freaksister

hello to you too flyboy182 Those of you who have been on dz.com for a long time might remember my story but here it goes for the rest of ya: April 1 will be my one year anniversary of my first jump. That semester was the first class I had at college with a buddy of mine...he is a psychology professor. He's young, only 30, and always wearing these skydiving t-shirts. Then he would talk about it in class and I kept getting interested. This started in January of 2000. In February I found out my mom had to go to Tampa, Florida for a continuing education thing, so she wanted me to come with her. I told her I wanted to go skydiving. She said ok...and I got on the web looking for skydiving stuff. Interestingly enough, I did not go to dropzone.com immediately, it took me awhile to find stuff, believe it or not. I ended up doing a tandem at Skydive Tampa Bay that fateful day, April Fool's Day! It is a small DZ that is really in Mulberry...I used to live in Florida for two years and belive it or not, never heard of skydiving. I saw those movies, Dropzone and stuff but it just never clicked in my mind. I wanted to bungee jump but never did. So I move back to Texas just so I can go back to Florida to do my first jump! hahahaha Anyway, I was not scared either, until they started telling me what I had to do to exit and stuff, and that I had to take off my jewelry because we would be going so fast, etc. At this point, I convinced my mother, who was there and who was going to do a tandem with me also, that she didn't need to be going on a skydive. It freaked me out a little...so she stayed on the ground while I went up in this giant, khaki colored 1980s jumpsuit! It was a C-182...I was pretty nervous on the ride up, and it felt like it took FOREVER!! I didn't have an alitmeter on, so I asked my tandem I/E, Cliff Dobson (great guy!) where we were and he said 4000 feet. I nearly fainted, thinking we still have 7000 feet to go??? Freefall was just the coolest thing ever, all I can remember is being able to see from one coast of Florida to the other, since we were nearly right in the middle. This could be a trick of my imagination, also. Anyway, I saw this girl Laurie go by us, she was supposed to dock with us but didn't. (Our exit was picture perfect, by the way!) Then I tried to holler but couldn't because of the air rushing in! The next thing I knew I was being jerked up, hard!! I knew the parachute was opening. It was a very hard opening, and my legs went numb...then I started thinking I was going to puke...I was so HIGH, it was like being on drugs...I thought, I am NOT going to puke on this guy! We landed, I was hooked, drove back to Clearwater Beach shaking the whole way, got drunk at the pool bar and told all the cute little bartenders they had to go skydiving, and basically, I was hooked forever! I waited for the school semester to be over (May 15) to start training. I decided on static line training because of my sensory overload situation, and graduated in August of 2000. blue ones, sis

Cool! My birthday is on the thirteenth too, April 13 as a matter of fact! This year it falls on a Friday! hehe! I am going to try to get my 50th jump on my 25th birthday! I only have 12 jumps to go to reach that mark...but as slow pokey as I am that could take me ages! lol Tell your wife happy b-day Frank!

well i jump pretty much anywhere...usually skydive dallas...it is about 300 miles in any direction from here to a dz...and yeah, i usually go alone...last weekend a friend went with me but normally its just little 'ol me! my friends don't even call me when the weather is going to be crappy anymore! i think they just gave up. oh well! sis

diver 123, why did you sell your rig if you weren't planning on quitting the sport? just curious... anyway, did you get a new one? glad to hear you're going back up! i will see you on the 13th floor as well! (13 is my lucky number)

Wow, Speedy, five months?? ouch! I am glad to hear you got back in the air!! Now all they need to do is build a bonfire for you to jump over and you're all set!!!! sis

hhahahaha! wanna get fired huh? lol, sometimes i think the same thing...i am also a weekend warrior! i get off work on friday nights at midnight (so its really saturday a.m.) and i drive all night (six hours) to get to the dz...sleep four or five hours, get up and pray for good weather...so far that hasn't happened to me very often. i usually drive all night to find it frickin' raining! when the forecast called for sun! grumble grumble goes sis... my friends and family have all decided i am even crazier than they thought i was! hahaha...i went two months without jumping, and after i jumped again, i have been back every single weekend since then (7 weekends in a row) but usually the weather is bad...i swear i have a weather curse! argh! grumble grumble again...anyway...they (the family) just looks at me now and says, with resignation, "so...i take it you're going to the dropzone again this weekend?" "as long as you can afford it, then just go ahead" "don't you think you need to stay home and take care of things at the house?" BWAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! yeah, right! oh, yeah, P.S. you are a "slow faller" huh? hehe...not me, oh no...everyone thinks because i am a girl i am going to float! so i make them work to catch up to me sis

