almeister112

-Do at least 230 jumps to hit 500 -Get my D license -Learn the damn 4-way dive pool -Compete at Nationals -Get a wingsuit and keep doing WS jumps If that happens this year, next year I can hopefully start working on being an AFFI and getting a PRO rating. We'll see.

In Eloy it's $75 per jumper, and it takes a minimum of 4 to send the balloon up.

As a 250-jump wonder, I figured I'd toss my 2 cents' worth in, too. I've been reading the forums since I got my license last January, and I've seen the arguments about GoPros time and again. So I decided, as I've done pretty much every step of the way, to play it safe. I got a GoPro around jump 205 or so and spent half a day doing hop-n-pops with it to make sure it wasn't a snag hazard. Then I ended up taking it on some jumps, and it's been fine. Would I have been fine strapping it on earlier? Probably. But I always assume that the people making the recommendations know a helluva lot more about what they're talking about than I do, and I'm really glad I waited to jump a camera as long as I did. It wasn't a big deal when I got it since I was used to being altitude aware, keeping track of where people were tracking, etc. I plan to be jumping for years, so I'm in no hurry to kill myself trying everything now.

As the one who started the other thread, I personally think the only reason I'd get a coach jump within the next 300 jumps or so would just be to increase my own skills. I suspect I could probably teach more than I think I could, but I certainly wouldn't hire myself as a coach at my current skill level.

I'm going to have this conversation with the group of experienced guys I usually jump with next weekend, but I thought I'd ask here, too. There's now a new bunch of students going through the AFF program, so they'll soon be licensed and looking for people to jump with. I will be forever grateful to the guys who were nice enough to not only take me along on jumps, but also encourage me and give me pointers along the way when I was just barely off student status. They're largely responsible for me sticking around, as doing solos for 100 jumps probably wouldn't have been too much fun. I'd love to be able to do the same for the newer people, but I don't want to do so at the expense of their safety. Is it a good idea for me, at 110 jumps, to go with them, or is that better left to the D-licensed people?

Yeah, I suppose it does help if I actually read it, doesn't it?

From reading the 2009-2010 SIM, the age requirement of 18 is listed as waiverable by the full USPA board only. Does that mean a dropzone would need a one-time waiver to allow younger jumpers, or a waiver every time someone under 18 wants to jump? If it's the former, does that mean a 10-year-old could potentially jump once a DZ got a one-time waiver? And if it's the latter, I'd assume any DZ that would let younger people jump isn't someplace I'd want to be, since I'm sure they aren't calling up the board every weekend getting permission. I'd worry about their safety standards. Or am I completely off-base here?

Thanks for the replies. I think I'm leaving enough unstowed line length, but I'll double check. And I'll be sure to concentrate on my body position next time I toss the pilot chute--I suspect I've stopped paying attention to it much, since I've never had a problem just tossing it and getting ready to start steering. Not a good habit to be in.

I've been jumping the Sabre 170 since #28 or so. So most of 'em. And I hadn't even thought about the possibility of getting my hands trapped in the risers with line twists; I think I'll be avoiding grabbing them early from now on.

I've now managed to pack myself 2 openings (out of only about 60 total pack jobs I've done) where my right riser will somehow run across the side of my neck on its way out. The first time this happened a few weeks ago it wasn't a big deal, just mildly uncomfortable; however, I had one this weekend that was a really hard opening that also left a good-sized welt/hickey-looking thing on my neck. This is probably difficult to answer without somebody watching me pack, but does anybody know what might be causing that? I'm jumping an older Dolphin rig with a Sabre 170, if that makes a difference. And it's only ever been the right riser that causes the problem. And one other question: on openings, I've developed a tendency to grab my risers and sort of pull myself up a bit during the snivel to lessen the force of the opening on my legs and crotch. That was also not a problem until the hard opening this weekend, which managed to rip the risers out of my hands and took some good-sized flaps of skin off my fingers. Is grabbing the risers before full deployment a completely stupid idea? Obviously I don't have a lot of jumps, so I am fully aware that I am likely making rookie mistakes. That said, I don't think I'm still in a track or turning when opening, but it's possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I just got my A license in January and got my gear in February. I ended up spending $800 for an old Dolphin container with a reserve, $100 for an Altimaster Galaxy, and $200 for a barely-used belly suit. The only things I bought new were my helmet and a new Cypres, but with the exception of the Sabre 170 I got from an instructor for 300 bucks I got everything else from the classifieds here. It took a few weeks of looking around, but it can be done for very reasonable sums and, far more importantly, you can get some good, reliable gear. It may not be pretty, but when I slide in on my ass I don't really want to be screwing up a beautiful new rig.

It's entirely true that I didn't need to end up as far away as I did just to avoid one jumper. I definitely overcompensated, and thinking about it now I probably could have changed course and been fine around 1500 ft or so. But I wasn't entirely sure what the other jumper was doing and I think focused too much on them and not enough on where I was setting myself up. Definitely something to learn from. That said, I was in Eloy. I learned from several missed landings as a student that the vast tracts of desert surrounding the alternate landing area are really quite nice to land in, with plenty of large stretches of problem-free dirt.

