apparently im to fing fat to jump

[azureriders 0]

We are no longer in Moss Point, but we are still in Mississippi and we still have the gear that Atsaubrey trained on. It is still in service and we average 1 or 2 students a year jumping it.

If you are physically fit to make a jump, I would be glad to start your AFF training at Gold Coast

[chuckakers 370]

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ok so apparently im to F***ing fat to go skydiving. no one in my state carries gear that my fat ass can wear. I have been told by almost half of clubs here that if im serious about jumping i could always buy my own gear and just start jumping. thats expensive as hell and i didnt want to have to do that till I at least got my class A licence. no idea what to do. i am not ready to give up yet. thoughts???

Let me make sure I have this right. Someone at a drop zone told you to just buy your own gear and start jumping?

Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

[airtwardo 6]

Let me make sure I have this right. Someone at a drop zone told you to just buy your own gear and start jumping?

Yeah and your avatar looks just like the guy that told him that!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[heavydude 0]

On a serious medical note have you ever tried testosterone cream particularly the Androgel type, relating to the combat injuries. The stuff works great.
Good luck !

[timmyfitz 0]

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ok so apparently im to F***ing fat to go skydiving. no one in my state carries gear that my fat ass can wear. I have been told by almost half of clubs here that if im serious about jumping i could always buy my own gear and just start jumping. thats expensive as hell and i didnt want to have to do that till I at least got my class A licence. no idea what to do. i am not ready to give up yet. thoughts???

Let me make sure I have this right. Someone at a drop zone told you to just buy your own gear and start jumping?

Yah, that's it. I'm sure that's EXACTLY what they meant.

[mdrejhon 8]

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On a serious medical note have you ever tried testosterone cream particularly the Androgel type, relating to the combat injuries. The stuff works great.
Good luck !

I have a friend of mine who uses that and I hear good things about it.

To the OP -- lots of good advice in this thread. Go to one of the few 'big boys' dropzones, talk to a few Anvil Brothers comrades for ideas, some of which are linked to in other dropzone posts.

Either way, work hard to at least keep some "muscle in the mix" -- even if you can't lose weight, do whatever you can that your body lets you, to at least keep muscle strength to compensate for the extra weight. (I'm sure you already do, but just covering this base, just in case.)

[jumpwally 0]

any one know if Aubrey is still jumping ?

smile, be nice, enjoy life
FB # - 1083

[Amazon 7]

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any one know if Aubrey is still jumping ?

No Idea.. its been a year since he checked in with this thread.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3491517#3491517

OH and here is his pic from Parachutist back a few years ago.


I wanna do another CHASE AUBREY jump

[mrbiceps 0]

i reakon that if u hunt around u could put a rig together. This is my plan
flik 322 or 354 canopy
Look for a javelin j8 that should fit it and maybe a 280 odd raven reserve. I know of a guy who was selling a j7 jav for a good price, dont know if he still has it though.

[tkhayes 128]

not everyone can skydive - it's that simple. Not everyone can go to the moon either. Get used to it.

Weight is only one factor. General health, medical conditions, you need to be in good shape too. SKydiving is NOT an amusement ride and it is NOT for everyone.

More and more dropzones are less and less likely to make exceptions. We just tightened up our tandem guidelines. My guys are tired of getting hurt taking big people and I am tired of making exceptions for big people on tandems. Get in shape - plain and simple.

At some point in your life you were in better shape and 180lbs or less. Life goals should include reaching that point again.....

[jumpwally 0]

+1,,Very nice,,,,

smile, be nice, enjoy life
FB # - 1083

[tfelber 0]

I had a friend who wanted to start jumping and was about 6' 260lbs. He got the same conversation as you. I found him a large canpied rig and he completed his AFF, no problem. If you are really interested in skydiving and not just interested in doing a couple of jumps, the rig will be usable by you for some time (like 100+ jumps).

[BlindBrick 0]

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landings will just be worse for you, and you could get injured when someone else would walk away because your bones will snap under the load..

Quite frankly, this is bullshit. Bone density/strength scales pretty well with weight (within human range at least) unless there's another medical condition at play.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[tdog 0]

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landings will just be worse for you, and you could get injured when someone else would walk away because your bones will snap under the load..

