Emmie

Hi I'm just getting into freeflying. Christmas is coming up, and I'm thinking about getting either a freefly suit or freefly pants. I was wondering if anyone could tell me of the advantages one has over the other. What would you reccomend i get? Up to now I just used tight jeans and a baggy longleaved shirt, but since I wont have to pay for it I might as well get some freefly gear. Thanks for your help.

Thanks for everyone's comments. I'm going to make sure that she sees the articles and websites you guys mentioned. I really hope it works. I'm also going to make sure I get some very experienced people to try to persuade her to reconcider her decision. I realize that saying "I want to stop someone from basejumping" may sound like a wuffo not getting our need for jumping out of planes, but from the very little I know about base jumping it is significantly more dangerous than skydiving, and therefore you should probably be a pretty experienced skydiver before you get into it. You also get a lot more chances in skydiving than you do basejumping. I would think that there's a really big difference between your first BASE jump and your AFF level 1. I don't think that my being supportive of this would make me a very good friend. I would rather have someone be pissed off at me than having them do something stupid to themselves. It's just really frustrating trying to talk sence to someone who doesn't want to hear the truth.

A good friend of mine has recently been tellng me about her going to do base jumps. I am very concerned because she only has 60 jumps, and her canopy flying skills are not the best. I don't think that anyone who has trouble landing in the middle of a huge landing area should try base jumping. Recently a friend of ours with thousands of skydives has seriously hurt himself jumping an antenna, but that doesn't seem to phase her at all. He base jumper boyfriend seems to approve of the whole idea. I am just really really worried because I am pretty sure she'll end up killing herself. I don't want to sound overbearing, but I feel like I should do something.

Last year I did the same thing as you. I wasn't old enough to rent a car yet, so I spend weeks trying to figure out how to get there. The cheapest way was for me to call a shuttle. There's one located in Sebastian, its called Transports. They are twice as cheap as the shuttles out of Orlando. It will cost you about 60$. You may also want to call the dz, and see if anyone else will be arriving the same time as you. They will send a shuttle if there is a group of people. The shuttle from the dz is 100$ though, and it was my experience that they wont come for just one person. Good luck.

I'm thinking about buying a camera this winter. At this point I knnow very little about different kinds of cameras, and what I should get. I will very begin with a used camera. Are there any guidelines that I should follow? ANy advice would be great. Thanks

A couple of months ago I opened head down and as the result lost my brand new Bonehead Mindwarp and a ditter. It got ripped off at about 3 grand, and we gave up searching for it thinking that it was in about a million peices. Then yesterday this chick had a cutaway and today looking through the woods she found my helmet. The weird thing about it is that its completely intact, the ditter and all. There isn't even a single scratch on it, I washed it and it looks brand new. SO I guess the moral of the story is that this is really a kick ass helmet. Noone could beleive that it survived being dropped from 3 grand and being lost in the woods for months. I love this helmet! I think I'm gonna name it "Lucky".

I have over 50 jumps now, but I still haven't sent in my A licence form. I only need water training to get my b now, so do any of you guys know if I can just apply for the B and skip over the A, or do I have to pay for both? Thanks.

My closing loop's at its last breath, I was wondering if they're easy enough to replace so that I could do it myself. Is that advisable or should I just get my rigger or a packer to do it?

The weather forcast said mostly sunny for today, so I was kind of surprised to wake up to overcast skies. Got to the dz anyways and found out that its really smoke from the forest fires in Canada. We were lucky enough to get to 8 grand in the morning, and then it just kept getting lower and lower, untill we had to shut down! This sucks ass! I guess if its not the clouds or the winds it has to be fires!

Just as an update, I've made about 15 jumps with the new fullface, and I love it! There's less noise so I'm able to concentrate on exactly what I'm supposed to do, and its great to not have to worry about the goggles fogging up on the plane. I'm glad I got it.

Jeremy

I know what caused it... me

Nike shox. They are expensive but totally worth it, great shock absorbers, plus they kind of bounce you right up, so you put less stress on your shins.

Ok, so I loved my new canopy for the first 20 jumps, but now all of a sudden I keep getting slammed, and when I say slammed I mean that the next day I feel like I've been run over by a bus. Is this a common problem with Hornets, or am I doing something wrong? The manufacturer's instructions say don't roll the nose, but I'm rolling the shit out of it now, and getting spanked, so won't not rolling the nose put me into a body cast? Just wondering, is there any way to slow down those openings?

