DrDom

I've met more than I thought. When going in for my CatA dive I met a gentleman who was 66, just retired, and was signing up for his AFF. Met many on here who took it up in their 50's or even 60's. Its a beautiful sport like that. I've talked to more than my share of people who said they had a career, they had a family, and the next step was find a new challenge and passion. I'd also like to second there is no etiquette here. Welcome to the community. no matter how far you go with it... its always a series of memories that you'll never forget and always change your life You are not the contents of your wallet.

You may be new to the site, but there are a lot of students here as well, and to us you are pretty epic for achieving your "A". Congrats, and welcome :) You are not the contents of your wallet.

Well, Passed CatA and CatB, CatC tomorrow and maybe more. There is still a lot of fear, but the door doesn't bother me NEARLY as much. Just the sensory overload when I exit and concurrently de-arch. Gotta work onthat. You are not the contents of your wallet.

Just did my third jump today (tandem, cat a, and just passed cat b) and can say it gets EASIER if you follow those pieces of advice. You can expect to be nervous and I agree you'd not be normal if you didnt have some response. I tried a little experiment on the way to altitude today. First I counted my pulse on the ground: 66BPM. In the airplane during takeoff 66BPM. Door opened 114BPM. Deep Breath waiting for other jumpers to get out: 94BPM. I was still above my normal, but its manageable. Your body WILL cue into your breathing, so make sure you breathe. slowly and deliberately. Smiling also does elicit a physiology response, it relaxes the body. I forget to do it at times but in freefall when I start to worry about screwing up the dive flow, I just take a big breath through a smile and think. I tried it today when I got nervous and forgot to wave off and as I realized i screwed up I also realized: I was holding my breath and tensing up. Remember as my instructor told me: this is a sport for hippy stoners or yoga instructors. Gotta be mellow. Gotta be relaxed. Slow is fast. Breathe. Arch. Smile. Live in the moment and embrace the fact you are doing something that 99% of this world is terrified of. And you are doing it by your own choosing. THAT... makes you a badass You are not the contents of your wallet.

I think of a radio as a reserve parachute. Your main is your Mk1 Eyeball but those of us who are new (and up in New England landing in heavily wooded areas that are rather unforgiving) its nice to know that you have help if you start to make mistakes. Mistakes happen, generate the safety net which I think a radio is part of until experience dictates its absolutely unnecessary You are not the contents of your wallet.

I'm doing AFF at my DZ right now (just passed category B, yay!) but I need to say that tandem is cool and all, but I felt that you're training for solo flight by being strapped to someone... its just not the same. The confidence I'm getting is wonderful. I feel like when I go to catC and they "let go" I'll be OK. Admittedly my exit sucks but thats another story for another day. With that in mind, I'm not opposed to the idea of more tandems. But I feel like most of the control is still in the tandem master's hands. You arent up there alone flying a canopy, you're not falling independently. I feel like knowing I could, at any time, find myself alone in the sky (catastrophic exit losing instructors or radio failing) makes me want to be sure I know what the hell I'm doing from day 1. Most places I've looked at require (Or at least recommend) a tandem before FJC which I do think is a GREAT thing. I know a lot of people who didnt tandem and failed CatA because its just so overwhelming. I think the first tandem is great. Maybe the best thing would be for DZ's to consider doing both as a hybrid programme. Let students decide which way they would prefer? I know some people may not be confident at first and want a tandem and others may want to jump in with both feet. Admittedly, we need to at least be open minded to change. If the sport didnt change we'd still be jumping round parachutes, front reserves, on static lines. I can see where student blues can happen. I think AFF should really be more structured in terms of "what to do to 25". A good DZ though should cater to their students. They are the next generation of the sport and I'm loving the fact that the AFFI's here seem to really make huge efforts to get students involved or at least get them coaches to "play" with. Either way, I'll take bored over terrified. Bring on the boredom ;) Right now I'm still exiting with an "Out-In-AHHHHHHHHOLYCRAPAAAAAH... oh this is fun!" ;) You are not the contents of your wallet.

silly? seriously? hell no, this is physiology. the ONLY part of your physiology you can control in the moment is breathing, and your body will take a cue from it. BREATHE. RELAX. REPEAT. Remember in auto racing, my other love, "Slow is fast", take your time and BE in the moment. TrickyMike is spot on. If you want more, "Transcending Fear" by Germain helped me get out that door. Then read his canopy control book later... its awesome You are not the contents of your wallet.

