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justhavingfun

freefly question, need advise please...

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Hi everyone, I’m pretty new to this forum, but I have a question that’s been bothering me and I would just really like someone else’s opinion on this matter. Is there a specific number of jumps required before you start learning to freefly? I am a girl with in the 60 jumps and was given a hard time by someone with 1300 jumps, not an instructor or anything, for learning how to freefly. Now isn’t this sport supposed to be all about being safe and having fun? My boyfriend is a freeflyer with about 1300 jumps and according to his friends, who have been jumping with him for years, is a great freeflyer. I want to jump with him, so therefore he is teaching me to freefly. I have about 40 jumps with him, most of them sit flying, and he’s been coaching me on every jump, and according to him and his friends, I am progressing faster than the average guy, which is fine with me, but I don’t really care about that, I’m just having fun. Skydiving is such a humbling experience, it’s not about how good you are or what you can do. We eat sleep and drink skydiving, watch video after video, talk about what’s safe, how to be the safest you can be on every jump. He is one of the safest people that I know, skydiving or not skydiving, and would never put me in any situation that would put me in danger, it is just not worth it, there is so much that we have to live for, we want to get married, have kids, hopefully teach them how to skydive one day. I am very stable and slowed down by pull time, and I am just having fun with the person I love. I see people with low number of jumps doing things that they are not supposed to be doing, I don’t see anyone giving them a hard time. We don’t judge anybody or criticize anyone, we just go to the dropzone to jump and to have fun with each other and our friends, what is so wrong with that?

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You are getting coached jumps with someone who has high enough jump numbers to know what he's doing. As long as you have a rig that is freefly friendly, it seems like you are doing everything right to me.
She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

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Everyone has opinions on what others should and should not do.

IMO, skydiving is skydiving. You have many diciplines to choose from. If FF is what floats your boat, do it. It's your money and your jump.There are risks with every dicipline.

Take it all with a grain of salt. That's what I did.;)



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Welcome to the dark side. Since your boyfriend is an experienced jumper and he's giving you coaching on pretty much every jump, then one would assume that you're already a step ahead of the game compared to other people with similar experience doing the same thing you are. In fact I predict that pretty soon you'll be a kick ass freeflier. As far as this other bloke is concerned. Ignore him. The guy is obviously a baboon for not recognizing the coaching you are getting and is likely a stuck up RWer who's upset because yet another skydiver has joined the dark side.

Good luck with your future jumps. B|


Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

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I was the same as you, while doing my consoles on AFF I had xperianced FFs(5000+ jumps) ask me what i'm doing,i'd tell them and their reply would be no you're not you are coming with us. I've never known anything else except freeflying and at one stage i also got the mandatory story that you just had. If you weren't getting some form of coaching the I would have been inclined to agree with that guy to a point. FF you have atendancy to track across the sky very quickly without realising it, especially HD, and some people are not aware of this and possibly dangers. But you are getting coaching so go for it girlfriend and bollocks to the rest of them, within reason of course, safety first!!!!:ph34r::ph34r::ph34r:

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It has been MY experience that the people who usually tell you to do RW first...are the ones who did RW first...keeping in mind that FF is relatively new in comparison.

My .02 and experience.....Don't use coaching as a security blanket. I did sooo many solos and 2 ways w/ people of the same experience level to get basic positions and meneuvers down. Then my more experienced friends would take me up for a video and some 'coaching' each week or so...I repeated that process many times. Each time working out any kinks till I could start hangin' on the kick ass dives.



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Hi JHF! :)
It's awesome that you and your boyfriend both love skydiving so much. I also have a boyfriend who skydives, so I know what it's like to share that passion. However, I began dating him after I began my skydiving lessons; therefore, I truly pursued this independently. I'm currently not working, so I go to the DZ during the week and without him all the time. People at my DZ know that I do this for me, but I'm sure that some people will always have a hard time believing that a girlie female would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

These are questions to make you go hmmmmm? Did you pursue this sport on your own and have you decided on your own what you want from it? Would you ever go to the DZ or pursue some other skydiving discipline that you love without you BF? If you broke up with him tomorrow, would you still pursue freeflying? Finally, how many jumps did you have before you first began learning to sit, and are you able to be very stable on your belly?

