So I am about to give up skydiving...

[thelimit 0]

If you don't feel right then don't do it. That's how people get hurt.
When I was teaching skiing, most of the people that were scared got hurt and didn't like the sport.
Not all sports are for everyone.!!!
Would all of you stick to bullriding if you didn't stay on the first 5 times??

[nael 0]

I think you're giving up way too easily. There's loads of canopy coaches out there who would spend time with you to help you improve. I also had a LOT of trouble with my landings when I started and stood up about 2 landings up until my 40th jump. I dont stand them all up, and with recently putting on a 6kg weight belt have had completely different landings than I used to before putting on the belt.

For me, skydiving is about the challenge. I wouldnt let fear beat me, and if something scares me a lot, I do it more until I become comfortable with it. Get a coach, do hop and pops, whatever. Everything you've said has been said by people a thousand times before. The differnence is if you refuse to admit defeat and keep trying, or fall in a heap.

This isnt a personal attack on you or anything (I dont even know you), it's just the way I choose to go about my life, and it's worked well for me! From my very short time in the sport it's become obvious that skydiving has a lot to do with your mind, and confronting fears. If it's what you really want to do, you will do it - like anything in life but of course, if you dont want to jump anymore, that's fine too.

www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

[windcatcher 0]

well, I have kept trying...73 times I've tried!
Course, putting a bunch of jumps on a canopy that couldn't flare properly left a sour taste in my mouth. I know I should have gotten it checked out sooner, but I thought it was all me.
Anyways, I did put 5 standup landings in a row in Cali, and I was very proud of myself. I guess I shouldn't expect to stand up all my landings at this point ( or should I?), but since I just got a newer, bigger canopy I thought my landings would be different. I guess it's not uncommon for people to NOT standup their first jumps on an unfamiliar canopy?

anyways, thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate everyone's kind words. I DO love skydiving ( for those who think I don't enjoy it)--I just wish I could skip landing my canopy,that's all.

Mother to the cutest little thing in the world...

[nael 0]

Everyone learns at their own pace. I wish you could have seen the troubles I had with landing when I first started jumping - I actually wore holes in the knees of my jeans because my landings were so bad! I had an instructor who wasnt familiar with the effort I was putting into improving my landings tell me off after seeing one particularly bad landing (I rolled through my risers 3 times!) Damn, this is embarasing just writing this in publuc!

I had about 12 instructors on the dz watching all my landings, trying to help me out. In the end, I called our FJC instructor during the week and asked him to spend some time with me before his next FJC and go over landings. I spent about an hour and a half with him and although I still wasnt standing every landing up, I did improve dramatically from there on in. Plus, as I said, I still eat dirt on landings sometimes - yes, I had even literally eaten dirt on a couple of landings! Friends that I started jumping with were standing up all their landings (or the vast majority of them) which made me even more frustrated at how I was progressing (or lack thereof!)

Find someone at your dz who is a great canopy pilot and teacher and enlist their undivided attention for however long it takes you to feel comfortable. Yeah, it might cost a bit more than if you jumped without them, but think if the peace of mind, lack of broken legs and sense of achievement. Even now, when I land nicely after a jump, I am really happy. I still dont expect to land nicely after every jump - you just have to keep working on it.

www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

[fluffcake 0]

Well I guess I can just run out there and catch you before you hit the ground... let me know, I rock like that ;)

[windcatcher 0]

thanks for the encouragement, and fluffcake...thanks for the offer

Mother to the cutest little thing in the world...

[chadkal 0]

sarah, you are the most beautiful, sweet girl I've ever met. If you quit jumping, who is going to sitfly with me?

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I am a greek midget

[Michele 1]

Sarah, landing a canopy is not an easy task. I fought long and hard with gear fear - terrified of the entire canopy ride. It would take me hours to get ready to jump...and sometimes, I just couldn't do it. I'd feel dejected, discouraged, and very similar to you: this sport isn't for me, no matter how much I love it...and how much it does for me.

After a series of pretty bad crashes that didn't break me only because I'm short, fat and flexible, but managed to bruise me significantly enough to make me go to the Dr., I decided I'd give it one more go.

I took Jim Slaton's canopy control class. And lo and behold, there were some issues inherent in my 210 that were equipment related. Once we got that sorted out, then we worked on me. I was doing things - sometimes very subtlely - that made it impossible for me to land properly. So I learned, and I learned, and I learned.

