Low Timers - What have you been up to?

[Motab 0]

Hey everyone!
First, allow myself to briefly introduce myself. I'm Motab (aka Andy), and I live in Southern California (east Los Angeles county). I've been jumping as often as I can afford to since I did AFF 1 last October... which for the most part has meant 1-2 times a month. BUT! Last Sunday I completed the AFF program, (1 re-do, level 5), so now I get to leave the airplane all by myself! Hooray!
I did my first solo after completeing AFF 7, and it was awesome. I did some turns, did a couple of flips, some tracking, and I'm having a blast doing all of this stuff. But it's a little strange not having a dive flow ready for me every jump. Not that it's a bad thing at all, but now this whole new world has opened up to me, and I'm a little curious about where to go first.
Ultimately, I'd like to end up doing freeflying I think. It looks like an absolute blast. That, and flying a birdman suit. That also looks like its pretty damned hardcore.
So I guess my question is to people who are low-timers (or even people who remember what they did post-student status,) as to what you have been doing since your student jumps. What kind of maneuvers have you been doing up there? If you're going into a specific discipline, what kinds of things have you been doing to prepare yourself for it? If you've gotten gear, how did you decide what to get? Any general thoughts?
My general plan for now is to get a little bit of RW coaching, try to get my body flying the ways I want it to when I'm belly to earth, playing with both arm and leg position. But that's just general... I don't really have a syllabus in my head. As far as gear goes, I'm planning on picking up a jumpsuit (should I look for a freeflying suit or some other kind of suit first?), helmet (full faced probably), altimeter (probably a pro-track and a wrist-mount), so I'll have the basics covered. I think I'm going to get into the demo program at my DZ, so I can at least try to get down from the PD 280 I've been jumping. ;)
I read the Skydiver's Handbook, and I've gone through the past year of posts in this forum, so I've gotten to see a lot of people's thought on all the various RSL, AAD, and other kinds of debates, and that's been immensely helpful. I can't wait to get down to Perris or Elsinore and meet some of you guys down in SoCal.
Anyway, I'm just curious as to what people are doing. Lemme know if you get a chance! Any advice is appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Motab

[AggieDave 6]

I'm still a low timer (115 jumps) and remember what it was like right off of student status. You have a good track with the gear, you will more then likely be able to borrow gear (BE CAREFUL!) or rent gear, but bumming goggles, jumpsuit, helmet and an altimeter is harder. If you can afford those things, then get them. Especially a jumpsuit, goggles and an altimeter. As for what kind, at this point I would suggest a cheap/used RW suit. Something you can biff in and not worry about blowing the knees out, getting grass stains on, etc. Once you really start getting stuff together in the air and start figuring out what discipline you really want to focus on, then spend the money for a decent jumpsuit.
I strictly did RW stuff till about jump 46 or so, then I started FreeFlying, but I made sure to have a screw off dive everyonce in a while to keep everything really fun. ), with a couple strange ones (10-way, 8-way, pumpkin). The more jumps you can make more often the better you will get quicker, I know money can be tight and it will be hard to make jumps all the time while you're renting gear, but try to make as many jumps as you can. Also, if you want to progress skill wise, keep your jumps the same type (rw vs. ff) for the first while, otherwise you may not progress as fast as you would like to in getting some skills in the air.
Some other things you might want to do is once you start jumping a canopy that you like, do a hop-n-pop at altitude and fly around. You'll learn a lot about canopy flying on a jump like that and you'll be high enough to try different things that could kill you down low. Like pulling your front risers, etc.
Remember something, though, above all be safe and have fun since that is what this sport is about. Also, check with your JMs and make sure what you're planning to do is good to go, we don't want to see anyone get hurt. Some of the other more experienced folks on the forums might have some other ideas too. A human cannonball, I rise above it all
Up higher then a trapieze, I can fly

[Spy38W 0]

