Tandem Passenger

[kkeenan 14]

I'm sure there are plenty who frequent this forum who have never been a Tandem passenger. Being trained on S/L and jumping for a while before Tandems were invented, I never had the urge to go near one.

Now, it's extremely rare to find someone who didn't take a Tandem ride before learning to skydive. I wonder how long it will be before there is no one left who never wore the passenger harness for that amusement park ride.

Kevin

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

[bozo 0]

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I'm sure there are plenty who frequent this forum who have never been a Tandem passenger. Being trained on S/L and jumping for a while before Tandems were invented, I never had the urge to go near one.

Now, it's extremely rare to find someone who didn't take a Tandem ride before learning to skydive. I wonder how long it will be before there is no one left who never wore the passenger harness for that amusement park ride.

Kevin

I had almost 750 tandems logged when I did a checkout ride for a buddy, on the front.
Not being in control scared the shit out of me.
SL was a lot easier for me....being a control freak.
You dont need to wonder K...its inevitable.

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

[airtwardo 7]

I think I was on front in about '84...as a guinea pig at a demo!

Had to be on front again the next year when I got my TM.

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

[ripcord4 0]

No, thanks! If I auger in, it's because I screwed up, not someone else.

[jonstark 8]

Hey Kevin,

I was Carl Daugherty's Bag-O-Sand and he was mine when we got our so-called checkouts in about 83-84? This was before drogues were in use and the freefall was nearly 200 mph. Pretty unpleasant and fairly intense.

It was a feeling very similar to having someone do a pilot chute assist for a low BASE jump. Weird doing nothing. Cool but weird.

jon

[NickDG 23]

I've been on the front too, like Airtwardo, when I became tandem rated, but I've done more than a few for un-current tandem masters. They have to make one with an experienced jumper, as passenger, to become current again.

One time that is funny now, but wasn't then, was my then girlfriend getting re-current. We argued all the way down under canopy about which way to go. She was zigging when I thought she should be zagging.

"Ain't ya watching it, for Christ sakes!!!"

"We need to be over there!"

"No, we don't, we need to be over here!"

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

We didn't talk for a week . . .

NickD BASE 194

[labrys 0]

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One time that is funny now, but wasn't then, was my then girlfriend getting re-current. We argued all the way down under canopy about which way to go. She was zigging when I thought she should be zagging.

So...since you didn't include an "I told her so" in your story we can assume she landed you on the DZ?

My first skydive was a tandem. I've done three more recurrency jumps since then and I've enjoyed them to a degree because I find it fun to be with someone else under canopy. One of the best memories I have is chasing a maple leaf around in the wind from about 5000 to 3000 feet on my first ride as an experienced jumper. It was good to share that with someone.

I don't like not being in control during landing. Just like being a passenger in a car with the imaginary brake pedal... I think I've flared with my imaginary toggles on all three recurrency jumps

Owned by Remi #?

[Rainbo 0]

My only up front rides were without a drouge when we were first certifying our crew at Skydive Sandwich back when. Man we had some fun but I don't think my body could take it these days.

Rainbo
TheSpeedTriple - Speed is everything
"Blessed are those who can give without remembering, and take without forgetting."

[bozo 0]

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***One of the best memories I have is chasing a maple leaf around in the wind from about 5000 to 3000 feet on my first ride as an experienced jumper.

that must have been a very tall tree.

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

[pilotdave 0]

Tandems are fuuuuun!!!

I never did one as a student, but I've done about 6 since I had 100+ jumps. I've been a test dummy for a few instructor candidates, including one guy's 2nd ever... another instructor's first at that DZ and first out of anything other than a 206 (maybe his 20th tandem?)... Post-winter recurrency... It's fun stuff.

It's free and you don't have to pack. What could be better??

Dave

[Tidlof 0]

"I had almost 750 tandems logged when I did a checkout ride for a buddy, on the front. "

Aren't all TM required to be a student during their certification process? We did when I got my rating in 87. If not, when did that stop?

Ted
D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698
On the road to wrack and ruin…………
but making damn good time.

