MarkM

I was afraid of heights and I wanted to see if I could jump out of an airplane.

Heh, yeah. But SL sure was a hell of a lot cheaper. Oh well, my bike is gonna be paid off in 5 years, this stuff will be done in about 3. Guess that means it's a bargain. Skydive America Palm Beach. Their rigs use BOC toss out and their AFP program is pretty flexible. When I'm licensed I'll definately be playing at other DZs though too. I'm thinking about doing weekend campouts regularly. Leave straight from work on Friday, drive out to Sebastian, Deland, Homestead, wherever, toss up a tent, sleep in and jump all day Saturday/Sunday. Hit both Sebastain and Skydive America today and both were really well setup for that. Can't help but think there would be a lot of other dropzones down here I could also escape to like that.

Well, after one and a half years sitting on my butt after dropping my SL progression training(got too damn cold) and moving down to Florida, I'm officially a student again. I had planned on waiting until I finished tunnelcamp in March, but I couldn't stop myself from signing up for AFP classes. I was dying to jump. I was in withdrawal, bad. This site didn't help with that. At all. Not many DZs down here give a crap about previous SL trained jumps. Heh, one went over their AFF program and summed up the last jump "and then you'll do a solo!". Heh, HELLO, I've done 17 f'ing solos already(on the dope rope and freefalls). My first jump was a solo, my last jump was a solo, every jump in between was a solo. And even fewer will let a student jump with a BOC toss out which is what I used before. Seems BOC ripcords are the norm down here. I guess it's needed with AFF so either instructor can pull for the student, but I don't feel like doing ripcord for 7 jumps just to switch back to something I've already done freefalls on. Anyway, found a decent DZ that will work around my faults so I signed up for classes this Saturday. And wouldn't you know it, my bank sent me a pre-approved loan that'll cover all this and a brand new container for my rig

The funny thing is I saw that exact episode playing over at the tents at Sebastian this afternoon. But I wouldn't have it any other way, it's part of the charm of the sport and all that.

No way dude, heights scare the crap out of me. Why do you think I started skydiving in the first place?

What is it with Texas and jumping out of planes? It's not THAT bad there, is it?

Problem there though is those "average" girls are into the "extreme" guy because they think he's going to take them on some wild adventure. When they find out he's really just an "average" guy that happens to skydive, they get bored(God forbid they find adventure themselves) and blame the guy.

Quote was "Rob took up skysurfing and when he had around 40 or so jumps, he called me about a competition in Eloy Arizona.", which kind of sounded like him and Jennings went to a competition after Rob had done 40 jumps on a board. That was '92, no idea when Rob started jumping. But in any event, we're no Rob Harris

Now that's just mean.

Just stop posting those damn pics, your making me envious because it looks like so much fun.

Dart or flyboy would know more on it, but not only can you get into an uncontrollable spin you basically have a huge board strapped to your feet that can entangle with your deploying main. Isn't something like 200 jumps the recommended absolute minumum level of skill before you try to skysurf with a beginners board? And you should already be skilled at freeflying? When can you start playing with freeflying, jump 20 or so? I'm really not up to what the risks are in freeflying outside of an accidental reserve deployment at 150+ speeds.

I think skysurfing may have been more popular before freeflying caught on. The point of skysurfing is freedom of movement, being able to do things with a board strapped to your feet that you couldn't do otherwise. Freeflying has the same sort of freedom, requires less skill to get into, is safer and all around less trouble. The first ever skydiving footage I saw was of Rob Harris skysurfing and I even entered a raffle a year back for his Cypres. Would like to try it sometime when I'm skilled enough to handle it, but I'll probably just freefly. But the real question is why do people do RW. That stuff just looks sooo boring

Chicks say the same line all the time too. But usually I'm horny enough to let it pass

Think she's still taking orders, but has a 1 month wait period on them so she can kind of do them at her own pace. Really looking forward to getting mine

LOL, I'm 5'6". Guess I won't bother thinking about beng a TM.

LOL. Yeah, if you need someone to pop by and read you a bedtime story, feel free to look me up.

No Clay, I think it would need to be as large as a cigarrette. Unless she smoked Virginia Slims....

Have you camped out at other DZs before? I've been thinking about getting a little 1 man tent and sleeping bag so I can do overnights at the dropzones down here in Florida. Is that practical or done often, or do most people "camp out" in RVs and nearby hotels?

No, we just have lots of practice ignoring the details that don't fit in with our plans. We're men. When you're old and grey you'll look back on your life and there will be many regrets. Giving an open invite to the boys of Dz.com to rough you up a little when they smell smoke anywhere near you will probably be one of them.

A student I knew once cutaway on a rig with a RSL. The rig came down with the reserve handle still in the pocket, but not because he didn't go for it but because his reserve was already deploying before he reached the silver handle. I remember that because my very first instructor would've made me go back outside the hanger, put the rig on and pull the reserve handle anyway.

If you launch out of the plane at 1600 and deploy main I really don't think you'd have a Cypres fire so long as your main normally opens at a decent speed. From the hop and pops I did once I got off the dope rope, I don't remembering losing more than a couple hundred feet by doing a clear and pull or watching others clear and pull. My thoughts about going for the main at 1500 has nothing to do with saving 50 bucks, it's just I'd rather be under a bad main at 1200 feet with the option to cutaway and go to reserve than a bad reserve at 1300 feet with no options left.

Don't worry, I promise if I see you I'll treat you like a bad girl.

When I said "we" I might "as a student myself" not as an instructor. Even though I keep myself pretty well read, I don't generally give advice(unless it's in these forums, where the more experience ppl can correct me) to other students because I don't feel that's my place, just because I'm book smart doesn't mean I know jack about skydiving. I do point people to this site and the fatality reports. I also own and recommend Poynter's book. I learned a drek-load of stuff from that thing myself. It won't because: 1> I don't have the time in this situation to worry about it. 2> When I exit the plane I won't be anywhere near a vertical speed that would fire off the Cypres. I can pull normally. I would seriously consider going straight for my reserve though. If I packed a nice mushy opening on my main it'd probably be best to deploy my reserve on exit since it'll give me more altitude to find a safe landing spot.

I think most instructors worry about their students doing stupid stuff like cutting away a good main or never cutting away a bad one rather than the specifics of AADs or RSLs. It's also hard to get too attached to students and teach them everything under the sun because we have such a high dropout rate.

Yeah, you need that Pel grant for that aeronatical engineering class.