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droquette

What makes an experienced skydiver?

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I have a general question for all of you DZ.commers.. I was reading on another thread a comment made by somebody to the effect of:

a skydiver with 100 jumps is NOT experienced.

I just want to know at what jump number is one
considered experienced? I have over 350 jumps and know that i have SO much more to learn but I do consider myself experienced. So whats the general opinion on theis.. Maybe we can turn this thread into a Poll? I dont know how to though..

Blues,
Dan
HISPA 72 ----- "Muff Brother" 3733

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it's in the manual somewhere. think the formual goes like this...


......................................((jump number) * (years in sport) / 100)
exerienced skydiver = ----------------------------------------------------
..............................(what you do for the sport on the ground) * (air skill)

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I have a general question for all of you DZ.commers.. I was reading on another thread a comment made by somebody to the effect of:

a skydiver with 100 jumps is NOT experienced.

I just want to know at what jump number is one
considered experienced? I have over 350 jumps and know that i have SO much more to learn but I do consider myself experienced. So whats the general opinion on theis.. Maybe we can turn this thread into a Poll? I dont know how to though..

Blues,
Dan



An "experienced" skydiver is usually one that has had the plethora of "experiences" that allow him/her not to be suprised when another arises.
I know jumpers that are experienced at 150 jumps and others that have 1500 jumps that still are not.

If youre talking about just jump numbers youre missing the point of what "experienced" means.

bozo


bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

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ummm....
So somebody with 3 cutaways in 50 jumps is then experienced?
or somebody with 2 jumps who works at the DZ for 5 years packing is then experienced?
I have had some hardcore incidents happen in the air but i have been able to resolve them all without using the silver handle... does that make me experienced? does traveling to other DZ's make me experienced...
HISPA 72 ----- "Muff Brother" 3733

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I hope everyone knows there is no true answer to this question.There are a million different scenarios that you can throw in here to prove or disprove the point.Does the kid packing for 5 years with no jumps know more than the 2 jump wonder,probably.How about two people with 100 jumps a piece,one did it in 3 months one took 3 years?Hmmm.Why do you think there is a time in sport requirement to be a tandem instructor?


.

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At four years in the sport, 425 jumps, (most all RW) a 1.25:1 wingloading, (under a Sabre 2 now-) one cutaway, one AAD fire, one broken ankle, a Coach rating, loss of two good friends in one year, and one divorce, (in process) - I consider myself to be "somewhat experienced".

Easy Does It

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At four years in the sport, 425 jumps, (most all RW) a 1.25:1 wingloading, (under a Sabre 2 now-) one cutaway, one AAD fire, one broken ankle, a Coach rating, loss of two good friends in one year, and one divorce, (in process) - I consider myself to be "somewhat experienced".



This is what I would call experienced. Qualified to do 400 ways ? Maybe not. But that isnt what I perceived the question to be.

Spence is dead on with his answer. There is no answer. 25 years jumping for me.....I am experienced in a lot of the sport......and have no experience in other parts.

If your looking for credibility in your ability.....one day it will appear.......you wont notice it.....but it will be there. You'll be asked for advice from your peers or asked on hard dives. There wont be a great revelation......but it will be there.

bozo


bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

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I am going to say that this is a little off topic, because I see you point and understand your question, and the choice of words is not the topic of this thread. I was taught at a very young age that experience is something that can neither be given nor nor taken. You can teach someone anything you want, but you can not give them experience. You also can not say that a 100 jump wonder is not experienced when you know that he has the experience of 100 jumps, you can not take that away from him.

I think a better wording of the question would be how much experience is required to be a proficient skydiver? IMO that changes nothing in this thread, is the experience of jump numbers alone enough, or the experience of cutaways, or jumping with pros? What experiences and how many is required to make one proficient? Again IMO, your question and my rewording of it are great questions.

I may not have the experience in skydiving to be rewording your question, but I feel the same exact way about all things that I am involved in, and at some of those I am very proficient :)


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Dude, I am sure you speak English better than I do.. I am bilingual...and I get the two languages mixed up all the time..
But I totally disagree with rewording my post. If you read it correctly I took the word experienced straight out of another posters comment on another thread.. the other poster did not use proficient.... he used experienced and this was why I started the thread in the first place.. as you can read from other posters the conclusion is that experience is all relative to what is being discussed.
100 jumps is fine on a 4 way RW but not on the 400 way.... that comment by another poster I believe sums it up the best.

