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RyanFYF

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;)What's up everyone. I'm Ryan and I live 25 minutes away from skydive deland. Will be starting my aff Once I get back from the keys on a diving trip in a few weeks. Only got two tandem jumps under my belt and am super excited to take up this new passion. Can't wait to see you all in the sky!

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Welcome Ryan enjoy your AFF. keep us posted on your progress. You obviously enjoyed your tandems.. but then I have yet to meet or talk to any one who did not.
I tend to be a bit different. enjoyed my time in the sport or is it an industry these days ??

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welcome to the forums and to skydiving. I believe there is a small waiting period (sim) between scuba and skydiving, for your safety. can the mod quote / link that ?
Anyone can swim, only a few swim well.
Anyone can skydive, everyone can skydive well. Practice!

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welcome to the forums and to skydiving. I believe there is a small waiting period (sim) between scuba and skydiving, for your safety. can the mod quote / link that ?



Yeah there are health factors and altitude pressures ect to consider. I will have plenty of time inbetween these two. But still CAN'T WAIT!!!

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I recently finished AFF at DeLand. I just did jumps 14 and 15 this past Friday before the weather got bad, planning on getting out again this week for a few more.

I'm also 25 minutes away from DeLand. Where do you live? I'm in daytona

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I recently finished AFF at DeLand. I just did jumps 14 and 15 this past Friday before the weather got bad, planning on getting out again this week for a few more.

I'm also 25 minutes away from DeLand. Where do you live? I'm in daytona



I'm in new Smyrna beach (Venetian bay)

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I ended up failing level 4 twice. It was a problem with just not relaxing enough in freefall. I had a really good level 2 jump. Level 3 I was a little tense and had an unintentional slow turn that caused me to try to over analyze my body position and try to fix it, when I should have just been telling myself to relax and arch.

Level 4 they let you go, I did my 90* left turn fine, then did a little too fast of a turn to the right. After that you do forward movement and I didn't stop my turn before I tried that and ended up flipping over on my back. I got myself back over on my belly before Trevor got to me, but then was flustered and got so fixated on my alti that I didn't realize I had dropped my left arm under me to look at the alti, and that I had a pretty good turn going.

Second attempt at lvl 4 was with Nikki. It was the same day and I was still flustered from the first attempt and was stiff the entire jump. That brought back my unintentional turn, and nikki was holding onto me for a good part of the jump waiting for me to fix it. I never did and actually ended up flipping myself on my back again. That was fun because when I flipped it was at 6k feet. Pull altitude in AFF is 5.5 :S. When I flipped I took Nikki with me, and we had a little wrestling match while he tried to flip me back over and I was trying to flip myself back over and we ended up fighting against each other for a second until he let me go and let me flip myself.

After that I went to the Orlando wind tunnel with Bob and Trevor and got 15 minutes there. Can't describe how much that helped my confidence. 15 minutes in there is like doing 18 jumps worth of free fall. It was a night and day difference in how I flew after doing the wind tunnel. After that Bob took me up and combined levels 4 and 5 into one jump, and then one more level 6/7 jump and then graduated me from AFF.


Relax and trust that arch and you'll be good

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Thanks for that. I've been trying to be a sponge as much as possible and want to just learn learn learn from everyone's experiences. It's funny that really no matter what happened in everyone's stories, the solution is always to arch and relax. Definately cool to hear everyone saying the same things like trust your training and your instructors and you'll be good. I can't freaking wait!

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Ok so here's an update. Finished ground school today but due to weather couldn't jump. Very hopeful for next Saturday. Class was fun and everyone was super cool. Lots of help and tips from every/any employee that was with in ear range. Those guys are great. Only me and one other guy jb the class and he was super chill too. We are bith gonna try to knock these aff jumps out and have fun doing it. Great experience all around and can't say enough about all the staff and friends of deland skydive dz.

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Ya they're all super helpful out there. I got out yesterday morning and got 4 jumps in. Beautiful day all day yesterday.

Got my hop and pop in for the A license. It was interesting because I completely forgot the fact that I was doing a hop and pop. In my head I was thinking that it was just a normal jump. I got out and was watching the plane fly away from me, enjoying the view. After a few seconds it occurred to me that I was supposed to be doing something, then realized what kind of jump this was :S


Who was your instructor for the ground course?