And I stopped feeling like a sack of potatoes being flung at Mother Earth. I actually started to understand - not simply mentally, but in my body - what the right timing is, and what sight pictures are, and when the flare is right and when it's wrong.

Does that mean I started standing up every landing? Oh hell no. I still regularly land on my front and rear bumpers...but I'm also on my feet more often, too. And I know when it's right - in my body I can feel it.

Your profile shows that you have a great connection on the physical side of things. In Ballet, for example, were you able to nail absolutely every attitude, every plie, every jete in the first hundred times doing it With full amplitude and perfect toe points every time? No? Let's look at weigh lifting. Did your bicep definition happen immediately, within 73 reps? No? What about your quads? They got defined in 73 reps, right? No? What you did when you didn't get it right, that damned jete which should be more split, or higher, is you worked on it. You took classes. You practiced. It's the same in skydiving. Your kenetic connection will serve you well once you get your head out of the way, and stop thinking so much, and start feeling it more. Take a canopy control class with a good ground school.

And whomever told you that skydiving was easily learned, and that landing a canopy is simple, is full of beans. Go tell them to pound sand. Take classes, like you did in ballet, practice and repeat, like you do at the gym, and learn the art of skydiving.

Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[cocheese 0]

If you quit , we're all going to quit and it's going to be all your fault.
Nothing is over til we decide it is. Was it over when.....
This was the first post i read when i got home from an awesome weekend. It made me sad at first. But then i realized you're probably just having one of those days.
Fly Sarah fly.

[windcatcher 0]

thanks for the awesome post Michele; btw, I only ballet for a year ( and am getting back this fall!!!), and I;m working on getting my arms and the rest of me back into shape ( I started skydiving regularly, and whaddayaknow, my fitness routine, out the window!). Anyways, yes, you are right getting definition, learning dance moves did take hard work. AND I am willing to work hard to become a better canopy pilot, trust me...but I doubt it will happen sometimes.

Oh,and cocheese, your post almost made me start to cry. Love ya!

Mother to the cutest little thing in the world...

[AggieDave 6]

Please do a Scott Miller course before you decide to quit. I say him and only his course due to the kind of instruction, jumping and actual jump debriefing that you get from him.

Otherwise, sorry to see you leave, have fun not jumping.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[windcatcher 0]

Dave, we have a canopy course that I would love to attend, it may be too late to join; but yeah, if I don't stick with skydiving, I'll just go back to my art stuff.
I have heard many great things about him, if he could help me, I'd be amazed

Mother to the cutest little thing in the world...

[stevebabin 0]

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I sold my 170, after getting my brake lines fixed. On my 170, I had a higher WL( DUH!), and it couldn't flare all the way, so I had some hard landings on that canopy. I guess jumping my 170 made me kinda freak about landings, because the tail was pulled down already in full flight, and it wouldn't flare all the way...


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These are normally mutually EXCLUSIVE conditions. Normally, if the tail is pulled down during full flight it means that the toggles are mounted too high on the steering lines. This not only causes the tail to be pulled down during full flight, it causes the canopy to stall more quickly because it SHORTENS the distance the control range of the toggles.

I wondered about this when I heard it some weeks ago...
What she means is that because the canopy was flying in a "braked" configuration (due to the short brake lines...), she didn't have the normal speed to trade for lift on landing. Like flying your final approach in 1/2 brakes and then flaring. She wasn't getting the full flare out of the canopy.

Steve

"Science, logic and reason will fly you to the moon. Religion will fly you into buildings."
"Because figuring things out is always better than making shit up."

[VanillaSkyGirl 6]

Hi Sarah. You really should only skydive when you feel ready to give it your all. Take a break, if you must, but please know that we've all been there.

Btw, if you want to keep jumping and want to have better landings, you are going to need a plan. I've noticed that good flyers take skydiving as a constant learning experience and work hard to get "good".

For example, good 4-way team rooms look like a place to both learn and work. They have file cabinets with their handouts, notes, videos/DVDs and tons of articles to look at or read. They download or look at flying articles/videos on the internet, and they use memory games to remember the letters (randoms) and numbers (blocks). They critique their flying videos and watch them over and over on their own and as a team. They perform many training jumps with their team, and they pay for coaching and sometimes for tunnel training, too.

