BASE jumping
BASE jumping is considered to be one of the most dangerous sports today. It is an extreme sport which implies jumping off fixed objects with a specially designed parachute. The term BASE itself is simply an abbreviation of Building, Antenna, Span, Earth – i.e. the objects which are used for jumping. The jump itself lasts less than one minute because the height of even the highest objects does not allow the jumper to use traditional techniques of conventional parachute jumping. Besides, the lack of time in BASE jumping does not allow the jumper to use an auxiliary parachute in case of the failure of the first one. Anyways, despite the danger, or maybe even thanks to it, there are more and more supporters of this type of activity. All of those who try BASE jumping have long histories of conventional parachute jumping so that they have enough experience to do such tricks. There are no amateurs in this sport.
Besides the short time of falling, another difference between BASE jumping and conventional jumping is the immediate vicinity of the object off which the person is jumping. Roughly speaking, you have to be very careful and not to slip during the jump as you may hit the object off which you're jumping. There have been lethal accidents when jumpers simply didn't estimate the distances and fell on rocks that were close to the points of jumping. Also, during the fall parachute jumpers have enough time to use the air flow for stabilization unlike BASE jumpers, whose speed is not so fast, so there is no time for stabilizing.