Basejumper.com - archive

should a beginner trust anyone?
how should a beginner know whom to trust?
how should a beginner evaluate the quality of advice given?

personally, I think that is one of the benefits of skydiving first. learn jargon, learn the equipment, gain experience, develop judgment, etc. will help develop a bullshit detector within the beginner. they will have a better feel for what sounds wrong.

obviously studying weather or aerodynamics, and running some calculations can be helpful as well.

what other suggestions are out there?

when i first met my base mentor i was at a climbing gym. i told them that i want to climb shit and jump off. they gave me a criteria that i should do before they take me out to the perrine.

100 skydives, come and ground crew, learn to pack.

i had no money for 100 skydives i learned to pack tandems and sport gear. my first year skydiving i got 96 jumps all paid for by me packing. the following memorial day we went to the perrine.

knowing what i did to get to where i am at, i was very glad i did it the way i did. when people come up to me and ask how to get into BASE i tell them how i got into it, and i tell them they are going to have to do the same if they want me to help them get into BASE. and then i try to talk them out of it, i don't want any blood on my hands.

no one ever comes out to skydive so i guess you could say i have not met anyone that really wanted to get into base from all the people that ask.

so i feel if your BASE mentor just hands you a rig and says its easy, and takes you out to a tower in the middle of the night. i think they call this death camp for a reason. they should have a plan for you to get to the point were you can do it some what safely, and it makes for a sweet journey.

my story getting into BASE took a little over a year, and that was a very exciting year. how long did others prepare.

http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/wiki/Mentoring

This is a good article.

A beginner or anyone else should trust in themselves. Question so called facts comes to mind also. Question everything. Dont be a sheep. Think for one´s self.
Take care,
space

Well put

THIS.

I prefer to learn from many different people so I can form my own opinions and methods.

I sign for that. The idea for having a mentor is good. But I have heard and seen many beginners who have they head at the right place and are confronting the sport (hobby) correctly but still are "depending" they mentor with everything with out a doubt. There is a million way to do things right ( and a million and one to do it wrong). I´ve seen beginners who consider they mentor next to god, the only one who know what to do and the only one who knows how to do it. This kind of thing narrows things very very much.
But as the threat was... who to trust??? that is everyones to judge. Everyone should do enough research about the sport(hobby) that should know basics... the rest is to judge people (in case you don´t know them)