Basejumper.com - archive

Sitting at home in cold, crappy weather and I came upon this article about a recent new world record in the sport of freediving and how dangerous it is.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/...eep-for-world-record

In the article it states (and I believe everything the media says) there are "...more than 5000 freedivers around the world..."

AND freediving is "...an extreme activity that claims an estimated 100 lives each year."

BASE fatalities haven't quite reached 300 since 1980.

Would there be around 5000 BASE jumpers around the world? 2000 in USA, 2000 in Europe, 1000 in UK, Australia and the rest of the world?

Or am I way off the mark?

Way off the mark. From a statistical standpoint, the number of jumpers/divers is irrelevant. What matters is how many times the activity is done, or total time spent doing the activity. You also need to account for different levels of risk within the sport. Is someone who does wingsuit proximity as likely to die as someone who doesn't?

Check out micromorts for more:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort

There are far more dangerous sports than BASE jumping.

For example...

Rex Kramer, danger seeker

460 claims that shark fucking would be more dangerous than BASE and I tend to agree.

I would say that might be 5000 registered free divers.

However that will not include the many many thousands of people who do as part of there work around the world.
And the many who do it for recreation, do not compete, and are not part of an organisation or on record anywhere even as a spear fisher.

Like myself when i was into freediving, only a few mates would have even known.

Really, anyone who is swimming underwater or doing apnea intentionally in water is freediving, and lots of people have done that and do it. But i doubt they would be considered freedivers.
But if they died doing it , they would be recorded as dying from it.

And I am certain at least 100 people are recorded as dying from each year from that. Likely way way way more just get recorded as drowned or missing.

Freediving is dangerous for sure. BUt as long as you stay under 1min you are pretty safe IMO. Its easy to stay longer , but the risk starts to go exponential not long after a minute, so best to keep an eye on the watch and play safe really, and only do longer dives in good company or special occasions. From what I am aware, most people drown via a blackout several seconds after surfacing. ALmost has this once myself.

I reckon there is a mix up with the stats. Were all the estimated 100 dead per year previously recorded as freedivers? I doubt it.

Are there more than 5000 freedivers? I wold bet a million dollars there are.

Here is a nice vid - low res, but nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu3Qvim5ckU

p.s. i do agree that base is not most dangerous sport though

Still, it doesn't make base any less dangerous

Probably you are way off the mark for this reason:

Yosemite saw at least 17 "climbing deaths" in 2014, but (like any year) the majority of them are not "real" climbers; they are tourists schlepping around on low-angle slabs who slip and hit their heads, or they fall off the waterfalls or whatever. It makes the "real" climbers crazy because it makes their sport look way more dangerous than it is.

I suspect the same factor is at work with "free diving" deaths. I would like to know how many of the "estimated" 100 deaths each year were "registered" free divers versus people just screwing around in mask and fins that die in the water.

Moreover, the article says "more than 5,000" participants, so who knows how many there really are... and an "estimated 100 deaths" so who knows how many there really are. This is classic crappy journalism, using vague language to tweak perceptions of the subject in the direction of your narrative bias.

That's one thing about BASE, though, that's different from these sports; there is not much of a grey area about whether you are or are not really BASE jumping when you die BASE jumping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFjyM2YvuDA

If i remember correctly....to this time (2002) some people believe that woman can resist extreme deeps, in water, better than the most man.

So this run was 170m!!


Edit: Tanya streeter(US?) was also one of the best woman freediver of this time.

https://youtu.be/uFjyM2YvuDA?t=1014

I watched that. Because of the pressure on her lungs, she couldnt take in any oxygen.

But I think this is pretty high up there in the risk factor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_3102142495&feature=iv&src_vid=LCWurFVBpCQ&v=9qCxznsF7w4

I used to give visas to drunken filipino sailors..