Emmie

Born: Armenia, then moved to Russia Live: Hopkinton, Massachusetts First Jump & Home DZ: August 21st 2001, Boston Providence Skydiving Center

I did the same thing on my last jump. If you put all of the impact on your foot, you probably ended up compressing it together, kind of folding it in two. The doctor in the ER said the impact ended up fracturing it, but then an orthopedic doctor said it was just a really severe sprain. He put me in an aircast and told me to walk on crutches for a month. If your foot's sprained, you should probably not put any more pressurre on it than you have to, or it will take longer to heal. So my advice is see an orhtoped, make him take some xrays to make sure nothings fractured, or brocken, and see how bad's the sprain. If it isn't that severe, you'll be able to jump in less than a month : )

A couple of my friends just got back from Sebastian, and they loved everything about the DZ except for the showers. I heared horror stories, like that you have to hold your nose because the water stench is enough to knock you out. I'm kind of concerned, because I'll be living in one of the RVs for a couple of weeks when I go down. So, I just wanted to know if there was any truth to the rumors, or they are just trying to freak me out? Has anyone had a similar experience?

I drove down to buy a used Tempo from a local rigger. We started talking about the rest of my gear. He asked me what I had for a container, so I told him that I just ordered a Wings. You should have seen the expression on his face. He looked at me like I had two heads. After his initial shock and disgust he said, "oooh we don't touch those". What's the deal? I've never heard anything but good things about Wings. That comment really pissed me off. If he never touched the container, how would he know that it was that it was as horrible as he said it was?

Go to orbitz.com. I booked my tickets through them months ago. Roundtrip from Boston to Florida is only $180.

hey Marshall Looks like you're interested in getting your rigger's ticket. I was in the same boat as you till a couple of weeks ago. I broke my foot, so since I couldn't jump for a couple of months, and had to do something involving skydiving (besides terrifying the tandems at my DZ with stories of AFF gone terribly wrong) I decided to become a Senior rigger. I bought the Turner's Vol 2, practically memorised it, and desided to find a rigger to apprentice with. Apparently there's a real shortage of them around here, and the ones that I did find weren't too friendly, or enthusiastic about the idea. Finally found an open DZ, (mine's closed because of the cold), thougth I'd go down, find an old rig and pack 20 reseres that weekend. When I told the riggers there of my brilliant plan they were rolling on the floor laughing at me. Apparently getting rigger's rating isn't as easy as I thought it would be. A couple of riggers did suggest taking the 10 day course though. You'd save yourself major time. Trying to apprentice w/ a rigger will probably take you months, (if you can find one willing to have you hanging around). I don't know about the pay, but from what I can tell riggers are always in demand (at least here anyway). When I was looknig to apprentice, I found out that many charge 25$+ an hour. Hope this helps. Good Luck!

Thanks Lisa Also thanks for refunding me for the Nvertigo. The fucking thing almost crushed my head. I swear, my forehead was turning purple, and I was loosing feeling in one of my ears, took extra person to get it off. I love the Bonehead though, can't wait to jump with it : )

I got the articulated harness, RSL (knowing my luck I'll most likely need it) and still can't decide wheather I want the hackey sack or the PUD? (is that what it's called)? Anyhow, I am pretty sure on the colors, black container, with navy blue and medium blue stripes. Who would have thought that picking colors would be so damn difficult, I spent days thinking the design out. Got to call Roy back tomorrow and tell him what exactly it is that I want as options. How long do you think we have to wait? Oh , last question, what't the difference between Thread through and B-12 hardware? Which one did you end up getting? Happy New Year!

I was considering Rigs and Things before, and I finally made up my mind yesterday, and went ahead ordered Wings. I beat the deadline for the sale price, so I'm getting a sweet deal on the rig, $930. I AM PSYCHED!

OK, so after complaining about being broke I discover that I have 2 1/2 grand refund from from my college. Thank God for Sallie Mae. So I'm getting myself a rig. I've already decided on a main & reserve (hornet 170 & tempo170). Now I just need to decide on a container. I can't afford anything like a Voodoo, or an Odyssey, so I'm thinking either Wings or a Dolphin. What are your thoughts. I would really appreciate any advice. I've been told good things about both containers. Are there any advantages to a dolphin over wings (besides the price?). Has anyone jumped both containers. So far the advice I've got been split 50/50, and I'm still not sure of which one to get. Any thoughts?

