Is Skydiving Relevant to BASE Jumping???

[TomBegic 0]

Is Skydiving Relevant to BASE Jumping???

Absolutely - check out the following tragic story - death as a result of an off heading opening in CRW.

http://www.canopy-formation.org/info/accidenthitsfrenchrotationteam.htm

As an aside, the only people who think skydiving is irrelevant are those with closed minds. There are an infinite number of transferable skills in various skydiving disciplines that can be utilised in BASE jumping. Equipment knowledge, rigging (repair and manufacture), accuracy, canopy control (during deployment, flight, and landing), attitudes, open mindedness, willingness to learn, modesty & respect of each other and our abilities, etc.

To me, it is like asking the question, "is go-karting relevant to F1 motor racing", I bet most champion drivers will say yes. They would say that it was a solid foundation. Fundamental skills would have been developed in a safer learning environment.

Learning to BASE jump without skydiving is not necessarily wrong - but this is the case for only a select few individuals. Most humans exist around statistical norms and hence can be defined as mortal and approximately average. They need to learn in a more forgiving (higher margin for error) environment.

A 400 ft bridge does not give you that - despite what people may think. How do you SAFELY teach a person to get out of line twists from 400ft, would a student attempt a major shutdown / stall / rapid stall recovery / etc from 400ft. Would they learn about proximity / formation flying (we all do canopy relative work on BASE jumps at some stage - whether it is with each other or the object), what about rapid heading correction practice (developing your reflexes), how about testing ALL flight characteristics of a new canopy, etc.

Is there anything wrong with skydiving???? Hell no. IMHO, BASE jumpers who think that have the same narrow minded attitude that they despise in many skydivers.

The day that a BASE jumper ridicules other sports and defines them as useless, is the day they become a "whuffo".

The day that a jumper with only 20 skydives describes skydiving as boring is the day they have committed to ignorance (how the hell would a 20 jump wonder know anything about skydiving with such minimal experience).

If I had to choose one and give up the other, I would choose to do BASE jumping over skydiving any day. But I think skydiving is a hell of a lot of fun too and I am glad that I did and am still doing it. So to gliding, hang gliding, caving, canyoning, hiking, ultralight flying, mountaineering, etc etc etc - all are fun.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

Good post. I hope a few people read it with an open mind.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over