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Hey Ryan, I think I'll be jumping on Saturday, look for me and say HI! I wear a white/magenta/navy jumpsuit or just ask Nikki who I am. :)

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

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It was great fun today. Beautiful skies, awesome instructors, perfect landing. AFF 1.......check!!!! Going back for my next fix Monday. I loved jumping out of the skyvan too, what a great surprise! It was great to meet you too, Andrea. It was too funny that I didnt even realize I forgot to say hi until I was under canopy. It was relaxing to watch you jump rigt in front of me. Put my mind at ease stepping backwards to the edge of the van. Jump went great. Legs were alittle too bent on exit but I fixed very quickly and they said I had a good arch. Pulled on time and all went well!!! I'm hooked for life!

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Nice! That first one is intense, but so much fun. I still haven't jumped out of the skyvan, I wish I was able to get out there on Saturdays

Who were your instructors for the jump?

I didn't get to jump this week. I was hoping to get out Monday morning too but it turns out I have to work Monday. I'll probably end up getting back out Tuesday/Wednesday

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I jumped with Trevor and i think his name was Chromy. Super cool guys ofcoarse. Yes. It was intense lol. But I'm ready for more! Loved watching people doing flips outta the back of the van. Can't wait to be able to do that! I wish I would have gotten some sort of video today though. So hard to explain to friends what has happened to my life today lol.

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It was super cool to meet you too, Ryan! I'm so glad you had a good jump. And, yes, that was Chromy with you today. He's a rock-star in skydiving, you can learn a lot from him!
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

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It was super cool to meet you too, Ryan! I'm so glad you had a good jump. And, yes, that was Chromy with you today. He's a rock-star in skydiving, you can learn a lot from him!

And I heard he gives all you guys alot of sausage too lol! He was great and between him and Trevor I felt like I was in a European dz as a foreigner! Haha going back tomorrow for aff2 and possibly aff3. I'm hoping to get video so I can see what it's like when I get home lol. I'll keep you all updated on my progress!

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Ok so today......well today was interesting lol. Aff 2 was with Carl and Nikki. Exit was great and very smooth into free fall. Three practice pulls, no problem. Told to arch more. Got wobbly and listed everyone to the right. Left turn good. Alt check. Right turn good. Alt check. Forward good. Alt check. Locked on at 6k. 5.5 I for some in known reason took a moment to admire the scenery and then waved off. By the time I reached for the pilot, Nikki had already pulled. Embarrassed but hey shit happens. Pass

Aff 3 about 40 minutes later. Nikki and I forgot the other guys name. First time meeting him and he was very nice, just was still amped up and didn't pay attention to learning names I guess lol. Plane ride up "easy jump. Just relax and arch". Exit: total failure. I said "Ready!" and jumped out of the plane! Lol I ripped Nikki outta the PAC and all three of us went into a good stable position. "oh well, shake it off" altitude check. Left instructor right instructor practice pull. It was all one motion. Didn't even wait to see the instructors responceses! "arch arch arch arch arch arch arch" that's all that was in my head! Oh yeah alt check. 7k. Ok. 6k locked on and didn't want Nikki to beat me to the punch so 5.8 half ass wave and pull!

"shit shit shit" was what I thought all the way down. Landings are good and I feel very comfortable under canopy, but debriefing proved I'm not stable in air yet. Nikki advised I eigther retake aff3 or if I choose tunnel time tonight and it goes well, he'll pass me onto aff4. Going to the tunnel tonight with Trevor and chromy. 10 minutes. I hope it clicks for me cause it is frustrating for sure. No worries though I still jumped twice and safely landed twice so it's all good right?!

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Tunnel time helped me sooooo much. Like I said before I failed lvl 4 twice, just didn't feel comfortable in the air, didn't relax enough, was too stiff. I would tell all that to myself before the jump, but as soon as I was out of the plane I was just thinking about what I was supposed to be doing and not remember the entire "breathe, relax, don't stiffen up" line that I had been repeating the entire plane ride up :(

It's very easy to get overwhelmed while falling to earth at 120mph lol.

The tunnel is so good for ironing out problems. On AFF if something didn't feel right you have to wait a few hours or few days before you get to try it again and fix it, and you only get a 50sec window to try to fix it. In the tunnel you go in for 1.5min, and if it didn't feel right then you just have to wait about 5 min and you get to try again, then get out and see how you felt about that one and then go try it again a few min later.

The tunnel really helped me get a feeling for flying stable and get comfortable with it.


I'll probably be out there Tuesday morning to do a few jumps. I took the packing class last week with.... I can't remember her name.... Amanda? Amy? something with an A. I need to get out and jump so that I can practice packing.

You should get out and do an AFF tomorrow morning

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I can't remember her name.... Amanda?



Did she have colorful hair? It was probably Amanda. She's good people. :)
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

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