Flight School - A first year of BASE jumping

[mccordia 74]

Check out this Awesome video on youtube by Chris McNamara.

Check it out!

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[SuperGirl 0]

NICE!!!

[yuri_base 1]

My advice: get his Learning To Fly DVD and you'll forget what the word 'flocking' means. ;) Lots of footage from most beautiful flights in the world. You'll fall out of your chair a couple of times guaranteed, as you'll be sitting on the edge watching low pulls and close range proximity flying. For beginners, very inspiring how much you can achieve in just one year, and educational, too, as mistakes are honestly shown.

If you like to FLY, Chris' movie is a must have.

Yuri

Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

[mccordia 74]

There is more to flying than the (awe-inspiring) base-stuff Yuri.
Not everyone has balls of steel, a bad-ass personality, saw-dust for brains (pick one) and some mountains in their backyard.
As awesome as it is, and how bad some of us want to do it, will do it, or may never do it.
There is a lot more to wingsuit flight than the sometimes close to autistic views you often showcase here.

You've been quiet online lately though..someone tie you up in a straight jacket or did you actually go out and jump?
I had a good bet going on how long it would take you to comment on the 71 way formation...help a brother out next time man..be more predictable (like you used to)

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[scottygofast 0]

Nice job Chris, Vid looks great~

Z Flock #11; Muff #1909; PFI #15, USPA Lifer
Commercial Multi-Inst. Airplane/Rotory
www.flyteskool.ws Aerial Photography

[DON321 0]

Sweet!!
I liked the end when he says: " All I can say is... If you Know of anything better, please let me know."

[VectorBoy 0]

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My advice: get his Learning To Fly DVD and you'll forget what the word 'flocking' means. ;) Lots of footage from most beautiful flights in the world. You'll fall out of your chair.

Yuri

My advice, get out of that chair you keep falling out of and just FLY period! We don't care where just fly.

[sdctlc 0]

It really has gotten to the point that when I see your name on a thread I have to roll my eyes and wonder how you are going to bash Flocking again... Even in this thread it seems you are placing BASE and max flying as the be all end all of wingsuits.. I am glad that you have a higher level of appreciation for what the max performance of a wingsuit is but flocking is an entirely different set of skills compared to maxing out a suit. I appreciate the fact todays suits can perform very well and I participate in that aspect (not base) and I enjoy it but I also enjoy Flocking and more technical flocking opportunities. It is all fun and it is too bad you feel the need to bash the different areas that a wingsuit has to offer other then your myopic view.. Very sad..

Scott C.

I need to add that was a great video!

"He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

[Winznut 0]

nice editing!

kudos for doing the eiger 3 times a day...at least if it was without a heli (which I doubt).

[yeyo 1]

This is a great example of wanting something and doing "the work" to get there...

HISPA #93
DS #419.5

[Butters 0]

There's definitely a growing number of climbers taking interest in B.A.S.E. jumping.

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This is a great example of wanting something and doing "the work" to get there...

If that is "the work" then I've done enough "work" to retire.

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[NSEMN8R 0]

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This is a great example of wanting something and doing "the work" to get there...

Excellent video. The dude is a rockstar.

But... Some people might say he rushed into it a bit without doing all "the work".

Maybe I misunderstood what he said in the video, but I got the impression that he started base jumping after only 100 skydives and went to WS Base with only another 50 jumps off the Potato Bridge.

I'm not saying I think there's anything wrong with it, just that it doesn't seem to fit the criteria of what most of the people on here would consider "all the work".

[mccordia 74]

For him it worked..and even he might have some stories to share on how some more experience probably would have differed.......

But regardless...for the other 99% of dodo's out there who need some more practice, its not a bad thing to have some more mileage before they hit the nylon..

Shame its always only the 2 or 3 successtories we hear, and hardly any of the folks who dive into this headfirst (and come up short) dont have the guts to spill the beans on their experiences..

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[Butters 0]

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This is a great example of wanting something and doing "the work" to get there...

Excellent video. The dude is a rockstar.

But... Some people might say he rushed into it a bit without doing all "the work".

Maybe I misunderstood what he said in the video, but I got the impression that he started base jumping after only 100 skydives and went to WS Base with only another 50 jumps off the Potato Bridge.

I'm not saying I think there's anything wrong with it, just that it doesn't seem to fit the criteria of what most of the people on here would consider "all the work".

Yeah, it is confusing. The OP thinks I was putting forth a negative image (and didn't put in the work) but thinks Chris McNamara is awesome (and did put in the work).

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[mccordia 74]

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Yeah, it is confusing. The OP thinks I was putting forth a negative image (and didn't put in the work) but thinks Chris McNamara is awesome (and did put in the work).

Not really..you are screaming about all the work you put in, and bragging about it.
Instead of being a man like Chris, and not trying to sound like the safest and best skydiver alive.

He is just a man, he does cool shit, and he did it without caring what rules, recomenditions and regulations are . And learnt some stuff allong the way by good and bad experiences.

He only tells his story. Unlike you, who seems to wanting to try and throw people out of planes with wingsuits straight from AFF if they watched enough videos online

you started jumping wingsuits with little to no jumps and hardly any experience...100 jumps means shit when talking about experience..200 jumps means shit when talking about experience..

You had hardly any jumps..you did okay...and you think you where properly prepared without having any real experience...great...let that be the story, but dont try and get everyone to rush into this the same way as you.

