I know my post is kinda long but can you help?

[regulator 0]

Hi,

My name is Paul Kirk, and I have 8 jumps. I started out at Perris Valley, California when I was working in Huntington Beach. I met Pat Mcgowan and Blue and Crazy Larry (Simmons) through another friend of mine who had jumped with them in Dallas. All it took was for me to just be there at the drop zone and watch people come in for landings and that was it. My friend went home the following weekend to Dallas, I stayed there in California...drove myself back to the drop zone and did my first jump course and completed my very first jump ever AFF style. I'm glad I went that route because it felt much more fufilling than to do it tandem. Anyway the job in Cali was over a week later and I went back to Dallas. I was there for around four more months in which i completed three more jumps at Skydive Dallas. Shortly afterwards the company I was working for didnt need me anymore so I had to move back to the Houston area to find more work. I met a new instructor at Skydive Spaceland-(definately one of the coolest people ever)- Kirsten Johnson...and I did 3 more jumps in one weekend and started to really define my abilities my arch is much better and mostly I owe it all to her because I felt most of the other instructors I ran into werent as helpful as she was. Let me tell you when I did my second release dive and she came over the radio when i was doing my pattern she told me that my skydive was awesome. I dont think I've ever felt any better. I have never found anything in this world that I wanted to dedicate myself to as much as skydiving. Well anyway I work in the telecom industry...and a few days ago a company in california (huntington beach) called me and they want to interview me for the job and theyre flying me out to California again. They told me that I'm one of the most qualified cantidates for the position, I'm gonna take the job if i get it because I LOVE california and I cant wait to start a new life in a new place. However this will be the fourth time I've changed drop zones. Now I will tell you that all the times I've changed drop zones before it was because of my work and not because of anything that happened or any of the instructors....but the industry I work in is very turbulent. Well anyway my question is...do you think that because I've been jossled about in my training that it is bad or indifferent? Will it affect me in a bad way?

[mailin 0]

Actually it may work to your advantage because you get to experience lots of different teaching styles and dropzones.

Everyone sucks as a student - don't be too hard on yourself. Just have fun and enjoy your n00bie status - cause eventually you get bigger numbers and people start to expect stuff from you


Jen

Arianna Frances

[regulator 0]

I never thought such a hot woman would be the first to reply to my message!

[skymama 35]

Welcome to the forums!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[regulator 0]

Well that would be sweet, but Since I'm unemployed at the moment its hard to finish my training. And Im unwilling to rent out my booty (even for skydiving)

[skymama 35]

How many levels do you have left? Would it be worth it to put them on a credit card, once you have a job for sure?

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[regulator 0]

if I had one... declaring bankruptcy 3 years ago doesnt do much for credit...hey Ive got an idea sexy momma...lend me yours! and yes I know your name is Skymama, but more assuredly youve looked in the mirror recently.

[skymama 35]

No, you can't have mine. I won't even put my own jumps on credit. That would be WAY too easy to get myself deep in debt and then I'd have to declare bankruptcy like you!

Thanks for the compliment. When I look in the mirror, it's usually in the morning. I can assure you that I'm not too sexy looking at that time of day.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[regulator 0]

I'm sure that in the morning youre quite beautiful...now I would like to point out that the job in California is a full time job with no travel involved and I would definately like to finish my training in one place. And bankruptcy sucks ass! In 1995 I had an auto accident that wasnt my fault but blamed on me and the person that hit me racked up an assload of chiropractor bills and because i was unemployed at the time I didnt have insurance so the insurance company sued me for fifty thousand dollars. Therefore I declared bankruptcy because the state of texas suspended my drivers license because it happened on a public road.

[jimmytavino 16]

welcome....

regardless of where you complete your AFF,,,know this...........
you'll get along alot better better on most dropzones if you concentrate on the SKYDIVING,, and don't let yourself get soooo distracted by the Women!!!!!. ( as evidenced by your posts)
Horn dogs make lousy students..I've seen hundreds of 'em come and go...
There is tooo much inportant stuff which you need to be learning,,, so that you can participate in OUR sport safely. Stay properly prioritized......
jmy ....o[:-)

[Guest 1010]

Quote

and I have 8 jumps.
...
I've been jossled about in my training that it is bad or indifferent? Will it affect me in a bad way?

(<<---- I've got 39 jumps, beware newbie advice!!)

What I suggest is that after you check out & find a DZ and decide that it is the place to continue, talk to the instructors there with your concerns. I'd think that if the equipment is different in any way, that should be discussed - method of parachute deployment (BOC vs. leg or something different?), size and landing/flying charactistics of main & reserve, etc.

Talk to your new instructors. If what they say is different than you've been taught elsewhere, just tell them "I was taught this-and-such, which do you recommend for me to do"? And also, I really don't think you've got much to worry about - you've already been successful at different DZs in the past and there's no reason to not be successful at the next one.

When I did AFF it was raining and many weekends went by without jumping, just getting reviews from many different instructors. At the time it was kind of a pain because they all do things just a little bit differently. But after it got sunny and I settled into staying with one instructor, I was also glad to have had so many different inputs and took some things away from them all.

