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pterodactyl1986

How many jumps before your first WS (updated)

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I'm curious why you're asking.

Regardless, I think you'll get confusing or misleading data. Focusing just on the US, for a long while, there was no BSR requiring 200 jumps; it was a recommendation of 200 jumps in 18 months. However, for a few years now, it's been a BSR that requires 200 jumps. So for people (like me) that learned to wingsuit a long time ago, you might get weird numbers. And not a lot of newer wingsuiters tend to frequent this forum (or at least they don't post). At the very least, you'd probably want to break it down by people who learned pre- and post-BSR.
Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography

Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

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I'm asking for a few reasons.

1. Some of the guys at my DZ started skydiving just to do a wingsuit, so a few started at 201, which peaked my curiosity if most WS flyers are the same way.
2. Perspective from veterans, if they did start early would they have changed anything and why
3. Just from reading about WS, it seems that the risk of line entanglements increases a bit, whether that is from air burble, low speed, bad position etc, it does seem to happen more.
Which brings a question, if the average cutaway is 1/1000 and most people have under 1000 jumps, how did they handle cutaways with out much experience.
4. I'm completely new to the sport, and it has captured my curiosity.
Eventually I would like to try every form of skydiving, and wingsuit I imagine would be my favorite. But I am a long way away from this

While I agree self reporting data is not the most accurate, it MAY be better then no data. I also did a search and found no such question

On the same note I've asked a few people that are cameramen, how many jumps they had before they started filming, and if they would have changed it. It seems most started before the 200 jump suggestion/rule, and highly advise to be completely comfortable with equipment and skill level before adding more elements to an already complex sport. This question serves the same purpose, for others to share their experience and any suggestions, for newbs like me

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It wasn't 201 but it was 20X. Maybe 21X or 22X(although doubt it). I'd have to break out the logbook. Plus, there's the question of "do base jumps count"?

I think way more people jump a Go Pro on jump 200 than a wingsuit.

Also line entanglements? What exactly are you planning on doing at deploy time?!

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lyosha

It wasn't 201 but it was 20X. Maybe 21X or 22X(although doubt it). I'd have to break out the logbook. Plus, there's the question of "do base jumps count"?

I think way more people jump a Go Pro on jump 200 than a wingsuit.

Also line entanglements? What exactly are you planning on doing at deploy time?!



You know that is a good question, I guess BASE wingsuit jumps count, they are still wing suit jumps.

I plan on Go pro before wingsuit as well

As far as line entanglements I'm just going off what I have read, I have no personal experience in this area. Curious to see if people do experience more issues in this area in WS vs free fly

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~165 jumps, no cutaways for first flight.
~200 - first cutaway, with ws. No problem.
~400 - start jumping with camera
WS Deployment is more complicated and some beginners can have problems with line twists, etc.
Cameras can make things worse so don't use one with a ws until you get good at deploying.
Cameras increase risk anyway, entanglement for sure, but distraction can be a problem too.
You get better video from your friend's camera anyway.
But what do I know?

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My first WS jump I only had 106 skydives, and looking back on it I think it was a foolish decision. Flying wingsuits is exceptionally easy, however when it goes wrong it can be a shitshow. My early jumps were riddled with potato chipping, flat spins, and lots of landing off the DZ. Enjoy your first 200, and do as many different things as possible. RW, freeflying, atmonati, etc. Get good at being unstable because its guaranteed to happen once you start flying wingsuits on a regular basis.
Fly slow, pull low
.
.
I'm the best skydiver on the mountain!

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mccordia

***What is potato chipping? I have not heard this term yet



It's when you fly so incredibly fast, that small flakes of skin start to peel of.....so called potato chips..

LMAO WARP SPEED!!!

I did search the forum a few times, and found several threads and none really described it thoroughly. Although uncle Google came to the rescue after a few minutes of searching

“Potato chipping” : in skydiving, to experience bodily undulations during free fall as the result of being too rigid or nervous

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I had a little over 300 jumps.
Had my suit already for a couple of months, but waited the occasion to have a decent coach (Fred Fugen) to get me into that beautiful disciplin before even stepping into the suit. And comparing what he taught me with what other people tried to teach me, I was soooo right to wait.
Patience is one of the keys.
scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

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RolandForbes

My first WS jump I only had 106 skydives, and looking back on it I think it was a foolish decision. Flying wingsuits is exceptionally easy, however when it goes wrong it can be a shitshow. My early jumps were riddled with potato chipping, flat spins, and lots of landing off the DZ. Enjoy your first 200, and do as many different things as possible. RW, freeflying, atmonati, etc. Get good at being unstable because its guaranteed to happen once you start flying wingsuits on a regular basis.



I was not ready at 106 either, and really expected to have to wait till 200. However, a ws guy checked me out in my tracking suit and said I could do it, and I'm glad I did. I was also glad I had paid for coaching to learn tracking more quickly. After my first 50 jumps, ws was my focus.

It was not particularly easy for me, and my bucket of luck got lower for the first flights; I did have a cutaway on ws jump 5, so what can I say?

I just can't say that things would have been any different with another 50 jumps. Yes, my first flights were not great, but they probably wouldn't have been anyway, and, in spite of some hilarious and horrible events, I did survive, and never got hurt either.

