new to DZ.com and to skydiving

[nachomasterCR 0]

hey guys, just wanted to introduce myself. 23 year old trying to get into the skydiving world.

so far i have done 3 tandem jumps and 1 solo. im doing a Tandem AFF course so the first 3 levels were all about learning to fly the canopy and body position. my solo was a complete mess, no arch, horrible body position, spun around all the way from 11,000 to 7,000 when my instructor managed to get me semi-stable and pulled for me.

it's obvious i failed and it's got me a little discouraged. during the jump i could feel my intructor shaking my hip which is a signal to arch and i could swear i did arch, but then we looked at the video it's obvious i didnt...

so yeah, first solo a complete fail... i guess it happens to some people. i wont be able to jump until the 30th (i know its a lot of time but its outside my control) so at least i have a lot of time to re-watch the video and practice a lot!

anyway, nice to be part of this forum!

[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

[Tela 0]

You have less than 4 minutes of practice in freefall, don't be to hard on yourself. I redid level 1 and then redid level 4, level 5 took 3 tries. Ever been ice skating? Were you flying around the pond after 5 minutes doing hockey stops and cross overs? This sport takes patience and humility, trust me I learned that the hard way. I used to beat myself up for every f**k up, that never helped me do it better the next time.

Remember when you have to redo a level, it means you have to go jump out of an airplane and that just doesn't suck. Relax as much as you can. Have fun. Force yourself to smile in freefall, it's harder to be tense when you're smiling and don't over think it. Engineers think about how to fly, but pilots fly by feel while the Engineers watch.

"The lizards were a race of people practically extinct from doing things smart people don't do."