New Diver, Awesome Exp! My 1st jump!

[Whamie 0]

Good morning everyone.

Decide to finally do the AFF1 course last Sunday at Perris.
I must first stay thank you to the staff at Perris! Special thank you to Robert (Main), James (Reserve), and Nicole (Videographer) for their time, instructions, and encouragement!

Now my experience!
I was the only AFF1 that day so I was excited to get the opportunity to work 1 on 1 with Robert and just ask as many questions as needed...which was cool.
There's a few things that I was wondering about that hopefully the community can please address.

First, throughout the course I didn't feel nervous or anxious. Suiting up, entering the plane, and going up I didn't feel as anxious as I thought I would be. Then when the doors finally opened and it was go time, I started to feel anxious and nervous. My question is, is it typical for someone to feel calm throughout the AFF1 ground course then finally feel a sense of anxiety right at the edge of the door?

Next, the exit. Oh man, the exit. I arched as hard as i can, looked at the plane leaving to keep my head up, but noticed i was falling toward my left side first). In that instance, my legs began to kick up and down yet trying to hold the arch. My question is, is it typical for AFF1 students to kick on their first jump? Is that just a primal human response that happens to new students?

As soon as i was belly down I believe i had a stable flight...though i can't be too sure because there was always 2 instructions on either side of me. Went through the dive flow and at 5000ft, opened my parachute (of course i was thinking, I hope to God this things works as advertised and sure enough it did). I visually checked the 'chute for shape, float, and no spin and did the ccc..ok. My question is, when under canopy flight, I felt kinda motion sick, is it typical to feel a little bit of motion sickness?

Finally, I want to continue on with the AFF course. I guess it's the engineer in me, but I would like to stick with Robert as my instructor. I know there are good instructors at Perris but being an engineer I tend to keep things consistent and would like to consistently keep the same instructor throughout the course. Any thoughts on that? Does anyone know how i can contact Robert?

Thanks again to Perris and those that made my first jump safe, enjoyable, and memorable!

[Southern_Man 0]

Everybody's experience of anxiety, fear, etc. is not the same. I was like you, not so nervous on the ground, a good bit of anxiety in the door (took me a few counts to launch).

I was also a kicker leaving the plane. That is not uncommon for students, or so I've been told.

Don't know anything about how Perris works, so will leave your other question.

Glad you have joined us.

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

[davelepka 4]

Overall, in terms of your performance, consult your instructors. I'm sure there was a debrief, and go with what they told you.

It's common to feel like you're going left-side low on an AFF exit, but it's just due to how the 3-person formation comes out of the door. You probably didn't go left-side low, you probably turned to the left, and if you were looking up at the plane it felt left-side low. Again, no problem unless your instructos said so.

Kicking = common. Not right, but common, Not a big deal, but not really helping either.

On to your instructors, dump that Robert guy like a bad habit. OK, maybe not like that, but you should jump with a variety of instructors during your training. You have one jump with one instructor, how do you know that others might not be better, or simply have a different point of view to bring to your training.

There's a lot to learn in skydiving, and it's a benefit to you to learn from a wide variety of people. Perris is a good shcool, and I'm sure all of their people are top notch, but they're still individuals with unique qualities to bring to the table.

[skybytch 259]

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is it typical for someone to feel calm throughout the AFF1 ground course then finally feel a sense of anxiety right at the edge of the door?

Absolutely. Why? Cuz that's when shit starts gettin' real.

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is it typical for AFF1 students to kick on their first jump?

"Swimming" is common enough that the word is often followed with "like a first jump student".

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would like to consistently keep the same instructor throughout the course. Any thoughts on that?

Jump with as many different instructors as you can. Why? A number of reasons.

If you hope to do more in skydiving than solos, you need to become comfortable jumping with pretty much anybody. Start building that comfort level now by not limiting yourself to jumping with one particular person.

