counting the beer and food and petrol. I am also not at a level of experience where I could make my skydiving pay for itself.

I am wondering how many of you have stopped skydiving completely but yet still BASE jump hard. Or even, who still skydives hard and feels it's essential to their BASE jumping to a point where should they stop skydiving, they would stop BASE as well...

Yes, it's the same old debate in disguise but maybe there's something new.

I did get my last skydive 31/12-06,one month before that i had said that by newyear i would stop.
I had thought alot about it and it wasnt fun to write the mail saying that i wanted to stop skydiving(here its like clubs were you pay to the club aswell).
I figured out that i on average had like 4-8 jumps a year and i mostly did so to keep my licens.
I has to say that i really enjoy skydiving but beeing a BASE jumper and amatur photografer i have loads of stuff to use my mony at..

I wont say im BASEjumping hard,last summer Lene and i got our house ive been working alot on it so i havent been out jumping as much as i wanted,also my old injury gives me more and more pain,sometimes its just a bitch to be the lonely wolf at 5 years straight...
I found that i had 4-50ish jumps last year not much on what im used at.. My plans are to change that..

Hey Faber

If it wasn't for 980 being here at the moment and offering to help with the wingsuiting, I would definitely be considering quitting skydiving. Also, at this point, and it's kind of strange, I feel that I am a safer BASE jumper than skydiver.
I have thought of selling my skydiving gear to make ends meet but that thought never even crossed my mind when it came to my BASE gear.
At this level of experience and knowledge I think I could stop skydiving but yet remain a safe BASE jumper. I am not trying to sound arrogant or anything, just for example suggesting that there are enough outsiders coming through here with new knowledge, keeping me from developing inbred pre concepts. That's just one of the things.
We have a bridge here that is pretty safe in BASE terms. 2 or 3 recurrency jumps and your awareness is back at where you left it had you gone uncurrent.
I don't dislike skydiving, I love it. I am just arguing that all these elements considered, one could stop skydiving without it having a negative effect on their BASE jumping. This is pretty much what Faber is doing.
Now there was the argument about people starting BASE without skydiving experience. I think what I am asking for is opinions on people stopping skydiving but continuing BASE.

well i dont think its a good thing to do,skydiving is a perfect playground to have fun practice and enjoy life..
However i also know loads of people who has done so,and they are still great BASEjumpers..

I do think that you need to think about it as 2 different sports if you get into BASE then keep current on BASE but not skydiving then i think you might be in danger in skyworld,each sports has their own danger areas...

But in the discuss starting BASE whith out skydive experience vs stop skydiving keep BASEjumping i think the last option is much safer.. but thats me.. If it were up to me people should have a minimum of 500skydives to start BASejumping..

I stopped skydiving when I took up BASE not really from a choosing, but because I sold all my skydiving gear to help finance my BASE FJC trip and gear.

I went back to do a couple of skydives last year (first time in 4 odd years) and although they were fun I dont feel I am missing out on anything.

The only thing I do feel I am missing from not skydiving is doing a lot of jumps to keep up my canopy currency which would only benefit in BASE. When I have not jumped for a month or two then there are some jumps I dont feel current enough to do which I would not should I have kept skydiving regular and flying canopies.

Quite a commitment to say the least.


Do you feel you are lacking on a technical aspect?
They are two different sports but when I was current packing at the dz, things would occur much faster. For example (and I am bringing it up again), somebody saying that the rings on your reverse risers drag along the ground when packing, I had to be in the situation to realize that they don't. Also I was much faster being packing fit.

Not being a basejumper myself, I do know that I see a huge difference in wingsuiting basejumpers that do lots of skydiving practice and those that dont.

Seeing someone buy a top of the line wingsuit, and come down from a 13K jump with 70 seconds of freefall and a distance covered that any AFF student could cover on his first ever tracking is just laughable (and a waste of money on a good wingsuit)

freefall skills are freefall skills...and not everyone seems to be getting his/hers from the few terminal basejumps a year they make..

No, I see myself lacking on a currency aspect..... flying a canopy every weekend is better than not flying a canopy... it really is better to fly than not to keep up some consistancy, no matter what canopy you fly each and every weekend....

For sure but starting off with a top of the line wingsuit seems unreasonable even for a skydiver don't you think?


I think it would be possible for someone to get into wingsuiting purely through BASE. Track with normal clothing, track with tracking gear, entry level ws, etc... I wouldn't follow that path but it's possible and I have come to believe that it's not entirely unreasonable. Atle Dahl in Norway (correct me if I'm wrong) burnt some cigarrette holes in fishing pants, some packing tape around the feet and started hucking off the cliffs. Now in terms of what is reasonable in the skydiving world, that would be considered suicide yet he was tracking like a demon (Keep in mind that some info may be corrupt. this is only hearsay and viewing of video footage on my part).
I don't know, I suppose I'm just playing devil's advocate here...

You're right and I'm sorry, didn't mean to come across that way.

(and this next in reply to the whole thread, not just you mccordia)-

I like skydiving, in my first 2 years i would be at the dz every weekend a month, an spent all my money. now, dont have that much money because 20,000 is enough student loans. but i havent been since MOAB. I like being at 18,000' with nothing around me. i love reltive motion, but there is somethine about floating in near-space all by my onesy.