A Taste of BASE

I took my first BASE jump today from the bridge in this picture. The bridge is in Twin Falls, Idaho and it sits 450 feet above the Snake River. I took the jump as part of a half day introductory course for folks with paragliding experience called "A Taste of BASE". The course is run by world class BASE master Miles Daisher.

The course includes several hours of "classroom" discussion and one jump from the bridge. Miles holds the pilot chute for you so all you have to do is climb over the rail and jump off the tiny "diving board". By the time you've fallen 20 feet the parachute opens with a loud noise and then you just fly the parachute down to a landing in the water close to the shore. Flying the parachute is just like flying a doggy paraglider so that part was easy. The water landing was fun and felt refreshing. After I landed I was so pumped with adrenaline I could barely contain myself.

I went on the course with a new friend named Jamie. He's been having an exciting week; he had his first paraglider flights, his first tandem skydive, his first flight in an ultralight, and his first BASE jump all in the last 5 days! I wonder what he'll have to do on his next vacation to top that?

All in all it was a really fun day, even though I had to get up at 5:00 am and drive a nearly 500 mile trip to Twin Falls and back. I believe that Miles has come up with a fairly safe way to introduce people with some previous experience flying ram air wings to BASE. I heartily recommend " A Taste of BASE" to all my paragliding friends.