Training Methodology

[Zennie 0]

My mentor and I have had this discussion a few times and I'd like to hear thoughts from those of you that regularly train students.

In our town there appear to be two schools of thought on which is the preferred method for introducing a student to BASE.

The first school of thought is to put the student off high... like in the 1700 foot range, stowed, with about a 9-10 second delay. The thinking is that a first-time is already terrified when doing his/her first BASE jump. So if you keep the first few as straightforward and familiar to skydiving as possible, you reduce the chance of them being overwhelmed. Also by putting the student off high, you have more cushion for them to correct a poor launch. They also have more clearance from the object, so an off-heading opening will not be a very big issue.

The second school of thought is to put the student off hand-held, "lower" (around 900-1100 feet) with about a 2-3 second delay. The thinking here is that BASE is a different sport from skydiving, so the student should learn fundamental BASE techniques, particularly getting a good launch, right off the bat. 1100 feet isn't particularly low. If you go hand-held you keep the deployment issue pretty simple and less prone to off-headings. Also by doing a short delay you still have plenty of sky to fly your canopy but still get a taste of what ground rush is like. You also need to assess wind and landing area issues more closely because you won't get the same amount of object clearance as if you started from higher up.

I tried to keep each methodology as positive as possible so as not to skew thinking. For the same reason I haven't said which one I've trained under.

Thoughts?

- Z
"Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

[Faber 0]

i were trained in a 3th way.
SL off a 400ft pylon(looks like a T,so you have good ways to awoid an objetstrike.).

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

[gus 1]

I would have thought that the longer the delay the greater the chance of not maintaining a good body position - I never even thought of first timers doing anything other than short delays.

Gus

OutpatientsOnline.com

[Zennie 0]

Yeah I guess I should add that access to tall objects isn't an issue, so both schools of thought use those for training.

- Z
"Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

[base704 0]

how about a pca from a nice 240' S?

step off and land the fucker...

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

[blair700 0]

I'm with 704, I was taught off low stuff with assisted deployments. I guess the 1100' jump means you'll be deploying subtermially (sp), unless the newbie takes it to the BASEMENT,and a subterminal deployment with a slider on could put you in some twists facing the tower etc. if you have a really bad launch and deployment. The folks that taught me figured a really low jump is best as the mentor controls the deployment (to some extent), all you do as a student is nail the body position on exit, get the toggles quickly and land. From there we progress to 1-2 second delays while going handheld. Around here, you gotta earn your right to use a slider and go deep....unless your Tegro Rodriguez, he gets all the breaks man.
Just my .02, and I suck
Blair

[base704 0]

Amen Bro...

The Carolinas are not the place to be if ya wanna be spoon fed the slider stuff...

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

[NeilQ 0]

Yep I'm with 704 and 700. Some PCA's off a 390ft overhung tower, then 2 sec HH from top of the same tower (top is 620ft), eventually progressing to 4 sec HH's slider up, then onto 4 sec stowed's. I know a few people who have been taught the same. Kind of a little steps approach, apart from first stowed when I filled my knickers

Stay safe

Neil #796

[blair700 0]

Quote

Kind of a little steps approach, apart from first stowed when I filled my knickers

heheh....my first stowed was also my first slider up, went from 1000', took maybe 1.5 secondsdepolyed while kicking and wildly twisting on my head, the lights looked real close but luck was on my side and I had a 180, so my canopy was flying away from the object man that was friggin scary....

[base570 1]

Quote

heheh....my first stowed was also my first slider up, went from 1000', took maybe 1.5 secondsdepolyed while kicking and wildly twisting on my head...

I thought that was everytime you jumped!
Sorry, you left yourself wide open.

570
PS- where were you this weekend??

[NeilQ 0]

>my first stowed was also my first slider up, went from 1000', took maybe 1.5 seconds

sounds very familiar, on my first I was s'posed to be doing a 4, took a 2 tops, had packed a burrito stylie p/c , pitched, had a 1-2 sec p/c hesi, filled my knickers, and probably wound up open at the right height!! All in all too much excitement

Now use the mushroom packjob btw...

[vesatoro 0]

As a real newbie in the base, but a quite experienced skydiving instructor (Instructor/Evaluator, S&TA, BMCI) I think I could say a word in this matter on my own behalf.

On the FBA-tour we got good training starting from base packing training and helicopter/hot air balloon skydives to get the no speed exit put together, then went to a 120m (400ft) bridge to do first one static line base, then went hand held 0,5s and advanced to ~2,5 sec:s slider downs from the bridge. Then people climbed up to a 260m (850ft) chimney, and made slider up BOC jumps of about 5s. After these jumps we ended up in a huge 1200m,4000ft (600m, 2000ft to impact) cliff, and did the long delays with good trackings. After this me and another wery experienced skydiver made BM-flights form the same cliff, with a good confidence. (the BM jump was my 8th and my friend's 12th base-jump) I thing this could be described as accelerated base course, but for us this way of learning worked perfectly. The thing worked like with a skydiving student, from static line to long freefalls and done within a week was wery intense and motivating way of learning new things all the time.

so, I think we were trained the 3th (or 4th way)

Vesa

"Fear is the path to the Dark side"
(Master Yoda)