Emmie

Happy Sky Birthday Lisa. Did you get pied yet?

You are a strange, strange boy Viking. How do you even find stuff like this?

Hmm... I kind stopped thinking about everything else since I started skydiving, so that's a good question. I think that in general my goal is to go through life without compromising my values, and to continue following my dreams. (I also kind of wanna be an FBI agent.)

I never thought about skydiving untill one day I saw this Geiko commercial where they threw the insurance agents out of a plane. I know it sounds pretty weird, but ever since that commercial I really wanted to jump out of a plane. Since I had a fear of heights I kept puting it off, untill one day I decided to just go ahead and do it. I called the DZ, booked a tandem, and well here I am now.

Hey Kelly I'm flying in on the 14th to the Orlando International airport.(I'm pretty sure thats the closest airport to Sebastian). I'm also looking for a ride to the DZ. So if you want we can split a cab. I also called the DZ, & there are drivers that will pick you up from the airport, I think that they charge about $70-100. The B&K shuttle charges $85 per person. Let me know if you wanna work something out. Marianna

I almost got arrested for breaking into my own car today. How's that for a story? I forgot to turn of the lights in my car when I took a detour to the mall. Two hours later the battery died. It also started snowing/hailing/raining. So, I tried to breack in to the car. The battery thing screwed up the alarm system. The alarm went off, I finaly opened the door, and get in the car with the alarm still going off. All the sudden mall security pulls up right behind me, turns his lights on, and signals me to get out of my car. Naturally I'm pissed off, so I get out (almost land on my face since the ground's frozen & I'm wearing my stiletto boots). He starts questioning me, asks me for my drivers licence, (which I lost). I politely tell him off. He gets mad and says he'll call for backup, at which point I point out that he's mall security & not a real cop. He get even madder, finally I convince him that I'm not trying to steal my own car, all this with the fucking alarm going off. He finally gets it after I demonstrate the the car won't even start, and he just leaves me there. The asshole didn't even offer to jumpstart my car for me, and before he left gave me a lecture on why you shouldn't leave lights on during a snow storm, and the value of having your drivers license in the car. So that was my day. It's not really exciting or anything, I just needed to went. Have fun at work.

I was doing AFFlevel 5. After I cut away I wasn't belly to earth, more like standing up. You know when at ground school they tell you look at the silver as you're cutting away, well I didn't do that, & that's why I couldn't find the silver. The student rig was huge, so the harness shifted, and the handle got flipped under the harness. But I lived. Anyway from now on in case of a cutaway I'll put one hand on each handle. I'll just have to wait a bit to make ssure the reserve won't fire into the main. (But I'm kind of hoping I won't have to do that anytime soon).

In my case I couldn't find the reserve handle after I cut away. I could definetely tell I was back in freefall, I'm sure it must of only been for a couple of seconds, but it felt like forever since I couldn't find the handle anywhere. Anyway, the reserve opened so softly that I didn't even notice that I was under canopy untill I looked up. Needless to say I was extremely happy that I had an RSL.

My first time was a tandem out of a Cessna 182. I stopped sleeping two days prior to my trip to the dz, honestly thinking I was going to die. However, since I told everyone I knew about it, I kind of had to do it. After signing my life away, and then waiting for two hours for the clouds to clear up, I finally got on the plane. I got a really hot tandem instructor, so that kind of kept my mind off of all the things that can go wrong untill we got to altitude. There was a funjumper on the plane, and I remember him convincing me that it was his first time. I was really impressed. The fear kicked in at about 8 grand. Apparently, that only amused everyone on the plane, because the instructor, the videotographer, the funjumper, and the pilot began convincing me that they were really scared too. At 10 grand the instructor strapped me in and told me to start climbing out. Thats when I decided that i wasn't too sure about this whole skydiving thing. I grabbed on to the pilots chair and refused to let go. I think that it took the instructor a couple of minutes to rip me away from the back of the pilot's chair. We got out. I remember standing on the step outside the plane, looking down, and being terrified... We jumped off. The second that my feet left the step all of the fear I had, every single worry, and every single doubt just dissapeared. I felt completely free, and completely happy. I remember waving and blowing kisses to the videotographer, and then there was a sudden jerk, and we were under canopy. Suddenly all of the noise of freefall stopped, there was this increadible silence, the only thing disturbing it being the rustle of the slider. I was in total awe. I couldn't stopped smiling for days after my jump. I don't think that I have ever been so hapy before. Needless to say I was back the next week to do my AFF.

