Muffie

So, I couldn't respond to the poll because I'm female and have received a warning, but I've also received tickets. I'll admit a nice smile helps, but trying too hard to charm a cop would backfire IMO. I'm just always very polite and up front. So, looks like 5 tickets (four from men. Two were givens - one for an accident, one on Memorial Day weekend when there was no conversation allowed at all) and at least five warnings I can remember (also four from men). And I will say that the female cop who let me off it was not a matter of sexual orientation. Pretty sure she was straight. Maybe it was because she was named Snow White and it was too ridiculous for her to write a ticket on a Muffie? Or maybe because she accused me (a blonde, white girl visiting my friend in the 'hood) of being a gang member first? Who knows?

I say go for it! You never know until you try and if you don't you'll always wonder "what if." And sounds like you have qualifications that can travel easily. I don't have experience with island life, but last September I quit a perfectly good, solid job to travel and then start a business. Planned, saved up, etc. It didn't turn out exactly the way I planned (selling property in a down market costs a pretty penny so I didn't travel as much as expected), but a year later I am so happy I made the change.

Yep, got it! Pm'ed back.

So, I've been reading the incidents forum and it seems there have been a couple of fatalities where an experienced jumper was knocked unconscious or at least extremely disoriented and not doing anything until an extremely low altitude (say 300 to 500 feet) with a spinning mal. The jumper regained awareness, went into EPs, but not in time to deploy a reserve or not in time for the reserve to do any good. So, without getting too far into the merits of RSLs or AADs or anything like that, what do experienced jumpers think is the best thing to do: Go into your EPs the minute your regain awareness or are you in some instances more likely to survive by keeping the mal? I'm brand new so have yet to witness any sort of mal and can't really picture the scenarios in my head. Does a spinning mal mean a harder impact than no chute at all?

Thanks for the welcome guys! skymama - Hadn't heard of the Muff Brothers until now, but will have to track one down at some point and get that jump in! popsjumper - I'm waiting to finish up my A in NZ for a few reasons. First, I'll probably be spending more time in NZ in the next year or so than in the U.S., so might as well get that license. Second, I figured it was easier to just get licensed under one country's requirements rather than trying to sort all the differences esp. when I'll be back in NZ by the end of the year (fingers-crossed). I could've tried to just jump while I was here, but I don't think I'm ready for jumping in Colorado in the winter. My instructor did, but if there's such a thing as a cautious skydiver I may be it. The dz I'm at in NZ is wide open, low altitude, and small enough that I know someone is keeping an eye on me and can help me improve with every jump. I figure once I'm solid on tracking, approach, and landing and have my own equipment (hopefully in January) then I'll start jumping when I'm in the States. Like the driving analogy - I'm no longer doing circles in the parking lot, but I'm not ready for a six lane highway yet, either.

I've been entertaining myself reading some of the threads like scary stories from the old days (you have to read that thread if you haven't already), but figured I better finally sign up so I could respond to someone's question. Did my first tandem jump last year and caught the bug, so did my AFF the last couple of months in Taupo, New Zealand. Will finish up the A when I go back to NZ next year and can get the packing license knocked out. In the meantime I'm getting in some tunnel time in Colorado to do something skydiving related and be safer and have more fun next time I'm up there. (And Muffie is not some weird nickname, it's my real name and I figure when you have a name as frickin' weird as mine there's really no point in coming up with some catchy nickname.) And in my day job I deal with regulation, so at some point if I get stupid enough to weigh in on the issue (thereby opening myself to abuse from one side of the issue or the other), you may see a post from me about the whole regulation issue. But we'll save that for another day...

I did my AFF earlier this year in Taupo and highly recommend it. The guy who runs it, Geoff Mundy, is awesome in my opinion and the views are frickin' gorgeous. Here's a link to info. http://www.taupotandemskydiving.com/learn.php