Wingsuit Base Jumping

Get prepared for one of the hottest trends in skydiving: Wingsuit Base Jumping. If you have never seen wingsuit jumpers so far, your first thought may be “those guys are insane”. Just have a look at some YouTube videos.

What Exactly Is Wingsuit Base Jumping

People jump from clifs, airplanes or towers with special suits which let them slow down and control the fall - that’s basically wingsuit base jumping. Sometimes the jumpers start by skiing and throw away the ski while in the air. Then they are flying with the jumpsuit for certain amount of time which of course depends on the attitude of jumping. At some planned moment the flier has to deploy the parachute and land.

Photo by danceinthesky at Flick

The wingsuit slows the fall to about 30m per second and lets you move 20% more horizontally than you would without it.

Wingsuit jumps can also be performed as a skydiving discipline (from an airplane) but most skydivers find the BASE jumps far more exciting.

What Do You Need

First and most important - a wingsuit. The cost of a good wingsuit is about $1,500 - $2,000 and while it’s not cheap, I would not advise you to save money exactly from it.

Other encouraged equipment is AAD and Pilot Chutes.

Is Wingsuit Base Jumping Safe?

The main danger in base jumping and number one reason for fatalities is striking the object you have jumped from. The wingsuit reduces this risk because of the better horizontal movement it allows you do to.

However exactly the advantages of the wingsuit can turn against you - the low fall rate can perplex your judgement about the attitude and distance from the objects which often can cause accidents.

Often some more experienced wingsuit jumpers try to do jumps that would be impossible without the wingsuit. This can lead to accidents if they overestimate their capabilities.

If you don’t let be fooled by the extra safety that the wingsuit gives you, doing this king of jumps is not more dangerous than the other skydiving disciplines. As always, play safe and don’t let the adrenaline take over your mind.

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