Quite frankly, this is bullshit. Bone density/strength scales pretty well with weight (within human range at least) unless there's another medical condition at play.

-Blind

In full context of my original post, my point was that exercise and athleticism will prevent injuries...

I googled and researched this. I found many websites, but am quoting two medical studies below:

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***[I]The findings suggest that level of physical activity makes an important contribution to bone mineral density.

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The major new finding in this study is of a continuous positive relation between physical activity and bone density in normal white men. This relation may reflect selection bias, inherent in a cross sectional study, but this is unlikely. Men who undertake regular outdoor activity have been shown to have a lower prevalence of hip fracture than those who do not, 3 and active men have a higher bone density than sedentary men. 4 Our data suggest that any exercise is beneficial to bone and that, within the normal range, the more the better.

[/I]

While the two quotes above are about bone density, the second part of my statement was muscle strength to support the human frame in a bad landing... I don't feel you can even debate that muscle strength helps prevents injury... It is so recognised that going to the gym builds strength over not exercising, and every sport trainer will tell you strength prevents injury...

Conclusion, I stand by my 1st post.... Someone who is active, exercises, and is healthy, but who is overweight - will have MUCH LESS RISK of injury over someone who is the exact same weight without exercise.

[Amazon 7]

Its been my experience that most of the people really fucking themselves up with injuries in this sport are not those of the tall and heavy variety. Most of us who fit on the large end of the bell curve tend to have had lives that involved sports and athletics. That tends to have certainly increased my tolerance of things that would have injured the wee folk more easily.

This does not include my shoulders of course.. it seems that when someone pulls on the VERY HARD in freefall as they go zooming past, my rotator cuffs do not stand up very well. That whole having my arm pulled out of the socket thing really does hurt. I guess if I weighed half of what my freefall attacker did.... I would have just been pulled along more readily and not been injured.

[captain1976 0]

I know several jumpers who are your weight or better. They don't have a problem, but they do own their gear.

Even the video from another thread that shows a jumper getting his cutaway handle pulled on exit looks to be about that weight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yVUJU113gg

You live more in the few minutes of skydiving than many people live in their lifetime

[airtwardo 6]

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Its been my experience that most of the people really fucking themselves up with injuries in this sport are not those of the tall and heavy variety. Most of us who fit on the large end of the bell curve tend to have had lives that involved sports and athletics. That tends to have certainly increased my tolerance of things that would have injured the wee folk more easily.

This does not include my shoulders of course.. it seems that when someone pulls on the VERY HARD in freefall as they go zooming past, my rotator cuffs do not stand up very well. That whole having my arm pulled out of the socket thing really does hurt. I guess if I weighed half of what my freefall attacker did.... I would have just been pulled along more readily and not been injured.

A chainsaw can play hell on yer kness too!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[Amazon 7]

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Its been my experience that most of the people really fucking themselves up with injuries in this sport are not those of the tall and heavy variety. Most of us who fit on the large end of the bell curve tend to have had lives that involved sports and athletics. That tends to have certainly increased my tolerance of things that would have injured the wee folk more easily.

This does not include my shoulders of course.. it seems that when someone pulls on the VERY HARD in freefall as they go zooming past, my rotator cuffs do not stand up very well. That whole having my arm pulled out of the socket thing really does hurt. I guess if I weighed half of what my freefall attacker did.... I would have just been pulled along more readily and not been injured.

A chainsaw can play hell on yer kness too!

That is ok.. I have never felt the need to skydive with a chainsaw.....

[airtwardo 6]

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Its been my experience that most of the people really fucking themselves up with injuries in this sport are not those of the tall and heavy variety. Most of us who fit on the large end of the bell curve tend to have had lives that involved sports and athletics. That tends to have certainly increased my tolerance of things that would have injured the wee folk more easily.

This does not include my shoulders of course.. it seems that when someone pulls on the VERY HARD in freefall as they go zooming past, my rotator cuffs do not stand up very well. That whole having my arm pulled out of the socket thing really does hurt. I guess if I weighed half of what my freefall attacker did.... I would have just been pulled along more readily and not been injured.

A chainsaw can play hell on yer knees too!

That is ok.. I have never felt the need to skydive with a chainsaw.....

