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Hi Everyone,

Need some advice on protective gear/armor for BASE. I have two main questions, first what pro should i have for my FJC in August? It will be in Twin Falls and im looking to hear what people would recomend in hind site. Is it neccessary to go all out with the armor? I see so many videos of FJC's where all the students are only wearing helemts. What do you all recomend? Does everyone change up their armor selection if there is the possibility of landing in water? I hear the full upper body protectors restrict movement but not to an extent where it seems safer to jump without it over water.

Id also love to hear exactly what kits people jump with. Makes and models if you can.

Any recomendations for or against full face helmets?

I just use a ski helmet and good boots on pretty much every jump I make. To me the boots are number 1! I bought shin/knee guards and never used them. I'm sure I'll regret it someday, but so far, so good. I think knee pads would help a lot in an object strike, but you probably won't have that off of the potato bridge, and if you do then you might want to quit. I've skinned my knee, and PLF'd on boulders, but never hard enough to make me think I need body armor. My friend and mentor, however, dresses up like a freakin Moto GP racer.
The friends I have that have broken themselves were wearing body armor and broke bones and compressed disks anyway. Who's to say if it helped lessen their injuries.
I'm sure at least one will chime in.
If you go to a store that sells dirtbikes you can usually get nice, low profile, pads to wear under clothes. I've seen everything from baseball catcher leg guards and motorcycle back plates, to swimming trunks and flipflops at TF.
And I feel full face helmets, while offering more protection, limit vision for things like bridle wraps and the odd little stuff. But you see a shit ton of full face helmets too.

hanwag superfly gtx boots and a protec

I wear boots helmet knee guards and helmet on all jumps other than my B. On cliffs I wear evs ballistic jersey body armor. luckally I've never needed any of it other than my boots.

one of my buddies said, he always wears some of these, when jumping.
It shurely isn`t nessercary, but i think it`s worth a thought...



http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/...e.aspx?ModelID=51143

Impact shorts can be purchased rather cheaply
and I think they are great, not for every jump
but great for gnarly landing areas, and they
do NOT affect mobility at all.

I wear my pair if I am doing a dozen tandems
out of a cessna because the padding helps with
opening shock as well as your ass going numb
in the plane from 20+ minutes of 60 pounds
on the back and 200 pounds on the front :-/

I would highly recommend these. I have well over 100 jumps with them and wear them always on SD jumps and on shittier landing SU´s as well. Super comfortable, do not restrict movement at all and most of the time you do not even notice that you´re wearing them. I had a building strike while wearing the shorts and walked away from it with only a big bruise on my hip. Also a friend of mine had serious ass landing (stalled his new canopy on a low B) to a concrete and walked away with some minor pain on his tail bone. Later a friend of ours who is a doctor and jumper as well said he might have had a minor fracture on the tail bone and we are suspecting that the impact shorts saved him from having a major one.

I went to a Downhill store and the owner of the shop showed me some of these from the catalouge:



they even have a back protector made from this ballitic foam, and they don`t seem to affect moverability.

what do you think?
http://www.sixsixone.com/...9e-a218-6c4a9e160e01

anyone had any experience with ForceField Body Armour

Pro Shirt and Pants etc

http://www.forcefieldbodyarmour.com/

The have a good rep in the bike world and seem on paper to be a lower profile and have reasonable body contour.

Cheers

I have one of their back protectors and I love it! Very low profile and very comfortable under my rig