New to the sport

[dropzonechaps 0]

Greetings everyone,

Just thought I would say hi and start browsing. The name is Steve, I'm 35 and I just made my first tandem jump yesterday......WHOA! I'm hooked! Why did I ever wait so long. Made the jump from 13K in carlsbad CA. All I can say is I thought I'd ha e this amazing adrenaline rush, and in fact, it was a peaceful as sitting in a lawn chair on the beach for me. Pure peace to be falling.

Well that was my first jump. Not my last. I am on the navy and am getting ready to deploy in 4 weeks so I am going to spend the next few months browsing and learning. When I am back I am going get licensed here in san Diego and start my new love. So I'm looking for info, learning more about gear, the sport etc.

A little about myself, I'm into lifting, running (working towrad the Boston marathon), huge golfer and love to build and drag race cars. Looking forward to nearing new friends hope yall have a great day.

[jessicamarie 0]

Oh, those tandems, man. They are dangerous. Not in the literal sense; it's gotta be one of the safest ways to skydive. But they hook you...keep you wanting to come back for more and more and more. I've done 3 in the past 4 months.

It gets you high, doesn't it? Having had multiple surgeries in my life (pediatric cancer surviver,) I've had IV opiates for pain. The same stuff people get hooked on. The sensation I get during and after free fall is right up there with IV morphine. Skydiving and drugs (and a whole host of other things) act on the same part of the brain.

I'm an absolute newbie myself-hope to start my AFF as soon as I can put some money away and get my husband on board (he's getting there) so I don't have much to say except welcome!

I can offer a shout out from a fellow runner! Boston's on my bucket list. I'm pretty new to running as well, so I'm sticking with 5Ks for now.

Good luck with working toward your goal. You'll get there. Keep us posted.

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Sweet! Well the sport has come a long way in the last 30 years. I've looked in on it from time to time over the years -- I was an Air Force brat and was always curious. Seems like early on it wasn't forgiving at all, and broken bones on landing were all too common.

The square parachutes and automatic activation devices came as a bit of a surprise to me when I finally took an AFF course in July. I've made some pretty atrocious landings without any major harm done. Not that I'd encourage doing that. 15 years ago I probably would have broken some things.

Don't they make you learn how to jump out of an airplane in the Navy? Some Navy guys were jumping at my home drop zone a couple of weeks ago. The dropzone staff was working with them on whatever they were doing. I didn't ask too many questions. No "need to know." I saw them coming down one day and thought "Well those guys couldn't be our fun jumpers! They're all following the same pattern!"

Stay safe on your deployment, and jumping out of airplanes too!

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[dropzonechaps 0]

Ha! No need to teach a chaplain how to jump in this navy, got to do it on my own. Hopefully though at my next command I can squeeze the navy for an open seat at jump school. We shall see if they go for it. However, ill be back for 4 weeks in December so I plan of completing my AFF at that time. Unfortunately Kk have to wait for 10 weeks. Otherwise I'd be starting next week if I was not leaving. And I plan on taking 3 days off to knock it out all at once.

[skymama 35]

Welcome to the forums and thank-you for your service!

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