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This will be a difficult question to answer, and I know it's quite vague. I'm wondering what the second-hand gear market is like in BASE. As in, when I want to buy a first rig (probably a no-frills harness, two-pin with a 270+ canopy), how easily will I find something? Will I be able to go to a BASE hotspot, talk to the locals and pick something up there and then, or will I be spending months and months online trying to find something and eventually just buy new anyway because I get sick of waiting?

With skydiving it's a fucking pain - here in the UK there are a handful of 120-170 rigs up for sale every day. They sell fast but tomorrow there'll be more. Once every few months I see a half-decent rig with anything over a 200, even 190s are rare. I've been looking for months now, since March really, and not found anything suitable.

Depending on how my skydivng goes this winter, I might be looking into BASE late next year. That seems a long way off but years pass in the blink of an eye and I'm wondering if I should snap up a good deal right now if I see one, rather than wait until I actually want to jump and then have another 6 months searching for gear, which will be demoralising and annoying.

The money isn't too much of an issue. I've got a few grand lying around that I could sink into gear that I won't be using for ages - I can always sell it again if I really need to, with zero jumps added to it.

What do you reckon? The only argument against buying early, that I can think of, is that later on I will know more about gear and what I want. But I can't imagine that will be a very significant effect. I'll still just buy according to what articles and forums and people tell me to buy, since I won't know enough about actual BASE jumping to decide much for myself. It's a first rig, after all.

Advantages that I can identify include:
> wide time window to find a good deal on good equipment, less likely to grab whatever is available when I suddenly "need" something
> many months with the rig in hand to practice packing and become familiar with it
> opportunity to skydive dozens of times with the BASE canopy

Any opinions? There's something in the classifieds here now that I have my eye on which could be suitable, but I'm thinking in general as well.

Thanks

I'd recommend waiting to purchase gear until after you have finished a course. Hopefully, the course will give you an opportunity to jump multiple systems, as well as educated you about them. That way, you can make a more educated decision about what you want, rather than just working off the manufacturers web sites and internet postings.

Just to share my very very little experience:
I have bought my 2nd hand rig under my instructor/mentor supervision about one month before my first jump, during this month I
Have packed my rig every day following packing dvd, this has help me during my FJC to spend less time on packing and have more time for the other task.

Just my 0,0001 cent!

I had similar questions and thoughts. I'm leaving NZ today (26 Sept) to do my second FBJC, this time at Twin. I also wanted packing practice before I got there.

In the end I decided to wait because I might not enjoy BASE jumping. I hope that's not the case though .

It's great that you had a mentor to help you choose your gear but why didn't he also teach you to pack it?

Because he lives far from my home!

I'll sell you my gear for "a few grand" save you have money lying about : )

Sure, it will make my wallet a bit lighter. PM me if you life.