Be a student as long as you can. The more you learn, the better you will be. Remember tiy have your whole life to be licensed... But only a short time to learn. You are not the contents of your wallet.

A lot of people ARE badmouthing radio use though, but it is required and there are good ways to do it. Sure, big DZs with 20 students can get confusing, but seriously, put out less radio dependant students at once. Its not rocket science. Its good safety. I was talked down for my CatA so now I know where my spots are and what 1000' looks like... it was a great learning tool. It would not be expensive to sell a bunch of radio helmets to a DZ, but it seems we already have solutions that are working. It was just a thought ;) You are not the contents of your wallet.

You and I both! First jump is a blast, no? I de-arched on exit but did well otherwise. Nice to know others with low jump numbers like me having a great time. Keep at it, your attitude is contaigious! (in a good way) You are not the contents of your wallet.

Only if my female opponent isn't wearin' pants... Well played indeed :) You are not the contents of your wallet.

Well, do we have any enterprising individuals who want to simply disassemble a radio and build it seamlessly into a helmet? Seems an easy enough task and could be mounted without hardware points. Students SHOULD have radios, But they should not need them. Why should they have them? Because they (like ME) may end up in unfamiliar conditions and get disoriented. I'd rather someone say "You're heading out too far for the wind conditions" than have to pluck me from a tree later. But I agree with ChrisD that a simple solution would be to sew a pocket into a student suit, but someone with a little time could probably make a "helmet-radio" without snag points for a student that could be marketed to student friendly DZs. You are not the contents of your wallet.

I like SkyDive New England. I felt really safe in the pattern. A-C license holders on one patter in one direction, and D License holders have their own area along with tandems that run and opposite and well spaced approach. Its very nice, and I think having different levels of experience in different areas is a good idea when possible You are not the contents of your wallet.

Use your own brain to your advantage. I told myself if I started to get afraid of the door I'd pretend the airplane was infested with spiders and if I rode down I'd be covered with creepy crawlies the whole way. I tell you what, if I could get that visual in my mind, I'd be out that door without reservation. You are not the contents of your wallet.

I'm less experienced than you, but I remember well talking to a friend (who just got his D license I believe) and he said "The bravest person at the DZ is the first one to say he/she won't jump". Being able to express that you aren't comfortable at that moment may save your life or at least a bad landing. You're doing this for fun, not for employment, saving your life, or competition. Do it at YOUR pace. Don't rush it, but instead embrace the experience. You'll only be an AFF student once. If you're worried about currency... Arizona, Florida, and most of Cali jump all year... maybe a vacation is in order ;) You're in category H, and I'm about to do my B jump. Therefore, I look at your experience and am impressed. You have progressed! Be proud of that, but if you're not feeling like diving, don't dive! If I don't feel like riding a bicycle, I do something else. Why is it so different? Smile, you're LIVING your life while the rest of the world is sitting around wondering why people would even jump out of a plane. You are not the contents of your wallet.

