Basejumper.com - archive

First off I want to say I have been in skydiving for 14 years. I took several breaks including a 4 year break that I came back from about a year and a half ago. I now have a little over 2,000 skydives and have decided to get into the wonderfully diverse and awe inspiring world of BASE. I did my first BASE jump about 5 years ago, and even with over a thousand skydives, it was the most stupid thing I could have done. I went with a newer jumper, didn’t learn about BASE, didn’t pack my own rig (I didn’t even know what kind of rig or canopy it was to be honest), and had a toggle fire with a nice slow left hand turn right toward the guy wires-which I corrected and landed on rears. Luckily my experience in swooping, CRW and learning on f111 7 cells prepared me for quick reactions and I knew what I needed to do to handle the situation. I realized then, that I did not need to become a BASE jumper yet. For the people just getting into skydiving-these are valuable lessons to be learned and the muscle memory and quick reactions you gain in skydiving are extremely valuable, which is why at bare minimum the standard seems to be about 150 skydives before you BASE (but should be more IMHO). Sure… if everything goes right, you could make a BASE jump successfully before you ever skydive, but chances are-those built in reactions and muscle memory will prove to be a valuable asset if you want to experience it more than once without increasing your risk dramatically. 5 years later (a few months ago) I finally came to the long and hard decision that I was once again ready, more prepared and devoted to learn the sport the right way (or at least closer to the right way).
I started talking to a few locals and learned how to pack. I learned more about the risks, the precautions that can be taken to reduce risks and became much closer to those who stepped up to help me learn. I practiced packing a bunch of times until I became comfortable. I practiced my exits jumping on to my bed. I visualized errors and what I would do to correct them. I came to terms with the “what ifs” and how I could lose my life on my quest to accomplish my goal of being a BASE jumper. The next thing I knew I was invited along on a jump (A). I went up to 600’ and took about 1.5 seconds hand held (I planned before the jump to a 3 second delay and as I threw my 42” pilot chute out while counting just past “one thousand” out loud I realized taking the delay you plan is easier said than done… you just want that canopy above your head asap).
I have 6 jumps now, and the whole experience from planning to scouting, entering and climbing, exiting and pitching, the visuals and landing and finally that last deep sigh of relief when finally off the property and being a successful jump (not to mention the friendships and bonds made) all add up to be the most fulfilling things I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
This past couple months has been invigorating. I feel like I am in 5th grade trying to soak up as much knowledge and experience as possible. I do something BASE related on a daily basis (packing, reading, watching videos and analyzing, etc). I have now booked a trip to Twin Falls for the weekend of November 11th-14th and I can’t wait to be an “A.S.” jumper  . I figured I would at least introduce myself and share my experience so far. I hope to see some of you around some time.


Cheers

addicted to base.cool story,im excited about a static line jump.I hope to one day get to where you are now.Skydiving is my next goal.Ive been watching pro,s in a wind tunnel.Forward and backwards movement head down,It looked cool as.What would you say the main difference is, in jumping off a object and jumping out of a plane?

Dude. I'm glad you're excited. Flying in the tunnel is fun too. You should try that. I hate to sound like an ass, but really? What's the main difference? BASE and skydiving are like football and baseball. They both use a ball and on the flip side they both use a parachute but are two completely different things. If you learn how to run, catch a ball, think about the plays... It will help you to learn one sport before the other. Just like skydiving and base. Main difference? Any idiot with $180 can go to a dropzone and do a tandem skydive. If you want to BASE it takes more than the desire and a lift ticket. But you should know that by now after the responses to your other posts right? Again. Not trying to be an ass... But maybe you should take the advice already given by others and apply it.

Cool story and congrats!
were ya slider down on that A?

yes... so far all hand held and all slider down. lovin it!

A lot of BASE occurs with freefall delays less than a few seconds. There is so little wind that body control gained from skydiving or in a wind tunnel is not immediately applicable. It's a fun activity and you will learn a lot but it's kind of like practicing the violin in order to play the guitar. Both are musical instruments and the theory of music is applicable to both, but the difference is obvious. On a side note, wind tunnel training allowed me to progress in my freefall skydives at a much, much better rate. If anything, it made my skydives a lot more fun. I have a lot of BASE jumps though that are terminal velocity jumps and body awareness is a lot more important than for the lower BASE jumps. If you want to learn BASE, don't mention it to your instructors if you are in the UK. I understand the British Parachute Association will go ape shit if you mention or practice BASE. Mention you want to learn CRW and canopy accuracy in addition to normal skydiving. CRW involves docking on other canopies while in flight. It helps canopy skills a lot!

CRW is fun!!!

Crew is a blast, and Chris-I agree completely on the free flying skills not much translating to base in 1-3 second delays, but understanding body position and making your body do what it needs to on an exit helps.

Crew taught me quite a bit about canopy control (and not control hahah). I landed a main reserve entanglement after a chop that occured from a mal during a downplane with a buddy at 900 feet... Respect it and don't look at it as I only a stepping stone. Skydiving is more safe than BASE but you can make it very dangerous quickly (not a selling point). Listen to your instructors and breath skydiving for a while.

Hey Yoshi, how did you turn a downplane into a mal?
-Frank.

