Basejumper.com - archive

I'm UK based looking to make my first Base jump and I'm weighing up my options with the various first jump courses on offer. Can any one advise me where my money would be best and worst spent? The options i know of are the freefall university in Spain. Apex and Consolidated rigging in the states and httpbasekjerag in Norway. my initial thoughts are go to Consolidated and then do a follow up course in Norway as I want to jump the big wall in the Summer. I am also looking to meet fellow base jumpers in the South Of England. The beers are on me if you are willing to share some words of wisdom.

snakeriverbase.com is another option you should consider.

Or you can check out Johnny Utah as well for a FJC.
www.johnnyutah.com

*disclaimer* I've never taken Johnny's course but I have been to the bridge several times that he has run his course and watched his students progress from 0 jumps to anywhere form 15-18 over the time they are there. I've always been impressed with his patience, knowledge, understanding, and teaching ethics involving B.A.S.E.

Snake River BASE all the way!!

 I went with the Johnny Utah course myself. I got a full day of theory and exit training (full day= 9:30am till 11pm with lunch), followed by four full days of jumping. By the end of the course I finished with 18 jumps. I don't remember the cost offhand, but it was comparable to everyone elses.
I'd highly recommend the course. Funny thing was I was the only guy this side of the pond out of four people.

Ask as many questions as you can think of, research each company on here (you can find lots of posts regarding each FJC usually) and you shouldn't be dissapointed.

johnny utah fo sho. finished the carse with 15 jumps. highly recomend. its like jumpin with guys back home more than a base "coarse" . one HOT TIP.......learn to pack BEFORE you get there. less stressful on you and others in the coarse. johnny will send you a real in depth packing video months prior, it should be no problem.

I'll have to agree here, I've seen Johnny's FJC students get kinda antsy when they are waiting for the one guy in the course that hasn't learned how to pack until he gets there....everyone is waiting on you and it takes away from jumping, both for the slow packer and everyone else.

hm... I might have to take Johnny Utah's fjc into consideration.

When I was up there over the weekend apex was doing theirs. From what I saw and heard it looked really good. You don't get as many jumps though. They did about 5 over the weekend and would have maybe gotten one more if it wasn't for wind.

How about the Snake River fjc? How many jumps did people get to do?

I might have to think again about what one I take.

i would highly recommend snake river base. not only do i think it is the most comprehensive course, but the instructor goes far and beyond when it comes to assistance beyond the basics of base. tom is avail anytime to help you with questions, concerns, gear, exits etc.. the other courses might get u to jump off the bridge safely,, but snake river base will take care of well after u leave the bridge into your base journey.

Consolidated are no longer offering FJC's so its between snake river, Apex and Johnny Utah. I've not met many UK Base jumpers and would welcome the chance to pick your brains at the pub if anyone is in the South East. I am also a photographer film maker and can offer some photography film making in return for some mentoring. WWW.JONNASH.COM

The best approach, in my opinion, is to definitely
own some BASE specific gear, know how to pack
it, practice doing it several times, and do some
hop & pops on the canopy BEFORE your course.


FYI - I took Tom A's Snake River FJC and felt it
was well organized, worth the money, plus he
still puts up with my dumb questions.

check out http://www.badseedbase.com/

I did mine with brandon. If you already know how to pack you will be able to crank out the jumps. I got 17 in less than 3 days. Get to do unpacked stuff too

I took Tom's course last year and found it to be excellent, just the two of us in the group and got about 35 jumps in over the 4 days. It mainly depends on how many people there are in the group, and motivated you are to do the hiking. A packing video and rig was sent over in advance to practise with, and the course itself was in depth and covered a wide range of topics.

<i hear NC hosts a pretty good. They only charge a dollar per foot. Canopy piloting and packing instruction are only recomended parts of their course, but they are more than happy to teach those for an extra 100. <hell.... that`s how i learned

And we haven't killed you yet. Anyone who teaches a course is looking for just one thing.... money. Find a mentor and save the cost of the plane ticket.

I think that's a little cynical. If you figure the actual cost of the course to the end user vs the labor and time / travel involved for the instructors, there is not a ton of $$ to be made in it. Anyone who can earn a living base jumping without acting like an MTV whore has my respect.

