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Im 16 and have wanted to start doing base jumping mainly but wouldn't care to start on skydiving. Have been told a few different ages for a while and sense i was 10 was told 16 and now that i am 16 now being told 18 but have been looking on the web for a while and it says both and that i need to have 100 to 200 sky dives before base jumping and some say they have done no sky dives and have done only base jumping. I live in colorado and if any one has any info that could help me or any person experience on what to do to get started it would be great.

woubo,
Regarding skydiving...some states require that the minimum age be either 16 or 18 depending on where you live. 200 is just a minimum, some are ready before (hence the zero skydiving experience that you are referring to) and some arent ready till long after 200 skydives.

The main thing for that is canopy flight time. In BASE you need excellent accuracy and flight abilities that skydiving will give you.

You are in an excellent spot right now. Get a job, save all your damn money. By the time you are 18, you will have enough money to put yourself through AFF at your local dz, and pay for a bunch of jumps and probably gear too. This is what I did, I am only 20, and I started saving for skydiving when I was 15. I had enough money to do AFF, buy my first rig,and pay for 175 skydives up front. In my first year I did over 400 skydives.

For now read all of the articles on the 'Articles' tab at the top, and read through all the posts. Learn all you can and absorb as much knowledge as you can.

~Jake

regarding skydiving.............
if i was a smart, responsible person i would have done that. because i am a dipshit, moronic, fucking drunk impulsive spender, i had to go to ALOT of payday advance places, take cash that i could never afford to payback, ruin my credit, and almost face some serious trouble from my credit union for writing checks to myself, from myself, pulling out the cash, and then finishing up my A license jumps............
took a long time to recover from that one but i was determined to get licensed!!!!!!!!!!!

do you accept checks?

It is possible to start out with 0 skydives, but those people are rare and almost everyone will agree it's not a good idea at all, also almost no one will take up to mentor you, let alone accept you into FJC (since as far as I've read all of them require you to have minimum 200 skydives)..

As everyone points out, the most important thing is canopy control - accuracy, drills like lineovers, blown toggles (landing, turning with risers), off headings which you have to react instantly to them..

US has some frustrating laws with those minimum 18 years old to skydive, in my home country Lithuania, you can start skydiving when you're 14

Well, skydiving gives you shit loads of experience and prepares you mentally. At the moment you think you could just put on a rig, stand on the edge of antenna or cliff and perform a leap of faith. I'm almost 100% sure you wouldn't. When you start skydiving it's already shit loads of stress, when you're standing by the door, looking at the earth from 13k feet, thinking: damn, what if I fuck up?! Now imagine that you're at the edge of a cliff when you have only 500-1000ft of altitude and most of time have to track away from the wall as well...

Start skydiving, see how you mentally feel, get used to it, then you can start thinking about BASE and be a bit more confident with the skills you've honed in skydiving, which can help clear that nasty off heading when you're flying straight into the wall!

Well, I haven't BASE jumped either, so it's just my perception, I'm working towards it as well

How many skydives do you have?

94. Why?

Wow, you are the most amazing tracker ever.

nasty!!

Maybe he's refering to moon base!!!

Well, I made a mistake with the altitude. You have to track away from walls which are 3000+ ft like Kjerag or Trollvegen.

But still, the point is it's more difficult than the newbies think..

It is not a law per se that prevents minors from skydiving.
I have left a Twin Otter holding the hand of a 12 year old
who had 300 jumps, of course his father owned the plane.

Most dropzones are businesses and do not want to be sued,
hence they use documents called waivers, assumptions of
risk, etc. to provide some protection against liability.

To sign a valid legal document one must be 18.

Usually my replies to these kinds of threads
is to simply post some old, lame joke... but
this type of question and mentality comes up
so often I want to ask you some questions.

Why do you want to BASE jump?

Why do you want to skip Skydiving?

Have you ever watched anyone die?

Have any friends in wheelchairs?

right on. go ask the mullins boys when they started. zach is still in high school and has a couple thousand jumps. it's the uspa that gets you. find a dz that isn't a member and you're good to go.

I don't get it. Coming up on 1000 feet is exactly where I'd say tracking starts to become important.

Yeah, but not 500.

Yep, it was a Mullins boy who I
was referring to, it was at the
WFFC in 2003 at Rantoul, IL.

Hmm, no response from woubo

r u sure it was a twin otter & not a king air (or super king air)?
just wondering cuz afaik the minors could only jump dad's planes (& afaik, dad only had ka @ rantoul 03)

Yeah that makes sense,
the plane probably was his
dad's super king air then.

It was funny, the kid was in
a full on stand and I was on
my belly.

you should start "innovating" gear.

i think sonics hiring..

I think you should chill and stop dissing me for making an altitude mistake because I'm using a metric and not imperial system all of my life so I do mix up metres with feet sometimes...

while stitching, too?


(sorry, but i had to write this)

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