Bignugget

With 17 jumps I have to say I can markedly notice more and more awareness and recall of the jumps. Like Aviation, I had/have problems coming down the hill out of the plane. I would drop my arch and fall for a second until I settled stable, the videos were quite funny, but really not what I want. Aviation explained it almost exactly how I would have. I had to start reducing my anxiety at exit, and focus on thinking through the steps I know I can complete. I had an awesome coach do some drills with me on the ground to practice really feeling the arch right after GO, and she was so fun about it I felt a lot more relaxed after. We did 2 jumps after that lesson and on the second one I was so aware and stable coming off the plane I was sticking my tongue out at her on the hill. It made my day. So I think for a new guy, Aviation explained it pretty damn well. As for the Hop n Pop original topic, I plan to practice some more stable poised 10k exits first! Then I will be able to lend my half cent opinion, hah.

Just a little update: I went and booked 3 hours of time in the new Austin TX tunnel during the tunnel camp Ari Perelman is running in Feb. from the 6th-10th. I am suppppper excited. He has some pretty rad reviews on this forum, and his videos are sick. Im totally stoked to get a chance to learn from him and a tunnel camp sounds awesome as well. Getting to watch others learn is always so useful. So stay tuned for a 3 hour progression video, I am really hoping to do well! Thanks to all again for the advice, Ari suggested nearly the exact same, so it seems you guys know your stuff.

Nice thread man, congrats on the goal! If I can throw in my .02c on your frustrations with the weight loss plateau. I am sure others have mentioned that it is pretty normal to hit and even more so with a lot of strength training, since you are converting the fat to muscle, which is more dense. Cardio and a disciplined diet are the answer. I love swimming personally for my cardio, I couldn't swim one end of the pool to the other 2 years ago, got a few lessons and now a nice 1.5 mile swim takes about an hour and you get some great cardio full body work along with it. You also get to work on core synergy and coordinating multiple muscle groups, all of which I "hope" will help (us) in skydiving. Anyways dont give up the dream you have it in sight already!

Thanks for the tips guys. I have 0 tunnel time right now, and only 17 jumps so I will be starting at the bottom, but eventually I want to learn to free-fly. I reached out to Denver and Orlando (have friends there) so with any luck I will get out there next month and see for myself how I hold up over a weekend or 3-days style flying. Schedule really doesn't allow for trips more than extending a weekend an extra day or so.... I will just have to see how I feel after a weekend trial and go from there. I appreciate the strength and conditioning advice, I ran triathlons last year and was in pretty good shape but haven't done any serious training in 8 months or so, I sense I will be back in the pool this week and fire up the old p90x for a couple months. Gotta love Tony Horton. I have the passion, Ill sell a kidney for the coin, so all I need now is my body to cooperate and the time to get there and back. Wish me luck and I will be sure to throw a video up next month with some hopefully respectable progress. Thanks again.

This is just paranoid gun loving hysteria. The cops wouldn't be going door to door raiding peoples homes for their stockpiled weapons. It would be much more likely in the case of an overwhelming ban on firearms, that a buyback is issued by the Fed.....paying you some predetermined market value for your property. MOST law abiding people would sell them back, but there will still be tens of millions of weapons not turned over. Those weapons will slowly work their way out of circulation as they come into contact with govt. I.E. your house catches fire and the fire dept notices you have some rifles.....or, your mom or dad dies and you inherit a bunch of (now illegal) firearms you don't have a desire to possess.....etc. What they won't do is start kicking in the doors of people searching for guns, anyone who thinks that.....certainly shouldn't be taken seriously in this discussion. This isn't Syria, or 1930's Germany.

hey everyone, I am from Missouri, and there are no close wind tunnels unfortunately. The 'closest' one I can find is in Denver which is about a 12 hour drive. Other than that I have to travel to the east coast..... So, im looking for some insight from anyone from the midwest that has some decent tunnel time. I really want to get started flying in one maybe an hour a month in 2013. Can you do an hour over a weekend and not be exhausted to the point you don't progress? Im in good shape, do yoga and try to stay healthy. I am also interested in getting some coaching so bear that in mind also. Again any insight from fellow midwesterners in the same boat, or anyone who has to travel a significant distance to get inside a tunnel is greatly appreciated.

