apixel

I'm not a tunnel rat, but I just had my pre-second tunnel experience a few weeks ago, so I may have some insight. If you are an unknowing weakling like me, (I thought I was in pretty good shape), 30 minutes for the first session might be a bit too much. I had 30 minutes out of an hour, so I was in for two minutes, out for two minutes, in again, etc ... I think that by minutes 16 I was pretty much done for. I was able to muster up some more energy every once in a while after that, but I certainly was not taking real advantage of the time. ( A bit more on my defense, it was cold that night, and I had a long week of not enough sleep the days before ... also, that Mantis thing is hard on the arms ) In any case, if you are there for 3 days and are able to spread the time, I would do that. The next time I go, I will certainly try to be there for two days and do 15 and 15. I had dropzone.com's very own Ron as a coach and he was awesome. I meant to write something about this whole thing a while ago, so this is as good a time as any. He came with a nice ambitious plan for me, since I had half an hour, but was nice enough to realize I was dying half way through it, so we solidified what we had. I came in bouncing from wall to wall and with weak forward motion docking skills, and left with very little wall encounters, full confidence in docking and fall rate matching, and a very good start on the mantis. This all transferred very nicely to freefall for me, in the sense that my coach levels were a breeze and I felt much more in control in the air. My mantis still needs a lot of work, so I'll probably be back in the tunnel for that at some point. Although Ron didn't see me smile once while in the tunnel ( I swear I'm having fun, I just don't smile! ), he certainly smiled and kept the whole mood charged with energy. I'll definitely be seeking him out so we can finish what we started on my next time there. Hope this helps. Oh yeah ... drink a lot of water and a little aspiring/advil before and after, and take a hot bath after you are done. As tired as I was when I left the tunnel, I was barely sore the next day by following those simple steps.

Mine's a bit subtle, but it means a lot to me. My brother used to draw these planes for me when I was little. It looks much better in person too. Hard to capture with a picture.

I'll start with the only negative comment I have to get it out of the way. When you see the product picture, it looks like this helmet is nice and round. This is what I was after when I got it. When it arrived, I was a bit disappointed at how it looked from the front. Since it has room for two audibles, it looks a little funny with the bumps sticking out on both sides. At any other angle, it looks nice and round like it should. My esthetic reservations were quickly forgotten when I tried it on. Even before baking, it already fit great. The padding in the inside is nice, thick and soft. While reading the FAQ at the bonehead site, I noticed that they recommend baking even if it fits well. I did, and it fit even better. It's also incredibly quiet. You can barely hear the wind noise, and the audible alarms punch through loud and clear. I've tried a pro dytter and a neptune in there, and they fit perfectly. The booklet suggests that you have to remove the earpiece in order to place the audibles, but I simply slide them in with the part in place. They fall right into place, and you don't feel them at all. So far it's only suffered one hard riser strike and my occasional clumsiness when handling it, but not a single scratch has developed on it. I still believe most helmet's price are a bit on the outrageous side, and this one is no exception. But with such a comfortable fit, and quiet experience, I've forgotten all about my wallet pains. Try to view it from all angles before you buy, but if you still like it, you cannot go wrong with this helmet. You'll love it. -Andres

Aha! That's it Ron. I want my money back! ... See you next week!

I had that problem for my first 6 jumps, so by no means feel special. In my case, it was memory of how it freaked me out to see my friend fly off the door on our first tandem. ( Post tandem stress? ) Now, watching others jump actually makes me feel better, so I hate it when i'm first.

( As always, I will also bring this up with my instructors ) This subject comes up often and it seems completely logical, just doesn't seem so easy to learn. I have already started with this, by dedicating jumps to comparing the ground with the alti at different altitudes, but I am curios as to how you have developed your eye/altitude awareness. I would like to know what are the cues that most of you use. With my low jump numbers, I'm still in the process of becoming more and more aware of my surroundings. Finally, as of 4 jumps ago, I can clearly see when other people are deploying. This is one of my first clues that the time is getting close. Unfortunately, I've also discovered that some people say they will open at 4k and consistently open at 6! And obviously, I won't always have people below me. My hope is to gather enough examples, that I can then use to try and find what works for me. ( To me, the ground already looks awfully detailed at 7k )

Thanks everybody. It seems this question was pretty much answered. No compass it is ... but I certainly never had thought about the rubber bands and such in a pocket in case I need to pack when landing out. Now I just need to learn to pack ( tomorrow ) and a jumpsuit with pockets.

