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What did you do to prepare for your first WS BASE?

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That's everything you need to know.

Buy a V3 and head to Norway.

It'll all work out.

THATS WRONG DONT LISTEN TO THAT

Buy a v3 and head to the swiss valley

High ultimate or high nose its much better...

Actually, a V3 and a low A is a good combo, I hear.

No no no. That's wrong as well.

Make your own v4. The v3 is too small. Small wingsuits= gay and death.

A lot of wingsuit skydiving and a reasonable amount of terminal BASE.

And, um, yeah.

i just bought a wingsuit, im taking it to the valley w/o flying it first

i believe i had around 200 skydived WS jumps and around 70 terminal BASE tracking jumps, when i felt ready.

i also and most importantly felt I was ready and also most importantly KNEW.

I DIDNT second guess it one bit. not the pack job, my exit, the cliff (i knew well), i just knew i could do it without fail.

that s when you know!!


lots of Skydives man!! have fun!

I did question whether to actually post to the forum, and yes, it would seem, I was wrong in doing so...

Not only do newbies get bollocks and shit value responses, but experienced people looking for decent quality information also do.

You wonder why people that should be posting on here and benefiting us all dont?

Thanks for the sensible PMs from people that actually have a clue...

Hi Mac,

Long time...

I’m in the same process: just invested in a Razor from Kathy and a Feather from Marty; waiting for them to arrive.

Because I'm not super current on big walls I've settled on a Prodigy rather than a Phantom however PaintitBlack's comments make so much sense to me and was exactly how I felt when I did my first tracking suit jumps at Brento; I "knew" I could nail it because I had practised so much.

I'm going to play it cautious with WS Base as well. Do a ton of jumps from an aircraft until I'm super confident. My trouble is that at 53 years of age I might well run out of life before I get there. (btw - I don't feel a day over 70)

Anyway there's nothing I can offer you that you don't already know.

Regards to the UK crew

John

Here is my advice for progressing to ws base.

Skydive a lot. And do a lot of flocking. You will learn the nuances of your suit and learn to feel the air. You wouldn't learn to drive in an indy car, or fly a parachute w/ a velocity. Start slow, and work up. People w/ good technique and smaller suits outfly people w/ no experience in big suits easily...
Doing solos trying to fly fast and far w/o reference is helpful to an extent, but you will never learn the full range of your suit. And it's boring as hell.
Get your BASE exits down, understand the mechanics of the exit- rotation, momentum, conteracting bad exits. Get so that you are relaxed and can exit in different orientations. Cross train w/ diving, trampoline, skiing etc.
Be in good shape. Most WS cliffs require hiking, even in LB a lot of people think that a 45 min walk is strenuous, (ok a lot of americans) Agility will help your hiking and exits. Not being tired on the exit will do wonders for you.
Remember it takes time and commitment, you won't be a fucking proxy pro your first couple flights. And if that is your only goal, find something else to satiate your ego. WS is about FUN and being in the mountains w/ your friends. It takes years, so go slow and enjoy the ride, otherwise you burn out fast.
Ren

Thank you.

FWIW, I have been envolved in BASE for 9 years, I have been injured and I have taken time out in between jumping because I wasnt sure the risks out weighed the benefits. I have 150 jumps, all from the 200 - 300ft range except a couple of big wall jumps. I went to the Valley, and did not jump, as when I saw my mate (who is now dead), tracking and WSing, I realised that the valley was outside my skillset... even with 100+ BASE jumps I realised this, (the valley is not easy, take note newbies!)...

I am telling you this as I am a sensible person, afraid of death, and most of my jumps are not on video because its for me...

I am looking for advice on how to do this in the most sensible way as possible, I recently retired from BASE because the risk and reward was unbalanced for me, but now I have started flying wingsuits in skydiving, it is something I want to do in BASE, I understand the risk with it, but the reward is now back to over weighing it.

I know I have a year or two ahead of work, but having been involved in BASE and loosing friends from WS BASE, I am approaching this in the correct way.

I appreciate any advice from people that are WS BASEing, and how you now look back and wanted to do before hand.... I say that as when we all give advice to newbie jumpers, we all say "I wish I had done..."

I dont want to die...

John, as always... respect..

Hope you visit the UK again soon...

In a similar vein, getting all kinds of unstable in WS skydiving and flying out of it.

And slightly off the wall, a season of WS skydiving with a shagged old PC that gave me hesitations every other jump was good experience. Not that you should replicate that() but having a plan of action you can use instantly if you should happen to end up with a PC sitting on your legwing is nice.

And remembering things like how your ground referencing will be trying to suck you down low, pulling high and early instead of thinking you could just fly past that next obstacle etc.

Several people have said try and replicate issues... fly with one arm wing, deploy unstable, roll over on deployment...

Are issues quite regular on WS BASE?

Not especially, but they are far more serious obviously.

I think a lot of issues come from inexperience. Being unstable for example. If you have flown your WS enough, this should not be a problem.

But, practicing being unstable in a skydiving enviroment is the best way to develop the skiils to not become unstable.
If you spend time in the air, you are bound to have issues of some sort. Naturally, flying more= experience.
If you flock and fly a lot, all kinds of shit will happen. It's fun, and thats how you get good.
Specifically, going and practicing being unstable is ok, But it is better when random shit just happens and you have to react. Much more valuable than pre arranged occurences...

I concur with Ren on this one. I've head the odd story of tripping on exit and losing a bootie... Providing you don't stoof the exit, you should be fine.

However, valley winds do affect wingsuits when they're strong enough. I've heard another story about a wingsuit flyer being tilted onto one side when flying out of the bowl at the ITW. The winds there can create some serious turbulence at times.

Just more things to need to think about, but all perfectly manageable.

It was exit stoofing that I was thinking of in terms of flying out of instability.

Obviously not directly comparable because you'll have a lot less airspeed (but normal BASE exits aren't quite either because you're not in a straitjacket) but personally I feel that it'll help being more comfortable with restricted motion in any less than ideal situation.

Some reading material

http://www.phoenix-fly.com/media/articles

in reply to"What did you do to prepare for your first WS BASE? "
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100WS skydives, 6 base canopy test flights, tooo much skydiving .
I bought new equipment after researching and talking to heaps of people .
I didn't bother having the most recent wingsuit and instead went with the one I had the most experience on at the time .
I erred on the conservative side with just about every decision.
I picked the best place to begin IMHO- Kjerag.

The best advice I recieved '" get as far away from the object as possible"

The worst advice "When you feel like dumping , wait another 2 or 3 seconds"

I'd like to add that you will learn more from more experienced people ( even if you don't like them ) than from your low jump 'just do it ' friends.

Took me three years planning but like another +ive poster I knew when I was ready and didn't need any-one to tell me to hurry up.

Do this at your own pace and you'll be in charge of your own experience.

Mac, in case you missed it, Jokkes guide on WS base contains some helpful information for WS beginners.

http://www.basejumper.com/..._Guidelines_878.html

Thanks...

And thank you for all other replies here and in PM... appreciated.

"Plenty" to think about...

Cheers