ROFL!! Sigsby that's a good one! hehe

beer? where? somebody said beer, i swear they did! nice to meet you chris. glad you are hooked on skydiving, all of us are too...so you came to the right place! no one will understand you better than your fellow fruitcakes who fall out of the sky on a regular (hopefully regular) basis! i hear skydive chicago is a great dz... blue skies, sis

OMRI!!! I am soooo happy for you "babe"! (inside joke on the babe thing ya'll) I knew you could get them to let you do it! hehehe! You are going to rock! sis

ahhh, that must have been Raymond, right? I forgot he cutaway Sat. I was still asleep so I missed it. Oh yeah, and I was one of the hard landings in the mud. I flared too late and landed feet first and butt slid a foot or two...new jumpsuit has a dirty ass! LOL And just for those of you who haven't heard this before, hopefully you have: Don't jump if you are congested or have a stuffy head/nose. I have had a head cold since Friday, and it started getting worse Saturday. I jumped and my left ear, which was plugged up, decided to pop and it hurt BAD! I was deaf in that ear for over two hours! Thank god I didn't burst my eardrum. I learned my lesson on that one. Blue Skies, April

Good job! Glad you finally got back up! Like the others, I am also surprised you went tracking as a tandem...weird! Thanks for sharing! Sis

Congratulations to the little flying frog! You're home now! (home=skydiving) Sis

Well, being born and raised in Texas, I can assure you that what Mike just said is total bullshit! Britain is just still pissed over the fact they lost the Colonies! If they hadn't done that, they would probably own Texas too and they would have had all those billions of dollars in oil...I am going to call ol' J.R. Ewing up and get him to personally kick YA'LL's asses! No cowboy boots for this girl, Sis

woohoo! Saturday was windy at the DZ, steady 20 mph with gusts above and beyond...so I sat until later, and the winds died down to like 15 with gusts of 20 so I manifested for the sunset load. The entire Otter load was comprised of people doing a sunset tracking dive. They invited me to go more than once but I don't feel comfortable with my tracking yet and didn't want to be part of a ZOO dive! So I did a solo. There were two other solos, both women. I dove out third and just played around doing offheading flips and flying on my back which is just too fun! Then, I attempted a sit, and rolled over on my right side. Tried it again, and BAM! I had it!!! Held it for 3 seconds! I tried it a couple more times but rolled over each time. Still I got one for a couple secs! I also worked on my tracking and discovered how simple it is NOT to go in circles...! Had a hard opening but otherwise, an absolutely beautiful sunset and it wasn't even cold!

Oh yes, I think this is a great idea!

Wow, what a reason to have to close the DZ! I see exactly why they do it, but that just sucks, doesn't it? I can't jump because...we got an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease! Far out, man... Crayzeeee Dayzzzzz, Sis

If I see another fucking post about Georgia dropzones I am going to scream! GET OVER IT ALREADY! I love all you guys and think you're great, but this has gone too far. I am sorry that Cary is acting childishly, but my opinion is that you are letting it get to you too much and wasting too much time over it. Thank you for letting me say my piece, if I didn't get this off my chest I was going to explode. Take it over to rec.skydiving if you want to, but leave dz.com out of the petty dz wars!!! Sis

I see Speedy's point in asking for jumpers with more jumps to reply, because after awhile maybe you get more complacent or something...(overconfidence kills by the way) I am not saying anybody does. Just that it might happen... But I also see Pammi's view that we all might have something valuable to input on this forum. So......on that note, I choose to give MY $.02 too! I have occasionally gotten on the plane w/out a gear check and realize it on the ride up but usually I remember to get one. I trained at a smaller DZ like Pammi's (very similar in fact) and gear checks were like, ubiquitous, especially on students. I moved on to the bigger DZ and noticed few people getting them except students. I was not fazed, however and before my jump I will ask whoever is handy for a gear check. I prefer to ask someone I really know, who I am jumping with, etc. but if its a solo and there is a stranger next to me I will ask anyway. They will tell you if they don't feel comfy doing it, they might say, "Well, I will give you one but you might want to find somebody better at it than me for another one if you can!" or something of that nature. Usually they are a little surprised and also glad you asked. They will then usually proceed to ask you to give them one! hehe I also give them to the people I am jumping with. If they haven't asked and its close to boarding time, I say, "Want me to give you a gear check?" I have yet to be refused! Oh yeah, and never doubt your own eyes, because I was getting ready to walk over to the loading area last weekend and noticed my chest strap misrouted. YIKES!! Whoa, that was a close one. I am sure glad I looked! I used to wonder how anybody could misroute a chest strap....well, I found out! Luckily, it wasn't the HARD way... Before exit I check my straps and my altimeter, and my handles and PC...a quicker version of the other. Sometimes my jumping buddies (if they are sitting right behind me) will open my reserve flap and check my cypres and reserve pin but not always. They don't ask either, they just go for it. Since they are my pals and I know them, I don't mind. That is just my inexperienced humble opinion, now let's go give 'em gear check hell at the DZ this weekend!! Sis!

