Newbie lamb to the slaughter!!

[Juz 0]

Hi All,

My name is Juz and I live west of London UK. Booked to do my AFF at Elsinore next month and obviously am really looking forward to it.

Hope to be pretty active (I know, all the newbies say that and half of them drop out once their mid-life crisis has ended or they have had a scare), so please excuse any dumbass questions you see from me - at least for a while anyways.

Juz

[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

[Juz 0]

Thanks Mama.

Do I need to pray to the weather gods then? I assumed it would be better chances than the UK!!!

Juz

[skymama 35]

I don't live in CA, but I'm guessing that it should be a pretty good month for jumping, but you never know. Sometimes it's fine at my house and when I drive 25 minutes to the dz it's too windy! Good thing you'll have a tunnel nearby if you have some downtime.

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

[Juz 0]

Thanks for that.

Well, I've got 13 days at the DZ if I need it, so hopefully we'll be ok to complete all 8 levels and the consols.

Juz

[Juz 0]

Right, so that's me back home in the UK, having completed AFF (no retakes) and having a total of 25 jumps logged.

Hated the first jump, I mean really hated it, if I hadn't paid for the entire course up front, reckon I would have ended it there.

Lvl 2 was ok, as was 3 (although I had a big attack of the jitters during the lift).

Was ok with 4 and 5 as had done some tunnel work and found turns easy.

Liked 6 and 7 as the solo exit made it easier for me.

Spent the first few consol jumps being quite nervous in the plane, but then found I'd really started to enjoy the exits.

Think it's fair to say I'm hooked!!!

Thanks to Scotty, Joe and Damien (instructors), thanks to Tony for a coached jump, thanks to Martin, Mahnaz and Ali for advice/support and thanks to Elsinore!!

Juz

[Juz 0]

Well, we're a few months on so I thought it might be worth updating this thread for any UK newbies out there or those thinking about AFF. As you have seen earlier, I came back to the UK with 25 logged jumps thinking I want to carry on, but what's next?

Firstly, I found my nearest DZ and pitched up, got the DZ brief and started jumping there over the winter, and this is where TIP 1 comes into play - Even if the weather is crap, get yourself to the DZ. You definitely wont jump sat at home, but you might get a weather break and lift, so get across there. Also, if you're on a weather hold, talk to those around you, be enthusiastic (without overcooking it). It was good going regularly as you got to build a relationship with the DZ team and your face known.

A short while later, at about 40 jumps (right time for me, but could be earlier for most I suspect) I thought hard about what I wanted from jumping and decided that 4-way was right for me, so started trying to secure coaching and also got some tunnel time in - TIP 2 Tunnel is a great training tool, even if it looks expensive, get the right coach (Sparky Scott for 4-way every time!) and just do it.

I thought that it was unfortunate when I really struggled to get coaching at my home DZ, but looking further afield and getting used to a second DZ was in fact no bad thing TIP 3 is that I now have 2 different DZ options, often with differing weather forecasts, improving my chances of jumping.

I was put with some very generous and highly skilled coaches and progressed though my FS1 nicely. TIP 4 is an obvious one, the coaches may be getting their jumps paid for, but it's not necessarily 'fun' for them, so make sure you thank them and get the beers in at the end of the day!

.............................. and that pretty much takes me up to now!


Next steps for me? Well, firstly I want to strengthen my 4-ways skills and definitely need to do some more work on exits, so I guess I need to put my name down for scrambles. After that, well, I need to find a team to take me on.

Any tips on how best to find a team would be gratefully received!


Juz