Ah stress response and its inconsistent activity (my neuroscience friend is right you have nothing wrong from a neurological standpoint, you're just a normal variant!). EVERYONE has some degree of adrenal response, but the reality is that the effect is multifactorial. I think you said you were on a tandem, maybe in your mind it was somehow likened to a "safe" event like a rollercoaster or something else you experienced. Your brain may have made that connection and since there was nothing for you to "do" to save your own life from hurtling at the blue/green marble below you were calm. Maybe you are one of these people who is a bit more zen and relaxed than others. Who knows, but it didn't seem to have a profound response for you. I had a door anxiety issue BEFORE my first AFF. At tandem I was like "OMGWTFAHHHHHHHHHH!" but once out the door I was... truly a bit bored in freefall and at one point I remember thinking "I wish there was something I had to do other than not panic". So for weeks I worked myself up and when I got up at 13k with my AFF instructors... I just got calm and process driven. I expected all this fear, maybe some crying and screaming (OK, I imagined a LOT of crying and screaming), and had a great AFF jump. I still get nervous, but now its about performing properly, not the door. Werid. Alternatively, some folks watching the video of my CatA started getting vertigo. But maybe the rush isn't even necessary. I don't WANT a rush. I like the precision of the fall, and love love love canopy flight. The view is just amazing and I cant wait for the new England foliage to change. If you go out in CatA for your AFF jump, and you don't have any "rush" but enjoy it... what's the problem? To me, that's ideal circumstance because instead of chasing the dragon you just learn to love the experience. If you do need your adrenals to flood you with noradrenaline... I guess you could get your license and learn freeflying, skysurfing (does anyone even do that anymore?), swooping, or BASE if you like. Honestly, if you really are into the sport and can be completely mellow... maybe you could teach someday. Having a calm instructor was one of the best assets to my training so far. My only other alternative is maybe you were wired backwards. If you play chess do you get really intense, sweaty, nervous, and leave with a high that lasts a week and a smile to match? You are not the contents of your wallet.

Coaches do this because they enjoy teaching. Maybe some students are more difficult than others, but most people I've met that coach love a challenge because taking someone hard to train and teaching them is SO much more rewarding than just watching someone who "gets it". Don't fret, you are doing something so incredibly abnormal for a human being that having an expectation of immediate proficiency is pretty rough on yourself. Are there any instructors more your build size? You put on a nice fitted suit and they can baggy it up a bit and maybe make it work? arch IS a 4-letter word, but not a bad one :) The fact that if you tumble you can regain stability is a good thing. You can always do some wind tunnel time to work on fall rate control, though it wont help with exit at all. Remember that you are doing this for fun and learning, and frustration should make you work harder and want it more, not discourage you. You are not the contents of your wallet.

Just did my CatA and I think I know what you mean. Realize this, you are going from no acceleration to 9.8m/s^2 from gravity less drag. Regardless of your forward movement, until you are at terminal velocity you are actually accelerating until wind resistance is greater than acceleration, then your acceleration slows and stops completely at terminal velocity. Now, inside that helmet of yours is a complex mess of neuroelectrical activity that has a very astute "accelerometer". What you are feeling is acceleration. If you could get a car to accelerate that fast you would feel a similar experience. Astronauts in "zero G" are feeling this constantly. Some call it "hollow elevator stomach" or "stomach in their throat" or whatever, but what you are experiencing is your body's response to "you are accelerating, and it is downward". What can you do about it? Well... you have options. First, RELAX. If you hold your breath or tense up 2 things happen. You botch your arch (go fetal) and you accentuate the sensation by causing your body to tell the adrenal glands "MORE ADRENALINE! SOMETHING BAD HAPPENING!". Undo that. Breathe. Second, RELAX. Remember that after a while, you're going to look at that feeling and say its just a reminder to arch hard. Don't think of it on the way suiting up. Don't think of it while in the door. Its a natural feeling and use it to your advantage: you feel "hollow", you arch. Soon it is like your alarm clock in the morning. Lastly, if all else fails remember that its temporary. Once your acceleration slows and approaches steady state, the sensation will go away. Arch hard and it WILL stop. Will you get used to it? You'll probably get excited about it because it means you're in freefall. I've done a grand total of 2 jumps (tandem and AFF CatA) and its already subsided a lot, as has my "door monster". My instructor said "If something feels weird, ARCH HARD. It works. I undid my arch a little out the door, felt weird and reminded me to arch hard, and got stable fast. If you REALLY want to overcome the feeling you can use the psychological techniques of systematic desensitization or alternatively flooding. Find other things that give similar sensation that you can do a lot of CHEAP (roller coasters, ziplines, rock walls, etc) and just do a TON of it. Your brain starts to acclimate to the sensation over time since repeated stimulation leads to decreased output. OK, enough science-y crap for today. Remember that "you" are basically your consciousness strapped to a machine you call your body. You can't truly shut it off, but you can have an effect on it. You've done what most of the population can not do: jumped from an airplane. You have already overcome that evolutionary leftover. You'll get the rest :) You are not the contents of your wallet.

