Re: [goochie] 10 years plus, 1000+ wingsuit BASE jumps..
Back to the original thread, and statistics, I like statistics :)
Pretty much echoing what outrager said,
Extremely well seasoned jumpers with 10+ years and 1,000+ jumps (ws or not) are probably a statistical anomaly. Not in the sense that it is "dumb luck" but that in if you have a few thousand people doing something, a very small percent will be extremely successful. (In fact they are how we define success, if you look at skydiving, 1,000 jumps is not an "omg!" kind of thing, but that is only because there are lots and lots of people with a many more, and I can think of a handfull with 10,000 plus; the definition of "success" is different).
Whether it be a fast/risky learning curve and then backing off to a safer MO, as some have done and publicly proclaimed, or a really solid progression and slow accumulation of skills without ever pushing too hard, or just firing blind and getting lucky again and again, all ways work. But some folks who are fast/risky are going to go in (and if they got away with it just that one time, would have become one of the household names) or someone who is extremely competent and conservative just has a bad exit, bad opening, whatever.
But trying to find a magic formula for that kind of longevity is like trying to figure out why someone who smoked since they were 15 and lived to 100 never had any health issues. i.e. unintentionally reproducible statistical anomaly.
If you huck enough non jumpers (of any kind) off a cliff in a WS, eventually one of them is going to survive, as an extreme and dark, though amusing analogy.
You just have to hedge the odds in your favor with all the things everyone already knows, slow progression, don't rock at 100%, when in doubt hike back down, mind the weather, etc etc; but in the end you are still rolling dice.