What's up Andy,
First let me start off by saying I'm a newbie too, and you should definitely check everything I say with an experienced instructor.
Now I'll give a brief summation of my jumping (experience) (if you can call it that). my first jump off student status was a 10 way (supposed to be an 11 way, I was in, somebody else with a new jumpsuit was not). Jump 21 I was still like a new crack addict looking for a fix, so I packed in time to make a sunset load which only had one slot left so I tried a tracking dive. (I was too scared to exit at the same time as everybody else, and lagged wwwaaaayyyy behind and wasn't really part of the dive). Then I continued RW until 32 when I was packed again, but there weren't enough slots for my crew to do an RW dive so I started to work on my sit-flying. Since then I have been mixing RW and FF dives as the situation arises. My first really stable/satisfying sitfly was on jump 34. Right now I'm still at low numbers (46) and working on headdown flying. I have been getting more stable on every jump, and am positive that if I took a weekend to practice I could get stable after 3-5 jumps. Unfortunately(?) I'm also a jump pilot so I only get 1-2 jumps per weekend. Other than that all I can say is just keep with it. I had to cutaway on jumps 39 and 40 and almost gave up from discouragement, but (and only) through the help and support of others I made it through
--
~Captain Cutaway
I can disassemble a rig in less than 5 seconds...

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Hey Andy
Everything that Aggs suggested is good, RW is good to start with for two reasons:-
1) it will help you become accomplished on your belly, this becoming more and more important in freeflying, which is not just about head down......
2) more importantly it helps build disciplines that you will need later on such as awareness of others, peripheral vision , fall rate change anticipation etc.
I'd also add an oft overlooked aspect of our sport and that is accuracy, good landing techniques and close to ground control is a very important survival skill, especially at boogies.
Sonner or later your gonna have to put that puppy down in a real tight spot.
Don't be afraid to approach people at your DZ for some coaching, it really helps, start small and sloowly build your skills, a skydive's difficulty increases exponentially with the number of people involved. At your stage stick to two ways, theyare more likley to succeed and that increases your enjoyment.
Have a dive plan, there's no point in just jumping for the hell of it.
Don't stop learning, its one of the greatest aspects of your new found passion.
Don't forget to smile.
Cya
D

[RichM 0]

It's worth keeping an eye on the Swoop and Canopy Control forum. Most of the posts notionally concern swooping, which is a very advanced and potentially dangerous canopy landing skill. Due to this however, the margins for error are much slimmer than normal landings and so the focus on landing skill is very high.
Bear in mind that most posters are highly experienced, and their choice of canopy and size is made after making mistakes on bigger things that put you down with a large margin for error.
Rich M

[scottbre 0]

Quote

Have a dive plan, there's no point in just jumping for the hell of it.

Are you kidding!? Those are some of the most fun dives. I'll add my experience in here too. I started the ole static line program last september and now have 59 jumps. I still don't have my A yet because I am working on getting my docking skills a little more finely honed (in otherwords, getting to where I can dock without the other person helping.). So I have been doing a lot of 2,3,4ways to get this practice. On one of my last few jumps I tried some freeflying, so I am slowly getting into that as well. With the number of jumps I already have, I will probably go ahead and get water training and just skip the A and get my B license, since that is really the only extra thing that you need for a B.
"Yea, I didn't think we'd actually be turning any points..." ~ Goat #4

[Scoby 0]

Hey Andy, what's up? Oh, Beth guessed that we went skydiving without her this weekend. I didn't even have to tell her. She won't be upset, though, as long as we go again next weekend. She plans to do two jumps to try and catch up a bit. Fat chance.
Anyway, my plan, for at least the next few jumps, is to work on my leg position in boxman and my body position while tracking. I have no intention of doing anything fancy until I'm sure that I can do those things well.
My main focus on the next few jumps is to work on my landings. I'm annoyed that I still can't hit the peas and have trouble timing my flare. I know how to do everything and I've had a few sweet landings, so my goal is to be able to do it everytime. I want to be able to transition to hand deploy sooner than later, so I need to be ready to land the smaller rigs.
Other than that, I think this is the time we're supposed to enjoy the sport and learn to relax in the air. The other stuff comes later.