My boyfriend is a freeflier himself. I was prepared to pursue freeflying more, but I have realized that I love RW. If I had to choose one discipline over the other, I would choose RW. :o I was pretty surprised when I realized this. Also, my BF and I have decided to learn more in each other's areas. He may even end up on his belly a whole lot more. That would be a first...getting a freak to convert to RW! Anyway, I'm not holding my breath. I am still such a baby in this sport. Who knows? I may eventually go to the darkside. Head down does sound VERY enticing...

Good luck with all, and don't let other's pettiness make you feel down. Others are probably jealous that you have coached jumps for free. Of course you will learn very quickly as you are eating, breathing and dreaming freeflying. If I meet you someday, you can give me some pointers...I'll need them. ;) Rock on, sky sister!

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i have about 70 jumps.
half RW and half sitfly (or attempts too...)

if you follow the rules, use the right gear, dont try things way over your levels, and keep your ears open for reviews and advices, you are fine.

having a b/f as a coach is a huge bonus...
the rest of us have to pay for that ;)

O
"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."

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Hi VSG! To answer some of your questions. I went with a friend of mine to a dz, she went to do a tandem, I went as a spectator, there was no way I would jump out of a plane. A couple of years later I went for a tandem just to say I've done it. Got to the ground, signed up for the AFF class!!! I met my boyfriend around the same time, but we didn't start dating untill months later, we were really good friends though, so yes, this is something I wanted to do for myself. We jump independently from each other, he's fortunate to be at the dz more than me because of work, so he's usually always there when I am. Right now I am really loving learning to freefly, but who knows, after a few hundred jumps I might try some freestyle, that is something I am really interested in too, so yes, I will definately pursue whatever makes me happy in skydiving. I did my first sitfly try around 38 jumps, and I am slowed down and stable on my belly at pull time!

Good luck with you too, this is such a great sport with such great energy, and great people, I love it! If we meet someday we should definately go fly together, belly, freefly, its all in good fun!!;)

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Most likely what they are concerned about is having to deal with things at such a high rate of speed that is involved with freeflying.
Belly flying is a great way to learn essential skills at lower speeds.
You are definately lucky that you have a coach on practically every jump, this will definately help your learning curve.
Whatever you choose to do though, have fun and be safe.


~La La Gang Member #2~

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this is such a great sport with such great energy, and great people, I love it!

I agree!

If we meet someday we should definitely go fly together,

I'd be honored to do a 2-way with you! :)
It really sounds like you are being safe, having fun and learning a lot. It's strange that people would object. Let me know if you ever do pursue freestyle. That is something that I think would suit my abilities, too, so I am keeping that in mind for the future. It would be great to know someone else who pursued it. Bye for now! :)

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Perhaps just semantics, but I don't think skydiving is all about being safe...perhaps being safety conscious (reducing risk to a level we can accept). Bowling is all about being safe. Also in a hundred years I think they will laugh at how we put ourselves in these little boxes of 'belly flying' and 'headdown' or 'sit'. Watch Olav in 'Crosswind'. Belly, back, up, down, in, out...now that's freeflying! And as a sport I feel like we are still very much in the infancy stage. Anyway, I do agree about having fun. We are lucky to have found this amazing and beautiful sport.

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well put ixlr82...i was pissed off when i first read this string...wanted to write a ranting reply to the nimrod who "tells" anyone how to fly. give the idiot a good separation on exit, tell him to go F--- himself and go freefly...

skydiving is fun, dont you ever forget that.


________________________________
Where is Darwin when you need him?

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