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Bealio

It's a love/hate thing

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I take people on their first 2 ways all the time.Let's just call it AFF. They pay me to swoop at the end of the flight. It's pretty great.

I suppose that the freefly skillz I picked up over the years helps too. When students suddenly move about so cleverly, I can still make them look good with my GoPro camera. Therefore it's entirely possible to make you look good on youtube or vimeo or facebook. I'd say liveleak too, but that would indicate something went very very badly.

Next time we're at the Same DZ, i'll go do whatever type of dive you want to.... except wingsuiting because I don't have one.

All comments in this post are true.

Ps. I don't care about the Mazda anymore.
My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

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Bealio

***I suppose you started doing two-way RW jumps with fun jumpers just two jumps out of AFF? You didn't need to train to learn to get stable or to exit properly, you just grabbed somebody and went, because it's all fun jumps for you?



Yeah, pretty much.

There's nothing wrong with throwing it out of the plane after AFF. You don't have to be on a progression path to enjoy the sport. There are plenty of freefliers who just want to huck it out fly around and have a great time. There is also plenty of freefliers that want to learn something on everyone jump and there's nothing wrong with that either. You shouldn't be upset that some jumpers reason for jumping is different from yours.

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There's nothing wrong with throwing it out of the plane after AFF. You don't have to be on a progression path to enjoy the sport. There are plenty of freefliers who just want to huck it out fly around and have a great time. There is also plenty of freefliers that want to learn something on everyone jump and there's nothing wrong with that either. You shouldn't be upset that some jumpers reason for jumping is different from yours.



+1

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hookitt


All comments in this post are true.

Ps. I don't care about the Mazda anymore.



Dammit I literally just bought a Mazda BT50. I was so hoping you'd be impressed by it>:(
You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

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Bealio

I go for my first skydive and i see what i did not know about at the time, "fun jumpers". Wow, these guys are here to jump out of an airplane for fun! Fuck yeah! I want to be a part of that.

I start my AFF. I see the instructors talking about their fun jumps. I want to be a part of that.

I start skydiving at a funjumper friendly dropzone. I see the fun jumpers huddled and talking amongst themselves. I want of be part of that.

I keep skydiving. Some funjumpers invite me along. Can i free fly? No, I see the free fliers talking amongst themselves. I want to be a part of that.

I travel a lot and jump at different dropzones for fun. I meet old men who like to jump with me. I see the free fliers talking amongst themselves. Why are they not talking to me?

12 dropzones later. I'm on leave and get to skydive with my highschool buddy. I see the fee fliers talking amongst themselves. Why are they not talking to us?

Skydive is not available in Northern Japan. I watch BASE jumping videos. I go to Twin Falls to learn how to BASE. Everyone talks to me. Everyone jumps with me.

I'm a lonely BASE jumper in Northern Japan. I meet a traveling BASE jumper and we BASE jump 5 bridges in Japan. I meet the most experienced BASE jumper in Japan. We sleep in his house and eat his food, drink his beer. I'm part of that.

With all due respect freeflyiers, go fuck yourselves.



Calling others assholes for not talking to you makes you the asshole. Maybe there's a reason they don't want to. If you were at my dropzone I'd probably be one of the assholes you are talking about, but the only one who would be sorry about that is you.

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More often than not its nothing personal, that's how I've learned to see it. Also once the legends at the dz see you're actually putting in the work they will start treating you differently and actually jump with you and that's how you know it wasn't personal to begin with.

There could also be a rite of passage sort of thing, everybody has to put up with being underestimated, ignored and not jumped with so its like yea if you go into it thinking you're an 'equal' or worse, think you're better then you'll be excluded because actually you are not good but think you're good and gonna contribute equally to the jump when actually not

everybody has to go through lots of shit to get in the in

Unless of course you have large breasts and/or a pretty face then you could certainly bypass a lot of the initial exclusivity of the free fly world I suppose

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GoHuskers

***More often than not its nothing personal,



I only know of a single jumper that most people won't jump with for personal reasons. And the funny thing is he's actually a really good guy when judged by his actions. Its what he says...

you talkin' about me!? :o
“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

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virgin-burner

******More often than not its nothing personal,



I only know of a single jumper that most people won't jump with for personal reasons. And the funny thing is he's actually a really good guy when judged by his actions. Its what he says...