My course was as follows: (costs are 100% estimated, I do not know how much they actually make)
3 persons in a course @ $1,200 each = $3600 Gross
3 instructors, for 3 days, plus gas, travel, lodging, food, etc. figure hard cost @ $600.00
instructor's salary - $300 / day / instructor = $2700
that leaves $300 in profit / overhead
Then think about how many courses they actually run per year. I'm sure some courses make more $$ than others.
I'd say the people doing this are definitely not in it for the money.

I agree since working at Wally World could net
someone more money, less hassle, and without
having to watch people trying to kill themselves.

 

It's not easy to find a mentor willing to invest time (and money in a way) and take up the responsibility of teaching the person, unless you're a good friend of his/hers or he/she is very kind hearted...

How objective is your opinion ?

is your statement based on first hand experience ?

PS Shhhhhhhhhhh

You're obviously not familiar with the types of objects to jump from in the South of England! Not beginner stuff at all.

Jon, it's worth traveling to the Perrine Bridge for your FJC. I did mine there with Apex and have no complaints. The only mistake I made was to not stay on for a few days after the course to practice what I'd learned. It's a great place to practice, even for experienced jumpers. Get 20 jumps out there and you'll be ready for some of the stuff back home.

Good luck, stay safe, and have fun!

Oh right, the guy's from UK. Why go all the way to US when you can do your FJC in Spain/Croatia/Norway?

Sure he could go to Norway for a week, have maybe 2 days of adequate weather, and get five jumps done. But that isn't going to prepare him for the slider-down jumps he'll be wanting to do when he returns home. My recommendation would be to do one's first jumps from a bridge, preferably a legal one, and I don't know of a better object than the Perrine. If a "Euro-Perrine" does exist, I would love to hear about it!

The course in Spain includes jumping from bridges, slider down handheld, also from some cliff handheld/stowed.. I just don't know exactly which objects..

Check these videos http://www.baseeuphoria.com/id19.html

In Croatia there's the [some] bridge (120m). James Boole runs some courses (but he's injured now so..). I think "Euro-Perrine" is [some bridge]

I'd say the course in Spain is one of the most convenient choices for a UK resident..

[some bridge] looks worth a visit. Croatia in general looks like a great place for a BASE trip. Thanks!

Which is not 100% legal, no secret either, but thanks for putting it up on the internet...
Cops generally don't care about us or might only stop to watch the jumps, but it's still technically highway and no pedestrian traffic is allowed on the bridge, so it's still better to keep a lower profile when jumping it.

I dunno, some of it's not that bad - some of it is death on a stick as well though


I don't personally know of any fully legal ones, but there are some that you can realistically expect to jump all day and night without getting busted.


Edit: I also know a few guys who did the Pressurized course and had very good things to say about it. Started of with bridge jumping like a Perrine course but also took in some different objects and gave them a taste of terminal jumping at the ITW as well.

dude, review the concept of "NO site naming." other websites might not care, but it matters here. surely you've been posting to long enough to read several people getting corrected already. (heck, I attempted to sanitize a thread last night and caught grief for not cleaning it up enough!)

please think before posting?

can I get a "sssshhhhhh?"

There seems to be quite the rash of naming lately...

true.
and it's not like the rule is a secret.

sad...

It's not like that bridge is absolutely "illegal", it's a well known bridge in Europe and people jump for fun and run courses from it.. I actually don't see a problem for naming it, it's like naming Perrine..

Shhhhh

Ah, so until BASE jumping there is explicitly permitted, rather than just tolerated, it's not quite the Euro-Perrine I was hoping for.

neither you or I have jumped that object. we are not locals. thus, we really should not be the ones to say that it is ok to reveal the site. view it as a form of courtesy. (if you show respect, you might earn some!)

when in doubt, be quiet!

plus, I don't recall seeing the name on these forums before. have you? should you be the first to mention it? heck, if UncleCharlie wanted his course and the site published, he knows how to post!

practice restraint!

(when I first came here, the Idaho bridge was rarely mentioned by name either. it was frequently called the potato bridge.)

Fair enough.

So how do you talk about objects here?

in cryptic undecipherable code names.
Like when we refer to you, we just say "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

http://www.basejumper.com/...Site_Naming_702.html

If you have lruked here for as long as you claim to have you should have already read this. In fact, i posted this in response to you in another thread just yesterday so i can see it did a lot of good. I can't tell you what to do as I have very low experience myself but i can tell you what i did and other jumpers getting started did: read, research, talk to people in person, ask questions privately. Once you show you are willing to help yourself others will be more willing to lend a hand.