Currency, coaching, training and the positive attitude/desire to better their skills seem to be the key to improvement. Of course, although it seems like work, many teams are quite happy when training because they are working and learning. They are often even happier when competing because this is a chance to see their hard work paying off. I have much respect for anyone that works hard, no matter what the final results. On the other hand, quitting will never let a person live up to his/her potential.

If you took a similar approach to your landings as some of the teams do
when training, you would definitely improve, Sarah. I'm not saying that it has to be all work and no play, but learning to fly and land your canopy will take some time and effort. People don't magically get better at skydiving overnight. Nobody is that naturally good. It takes work. I'm sure that everyone that flies well has been humbled at one time or another in this sport.

Remember, that I only have 200 jumps, so take what I have written with a grain of salt. You should ask a good canopy coach for help, above all. Good luck, Sarah.

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[waltappel 1]

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I wondered about this when I heard it some weeks ago...
What she means is that because the canopy was flying in a "braked" configuration (due to the short brake lines...), she didn't have the normal speed to trade for lift on landing. Like flying your final approach in 1/2 brakes and then flaring. She wasn't getting the full flare out of the canopy.

Steve

Makes sense. Just a matter of semantics.

Walt

[Guest]

Have you considered getting your depth perception checked?

Many people with landing problems have found that it's a matter of timing, which is tied to the sight picture on landing.

Poor depth perception can cause late flaring, which of course means repeated hard landings no matter what canopy size you're under.

Please consider it.

mh

.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[Squeak 17]

See YaHope you mostly had fun

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[Andy9o8 0]

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I have heard many great things about [Scott Miller], if he could help me, I'd be amazed

I'm not sure how you could be so sure of that unless you tried the course! Sounds like you haven't had any formal canopy course yet from which to make that judgment.

You're not the only novice jumper who has started this kind of thread. Presumably your purpose in doing so is either (a) you really don't want to quit, so you're trying to prompt others to (predictably) encourage you not to quit, or (b) you already have made up your mind to quit, but you're giving yourself a guilt trip about it, so you want to to get others to validate your choice to stop jumping. Only you can decide what your own purpose (i.e., agenda) is.

One last thought, for whatever it's worth. (And this is only a last resort, if you take a canopy course but still have a mental block with the landings. And this also presupposes that you don't really want to quit.) Way Back When, there used to be a time when only very experienced skydivers jumped ram-air canopies, and everyone else jumped rounds. Back then, skydiving was all about the freefall, and the canopy ride was just a means to survive it. Now I'm not for an instant suggesting that you jump a round canopy. But if you love the freefall part of skydiving, but fear of landing the canopy is pushing you out of the sport, what's to prevent you from just sticking with the very large, docile student canopies? It's not the best option, and I still think you should take a good canopy course; but if that doesn't get you to where you want to be, maybe making the canopy landing far less part of the equation by using a student canopy for a while - so you can reduce the fear factor of the landings - might be worth a shot. Now that's an unconventional approach, to which many people would (rightly) say "No!! that just avoids the need to learn to fly a canopy properly." But hey, it's better than quitting completely -- that is, assuming you don't really want to quit. (But first try a good canopy course!!)

[freeflysteve 0]

hi
landings were my big failure earlier on in the sport
had 67 jumps before i jumped my own gear first rig had a spectre 150,went over to zhills to collect my gear and a week of jumping
first landing attracted a lot of attention as i screamed in wow that canopy was fast compared to all the student kit i had been jumping
on average i probably had a stand up landing one in five jumps if there was a wrong way to do it i was pretty much the expert
many an evening was spent trying to make my container into the lovely orange colour instead of the brown and green it was turning into!
over the next six or so months i got my jump numbers up to about 150 and was still spending time getting rid of those green stains!
one day one of the crew team (golden lions) said to me what are you doing and he sat me down and went over the basics and then watched my landings flaring was only part of the problem,my biggest fault was watching where the canopy was taking me rather than watching where i wanted the canopy to go
you guessed it if it was taking me left i instinctively gave it a little bit more left hand input and if it took me right then i gave it more right,bit like driving a motorbike she will go where you look
the resultant landings were some spectacular rolls and luckily it never hurt me
after my little chat with this guy my landings just got better and better i now jump a sabre2 97 and have got just over 1300 jumps
it would have been so easy to give up with all the bad landings but i just wanted top be in the sky i have now travelled to about 19 countries skydiving and would not have wanted to miss one of those trips and the great people i have met in the sport
if you can stick with it then please give it a little bit more time or maybe just take a few months out and come back with a fresh head
one thing i also did was canopy school when i had about 600 jumps and wow was that a learning curve and something i wish i had done many jumps sooner
everyday i jump i learn thats one thing you never stop doing in our sport
keep with it
blue skies
steve