you talkin' about me!? :o

I don't know you so... Maybe some of your "friends" would say that.;)

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Like others have said, a lot of times it's not personal. I spent a LONG ass time doing mostly solos when I was learning to freefly. I didn't want to be that guy to ask to get on a jump that was over my head and be a drag, so most of the time I didn't even ask. Every now and then somebody took me up out of the goodness of their heart, and that was great, but I wasn't expecting it and didn't think they were an asshole if they hadn't done it. I am not entitled to go up with these people. I knew I needed to put in the time and effort like they did to get to a point where not only could I be there and functionally freeflying with them to make it a really fun jump and not ruin it, but to also be there doing it SAFELY.

So, what did I do? I put in the time. This took me years. Like, 5-8 years. I did lots of solos, put in a ton of tunnel time, did camps for my skill level and got some coach jumps. I'm at a place now where I am comfortable, and I jump at a dropzone where the culture is to pay it forward. I am not saying every dropzone is like this, but we have culture of jumping with the upcoming jumpers once we're in a place to do so. People did it for me when I first got out here 5 years ago, and now I do it for others without thinking twice about it. Now, does that mean I am going to go up on every single load with you? No, obviously I need to still be working on pushing my current skill set and having fun jumps with like freeflyers. But, that doesn't make me an asshole for the times I say I can't jump with you.

Put the time and effort in and it will eventually come. Maybe not tomorrow, but eventually you will be there.
Apologies for the spelling (and grammar).... I got a B.S, not a B.A. :)

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It's all pretty much been covered but...

Freeflying is hard, incredibly hard. And anyone that is good at it has sunk a lot of money into it.

It's easy to jump with some newbie off of aff and do some belly flying. I've spent a lot of time with 300 jump wonders that want to sit fly and all you do is chase their back sliding ass across the sky. I'm not saying you are one of those newbies.

Group sizes are also an issue. I get all nervous on a three way with two FF newbies, because it's already a zoo die.

You approach a group of 4-6 belly fliers and one more won't make any difference. You take a FF 2 way and make it a 3 way and its pretty much a zoo dive at that point.

Wingsuiting is easy and their arn't may people that do it. If you won't jump with anyone you are probably jumping alone.

Belly jumping is easy.

FFing is hard. Real hard. I totally understand what you are saying because at times I feel that way too. But if a 2 or 3 way FF group is turning points and transitions, they don't want you on their dive. It's not any different that a 4 way belly team that's turning 20 points not wanting you on a dive.

Sack up and go spend 10k on FFing and you won't get your feelings hurt anymore.

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fanya

Belly jumping is easy.



you guys are funny - I've read this same thread comparing people complaining about not getting in with the good belly flyers. The top level of belly (serious 4 and 8 way) has as much in common with throw together fun loads. I don't want to spend more than a couple jumps a weekend with a stereotypical self proclaimed 'fun jumper' on my belly or freeflying. I do a few, but most are ones where I learn stuff. It's more about what kind of flyers we are....

in all the disciplines:

1 - there are the "fun jumpers" - zoo loads, pictures with tongues sticking out, no skill at all but it doesn't matter because that's not the goal. Nothing wrong with this, it's the core of the sport. But, personally, not my cup of tea. 10% of my jumps because we should 'give back'. Still fun, but I'd die if that were all my jumps.

2 - higher skill jumpers - success at techniques, planned dives, lots of points or other types of successes are what we think is fun. Learning and advancing is 'fun'. Personally this is my happy place (freefly, belly etc). But it requires a bit of commit and finding likeminded others.

nothing wrong with either, but mixing the two, or incorrectly self identifying oneself in the wrong group just causes frustrations....I'm very gratified to see a lot of likeminded people commenting the same.

Frankly, I find that the 'fun jumper' mindset people last longer in the sport.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

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fanya


Group sizes are also an issue....

You take a FF 2 way and make it a 3 way and its pretty much a zoo dive at that point.



Yep. Especially when you are learning a new skill like carving or eagles. I don't know how you can add a 3rd person and still work on that skill.

The bigger the group gets the higher the skill level for each jumper has to be... if you're trying to accomplish something, which most freeflyers are.

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