The other day on the way up to altitude, I noticed someone had a tiny little compass attached to their alti strap. Does anybody here use something like this? I'm very bad when it comes to getting oriented in general, so initially this seems like a nice aid device for me. On the other hand, I use landmarks on the ground to tell me where I am. It's probably just my love for gadgets, but maybe there are some genuine good uses for something like this?

Thanks for the great story. I certainly hope we do get to make a jump. Thanks.

Yup ... this is exactly it. It's funny that you mentioned the car window. If I'm driving and thinking of my jumps, it's all good, but when I let the window down to simulate the "door" opening, my heart skips a beat. It's definitely a wind==fear relationship which I also hope more jumps will take care of. I know it's a mind issue at this point, and I'm now excited about beating it.

Hello, I figured it's time to get myself a helmet. With all the choices and types available, I'm realizing it would not be very smart to make this purchase online. There aren't many helmets to choose from or try where I am jumping, so I was wondering if there is a relatively big gear shop not too far from Miami. I'll happily drive 3+ hours back and forth to the Orlando area to a place like Deland or Z-Hills if that's what it takes? Nice store with a lot of helmets anyone? Thank you. -Andres

Thanks a lot everyone. Just putting my over-thinking out there and all of your replies has definitely help. To all of those that have said to enjoy the instability, in a way I do. I'm super relaxed after a good tumble. Like I said, the only frustrating part is not so much that I can't physically do it, but that it's the fear that gets in the way of it. I'll do my best to catch myself at that moment and take a big breath. ( Easier said than done ) I'll definitely bribe the tandem's video person to look my way when I exit. If anything, it will be a good laugh for everyone.

Hello all, I have a feeling this is going to be more of a mental struggle with my own emotions rather than anything else, but I've always found replies here to be quite helpful, so here it goes. First a little background on my progress so far. I went through my AIF levels 1-8 without any repeats. On the dives where the instructor held on to me on exit, my exits were fine. On levels 8 - and solo both of my poised exit attempts failed, and I tumbled out - swimming. I'm pretty quick to regain stability though. I managed to get a bit spooked after my solo level and stopped jumping for 4 months. I developed door fear before allowing myself to face the door again. :-p The itch was finally bad enough that I packed all the essentials, headed down to Florida and decided not to come back until I had an A license in my hand. Once here I did two re-currency jumps. First was an exit with my instructor, which went fine, and for the second one, I was asked to dive out. I warned my instructor about my previous swimming and tumbling so that he wouldn't be too surprised. Oddly enough, my dive exit went flawlessly. Stable all the way. I'm now in the process of getting some solos under my belt so that I'll be comfortable when doing my 3 required coach levels. For my (new) first solo, I decided to try the dive exit again, and again, it worked out great. For my second solo jump, I figured I should start preparing for the hop and pop level, and start practicing a poised exit again. To my surprise, as soon as I had placed my body partly out of the plane and felt the wind, I was pretty scared. I step out, and again I tumble and swim. I know what I have to do. I know I have to present myself to the relative wind and hold my arch, but obviously fear is getting the best of me for a second or two. I realized that diving out was shielding me from the sensory feeling that I'm about to jump out of a plane, since I don't feel the wind, and hence, I perform better. What is a little frustrating is that I recover quickly, and my skydives are coming along nicely and are really fun, but obviously a big lack of confidence exits at that moment. I'm hoping that by continuing to try and do them, eventually I'll get a used enough to all that wind, and will be able to perform properly. I'm also doing mental successful exits to help reinforce my actions when I'm actually there. BUT I'm very worried that since every time I've tried to exit poised, I tumble, that it is THAT which is getting reinforced. Any tips? Sorry about the long post for a simple question, but I wanted to make sure everyone knew where I was mentally.

I did exactly this. I stopped jumping after my first solo about 4 months ago. Fear got the best of me. I finally realized that my desire to go again was bigger than the fear, so I packed my car and headed down to Florida to keep going where I left off. I was offered to do one IAF jump as my recurrency, but I asked for two. One release dive, and then a level 9. A little more money was worth my safety. I also had to do a short refresher ground school. I've never stopped practicing my emergency procedures so we got past that part pretty quick. In the first jump I was quite "wobbly", but completely nailed the second one. And yes ... talk about butterflies, specially in my case.

Hello, Something is wrong with the driving directions for skydive miami on the dropzone locator. I blindly followed them without really paying attention and ended nowhere near it. ( Well ... I was 10 minutes away ) Oddly enough, there was a small plane hangar there. In any case, the locator leaves you at the intersection of 168th street and 177 avenue, when you should end up on 217 avenue and some other street ( don't remeber any more ) The address is right on the information about the dropzone, so maybe something is wrong on what feeds the automatic direction script??