I also believe that proficiency vs experience will end up with the same results.. proficient enough for what? a 4 way or a 400 way... a wingsuit jump..? etc etc...
blues,
dan

PS..I even spell checked this post.......:P
HISPA 72 ----- "Muff Brother" 3733

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I thought I already posted this. I must have typed it and not hit "Post Reply', sooooooo, one more time....

Quote

If your looking for credibility in your ability.....one day it will appear.......you wont notice it.....but it will be there. You'll be asked for advice from your peers or asked on hard dives. There wont be a great revelation......but it will be there.



Thats a good way to put it. I seems like alot of the newer guys are always looking for a short cut, or some concrete number or time to attach to it.

I think that when a guy stops thinking about it, he's made it. Once you can accept your posittion in the line-up, you're there.

Even a guy with 50 jumps. If he knows where he stands, and acts accordingly, he's already got it.

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Thats a good way to put it. I seems like alot of the newer guys are always looking for a short cut, or some concrete number or time to attach to it.

I think that when a guy stops thinking about it, he's made it. Once you can accept your posittion in the line-up, you're there.



Sitting here reading thru this thread I began to think back to when I felt competent as a skydiver.
At 200 jumps I was an egotistical shithot skydiver. It didnt matter that I didnt know shit.
At 500 jumps or so I began to realize just how much I had to learn. At that point I really buckled down and began to apply myself. I got all my ratings and did 1000 tandems......hundreds of demos. I began to feel like I had a handle on this jumping shit. Then I bounced, on a demo.....broke oodles and bunches of stuff. I began, after my recovery to learn it all over again. Now here I am a pretty good RW flyer......knowing very little about freeflying. So you might see....its all subjective and conditional.
Stick around....be safe.....skydiving will give you what you need.

bozo


bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

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I remember a mention about the 100 J "experienced" freeflyer who went in, and poster(s) saying he was not "experienced" in his view.

I thought to myself at the time, "He was experienced. He had experienced 100 Jumps, enough for the USPA Coach rating. If the USPA trusts someone with 100 J to be a Coach, that means they trust them enough to give advice/answer noob questions, which in my view means they are experienced."

Experience is a difficult thing to capture in a jump number, and even to be a Coach means getting a B licence (freefall body control and canopy control ability) and the completing the Coaches course (answer questions/perform checks ablility).

I can't comment to much on skydive experience, but on software programming experience, we often say at work: "We need an experienced programmer" This really does not mean we want someone who has written X lines of code or has been a programmer for Y years, it means "We want someone who knows his/her shit, who writes tight code and can meet deadlines." I have worked with programmers who have been coding for years and they can't write worth crap.

So I think experience is way more than a jump number, its ability, attitude, etc. But if forced to put a number on it, I think in the wuffo/noob (like me) mindset, 100 J would be considered experienced.

Seth
It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

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there are some things you can only learn from jump numbers.
there are somethings you can only learn from time in sport.
the important part is to keep learning and become a better skydiver after every day and every jump.
i like to think we are all experienced students, and while some of us are more experienced, none of us are completely experienced. there is always more to learn.

blue stuff,
p.j.


pulling is cool. keep it in the skin

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maybe you become experienced when you realize that you dont know all the answers and never will :-P

(not digging at anyone just know that we are all still learning...)

Dave
http://www.skyjunky.com

CSpenceFLY - I can't believe the number of people willing to bet their life on someone else doing the right thing.

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Well, that's true to a certain extent.

I'm a newbie myself - two and a half year in the sport, 890 jumps or so. Even so, I've already been unfortunate enough to watch some bad stuff.

I'll say "that's pretty small, considering your weight and experience" to someone who's radically downsizing at an early time. Even if he or she doesn't ask. Maybe I'm being a little dumb there, considering I myself don't have much experience to base it on. I'd feel pretty shitty if I didn't and something happened though.

I understand your point though and am just nitpicking. You're right when you say the lower timer tend to be very outspoken with opinions and experiences whereas the veterans are more laid back.

For relative newbies such as myself it can sometimes be a struggle to not let the ego get in front of experience and skills. I'm constantly wondering whether it's the case with myself and my friends.

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I asked a similar question a few months back... you might find the thread interesting.

I know one thing: I am *not* an experienced skydiver. I don't know when/if I'll ever consider myself one. I hope I've always got something new to learn.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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