Wow, I never heard that either of those things (not stowing your brakes as soon as you land and/or daisy-chaining) would twist your brake lines. I do stow my brake lines, they taught me to do it, but didn't say why, and I also daisy chain. Took me like six months to get it right, believe or not. hahahaha It was a breeze after I learned to braid hemp, now that's weird! LOL Anyway, interesting little discussion. I have had twisted brake lines once and a packer helped me fix it up. Sis

The hard contacts do suck, but with them my vision is 20/20. They are just inconvenient and carry some risks, like cutting the cornea in an accident, etc. I think Tee's Canadian plan sounds good, but I am curious as well about how they feel regarding US folks coming up there for medical treatment. Wouldn't want to get myself in any hot water, now would I? Oh yeah, I also couldn't jump with any of crazy Canadians after the surgery, it would have to be before! Speaking of eye patches (what I will have to wear after the surgery, which I WILL have done someday, just don't know when) I met a guy at my old DZ who only had one eye. He jumped with an eye patch...at the time, he was off static-line and doing 10-second delays. He said his depth perception was pretty bad. I don't know if he ever finished training or not. He was the DA so he was pretty busy! Maybe because my hard chunk-of-tupperware with a razor-sharp edge contacts give me 20/20 vision, I haven't had any real problems with landings. I still PLF it once in a while but didn't really struggle. Canopy control scared the crap out of me for a long time and is still one of my number one soap-boxes but landings are only a part of that. I was surprised at the number of you who said you won't jump wearing glasses. I never thought about the issue of peripheral vision, but it makes sense, obviously. Thanks for all the cool replies, guys! I will be *seeing* you after the weekend is over! I get to practice those landings again (if the damn weather will cooperate!) Blue Skies and Clear Lenses, Sis

ahhh, i knew i wasn't the only blind person! hehe hey lisa i like that idea of one grand per eye...now we're talking!! better start saving...that will be hard with all the jumps i am *planning* on making, but hey!who knows! luv ya'll!! sis

I was reading the thread on the safety and training forum about women and landings and it made me think of vision ('cause we were talking about depth perception)... Anyway, i don't want to bring that mess up again...this is what I was thinking about: Any of you out there with just god-awful vision? I have to wear hard (gas-permeable) contacts because my vision is SO bad that soft contacts won't correct it enough! The smallest tiniest speck of dirt or mascara, or a single eyelash, and my eye starts to water like Niagra Falls, I can't see s**t and I have to go to the bathroom and take it out, clean it, blah blah blah..... I want to have LASIK surgery but its $2500 per eye! Not only do I not have that much money, I can't finance it, either. I don't want to wear glasses when skydiving, although I know a lot of you out there do it. I probably should though, because I have this fear of being all suited up, ready to board the plane and then getting dirt in my eye (wearing my contacts). I probably wouldn't be able to get it out until jump run...or maybe not at all...I don't want to be in freefall with watery eyes I can't see out of (there's a dumbass reason to die.) I have to wear my full face helmet to even walk up to the plane door b/c of the prop blast and all the dirt. This just really sucks for me, it is sooooo inconvenient. One day my contact was dry and it just fell out, pop! right onto the floor. I was in the woman's bathroom crawling around on my hands and knees trying to find this little piece of f***ing plastic, and Mandy, one of our AFF instructors, walks in like, "What are you doing on the floor?" hahahaha well she found it for me. I didn't have my glasses that weekend so I couldn't have jumped again, 'cause then my depth perception would have been basically NON-EXISTENT! i just felt like bitching about this relatively minor problem, sorry...anybody else? lol Thanks guys, Blue ones and GO TO SAFETY DAY!!! Sis Edited by FREAKSISTER on 3/8/01 09:43 PM.

i will say that a lot of women don't get as aggressive with their canopies, etc...but that may change. i for one, want to learn to surf! :) i just might end up on the para-performance tour one day...you never know! hehe but seriously folks, i guess it boils down to who cares,right?

I just saw a picture in the new Parachutist of a snowman somebody built at Hutchinson. It said the coldest day they jumped this year was 3 degrees above zero on the ground. ouch! 300 miles does suck, by the way, HARD ASS sis

well i was just so excited i got my dates wrong! hahahaha i will be there on the WEEKEND can't wait! sis