thank you guys so much for so many great, immediate, and helpful responses, especially tom. and now i have more questions...
one of my problems currently is cash, so that was one of my reasons for maybe buying base gear before learning to skydive. and also that it would be good i suppose for me to learn on base gear since skydiving gear can teach bad habits.
so it's allright to skydive with a base canopy, as long as you use a skydiving rig? do you think it would be a problem at a dz for me to ask them to train me on such gear? if i bought my own base gear, would it be likely that i could attach it to a skydiving rig at a dz or would that be too much trouble, or not possible? and might that save me money, to put less wear and tear on their gear? (maybe this is a question better asked at the possible dz's i might go to?) is there certain base canopies that work better with certain skydiving rigs ?
cash is another important issue... i don't mean to be putting a price on my life and all, but after reading the arguments for learning base without skydiving, couldn't i find a safe legal place to learn base during the day such as a bridge in idaho, after doing like 10 skydives.
it was mentioned that i wouldn't be taken seriously without a skydiving A license, but even you tom seemed to argue strongly for teaching an aspiring base jumper by base jumping, not skydiving. from the thread "BASE without skydives". however you say to make at least 200 skydives in your "getting into base" article. your conflicting arguments confuse me, but do you think it would be safe if i found a good base mentor and a safe place after having done only about a dozen skydives?
well thanks again for all your time and great help everyone. i can't imagine a better resource than this site.