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Unstable

I Learned Something VERY Important today that I wanted to Share....

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This Weekend, our dropzone had it's annual Memorial Boogie, our "Wide Body Bash" as it's been called. Nothing like your own home dropzone's boogies...:P

Well, I decided that this weekend, I was going to get some serious work done on my Relative Work skills, and I spent the day working with different people on some intermediate 4-way skills. I made six relative work jumps, and finished off the day with an eight-way with two cessnas...
I ended my day feeling empty hearted, and it seemed as if I had spent my entire day working on some unfulfilling job...
I've talked to several people, and all of them told me that I was taking everything way too seriously... For example, we launched a meeker Exit from the 182, and I spent about 45 minutes afterwards upset, trying to figure out why we did a 360 Degree turn off the hill. On a simple 2-way dive to play with fall rates, I spent the rest of the afternoon stressing about the last point we turned. On the 8-way today, I had the hardest slot to fill, and after I went low, I spent the rest of the evening distraught and terribly disappointed in myself that I had overshot such a simple swoop...[:/]

Things need to change. :|

If I am going to keep in this sport for the next 50 years, then I need to seriously change my attitudes and learn to Relax and not take things so seriously. I do this sport because it's fun - I need to simplify everything to get back to that most basic idea...

This next weekend, I am going to spend 4 days at the Hillbilly CASA boogie at Freefall Express Skydiving, in MO. I hope to make at least 20 jumps - and I start working on changing then..

I'm going to have FUN. B| I am not going to care if my Freeflying is going to take time away from being a better Relative Worker, and I'm not going to beat myself up if I under perform on a low-stress fun jumps. Hell, I might just get out to feel myself fall!!!! :)
Oh yeah, one last thing. I suck at Freefly, I'm not as good as I should be at Relative work, and my Piloting skills need some help. But I love this stuff with all my heart, and that is all that matters to me!! :)
=========Shaun ==========


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Unstable,

I think you may have solved your own problem. Relaxation. For the longest time I was beating myself up about going low on formations. I could not figure it out. Before I started I had no problem swooping down to formations, but all of a sudden it started. With the help of some more experienced skydivers I was back in the mix. The one thing they told me was to relax. Sure I got some technical skydiving advice from them but for the most part it was relaxation.

At your boogie, try to get in on some of the RW jumps if there is an organizer. The more practice you can get in, esp with other skydivers of various fall rates can help you tremendously. It did for me anyway. Also, get in a few jumps for me. I'm stuck in Iraq on deployment and won't see another jump for at least another 8 months.

Blue skies

Chris
--------
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body; but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting 'Holy s#$* what a ride!'"

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If you get a chance (if you haven't read it already) get a copy of Mental Training for Skydiving and Life by John j. DeRosalia. It's a good read and deals with the internal game of skydiving ( and can be applied to a lot of other things)

I have always been harder on myself than anyone else. Beating myself up over things that I shouldn't.

I learned something from a 4 year old once. He was the son of a friend of mine and had been taking Suzuki methid violin lessons and had just finished his first group performance. His dad asked him if he got scared.

His reply was great. He looked up and said " I was, then I realized that that this was supposed to be fun".

I try to remember this when I start taking things too seriously. Sometimes it works.

_________________________________________________
Let me live in my house by the side of the road and be a friend to man- Sam Walter Foss

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For example, we launched a meeker Exit from the 182, and I spent about 45 minutes afterwards upset, trying to figure out why we did a 360 Degree turn off the hill.



Because Meekers have a tendancy to rotate on the hill.

That's not to say that a well trained team can't stop the rotation, but left to their own tendancies, they will rotate on exit. So, don't beat yourself up too bad.

Besides relaxing, you also need to gather enough experience to understand that certain things have a tendancy to happen of their own accord. Exit and level issues happen. Experience will allow you to recognize the issues and start to correct them before they get too large. It'll also allow you to understand that stuff happens sometimes. Recognize it, act to correct it and move on.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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Let's put this in perspective.

Did you have a reserve ride?
Did you break any one's teeth?
Did you tear up your gear?
Did you tear the tail off the airplane?
Did you meet farmer McNasty?
Did you break any bones?

Skydiving is supposed to help you see the rest of your life from a new perspective.

For most people, skydiving reminds them that the dink in accounting is a dink and that is his problem. Since dia is unlikely to kill anyone, the easy way through life is to avoid him.

Lighten up!
And you will find that when you lighten up, you see "challenges" developing earlier, that you react quicker and that "challenges" remain small.

Then share the "challenge" with your jumping buddies and have a good laugh!
Remember, when you laugh at "challenges," they get smaller.

Remember laughter is the best form of contraception.
Hah! Hah!

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Let's put this in perspective.

Did you have a reserve ride?
Did you break any one's teeth?
Did you tear up your gear?
Did you tear the tail off the airplane?
Did you meet farmer McNasty?
Did you break any bones?



Why would you feel bad about a reserve ride? Assuming the other things on your list are OK, you just saved your life as you were trained to do. Seems pretty cool to me!
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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Oh yeah, one last thing. I suck at Freefly, I'm not as good as I should be at Relative work, and my Piloting skills need some help. But I love this stuff with all my heart, and that is all that matters to me!! :)



You got it, my friend! That's it! My abilities are pretty much like yours but, you know? I love this stuff, as you say and I have fun! I work to get always better, it's not easy for a skydiver over 50 who never excelled at any sport but I stopped punishing myself for not accomplishing technical goals years ago. Because the most important goal for me is to have fun not forgetting to care for safety. And the skydiving friendships, of course!



