Before you consider BASE jumping you should...

[Void425 0]

After searching the forum I have found posts about recommended # of jumps, license class, and skill for flying with a camera and/or wingsuits, but I have yet to find one for BASE jumpers.

Please post what you think the minimum number of jumps, class of license, and skill masteries that someone should know before ever attempting there first BASE jump.

[QuickDraw 0]

If you read anything in this forum, this is the place to start.

http://www.dropzone.com/columns/GettingIntoBASE.shtml

-- Hope you don't die. --

I'm fucking winning

[Kirils 1]

http://juliabell.home.att.net
This site is a must see before considering BASE jumping. I have 1 jump to my name and after reading the stats it's probably going to be my only jump.

[seedy 0]

http://juliabell.home.att.net

I intend to live forever -- so far, so good.

[Lolie 0]

This if from basejump.org (I'm not a BASE jumper yet, but I'm doing all of the research I possibly can right now; to the point of driving my family and friends crazy
Skydiving Pre-requisites to be considered for B.A.S.E. training
Serious accidents in B.A.S.E. jumping damage the sports fragile credibility and increase the difficulty of other jumpers accessing the site without hindrance from authorities. Also, every time there is negative media attention there is a chance the law makers will increase the penalties or write new laws to hinder the sport.

Any person learning how to B.A.S.E. jump has a particularly high risk of injury as they are learning new skills in a difficult and unforgiving environment.

Many of the canopy skills required for B.A.S.E. can be learned through skydiving. Therefore, prospective B.A.S.E. jumpers should become competent in these skills prior to B.A.S.E. jumping. If they are injured whilst learning these skills it is preferable that the injury occurs in the skydiving environment.

All B.A.S.E. instructors are highly encouraged to screen their prospective students with the following criteria. If the prospective student does not wish to perform the following criteria then their seriousness and suitability for participation in the sport should be questioned. Likewise, if the instructor does not consider the following prerequisites necessary then their dedication to the sport will also be questioned.

Skydiving Prerequisites:

1. Absolute minimum of 150 parachute jumps (no exceptions).

2. 30 jumps on a 7 cell F111 canopy 220 sqr feet or larger. (F111 7-cell canopies fly, flare and land very differently to ZP 9-cells).

3. 15 consecutive 7 cell jumps landing within 3m of the target (consistent accuracy is a must for many of the extremely tight landing areas inB.A.S.E.).

4. Demonstrate a variety of approaches: (trees and cliff faces surrounding the landing area will often determine the approach required for landing).

5. Full drive approach.

6. Tight keyhole approach.

7. Half brake approach.

8. Deep brake accuracy style approach.

9. Demonstrate the ability to turn a canopy immediately on deployment via rear risers (necessary for avoiding an object strike).

10. 3 night jumps, 1 of which has been on a 7 cell F111 canopy 220 sqr feet or larger (many B.A.S.E. jumps are performed at night with unlit tight landing areas).

11. 5 CRW jumps (CRW will teach you how to fly a canopy with more than just the toggles, necessary when you are kicking off a wall).

12. Packer B rated and be competent in flat packing, however a Packer A rating is looked upon more favourably. (Basic rigging knowledge and precision packing is a fundamental component of B.A.S.E.). (Note from Lolie: I think this is an Aussie rating, but someone correct me if I'm wrong.)

13. Be recommended by an experienced B.A.S.E. jumper (greater than 150 B.A.S.E. jumps).

Completion of these prerequisites will significantly reduce the likelihood of the student becoming injured under canopy and will allow them to focus more on the freefall and deployment components of each B.A.S.E. jump.

Note: Completion of the above prerequisites does not automatically give someone the right to participate in B.A.S.E. jumping. It is simply the first step.

-Miranda
you shall above all things be glad and young / For if you're young,whatever life you wear
it will become you;and if you are glad / whatever's living will yourself become.

[Kirils 1]

Excellent advise.

"Slow down! You are too young
to be moving that fast!"