You probably just carry one of those candy-ass hook knives!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[BlindBrick 0]

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While the two quotes above are about bone density, the second part of my statement was muscle strength to support the human frame in a bad landing... I don't feel you can even debate that muscle strength helps prevents injury...

I agree, but i would also point out that pound for pound, the heavier people tend to have superior muscle mass in the lower body because they have to ambulate all the extra weight around. I know 300 lbs girls who stould on the low end of the 5 foot range, and not one of them could run 100 feet if you offered them their heart's desire because they had zero cardio endurance. however, they still had massive rock solid calves that a body builder would have envied.

As counter-inuitive it may seem, large people tend to have better lower body duranbility because they have strogner bones surrounded by a superior muscle mass. that's why Ii called bullshit to this myth that keeps getting perpetuated in this sport.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[airtwardo 6]

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While the two quotes above are about bone density, the second part of my statement was muscle strength to support the human frame in a bad landing... I don't feel you can even debate that muscle strength helps prevents injury...

I agree, but i would also point out that pound for pound, the heavier people tend to have superior muscle mass in the lower body because they have to ambulate all the extra weight around. I know 300 lbs girls who stood on the low end of the 5 foot range, and not one of them could run 100 feet if you offered them their heart's desire because they had zero cardio endurance. however, they still had massive rock solid calves that a body builder would have envied.

As counter-intuitive it may seem, large people tend to have better lower body durability because they have stronger bones surrounded by a superior muscle mass. that's why Ii called bullshit to this myth that keeps getting perpetuated in this sport.

-Blind

My non-scientific personal experience tends to agree with you.

I've always been in the 230-240 range and have taken some pretty severe landings without breaking anything.

I've hit hard enough on a round to blow the soles off my boots and walked away uninjured...again, non-scientific but I believe I've taken landings harder than others I've witnessed on smaller & lighter jumpers that resulted in broken legs.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[tdog 0]

The 300 pound girl you mentioned.... I know one too. She broke her ankle stepping off a curb onto the street, and god forbid she fall over and catch herself with her wrist.

I will agree, athletic large people are going to be more "durable" than athletic small people... But this goes back to my first comment about athleticism, and in my very first post, body mass index.... I'll take a football player anyday as a student, even one volkswagen sized... But I won't take the same sized guy who sits behind a computer... Somewhere between the two extremes I would draw the line.

[BlindBrick 0]

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The 300 pound girl you mentioned.... I know one too. She broke her ankle stepping off a curb onto the street,

And i know three average sized girls who did too.

My personal experience also mirrors Twardos. If Twardo can remember meeting me at PIA 07 (Bill Von introduced us), he'll confirm that I am a very big guy. Like Twardo, I also have experience with bad landings. When I started jumping, I was overweight and seeing 20/120 in one eye and 20/80 in the other. Until I got corneal transplants about 120 jumps in, over 90% of my landings were actually semi-controlled crashes. Between being a big guy, jumping ragged out at student gear at 1:1 or greater, a thousand foot of elevation, hot summer days and an inability to time judge flare height, I absolutely pounded in. I never had anything worse than a plethora of vivid brusies.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[phoenix1 0]

you know i origanlly wrote this post asking for advice and it quickly spiralled into a fat debate. to those of you who offered advice and stick up for heavier jumper thank you. to those of you who were blessed with a good metabolisam and just wanna bitch about fat ppl Ive got one message for you if was good enough to jump out of military aircraft and defend my country ill find a way to jump out of a civilian aircraft because I wont quit. in conclusion to all of you nay sayers kiss my arse and ill see you in the sky!

To those who can't and to those who never can again!

[tdog 0]

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you know i origanlly wrote this post asking for advice and it quickly spiralled into a fat debate. to those of you who offered advice and stick up for heavier jumper thank you. to those of you who were blessed with a good metabolisam and just wanna bitch about fat ppl ...

1) All I really care about is making sure students are safe. I hate seeing people hurt. Just like any active sport (snowboarding, rollerblading, mountain biking) - there are injuries in our sport.

2) I lost 40 pounds to skydive as I was "too fat to jump"... That was in 2004... I was "fat" since I was 6 years old... So, you may think I am bitching at you or others, but I have been there... You say you have an injury from duty in the military that makes things worse, and that REALLY sucks... I thank you for your service... So just stay athletic and strong, and I am sure you will be a great skydiver...