High Places

hey Steph!!
i’ll make my question quick, for you’re probably plagued w/ them all day… how can i get into BASE jumping, and advancing to wingsuit BASE? i live in Vancouver, BC, and haven’t a clue how to go about it. it’s just something i have to do.
Brendan Baggio

Dear Brendan,
Well, I would tell you that I’m just a beginner and am not really qualified to hand out BASE advice…..but actually, this means that I’ve just gone through these experiences, so am probably a good person to ask!

I was, though, exposed to jumping for about five or six years, before I ever decided to learn to skydive. Dean had been wanting to BASE jump for years, and had actually met people who had offered to “teach” him for several years, always deciding that they were offering the easy, shortcut approach, which felt wrong to him. He quickly understood that with jumping, you want to go slow, and you want to learn from the right people. Finally, he met up with the Colorado Crew of BASE jumpers/skydivers, and realized that they were conservative, experienced and solid, and he started his skydiving apprenticeship.

I watched this scenario, made friends with the jumping community, lived with unpacked parachutes down my hallways and living room, and also helped out as ground crew for BASE jumpers, for many years. So although I wasn’t totally paying attention, I did absorb a lot of the basic principles in that time period. The reason I’m telling you this, is that I went through the early steps of learning in a more compressed time period than most people condone, but partly that happened because I was exposed so much to the sport for many years first.

So anyway! Everyone agrees that if you want to learn to BASE jump, you have to skydive. A lot.
 
Don’t even think about BASE jumping. Just go to a dropzone, take your AFF course, and get excited about skydiving.

After about 200 skydives, you can start flying a wingsuit out of an airplane, which in my opinion, is where it’s at.

Be forewarned that acquiring gear is also a big slowdown….everything in skydiving and BASE is custom. And expensive! So unless you get lucky with finding used gear, you have to wait a couple months, or more, for everything you decide to buy, especially a wingsuit.

After 100 or 200 skydives, you can take a BASE course, and I recommend taking one from Jimmy and Marta at Apex BASE, out of Moab. They will take you to the Perrine Bridge in Idaho, and teach you how to safely BASE jump, if you have the requisite skydiving experience.

BASE should be learned very slowly and gradually, much more so than skydiving. Every new BASE jumper learns, either with a little luck or not, that even the slightest mistake can lead to major injury and/or death. Everything requires extreme and perfect learning….even learning to pack your BASE rig is a real procedure, and is best learned from experienced, patient friends.

It could be years from your first AFF skydive until the day you make a wingsuit BASE jump. You will know when you are ready. One thing I know for sure is that the first year of BASE definitely makes every jumper a conservative jumper.
Best of luck to you!!
xx Steph