By insisting on only jumping with one particular instructor, you are limiting when you can jump to the times that person is available. You may be limiting yourself to one jump a day if that instructor is super busy doing tandems - or no jumps that day if your favorite instructor happens to be off doing other things (some do have lives outside the dz).

Be open to learning from a variety of people. That other instructor you don't even know might be the one who has the little pearl of wisdom that you need, the little bit of information that your preferred instructor doesn't know or isn't able to get across to you.

And the biggest reason to jump with more than one instructor through your student jumps? The more people you've jumped with, the more people on the dz that know your name and who might be happy to jump with you later. That's important in a highly social sport like skydiving.

[dthames 0]

About the motion sickness under canopy,

I have been prone to motion sickness all of my life. I have a problem under canopy. Starting with jump 3 I have used a prescription patch that is worn behind the ear. It has some side effects and I hate to use it, but it allows me to jump. I have been using half a patch since jump 10 and it works well most of the time. It depends on how radical I am under canopy if I feel bad or not. But even if I get to feeling bad, it goes away faster with the patch in place. Some of the required canopy drills make me feel bad and I save those for the last jump of the day.

PM me if you want more details.

That kicking of the feet, or what some called swimming is something you need to just force yourself not to do. As you get more jumps it should go away if you focus on good form.

Good luck with your efforts.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

[Whamie 0]

Speaking of the patch I too tend to get motion sick. In fact, I also scuba dive and whenever I do a boat dive I have to use the patch to offset the motion sickness or my day will be wasted on the deck sleeping or throwing up. The patch I use is the Transderm which is prescribed by my doc.
But it looks like scuba diving will be on hold this summer as i focus on sky diving instead :D

I'm also looking to get some tunnel practice first before I do AFF2. However, the closest tunnel is at the iFly at Citiwalk in Los Angeles. I've heard the iFly is "scaled down" as a tourist kinda place. Any thoughts on that. It looks legit but seeing skying is an expensive hobby i need to make the most out of my time and money.

[lookoutbelow 0]

I also used to get motion sick on jumps. It was so bad on my first AFF jump that I didn't want to go back. Eventually the desire to jump overcame my memory of the nausea. And while I did get nauseas on my following jumps, it wasn't as bad, and it has progressively faded with each jump. Some of that is probably just less adrenaline now that the experience is less new. I now also make sure my stomach has some food in it (but not too much). My worst case was when I hadn't eaten. Also, when making turns under the canopy, it helps if I don't look at the ground much, but generally look level with the horizon (but don't forget to look for others in the air).

[lookoutbelow 0]

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My question is, is it typical for AFF1 students to kick on their first jump? Is that just a primal human response that happens to new students?

You are throwing your body into a situation it has never experienced. Down is forward, and it is a long way down. There is nothing physical to grab on to in order regain balance. Blood may be thicker than water, but air is not. Treading ain't gonna work. You must have faith in the aerodynamics of the moment, and then learn to manipulate your movements by altering flow and pressure. It is all new and your reactions are all normal. Trust and relax. Small corrections.

[alexafox 0]

Everybodies experience with nerves are definitely different and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise!

I told one of my instructors that I didn't think I would get nervous in the door, just on the plane ride up. He bet me a slab I would shit myself in the door... He lost.

I'm always a bit nervous on the plane ride up but as soon as that door opens, IT'S GO TIME! All my nerves disappear once that door opens!

So yea it's different for everybody!

I'm still a newbie too and working with different instructors is definitely the way to go...

I found it particularly helpful with canopy piloting... All the instructors were essentially telling me the same things when it came to landing patterns and in particular flying the canopy right to the end and flaring techniques... I understood what they were saying but just couldn't get it right (not big issues but I wanted to begin perfecting my landings...)
One guy just explained it in a different way and it just clicked with me, I finally got what they were trying to explain!

Also the instructors are going to be great at different things, like rel work, free flying, canopy piloting. You want to be getting advice on lots of different things from lots of different perspectives. It's definitely helped me so far!

I'll be in Perris in August! :) Might see you in the sky!

I refuse to accept a mediocre life...

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