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Ramzisleiman

Did anyoen get into skydiving before even trying tandem?

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So i wanted to know if i am the only one or not!
I registered for my AFF course which is coming up next month without having any previous tandem experience.
Many people ask me if i its my tandem experience that led me to register this course, and they get amazed that i never jumped tandem!
Anyone else did this?
The reason i am doing it, is because i do not feel it is really skydiving to get strapped to someone and surrender yourself to him to make the jump and all the process. It can be fun, but i do not see myself doing it.
I am excited to know what are the opinions about this?

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I never did a tandem before starting skydiving, so you're definitely not alone in this.

In my opinion, there are three main possibilities:
1: You are already sure you'll like skydiving as a sport. In that case, do AFF or static-line and start jumping. One tandem is a waste of the money that could be put towards four jumps as a student.
2: You are not yet sure if you'll like it enough to do as a sport. Get a tandem to find out.
3: You'll just want to tick it off your bucket list. Get a tandem.

I was squarely in the first group when I started out, and never even considered doing a tandem jump.

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IJskonijn

I never did a tandem before starting skydiving, so you're definitely not alone in this.

In my opinion, there are three main possibilities:
1: You are already sure you'll like skydiving as a sport. In that case, do AFF or static-line and start jumping. One tandem is a waste of the money that could be put towards four jumps as a student.
2: You are not yet sure if you'll like it enough to do as a sport. Get a tandem to find out.
3: You'll just want to tick it off your bucket list. Get a tandem.

I was squarely in the first group when I started out, and never even considered doing a tandem jump.



I've met a few bucket list people who didn't consider a tandem. They wanted to skydive ONCE on their own.
Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

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HAHa glad to know
I am definitely the number 1 type.
I do not see skydiving as a one time trial to do it as tandem.
I am definitely sure that I will love it and get attached to it.
I am happy to know i am not the only one.
Looking forward to hear more exciting stories about this.
Thanks

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sure.....tens of thousands of skydivers....
Static line first Jump...which was a sensible system, since the main was Gonna Open ( for the Most part ) regardless of the first jump students composure, or lack thereof ....The concentration was on canopy control and EXITS at that stage...
Then 4 more SLs including 3 DRCPs ( dummy rip cord pulls )... Then freefall,, If you want to call a 5 second delay a freefall;)

tandem wasn't yet invented,,,,,,, for me it was 1972.... and a " Tandem " meant a piggy-back harness/container set up. B|.....

A decade or so, later,,,when What we NOW know as tandem became common and accepted.... Most of Those early tandem Instructers had likely begun THEIR careers , as static Liners....:)I DO understand your question however,,,,,,and know of many folks who went directly to AFF rather than "have to be Strapped to someone"... some of those continued On to become licensed,,, some faded away...
good Luck...in Your pursuit of the sport..
jmy...

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Sure, I didn't do a tandem. Wanted to experience skydiving without being strapped to a dude. Worked great for me. By the same token, I've met one AFF student who sat through the ground school while having increasing misgivings about it and ended up just doing a tandem instead. I also have a tunnel buddy who's never jumped out of a plane who is dead set on doing a tandem before starting AFF.
I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

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but it contains everything op is looking for.
and actually I just wanted to share my awesome meme B|:P

btw back to topic, because I'm bored and its not even wednesday:

from the 57 guys and girls I started jumping with 75% said prior its gonna be their sport and they totally gonna do it for the rest of their lifes.
Up to date I've got more jumps in than all of them combined.
Most completed their FJC or AFF (7 jumps) but only a handfull made it to licence. Only 5 had done a tandem before and here in Germany AFF does not require you to do a tandem, so no one did. Everybody went up there with his own rig on his/her back on their first jump. Just like you will.
Some of them including me had military static line training though.
Last year we had 49 students.
This year we have 52 new students plus a few that couldn't finish their courses due to numerous reasons.
Again nearly all of them without any tandem experience. Just like you.

