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RkyMtnHigh

How many jumps do you consider as "experienced" in this sport?

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I can't believe how many say "wow, 300+...that's a lot" and I respond "yikes, no it isn't..." IMO, I think 1000 or more is respectable...at my few hundred, I still feel qualified as a newbie....really.

How many jumps do you consider as "experienced"?





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I still feel like a newbie, learning all the time.

To me 10,000 "or more is respectable..." If and when I ever get to that point (doubt it) I will still probably feel the same way, but 20,000.

Experienced? Ummmm, 1 jump?

Dedication or Proficiency? Guess that varies from person to person.

What I like about skydiving is I never stop learning and growing, probably cuz I suck and there is always room for improvement...

So much room…
Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

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:D For me, it's a bit like getting old.. I see other people doing it, but it doesn't happen to me. I'll be old in ten years time, and that's been true for at least the past 20 years.;)

If forced to name a number, it would be 1000 dives. If nothing else, 1000 dives shows a great deal of time and money put into the sport, which for many of us = commitment.

It helps if some of those 1000 are at different DZ's, in different contries, at different altitudes, out of different aircraft and doing different things. No one says, "I have 40 years of experience in tying my shoelaces." Those are things we can learn pretty much everything about real fast, and then continue to do for a lifetime. For it to be experience, you need to keep doing bits of it wrong, and getting better.

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."

t
It's the year of the Pig.

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Well to be "experienced" and "respectable", certainly nothing less than 10,000. Anyone at 9,999 or below is inexperienced until that 10,000th one. :S[:/]
"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. " -John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, 1957

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Be careful here....I think experience is relative. Its nice to say you have 10,000 jumps, but if they are all solo's out of a cessna 182 what does it really mean? (just trying to make a point here...I know it doesn't happen)

Myself, i'm just over 90 jumps and have a ton to learn. Some of the best things I have learned thus far have been through observation and hanging out at the DZ after the sunset load. I've also learned a ton growing up on the DZ watching my father jump.

Although jump numbers usually do show quite a bit in terms of experience, I believe there is a whole lot more to "experience" than just the number of jumps you have.

Anyway, next time you are at the DZ just sitting around waiting for your load , go camp out next to the landing area and just watch a few loads. I promise you'll take something in. That all adds up.

Also, the one thing I was taught very early that always stuck with me was "there are no dumb questions". If you have questions ask. Experience comes from the combination of knowing what is correct or how to do something and the jumps behind it to practice it.

Blue skies!

Marcel
Losers make excuses, Winners make it happen
God is Good
Beer is Great
Swoopers are crazy.

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I can't believe how many say "wow, 300+...that's a lot" and I respond "yikes, no it isn't..." IMO, I think 1000 or more is respectable...at my few hundred, I still feel qualified as a newbie....really.

How many jumps do you consider as "experienced"?



When you realise just how much you don't know?

Eugene


"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of
people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

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How many jumps do you consider as "experienced"?


When you realise just how much you don't know?

then I must be VERY experienced :P



Well, experience is knowing things. If you know that you don't know something, that's still knowing about not knowing. So, if you don't know a lot of things, and know that you don't know, and you know that, you know a lot. Get it? :D:D:ph34r:


Eugene


"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of
people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

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I like your style Eugene!

I'm just thinking there is a better word/phrase to use than "experienced". Cause even after 100 jumps, that's a "lot" of experience (though maybe not as much as many) but you wouldn't necessarily be a person I could consider an authority on the sport.
----------------------------------------
6.8% - Almost there!

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I think 1000 or more is respectable...



I look at it different, I think one makes it respectable, someone is fighting a fear. They are fighting their natural survival instints by jumping out of a airplane and having a planet thrown at them, relaying on only some nylon and strings. It only takes one jump in my opinion. As far as experienced well, thats not always in the jump numbers, Ive had advice from people at your numbers all the time that had helped me , and I had advice from someone with 1000 ish that didnt. Its all about how they handle the progression and what they do to continue learning.

Its also perspective by peers, my family thinks I am a skygod where as my sky friends know I am a 100 ish jump wonder wanna be. Ill never feel experienced no matter how many I do. I can arch .... and I can land. :|
Sudsy Fist: i don't think i'd ever say this
Sudsy Fist: but you're looking damn sudsydoable in this

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I think it's a pretty weird question. Could a person with 2,000 jumps and no cutaways be considered "experienced?" Would a person with 500 jumps and a cutaway be "more experienced?" That person has "experienced" more things.

I think it an interesting question.


My wife is hotter than your wife.

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Depends on a bunch of things.

If a person has say 1500 jumps but just won the open class at the nationals...I'd tend to say she was experienced. But take that same jumper and she has no tandems...She would be inexperienced with tandems.

Now if you are talking about regular "fun" jumping. I tend to say...It depends.:P

It depends on the persons skills and attitude. I had a friend that had 800 jumps and did not know how to assemble a three ring.

But if I had to come up with a number...Say 1,000. AND 5-6 years.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

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How many jumps do you consider as "experienced"?



I think 500 because that is when you can become a tandem instructor, then you are responsible for another persons life on each jump . I wouldn't like that this was the case if most people thought the TI was inexperienced


"be honest with yourself. Why do I want to go smaller? It is not going to make my penis longer." ~Brian Germain, on downsizing

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I aim to please :$.

Another way of looking at it, being experienced is more of a journey, then a destination. Could it be judged by how much you learn from each new experience? Kinda like how fast you're going along the road of experience.

Eugene


"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of
people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

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Jumps plus time in sport gives you experience.

I dont' consider someone that makes 1000 jumps in a year that experienced.

j



Time in sport does indeed count for something.

I consider 1000 jumps to be like a black belt in martial arts.
Any experienced practitioner of martial arts will tell you that that is when you are ready to BEGIN learning.

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