Re: [baldas] Which person we can call experienced basejumper
baldas wrote:
1. how much jumps?
2. abse - is it necessary to do all 4?
3. new exits - does he need to explore it?
4. wing user?
5. NUMBER?
When I started BASE in the mid 1980's, 'The Number', was the goal for most new jumpers.
You couldn't get a number without making at least 4 jumps, but you could be a 'real' BASE jumper, with a BASE number, with only 4 jumps.
I know very experienced jumpers, with all four categories, and no BASE number or desire to apply for one.
Seems today, that it has evolved or devolved into a fringe sport that some only use as a medium to say "Look at me!"
Others are so hard core that unless you happen upon them on the trail or launch site, you'd never even know they existed, and they're making hundreds of jumps a year with no log books or videos to show you.
Then there are the ones somewhere in the middle, slipping a few in between skydives, with an occasional BASE trip thrown in once or twice a year.
Although certainly not a requirement to being a BASE jumper, opening a new site or exit point can be extremely satisfying.
On the same note, wingsuit BASE is also extremely rewarding, but in no way compulsory to being a BASE jumper.
Without a firm criteria for 'experienced' being chistled in stone somewhere, it appears it's still open to individual interpretation.
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