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An interesting question, what is safer. BASE or skydiving?Pro's and cons please

BASE you tard, you arent as high up!

Statistic death Skydiving 1/130 000 jumps
Statistic death no organized BASE ca 1/2 500 jumps

Oganized BASE jumping events etc maybe around 15 000 - 20 000 jumps one death.

That's an interesting question?

are you aware that 84% of all statistics are made up?

i am aware. there are statistics that prove that.........

Yes I just did!

Base jumping is safer, what a silly question! You need 200 base jumps before you think about doing a tandem skydive...

The German statistic regarding Base injuries and fatalities says the risk is approximately 10x higher.

Which is safer? Hum, hard to tell. But I can name a few pros and cons:

O J Simpson
Michael Vick
Dwight Gooden
Pete Rose
Darryl Strawberry
Greg "Cadillac" Anderson
Mike Tyson
Tonya Harding

I live on the edge , sometimes i drive around with no seatbelt on and sometimes i wear it...statistically i am looking for trouble but the more i do it that trouble will eventually find me...

Take heart in knowing that all things being equal next time you dont wear your seatbelt trouble will have exactly the same chance of finding you as he did on the first time you didnt wear it.

Statistic death safe living 1/1 lives
Statistic death dangerous living 1/1 lives

This is general observation, not aiming at anyones post... I'm fearing that people juggling with death statistics or safety comparisons are usually just trying to convince themselves that they will live forever if they will do or not do something. Too many people are held back in their lives just thinking that this or that is too dangerous for them.

+1

You are free to die whenever you want if you do not feel you owe your family, friends or the sport anything.

I just have to repeat my selves over and over again. I have met many of your type, but they cry and think it is sad when they loose their best friends, and are shocked when they experience carnage close up. Some never get over it. The worst part of the game is to meet their family afterwards, and see how broken up they are.

Life is getting better when you grow up for most of us. Try it!

+1.

The hardest thing you will ever do is calling your buddy's mother to tell her he just went in.

I wish I could spare all of us that experience, but I know there is no way to do that.


Dying is easy. Being the people left behind--that's a bit harder.

Solitaire, Sudoku,
take care,
space

Some interesting responses for sure. What seems to happen in these type of forums is it drifts from the original subject. It of course, is always hard to deal with negative outcomes. What we're trying to do here, is to weigh the risk between these 2 sports. For instance, what is the riskiest part of a skydive? Same for BASE? Let's see if we can air out some of the different ways things can and do go wrong between the 2 and see if there is a way to minimize them. This is mostly to figure out if there really is a difference in the risks of one versus the other.

No, not really. The evidence is solid and the conclusions are not up for debate.

BASE->Skydiving->Crosswords

I´ll play.
My safest BASE jump was safer than my most dangerous skydive. My most dangerous skydive was was about the same danger as my most dangerous BASE jump. Maybe more... Driving in the wrong lane over a hill was more dangerous.
Hangin on to a 35lb chainstrap to descend 30ft in the Mississippi River and to swim back up, more dangerous than anything besides being buried alive in a sand tunnel collapse.
Do you get my drift?

Here is how you can maybe sort it.
Identify "safe" and go from there.
Take care,
space

This is about as stupid as showing up to an automotive forum and asking which is faster? A Porsche or a Pinto...

I'm guessing you don't do either. If I'm wrong, what is YOUR opinion? Why?

If you don't do either, why does it matter to you?

(IMHO, this question appears to offer little respect to this community. It's like walking into a room full of druggies and ask, "Which is safer, pot or crack?" ...what do I know?)

@434, @TomAiello: I honestly understand what you guys are saying. But that's exactly the illusion I was talking about. People are stuck attached to impermanent things, and this only brings suffering. It's not better for me to die first, nor for my friend or relative, but these things are inevitable. You either accept life as it is and live freely, or not and live with suffering. Ignoring something will not make it go away.

And I don't feel that anyone owes anyone anything, we come with empty hands to this world, and we leave it empty handed. I'd much rather see people doing stuff because they have love and compassion for it, instead of feeling being in debt. But maybe it's the same thing, just from different perspective.

By the way, I'm not advocating go and do everything to kill yourself attitude, but imagine in what kind of world we would be living, if we were ever afraid of leaving the life in the trees, if people like Christopher Columbus was afraid of dying sailing to open ocean, etc. I see that this whole thing has two sides of the coin... one is living in a secure cave, another is exploring dangerous world. I guess the best way is to balance between these two extremes, but everyone balances on a different angle. I only suggest no to get stuck on one of the extremes, especially based on some kind of illusions.

Always trying to take 'the middle way' ha ha

+ 10.
You rock dude.
take care,
space

Do you have children?

Illusion or not, my children are attached to having me around, and my death would probably have a pretty serious impact on them. I have a duty to be there for them. I chose that duty when I brought them into the world. Claiming that it's an impermanent illusion isn't going to change it.

That may seem like an illusion to you, but I guess I'm just attached to my impermanent little people. Strangely, they also appear to be attached to me.

-1. Just imagine that everyone who thinks that something is too dangerous for him/herself would still do it regardless.... Huge increase in injuries / fatalities. My educated guess.

Correction. It's harder having to tell his mother and fiance face to face.

No, I don't. But I think we aren't talking about the same things. I would also love my children, and would give up on many things, just to give them a good start in this world. But what I'm talking about is more about illusions stopping you from pursuing your goals and dreams. If you want to fly you go skydiving, if you want to feel cliffs passing by you go for proximity flying, and you do it without looking that you have x/y chance to die, unless you have reasons to do that. And same with children, if you want to raise them, and give them all the best, then you sacrifice some of those things. I'm thinking more in general, not only Skydiving and BASE. For example, I've seen so many people stuck in crappy jobs, giving up on their dreams, and waisting their potentials, just because they were afraid of what happened if they left. And that's mostly because they had illusion of safety there. But companies go bankrupt, economical crisis and layoffs happen even for the best. All I'm suggesting, is to see what you want from life, and base your decisions on that. If you want safe life, then go for it, if you want BASE, then BASE without looking at statistics, if you want to raise your kids, then do it. I'm not to great at expressing myself, but hopefully you'll see what I'm trying to say. :-)

i want more than one thing... things usually getting in trouble each other... but with the right sound track should be ok :)

Not an easy task indeed. I had to spend time with two families this week as they buried their loved ones who were my two best jump buddies. The experience was very sereal and tough, but provides an unusual outlook on life. Especially when you could have easily been right there next to them.

It makes you realize just how close we are to death, but also no matter how close we are to it, life goes on and is not over until exactly that, death. Why slow down when you get close to death, its only over when you reach it. The experience has made me want to pursue my dreams even more.

Trick is convincing a narrow minded family (not a bash on my family) of this mindset.

First of all we are not Christopher Columbus types, and we are not pursuing anything else than ego trips. We are not saving the world, or the human kind by base jumping. Once the skydivers felt like BASE jumpers do, but when it became somehow mainstream, it moved on. The same will base do, since we just copying all other different sports and activities. There is no more groundbreaking fields to die for in BASE, you can only pushing your own limits. Thats it. However if you push your limits, you can do it by style. Some look good, some just look like they should have been playing golf instead. Anyway it´s your choice and your dream, not mine.

Well played, sir. Well played.