cost and experience

[CoryL 0]

hey anybody out there ive never been skydiving before but i am extremely interested in it! i am also interested in basejumping and the research ive done says that you need 100 or more sky dives before you can basejump. i was just wondering how that is affordable when it cost $150+ to go skydiving. how am i supossed to get 100 skydives when it cost so much?

[labrys 0]

Quote

i was just wondering how that is affordable when it cost $150+ to go skydiving. how am i supossed to get 100 skydives when it cost so much?

It costs a bit to get licensed and buy gear. After that, the average price of a jump ticket once you're settled in is about $25.00 in the US.

If you want really want to base, budget for it. Better yet, just go make that first jump and then worry about how much it costs and whether or not you actually want to keep at it.

Owned by Remi #?

[miconar 0]

Skydiving, and base jumping even more so, are not activities that one should get into casually without putting a lot of thought into why when and how he wants and plans to do it.

Some thoughts:

Base is cool, sure. Forget about it for now. Do a tandem skydive. If you get hooked on skydiving, get licensed and buy gear. Find a skydiving discipline that interests you and get good in it. Buy the beer and listen to your elders, find some high experience old school instructors that think base jumping is absolutely stupid and really listen to why they feel that way. Find some passion for skydiving, if you can. Do not revisit the notion of base jumping until you have significant skydiving experience and feel you are a pro. If skydiving does not appeal to you on it's own either treat it like medicine or forget about the whole thing.

100 skydives are not enough. It should be a personal decision, and to be honest I don't think you can properly make it before you had a near miss yourself or been around long enough to see someone you care about get hurt badly. I hope neither happens to you, but it's almost impossible to understand the price our risk/reward driven obsession can charge us if our number comes up. I would not think any less then 500 skydives could possibly be enough, recommend over a 1000 when friends ask me about it, and personally went with 2000 skydives as my own minimum. I can tell you now, you cannot be over prepared, but I have seen many who are clearly under prepared, even with 100s of jumps. I'm not saying my way is the only way. Just understand that numbers are just numbers, and minimum jump numbers in these sports are a bad trap. Never ever do anything as soon as you are ready for it. Always be over prepared and over qulified, be ready not for the jump according to plan, be ready for all the things that can go wrong going wrong together. Whenever someone tells you you need x jumps to do something, immediately follow up with the question "what are the skills I need to do it safely?" and work on those skills, and don't attempt the jump until you are a good 10-20% over the jump numbers (if not much more) and very comfortable with all the skills. Ask multiple experienced instructors and if one or two tell you you can be ready much sooner then the rest, ask yourself why that is, especially if they make any amount of money directly or indirectly from teaching you a skill they think you are ready for before others around you think it, much more so if they actually make a living teaching it. Then ask them and compare your thoughts with theirs. Be critical with yourself, your instructors, and even with common practice. Think learn think learn think.

In short, enjoy drooling over base jumping in youtube for now and forget about it. If you get tempted, read the list. All of it.

As for the how, financially.
The simple fact is that skydiving, and base jumping even more so, are not hobbies, after hour activities or something like tourist style snowboarding or skiing you can do once a year for a week. They are a way of life. They will consume you, or they will not. Only the very rich or very very well paid jumpers (well paid in a non skydiving work) can afford a good safe jumpng career that doesn't involve a great deal of personal sacrifice to your quality of life, financial future and none jumping life, say relationship and family and so on. The rest either give up almost everything else and work skydiving jobs that don't pay well, are weather dependant, and are harsh on the body, or give up jumping at some point. That's just how it is. Think about it.

This is a passion, an obsession. Respect that and yourself and you stand a better chance of making it.

[skyjumpenfool 2]

Miconar hit the nail on the head. This can be a very expensive sport and I'm not talking about money. Base jumping is even more demanding. But those who do it seem to enjoy the challenge and will tell you it's all worth it.

If you're serious about this, I always recommend some Gymnastics experience. Find a local gymnastics club and see if they have an open gym nite. Any good Gymnast can teach you simple tumbling and body awareness. Most are happy to work with you. Trampoline's, with a qualified instructor, are great learning tools.

As you develope your skydiving skills, you'll be getting into shape and developing your gym skills. Both will pay big dividends in base jumping.

Hope we haven't scared you away, but if we have, it's probly for the best. Good Luck!

Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."