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BASE and risk assessment skills
Do regular BASE jumpers tend to have a heightened risk-assessment awareness in everyday life situations? (work/travel/family/etc.)

Also, although I doubt there is any kind of official stats, but do you think there is a correlation between years spent in BASE and/or number of jumps and critical thinking skills?

And lastly, if you think there is, what is cause and what is effect? Is it that more critically thinking people tend to be involved in the sport and survive in it longer or is it that the sport develops those skills?

I have my views on those but want to see what other people think.
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Re: [bsrodeo540] BASE and risk assessment skills
bsrodeo540 wrote:
Do regular BASE jumpers tend to have a heightened risk-assessment awareness in everyday life situations? (work/travel/family/etc.)

I think the opposite is more likely to be true.

*Edited to add that I may be confusing a higher risk tolerance with a lower risk awareness.
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Re: [bluhdow] BASE and risk assessment skills
bluhdow wrote:
*Edited to add that I may be confusing a higher risk tolerance with a lower risk awareness.

That's a fair and important addition. I actually meant higher risk awareness. What I mean is do BASE jumpers tend to be more aware and analytical about the everyday life risks, however mundane they are, in a more thorough way than general population due to their brain either is wired or became wired (that's the last part of my question) to analyze any type of risk as life-threatening, regardless of whether they are going to act upon their analysis one way or the other.

Basejumper: "Have to skip breakfast, otherwise will be late for work"
Basejumper's brain: "OMFG! Not sure what this is about but are we going to die again?!!! What are the possible risks??!!! How can we reduce/eliminate those??!!! What are possible scenarios and what is the best way to act? Quick!!!!"
Basejumper: "Chillax buddy, all under control, but thanks for being alert"
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Re: [bsrodeo540] BASE and risk assessment skills
Or another one:

Basejumper: "Going to the club tonight"

Basejumper's brain: "Going to that club tonight might not be a good idea. When you drink you tend to speak your mind and become kind of a jerk, and considering you are 160 pounds of fat, there is a chance we are getting our nose broken tonight. You are late on your insurance payments so that might be not only unpleasant but also costly. If not, you'll try to get laid and will obviously forget to wear a rubber glove... Don't need to tell you what kind of problems that may cause.. Also, there is a big international event in the city and that brings about a higher risk of a terrorist attack in a public place. And have you seen the building the club is in? It's probably 200 years old at least and ready to collapse any moment.. In any case, the least that can happen is that you'll pass out in the ditch, is it worth it?" /HIGHER RISK AWARENESS/

Basejumper: "Fk it, I'm going, we're all gonna die someday.." /HIGHER RISK TOLERANCE/

My ADHD kicked in, please don't comment till morning, otherwise I'll be typing here till my fingers hurt Laugh
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Re: [bsrodeo540] BASE and risk assessment skills
Ahh, too late for that..

.. Soooo, combining higher risk awareness with a higher risk tolerance:

Non-basejumper: "The risk is fairly high due to factor X. I'm not going to do this."

Basejumper: "Actually, risk is quite a bit higher than you realize due to factors X,Y and Z.. But fk it, sounds like fun, I'm in".

I'll just use this thread as my personal blog haha Cool
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Re: [bsrodeo540] BASE and risk assessment skills
bsrodeo540 wrote:

I'll just use this thread as my personal blog haha Cool

Please don't.
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Re: [BigfcknG] BASE and risk assessment skills
You're trying to rationalize the irrational. There's nothing rational about jumping off a cliff. To try to blanket all base jumpers overlap of risk assessment in every day life is far too broad a spectrum.

My advice is to chill out on the overthinking and stick to isolated scenarios of risk assessment (i.e. Past and possible scenarios). Be an observer and let your own opinions be shaped by circumstance not expectations.
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Re: [Mitchpee] BASE and risk assessment skills
Mitchpee wrote:
There's nothing rational about jumping off a cliff.

I am not so convinced this is true. How about "I seem to be a bit "different" and out of touch with other's goals and aspirations in everyday life. Those don't appeal to me and I feel unsatisfied and irritated in this environment without having my "fix". I found basejumping gives me this fix, so when I have an opportunity to jump regularly, I tend to be more in peace with everything else in my life, hence I basejump".

This might be a simplified example, but that is rational. Unless person can feel/do well without it or find another "fix", basejumping serves a very defined purpose in his life, no?
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Re: [bsrodeo540] BASE and risk assessment skills
Most of my favorite WS BASE buddies come from other high-risk activities like alpine climbing, steep skiing, etc or have jobs like firefighters, medics, ER docs and tip of the spear military types. I could speculate but I don't really know where the correlation comes from - maybe usually switched on people pick these types of roles. I don't think it comes from BASE, they're just better jumpers because of their previous experience.