level 2 AFF - apparently BASE jumping is NOT safe

I was in an airplane this morning prepping myself for my second skydive. I had the good fortune to meet the only other Asian person on the plane, coincidentally also named "Alex". He asked me how many jumps I've had so far. I hold up a single finger. I asked him how many he had, "About 180".

Keep in mind we are on a loud ass, propeller-driven plane, half yelling the whole time.

"What got you into skydiving?", he asks me.
"Too much Youtube!", I respond, "I want to BASE jump off cliffs in a wingsuit in the near future!"
"You're crazy man!"
"Why!?" (I was a bit offended being called crazy by a skydiver with 179 more jumps than me.)
"Listen, put it this way: You can convince your parents on the safety of skydiving based on the statistics available. You WILL NOT be able to do that with BASE jumping. I might do it as a bucket-list thing, but once is enough."

This is where I realized he was absolutely right about me. Here was my automatic response:

"If you are looking up safety statistics, then you should NOT be BASE jumping."

ESPN - A Sport to Die For

Welcome to my dream in three short films.

Update: 09/10/12 @ 11:45pm Central Time

I've been keeping track of a BASE fatality list and noticed yesterday that it was reported a Swedish woman died from a BASE jump.  What chilled me to the bone was I was checking it again today and saw that there is already a new fatality, a male from New Zealand.  It would be prudent for me to take my 180 jump Skydiving friend a bit more seriously.

BASE Fatality List

------------