Great picture quality! What camera setup took these?

Ha ha! Yea ... that's exactly what I am after, but I need a bit better quality. My parents aren't much for the net, so I'll have to print it out and make it look like an actual photo. :-p -A

Hello, I'm trying to do a fake pic of my dog doing a 'tandem' to freak out my parents. I need a simple picture of someone doing belly to earth preferrably facing the camera. (Full body view ) I've tried searching around in the galleries, but I either get people doing rw, or freeflying. I figured asking might be easier. If not, I'll just have to get someone to take a picture of me next time. BTW ... in real tandem pictures it's too tough to remove the passenger. Thanks Andres

This is funny. I am Honduran and when I was of legal age to drive, it was easier to go and "buy" my license than to actually take the driving tests. But don't worry, I had to take a test here when I moved to the states, so the streets are safe. :-p

I joined as a premier member just to make sure the site would stay alive, but since the premier membership started, I've been very happily surprised with all the additions that are being made. This site was already a great place to come procrastinate, but it's just getting better and better. I'm going to Miami to finally finish getting my license this winter, and already put the locator to use. Sure, I could have gotten driving directions manually on mapquest, but clicking one button is so much easier. Thanks again and keep it up!

I've had throat pain, but it's because I get completely dehidrated. I seem to loose a lot of water when I'm a bit stressed. :-) Once I started taking a bottle of water and drinking a lot of it, that wasn't a problem again. Now I'm dealing with some "door fear" which no amount of water will help out with. :-p

This one is tough. I'm trying to put myself in your shoes, but one can only get so far as a mental exercise. As you can see, I have very few jumps. I've done up to IAF level 6. I haven't had a bad incident yet, but I have turned a new corner in fear. I seem to have lost the external/primal fear in which all you had to do was push through it and jump. Now I have more of an intellectual fear, in which my mind calmly tells me that what I am doing doesn't make sense. This was a bit harder to overcome when it appeared on my last jump. These are the things that work for me: 1. I remind myself that I am actually doing this because I like it. At this point it is a worthwhile question to ask. There is no point in doing this if you don't enjoy it. 2. I try to find trust. I trust the fact that I have at least two parachutes. I trust my instructor. In my case, I've jumped with him 4 times and he has always been there close to me in case something went wrong. I also know he is watching because his debriefings are very detailed. In your case you should realize that even in your really bad tumble, he/she came over and pulled your parachute. This should help you calm down greatly. 3. Once you've convinced yourself with the things above, it's time for a little kick in the brain where you just focus on the task ahead. I have a drill sergeant in my brain when it's time to go for the door. CMON! ... RIGHT FOOT HERE ... LEFT THERE ... CHECK IN ... PROP ... UP ... DOWN ... ARCH By keeping my brain focused at exit time, fear seems to take a back seat. 4. Don't do anything that doesn't feel right. Maybe you should just keep doing jumps with whatever feels comfortable. How about having your instructor let go only for a few seconds and then grabbing you again. Just knowing that this will happen might ease your nerves. At least until you regain your confidence, make your jumps have the least bit of pressure possible. Again, even though there are levels to be passed ... it is your hobby. You can go as slow as you want and it's okay. ( I'm pretending money is not an issue. ) For me, free fall only made "sense" once I relaxed into it. That is all I've got. I hope at least something I said helps you a bit.

I was the original poster, and although this thread got a little aggressive, I'm still very thankful for all the answers. Time to get some videos. Andres

Hello, I did a search for this, and didn't come up with much, so I'll go ahead and ask. Are any of the training DVD's available worth it? I've seen videos that cover packing and malfunctions etc ... is there one that everyone should have? Thanks ahead of time for all comments. - Andres

Thanks for the reply. That is a great point. Renting is a great way to see what type/size of gear I'd be comfortable with anyway. Of coarse, I have a gear buying disease, and just when I thought I was done buying everything I was going to buy ... skydiving comes into my life! In the meantime I did buy myself some nice goggles, because the student ones were not quite doing it for me. :-) I was also surprised how the "big fear" seemed to not be present on my level 4 jump. I was freaking out all morning before the jump, but once in the plane I was unnaturally calm. The people in the plane helped a lot with that I think. They were all really nice, said hello, wished me luck and shook my hand before heading out of the plane. It's hard to be nervous after that treatment. By the time my canopy opened though, I was almost blind with adrenaline. :-) -Andres