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

I've got 70 jumps, an I normally do 2 ways, rodeos etc.
I've just my first kit, all brand new, mainly cos I could (just) afford it. Get whatever kit you feel happy with.
When you participate in sporting events, its not whether you win or loose, its how drunk you get.

[dayle 0]

Hey Andy, Welcome!!!
What a blast eh!!
My advice to you is to jump more!!! If you can't jump more, save up your money to do a bunch of jumps in one weekend. I think you would progress faster that way then doing one or two every couple of weeks.
I learnt how to fly on my belly first and now this summer I'm going to start working on sit and freeflying. When I started I did alot of solo's to improve my body position and ability to move in the air and think about moving in 360 degrees. I also continued to learn about canopy control. On every jump I tried different things with the canopy, like riser turns, spins etc. (keep it above 2K until you get more experience)
My other advice is ditch the student canopy ASAP (say after your first 15 - 20 jumps and after consulting your instructor and if YOU feel comfortable with your landing ability)
It's a whole new world once you get rid of those lumbering pieces of S#it and you'll have alot more fun with your canopy. Rent borrow, whatever but check with your instructor first regarding size.
Enjoy the experience is the most important thing!!!!
Dayle

[Motab 0]

Yeah... I'd really like to get under something a little bit smaller than 300... I mean, I like doing the 360s and 720's under it and everything, but I'm gonna start downsizing. They have a little progression thing where they slowly get you down in size while demo-ing equipment at the same time, so I'll probably start doing that and jumping more come June, after I graduate and start making actual real money.
I just ordered the Skydive U Basic Body Flight and Basic Canopy control vids, and I hope to get a chance to check at least some of them out before we go out this weekend. Yeah Scoby, sucks for Beth, but at least now we can all go up on the same loads. :)
Thanks for the thoughts everyone! If anyone has any more, it will definitely be appreciated!
I'm not not licking toads....

[JumpinJohn 0]

Yeah I hear ya when you say its weird not having a dive plan after your off student status. While I was there I just did alot of solos until I had the numbers to get an A. Mostly I worked on making my turns more crisp and usually pulled a little bit higher to play under canopy.
As for the gear. I started out by ordering an RW suit (swoop suit by tony suits) and a wrist mount. Then about a month later I ordered a new javelin, pd reserve, cypres, and a used sabre 190. Which by the way I hope gets here by this weekend...
The way I chose my gear was to talk with the rigger at my DZ. She had seen me fly and land and made some recomendations as to what I should get. She also got me a bad ass deal.
Anyways, thats my story!
Blue Skies!

[gale 0]

Go read "don't downsize too quickly" in the Safety and Training forum and then decide.
Gale
Life's not worth living if you can't feel alive

[Scoby 0]

I'm actually not in a hurry to downsize, but I am in a hurry to get off the ripcord rigs. Our DZ has PD260-300s for the rpcord rigs, but the hard-deploy rentals are PD230s. I have a feeling that should be plenty of performance for a while. For me, that's a loading of .8. I'm going to go rather slow with the canopies. I'm more excited by freefall than canopy flight anyway.

[rhino 0]

Welcome to the club.. I'm a lowtimer with over 300 jumps.. I learn something new everytime I go skydiving.
Rhino
Blue Skies .....

[Dumpster 0]

I'm recenly off student status myself, got my own gear, and am working on improving my RW skills- ( they really need work!) and working on my accuracy on landings for license progression- I'd like to try freeflying but need to have a few mods made to my rig to make it more FF friendly- I never turn down a chance to do a hop-n-pop, and always make it a point to have fun!!
Life begins at 14,000' - Shut up and jump!