Old Man Crawfish

[Lolie 0]

And here's some things that Jimmy at Vertigo Base suggests working on before taking a FJC from them. (And remember to be extra-careful of canopy traffic while you're working on this kind of stuff):

When you jump from the airplane with your canopy, make sure that you use a sail slider with the brake lines through both the slider grommets and the guide rings on the risers. Practice turning your canopy around instantly with your rear riser both right and left on different jumps. Do this immediately, before you unstow your brakes. Then without unstowing your brakes, practice backing your canopy up with your rear risers. You are not backing your canopy up until your pilot chute is in front of your canopy. Stick with it. It is scary at first, but you need to become comfortable with this flight characteristic. You have plenty of altitude, as you really shouldn't practice this maneuver below 2000 feet while skydiving, although with BASE jumping you will be doing this sometimes below 200 feet. Next, unstow one brake and try to counteract the turn with the opposite riser. This is simply an exercise to familiarize yourself with the flight characteristics of your canopy. You should now unstow both toggles and stick them on their velcro. Practice flying your canopy around with your rear risers. Practice backing your canopy up with rear risers. Fly forward in full flight and pretend that it is time to land. See how little input is required(as opposed to a toggle flare) on both rear risers to flatten the canopy out to land. It should be noticed at this time that the canopy goes from a flat glide to a stall almost instantly. If you are near the ground, this could have very serious consequences. This is the biggest problem with landing on rear risers. You can only flatten the glide slope out, you really can't do a nice flared landing. Expect to run out your landing. If you're feeling really brave and have good boots on, you can actually practice a landing or two with just your rear risers. It is better to just practice this up high and find the stall point. Save the actual landing if and when you actually need it, as it usually isn't very pretty.

Note from Lolie: Remember, I'm not a BASE jumper (yet!), so this is just information that I've been given--not my own ideas.

-Miranda
you shall above all things be glad and young / For if you're young,whatever life you wear
it will become you;and if you are glad / whatever's living will yourself become.

[base704 0]

Marta and Jimmy at Vertigo rock!
They are both great people with alot of knowledge.
Fortunately for us, they are willing to share that knowledge.I had a chance to meet them in Twin Falls, Idaho (Perrine bridge) while they were giving one of their first jump courses.They go above and beyond teaching you how to survive your first jump, and most of their students leave the bridge with several jumps under their belts...

You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone.

[Lolie 0]

I only have 23 skydives under my belt, and I'm already saving my money to buy a BASE rig and take a FJC. I'm definitely leaning toward taking it from Vertigo. Do you have any input on who's the best? (I've read a lot about pros & cons of a FJC by a manufacturer in the archives over at blinc, too.) PM me if you want.

-Miranda
you shall above all things be glad and young / For if you're young,whatever life you wear
it will become you;and if you are glad / whatever's living will yourself become.

[motherhucker 0]

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Skydiving Pre-requisites to be considered for B.A.S.E. training

This is all good information, but is far too liberal. BASE jumpers should have WAY more than 150 skydives. 400 is more like it. 150 might do for someone who just wanted to go out to the Perrine and make a couple water landings, but what's the point in that? Experience counts, especially when you have a REAL object to avoid.
Your accuracy jumps should be not just on a big 7-cell F-111 canopy, they should be on a BASE canopy, specifically, the one you will use to BASE jump with. If you don't know how to rig a BASE canopy for a skydive, YOU ARE NOT READY TO BASE JUMP. See your rigger for lessons on how to do this.
Your approaches should include downwind landings, cross wind landings, and rear-riser ONLY landings. Be careful with these, because the stall point comes up much quicker when only using rear risers.
You can't always turn away from the object, so practise the "back away" technique as well.
CRW is a great idea. the more the better.
GO WATCH!!! I believe no-one should learn to BASE jump without having some experience with ground-crewing for other BASE jumpers. If you want to be a "bridge jumper," then fine. See if you can take a trip out to the perrine to watch/help/learn. If you want to get in to the sport for real, learn how to ground crew and go help out on some jumps!
BUY YOUR OWN GEAR!!!! Borrowing BASE gear is not right, unless you are renting it from a manufacturer in a FJC scenario.
Learn how to pack a BASE canopy--before you jump. It doesn't count if you didn't pack it.
Study, ask questions, and never be afraid to say no...ever. Some people never know that BASE isn't for them until they are about to step off an object. You don't HAVE to jump! So if you are the slightest bit unsure, go home and watch jeapordy, then that weekend, go have fun at the DZ.