Yep. Feb 14th-25th to be exact. (Marc, can't beleive you remembered). Is anyone else going to be in Sebastian at that time?

I'm sorry to post yet another question on this subject, but I have no idea what to do. I just got my cypres. Like an idiot I completely forgot to ask about the factory check date. When I called the dealer they said it has to have its 4 year check in March. I can't send it in now because I'm going to need it in 2 weeks. I have 2 questions: 1. I heard that you have a 3 month leeway period, so I could send it in in July instead of March. 2. If thats not true, then could a rigger install it for me now, so I could use it till end of February, and then take it out and send it for its check when I come back from Florida? I am the biggest asshole! l can't believe I didn't ask them about this when I bought it!

Well I made it through the winter, and Florida is only 2 weeks away! I am psyched, since I basically lived for this trip since I hurt my foot. But now that it's almost time for me to go, I'm getting kind of nervous. Everytime I see an exit, or even think of it, I get butterflies in my stomach. This never happened to me while I was actually jumping, but now that I haven't jumped in 3 months, I'm at a stage that I'm actually a little scared. Has this happened to anyone here, and if it did what did you guys do? Is this normal, or am I just wimping out?

When I cutaway and couldn't find the reserve handle. I wasn't scared chopping my main, but when I couldn't find the other handle I was scared shitless!

I had this dream when I first started skydiving, but I can still remember it because it was so cool. I dreamed that my dropzone was on a moving island in the sky. There were clouds on the edges of it, so you couldn't tell where the land and the sky separated. People would be flying off of it, and landing, but noone had parachutes, people just flew around like birds. It was probably the best dream I ever had.

Nice necklace Viking, wish I ordered mine before Pam stopped making them. Damn. Also, were you the one that took the photos in the top row? I think they are amazing. You really captured the beauty of the moment in the sunset pictures. I'm an artist, so I its hard not to say anything when I see something great. Good Job!

First jump 20, now 20, well almost 21.

Hey thrillseek I'm a writer, well sort of. I'm an aspiring writer. I would love to write a story for your book. I actually tried emailing you, but there's something wrong with your email adress. So you can email me instead with what your looking for. Warning, my experinece level is pretty low, however despite my low number of jumps I have alot of experience with things going wrong on jumps. (I think that I owe a case a bear for every jump that I have done so far.) Hell I can write a whole book on what not to do in freefall!

Well, since I'm the only skydiver at my college, fundraising wasn't an option for me. However, you could try having a bake sale, or.... I just had a brilliant idea. Get ahold of skydiving footage from your own jumps, & some skydiving videos. You can have a public screening, & charge people a couple of bucks to get in. Not only will you get money for jumps, but you can potentially influence some whuffos into doing tandems. Of course this is hypothetical : )

I got Cloud's Edge a couple of months ago. It has great footage & good music. I've seen it a million times now, but its still fun to watch.

Thanks for your help everyone. I just ordered a 3 year old cypres with new batteries frrom Square2 for 700$. I figured that I'd be more comfortable jumping a rig with a newer cypres.

I'm thinking about buying a used cypres. I found one cheap, but its 7 1/2 years old, and the batteries and the factory check is coming up in July. I was wondering if they are safe to jump when they are this close to the time of inspection, or if I should try to find one that's ready to go (I had little luck so far). I also can't send it away for its maintenance check now, because I'll need it fairly soon. Any advice on the subject is welcome since I need to decide by Monday whether to buy the cypres or not. Marianna

I gave up my apartment & moved back in w/ my parents to afford AFF. But the house is closer to the DZ, so it worked out. I don't really think that I can say that I gave up anything though, because skydiving is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I gained so much from it.

I think that I might be going insane. It seems that everyone is jumping except for me. I haven't made a single jump ever since my landing disaster which happened in October. My foot took forever to heal, and now its freezing, so I can't jump, and my trip to Florida is still a month away. And to make it worse, now I have my own gear, and I still can't jump it because I never finished AFF. I wanna jump goddamit!!!! Sorry, but I have lots of repressed anger, which is at the moment exagerated by idiotic wuffo coworkers.

My condolences Viking. I know its been hard for you. I'm glad you got to say goodbye to him. He's had a long life, and from what I've read a loving family to take care of him. It's tough when someone we love passes away, but you can take comfort in that he's in a better place now. Good luck to you hun. Marianna

Scared the shit out of me for a second. Definetely freaky.