shotwell15

Three weeks after my first attempt at L2, I decided to head to try out a new DZ yesterday. The decision to move to a new DZ was primarily due to it being a little less expensive than my first. It doesn't look like I'm going to breeze through AFF, so I need to budget conscious. I arrived at the DZ confident and prepared for my jump. The last two weeks were spent practicing my arch and visualizing a successful jump. While registering, the DZ boss (not quite sure what this is called) reviewed my log book and said, " it says you need tunnel time before your next jump. Did you do that?". He continued, " because right now, reading your logbook, it doesn't look good". He continued the questioning, when I finally said, " if you are not comfortable letting me jump, I understand and will continue with my other DZ". After a moment of consideration, he said that he would have someone work with me. . I'll be honest, that exchange pretty much shattered my confidence. I had a couple of hours of waiting to let that stew. "Was I already getting the 'how about golf' speech", I thought. I'm not that great at golf either, so it my have to be something like Bingo. I hear the 20 minute call followed by name over the loud speaker. I quickly met with my JM, geared up, discussed the dive flow (which was different than my first L2 jump), and we were off. On the way to altitude i tried to relax and visualize/remember the new dive flow. I found myself getting a little worked up in my head. Despite my best efforts, I was kinda of in a negative place. It was weird because I was a lot more nervous than on than my previous jumps. errr. Well, bottom line, I'm feeling a little discouraged at the moment--I need to repeat my L2 jump...Again. It's those damn telephone poles i have for legs that was the culprit. I did however, notice that I had definitely had improved my form since my last jump. The silver lining? The logbook entry reads: "Good exit cadence. Dearched on exit. Good response to shake but could still use more arch. Good COA, good response to legs signal but they came back up (can always do the toe taps to check legs). Did 3 PTs + TTs. Did left turn. Locked on @ 6K and pulled at 5500. Good Landing. Remember arch, legs, + relaxing. Repeat Cat B". I thought about trying it again in the same day, but decided to wait until next weekend. I really liked this DZ and my JM and will stick with this one. I plan on incorporating more toe taps into the dive. These really seemed to help, and were a new addition to the dive flow. I also need to work on relaxing my body. I'm normally a tense person, so this is proving to be a challenge. I'm still having fun, so I plan on staying the course. But I have to say, that it's really discouraging to have to repeat a level this many times so early in the program. -am

Good points. I'm thinking way too much about it. I totally agree that I need to relax. I'll keep practicing my visualization and breathing.

Thanks everyone for the input. It's much appreciated. I was able to deploy on my own at the correct altitude. I definitely plan on doing more tunnel time at some point, but I'm starting to think that I should give the L2 another try first. I do recall my JMs saying that I kinda panicked briefly when I lost my goggles. Perhaps this had more of an effect on my performance than I originally thought , especially since i was worried that i was going to loose my glasses. Again, thanks for everyone's advice. -Adam

Hi Everyone, I'm an AFF student in need of some input. I recently took my level 2 jump and was bummed to learn that I need to repeat the level--the problem seems to be stability, or lack of it. My exit on my level 1 sent me and my JMs into a back flip immediately. We recovered fairly quickly, but the unexpected flip really threw me off my game during the rest of the FF. During my debriefing I learned that I jumped out in the fetal position with one knee up ( i'm 6'4, 215lbs, so door setup is awkward). JM gave me some tips on practicing my arch before my next jump. With two weeks in between jumps, I spent some time practicing my arch and visualizing a successful exit on my next jump. We tried a new door setup, with my left knee down. Counted off...Arch! Exit seemed stable(ish). Immediately began COA. Then I loose my goggles and have my glasses exposed (which stayed on during FF!). Did fast, half-ass practice touches. Moved on to the altitude,arch,legs,relax routine. Overall I had a great time and was happy to avoid flipping on our exit. During debrief I learned that my legs were on butt the whole time. I didn't respond to hand signals, but I think vision impairment contributed. JM said that that I wasn't stable at any point and that it took a lot of effort to keep me stable. He recommend tunnel time. I found a tunnel 5 hours away and booked a scant 4 mins. I concentrated on my legs but found that i needed more arm movement and seemed to have trouble getting off the floor part of the time. So here is my dilemma: Should I go give give the L2 jump another try, even though I wasn't all that pleased with my tunnel time? Or should I go and do some more tunnel time (maybe 15mins?) before I give L2 another shot. If the tunnel were closer then I would have no problem, but its 6 hours away from me. Although I am very new to skydiving, I've found that I really love it and cant stop thinking about it. I really want to get this. Any thoughts welcome. Thanks! -AM