BASE Jumping vs Skydiving: What’s the Difference?

Table of Contents

• What is BASE Jumping?
• Key Differences Between BASE Jumping vs Skydiving
• Pros & Cons: Which Is Right for You?
• Is BASE Jumping Safer than Skydiving?
• Want to Become a BASE Jumper?

Key Takeaways

Skydiving is a jump from an airplane with a two-parachute setup and extensive training. With 30-60 seconds of freefall parachute deployment, it’s a controlled experience that prioritizes safety. BASE jumping is more extreme and high-risk. Jumpers leap from stationary, low-altitude objects (Buildings, Antennas, Spans, Earth) with one parachute. Freefall is very short with little room for error.

What is BASE Jumping?

BASE jumping is an extreme sport where jumpers leap from fixed objects with a single parachute. The term “BASE” is actually an acronym that represents the various objects you can jump from:

• B: Buildings

• A: Antennas

• S: Spans, like tall bridges
• E: Earth, such as cliffs

Some jumpers also consider an “Other” category, which could include really anything tall enough with an open landing area, like smokestacks or grain silos. It’s the jumper’s responsibility to obtain permission from the owner before jumping from their property.

Key Differences Between BASE Jumping vs Skydiving

While skydiving and BASE are both parachute sports, there are key differences that make each activity unique.

Jump Altitude & Freefall Duration

While you can do low-altitude skydives as a solo jumper (“hop-and-pops”), generally most skydives are from 9,000 to 14,000 feet. Even hop-and-pops are typically around 5,000 feet. Meanwhile, BASE jumpers leap from much lower altitudes – in some cases as low as 100 feet with static line deployment methods. 

Even for higher altitude objects, BASE jumps are still done from much lower altitudes than skydives. For example, Monte Brento in Italy is a popular BASE destination, with an estimated 15,000 jumps per year. The exit point has just under 4,000 feet of elevation, which is still well below the altitude where most skydivers exit.

Parachute Systems

Related to the altitude differences in each sport, BASE jumping gear only contains one parachute, unlike skydiving’s dual-parachute system. With so little altitude to correct any malfunctions, most BASE jumpers forego the reserve parachute. However, the BASE main parachute has differences in manufacture and packing from the skydiving main parachute in an effort to widen the margin of error that’s intrinsic to BASE.

Oversight

Most countries with a robust skydiving community have a governing body that provides keen oversight of the sport. These organizations set training standards, issue credentials and licensure, enforce strict protocols and regulations, make industry-wide recommendations, and advocate for the sport on a national level. The United States Parachute Association (USPA), for example, was founded in 1946 and has been closely monitoring skydiving safety since 1961.

BASE, in comparison, is not an organized sport. There is no governing body for BASE jumping. Training, rules, procedures, and standards are largely self-imposed.

Training

Reputable BASE jump instructors will require mentees and students to have solid skydiving experience first – typically a minimum of 200 solo skydives. Once you learn how to skydive solo and have enough jumping experience under your belt, you can schedule your BASE course.

Regulations

Is BASE jumping illegal in the US? While the sport as a whole is not illegal in the US, it is illegal to BASE jump in many places throughout the country. For example, BASE jumping is prohibited in US National Parks – except for the New River Gorge Park during Bridge Day on the third Saturday of October every year. 

The main legal issue BASE jumpers run into is trespassing. One place BASE jumpers are always welcome, though, is the Perrine Bridge in Idaho. At this famous Twin Falls landmark, BASE jumping is permitted without a permit year-round. 

Cost Considerations

After earning the required credentials, BASE jumping is cheaper than skydiving. Brand new BASE gear is usually about half or even one-third of the price of brand new skydiving gear. With such low altitude deployments, BASE jumpers don’t jump with a reserve parachute or an Automatic Activation Device (AAD), bringing down the gear cost significantly.

Furthermore, the objects you can BASE jump from are usually free. With skydiving, you pay about $20-$40 per skydive to account for the costs of the airplane to fly, even if you own all your own gear. 

Jumping Community

Another perk of BASE? Unlike skydiving, which requires a dropzone, a pilot, and enough people to fill the plane, you can BASE jump completely by yourself. That being said, both skydiving and BASE jumping have strong communities and events where athletes come together and jump.

BASE jumping has a smaller community, and aside from planned events such as Bridge Day in West Virginia, there aren’t too many places you can go to reliably meet other BASE jumpers. With skydiving, dropzones tend to function like a second home to licensed jumpers. BASE has a wonderful community, but it might take longer to find depending on where you live.

Pros & Cons: Which Is Right for You?

To get into BASE jumping, most people start with skydiving. Some begin with paragliding and, less commonly, some people enter the sport through BASE directly. This is exceedingly ill-advised. BASE jumping is an extremely high-risk sport that should not be attempted without extensive training. Most BASE instructors won’t accept any students with less than a USPA C License.

Since the best way to become a BASE jumper is to first learn how to skydive, you’ll get a true taste for what skydiving is like and gain critical skills and proficiency. Then, you can sign up for a BASE course or chat with the BASE jumpers you’ll likely meet at any given dropzone. Factors such as available legal objects, nearby dropzones, finances, and time will all contribute to which sport is right for you. 

Most importantly, though, you’ll need to consider the risk. Both skydiving and BASE jumping are inherently dangerous, but BASE jumping takes away the most reliable safety precautions of skydiving for a more extreme experience.

Is BASE Jumping Safer than Skydiving?

The short answer: no. BASE jumping is not safer than skydiving. It is a higher-risk activity due to various factors, including the lack of a reserve parachute and the limited altitude to fix any issues that arise. In fact, it’s safety that people both in and outside of the BASE community site see as the disadvantage of BASE jumping.

What is the failure rate of BASE jumping? This is hard to answer since the sport is less organized and regulated than skydiving. There is a documented BASE Fatality List that has a record of BASE and BASE-related deaths, and some statistics have been tracked for popular BASE jumping locations. But we don’t know how many fatalities occur per year because the data is limited; reporting is not mandatory.

One dataset published in a 2007 study out of Norway found that BASE jumping has a 1 in 2,317 fatality rate. This is in stark contrast to safety statistics reported by the USPA, which notes a 2024 fatality rate of 1 in 431,111 (9 in 3.88 million). 

Want to Become a BASE Jumper?

The best way to get into BASE is to get your skydiving license! We’ve got you covered at Skydive Monroe – book your tandem skydive or enroll in Accelerated Freefall training. Let the adventure begin! Blue skies!