nadominhoca

Hey man! Better to get in contact with the DZs in CPT and Johannesburg.. I'm not so sure about the regulations in South Africa, but in some countries you can't do your AFF jumps in different DZs!

I dont agree with the new rule and Chuck's post is why. Seems silly to allow 16 year olds to drive on the highway at 90 mph or fly planes but not skydive. Seems silly to allow 16 year olds to drive on the highway at 90 mph or fly planes!!!!

Mine took a good 3-4 months!!! Busy DZ in Dubai... lots of students!! And by some reason I used to bring the bad weather to the DZ... can't count how many days I couldn't jump due to strong winds and how many plane rides I had during my AFF progression... Not familiar how does it work across US but here, students can't jump with low altitude winds higher than 15-16 knots.. Yeah It would be better if I had completed my AFF in a shorter period of time, but that doesn't necessarily means that your progression or even skills will be better or not.. you just need to figure it out by yourself! Having more time also means that you can study more, maybe have some tunnel sessions between jumps, etc.. again, it really depends on you..

I may be one of "the quiet people" you speak of. I am usually quiet because I'm focused on the jump and getting mentally prepared. I've also invested tens of thousands of dollars into tunnel time to have better jumps. I'm not against anyone having fun, but when someone is loud and obnoxious the entire way up, I can't focus on what I want to do. Since you already acknowledge getting dirty looks, I doubt you care, but you should consider that people are in different situations than you. I usually know who I'm jumping with, and of course I take that in consideration before goofing around.. sometimes I just sit down trying to visualize my jump, or I take a quick nap.. But being honest, personally I think skydiving is a fun thing to do.. something to enjoy with your friends and people that you are jumping with... so goofing around kind of makes the whole experience more fun to me.. you know what I mean?!

I don't know what is worse, sleep on you way up or keep messing around with everyone in the plane the whole time.. I kind of prefer the second option, although some times I get some angry looks, by the quiet guys.. Honestly I don't think it's a big issue.. relaxation comes with experience..

God bless America!!

Agree with most of the points listed by Yoink in this and his previous posts.. Nothing really good can come up with minors jumping from planes. Despite the fact that age not necessarily reflects the real ability of someone to deal with a certain issue/situation, I believe that 18 should be the legal age to allow people to jump by their own. I believe that these 2 additional years from the 16 to 18, provides a lot of life experience to young teenagers.. driving, final exams at school, working, etc... all of this, together, helps to create a sense of maturity and responsibility, which definitely will help them in skydiving (for example).. And I have to disagree with lyosha.. I believe that in Skydiving you have a high risk of damaging other people.. you just need to check some of the recent incidents related with canopy collisions, for instance..

This is an excellent topic! Despite the fact that we have some general guidelines and recommendations about the theme, every situation is different!! I had a similar experience playing soccer.. when someone got hurt and I was just near to the guy (not even touching or anything), and I got shit from his friend.. I work in the Oil Industry, more specifically in Drilling Rigs, and I've seen a lot of nasty stuff happening.. guys having their hands smashed, etc.. people getting hit by heavy equipment, and even people dying.. I really believe that if you can handle the situation, just being there, talking to the injured person to keep them awake, calm them, calm other people, carry equipment, bring water, shading, etc... can be a big help at the end of the day!! Everything depends on how you react to the situation.. if you are not comfortable enough, leave the scene! If you can handle it, be there just in case!! Don't touch, don't move, don't do anything.. just be there! I know that reactions varies based on each person, but having someone giving you shit for trying to help, is definitely not right! I would expect at least that after the whole thing, when things got more calm, to get the apology from this guys that gave you shit!

Hey TheMan, you just realized that one of the main reasons for the hard opening is the fact that the Dubai Desert DZ is very crowed!!! Specially now that the summer is over, and the temperatures are getting really nice to jump.. It's unbelievable the number of parachutes that the packers there have to pack on the weekends.. they look like machines.. so it's just a matter of time, for one of them make a simple mistake and cause a hard opening.. I know that you just started, and eventually you will do your packing course.. after that try to keep packing your parachute man!! Its gonna save you a lot of money, and you will know what you are doing!!

Like everyone said, do a couple of more jumps, so you will have a better way to compare it.. From a stable belly to earth position, a hard opening is pretty much caused by a bad packing job.. or an act of god!! It will allways be there!! So, when you get your license.. learn how to pack, at least you won't blame anyone, except yourself.. By the way, this is Dubai DZ, right?! I miss my jumps there!!!

