First Three Tandem BASE Numbers Awarded

The La Palapa Hotel, Acapulco, December 8 and 9, 2018
First Three Tandem B.A.S.E Numbers Awarded at the La Palapa Hotel in Acapulco Mexico

Tandem BASE is now officially a thing and so are the bragging rights to the numbers. The Acapulco event held by Avery Badenhop and Team ILL Vision of Nor Cal created numbers 1, 2, and 3 of the first official Tandem BASE number sequence.

Tandem BASE now offers just about anyone the opportunity to earn their BASE number legally off all four objects. This opens the door to a full experience of one of the most dangerous sports on the planet’s history.

Sean Chuma is the world leader BASE Tandem Master with more than 500 Tandem BASE jumps and more than 5,000 BASE jumps, the most in the world.

According to Chuma’s website:

“In 2009, Chuma and his former business partners developed the world’s first commercial Tandem Base Jumping operation. During the experimental phase, Chuma personally performed most of the test jumps with experienced BASE jumpers acting as passengers. Since 2009, he has completed over 500 tandem BASE jumps without incident and currently holds the record for the most tandem BASE jumps completed.”

As soon as Avery Badenhop, BASE event organizer, heard about this extraordinary opportunity for a non-jumper to make a BASE jump he immediately helped his daughter, Alexandria, get her first BASE jump and quickly went to work on putting together tandem BASE with jumps from all four objects.

“A couple years ago I had an idea to promote Tandem BASE. That was to have my daughter make the four jumps of BASE. My daughter has known BASE jumping her whole life, so for her it was quite a thrill to accept the task. Also, her boyfriend was super interested, and Sean’s girlfriend as well. So, they all jumped from a bridge, then they went to jump from a cliff, recently all jumped from an antenna, and now the building in Acapulco. This has never been done before! This project was started in 2016, so it has taken us a couple years to accomplish.” Avery Badenhop said.

All three participants completed their Bridge (Span), Earth, and Antenna jumps; all they needed was their Building. Avery Badenhop, with the help of Johnny Saavedra, organized the event specifically to close the deal on the first three tandem BASE numbers after being denied tandem BASE in KL in October of this year.

Alexandria Badenhop, Brian Crail, and Brenton Black used the legal Acapulco Building event to earn their last object at 325 feet. Both Alexandria and Brian using perfect conditions of the early morning and Brenton earning her fourth object on a night jump covered in blinky lights over a packed beach and poolside.

Tandem BASE #1 Alexandria Badenhop
Tandem BASE #2 Brian Crail
Tandem BASE #3 Brenton Black

Back in the ’90s Avery completed all four objects in Mexico. He secured the first Mexican BASE #1 with freefall backflips for all four objects. This was an awesome road trip with Aerial Extreme filming the piece, Mexican Backflip BASE:

During that expedition, Avery and the gang poached the hotel for days. Now, some 15 years later he’s been asked back to help promote Mexico’s most famous beach destination and playground, Acapulco. The Acapulco event leveraged the hotel La Palapa and beachside location to bring attention, attraction, and entertainment to the general beach-going public and tourists. A very low building, at just 325 feet, required specific jumper selection, attention to detail, and thoughtful jump planning. Jumping took place directly over an open and busy pool area, bar, and sunbathers.

The La Palapa Hotel Low Altitude Parachute Deployment Demonstration Jumping took place over two days. Twenty-five jumpers made a casual 186 injury-free jumps over 12 hours of open jumping. And the public, hotel management, and local tourism officials loved it.

Badenhop’s access to four legal objects not only opens doors to an entirely new tourist concept, it also gives rise to the first ever BASE event circuit utilizing all four objects and opening the door to an entirely different global BASE boogie. More on that later.