Feb 14th-25. Only a month and a half to go, I'm psyched! It will be great to see some old faces, most jumpers from my DZ are there already. Wish I could hibernate for the next month and a half, wake up just in time to catch my plane to Florida. New England really sucks!!!

Thanks for all the feedback. Wish I could get another job, but am working over 80 hours a week to pay for my trip to Sebastian to finally finish AFF. Been running on coffee and caffeine pills for several weeks, but it will be worth it. I just don't want to come off as someone sitting on my ass waiting for a freebee.

Its me again. OK, so in my last post I was wondering if anyone would finance rigs, and apparently noone will (I called most of the dealers in the US). So i tried to get another credit card, take out personal loan, beg parents, loan sharks, etc, and still have no cash. I'm running out of ideas, so I was just wondering, has anyone heared of companies sponsoring skydivers, in return of their logo being put on the canopy, or has anyone actually had a company sponsor them in buying a rig? I'm just trying to see if there's anything I can do besides taking out more student loans. I already used them to cover AFF.

The only advice that I can give you is to sit down with your parents and tell them what's bothering you. I know that you feel that they are turning on you, but you have to try to understand where they're coming from too. Often times when parents are being hard on you its because they care. I know it sound cheezy, but its true, trust me. And they do have it pretty hard, with your sister. And no matter how liberal a parent is, noone would be ok with their son smoking pot, and they wouldn't be good parents if they did. From what I read it seems like they're pretty cool, I meen they did introduce you to skydiving, and they were understanding about your college situation. So talk to them. Also, you say that it bothers you that you aren't doing what you love at the moment. Sometimes you have to make choices, maybe the weed is really keeping you back. If you quit you'll be quiting for yourself, and not for them. PS less money spent on weed = more money for jumps. Hope this helps, Good Luck.

Nike Shocks, they have springs in the back, so you bounce back into the sky when you land : )

I had the same mal as you Vicking, line twists in a Manta 260 (AFF level 5), but I couldn't kick out of mine, because they were all the way from top of risers, to the top of canopy, the canopy didn't even inflate, it was just a big ball of nilon. Damn student rigs!

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I totally appreciate the support. My entire DZ migrated to Florida, so its good to hear from other skydivers : ) As sick as I am of hearing the word "relax", I kind of know that that's what I have to do to finally finish AFF. I had great JM's at the beggining of AFF, but then my main instructor dislocated his shoulder, and the other JM that I grew to have confidence in sort of started to like me, which made the situation totally uncomfortable. The JM that I jumped with at the end was great, but he didn't try to hide his dissapointment when I had the cutaway. I was his 1st student, so I felt bad about screwing up. So the pressure was definetely on. I agree that maybe what I need is a change of scene. I talked to the Freefall Adventure staff, and they said that they would take me to the tunnel as soon as I get to Sebastian. I can't wait, skydiving's the best thing that ever happened to me and I'm not going to let one bad experience screw it up. Blue Skies Emmie

Just wondering, I'm hoping to get a 1st rig by beggining of season. I would love a brand new set of gear (I know, so would everyone else :) Does anyone know of any dealers that would finance a purchase, so that I could just make monthly payments, instead of paying all the money at once?

Hi Everyone I'm an AFF student, and ever since level 4 I can't stop myself from spinning when the JM lets go of me. I tried everything, and nothing helps. This created major problems. On level 5 it got so bad that I almost knocked out the JM, and had horrible line twists, so I had to cutaway. That totaly disoriented me, and I ended up missing a headon collision with an oncoming plane only by a couple of feet at landing. (Which ended up being on an active runway). To make it worse, my confidence was gone on the next two jumps, and I ended up with a brocken foot as a result. I'm heading to Sebastian to finish AFF pretty soon, & was wondering if anyone had any advice on the spins. :)