Newbie considering AFF

[PixieUK 0]

Hi all

After my first tandem yesterday, I'm considering whether to do my AFF or not (I posted in the General forum about confusing people with my reactions).

I was fully expecting a "Marmite moment", you know, either you love it or hate it but no-one ever is ambivalent. Except me, apparently, lol.

It was fine, I liked some bits, wasn't so keen on others. We had a hard opening (as did my videographer on his chute) which was a nasty jolt and we had a hard landing due to flukey winds around a group of trees, but I was chilled and unfazed throughout. I was able to look around, found the drop zone (eventually!), was fascinated by the view but didn't get the massive adrenaline rush that makes people euphoric afterwards. It was a bit of an anti-climax to be honest.

Has anyone ever started out this way and ended up loving it? Will it be different if I do an AFF jump and have to do stuff myself? Or is the lack of excitement just one of those things that says "ok, great, ticked that box, what's next?"

My boyfriend is a qualified skydive instructor and he is somewhat freaked by my reaction as he's never seen it before, especially considering I was really nervous the week before when we nearly got to jump but it was called off at the last minute.

He would like to get back into skydiving after a long break (about 8 years) but doesn't think there is much point if I don't enjoy it. There is absolutely no pressure from him for me to jump - if I love it, that's great, if I'm not bothered, he won't be upset. I'm seriously considering doing my AFF jump 1 to see if jumping myself and pulling my own chute makes a difference but I guess I'm wondering if it's likely to be a waste of time and money.

Any thoughts?

Feel free to respond on the post in the General forum if that's more appropriate than here

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

I know a manager at my work who had a similar reaction to her tandem jump. She did it, said she could take it or leave it and didn't pursue any other training.

Flying solo is a dramatically different experience than going along for the ride and it's hard to say how any individual will react to it. You don't get the massive adrenaline after you get used to jumping and a lot of people who start the sport for that move on to other things at that point.

It's a pretty expensive sport to take up if you don't love it, but if it's something you can enjoy and can do with your boyfriend, it might be worthwhile. If you have a vertical wind tunnel nearby you could try that too. That's a good way to find out if you'd enjoy just flying around.

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

[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

[Az_au 0]

My first tandem left me feeling that I could just leave it at that but then about a year later I started getting an itch I had to scratch so I did another tandem. That's when it bit. After that I started looking into AFF courses and the rest is history. Since doing the course I've only missed one weekend and just can't get enough.

[Trafficdiver 8]

Your BF is a qualified instructor? Have you seen lots of his videos and listen to him talk a ton about skydiving? Are you familiar with the equipment? That may be part of it.

I knew nothing about skydiving during my first tandem and the entire experience was overwhelming and awesome. If I had someone close to me do it all the time and I watched tons of other people's jumps, it may not have had the same paradigm shifting effects.

Just a thought.

[Di0 1]

My 2c as an AFF student about halfway done with AFF, so with very very very little if no experience at all.

Try another Tandem jump, tell the instructor you're thinking about taking AFF so he'll give you a better briefing, he'll explain you in more detail what's going on, they usually let you do stuff like pulling the chord to open the main chute yourself, they let you do some canopy control maneuvers, they give a much better idea of the whole experience. At least, that's what happened to me when I said I was thinking about AFF.

Then decide without pressure. :)

Most people do a couple of tandems before getting into AFF and they describe their second jump as much much different from the first because they know what to expect.

Skydiving is quite a commitment, and I would never take it if I'm 50-50. At the same time, it is the best thing I've ever done so I would also never let go if I were 50-50. :)

I'm standing on the edge
With a vision in my head
My body screams release me
My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

[PixieUK 0]

Thanks all - some interesting things to ponder.

I definitely think having an instructor boyfriend has helped because I was very nervous just before we were due to get in the plane the first time and then we were stood down which meant it was another week before I actually jumped. During that time, I was able to ask lots of questions and get informed answers. My brain had a lot of time to process the first set of 'shocks', like how small the aircraft was, and how I would be hanging out of the plane whilst the instructor was still holding on getting us ready to jump out. And what it would feel like at different stages (free fall, deployment, under canopy, landing), and what I would see if I looked up or down.

And yes, I have seen hundreds of hours of video footage, lol, and I have also flown in commercial aircraft a lot so I'm used to seeing the ground at various distances out of the window.

I am a qualified climbing instructor so I'm used to the fear-factor of fall practice and having to trust someone else to hold me, so I had absolute trust in my tandem instructor and that helped too.

I've pretty much decided I'm going to do my AFF jump 1 to see the difference and then figure out if I want to do any more

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr

[Boomerdog 0]

First, congratulations on making your first tandem...not something many people do. Sorry about the hard opening but every now and then they happen. Ya think you've packed it right and wham...hard opening. I had one on my 50th jump...not enjoyable but I got down OK but did not jump for two weeks due to a sore groin.

My sense of your writing is that you are engaging the sport soberly and sensibly. To give you some idea about skydiving over here in "The Colonies," there are approximately 36,000 licensed skydivers in a population of about 317 million people. This is 0.1% or 1 in 10,000. This is not a good or bad statistic, just a fact. And I'm newly licensed myself and what I've found so far is quite a community of serious people who enjoy both a sport and a level of friendship and community I've never seen before but quite happy I'm part of now. Quite to the contrary, skydivers do not have "screws loose" or are crazy. I've never seen or been a part of a community who give the highest premium to safety. If your serious in pursuing a license, someone here said another tandem might be in order before making the first AFF jump and I think its safe to say that should you decide to pursue at least one AFF jump, they will prepare you well.

As for the "adrenaline rush," I know that I enjoy the free fall with a relaxed but heightened state of awareness. If that's adrenaline rush then so be it. What I enjoy are the people, the challenge of developing my skills with each jump I log and getting the hell away from my job. In total,it's a great time.

Blue Skies

[Di0 1]

PixieUK

I've pretty much decided I'm going to do my AFF jump 1 to see the difference and then figure out if I want to do any more

Well, there you go, good choice!
If I may add, my first AFF jump was a completely different experience from my Tandem jump. I think a fair comparison would be how I felt the first time I drove a car VS any time my dad would drive me around as a kid. There is simply no match!

Let us know what you think of it.
And as they say around here, Blue Skies and Big Smiles!

I'm standing on the edge
With a vision in my head
My body screams release me
My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

[PixieUK 0]

So ground school booked for Friday next week, with my first AFF jump potentially on Saturday. Having just received my video of my skydive, I did have an "OMG, did I really do that?" moment, especially seeing the TI tip us out of the plane in a somersault. Now I know why it felt like I'd left my stomach behind, lol.

Definitely a hard opening of the parachute - looks a little shocking on video (deployed in about a second, throwing us both about) and the same thing happening to the videographer (his swearing was covered by the music ) was enough to give me butterflies that I didn't actually feel at the time. Analysed it with my OH and looked at some of the AFF student videos and concluded that the conditions were unusual, so I'm not overly concerned about it happening to me next weekend.

Time to start practising my free fall arch on the kitchen floor

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr