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Welcome, Natalie! Heal quickly, and make sure you're back to 100% before you put your leg under stress again. It's worth the wait to make sure you're completely healthy. Arrive Safely John

Hi Kim!

Hi Cody, and welcome! Kris did you a HUGE favor by pointing you in the Dropzone.com direction. This is a great place to hang out. Tons of wonderful people here, including him. I met him at Raeford this year. You'll have to let him tow you over here next time he comes! See ya! Arrive Safely John

Hi Alana! Welcome to the forums after a long lurk! Sorry to hear about your injury; I wish you a speedy recovery. Keep us posted, OK? Meanwhile, you can stay connected here. I was out of things for two and a half months this Summer, and did exactly that. Blue ones backatcha! Arrive Safely John

Welcome back, Harro. Best of luck and wishes for a quick return to the big blue skies. Arrive Safely John

Hello and welcome to our world! Stop by and say hi to our host, Sangiro. This world is his creation! There are two dropzones on Long Island . . . Long Island Skydiving Center and Skydive Long Island I don't know much about either one. I have been to Skydive Cross Keys which I was very impressed with. Very friendly folks. Have fun!

Welcome! 1) There is a thread in Talkback about how old everyone was when they started skydiving. 2) Many people will not understand your passion. Others will think you are just nuts! Some will have the utmost respect for you. Mainly, your desire to talk about skydiving won't ever go away unless you walk away from the sport all together (I hope not). Meanwhile enjoy your new love . . . I still do after all these years! Arrive Safely John

It will be great to have you home, girl! Safe travels, and I'll see you when you return. I have a cold malt beverage with your name on it. Arrive Safely John

Great job, Bill. We need more switched-on jumpers like you. [Bow] Arrive Safely John

Yeah! Somehow I saw a video of that somewhere! Cool stuff! Arrive Safely John

Celine Dion walks into a bar and sits down. The bartender says: "Hey, why the long face?" LOLOLOLOLOL Arrive Safely John

IMHO, they "count" as jumps in the big scheme of things, but are not really applicable to USPA student progression or license requirements. Speaking for myself, I tell people I have been jumping out of airplanes for 19 years. True statement, counting the first 4 years of nothing but military static line jumps. In my "skydiving" logbook, I do not count those jumps. I have them logged separately. They are, after all, quite a different animal. Arrive Safely John

Welcome! I have never been to Vancouver, but I have heard it is beautiful. Have a safe trip and tell us how you like it when you get there. Meanwhile, enjoy the forums! Arrive Safely John

Hi Lefty! Welcome to the wonderful world of DZ.com. I have never met Dave, but have interacted with him quite a bit through these forums. He is a great guy. My family is full of lefties, although I am not. My wife is in her right mind, however. Enjoy the sport, and keep up the good work! Arrive Safely John

Welcome, Aimee! Enjoy our forums! Glad you came out of the shadowses to jois usss . . . Before reading the rest of the posts I had deciphered your user name, but would never have applied it to that profession. I was stumped. See ya! Arrive Safely John

Hi rocket, and welcome to the forums! It's great to hear your enthusiasm for skydiving, and yes I can relate to the addiction. I am to the point now that I get to share my joy of the sport with others by teaching them through tandems and AFF - it is a great experience to watch others experience personal breathroughs in their lives first hand. Enjoy the big blue sky . . . my only coaching for you is to get really good at the basic things before moving on to more advanced stuff, especially downsizing to faster, higher performance canopies. Be safe and have fun . . . Arrive Safely John

I came across this thread in "Introductions and Greets" by a wuffo looking for a place to make her first skydive. The interesting spin is that she wants to make it from a really high altitude. I noticed that Skydive Monterey Bay advertises high altitude tandems from 18,000 feet, which came as a surprise to me. I am a Military Free Fall (HALO) jumper, and have many high-altitude jumps. I am also required to undergo a ride in an "altitude chamber" every 5 years to teach me the symptoms of hypoxia and to make sure my body can still handle the physiological changes that occur at higher altitudes. 18,000 feet is the altitude where we HALO jumpers institute "pre-breathing" 100% oxygen for a specific time (30 minutes for that altitude) to ensure that our blood is oxygen-rich before we venture into thin air. To be clear, I am not passing judgement on the high-altitude practice, but I do have some questions for all of you, especially those dotcommers who may be on staff at Skydive Monterey Bay: 1) Is this a common practice? I have seen high-altitude jumps advertised at many dropzones, but not for tandems. 2) What measures are taken to provide oxygen for the tandem student (equipment, training, etc.??) 3) For those TMs who have experience doing these high-altitude tandems, how have your students handled the physiological stress? Arrive Safely John

Hi Catherine! Wlecome to the forums! You landed at the right spot . . . there are a TON of folks here that love our sport of skydiving, and share a wealth of information. My recommendation to you for a first jump is a tandem. You will have your own harness and be hooked to the front of a very experienced tandem instructor who wears a huge parachute (built for two!). Although I have never been there, I hear that Skydive Monterey Bay has gorgeous views. They advertise tandems from higher altitudes on their website as well. One word of caution - people handle the thin air above 10,000 feet differently. It affects all of us in different ways. We skydivers go to 13,000 feet or so regularly without batting an eyelash. We are above the 10,000 foot threshold for such a short time that it is normally a non-issue. Do some reading about 'hypoxia" (a deficiency of oxygen in the bloodstream) before you go. Have fun, and let us know how it goes! Arrive Safely John

In 19 years of jumping I have had countless "bounce" dreams. They don't come around very often, but they are quite vivid. I never get hurt, always walking away amazed in my dream that I had done so. Like you, the whole opening/landing part of them is fuzzy. I was a little put off by one dream I had about 8 years ago that involved me seeing someone else bounce. In the dream I walked over and saw his face. It was someone I know, which bolted me awake. That person recently retired from jumping, so he is safe now and I am no longer wary of the whole thing. Arrive Safely John

1*:6:0 *Skydiving art prints bought Arrive Safely John

This came up for me today. One of our regular visitors from about two hours away brought his best friend to make a tandem. He has 80 jumps and asked if he could swoop it. I told him I would rather he didn;t swoop it, but offered to let him exit right in front of us so he could still see the exit (four or five seconds later). He proceeded quite tactfully to show me in his logbook where he had done it before. I chose to stick with my suggestion. It went great, his buddy had a great time, and everyone was safely within their experience level limits. Arrive Safely John

Their normal turn around is 10 days from receipt of the unit. Tack on shipping to and from your location to get your total down time. Rental CYPRES units from SSK are expensive. I recommend you plan your family vacation during the downtime for your rig. I recommend you don't have the reserve packed without it so you can jump until it gets back. My $.02 Arrive Safely John

Congratulations! We need dedicated EMS folks - they are such an important part of our communities. Thanks for your dedication. I wish you success and happiness in your new career! Arrive Safely John

There was a canopy called a "Cruisair" but I don't know what the sq ft was. The "Beta" was a Nimbus Beta, Which was about 200 sq ft (don't quote me). The Nimbus was 220 sq ft (9-cell). Arrive Safely John

Cruiselite = 220 sq ft Strato Cloud Delta = 240 sq ft Cruiselite XL = 245 sq ft XL Cloud = 260 sq ft Para Flite got out of the sport market years ago. They continued to build the Swift Plus reserve for a while, but are now completely military oriented in their manufacture. I had a lot of jumps on the Cruiselite XL, Delta Cloud, and XL Cloud back in the day. You still see some for sale now and again. Arrive Safely John