{"id":56719,"date":"2024-11-04T16:38:40","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T16:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/?p=56719"},"modified":"2024-11-05T10:39:44","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T10:39:44","slug":"10-tips-for-new-base-jumpers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/10-tips-for-new-base-jumpers\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Tips for New BASE Jumpers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Ten BASE habits to help keep you alive to enjoy this sport for years to come\u2026<\/h4><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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BASE is risky. Some behaviors can make it less so. Here, I draw on my careers in risk management and BASE to instill key habits that maximize the chance of enjoying a long and accident-free career in BASE…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sharon Fielding mentally preparing for a BASE jump \u2013 photo by Luanne Horting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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1. Be self-aware<\/h4><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The biggest danger you\u2019ll ever face in BASE is the lack of awareness of your skill level. BASE is notorious for this. In weightlifting or rock climbing it\u2019s hard to delude yourself. In BASE, you can get away with a lot with a bit of luck, until probability laws catch up with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeking a competent mentor is a no-brainer, but self-assessment is equally important. For me, the habit that has worked is assessing myself in the third person, as if giving feedback to someone else, and writing it down in my logbook consistently. This leads to key questions: what does this jumper need to work on? Do they have the experience necessary to tackle the target object? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answers you\u2019ll end up with you often won\u2019t like but they\u2019ll be close to the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sharon Fielding exits Perrine Bridge \u2013 photo by Luanne Horting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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2. Be systematic about implementing feedback<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You can sign up for a first jump course with the best coach in the world and not learn much if you don\u2019t apply what you\u2019ve learned. Write it down. Plan a way to practice it. Define what the success criteria will be. 

When I started doing gainers on exit, they were okay but not great. People drew my attention to this. I hit a parkour gym nearby with the goal of doing \u201c100 perfect gainers\u201d before my next BASE gainer. It helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Find the confidence sweet spot<\/h4><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The confidence game in BASE is complex. We see amazing things people do on video; this might inspire us, but it can also give us FOMO and make us feel less good in comparison. When we lack confidence the first impulse can be to do something big to prove our worth to ourselves and others: a dangerous situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, sometimes we spend a few days wingsuiting off tricky exits and the opposite happens \u2014 we feel like gods, invincible. That feeling of \u201cwhatever happens I\u2019ll handle it.\u201d <\/em>That\u2019s when we often pay the price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need the sweet spot between being overwhelmed with fear and being arrogant. If you don\u2019t know what that spot is then you need to find it in a lower-stakes environment (skydiving) until you can \u201cfeel\u201d it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sharon Fielding \u2013 photo by Luanne Horting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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4. Leave the camera at home<\/h4><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I barely used a camera in the early days and stopped using it altogether after watching a friend die on Facebook live in 2016. Film is sometimes a useful training and debriefing tool, no doubt. But often it is not necessary. You don\u2019t film yourself driving, cooking, or meditating \u2014 why do it jumping? One thing much better than having social media admirers is being so confident that you don\u2019t need them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emphasize the logbook instead. You can record your thoughts and observations, have others record theirs. Map out your improvement strategy. Write your jump plan so that you can go through it when you\u2019re up there and adrenaline is pumping. Sometimes the unflashy, time-tested methods work best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Remember that BASE is different<\/h4><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One thing I see with very experienced wingsuit pilots transitioning from skydiving into BASE is the surprise at how different BASE is. Suddenly, things that matter less in skydiving become vital, and you need to be asking yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Have I mastered flying \u201cdown to target\u201d with an appropriate AoA, so that small adjustments give me large and immediate separation from terrain?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Can I deploy consistently from full flight or close to it, while remaining fully symmetrical?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • How much altitude do I need to achieve max glide?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Do I understand the drift performance of my suit in turns?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Especially when wingsuits are involved, it\u2019s best to think of skydiving and BASE as two completely separate activities. You need to master the former as a prerequisite for merely beginning the second.<\/p>\n\n\n


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