# of skydive jumps before BASE'ing a wing suit...

[SBCmac]

Hi all...

I was just wondering how many skydives people think you need on a wing suit(e.g. a Classic) before hopping it off a cliff???

Thanks for you help :)...

SBCmac

[tigern]

If you are an experiensed basejumper with a great deal high jumps, and the calm and selfasurenes you need its actually possible to #### the planes. I have newer jumped a wingsuit from anything but mountains, and i hawe newer been under 30 sek. Now i hawe 11 jumps and doing 50 sek. Beware the first jumps should bee from a damn high overhanging mountain. I jump a Classic1 by the way.
Tommy.

[meeker_boy]

I had about 800 jumps and 50 wingsuit skydives before my first wingsuit base at jump number 19. Lukas Knutson and Mikke Nordqvist took me up for my first wingsuit base off Karlskratind (4500ft). If your going to do your first:

- Feel ready for it.
- Have at least 50 jumps including some doing unstable exits, back-flying, etc.
- Choose a big cliff like Kjerag or Karlskratind.
- Have more base jumps than I did! - hypocritical I know.
- Get taught by someone of winsuit base experience.

My first jump is on skydivingmovies.com - I'm the orange classic on fastestmutherfuckerinthevalley.wmv - not very fast, but I was pooing it!

Meeker

[finflyer]

In my opinion, it all depends (in this order) on your:

1. Own feeling about your skills, as always when doing something new.
- If you do not feel well about what you're doing, don't do it. You can always do it later. Find every piece of knowledge, information and coaching from people you trust, but do not be fooled into a safe feeling just becouse you know something. It may not be enough.

2. Base-experience (slider up)
- A good exit is a must. The worst things to concider are stalling just after the exit and not getting the suit flying, or ending up on your back after a nose-down exit which may cause you to fly to the wall on your back. You must be really sure of this when the movement of your hands and legs is restricted.

3. Number of wingsuit flights from a plane, I'd recommend more than 50
- You must be current to deal every situation, attitude or problem you may encounter during the flight. For example a zipper or a bootie coming off during exit or flight, PC hesitation and so on.

4. Number of skydives you have.
- The more air time you have, the better. Just remember now you may not have the time...

My first wingsuit-base (with Skyflyer) was my 2nd E-jump, from a terminal wall in Southern Europe, and my 8th base jump altogether. I had then about 250 flights from a plane and about 1400 skydives in 6 years. So when concidering the numbers I may not be the best example to follow. But looking my point 1. which I think is the most important, I felt good doing it, and it went well.

Vesa
#845

[VKB11]

the essential element in base ws safety is the exit. jumping off planes will never make you better prepared for this. basejumping will. if you wanna practice ws exits, jump from a helicopter. skydive ws experience will surely make you a better pilot, though. but if you are confident that you can do a good exit, the rest is easy. just make sure you have some altitude. i wouldn't recommend anything less than 500 m. preferably more..
i've never jumped ws from a plane. when i did my first ws base i had 100 skydives, 138 basejumps (42 of them terminal). and i definitly recommend that. it was a great experience. i jump a gti, wich is supposed to be easy to handle. i believe the s3 is a bit more radical.
i've heard so many opinions about how many skydives you need before you do this and that. the people that have these opinions often haven't lived up to them themselves. of course sometimes in base jumping (and many other activities) you experience things that you would not recommend. but everyone is their own master. listen to advice, but make up you're own opinioen. and do what you feel like...
have a nice one!!

[SBCmac]

Hi again…

I just wanted to thank everyone for their posts, definitely very helpful… Sadly, I was out of commission for a little while with a broken leg/ankle, broke it on a skydive landing in September. The funny thing is that I was in surgery the day that I had planned to do my first wing suit BASE jump :(… What’s even more funnier than that, I did one BASE jump that morning and one skydive, straight and level landing because I was working with my wing suit, and I broke my leg on the skydive :)… Lucky me, I hit a rotor right before touching down and never saw what happened next coming… But the good news is, I’m BASE jumping again and plan on getting back up in the air again with my wing suit to finally make my wing suit BASE jump come true :)…

Thanks again for all your posts…

SBCmac (Michael)

[SBCmac]

Hello all…

Well I just wanted to follow up on my post by saying that things finally fell into place and I did my first BASE wing suit jump this past weekend. So again I want to thank you all for your feedback… It was a long journey to my first BASE wing suit jump but it was worth every ounce of effort that I put into it. It was with out a doubt the coolest thing that I have ever accomplished! Now that I’m past my first jump, I’m very much looking forward to the many awesome experiences that my future BASE wing suit jumps will bring me :)...

Thanks again!!!

SMCmac (Michael)