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is it possible for someone with very minimal skydiving exp. to take up base?i have gone skydiving,not really what im looking for.ive seen a base jump a couple of times and that is really the direction i would like to focus on.are there mentors out there willing to teach someone with such little canopy exp.?is this commonplace? or do i need more skydives? thanks,massey79 in tennessee.

possible?
yes

likely?
no

smart?
doubtful

risk of injury?
greatly elevated

so how long should i keep spending money on something i get no thrill from?i dont have alot of extra cash to throw away.i understand you need to work for something if you want to reach your goal. however i was wondering if there was an alternate route?ive been on the ground for a couple of base jumps.i have a good head on my shoulders.i didnt just see some youtube videos and want to be cool.i know the elevated risk i would be putting myself at. does that lower my iq?i dont believe so.i would just like to be able to go jump and get excited about it,save money(or at least feel i getting my moneys worth)and not have to sit around a dz waiting on tandems all day just to get a jump in.

nice try, TROLL

at least have the decency to elaborate

Yeah, you're definitely way better prepared than some dumbass who just saw a couple of YouTube videos.

let me get this straight...

- you want to throw yourself at the ground, placing yourself in imminent physical injury. death is a high possibility.

- the only thing that will keep you healthy is a parachute and your skill using that device.

- you don't want to learn how to use that device in a safer environment.

if I got that right, your judgment is highly suspect. few will help you. can you explain why you think your idea is reasonable?

(depending on your answer, I will consider locking this thread. it appears you can not be serious and that you are only here to agitate.)

after reading over other posts (which in hind-sight i realize i should have done pre-post)i realize why you would believe im suspect for agitation,i assure you im not and im serious in my inquiry.its not that i dont want the exp. under canopy.i just get no thrill from skydiving and thats what im seeking and having to spend money i dont have on it seems frivolous to me.to me it just seems that if i get mentored and have a safe enough object to jump, with low risk of 180 and i pull high and have a nice open field to land in,i believe its very feasible. the times ive landed under canopy i could have landed within a 50 ft radius anywhere at the dz.i dont have a full concept of the wind in skydiving due to my lack of exp. but its my understanding that the wind is different in base.and as long as i familiarize myself with the malfunctions such as a line-over and im pulling high,i believe i minimize my risk and feel im a good canidate to give it a go.

You're misinterpreting the word "safe" as used in a BASE context. I've been seriously injured once, and it was from what many would consider the safest object in North America. Sure, if your freefall goes well, and your canopy opens nicely, and conditions are excellent, then BASE is a cinch if you've got the right object. If any of those three goes awry, then even a "safe" object can be challenging.


50 ft radius is a pretty enormous landing area in BASE -- the kind of landing area you'll only find in a few places. And often (as you say, thank you winds) where you land isn't where you wanted to land. Now you're putting it down in a 15-foot radius clearing in the trees, with one big-ass tree lying across the middle. But first you've got to get there.

And it's not all about canopy time. Can you skydive head-down? Can you track? Can you botch the exit and have yourself back in the right position a second or two out of the door? How are you when your canopy malfunctions? Can you pack to prevent that? Can you re-rig confidently? Check your own gear to ensure that it's safe? Or perhaps you're thinking your mentor will teach you all of that for free, so you can save a buck...

When BASE goes well at a "safe" object, it's the kind of thing a bag of dog food could do. When it goes off-plan -- and in some way, it often does -- or when you decide that spending your entire BASE career doing short, flat-and-stable delays at a high subterminal bridge with a giant grassy landing area in zero winds isn't your cup of tea... That's when you'll wish you had the skills that you can easily learn in a couple hundred skydives.

There is no such thing!


You start LOW and jump off!

thanks for the feedback thats exactly what im looking for.yes i know those "safe"objects will get old and i know ill need more exp. but i thought i could gain that exp. from the easier objects. and the tracking and all of that,no i dont know how to do that,it was my understanding that the wind is different and i didnt think that would be a huge issue,am i grossly mistaken?it does seem that the only way to go is to keep skydiving,if i have to go that way what is the minimal number of jumps you have to have before you can sign up for a course like bridge day.is it not the number but license?but you said so yourself the easier objects yes its easy if all goes accordingly and no i dont think itll be free,but instead of throwing away money on skydiving i could be using it on gaining knowledge in base. and fyi i would not be jumping an object that requires such skill under canopy.one more question if you passed aff would that not be enough knowledge on freefall and tracking and keeping your heading and all that good stuff?

This is like saying If I passed my drivers test, would that not be enough for me to go drive a Formula one race car in an actual race?

That's kind of the problem right there. They all require that. Let's look at a few really common sorts of issues...

