TWIN FALLS — It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an adventurer plummeting nearly 500 feet down into the Snake River Canyon!

It’s summer in the Magic Valley, and that means BASE jumping season. While some outdoorsmen and -women choose to seek their thrills via raft or mountain bike, others prefer to leap off the Perrine Bridge with a parachute.

The canyon’s scenic views attract visitors from all over the world to Twin Falls. But it also offers a prime jump site year-round for those who want to experience the rush of hurtling, then floating, through the air.

BASE jumping, a sport that involves jumping with a parachute from a building, antenna, span (such as a bridge) or earth (such as a cliff) is considered more extreme than skydiving: you’re jumping from a lower altitude, giving you less time to pull your parachute or work out any issues you may have in the air.

The act of jumping off a bridge or cliff, with or without a parachute, is inherently risky. But there are fewer accidents in Twin Falls than you might think.

The sheriff’s office has responded to 17 calls for BASE jumping-related incidents since the beginning of 2017, Lt. Daron Brown said. Most of those calls are from jumpers who have landed wrong and hurt their leg or ankle. Calls for fatal accidents, Brown said, are rare.

“Compared to the number of jumps that go off the bridge every day, they’re very uncommon,” Brown said, noting that on some days as many as 100 jumps will take place on the Perrine Bridge.

Last month, a female BASE jumper in Twin Falls was flown to Boise with “serious but not life-threatening” injuries after she landed several hundred feet from the landing pad.

The relatively low percentage of jumps gone wrong may be due in part to the fact that many first-time solo BASE jumpers already have some experience falling through the air. It’s recommended that a person have about 200 skydives under their belt before they attempt BASE jumping solo, though there are no official rules or regulations.

Legally, somebody with no experience could buy their own gear and jump off the bridge — but it’s “not very smart,” said Marc Lambert, owner of Twin Falls BASE.

Lambert offers courses to people interested in taking the leap alone for the first time. Most of his clients are skydivers, he said, and many come from out of the state or country.

His four- to five-day courses include the practical basics, such as packing a parachute, landing patterns and how to jump in the right position and from the correct angle.

Other aspects of the course, such as discussions on the ethics of BASE jumping — “just being a good person, not burning bridges, respecting the areas and the objects” — are less technical. He also teaches his clients relaxation calming techniques, such as breathing exercises, in case nerves kick in once they’re up on the ledge.

“A lot of it is mental,” Lambert said. “If you’re going to jump off a bridge, it can kind of mess with your mind a little bit.”

The mental aspect of the sport shouldn’t be underestimated, said Sean Chuma, a professional BASE jumper who has completed more than 5,400 jumps over his career.

“A lot of it has to do with a person’s mindset and type of personality,” Chuma said. “You have to be open to the possibilities and have your mind prepared for whatever can happen. Sometimes people get in a little bit over their head.”

Chuma, owner of Tandem BASE in Twin Falls, offers both solo lessons and a tandem jumping service to beginners. He said his college degree in psychology has come in handy as an instructor.

“I understand the emotions involved,” Chuma said. “I can tell when I need to either use the yoga voice or use a bit more tension.”

Because tandem jumpers are strapped onto an instructor, they don’t need any prior skydiving experience, and the preparation is less intense, consisting mostly of some basic rules and guidelines. Chuma’s customers over the years have included Dorothy Custer, who did a tandem jump in 2013 when she was 102.

The goal of tandem jumping is to “share the sport,” Chuma said.

“It’s a small group of people, and all you can do is wonder what it’s like for these crazy people who go and jump off of stuff with parachutes,” Chuma said. “Once you see it…it really does change your perspective of why someone would do such a thing.”

BOISE — A revised version of a controversial trespassing bill will go to the House floor with the support of two Magic Valley lawmakers on the Agricultural Affairs Committee.

The legislation, HB 658, would change private property posting requirements for land owners while implementing harsher punishments for trespassers. The bill is an updated version of HB 536, which easily cleared the same committee three weeks earlier despite questions about its constitutionality and opposition from sheriffs around the state.

If passed, HB 658 would get rid of the requirement that private land owners mark their property with orange paint or signs every 660 feet. Instead, the land would need to be marked with signs or paint or enclosed with a fence or other boundary to the extent that “a reasonable person” would realize that he or she is on private property.

Both versions of the legislation have drawn criticism from sportsmen and outdoorsmen groups, who say loosening posting requirements will increase the chances that a hunter unknowingly trespasses on private property.

HB 658 is also opposed by the Idaho Sheriffs Association on the grounds that it would over-criminalize conduct that was previously benign, said spokesman Michael Kane.

An analysis of the earlier bill by the Attorney General’s office found that it may have violated the U.S. Constitution by turning “many innocent acts” into criminal offenses. The legislation was also opposed by the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association.

“The way it’s written, it makes it almost a per se trespassing crime if you happen to be on somebody else’s land,” Twin Falls Prosecutor Grant Loebs said at the time.

The updated bill, HB 658, addresses some of the legal concerns raised by the prosecutors and the Attorney General’s office by adjusting some of the language in the legislation and providing a list of people who would be excluded from the law, including someone who knocks on a stranger’s front door.

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The Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association no longer opposes the bill, Loebs said.

Rep. Maxine Bell of Jerome and Rep. Steve Miller of Fairfield, both Republicans, voted along with nine other lawmakers Tuesday to send HB 658 to the full House chamber with a do-pass recommendation.

“You have to be very careful that you don’t let the perfect be the enemy to the good,” Bell said, adding that lawmakers could work out any problems with the law during the next legislative session.

Rep. Sally Toone of Gooding, one of the panel’s two Democrats, voted to hold the bill in committee, along with Rep. Matt Erpelding, a Boise Democrat, and Rep. Randy Armstrong, a Republican from Inkom.

“I’d like to see us go to that next level of perfect,” Toone said.