HISPA # 18 POPS # 8757

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I'll be at the Hillbillie Boogie Saturday & Sunday. How about we get together and do a fun dive that has a lot of points to it.

You can't miss me. I'll be the big one with the blue & white tie-dye Wings rig.




Sounds good to me - a Nice low stress dive that involves lots of points....

Ya can't miss me either, How many Blue Racers do you see theses days..... :P
=========Shaun ==========


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I'll be down at the hillbillie boogie this weekend also. If you're looking for someone to jump with, I would be more then glad to do some jumps together. I am hoping to make it there on Friday, but will definitely be there Saturday and Sunday. I'll have the jump suit with the flames going up the legs and sleeves. See you there.



*****Why would anyone jump from a perfectly good airplane? Because it isn't much fun if it's broke.****

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If it is any consolation, I have 4,400 jumps and I suck at freeflying!
Hah! Hah!

All that tells us is that I spent too many years hauling tandem students. Fortunately I got pretty good at hauling tandem students.



See, but you got good at something!! I'm still working on that! :P:P:P
=========Shaun ==========


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Let's put this in perspective.

Did you have a reserve ride?
Did you break any one's teeth?
Did you tear up your gear?
Did you tear the tail off the airplane?
Did you meet farmer McNasty?
Did you break any bones?




Yeah, I go with the similar "we all landed unhurt" metric. (I sometimes also feel sad and empty after skydiving days that don't go perfect.)

-=-=-=-=-
Pull.

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Yeah, I go with the similar "we all landed unhurt" metric. (I sometimes also feel sad and empty after skydiving days that don't go perfect.)



You shouldn't Eugene...you're kickin' butt out there. B| I'm jealous!! :)
~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

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Hey Unstable...maybe something else that will help with the 'Happy thoughts'?? Looks like you're a 'C' licensed jumper with over 300 jumps...maybe take a few jumps with some of us lowly 'A's now and then?? You know newbies sure appreciate the help, and it would take the pressure off of you to perform for your own personal best, and make ya feel good about helping someone else out, whom I'm sure would be terrribly greatful...:)
Just a thought. ;) I'm always sooo excited when a C or D licensed person offers to jump with me to work on something or just a fun jump for nothing in particular. It sure helps us low-time jumpers feel like we're part of the group. :)
~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

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Shaun,

I'm glad you're trying to relax a bit; it looked like you were pretty stressed out for a while after the dive. To be honest, that's one of the reasons I didn't even try to get in on the 8-way, I was worried that I would mess it up for everyone else.
I guess that's why I've been freeflying(well, attempting!) more, because that just seems more low-stress to me.
But we'll have to jump together this weekend at the boogie, freefly or rw, and just relax!!

Addie

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Oh, man...I know how you feel. I did very little relative work from the start, right off AFF. Lots of solos and a few coach jumps to get my A...and then I moved to SoCal and started jumping at Perris.
There, I started to do a few RW jumps w/ LOs and other jumpers, but was still focused on FF. I noticed after switching back and forth that I seemed to enjoy my solo jumps more than the RW jumps. Here's why it was like that, for me, at least.
I was always so caught up in the "don't F up someone else's skydive" that I wouldn't relax and I would give myself a lot of shit for under-performing. Experienced jumpers would repeatedly tell me "smile, relax, and quit being so hard on yourself." So, I had experienced jumpers telling me that, as well as the reinforcement of jumpers at my relative level of experience that we were all still learning.
The difference (to me) is that in FF (at least at my level), there's not much that I'm trying to do other than match fall rates, have fun and fly in awe of the experienced FF'er that's w/ me. RW is a little different because if I'm out of position I'm not where someone else needs me to be. And therein lies *MY* problem. If I don't relax and chill out a bit, I'll ruin the experience for all. It's a matter of attitude.
So, as I was told again and again (and continue to be told, everyonce in a while)..."Relax, smile, have fun." Skydiving is a lot more fun to me when I'm focusing on that and chilling out. If it doesn't work out as planned, you can always go back up again.
-C.

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Shaun,

I'm glad you're trying to relax a bit; it looked like you were pretty stressed out for a while after the dive. To be honest, that's one of the reasons I didn't even try to get in on the 8-way, I was worried that I would mess it up for everyone else.
I guess that's why I've been freeflying(well, attempting!) more, because that just seems more low-stress to me.
But we'll have to jump together this weekend at the boogie, freefly or rw, and just relax!!

Addie




You should have seen Justin after doing the same thing last year - We had to put him on suicide watch for the rest of the boogie......:P:P:P
=========Shaun ==========


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Hey Unstable...maybe something else that will help with the 'Happy thoughts'?? Looks like you're a 'C' licensed jumper with over 300 jumps...maybe take a few jumps with some of us lowly 'A's now and then?? You know newbies sure appreciate the help, and it would take the pressure off of you to perform for your own personal best, and make ya feel good about helping someone else out, whom I'm sure would be terrribly greatful...

Just a thought. I'm always sooo excited when a C or D licensed person offers to jump with me to work on something or just a fun jump for nothing in particular. It sure helps us low-time jumpers feel like we're part of the group.




Hey, Your Right!!! Working with Students and JUmping with low-timers is one thing that I absolutly LOVE and doesn't stress me out!! I'll have to find a low-timer buddy at this next boogie!! :P
=========Shaun ==========


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