Regardless of your skills...good or bad...not everyone is like you..so try and keep those other people in mind..and try to get em to do whatever they can in as many jumps as possible...

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[Butters 0]

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Instead of being a man like Chris, and not trying to sound like the safest and best skydiver alive.

Once again, treating me like a child instead of a man. I know I'm not the safest skydiver and I ask to many questions to be the best skydiver.

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He is just a man, he does cool shit, and he did it without caring what rules, recomenditions and regulations are . And learnt some stuff allong the way by good and bad experiences.

He only tells his story. Unlike you, who seems to wanting to try and throw people out of planes with wingsuits straight from AFF if they watched enough videos online

Hmm ... when I don't care what rules, recommendations, and regulations are I get flamed. When did I say I wanted people to go straight from AFF to wingsuiting? All I've said is that there are things that are more important than a number.

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[NSEMN8R 0]

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For him it worked..and even he might have some stories to share on how some more experience probably would have differed.......

I think he made it pretty obvious in the video that some more experience would have benefited him as far as his canopy skills. Even with the lack of experience he had great flights though.

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But regardless...for the other 99% of dodo's out there who need some more practice, its not a bad thing to have some more mileage before they hit the nylon..

I'd say that's true for 100% of us dodo's who get into this. More experience is always better no matter how many or few jumps we have or how good we think we are.

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Shame its always only the 2 or 3 successtories we hear, and hardly any of the folks who dive into this headfirst (and come up short) dont have the guts to spill the beans on their experiences..

Seroiusly? If you're always hearing about them there must be more than 2 or 3. I always thought it seemed like the other way around though. I think we hear more stories of bad first flight experiences from lowtimers (and sometimes not so low timers) than we hear the good stories. I believe this is because the low timers who do tell success stories on here end up catching a lot of shit (some of which they bring on themselves) like Butters and Skittles.

If Chris McNamara had come on here a year ago (with 100 skydives and a handful of cliff jumps in a home-made tracking suit), looking for info on wingsuits for base jumping, he likely would have caught some shit too.

[Butters 0]

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I believe this is because the low timers who do tell success stories on here end up catching a lot of shit (some of which they bring on themselves) like Butters and Skittles.

One, there are some big differences between Skittles and myself. Two, bring on the s**t (there's a lot of money to be made in fertilizers ).

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[VectorBoy 0]

Shame its always only the 2 or 3 successtories we hear, and hardly any of the folks who dive into this headfirst (and come up short) dont have the guts to spill the beans on their experiences..

Are you sure there are that many hard luck stories out there?

I punched a hole through a boulder with my head once and the ranger made me buy a whole new boulder

[NSEMN8R 0]

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One, there are some big differences between Skittles and myself.

Probably not as big of a difference as you might think right now. You're both flying wingsuits just fine right now and you both started with less jumps than some people think you should have. In a couple years when you have a thousand or whatever jumps you'll look back and realize that there really wasn't much difference between 150 tracking jumps and 150 FF jumps. You're green as fuck either way at that stage of the game. And once you have a bunch of ws jumps (or put a sweet video on youtube) it won't matter how or when you started anyways.

Jarno said it well:

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100 jumps means shit when talking about experience..200 jumps means shit when talking about experience..

That's why I sometimes don't have a problem teaching newer people. They're really not any more likely to fuck it up and have a bad experience than someone with 250 jumps. I think people should be able to decide for themselves what they are ready for.

[bodypilot1 0]

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I think he made it pretty obvious in the video that some more experience would have benefited him as far as his canopy skills. Even with the lack of experience he had great flights though.

Not really. From the words of Chris's own mouth to me. "If I had listened, and started out with a lower performance suit like you had recommended, I would have had much better flights. I'm so over the Vampire......." Chris now jumps a Phantom2 and says he has much better flights.
Regardless of the numbers, he went for the highest performance suit without the skills to fly it and got lucky. Thats not a Rockstar.
Not everyone will be lucky if we start lowering the recommended jump numbers.......

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[hjumper33 0]

Yup, I see a lot of tippiness in those videos. I have a lot of respect for Chris because he took what he loved (climbing) and turned it into his life's work with his books, that are from what I understand, pretty damn good, and actually are very cautious. Now I just need money to travel around the world...

[NSEMN8R 0]

If he writes a book about his wingsuit/base experience it's not going to sound very cautious.

Did he take it out of a plane at all first or were his first real wingsuit flights actually off a cliff in a Vampire?

[mfnren 2]

He got damn lucky... I saw plenty of exits that made me and the other jumpers cringe and hold our breath until we saw him fly away.

From personal experience. I bought a v2 right away, Ed sold it to me, I could fly it ok. Now that I have been flying a phantom and other suits my skills have improved much faster. I should have went for the phantom or another smaller suit 1st.

[Chubba 0]

Cool video The footage on the potato bridge is intense, "like this?", "no don't do that".. great words to hear when you're about to jump off a bridge

Don't want to throw anything off topic, but people are talking about flying smaller suits to learn faster. If larger folks that buy Vampires straight off should be learning on a Phantom etc., does that mean smaller blokes should buy/fly the hell out of something like a Prodigy/Intro? Or are they right to do there first flight on a beginner suit then fly a Phantom which ultimately is appropriate to flock with for a small weight?