Say you're on your hypothetical easy object, coming in for landing, and suddenly you notice (or do you -- these things take experience) that the winds have shifted. You're coming in crosswind 30 feet off the ground. How do you feel about your ability to make the right decision and execute it?

You've just blown a toggle, and now you're coming in on rear risers. Have you done this before? How much are you looking forward to doing it for the first time in a BASE environment? Can you land with one toggle and one riser (which is safer, but asymmetrical)? I should point out that this is the kind of thing that (no exaggeration) leads to lots of lower-spine fractures, because it turns out that it's both easier and harder than you think.

Maybe you just had a bridle hang up on your arm. You stayed clear-headed and got rid of it, but now you're lower than you planned, coming into your mostly-grass landing area downwind. Can you land this downwind? Can you make it over those trees? Maybe you could turn it into the wind -- can you do a flat turn, and do you have some idea of how much altitude you're going to use doing that? Can you make that call in a second or two for a variety of conditions?

This is a general theme. BASE jumping can be straightforward most of the time if you want it to be, but remember that that's not the only part you train for, and not the only part you choose your equipment (armour, for instance) for. You're asking me if it can go right. You need to start asking how it can go wrong, because that's the skill that'll save your ass one day.

So I'll point your question back to you... There you are, at the end of an awesome terminal jump, tracking along (and you're not incompetent there, because you've cleared AFF), coming down to pull altitude right over a giant, flat landing area in perfect wind conditions. You're 600 feet from the ground (because you're pulling conservatively), and you'll eat that up in 3 seconds if you don't get a canopy out. What do you figure can go wrong that might leave you happy to have some skydiving skills?

Lemme say this. Dont look at skydiving as something to get a thrill from. Look at skydiving as way to learn how to fly a parachute.

If you understand that you have to work for something to reach a goal, then why are you not skydiving?

Jumping off something is easy. Its fun and dreamy like. Rainbows and butterflies. Ponies and fire trucks.

The hellish part is hitting the ground easy enough to walk away.

can you pull off all of those canopy tricks at night, when your depth perception suffers?

how will you react when things go wrong? will you lock up, or just flow through the best action?

if you are looking for a thrill, you'll accept ghastly high risks. eventually it will put you in either a morgue or the hospital.

clearing AFF just means you are unlikely to kill yourself. it does not mean that you are skilled. if you value your health and well being, I'd suggest you focus on skill development, not the barest minimums.

well im going to look into getting a skydiving rig i guess and try learning as much as possible and try again.

How does your choice of object alter the probability of a 180?


And that's always safer, is it?


What? Dude, the wind is the wind - it does what it does regardless of whatever it is you're up to.


You can believe whatever you want to believe, but the reality is you're talking absolute nonsense right now. You're in no position to minimise your risk because you don't even know what those risks are.

Look through the old posts on this site from people wanting to start BASE with few/no skydives. The advice they receive, over and over and over again, is damn near unanimous - do a lot more skydives. You come along with your woefully inadequate knowledge and you think you know better than almost everyone else on this site - now who do you think is more likely to be right?

Sweet! Enjoy skydiving, too. It's definitely possible to get bored of jumping out of a plane, but in my experience that's only happened when I let it happen. Every new experience you try skydiving contributes to your skills in the air.

no matter what their experience when they made their first BASE jump, few will claim they were ready.

most thought they were ready.

as they accumulate BASE jumps, most look back and question themselves.

It's also worth noting that several folks have died jumping off one of the easiest objects in America. No. 99 comes to mind...there's a short, compelling discussion of the concept of "easy".

Base is about discipline and keeping YOURSELF in check. If you can't be disciplined enough to stick to skydiving (a sport you are bored with) in order to learn how to fly a canopy, how the hell do you expect to be disciplined enough to become a good and safe base jumper? You'll probably end up being one of those tards who will jump a low cliff in 20mph gusts just because it took him 4 hours to hike up and he is too lazy to hike back down.

Can I ask you how many skydives you've even done to make you so bored? I think you're being ignorant about this sport here because I doubt you have tried every discipline. Why not try some CRW? Its very different, fun, scary AND prepares you for base in a huge way. You will learn more about your canopy in 10 crw jumps than you would in 30 freefall jumps (possibly more).

Don't think you're special enough to be able to skip skydiving and hop into base.

 

you will not meet people on the internet boards who will be willing and wanting to take you BASE jumping.

you will meet these people at dropzones, after youve hung around and jumped with them, maybe packed for people, and made yourself known to the experienced jumpers. if you prove to these people that you are a heads up skydiver whos not a dipshit thats gonna kill himself, and let it be known that youre interested in BASE, thats when you may get invited out to go ground crew and hang out with the local BASE jumpers........