Your best and worst 4-way experience

[chanti 0]

I don't have much 4-way experience, but I've loved every single 4-way jump I've done. It's definitely my most favorite discipline, but it's been a rocky road! Our team has split up after a year of jumping together. It was expected, as all 4 of us wanted something different from the team, but still disappointing. Nationals was in April and I've had a long hard think about where I would like to go from here and have decided to stay with 4-way but maybe join a more junior team (I was in a team with people WAAAYYYY more experienced than me - great for learning, terrible for self-esteem!)

Anyway, sorry for the rant! I would like to hear from you guys and girls what your best and worst experiences were, and why you stayed with 4-way, etc.

-Chanti-

[Macaw 0]

Can't think really of any bad 4-way experiences so far, but the best ones are 1) jumping with my team and learning, learning, learning every time - I jump with people that are way better than me and have more extensive experience in the sport and 2) doing 4-way with Arizona Airspeed in the tunnel and in skydive. Amazing stuff!

________________________________________
Life is a series of wonderful opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

[GeGe 0]

My worst experience in 4-way?
Probably funneling a 4 exit on round 1 of a worldcup.
However, finishing that round with double figures was pretty neat; everybody was d*mn eager to make up for the lost time so that took away a lot of the bad feelings :-)

My best experience in 4-way?
Getting into a flow during a random jump.
It almost feels effortless and slow, but once you start counting the points... It's still one of the reasons for me to do 4-way. There's nothing quite like getting into a rhythm with your team, especially during a world meet :-)

[monkycndo 0]

On a recent 4 way jump with two freeflyers that are very seldom on their belly and a 85 jump wonder, we turned 11 points. Not a huge number of points, but we all had a big smiles on our faces the entire time. That's what it is all about. The only expectation we had was having fun. That we nailed.

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[LemmingBoy 0]

Worst one-
When the pilot decided on jumprun that he would keep climbing at full power with the green light on.

Best one-
After 3 hours of coaching in the tunnel, my team tried out our new skills in the air. We spun some amazing points that jump. To add icing to the cake, someone we had just met (Ori Kuper) was willing to jump video. Little did we know that the stills he took would land us on the cover of the latest issue of Skydiving Magazine :)

[GQ_jumper 4]

My worst, well, I've never really had a bad 4 way experience, I learn something new every time, even if it doesn't go as planned
My best, I'd have to say was my first 3 on 1 coaching session. Up until that point I had never done slot switchers and I was preparing some 4 ways only using the intermediate dive pool because I though that was all I could handle, I had about 200 jumps at the time. One of the coaches I was working with walks up and says "alright Dan here's the draw, we're gonna do the open class draw from the Shamrock Showdown last week". I'm not gonna say who this coach was but I'll give you a hint, he posts on here ocassionally and his name starts and ends with Kirk Verner, I can't say anything else though because it would give away who it was

So for the first time I did the entire dive pool, I was pushed way beyond my comfort zone and realized that I could handle a lot than I previously thought. It was far from being the prettiest flying but it shattered all my mental barriers and sent my learning curve through the roof.

@irsp##d coaching is always priceless)

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[keka 0]

I've never had a "bad" 4-way... maybe it didn't come out the way we planned, or we didn't get as many points we wish we would... but all fun.

the best... I gotta say my 1st one was really nice; I have just gotten my A license and had completed my 30st jump at the same day and got in a 4-way with my Vtech friends in West Point. We got 6 points and I had a blast.

but by far... I got to say that it was this last memorial day in West Point where I was jumping with my BF and our friends and we got 13 points...despite they all have way more jumps that I do
I really like 4-way and can't wait to attend a good camp with Kirk.

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[bigdad510 1]

I just got back from deployment a week ago. The second day I'm back in the US, I head out to the dz and jump with an old friend and a new one who had never been to the dropzone. The very frsit jump ( i know it's just a three way) we turned 9 points. Made me feel good for nto being in the air for four months.

"Bad" four way", never have those, always learning and that's what's inportant.

"good" four way - learning a ton and increasing my ability jumping with MP8 team members.

Brad

[UDSkyJunkie 0]

Dude... stick with the most advanced people you can! If you want your self-esteem back, watch some recent video, and then go watch your video from the beginning of the season. Your self-improvement will blow your mind.

Best experiences: getting to know my team and watching us all grow. Seeing all the hours on creepers and blood, sweat, and tears pay off when we kick ass on a challenging dive (round 5 at nationals 06 comes to mind). Setting team records.

Worst experiences: arrogant team members with delicate egos on my first team. having to call off the team this year due to injury of our inside center (non skydiving related)... we had a promising lineup and a serious shot at intermediate gold in chicago.

"Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."