I only started jumping to fly in a wingsuit, and only ever tried freeflying once, and didn't like it. Loved tracking, so I guess I did atmonati. To be honest, I don't like skydiving that much, and only ever did it to fly. After getting my first wingsuit I think I only ever did 1 or 2 jumps without one.

This is not to argue with you, as I'd have to say you're right about everything, it's just that it is possible to not fit in the box, like me, and still have fun and not kill anybody.

Peace
But what do I know?

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fasted3

***My first WS jump I only had 106 skydives, and looking back on it I think it was a foolish decision. Flying wingsuits is exceptionally easy, however when it goes wrong it can be a shitshow. My early jumps were riddled with potato chipping, flat spins, and lots of landing off the DZ. Enjoy your first 200, and do as many different things as possible. RW, freeflying, atmonati, etc. Get good at being unstable because its guaranteed to happen once you start flying wingsuits on a regular basis.



I was not ready at 106 either, and really expected to have to wait till 200. However, a ws guy checked me out in my tracking suit and said I could do it, and I'm glad I did. I was also glad I had paid for coaching to learn tracking more quickly. After my first 50 jumps, ws was my focus.

It was not particularly easy for me, and my bucket of luck got lower for the first flights; I did have a cutaway on ws jump 5, so what can I say?

I just can't say that things would have been any different with another 50 jumps. Yes, my first flights were not great, but they probably wouldn't have been anyway, and, in spite of some hilarious and horrible events, I did survive, and never got hurt either.

I only started jumping to fly in a wingsuit, and only ever tried freeflying once, and didn't like it. Loved tracking, so I guess I did atmonati. To be honest, I don't like skydiving that much, and only ever did it to fly. After getting my first wingsuit I think I only ever did 1 or 2 jumps without one.

This is not to argue with you, as I'd have to say you're right about everything, it's just that it is possible to not fit in the box, like me, and still have fun and not kill anybody.

Peace

My story is a little different as well. I got into skydiving after base jumping only to get better at tracking (yes I learned to track in base stupid me) and as it turns out to wingsuit eventually. I did about 25 skydives my first year and wasn't interested too much and 200 jumps seemed like forever.
The guy that taught me said if you want to wing suit get one and you can jump it. So about 30 skydives and I got my wing suit and started jumping it. Ive got roughly 600 skydives maybe 50 without a wing suit so I'm far from a balanced skydiver Ive done one sit fly and flew head down a few times at the beginning of tracking jumps.
Ive never had a potato chip problem and never had a cut away (knock on wood) or any flat spins.
Skydiving has always been base and wing suit training for me.

1st suit intudair piranha 200ish jumps
2nd suit Aura 1 200ish jumps
current suit Freak 2 150ish jumps
BASE 1519

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Spins and instability are fun if you can get out of it. I don't know if I could get out of it in a big suit, if it got really out of hand, but I do know how to get out of it before that happens.
The way I got there was by flying the heck out of an intro suit with free arms. Lots of solos just to get into and out of trouble. Then the same thing with an intermediate suit. By the time I got a big one, it was kind of instinctive how to fly out of trouble quickly.
There are probably faster and better ways to get there, but I didn't have a lot of help available, and it was fun. It worked out well for me in confidence and stability at least.
But what do I know?

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130-ish, didn't have any problems until I upsized too fast (S-Bird with about 20 WS jumps), some weird stability issues (looking back, it was not knowing where my feet were) and wonky deployments, sorted itself out after about 20 WS jumps. Put about 300 on a Havok, after that everything has been fine.

As far as what I would have done differently, upsized slower. Have had 2 chops, one was a pierced bridle, one was hella line twists (on a very out of trim canopy) that I couldn't kick out of. No issues.

At least for me, I think hammering out so many jumps on a mid sized suit to the point getting unstable trying to do front flips and stuff wasn't even a concern has helped with everything since.

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begor

Hi
With wingsuit clearly. How many jumps is needed for jumping in tracksuit?



It totally depends on the tracksuit. Some are easier to fly than others. The Sumo from Squirrel is the easiest one I've flown, where as the PTS from Phoenix Fly is definitely a bit touchier. Go out and track with a coach first though, they'll tell you if you're ready to hop in a tracksuit and if you are they can advise you more on specifics.
Fly slow, pull low
.
.
I'm the best skydiver on the mountain!

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CrashProne

204, one year into the sport. I now have another 130 or so skydives, 20 of those in a wingsuit. It's not coming as easily to me as I'd hoped, but aside from scaring myself a little, no real problems have come up. Not really looking forward to that first flat spin though...



I had to work pretty hard to be in normal control. If it is not "easy" and you want to learn, I suggest you make WS 90% of your jumps until you are a lot better. It is hard to learn just doing one or two, every once in a while.
Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

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dthames

***204, one year into the sport. I now have another 130 or so skydives, 20 of those in a wingsuit. It's not coming as easily to me as I'd hoped, but aside from scaring myself a little, no real problems have come up. Not really looking forward to that first flat spin though...



I had to work pretty hard to be in normal control. If it is not "easy" and you want to learn, I suggest you make WS 90% of your jumps until you are a lot better. It is hard to learn just doing one or two, every once in a while.

No doubt that is solid advice. Too bad there's so many fun jumps to do, and so little time to do them all!!!

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