Jumpsuit for big ways (scared of going low!)

[mdrejhon 8]

Hello,

Finally back from a wonderful 17-jump weekend that is helping ready me for the upcoming Perris Bigway camp.

The story: My last jumpsuit went MIA, I was in the process of getting a second jumpsuit ordered. Fortunately, I found the MIA -- it was wet and hung to dry at a DZ where I forgot it, it's currently in the mail. ... However, this is a competition suit (with booties), polycotton torso with spandex forearms. Ever since I gained a little weight, fallrate is a bit difficult at the outer of a 49-way, I barely didn't make it in (but I did in May). Everytime I go low which I seem to do more frequently than I did before my slight weight gain, I'm always spooked and I then dive less aggressively on the next jump or don't bother to arch as hard as I usually do. All this means I'm slower to my slot than I usually am (though my 17 jump weekend helped a huge amount). This is a bad habit to have. I'm not a big person by any means, but I did gain a few pounds since 2005, without noticeable bulge - meaning that I'm literally at the bottom end of my best webbed-out slowfall (fingers apart, booties in airstream, and stretching my underarm jumpsuit fabric out as two-inch wings, legs apart, in a mostly-mantis position -- I look like a frog). Originally I was going to wear a sweatshirt to help (I'll bring both jumpsuits), but I think I'd like to go ahead and order a 'slow' jumpsuit.

Now: ordering a "Slow Jumpsuit" for the outers of a bigway, I have the opportunity to rush order a second jumpsuit, designed to help me succeed for the outers of a formation. I'm thinking of getting exactly the same jumpsuit, but with polycotton sleeves, afterburners and swoop cords. (I still have the original order form from the same manufacturer, just will make minor edits). As people say... "Better safe than sorry".

And need opinions from those knowledgeable... I've sent out some emails, but due to the MIA jumpsuit, this has been last minute research. Is the described jumpsuit, with the suggested changes, reasonable or a little too excessive? Just a simple loose cotton jumpsuit, or should I just get the same jumpsuit, but with afterburners and swoop cords for helping me recover quicker from a "get-too-low" threat? I have 10 min of tunnel time scheduled specifically to practice more slowfall, but I think I should get a second jumpsuit for slowfall. (PS, the order form has to be sent in by the end of today...)

[mdrejhon 8]

Got a PM, did some more reading. I know they shouldn't be done to correct fallrate issues, just need that little extra edge as an outer on a bigway, and to help stop me quicker during an approach to a bigway, allowing me confidence to dive to the formation on schedule before braking...

Either way, seems like swoop is a useful one - supposedly helps stop right before the formation, and many World Team members have used swoop cords in past records especially on the outers.

[IanHarrop 37]

good product

http://www.flitesuit.com/brandiBelt.htm

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[MakeItHappen 15]

Quote

Hello,

Finally back from a wonderful 17-jump weekend that is helping ready me for the upcoming Perris Bigway camp.

The story: My last jumpsuit went MIA, I was in the process of getting a second jumpsuit ordered. Fortunately, I found the MIA -- it was wet and hung to dry at a DZ where I forgot it, it's currently in the mail. ... However, this is a competition suit (with booties), polycotton torso with spandex forearms. .....

What you should do is bring an oversized:
- short sleeve tshirt
- long sleeve tshirt
- sweatshirt.
The extra size up is to make it fit over grippers and be a bit baggy. This changes one jumpsuit into 4.
One safety issue with the long sleeve tshirt is that the sleeves may get pushed over your hands when you track off all the way to your assigned pull altitude. That makes pulling 'exciting'. The cure for that is to cut the sleeves or put rubber bands over the sleeve up by your elbows or fold back the sleeve under itself (you have to do that when you borrow a long sleeve tshirt.)
Another safety issue is to make sure you tuck the tshirt/sweatshirt under your leg straps so that it does not fly up and cover your handles, including the main handle.

Remember there are three independent ways to adjust your fall rate:
- jumpsuit drag
- weights
- trim position aka body position.

The ideal place to be in body position is in the middle of your range. That means you have a relaxed body position. No extreme arch and no mega flying big.

The idea - and this comes with experience of going low or being too floaty - is to adjust weight and jumpsuit so that you have a relaxed body position for your particular slot. A camp is a perfect environment to 'experiment'.

Another hot tip is to scope out other jumpers that are about your size, make friends with them and find out how many jumpsuits they have with them - in case you need them. Also ask everyone about extra weights or weight belts. Trading like this goes on at all big ways.