[bozo 0]

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"I had almost 750 tandems logged when I did a checkout ride for a buddy, on the front. "

Aren't all TM required to be a student during their certification process? We did when I got my rating in 87. If not, when did that stop?

I certified in 87 too. I did a bunch of jumps with the experienced jumpers on the front and then the evaluator but I was never required, nor asked, to ride passenger.

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

[bozo 0]

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My only up front rides were without a drouge when we were first certifying our crew at Skydive Sandwich back when. Man we had some fun but I don't think my body could take it these days.

Hey Rainbo, ever take Terry Murray for a ride ?

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

[Rainbo 0]

He was one of the people that I trained from a young sprout of a jumper.

Rainbo
TheSpeedTriple - Speed is everything
"Blessed are those who can give without remembering, and take without forgetting."

[labrys 0]

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that must have been a very tall tree.

I caught a "Winnie The Pooh and Tigger Too Say Happy Birthday" helium balloon on a sunset high hop-n-pop once also. I almost dropped my beverage

Owned by Remi #?

[pinkfairy 0]

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Now, it's extremely rare to find someone who didn't take a Tandem ride before learning to skydive. I wonder how long it will be before there is no one left who never wore the passenger harness for that amusement park ride.

Kevin

Is that a bad thing?

Is there something wrong with me for never having done a Static line jump?

S/L looks scary, BTW. I like to deploy my own canopy.

I know a lot of new jumpers who never did a tandem, and I know some who did recurrency jumps with TMs after they had done a couple of hundred jumps themselves.

Tandem is getting more and more common, so more and more skydivers will have done it.

Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet.

I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

[WGore 0]

I had to do the up front for mine in 85 and didn't like it a bit. And as it turned out had to do it twice since we were short some one for one of the other guys.
I was surprized how eager some of the experienced jumpers were to do it for us that needed to get recurrent after the winter. I usually asked one of the light weight good looking girls.

GUNFIRE, The sound of Freedom!

[fastphil 0]

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Now, it's extremely rare to find someone who didn't take a Tandem ride before learning to skydive. I wonder how long it will be before there is no one left who never wore the passenger harness for that amusement park ride.

Kevin

Is that a bad thing?

Is there something wrong with me for never having done a Static line jump?

S/L looks scary, BTW. I like to deploy my own canopy.

I know a lot of new jumpers who never did a tandem, and I know some who did recurrency jumps with TMs after they had done a couple of hundred jumps themselves.

Tandem is getting more and more common, so more and more skydivers will have done it.

Not a "bad thing", I think it's called progress...

[yjumpinoz 0]

Many years ago, we had an experienced jumper being a passenger and they hammered hard and hurt her pretty bad. It made me not want to ever do that.

[rygon 0]

ive only done 2 jumps so far and both have been for my AFF levels.

I was thinking about doing a tandam at 1st but for the extra £80 i thought sod it..do it on my own instead

[377 22]

I trained in 1968 on S/L, still active and have never made a tandem jump. I was offered a free tandem ride a few years ago and declined. It is amazing how many people have made a single tandem jump. I think it is great in that it allows anyone with a hundred bucks (Lodi CA DZ price) to experience freefall. Freefall changes your outlook, even if you only do it once. Also, people who have made a tandem jump think of themselves as quasi-skydivers and are likely allies if the govt. starts messing with our right to jump. I dont ever care to make a tandem jump, but I am 100% in favor of tandems as they subsidize up jumpers, bring freefall to the masses and keep DZs afloat financially.

2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

[stitch 0]

Ump-umm I only started a couple of years ago, and I went straight to AFF. The thought of not having my own rig scares me.

"No cookies for you"- GFD
"I don't think I like the sound of that" ~ MB65
Don't be a "Racer Hater"

[rapter 0]

Never had a ride of the back of a motorcycle or the front of a parachute, just seems to weird, not to be in control.

Only the good die young, so I have found immortality,

[Icon134 0]

I'm just a youngun myself but I've never done a tandem...

Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

[spanky39154 0]

Didnt do a tandem until i was doing video at a tandem instructors course last year, had fun in freefall, what really got me was not hacing the rig on under canopy just did not trust the clips!! which is weird as i reqularly hang off just one clip when working.

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Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large Groups!!