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During my recent conversation with a fellow sky jumper, I heard that his motives for not moving into the career of base was for his parents. I found it a little bit of both: a bit admirable bc of certain moral constraints and principles but at the same time a little bit of a double standard-ish as well. I mean, if it was for the worry factor of the parents, I think to most it is probably almost the same in the amount of worry that those of two sports can produce, unless the parents (or other close ones) somewhat familiar with the dynamics of each. But I digress. My question is this: how do you justify to your self and the others the risks that are taken to fulfill (and let's be honest) a pretty selfish desire to jump.

So far I hear:
A. I have to jump because it fixes something in my head, e.g.: makes me normal.
An interesting notion, but based on the premises that there is something wrong with me in the first place. If that's truly the case then why seek the fix through assuming such a great risk of even further injuring what is contrived to be as broken self. Does not make sense to me. First of all, there is no norm to the human condition. Secondly, I am sure therapy is a cheaper path.

B. It's because of the awesome people in the sport.
Okay, come hang out at the exit point/dropzone. You don't have to jump to socialize/party.

C. I do what I do because of my love for the sport and everyone else has to deal with my actions and possibly some grim consequences of my purely egotistical choice to BASE/Skydive.
Of course, this latter can be wrapped in a nicer form of packaging, writing a letter to your relatives with explaining your aspirations for air sports and flying in general.
And this is probably the most honest one. Additionally you can surely ditch the gf. But you can never ditch your parents unless you have none. But even in the latter case, you can't get rid of everyone who might care if you die or even break your femur.

So how do you justify that to yourself without having to manufacture some BS? I am beginning to think that the whole strong sense of morality in BASE and Skydiving community comes as a substitution factor to replace the fact that we are self-centered bunch of people as by doing the sport we benefit to none in the outside of it by comparison of the risk factor we assume doing that.

The definition of a hobby is: an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation.

By that definition, every hobby is selfish as it is pursued for pleasure.

I didn't realize there was a strong sense of morality in BASE and Skydiving

When people follow their passions they are more likely to live happy, healthy, and productive lives.

People who live happy, healthy, and productive lives make the lives of those around them better by being positive, caring, and fun.

People who make the lives of those around them better by being positive, caring, and fun are unselfish and should be admired.

Therefore, people who follow their passions are unselfish and should be admired. Whatever that passion may be.

Next question.

SKY and BASE do have different risk profiles!

My Mom is over-weight, does she owe me a reason?

My Dad smokes cigarettes, does he owe me a reason?

Or do we each get to decide how we want to live our lives?

Okay, but let's say if choose to smoke crack, all of a sudden I owe a reason at least to myself but probably to the society at large as well. However, I am not comparing BASE to crack only trying to find out where that line is.

What if that unselfish, caring individual who is naturally loved by so many all of a sudden goes in..? Would such an unexpected calamity be a shock to the ones who he cared for? Maybe it truly is better for us to be douchebags - less people will care when the name pops up on bfl..

More answers?

Well maybe nobody should be friends with anybody because eventually they might know somebody who dies.

Live and let live. Tell your family to deal with it and talk about traffic and weather instead.

EVERYTHING in life comes with a level of risk. Driving a car, or riding a bicycle, skiing, walking across the street. Yes, our sport does carry more risk, but where do you think the line should be drawn? No matter where you think it should be drawn, someone else can argue that you're being selfish. Of course mainstream people will justify a lot of the risks everyone takes on a daily basis, but only because it has become the norm for modern day. Simply flying in a plane at one time was thought to be too risky, and anyone who did, was being selfish.

Bluhdow said it perfectly. The best thing you can do for the people you love, is to be true to yourself, and have a passion! If your passion is not jumping, then find yours

Fair enough. I would not be asking if it wasn't though. But you know that thing called guilt.. Yes, that useless feeling..And it happens so exactly for the fact that someone once told me that BASE is never going to be safe.

I did not come here to stir anything, or step on anybody's toes. Nor do I think my question warrants an answer along the lines of your last sentence. I am sorry if I offended you in some way. I hope I did not.

P.S. And with all due respect I am a little dubious about that comment of yours about 'main stream' people. Did somehow hucking myself off of an object make me so exquisite? I don't know about you, but I don't possess anything that would put me too much above the average curve judging by any of the intrinsic qualities..If it did, I would like to know what exactly it is though.

After a bit of contemplation and more-bit of drinking it becomes clear to me that self-interest and ethics simply do not belong to the same plane of existence. While self-persuit is a natural force, ethics is simply a set of artificial terms applied to help remedy a situation after the fact of acting on the former. I think I could live with that ;)

I do it to be called an Athlete

Some see base jumping as an cure, against whatever disorder they have ;-)

fame and fortune

Maybe that is an explanation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow

The decision for (in that example) basejumping or skydiving can be understood if you look at the graphic in the lower right corner.
Do something not everyone does gives recognition and makes you kind of "unique".
In addition you belong to a special group.
Sounds weird, but as I understood that idea, you need both.
Safety is always my own definition, we all know that from discussions with others.

And don´t forget the part in the middle: Love .. ;-)
we all know that from the trailer next to us on the dropzone ..

To post cool, smart looking posts on basejumper.com.

I do it for the homoeritik. But in all seriousness, I agree with the general premise of your post. BASE jumping is selfish. It gave me over a decade of amazing experiences and a perspective shift that I value highly, but was it worth all the casualties? Can I honestly look into the eyes of my friends' mothers, girlfriends, wives, brothers, sisters, and kids and tell them that "at least they died doing something they loved"? It feels hollow to me and it feels like a defense mechanism. Yes, I've also had good friends killed not doing things they loved, blown into pieces on some nondescript road, but does that make it worth it to the people who are dealing with burying their child who died pursuing "human flight"? I don't know; maybe so, maybe not. I believe very firmly that everyone has the right to live and end their life as they wish, and I'm not posting this to judge people who have different life philosophies than mine. I'm only sharing my experience and perspective. When I look at my old photo albums or tell funny stories around a campfire, I suddenly realize how many of these old buddies are gone. My only ask to people is that we're all honest with ourselves. This shit is really dangerous and will mercilessly kill you for transgressions you may not even know you're committing, even if you've committed them a hundred times without incident, even if you commit no transgression. Know that, own that, look at the risk reward balance with honest eyes -- as many of you do -- and then make your calls.

Thank you...
I guess I am right there with ya, and the thing of it is is that I am starting this thing pretty late in my age (compared to some other eager fb warriors wrapped in nylon) to have the vigor and the ability to manufacture plausible lies to myself and to be able to do this sport w/o second thoughts about possible outcomes and the distress that they might bring about. To live my life in the pursuit of fun and put that higher in priority over things like being able to create, self-improve or give back sound too dubious to me today. Yet it did not even a year ago or so. I feel as if I started to be able to enjoy the "normal" people's life a little bit better. It's not to say that this sport isn't the most exciting thing to do while you are doing it. I am on the fence. Will see.

and we have a winner ^
you just made me laugh out loud, and for that i thank you.