Fazza (Nickname) is the Crown Prince of Dubai-UAE. It has nothing to do with Saudi, or even Oil.. Dubai has no Oil anymore.. This guy is passionate by Skydiving!!! Quite impressive what he did in Dubai, with two dropzones + largest wind tunnel in the world (18 people simultanesly!!). High quality equipment, DZs very well maintained, really good staff, and some of the best jumpers in the world.. Hope he is doing well for Empuria also!! As someone said.. with improvements, comes the cost... fair enough to me...

Chuck, I respect your opinions, but not necessarily agree with them... altough I believe I need more training and experience, like all of the other jumpers out there.. this is a sport where you learn things everyday, in every single jump! In any case, you are not insulting me, not at all.. I just think it's funny that you don't agree with a single topic that I wrote it.. it's difficult to argue with someone who simply believes that knows everything! I could go on and on again about every answer that you gave me, but I don;t wanna create a big discussion here.. my whole point, is that, we have people with different skills and different capabilities.. taking EPs for example.. there are a lot of reccommendations for sure, and common pratices... but each one deals with it, the way they are able to! Everybody wants to learn.. no one wants to get hurt and hurt the others.. but what I am saying is that you can't say this is right, or this is worng in every situation our there.. that's why I mentioned that it's your instincts, training and capabilities that will dictate how you react.. by the way, I don;t agree that instinct are purely result of training.. And just one more comment, regarding my last point: "Now, regarding the other jumpers around.. Dude, that's mainly THEIR responsibilities to check traffic and get away from jumpers with malfunctions". Yeap, I agree with you, that the lower jump has the preference, you can't avoid what you can;t see, etc.. but it's everybody's jobs to monitor the traffic 100% of the time!!! Knows where you are, knows who jumped before you at the jump run... In any case, I think it's a good post, altough I don;t agree the way you describe and judge the person..

Guys, let's face it... it's very easy to point it out a lot of mistakes when is not your ass out there... I totally understand the purpose of this topic, the name explains by itself... but when you are there, facing a situation like this.. it's your instincts, your training, your capabilities that will dictate how you will deal with that situation.. We don't know for example, how many cuts this guys have.. maybe this was his first one... which makes totally understandable the 30 secs that it took from him to realise that he need it to chop it.. Again, we don't know... Withme is simple.. I keep looking up and monitoring my canopy openning every jump that I make.. all the times I'm with my hands at my cutway chute... if something is not good, I don't think twice.. I cut it! That's my technique and works pretty well for me! Now, regarding the other jumpers around.. Dude, that's mainly THEIR responsibilities to check traffic and get away from jumpers with malfunctions...

This is a common misunderstanding about this sport... most of the people thinks that skydiving is all about the adrenaline, and having crazy jumps, having your heart beating at 200, etc etc... For me, skydiving is more relaxing than anything else.. aff course, I really enjoy doing my exits, freefall, belly formations, etc etc.. all of this are really fun and 100% of the time I'm very excited, but that adrenaline feeling, is not there everytime.. instead, my mind and body are just free, and it's 50secs of my life that I'm feeling really good with myself!!

It will be good to check if other students or jumpers are having problems with had openings as well..

Dude, at this point (beginning of you AFF course) there is only one thing wrong... your attitude!! I'm gonna die, I wasn't suppose to survive, bla bla bla... Thats not good at all for anyone who is interested about SD. Work on that, and things will move pretty well for you..

Despite that you said that it doesn't matter with people agrees with you or not.. i have to say, that I also don't agree with your comments... specially: "I cannot imagine a single whuffo watching that documentary and not going "what a selfish bunch of crazy addicts". For me, life is all about of having the liberty to make your own decisions and choices!!! I really admire people that push their limits!! I have so much respect for someone who have the guts of doing something extraordinary, non-conventional, extreme!! Unfortunately sometimes the price is to high, but it is what it is!! take it, or leave it!!

That's a common mistake in the bad H&P that I've seen... people rushing up to deploy their parachutes!! Take it easy! Even if you have a bad and unstable exist you have plenty of time to correct it, get stable and deploy your parachute!! Man, being honest with you, I can't picture what happened to you... one of your legs was caught by the riser?!?!?!

In my opinion, everytime you give your rig for someone to pack your parachute, you are taking a certain risk... no matter how good the packer is!!! It takes only one minor mistake for a bad packing job.. which eventually could lend to a malfunction.. I agree with the PO... it's your responsibility at the end of the day!! In my DZ, we have 10-15 packers every weekend.. those guys works like machine, packing one parachute after the other... I wouldn't blame them for a potential malfunction in my canopy due to a "bad" packing job.. We have two options... 1) Learn how to pack... 2) Give your rig to someone else to pack it.. and trust them!!

