want to be a freeflyer

[nevertoohigh 0]

Hey guys, i just got my A and have started looking into freeflying. I know there are common progressions that most divers follow to start learning, but i wanted to know how you guys went about it...like the what things you were trying at what jump numbers. Thanks.

[skymama 35]

I tried my first sit fly around my 40th jump. My friend took me out with a train exit to see how I'd do. I was able to hold my sit on my second try and even did a 360. Your results may vary. Most people will tell you to concentrate on RW for a bit longer, and you probably should. I just loved freeflying so much more when I tried it, so I stuck with it.
When you try it, make sure you go with an experienced person or coach at your dz so they can give you some pointers and help you figure out what you're doing wrong (you will do something wrong! ) Don't just go out with one of your buddies whom you've gone through your training with. Before you jump with a group, make sure your experienced friend confirms that you're able to hold your heading and not cork. Good luck!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[beowulf 1]

If I had it to do over, I would get as much tunnel time as I could afford. You will learn to freefly much more quickly in a tunnel and avoid learning some bad habits.

[dharma1976 0]

get in the tunnel....I know some amazing freefliers who have huge main canopies...

http://www.skyjunky.com

CSpenceFLY - I can't believe the number of people willing to bet their life on someone else doing the right thing.

[Jbag 0]

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get in the tunnel....I know some amazing freefliers who have huge main canopies...

thats not allowed, you cannot have a canopy bigger then a 135 if you are free flying =D

IHYD

[Amazon 7]

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If I had it to do over, I would get as much tunnel time as I could afford. You will learn to freefly much more quickly in a tunnel and avoid learning some bad habits.

Yup get in the tunnel..get a GOOD coach.. learn to backfly... learn to sitfly and get the baisics down. Doing it with your buddies will take much longer... and be more expensive in the long run.. and you will learn to be a freeflier INSTEAD of the usual freeFLAILER who ends up getting lots of bad habits.. and scaring the shit out of people around you or hurting somebody.

[freddysdaddy 0]

I started sit fly on my second solo jump with my student rig ;)
Everything else is far to late to get into freefly ;)

[Emmie 0]

I would first of all make sure that you have freefly friendly gear. Student gear usually is not, and while it's fine for bellyflying, having loose velcro, rig that doesn't fit you right, etc. at higher speeds and vertical orientations is dangerous. I would also get the basics of bellyflying down before jumping right into freeflying. I did around 100 belly jumps before I learned to sit fly.

I also second the comment about the tunnel. I learned to freefly in the sky, and then spent hours in the tunnel unlearning the bad habits I picked up.

The tunnel's also a cheaper option, and it's much easier to translate what you've learned in the tunnel into the sky than vice versa.

Good luck to you, and welcome to the dark side

[hparrish 0]

x5 on the Tunnel recomendation.

[ManagingPrime 0]

+10 on Tunnel and COACH.

I made the mistake of doing a bunch of solo jumps working on Sit. I held it, but I had no illusions that I was safe (corking, backslide, etc.) and did not jump with others.

If you can get into a tunnel with a coach that is the aboslute (IMHO) best way to go about learning to fly your body. Otherwise, find an experienced local jumper/coach who can work with you.

I started tunnel work and have realized how poorly I actually fly....I'm now back to belly...I'm not even going to try and work on freefly in the tunnel for a while because I don't want to go splat on the glass.

Tunnel. Coach. Have fun.

[jsreznor 0]

Agreed. I started at 100, did 15 minutes in the tunnel, a week of jumping then another 15 minutes in the tunnel.

Feedback and practice FTW

[SRI85 0]

I had about an hour in the tunnel before i got my A-license. about 35 mins of it was sit training. So on my solo jumps for my a-license, i was already doing sit. The tunnel is a huge help. Truly, the sit is really easy. I often wonder how some people out there with over 500 jumps struggle with it?

Around jump 80 i started doing head down. def seek advice before you try head down. I had a good coach session last weekend. Learned alot. Watching the video of it gave me new respect for how dangerous it can be. The speeds are serious.

[ManagingPrime 0]

Did you get tunnel coaching on your HD? I've tried the transition (without coaching) about 10 times now and it's much tougher than the transition to sit (without a coach as well). I've given up on HD until I progress to that point in the tunnel, it just seems to dangerous.

It's awesome that you had a tunnel available before you got your A. I've seen some kids doing tunnel before their AFF, I don't think they know how lucky they are.

[SRI85 0]

i started head down on accident kinda. was doing a solo, and exited head down, and held it for a bit, started making adjustments and was able to make it work. I ease dropped in on a bunch of peoples giving other advice for head down, and applied it to myself...hope to get back up to the tunnel soon and work on it there. i should have my first head down video by the end of next weekend, if it ever gets sent out. ill post it up

[krkarl 0]

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get in the tunnel....I know some amazing freefliers who have huge main canopies...

yeah they are called tunnel rats hahah

[Gators1240 9]

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It's awesome that you had a tunnel available before you got your A. I've seen some kids doing tunnel before their AFF, I don't think they know how lucky they are.

I did this and it made a world of difference. The tunnel helps out tremendously and I would recommend it to anyone trying anything new. The amount of immediate feedback you get and visual reference of the tunnel cant be beat. Ive since become somewhat of a tunnel rat (tunnel once or twice during the week, dz on the weekends) and my progression is amazing. I did most of my time on my belly in the tunnel starting out but recently started working on freeflying. It took about 30 minutes in the tunnel to learn to backfly and start sitflying. Now my sitflying is that great but im doing it and in what would have taken me 30 jumps with a coach to accomplish had I not used the tunnel.

[JamMasterJay 0]

after a freefly jump one day i asked kurt vert for some feedback. he said, "bad news is that you were doing a bunch of shit wrong."

i was about to get all down and have a self contained pity party for myself but i figured i'd let him finish his thoughts; i'm glad i did.

he continued..."good news is that it's nothing a couple thousand skydives won't fix!".

Truth is the distilled meaning of facts, for any truth refuted by a fact becomes a fallacy.

[hookitt 0]

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get in the tunnel....I know some amazing freefliers who have huge main canopies...

thats not allowed, you cannot have a canopy bigger then a 135 if you are free flying =D

Tell that to my friend Mungai. He was freeflying VERY well on his very first jump. He really should have been on radio though.

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[Joellercoaster 6]

But if we start having freeflyers with big canopies, it'll mess up the exit order!

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[hookitt 0]

Exit order is dependent on canopy size. Duly noted

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[Joellercoaster 6]

Indeed

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?