Amazing flying. I dream of being able to fly like this someday, literally its what I dream about when im sleeping. You really are livin' the dream ;][/cool]

Hahahah, great thread. I am a serious noobie, 15 jumps. But, since I have been hanging at the DZ every possible open moment since I took my AFF class, I get to hear the tandems gearing up every time (its just a small 182 dz). Man it makes me laugh. Some of my favorites are "Did we patch all the holes in that one?" "Yea but we are out of duct tape now." hahahah or "Let me see if I can find one thats still working." rofl. Now I agree that good judgement must be used and I can say from my limited exp. it is at my DZ. From the TMs to the regular fun jumpers everyone has fun with the tandems that are having fun, and helps to reassure the nervous ones....one girl was in tears even before getting geared up.....she cried the entire time it was kinda funny, but no one was making jokes at her. I have mentioned that it seems awfully cruel to tease the noobies like that but it really seems to be lighthearted and meant to help relax the tandems. Personally I still tell others in the plane to relax and stuff, "Skydiving is fun!" its 99% for me though, to tell MYSELF to relax and have fun, just feels better to direct it at the guy with 500 jumps. Anyways great thread I loved reading it.

This is a great thread, you want people to come and tell you what it feels like when they do cocaine? Hahah. Ill be keeping an eye on this one.

"The “Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” video, uploaded to YouTube on the evening of December 18, was made by Normand Archambault, Loïc Mireault and Félix Marquis-Poulin, students at Centre NAD, in the production simulation workshop class of the Bachelors degree in 3D Animation and Digital Design. The video shows a royal eagle snatching a young kid while he plays under the watch of his dad. The eagle then drops the kid a few feet away. Both the eagle and the kid were created in 3D animation and integrated in to the film afterwards. The video has already received more than 1,200,000 views on YouTube and has been mentioned by dozens of media in Canada and abroad. The production simulation workshop class, offered in fifth semester, aims to produce creative projects according to industry production and quality standards while developing team work skills. Hoaxes produced in this class have already garnered attention, amongst others a video of a penguin having escaped the Montreal Biodôme." http://blog.centrenad.com/?lang=en

My whole theory is. learn from the ones who know what they are doing. just like anything you want to learn. (SKYDIVING?) Go look at countries who have drastically lower rates of gun violence, and see how they approach the situation, from gun control laws, to social aspects like over sensationalized news, violent games, lack of active parenting, home schooling?, religion?, etc. See how they are managing to accomplish this goal and adapt those methods to work for us. Its not rocket science but people sure seem reluctant to do it, I wonder how many of you (im still a noob student) would be around happily enjoying the sky if you had just refused to listen to anyone who had experience in accomplishing what you were striving for.

" In Reply To In Reply To That's like banning fast airplanes. Because they also had absolutely nothing to do with the shooting. "Connecticut police said the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., were killed by a high-powered assault rifle." "According to the medical examiner’s report, the main gun used by Adam Lanza, the suspected shooter, was a .223 caliber Bushmaster, a carbine similar to Colt’s AR-15 and M-4. The .223 caliber (5.56 mm) round is the same size as that used by troops in combat." And that caliber is smaller than most used for hunting So I will ask this again what of the following rifles has more firepower A sport Browning BAR chambered in a .308? Or and AR15 type rifle chambered in a .556? " does it really matter man? I honestly don't understand. Let me be the first to admit I would have no idea if they were in front of me which was which. But, if I was to grab one and shoot a kindergartner, or a regular grown man, in the face.... .would it matter which one I selected??

ummmm yes, exactly. there were 2 components here a crazy sicko. and guns. if you take the number of guns from lets say 250 MILLION to lets say 10 MILLION do you think it would be MORE or LESS easy for the 20 year old to get them? COULD he make a timothy mcveigh van? MAYBE. Was it a SHITTON EASIER to just grab a couple guns from his house and kill 20 kids.....yep. but hey, if you want to make it easy go nuts bro.