Being new to the sport, I've been somewhat surprised when I read reports of fatalities caused by low turns. I always thought, "Man, everybody knows low turns are a really bad idea; why the hell do people keep dying like this?" Yesterday I finally understood. My first jump of the day had me under canopy with another jumper pretty far away but heading in my general direction, and I, being very paranoid about canopy collisions, made sure I kept plenty of distance between us. When it was getting time to enter the landing pattern, however, I realized that I was damn far from the landing area and knew I wouldn't make it back doing the regular pattern. For just a second I thought, "Well, I can just beeline for the landing area for as long as possible, whip around right at the end, and land in the grass just fine." That thought was immediately followed by, "That's a truly terrible idea, and you'll kill yourself if you do crap like that." So I decided that the nearby desert was plenty welcoming and ended up making a nice landing in the dirt. The only reason I mention this is that, at least for me (and I suspect for a lot of newer jumpers as well) these incident reports caused by pilot error seem incredibly remote and seem as though I couldn't possibly make the same mistakes. But it made me think: the vast majority of people in these reports knew a hell of a lot more about skydiving than I do, and I'm sure they weren't stupid; it's just easy to make a bad decision. So I guess my point is I'm encouraged to know I could make the right decision, but it was sobering to realize how little things really do make a difference. I guess you guys really do know what you're talking about most of the time after all... Blue skies

I'm already worried about my long-term ability to procreate from having leg straps hooch up in uncomfortable ways on opening; I can only imagine what 120 mph of flappy-flapping would do. Doesn't that hurt like hell?

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm definitely going to give them a call in the morning to get an appointment set up. Also, I'm assuming cash is usually preferred and/or required, right? I'll make a trip to the ATM before I head up. As for the AAD, obviously it's just there as an absolutely-last-ditch failsafe, but I still may as well have one that will actually work, y'know? I'm definitely going to look into the Vigil. It sounds pretty good. I just hadn't heard much about it before. But again, thanks to everyone for the advice. As a complete newbie I definitely appreciate it.

Thanks for the quick reply. Should I even expect to get it back the same day? Obviously that's all dependent on the rigger, I just have no clue what to expect. What should I expect to pay? Should I tip? And I'm gonna wait on more responses on the AAD, but again, thanks for the input.

I'm getting my first rig in the mail on Thursday, and I was planning on going to my DZ on Saturday to get it looked over and have the reserve packed. I also need to get an AAD before I get it packed, which leads to 2 questions: #1, how long does it usually take for a rig to get checked out, get an AAD installed, and have a reserve repacked? Should I expect to be able to jump on Saturday, or just plan on hanging out the whole day? #2, and I'm sure I'm going to get all sorts of conflicting opinions on this, but which AAD should I go for? I'm looking at both the Argus and Cypres 2, and from what I've seen on here the last few weeks of reading, they're both good and reliable, but the Cypres 2 has been around longer and is more widely-used and is therefore more trusted. I'd obviously love to save the 500 bucks with the Argus, but I also don't mind spending it if it's going to save my life. Opinions would be great. Thanks a lot.

I've only done 2 since getting my license, but I was done in 6 jumps, too. I was able to combine level 4 & 5 into one jump. Of course, that was also after 10 minutes of required tunnel time, during which I flailed hilariously and didn't feel like I learned anything (other than not to grab the mesh to keep yourself from turning--oops). But maybe those 10 minutes of idiocy got that out of my system so I wasn't as bad as I would've been on my first jumps.

Nope, I was just sitting back and enjoying the fireworks. Internet discussions never cease to be entertaining. I think I'm going to get a used RW suit to start with, and get myself a nice new one around the time I get myself a nice new rig. For now I'm perfectly happy with older stuff. Thanks for the advice, everyone.

OK, so a belly suit is definitely gonna happen. Seems like the best all-around plan. While I want to learn how to freefly at some point, what I really want to work up to (a looooooong way down the road) is a wingsuit. Those seem ridiculously fun. I'm looking at Tony Suits for my RW suit, but I'm wondering which type I should get. I'm 5'11 and 175lbs, so would I want a swoop suit, pit special, or camera suit? I'm assuming I probably don't want a camera suit as a first one, but does anybody know if there's a difference between the other two? And what about fabric types? I'm also going to run all of this by my instructors before I do anything, but any help from the forum would be great too.

Thanks to everybody for the advice. A belly suit is definitely sounding like the way to go, then. I definitely want to learn freeflying at some point, but it's probably a decent way off, and until that point I can borrow a suit when I need to. Also, do you have to have a suit for freeflying, or do baggy clothes (tucked in, of course; I read the post about t-shirts flying up over handles) fit the bill OK?

I recently got off of student status, and I'm looking around for buying my own gear. I'm going to go used for the container, canopies, and probably the altimeter, but I thought I'd get myself a nice-fitting new jumpsuit. The question is, is there any reason not to buy a freefly suit and just use it for belly flying? I'm not going to start freeflying for quite a while since I'm still not close to good enough at belly, but I know belly suits don't work for freeflying (why is that, incidentally? Just less drag?). So I was thinking I'd just buy a freefly suit and use it for belly, unless that's a terrible idea, which it very well might be. I just don't know that much about freeflying yet. Any help would be great. Thanks.

I figured I may as well introduce myself here. I'm Alex, 21, and I did my first tandem in October and then spent much of my winter break (I'm a math ed student at the University of Arizona in Tucson) jumping up in Eloy. I got my 25th jump and license yesterday, so now I'm just planning to, y'know, actually figure out what I'm doing. I'm looking forward to learning all I can, making a fool of myself time and again making rookie mistakes, and hopefully have some fun along the way. Should be good times.