Most of them are or were more or less saying that they want to become skygods, never leaving the sport until they die.
Just like you
From all of them (~150) I only know of 4 that kept on jumping regularly. None of those 4 were the ones saying: I know this sport is going to be the right thing for me and I will dedicate my weekends to blue skies from this point on.

(now one could assume that the dz is shit and nobody wants to jump there but its not one but 4 different dropzones where we send the new jumpers and all of them show more or less the same result of jumpers getting attached to the sport)

I'm not saying that you will not be the one getting addicted but the odds are not really in your favor.
You just don't know what you are talking about.
You know nothing, Jon Snow!
And when you know nothing and you're about to go down a certain road with a hundredthousand jumpers ww ahead of you, you can safely asume you are not the only one ever to go down that road in your particular way.
You won't even be the first doing it naked, stoned, drunk, reading tentakle porn ect...

That beeing said please be the guy that stays!
I really and wholeheartedly wish you all the fun one can have and that you will become, what you are dreaming of.
Our sport is not growing and we desperately need new jumper.
:|:(

-------------------------------------------------------

To absent friends

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Here's a serious answer. Sensory overload tends to be incredibly high on most people's first jump. That was certainly the case on my first S/L jump, which was long before tandem was invented. A tandem is a good way to flush some of that overload out of your brain on your first jump without the added stress of being the sole person responsible for saving your own life.

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Andy9o8

Here's a serious answer. Sensory overload tends to be incredibly high on most people's first jump. That was certainly the case on my first S/L jump, which was long before tandem was invented. A tandem is a good way to flush some of that overload out of your brain on your first jump without the added stress of being the sole person responsible for saving your own life.



A few DZs even have combined tandem/IAF (instructor assisted freefall) and for me, that was a happy compromise. I used my first tandem to flush out the overload, and on my second jump I was in the zone enough to perform basic maneuvers without much prompting besides the dive flow. Everyone has their own preferred method.

To put it into perspective, the first time I went out the door, my mind couldn't really adjust to it until a few seconds into freefall. Not something I'd want to happen on my first near-solo experience. Others might adjust differently. On the second jump I was much more familiar with the sensations the body experiences, and could replace the few seconds of "shock" with a few seconds of learning.
"Some kind of high-powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."

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You are getting a bit of crap over what seems to be an honest question, so here is a serious answer:

Yes. Lots of people did. I was part of a fairly big group of friends who all went out together. The DZ was fairly small, and the only way a group that size could work was static line. It was also about 2/3 the cost.
It happened that I couldn't be part of the group the day they did it due to a work conflict, but I went the next weekend on my own (and took the class with another from the same group). We couldn't jump that day (Saturday) due to high winds, but I went back the next day and jumped. I ended up in the plane with 2 other students from the original group that had come back to do repeat S/L jumps.
I landed after that first jump and said: "I gotta do that again. So I did. The quote below applies to me too.

justme12001

First jump was a static line out of a 182, did two that day, two the following weekend and two more the weekend after that.

The rest is history :)



In the years that we have done the group, only 2 of us have gone on and gotten our licenses and become "real" skydivers. One was in the plane with me on that first jump.
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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Never done a Tandem, probalby never will :-)
At my old club there where practically no students that had done a tandem. All students had done a one time static line jump and then continued to static line progression.
If it does not cost anything you are the product.

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I didn't do a tandem because I knew I'd want to keep doing it and figured I should just jump in all the way and do everything. A tandem is still a skydive, just with a buddy.
You stop breathing for a few minutes and everyone jumps to conclusions.

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I know of at least a couple of people that never did a tandem and went straight into AFF. It's not "common" but it generally doesn't cause more reactions than a "eheh, that's cool!" from other skydivers.
Incidentally, if you stay in the sport long enough, you'll have your chance of trying a tandem for free when recurrency season comes around and TIs needs experienced skydivers to be taken on refresher rides. And that's actually pretty funny because IT IS a very different sort of experience at that point.
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.

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