Static Line's

[guest]

I am a big fan of BASE and would love to start jumping however i lack experience required both in skydiving and in BASE specific terms also. I am about to start a static line RAPS course on Saturday and would appreciate any advice on what to take particular notice of when learning procedure and also is this the best way to learn to skydive or should i have done lots of tandems .However i feel i will learn a lot more about canopy control method etc which is more BASE related if i go through the traditional static line method. Feedback would be appreciated.

[guest]

Hello Anon,

(See how silly that sounds, at least make up a name (Grin)!

You are correct in identifying canopy control as the basic skill of BASE jumping. This is almost the only reason we don't teach BASE jumping to people with zero jumps.

Both AFF and Static Line instruction will give you about the same amount of exposure to canopy control. Tandems won't do you much good. When tandem first started I thought great, now all the old, the blind and the infirm can skydive. How it turned into what it is now is beyond me. In any case a dead person can make a tandem jump. You'll learn more on your own.

Also, unless your instructors and jumpmasters are experienced BASE jumpers themselves you may want to keep your BASE ambitions to yourself and just concentrate on learning to skydive. (I don't really know why, but some skydivers will hold BASE jumping against you, I sometimes get the feeling they enjoy the death defying aspects of parachuting too much but believe we are surpassing them on the pyramid of daring feats. This can be very annoying to "skygod."

While you are free to begin BASE jumping at any time, the industry (the manufacturers of BASE gear and the various BASE jumping associations throughout the world) have settled on 150 parachute jumps before a person should consider it. And right now that's working fine. As the training improves that number may change and may even drop to zero sometime in the future. (Anybody want to invest in a tower)?

There is also training available (we do a First BASE course here at Basic Research for experienced skydivers, go here for more info:

http://www.delphi.com/basicresearch/start

Finally set a goal for yourself. You can easily make 150 skydives in one year and it's 369 days until Bridge Day 2000.

I hope to see you there!

Nick-BR

[guest]

Cheers for the response it has given me a clearer perception of the way forward. I wont say anything to the skygods about BASE as they'd probably refuse to let me jump as well as ##### their pants at the thought of it. Unfortunatley my DZ only operates on SAT/SUN so those valuable days of learning are being lost maybe BD 2001 ehh? That is if the rangers dont axe it by then. As soon as i've got the big 150 youll be sure to see me there anyway. Once again nice on and in the meantime do a flick for me. Blue Skies...

[guest]

Learning via static line is a _great_ way to learn about your equipment and how to operate it without all the emphasis on "fun" skills that you won't use much in BASE jumping anyway.

It also costs way less per exit/opening, navigation and landing sequence. Instead of one AFF jump for $150, you can make two or three static line jumps for the same money. Also keep in mind that there have been some exceptional individuals who have made theior first BASE jumps without having made a single jump from a plane. This is not generally recommended, but doing a bunch of static line and short freefall jumps will teach you much more about BASE related skills thatn freefall-focused training, which is backasswards and overloads the student anyway (the AFF gods will of course dispute this, but it is a heuristic maxim that you teach fundamental skills first, then fun skills, and you _don't overload the student_. AFF makes both of these errors, whereas static line makes you an independent, autonomous jumper, responsible for your safety and landing from the beginning, and it focuses on survival skills first and doesn't overload the student.

[guest]

I did aff w/ 2 of the best jm's around. they crammed so much ##### in me 1 day . iv'e got 110 jumps and i'm hang'n w/ the best of them

[guest]

You just confirmed my point. They crammed a lot into you, and you handled it and thrived. Good. It means you're an exceptional person. THe _average_ person fails one or two levels and that indicates a flaw in the system; imagine if 70 percent of your classmates flunked one or two grades before graduating from high school. THere would be BIG changes fast... but AFF continues to bumble along violating basic heuristic rules and turning away people from skydiving in droves. We have no higher retention rate of first jumpers now than we did when it was rounds and static lines.

These are basic, unarguable facts, and yes, you may have had great instructors and a lot of them are (you gotta be pretty good to keep people alive in a stupid system), but that doesn't mean their system is very good.

[guest]

Folks, I have something to say here that is very hard for me but it must be said. Over the years I have taught many people to BASE jump who have never done a skydive. In fact I was recently the AFF instructor of one of my BASE students from over ten years ago. All of these students did well, but it was mostly because of blind luck that they survived the first few BASE jumps without getting killed or injured. Hell, we went on road trips that involved a dozen or more jumps from very difficult objects and the entire crew was always way out of control. I want to say that I was very wrong to not insist that they learn to skydive first before BASE jumping. It makes a MAJOR difference ! No matter if you learn from Static line or AFF (I have taught both) it is extremely valuable experience to have before BASE jumping. These days I do not teach someone to BASE jump until they have learned to skydive and purchased and learned everything there is to learn about their BASE gear. They also must demonstrate to me that they are really listening to me when they are learning. Otherwise it's AMFYOYO.

Enough Said - Earl

[guest]

i thought it was cleaning out the gene pool