I have the same problem dude. I dislocated my shoulder completely a couple of years ago, and now it keeps popping out. It actualy happed twice while skydiving on a real funky 182 exit, I managed to reach the handle, but could barely control the canopy or flare. I found that its a common problem amongst skydivers. DO some muscle strengthening excersizes to make your muscles more resistant to dislocation. I'll probably try to get surgery at the end of this season, because this shoulder thing is a major pain in the ass.

Nate I feel your pain 0:0:0 This was the worst weekend I have ever had.

I've been jumping with a bonehead mindwarp up to a couple of weeks ago. Then after a particularly ugly opening (I was headdown with the pilot chute in front of me) my helmet got rippped off by the risers. So I ordered a Factory Diver. I was just wondering if its very different jumping with a fullface? Does it affect your vision by much? Are there any pros and cons to a fullface vs an open face? Thanks

I remember when I first started skydiving that I wasn't the best student. Actually I think that I was the worst student that my instructors have ever seen. However, I wasn't afraid, and I loved it, and I put 100% of myself into getting better. The instructors saw it and encouraged me to continue. I never got the bowling talk, and I got better. I guess the only time you suggest that someone stops skydiving is if they just can't seem to enjoy themselves. Fear is natural, I still get nervous at times, but being terrifyed on every jump kind of defearts the purpose of skydiving.

Get a Bev suit, I've ordered one with a double rush, payed 40 bucks extra and had it in a week and a half. The custumer service is great, I measured something wrong, and they caught it and got right back to me. Plus its one nice looking suit!

What haven't I done! Here are some examples: While doing a coach jump I went to pull, but instead of pullingout the pilot chute I pulled out the bridle. I knew that something was wrong when I saw the look of terror on the coaches's face. Thankfully I went after the pilot chute and avoided a horseshoe. On my last jump I did an even dummer thing. I was doing a two-way. I was completely stable at pull time, waved off, and pulled out the chute, the second I threw it out though I flipped over and went head down, I remember thinking that I just killed myself right now. The pilot chute ended up in front of my face, then I flipped just as the d-bag was coming out of the container, it hit me on the head, then the risers ripped off my helmet. To make things worse I landed right in front of the airport officials that already hate us! Hoepfully I learned from my mistakes and will be more careful because of my mistakes.

So the weather here sucked ass for the past week, so my last jump was almost a week and a half ago. Tomorrow should be awesome, but I have the worst cold. I'm completely stuffed up. But I really really need to jump. Have any of you guys jumped with a cold before? What's the worst that could happen? Maybe if I take anycongestion meds it won't be as bad.

Yesterday I made 2 birthday jumps out of a cessna 182. that was my first time jumping out of a 182. I hate that plane with a passion. I fell asleap on the climbup to altitude. Then at about 10 grand tried to get out without snagging anything, which was kind of hard. Getting a hold of that damn strut was pretty damn difficult, my shoulder ended up popping out in the process. I decided to make another jump right after, even though my shoulder was still sore, which was a mistake, because I did the exact same thing to it on exit, which made any sort of movement during freefall impossible. I couldn't even flare on landing. The moral of the story is that I hate the 182's. I haven't jumped out of anything except the caravan, so I guess I got really spoiled. I can't possibly imagine why anyone would lovee those planes. All the way up to altitude all I could think about was how much I wanted to get out of the plane.

Sorry to post a dumb ass question here, but you guys are my only source of information at this time. I need a jumpsuit asap, and I don't have all the cash for it now, but I will have it by next week. I saw something about a cod deposit on Bev suits site. What does cod mean, is that when you don't pay all of the money upfront?

We used to have a beer light at my dz, the green light would go on after the last load was up, but this year the airport's trying their best to fuck with the dropzone, so starting this season we aren't even allowed to have alcohol on the premices. Evil bastards!

I've only recently got my WIngs so I haven't put to many jumps on it yet, but so far the container is great! It looks awesone, fits great, and extremely confortable. It's a very well amde container, and the pin protection is great, the bridle goes over the oain pin, so there's litle chance of the pin moving at all. My only problem with the container is the cordura boc. If you're thinkking about ordering one with cordura, I strongly recommend getting spandex instead. The pouch is too short, and its damn difficult to get a zero-p pilot chute to stay in there. My packer and rigger both tryed many different techniques for packing the pilot chute so that it would stay inside, but no matter what you do the edge of the pilot chute is still sticking out of the pouch.