Look on http://www.blincmagazine.com if you want to learn more.
And yes, Vertigo Rocks.

[Levin 0]

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It doesn't count if you didn't pack it.

for my second jump i packed the right side under supervision. does that count?

levin
vSCS#3

[Levin 0]

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If you want to be a "bridge jumper," then fine

wouldn't that be a "span jumper"

levin
vSCS#3

[motherhucker 0]

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If you want to be a "bridge jumper," then fine

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wouldn't that be a "span jumper"

you can call it whatever you want. A bridge has two ends connected to land and cars/people move accross it. The sport should be called "fixed object jumping" we have really opened up a whole new realm of objects that don't really fall into the "BASE" categories. My point is that if you are a low-experience skydiver, as described in the above posts, then you want to go somewhere big, over water, with zero object strike potential, then it is a bridge, or span. or whatever you want to call it.
cya

[freeflir29 0]

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BASE jumpers should have WAY more than 150 skydives. 400 is more like it.

I'm glad someone else feels this way. I'm no BASE jumper but I always thought 150 was pretty damn slim experience. I have 308 skydives now and I feel that it has only been in the last 50-60 jumps that I have STARTED to get the competency to do a BASE safely. Laugh all you want but I'll probably never do anything more than a Span. That whole object strike thing doesn't seem worth the risk to me.

[JDBoston 0]

Same here. I have a vague interest for now, so I'll learn what I can, watch what I can, and reevaluate when I have 300-500 jumps. Then, if I'm still interested, I'll start focusing more on practicing BASE-specific stuff in my skydives, and start thinking about an FJC after another couple hundred jumps.

I've got nothing down personally on people who start jumping objects a lot earlier than that, and maybe a lot of them have a lot of skills that I don't. That's great.

But I can't shake the feeling that they're really living on borrowed time for at least their first 50-100 BASE jumps, hoping that they don't encounter any exceptionally hairy situations where more experience would help (off-heading or slow openings, mals, odd winds, etc.), and that's just not a position I'm going to put myself in right now.

Joe

[steve1 5]

I'm almost afraid to start reading this base stuff, for fear that I'll get sucked into it, just like I did with skydiving. The more I read, the more fascinating it appears. Someday I've got to try it though. About all I know about base is that it is dangerous and that it must surely produce a great pucker factor. Someday when I begin to get really bored with skydiving I think base jumping may be what I'd need to get the adrenaline pumping again. Right now I don't feel like I need or want another all consuming hobby, and I think for me, base jumping would be just that. I'm an old fart now and by the time I do decide to base jump, I may be a truly old fart. Does anyone know if it is possible to base jump with a heart and lung machine? Steve1

[steveo 0]

there is no license or class for base jumping anybody willing to jump off a 600 foot bridgd with 1 canopy is on their own period

[StevieBoy 0]

I have only 35 skydives so far, i have bungeed a few times( the buzz is far out there than a skydive, for me), B.A.S.E. is where i want to go, i will spend my next 200 + jumps on flat packing, a 220 plus f111 main, acc jumps, ground crew stuff if i can, CREW, whatever, i'll learn from this site what is is needed.

It's where i want to go, i love sitting on the edge knowing that i could, that i will, so i'll get clued up over the next year or so then make my choice wheather to go.

[CrazyThomas 0]

Drugs....yes..it sounds stupid....but so do I.
Can you handle drugs? Do you know what limits are before overdosing? Do you know how to control and limit drug intake?
BASE is a MAJOR drug.
That is all. Know your limits. And push them until death.


Peace,
Thomas

[Faber 0]

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And push them until death.

Bad exit Thomas,pull and flair.

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

[sangiro 4]

Thomas,

You've been banned before for not sticking to the topic in these forums. If you wish to sound off about drugs and your fetish with death then do so in TalkBack. Over here you are simply going to loose your ability to participate if you continue down this path.

Safe swoops
Sangiro

[motherhucker 0]

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i'll learn from this site what is is needed.

Bad Idea dude. Learn from REAL PEOPLE...everything you read on this board should be confirmed/denied in real time by a person you TRUST...including what I just said.
Slow down.