Im gonna have to gag my enthusiasm.Might have to stop and think before i ask any questions.Im already watching loads of chute packing videos so i can get a bit of an idea of what im gonna be doing on the course.I will be on my A game that day,Im on my arse money wise(firm i work for is going under) but ive got nearly half stashed already,im going jumping out of a plane in a couple of weeks,and then watch out for the dumb arse questions i ask

Finally!

While you do that, you could learn how to make a space between dots and commas and the next sentence.

FUCK,YOU.

+1

First mistake was using outdated gear. It was an old javelin with a short reserve pin and riser blocks (not dive loops). The tension pulling the harness stretched it far enough to pull the pin on my reserve while I was in a down plane with my buddy... We dropped and 900 feet at which point I looked up to see the reserve hitting my main and sliding off to the left... (mind you I was in a down plane the last 2500 feet doing CRW) so that was racing thru my mind. I knew we dropped at 900 so I was at about 700-800 feet at this time. The main and reserve appeared to be sliding apart and I thought they were heading to a down plane...(the might have stopped and gone to a bi plane or side by side in hind sight.. But who knows). So I pulled the cutaway handle and next thing I know the main riser blocks are entangled with the end cell of the reserve-which was fully inflated. The main then inflated mostly and spun me around as I fought till impact.

have you considered slutting yourself out to grown men? finances dont have to be an issue in BASE dude, you just have to be willing to work jonnyomarty

First of all, sorry Indyoshi for going off topic here.
But it needs to be said.



Ok, whatever you say.
The reason nobody really likes answering you is because we have all seen it before.
Some big mouthed muppet coming here with "this" attitude.
BUT, those who do that usually have made 'some' skydives or atleast are good paraglider pilots, just something. But you???
Nothing!

Usually on a first jump course in skydiving you have one or a few muppets like you.
They go static line course.
ARE SURE it's sooooo easy!
Will have their A-license in a week.
Will have their D-license and do proximity wingsuit BASE in a month.
But in reality, they stop jumping after only 4-5 jumps because they get so scared.

Our dropzone stoped teaching static line because too many droped out of the course.
About 20-30% complete the course and get the A-license.
And those few that do complete it, it has taken them between 6-12 months.
But you have all the skills already don't you?

As you said in your other thread "6 hour training then jump..what will the 6 hours consist of?".
Yeah? What could it be?
Our dropzone has 20-24 hours of training before jumping.

Not to mention that in BASE, beeing a rigger or atleast having good knowledge of the gear is a must. And that takes YEARS, yes really, YEARS.
But you don't need that do you?

So when you sit in the airplane shitless scared and not really ready to do your first jump keep in mind that all those safety extras you have with you won't be there when you BASE jump.
And those safety extras are:
Reserve
RSL
AAD
Nothing around you
Docile canopy
And THOUSANDS of feet

Do a jump, any kind of jump, even a tandem before you speak.

And when you write your logbook after the first jump you will probably be shaking so bad that you might make that space between the dots and commas and the next sentence. And that would be priceless to see!

No need to apologize. I tried to be nice and the stupid questions and comments persist. Yeah. I've seen how some seasoned BASE jumpers (and skydivers for that matter) get fed up with people who can't seem to take advise from people who are more than qualified to give it. And I've seen new skydive students progress and do really stupid shit because "nothing bad can happen to me right"? (myself included). I downsized fast in skydiving. I am a freeflyer and Wing suiter. But after several years in the sport and a few accidents I have calmed my ways and managed to get to this point without severely hurting myself or worse... Take note omally- READ. There are like 150 thousand posts on this site. I'm sure any question you could think of at this point is answered there. If not-after you become a skydiver and put your hands on gear and understand how to fly you will find the answers. Other than that-you just look like a yahoo kid who saw BASE on you tube and think you can find a short cut to be awesome. You can't. You can find a short cut. But you will be there alone and probably die.

Jonnyo'anally may i suggest again, infiltrating dropzone.com? Don't let the nice people fool you, the beginners forum is not here for people like you. Nothing wrong with having a general interest in base, but you should be doing your own research and focusing on skydiving. Go to the skydiving website. You're a nonjumper and yet you've managed to hijack the beginners forum of a BASE website and you're bogging it down with ignorant threads about possibly making a static line jump someday. Nobody cares. If you have a legitimate question, search for the answer before you ask the question again. I lurk the forums for relevant information and it's getting really fucking annoying to see nothing but a bunch of garbage posts from a nonjumper, too lazy to search for a question that's already been answered a thousand times.

-Em

I'm not a seasoned BASE jumper, heck I can barely say I'm seasoned skydiver.
14 BASE jumps and 450 skydives, still a rookie.
I learn something on every jump, even if it's a hop n pop with a student canopy but Mr. O'shithead can't understand that 6 hours of theory is very very little.
And he just keeps going on as if he knows it all.

Hope he gets video on his jump

I hear ya. I would say Im a seasoned skydiver... Im a tandem I, did tandem videos, swooped in the old CPC meets, and have put in my time there, but Im new to BASE... I cant wait till next month (heading to Twin Falls) to hopefully rack up some more experience there!