Of course this is going to change from person to person... but first of all you have to ask yourself why are you skydiving??! With me was simple.. to have FUN!!! Skydiving changed my life!!! Having said that, I believe after my AFF Cat C or D, I was very relaxed already... no fear, not nervous, just waiting to have FUN!!! People have the tendency of thinking too much.. "Why I'm doing this"... "Is this safe enough?".. "Am I gonna die?!".. My piece of advice.. don't think too much.. just do it.. and have everything under control!!!

I can only comment about my DZ in Dubai, as this is the only one that I jumped so far. Here, I don't know if you will be able to complete your AFF in two weeks (probably not)! Right now the Desert DZ (where the AFF is held) it's very crowded as the Beach DZ is closed. So we have a lot of jumpers here, even the tandems.. The good thing is that the Beach DZ will be open very soon, until the end of the month, so the Desert DZ probably will be more empty. Dubai definitely is sunny, and definitely you can have a lot of fun here, the DZ is really cool, and we just got the largest wind tunnel in the world!! So if the weather isn't good, you can go to the tunnel and have some fun there!! You can meet a lot of people in Dubai, and specially at the DZ... full of young people from every country that you imagine! It's funny, every load you will find people from at least 6-7 different countries. You have other turistic attractions here, some desert safaries, some places to go in the town, bars, restaurants, and etc.. But Dubai is not the best place for Backpackers (if that's what you like to do). I love backpacking, I can tell you that Dubai is difficult to walk around.. you need either to rent a car, or get taxis.. public transportation is quite limited.. Another thing you have to consider is your budget for this trip... Dubai is not a cheap place to stay, plus, driving to the DZ everyday, wind tunnel, party, etc... Also you can't camp in our DZ (although they are building a hotel right now), and the DZ is 35-40km away from the city! Also, you need to check for the AFF courses... take a look at the website, and call them to see the availability. Hope it helps!

I'm really not looking forward to do lots and lots of jumps, if most of them would be SOLOS.... I would be pretty happy if I reached 200-300 jumps/Year, but doing formations (Belly or Freflying).. I love skydiving, but as someone mentioned before, I like to do some other stuff as well... specially travelling around the globe!! And you need time for that!!! It's not about the numbers of jumps, but the quality and how much fun you can take from them!!

Nice!!!! First of all, congrats for the jump!!! Bet you had a lot of fun, and it was an intensive learning process for you!!! You are right a 280 canopy is HUUUGE for you!!! I have about the same weight as you, and I started jumping with a 240, which was also very big for me!! Never relly on your radio and your instructor! You should allways have your plan to land, according with you were taught by your instructors during your briefing. Of course, weather conditions may chenge during your flight, so allways pay attention to the arrow and wind socks, and specially to other jumpers!! Allways keep monitoring the traffic.. I'm jumping with a 190 lately and sometimes I still have problems to take all of that air from the canopy after I land!! hehehe!!! A big canopy definitely can pull you to the ground if you take too much time to colapse it.. just try to be quicker next time!! Keep jumping! Be safe and have fun!!

"Remember that a cutaway is never anything to be ashamed of. Rather feel silly than feel the ground at high speed. But also remember that often you can sort out the problem by taking a breath and turning off primitive brain in favour of thinking brain". DrDom, I think being ashamed is not the question here... the point is: F**** cutting away is my last chance, should I try to work a little bit more on my main malfunction before cutting away?!?! As someone said, in my case I have a decision altitude, which still is the one that I was taught in my AFF ground course, 2,500ft!! If I can't deal with my malfunction until that altitude, that's it.. cut away!! That's why altitude awereness is important!!!! Even with a perfect canopy above your head, after a soft deployment.. keep trakking your canopy every 5 seconds or so... a lot of people forget that!! specially students and new licensed guys...

Probably not a shoe issue that you are facing... as it was said from most everyone, it's your landing technique that you need to work on. I was quite lucky, or maybe I have a good landing technique.. but only during my AFF I was facing constantly landings on PLFs... everytime was a different problem... falring too soon, not flaring enough.. lack of flaring.. bad lading position (not facing the wind properly), etc etc... until one day, my coach suggested me to keep practicing my flares up there in the air.. 9-pull exercises! that was really good!!! Pulling in different speeds, and different levels, and check what the canopy is doing! that really helped me to understand how my canopy was reacting to my pulls.. After that, I did about 50 jumps.. and since them, I think I had 2 or 3 Non-Standup landings only... I'm almost prepared for a PLF.. I wouldn't like to have one (my f**** ego!!!), but I wouldn't try to be cool and have a bad landing, only to avoid a PLF in front of other people at the DZ.. Anyway, my advice is to keep training you flares up there, that will give you a good idea about how your canopy flies! Have fun, be safe!