Basejumper.com - archive

I had the privilege of watching some New base jumpers and there brilliant attempts at killing themselves over the last couple of months.

Base jumping is easy when it goes right, when your exit is ok, when your rig has been packed reasonably well, when you jump in pretty good conditions, when you react fairly fast when it goes wrong.

But if you don't have the skills, or knowledge base to know how to land your canopy within a 2m by 2m box, When you have no idea how to turn a 10 second delay when you go head low on exit into a monster track, or your first instinct when your canopy opens is to go for your Toggles, then you need to skydive more., YOU need to Get some ninja base Skills.

These are real basic skills, These are the things which will keep you alive when stuff goes from ok to shit very quickly.

Hearing someone crying for help, rather then turning there canopy around, and whimpering as they make a contact with the cliff they just jumped off is fucking funny, but it sucks when you have to phone there folks to explain they are busted up or dead.

There are pets who have made 200 skydives, but it does not qualify them as a base jumper, You need to train for it, get your skills up to a level where your reactions are autonomous to the situation.

Remember Those 2 seconds of thinking about it will eventually kill you.

Good luck
BSBD

What is your first instinct when your canopy opens?

Start my pattern for a sick 270.

Snap a selfie!

Or fix your hat ;)

Bwhahaha! Shit! I forgot about that! Ended up being a long ass walk! That was a fun weekend!

I resonate with the first post...I was "helped off" 2 objects 10+ years ago. First was a 300' antennae and next was a 450' building. The day after the building I was thinking "wow I might not have reacted well if I had a 180". I talked to my friend that helped me off and we agreed I wasn't ready to progress any further given the objects we had at our disposal (terminal tower, 300' freestander, building, 200' quarry). I also realized I was not mature enough to handle the responsibility of deciding when to back down from a jump (ironically wanting it too much actually turned out to be a hindrance to safely base jumping).

Now that I want BASE jumping less 10 years later (and 300 skydives later) I feel like I can safely start my hobby again, this time under Tom A and off a bridge.

I never PLAN to do any other object than the bridge. If I see I can handle the bridge well and my reaction time is good enough and I get my gear config dialed in, then possibly I would be open to a slightly more technical object.

When I first started when I was 19 I was DEADSET on tracking in norway before the year was out. Ha my how things change with maturity yesterday I told my dad I very well may retire from base jumping after a dozen or so bridge jumps....or possibly not we shall see

Wise man. I was just talkin to a friend the other day. Im pretty sure that after i get a few jump seasons over in europe, im probably gonna quit base.
Now heres the problem, i have become quite obsessed with speedflying, and thats one dangerous sport in itself. I cant help but wonder if im gonna die from some type of impact one day. Its not what i want, but i cant help but wonder

I started speedflying to try to subdue the urge BASE, thinking it was safer. It hasn't worked. I have been speedflying for 2 years, haven't done BASE yet but have had a rig sat in my room for 6 months and have been practice packing for the last 4

Slacker.

haha fairplay.

My excuses are.

1. Winter means fairly uncurrent skydiving.
2. The UK doesn't have a legal S
3. Havent had the time off work to get to a nice legal S to make a FJC

1. i got fairly current in winter BASEjumping
2. as most countries dont
3. TAKE your time

Cheers for the advice. Im only on 400 skydives as ever still alot to learn and objects will be there when im ready.Hopefully catch some of you guys at and exit point in the future or at a speedfly launch a bit sooner!

Wonder why you thought that :)

I remember being at the same object and winds were about 20 mph. I hiked down and said they should do the same, but they all jumped anyway. One jumper had a partial canopy collapse and fell most of the way down inflating and surging into a burm at the bottom. Another almost hit the pier at full speed on a downwind landing.

jeeeeeez!!! Yeah I made the right decision!

Now I'm sitting in the twin falls visitor center right by the bridge and drinking free coffee and typing this post about to make my (hopefully if wind cooperates) next base jump tomorrow!!!!!!

Good to see you brother :)

"whimpering as they make a contact with the cliff they just jumped off is fucking funny"

Seriously!? I tend to make friends with the people I jump with, as do most jumpers I know. I can't imagine laughing at someone I just jumped with as he/she impacts a cliff no matter how stupid the mistake.

Mmm, excuse me. 300 skydives in 10 years (do I read that right?) does not really help. That is already way below a safe currency number in skydiving.

unsolicited advice....AWESOME!

Where is Ronalds advice? Looks to me like he was making the statement that averaging 30 jumps per year under a parachute isn't really even staying current for skydiving let alone preparing you thoroughly for BASE.

OK, didnt think I needed to explain my skydiving chronlogy. I skydived for a year made 150 skydives then took 8 years off and came back to the sport and made 300 jumps in the last 3 years then started base jumping.

His advice was implied pretty obviously unless you read his post strictly and literally, which is an uncharitable way to read a post on a forum like this (lol right?).

When people start to read into others posts is when we start to get into trouble.
It seems Ronald read your post literally when you were explaining your experience. He didn't read into it any further than the information that you presented.

You read into Ronalds post and took it like he was giving advice and telling you to do something which he didn't. He merely made a statement, using the info provided by you, that 300 jump over 10 years is hardly enough time under canopy to be prepared thoroughly for BASE.

Reading into what others think(making up stories) will usually cause issues and miscommunication, so if you want people to understand you then provide all the information you want them to make their decisions on, otherwise they may just believe your original partial story.

Right, so much for posts (and emails )

I was under the impression that 300 skydives were done in 10 years, which IMHO is not really a lot. Safeish wise. Then 300 in 3 years is much more like it. Total 450? good to go I would say - based on numbers only! Other decisive factors: canopy handling, steering, landing, stress capabilities, etc. etc.