And jimmytavino is right, you have more yet to learn to save your life. Concentrate on getting your A ... the hot girls will still be there in a few weeks. But don't forget what made things so fun at Spaceland - take that energy with you to the new dz!

Good luck with the new job in So Cal!

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

[StephZ 0]

Quote

you'll get along alot better better on most dropzones if you concentrate on the SKYDIVING,, and don't let yourself get soooo distracted by the Women!!!!!. ( as evidenced by your posts)
Horn dogs make lousy students..I've seen hundreds of 'em come and go...
There is tooo much inportant stuff which you need to be learning,,, so that you can participate in OUR sport safely. Stay properly prioritized......
jmy ....o[:-)

this is good advice! trust me, the girls will still be there when you're done, and they'll be a whole lot more impressed by your skydiving than they ever will your flattery. may be new to skydiving, but trust me - the girl thing i've got down, and that's sound advice

I am not afraid . . . I was born to do this
-Joan of Arc-
But what do I know, I'm only 19

[Eule 0]

Quote

Well anyway I work in the telecom industry...

I used to. It was kind of fun seeing the guy I used to work for get sent to the big house for 25 years.
:)

Quote

Well anyway my question is...do you think that because I've been jossled about in my training that it is bad or indifferent?

I am still on student status myself, and have only ever jumped at one dropzone (and one wind tunnel),
so discount my advice appropriately. I think that you can make it a good thing but it will take a little
more work than just doing all your student stuff at one place. Plan on spending some time at the new
dropzone talking to an instructor about where you are at in your training. Your log book is supposed to
do all this but talking it out with them may be more helpful. Also, many instructors know how to operate
telephones and computers... maybe having your new instructor get in touch with your previous one
would be useful. (And if they don't know how to operate a telephone, you can show them.) At the new
dropzone, be up front with them that your job situation might result in you disappearing on short notice.
It's not a problem, but they can then make sure it's a bit easier for you to switch if you have to. For
instance, after one of my student jumps, my instructor wrote a relatively short entry in my log book.
The next day he asked if he could write a little more about that jump, since he was concerned that if
I went somewhere else, the short description would be incomplete or confusing to anyone besides me
and him.

Eule

[GravityGirl 0]

I jumped at 5 different dropzones by the time I had 15 jumps. I seemed to have turned out okay.

Just make sure the gear is not dramatically different.

BOC. Throw out. Etc. You don't want to switch back and forth with deployment techniques or emergency proceedures.

Have a blast, and maybe I'll see you around.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peace and Blue Skies!
Bonnie ==>Gravity Gear!

[VampireGirl 0]

Quote

I jumped at 5 different dropzones by the time I had 15 jumps. I seemed to have turned out okay.

Just make sure the gear is not dramatically different.

BOC. Throw out. Etc. You don't want to switch back and forth with deployment techniques or emergency proceedures.

Have a blast, and maybe I'll see you around.

I agree with making sure about deployment techniques though, you must be certain what you are doing there!!

I also did my training in various different places and think it opens your mind to learning that there are lots of different ways of doing things and that you need to take responsibility for yourself and learn as much as possible and find the best way of doing things yourself.

have fun!

XX

Sarah

www.sneale-create.com

[HydroGuy 0]

If you do move to Huntington Beach, just go back to Perris...

I know lots of good instructors at Perris. If you are really nervous about who your instructor is, there is the Jim Wallace Skydiving School @ Perris. Just ask that Jim Wallace himself be your instructor. Jim has like 30 years in this sport, and somewhere around 19,000 skydives.

Alex Allen and JP (who posts on this board as DiabloPilot) work out of the Perris Vally Skydiving School (PVSS), along with Travis and Vinnie. I have learned TONS from the PVSS guys I listed above, even though none of them were my actual instructors. Just nice, helpful, GOOD skydivers who I would not hesitate to recommend as AFF Instructors or Tandem Masters to anyone.

Get in - Get off - Get away....repeat as neccessary

[regulator 0]

Hey thanks for your post...Although I'm a little confused... from the sound of It, you almost sound like you jump at Perris too. In any case I'm back from California and I'll find out tomorrow if I get the Job. So anyway I wanted to point out that all of my training has used containers that have BOC main canopy deployment methods so that hasnt had to been a factor in any of my training at any drop zone. And I guess the main reason I want to know if the changing of dropzones so much is because I want to be good. I mean like really good. The strange thing is that Ive been living on the water since I was 1 year old. Ive been water skiing since I was 5 (when i was 7 i was slalom skiing behind a flat bottom boat) And as much as I love the water...I dont nearly have the ambition to be good in any aspect of my life as I do in skydiving. So I just want to be as good as I can and learn everything I can so one day I can be a freeflyer, or on a RW team ...or the coolest (in my opinion) be a wingsuit pilot...YEAH BABY!!! So tomorrow most likely I'll find out if I get the job and if I do...and you do jump at Perris I'll make sure I holler

PK