Swooping, huh? I love that stuff ... all the flashing lights and wailing sirens ... it's very exciting!

[JoeyRamone 0]

Nothing wrong with getting freak out, that saves lives. You can still be involved in the sport you love without jumping.

Best of luck either way,

Tim

[Ron 7]

I know people with almost 1,000 jumps that still land like shit.

You want to be able to flair the canopy? Well its bigger so it is going to take more muscle...Tricep extensions, do them.

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like pull low, hit the step, etc ( I will refrain from exposing ALL of my stupidity).

You want a short list of the dumb things I have done?

* Climbed out with my chest strap routed incorrectly.
* Pulled sub 1,000 feet because I was a dumb ass trying to video my buddy on his 300th jump.
* Hooked it in.

I could go on.

Get over it, humans make mistakes.

Not trying to talk you into or out of the sport....But most things are fixable.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[Salsa_John 0]

WC,

I have 120 jumps now and my landings are just started to get really consistant in the last 30 jumps or so. I have been jumping my own gear since April. Varying wind conditions make things different for your approach and flare.

Get into Scott Miller's Canopy control course. I did and my landings improved imediately before the end of the day. He videos your landings. The course has saved me from a bad spot, a track dive that went too far, and a barbed wire fence.

I am now landing in the expert area and am in the peas several times each weekend.

All in all, it was more than worth the $145 I paid for the class.

Don't be down on yourself. I believe the people who should not be skydiving aren't and the ones who should are.

Edited to add:

Two things you might try, loosening your chest strap after you are under canopy, I was told that helps give you better flares and I hear Aerodyne Pilot Canopies are great.

"You did what?!?!"

MUFF #3722, TDSM #72, Orfun #26, Nachos Rodriguez

[skysmurf2 0]

Hi. Would you regret more never jumping again or having a few hard landings? My first 10 landings absolutely sucked, I was lucky not to break any bones. I did not even sprain anything. But I scared myself and the DZ. What is worse is that I am sure that worse stuff will happen. Hard landings, hard openings, a knee in the face, etc. What is amazing about this sport (to me) is that I look forward to it all.... every jump is only going to make me learn more. Listen to the advice of people here, and listen to your DZ. Your instructors (and a rigger) can help you sort it out. Besides, I really don't think being artistic/creative/right brained has anything thing to do with it. Being scared is fine, up to a point its safe. But look around, all sorts of people skydive, not just the scientific types. If you love jumping try to work the landing issue out - if nothing else you can always wear some padding!!! I have very few jumps so all I should really say is that it is scary but if you love it - its worth it.

[rhino 0]

You don't need to quit. Just dedicate yourself to canopy flight. Get a big ass Triathlon at 1.0 and practice accuracy and flat turns. do nothing but hop-n-pops from altitude. You will be amazed at the confidence and skill you will build spending time under your canopy and building muscle memory.

Stop jumping with other people for a while. Get rid of the performance pressure you are feeling. Just fly your canopy and build confidence.

Give it a try.. Just hop-n-pops for the next 100 jumps.. Between 14k and 0 feet you can do A LOT of flares.......

[SarahC07 0]

After reading some of your posts.... I started thinking how similar I feel to how you are feeling. I'm an uncurrent skydiver as of July 23rd. I'm taking a break. I feel I've made some mistakes as well (However I've been on my Spectre 150 for about as long as I've been licensed and I can land it.) But, I don't want to quit. I made some mistakes at my dz in and out of the air... and I needed some time away. I fully intend on going back... and I guess anyone from Aggieland who hasn't seen me in about 2 months will be surprised. It's nice to have money and my weekends, but I'm already missing skydiving. I'm gonna get back there soon enough!

Just from one Sarah to the next!

Good luck!!

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