Christian Riley on Safety Culture in Skydiving, Paragliding & BASE Jumping

Photo by Dennis Sattler.

As an Asian-American woman skydiver with a few years in the sport, I think a lot about skydiving: what I love about the community and what we could do better. One of the things I wouldn’t change is actually a person I met three years ago while skydiving at a drop-zone about an hour outside of Los Angeles.

Christian Riley is a skydiver, BASE jumper and paraglider with Black and Mexican roots and a seasoned adventure athlete who enjoys spending a lot of time outdoors. It comes as no surprise that, four years ago, he decided to make good on his long-standing desire to learn how to skydive, and booked a course while at work one day. He’s dedicated and driven, all while being one of those truly genuine and goodhearted people, who almost always has a smile on his face.

A few things you should know about Riley. He’s not an adrenaline junkie chasing his next high. He chases knowledge and experience, which has led him to fly off cliffs and jump out of planes all over the world. He’s put in the time and effort required to progress safely in air sports and he encourages others to do the same. He credits his professional experience in the Marine Corps and firefighting for laying the foundation for his approach to risk management. Even at his home drop-zone of Skydive Perris, where standards are particularly high, Riley stands out among the crowd.

Riley also makes time to help newer skydivers. Sharing what he’s learned with newer jumpers is central to his passion for skydiving. He’s a big champion of progressing methodically and thoughtfully in air sports. We sat down with him to talk about his skydiving career, how he's found freedom and community within air sports, the importance of mentorship and safety, and how he's worked to make his dream of wingsuit BASE jumping a reality. 

Keep scrolling to read our interview with Riley. The interview transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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Christian launches a gainer off a sandstone cliff with his right hand gripping his bottom of container pilot chute. BASE jumpers leap from buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs) in order to earn their BASE number. Photo courtesy of Christian Riley.

Riley cruises on a sunset skydive over southern California with friends. Photo by Jeff Carlucci.

Current sports: Skydiving (wingsuit), BASE jumping, paragliding

Skydives: 993, 650+ wingsuit jumps

Base jumps: 225

Years in skydiving: 4 years

Years in base jumping: 2 years

Heritage: Black and Mexican. My dad’s side of the family is Black and my mom’s side of the family is Mexican, originally from Mérida, Yucatán.

Occupation: Firefighter

Siblings: 2 older brothers and 1 younger sister

Home DZ: Skydive Perris

Favorite paragliding launch: Marshall, because there's so much to do and learn there, like ridge soar and fly thermals, and there are so many great people who can show you the possibilities in paragliding.

Skydiving gear: Mirage container, Squirrel Epicene 150, Squirrel Freak 3, PD Optimum 143, Cypres AAD

Base gear: Squirrel Crux, Squirrel Stream 2, Hayduke 240

Paragliding gear: Ozone Buzz Z5, Supair Altirando 3

Speedflying gear: Ozone Rapi-Dos 13m, Ozone Oxygen 1

Records/Awards: As long as I can help other people continue to do these sports safely for the long haul, that's my award. I don't need much else!

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Riley gives a high five to the camera while preparing his rig for the first jump of the day. Photo courtesy of Christian Riley.

Melanin Base Camp: You're a multi-hyphenated athlete and quite experienced in a number of sports. What are you currently focusing on?

Christian Riley: Wing-suiting, paragliding, and BASE jumping. I didn't know that I wanted to do wing-suit BASE or even start BASE jumping when I got into skydiving, but through the people I surrounded myself with, I started to get interested. While I learned about the sport, I learned more about weather. Familiarizing myself with weather and how it can affect you in the BASE jumping world led me towards paragliding and getting a better understanding of mountain weather specifically. During a trip to Switzerland, one of my original instructors convinced me to go out and do some paragliding with him, and after that I was hooked.

Melanin Base Camp: What do you get out of being involved in so many different extreme sports?

Riley: My freedom. I have the ability to get out and do what I want, be myself, and not have to worry about anything else or anyone around me — aside from the safety aspect of flying with and around other people. It's my time to do what I want to do outside of work. I enjoy getting outside as much as I can, whether that involves cycling, mountain biking, dirt biking, racing motorcycles, paragliding, scuba diving, or surfing. It's about taking the time to relax and do what I want.

Melanin Base Camp: What does your family think about your passion for adventure sports?

Riley: I got my mom to go skydiving a year and half into the sport. I kept asking her and she said, “no,” and then one day I asked her and she said, “yes.” She was stone silent in the plane and then, upon landing, she was crying tears of joy, asking when we were going to go again. That was when she was 55 years old. We’ve had a lot of really good talks about life and everything in general and, even with BASE jumping, she’s 100% behind it.

Melanin Base Camp: What do you like best about skydiving?

Riley: If I had to pick a single discipline it would be wing-suiting. Aside from wing-suiting, my favorite part of the sport is helping others learn and progress in the discipline. When I first started jumping, I latched onto tracking, then tracking suits, and then I found wing-suiting. After that, it was all over! I wanted to learn everything I could — not only to help others progress, but also to push them beyond my own abilities. That, to me, is one of the most fun things about this sport.