Also Square1 has demo suits that you can borrow if you really, really need a super, duper big, cotton draggy jumpsuit. And there are also two schools to beg from. (They usually schedule fewer students on these big way weekends.)

Hope that helps.

.

.
Make It Happen
Parachute History
DiveMaker

[mdrejhon 8]

Hey, thanks for the extra info -- very useful to have.

The second jumpsuit was now ordered earlier anyway (Before I saw your post). Bev Suit, like my old one, I simply made a modified copy of my 2005 order form. I decided on not getting afterburners, however I substituted polycotton in place of spandex, and added swoop cords and small 'wings' option (3" of baggy fabric). Exact same colors, but with one exception: Grippers are orange instead of yellow, to help identify the two jumpsuits apart without looking too different.

My experience with MIA jumpsuit (for three weeks) means I now want to have a spare one, just in case one goes out of commission, or when I have both, I have a choice between a fast and slow one.

The truth is, I've recently developed a bad habit: I'm spooked by going low that I recently avoided diving as aggressively because of the fear I didn't have before. Formerly, there was a situation in 2006 where I exited two seconds too early (misinterpreted exit count as a rear float, left before "ready") and still managed to climb up and dock. As well as on a different jump, successfully recovering from 20-feet-too-low situation and still successfully docking. (valuable Guy Wright tip: don't look up at the formation when you go low, keep your helmet down in the airstream, look sideways instead). I only had 175 jumps then during those 20-way jumps... I can no longer do those feats (same jumpsuit) in the last year; probably. I clearly don't have the slow-fall power I used to have! Something is wrong if I can't fall as slow as I used to, so...

I have compensated for this by being sometimes overly cautious in many dive approach, and not arching as hard as usual. This was evidenced as me being the last one to dock on many bigways recently. After a dissapointing summer of bad weather that threw a few 0-jump and 4-jump weekends at me, the big weekend's 17-jump weekend I just completed, I'm now docking much more quickly as the practice is definitely helping! With this recent currency, I'm now docking reliably again and more 'normally', but I still have the phobia of getting low that I didn't have before... Currency does plays a big role in improving my stopping power as well as recovering quickly from a minor low situation, but I still feel something has 'changed', which I trace at least partially to the weight gain... And possibly partially to bad slow-fall habits I might have developed.

To help work on that more: I have 10 minutes of tunnel at Skyventure Perris scheduled at 8pm September 10th, specifically for slow-fall manoever practice. During 2007, I actually struggled for some time with transitioning from boxman to mantis (since I was doing 4-way in tunnel) that also hurt my ability to fall slow, and I still may have some lingering bad habits that needs to be ironed out. But even when I go back to boxman spreadout/cupping, I still don't have the same slowfall power I had at end of 2006... Practice, practice. (I'm more mantis-focussed now when I try to slowfall, but still need to improve it further)

I look skinny, but I noticed I can fall unexpectedly fast when I intentionally arch hard -- I probably could even have reduced or even skipped the 10lbs of lead I wore in the base, if I intentionally arched really hard. All spring/summer long I haven't even arched my maximum possible hard near a formation (except when I'm adjusting my stadium, if I'm still far but too close to resume a dive).

If the other jumpsuit arrives, I'll definitely be bringing both to the bigway, along with a sweatshirt -- being more prepared this time!

Nontheless, I'll definitely avoid using it at the beginning of the bigway camp, especially if I'm in the base

Lots of new gear ordered this year. New Z1 helmet to replace discontinued helmet, and I just got my first audible (a deaf-friendly flashing LED model, an optima) and field tested it during all 17 jumps this last weekend. Also got an Altitrack to replace an Altimaster II Galaxy and get a freefall computer. Unintentionally, this shaved off about 2.5 pounds of gear weight, since the old helmet and altimeter were both made of metal/dense material, while the new helmet/altimeter appears to be made of plastic. To the point I even noticed a sudden minor improvement in my slowfall, but not as good as my 2006 capabilities.

Either way, two jumpsuits (one fast, one slow) in my arsenal can't hurt... Especially if my long term jumping career is bigways.

I borrowed jumpsuits for the last three weeks, and the experience of jumping three different random jumpsuits helped give me some insight on my fallrate capabilities and how they're affected by loaner jumpsuits, too.. Now it's time for me to lend out my jumpsuits.

And thanks again for the tips -- I saved a copy of your tips :-)