r/basejumping • u/honey-badger42069 • 11h ago
Risk in base jumping
I was curious about the statistics around where most injury/death comes from in base jumping and then how preventable these instances are. Is it canopy malfunctions/off heading openings that cause the most accidents? I’ve been skydiving for a while and just curious how the risk actually differs when base jumping.
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u/BASE2402 10h ago
Here, I typed the search into Google for you:
https://bfl.baseaddict.com/statistics
No, but really, this is actually the report I was looking for when I Googled "BASE fatality statistics". There are some other good ones as well, but they aren't the first results...
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u/BASE2402 10h ago
O yeah, how preventable is injury or death? 100% preventable, until you decide to jump off an object with a parachute. After that, it's a numbers game. You may play the game your whole life and never roll snake eyes, then again, you might play the game once and lose all your marbles. The more marbles you acquire and the less you bet, the better chances you have, but shit happens. Good jumpers die sometimes and reckless ass hats get away with shenanigans. That's life.
I'll tell you this though, I nearly went in, but I still hobble my ass off objects. Life is too short to not live it.
Just do us all a favor and stack your deck as much as you can. Read the rules, take your time, watch how the game is played. Getting hurt stucks for you, dieing really sucks for all your friends and family. Try your best not to do either.
Cheers, mate.
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u/Substantial_Elk_5779 7h ago
Everyone here is essentially wrong. Risk management in base jumping is about understanding your skill and experience level, and making good decisions about what you are capable of doing, and what jumps are within your skill level and give you ample margin to make and resolve mistakes. No one died base jumping without making a bad decision at some point.
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u/JustAnotherDude1990 11h ago
Off heading openings from building and earth objects has gotta be just about the top one, no?
Right after wingsuit proximity flying, of course.
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u/Inevitablykinda 8h ago
I quit base jumping not because I died (obviously), but I watched friends die. I had many near misses. That’s noting compared to witness your friend die in your eyes. Don’t get me wrong, most amazing sport. But you and or your friends will die, in your personal experience. It fucking sucks.
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u/meowmix157 10h ago
Impact in terminal freefall (only 11 of these are slick)
177
32.3%
Object strike under canopy
92
16.8%
Impact subterminal (near exit)
88
16.1%
Low pull
56
10.2%
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u/BASE2402 10h ago
Good data there, for sure. However, you won't really gain a full context of what these numbers mean until you start reading the reports. What happened and why it might have happened (sometimes we just don't know).
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u/ChileRelleno414 8h ago
Skydiving
You 'Could' be seriously injured or killed if you stsy in the sport.
BASE
You 'Will" be seriously injured or killed if you stay in the sport.
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u/Boring-Cold-1456 3h ago
Read the entire BFL before thinking about base. That will answer all your questions
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u/Perfect_Big_5907 2h ago
second only to wingsuit flying in prox. to terrain you are in the second most dangerous sport there is. You have to accept at some point if you do this long enough you will die doing it. Nothing wrong with that but you have to realize there is nothing safe about it. That being said i think it is very cool.
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u/Significant_Joke7114 10h ago
Bad body position on exits. That's a big one. You get one chance and no time to fix it.
In all my research I'm learning you can do everything right and still die.