Melanin Base Camp: Are you at the point where you're mentoring folks in BASE jumping too?

Photo courtesy of Christian Riley.

Riley: I haven't reached that point, although mentorship, generally, is huge to me. It starts at all different levels. With any bit of new information that you learn, you want to be able to take it in and understand it to the point where you can pass on that knowledge to someone else. What you learn could help keep you alive, and potentially keep other people safe as well. While I'm not at the point of formally taking on a role as a mentor, mentorship is constant and ongoing. Within skydiving and BASE jumping, it's our personal responsibility to maintain an environment of mentorship and safety so that we can help keep ourselves and others safe — and keep having fun!

Melanin Base Camp: What's been the most challenging aspect of being involved in air sports?

Riley: The most challenging thing in skydiving is trying to help a large number of people, especially those who are part of different social groups or maybe not thinking about the dangers of what they're doing. Some people continue to push through the sport while not realizing that they're putting themselves in a lot of danger. It's not realistic to try to help everyone in the sport though, that’s wishful thinking. I try to help as many people as I can in order to make this sport safer. Going back to the importance of mentorship, I think we as skydivers—or athletes in any adventure sport—have a responsibility to keep everyone afloat, and make our communities safer.

Melanin Base Camp: What's your hot take on adventure sports and social media?

Riley: We're in a funny state with that, especially because everyone is at home watching short clips on social media these days. We see things on Instagram and Facebook and want to be as cool as the next person, but what social media doesn't capture is how much work it takes to get there. We as a society, at least as Americans, seek instant gratification, which can hinder us because we don’t realize how much work it takes to become that good. Or how many BASE jumps that social media influencer didn’t make, due to poor weather conditions, or fatigue, or safety concerns. Instant gratification is the opposite of a good safety culture. The sooner that we're able to realize the amount of hard work and experience that goes into being a successful BASE jumper, skydiver or paraglider, the more likely we are to actually become one. I try to bridge that gap for newer jumpers and focus on the fact that if you're willing to put in the work, you can be just as good as that person on Instagram, or even better. We need to seek the knowledge.

Melanin Base Camp: Skydiving, BASE jumping and paragliding are all high-stakes activities with a low margin of error. What other experiences have shaped how you think about risk and safety?

Riley: I deal with stress really well, and that has a lot to do with my professional background. I served in the Marine Corps for 5 1/2 years and then began working with the fire department, which I've done for the last 13 years. With all the activities I do, I'm pretty good at making sure I stay within my limits. I don't push myself beyond a certain percentage of my skill. In other words, I don't fly at 100% of my ability. I like to have a safety margin to ensure I can respond to other factors outside my control.

I'm well-rounded in my sports and want to keep doing all of these hobbies. To do them well (and safely), you have to stay active in them. To keep yourself safe, you have to understand and break each one of them down. I don't look at them from a "how can I do that trick?" perspective. For me, I always weigh risk versus reward: do I really need to do that trick? Can I do something that's almost as cool and makes me happy, and not potentially hurt myself doing it? There are some people who want to do things because they want to look cool or who want to win the biggest prize. I don't. My biggest prize is to talk about what I've done with friends and family, and show that it can be done safely — that you can have just as much fun without compromising your safety.

Melanin Base Camp: Do you have any advice for people who want to get into skydiving, paragliding, or BASE?

Riley lands his canopy at Skydive Perris with a massive grin, as he usually does. Photo by Dennis Sattler.

Riley: Be a student of whatever sport you want to take part in. When I say be a student, that means learn everything about the sport. If you don't understand something, seek the knowledge, and talk to as many people who have that knowledge as you can. It's okay to ask questions because that's how we learn. Learn from the good and the bad, because history tells all: understand why things happened the way they did, and how others have kept themselves safe. Within the BASE community, I know a lot of people who have been in the sport for a long time. I look at them and want to know, "what has kept you safe these 10, 20, 30 years, and how do I get to do that? How do I gain that knowledge for myself, so I can pass it on to others?

Melanin Base Camp: What are your goals for the near future?

Riley: I'm currently coaching wingsuiting and would like to be recognized with Squirrel as an instructor. My goal is to go through their course to be able to teach their wingsuiting first flight courses. I feel like the biggest impact that you can have is to teach students, and that includes new wingsuiters, new skydivers, or new paraglider pilots. During the first moments that somebody is introduced to a discipline—or sport or hobby—you can have a significant impact on whether or not they will keep pursuing their goal, or how they feel about it the learning experience.

Wingsuit BASE jumping is another goal. I was recently talking to somebody who asked if it was a bucket list item. It's not a bucket list item that I want to check off, but more a dream and a goal that I want to work hard to attain. I’ve talked to the mentors that I've surrounded myself with starting from around the 100-jump mark of skydiving and, at first, I decided to do whatever it took to get there. But, I eventually took a step back and thought, ‘I'm not in a rush, it'll happen when it I'm ready, and when things fall together for the right reasons.’

Photo courtesy of Christian Riley.