I agree that we need more guns, lots lots lots more guns. Lets look at the places with gun deaths by capita, and then check the best ones and see how they do it, I bet they also have guns for everyone.....ok....here we goooooo... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate nice!! wiki has a list, ok lets see whos winning! Ok we arent doing bad, 9th worst in the list, just above (worse than) SERBIA AND ZIMBABWE, both really nice countries filled with happy non-violent folks.....but who is doing the best hmm.. CHILE???? ok they certainly all have guns. lets see.... In a comparison of the rate of private gun ownership in 179 countries, Chile ranked at No. 59) dangit, well they dont all have them, but some do! The estimated total number of guns held by civilians in Chile is 1,500,000 to 2,000,000) (Chile's 2002 census reported a population of 15.1 million people.) I bet they would be even better if all 15 million were armed, but lets check some others on the list to make sure we are right in arming everyone. Azerbaijan is #2 tied with Japan at #3 so lets check out Japan since its a bit more mainstream. "Civilians cannot obtain handgun target licenses. Even possession of a starter's pistol is only allowed under carefully- detailed conditions." Gah! wtf! How in the world are these guys not getting schools of kids shot up daily??? NO ONE HAS GUNS??? WTF! Ok certainly thats a random isolated event, lets keep going. Ok South Korea at #4, those guys have to be armed to defend against the North Koreans who might come kill their kids at school, so im sure we will get back on track. The estimated total number of guns held by civilians in South Korea is 510,000) (According to the 2005 census, Seoul had a population of 9.8 million inhabitants) Whew, thank god, they have some guns. Not as many as they need obviously since Japan, Azerbaijan, and Chile have fewer gun deaths, but they are probably doing their best to make more. Now, lets see how the USA is doing, we must really be sucking in gun possession if we cant even beat 5% The estimated total number of guns held by civilians in the United States is 270,000,000) Wow that seems high why arent we stopping these gun deaths?????? We must have a TON of people to be below 5%, lets do a little division (The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the country's population now to be 314,941,000,) WTF THIS CANT BE RIGHT 85.73%??????? How are we not having the least gun deaths???? im fckin confused as hell now, wtf.

Id be dead as hell, I dont see a damn thing. If you are laying between the car and the camera you need to be a navy seal.

Hey all! Graduated AFF this weekend. Super pumped. Had to repeat level one but after that cruised through pretty nicely, graduated saturday and made 2 solo jumps today. Winter days are short but I will be there every weekend trying to sneak in a couple a day. A license here i come. All my aff instructors were awesome, special thanks to Suzette and Joe i felt totally comfortable in the air knowing they had my back. Anyways had to share the excitement somewhere since my friends are like whats the big deal?? Well they havent tried skydiving, thats the problem. hahaha. take care all

Passed 3 and 4 today! This is some fun stuff, on my first one instructor dive i left and did a half flip ended up on my back but flipped myself over, then started my practice 90s and started spinning crazy, but was able to settle it. In the debrief my instructor was like "awesome job stopping that I was going to give you one more 360 but you stopped it I was so happy" !! Made me smile, I love skydiving. Lets do more!!@#!@$

Point well taken. To be fair my instructors never did use the word fail. Im tough on myself, but they must have gotten the dictators memo! my logbook just says "repeat" and my instructors were really encouraging on the debrief of the first jump I had to repeat. But I acknowledge what you are saying and its good advice I think its spot on to not discourage myself using negative words like that. I may have to repeat a couple more jumps, but I won't ever fail again :]. Appreciate the words of advice.

Thanks for the encouraging words :] I read them last week before I went but the weather held me down, got there this weekend though and passed level 1 and 2, onto levels 3,4,5 tomorrow! My instructors said I was on my shit today, hah. I told them I had been practicing my dive for two weeks walking around day to day. im hooked.

hello all, figured I may as well intro myself since ive been lurking for close to 2 weeks since i scheduled this AFF jump. Im 28, from Missouri, jumping at Flyfree skydiving out of Festus. Only one day of exp. at the dropzone there but I can say as such top notch people, everyone immediately made me feel like one of the family which is always nice for someone new. I failed since I didnt deploy my own chute ;/. To be perfectly honest I did 2 AFF dives in 2006 from 14k feet and the freefall seemed much longer than today at 10.5k feet, as such it seemed like 6k was on top of me so much faster and I just didnt react and stay altitude aware. Oh well ;] Im back next week! Anyways just wanted to intro myself and if Suzette or Lutz lurk around thanks a bunch for today and I sure hope I can jump more with you two. -Anthony (bignugget)