need very good advice for a beginner

[guest]

Hi, i have to order my rig from CR but i really don't know which one to choose; P-II or Pro ??!
Everybody got a different advice...
I am a beginner and most of my jumps will be under 1500 feet maybe later i will jump on terminal but if then i had a velcro rig is it "then" a good rig too ???

thanks if anybody(experienced of course) will give some advice.

thanks and have safe jumps

steve

[imported_mknutson]

With the fact that you have tons more things to think about in the sport, get a P-II.

A velcro rig is simple !
A velcro rig is safe !
A velcro rig is effective!
A velcro rig is the best first rig!

If you want to learn right, crawl before you run!
PRO's are great, but they are much more complex.

Just try to BASE Jump safely, then you can worry about a second rig later!

--
Thanks

Mick Knutson
BLiNC Magazine

"Everything you ever wanted to know about BASE Jumping, but didn't know who to ask."
--

[guest]

Hello Steve,

Back in the days when the Para-Gear catalogue is ninety percent bumper stickers, patches, and t-shirts gear choice is much easier. Your biggest decision might center around an inboard or outboard ripcord pull or having a pilot chute in your reserve or not . . .

But, things are better nowadays.

And yes, like you, everyone notices the same thing in the beginning, "everyone has different advice." But, if that's the price to be paid for such a wide array of choice, so be it.

Your question is deciding between Velcro closed BASE rigs and the pin closed BASE rigs.

Some Points:

They both work when used as intended. The hard part (at your stage) is figuring out what "is" intended.

This may help.

Velcro closed BASE rigs have been around since the beginning of the 1980s. They have a solid indisputable track record behind them. In fact, although these figures don't exist anywhere, I believe many jumpers have been saved by the simplicity of these rigs over the years. In fact, I'm sure of it.

Velcro closed rigs kept the BASE community fat and happy for many years until two significant things happened. Like their brother skydivers the newest generation of BASE jumper is not content with flat and stable freefall.

And second is the access we have now to the terminal freefall that's scattered all over Europe, and the rest of the world. (When I talk with Will Oxx, who travels the world looking for new sites, I always come away with the belief we've only found 10 or 15 percent of the jumpable places).

Here's an important point. The Velcro rigs are originally designed in a time when BASE jumping consisted of mostly low and slow stuff. They really were never intended for terminal velocity, and in year's past when someone said they would rather take old skydiving gear to places like Yosemite because they feared losing brand new BASE gear to the rangers, it may have been more a case they actually felt more comfortable with a pin closed skydiving rig at these higher freefall speeds. (Not the fact, they had a reserve, the fact they had pins holding their containers closed).

So, this took the BASE manufactures to the conclusion the market place wanted a pin closed BASE rig in a single container configuration.

"Oh no," most thought, "not back to pins, aren't pins, and the inherent problems they exhibit, the reason we went to the Velcro rigs in the first place?"

A logical conclusion except for one thing.

Between the time Velcro rigs are introduced and today, pin closed technology has improved a thousand percent. Gone are the pack opening bands, the straight pins, and a host of other little problems.

However, these pin rigs will never be as simple as Velcro rigs and that fact will always call for a higher amount of caution on the person using them. Fabricating a new closing loop that's too short, or of the wrong material, misrouting the bridle, closing the container incorrectly, all this things can lead to problems a Velcro rig may prevent.

In a simpler world, a person would begin jumping a Velcro rig at sub-terminal until they mastered the art before going on to terminal, free flying, and pin rigs. But that's too simple, and maybe not the right way for all people.

So I suppose the thing to realize is we can't build anything into these rigs, there is no magic feature, that will make up for someone who is just starting, and may take for granted where the problems areas are.

That's where training comes in. And all the BASE manufacturers, as well as several countries BASE associations, now offer that kind of training. Make sure you get some.

C-ya,
Nick_BR