Thanks for the replies... Category a went GREAT! To answer a question first, my wife will never jump. She isn't into adventure really, thinks she will be too anxious, and feels she can not be clearheaded if an emergency happens. I think that some people probably aren't suitable for the sport, and I think that she is probably one of them. But she WILL go watch, just right now she is on nights (shes an ICU nurse). I respect that as she respects what she calls my "special kind of crazy". Gotta love it. Hell, today was our 5th anniversary and she let me do my first jump ;) AS for the door... well... I had two AWESOME instructors who helped me get through it and it went great. SkyDive New England just has some amazing people and they didn't make me feel weird just for telling them I was insanely nervous. Now that I remember how it feels... I think I can do this. I had to prepare for our anniversary so couldn't eek in a second jump but... weather is still nice :) You are not the contents of your wallet.

Realize that we are undoing both evolution and modern psychology so it is perfectly normal to be nervous. The best way is use a therapeautic method. Either use guided visualization and relaxation exercises. If that doesnt work then realize continuing to jump time and time again likens itself to "systematic desensitization". In this case its a big abrupt and is more along the line of "aversion flooding". If you want to REALLY help it out you can do proper desensitization where you get rigged in, fly up, and just stand at the door. Land with plane. Repeat a few times until more comfortable then start jumping. It may not be feasable to do this at your DZ but it is how we would help people with any phobia. As a therapy session we would do the following: 1) talk about heights 2) draw pictures in poor detail of heights 3) show photographs of heights 4) watch movies of heights 5) go to places where there are heights but do not walk to the edge 6) Stand on high places near the edge 7) stand at the edge and repeat frequently It is possible to do this, but it may not work well since it is VERY time consuming. Maybe virtual reality would be a good adjunct but is probably pretty pricey You are not the contents of your wallet.

What's the worst possible thing that could happen there? You have a parachute and you were planning on jumping out anyway. From my perspective, logic has nothing to do with it, this is pure instinct. . Exactly... pure instinct says "You go out that door and its a long, unsurvivable way down". Why the human mind can say "Being in this big metal cylinder that has absolutely no business being in the sky" is safe... I can not attest. No matter what is told, even THINKING of the door before my AFF gives me what my Italian grandmother called "Agita". I remember my tandem I was OK until the door opened. The door opening is the way of sayign "It is time". It is a psychological cue. I'm not ashamed to admit my fear. I'm not doing this because I'm an adrenaline junkie, I'm doing this to overcome and transcend that fear while also being able to learn perspective. As an ER doc my m ind is constantly flooded with the horrible aspects of existence. Then I go home and worry about bills, family, health, time, administrative duties and on and on and on. When I went out that door on my Tandem I realized NONE OF IT MATTERED and I could just live in the moment. I need that again. On a long enough timeline survivability always equals zero. I dont have a death wish, but being able to learn to live in that 5 minutes.... was exceptional. Without some fear, maybe it wouldnt have that kind of meaning. You are not the contents of your wallet.

I like that... and I'm glad I'm not the only nerd who thought "CTRL-X" was a good idea :) You are not the contents of your wallet.

My AFF is next week and if all goes well I'll get out the door. Strangely I get very calm on the way up (I LOVE flying) but the door is separation from that which is known (i know how to fly a plane) to unknown (I'm new to flying my body). I'm tunnel-ready with almost an hour of belly time and rock solid stability... but I think the further I get from my tandem the more ominous the door seems. You are not the contents of your wallet.

OK, instead of just hashing aroud the issue; i'll say this: If you want to do the research, get to a BIG DZ (or few DZs) and hang out with the folks signing up for tandem. Ask them if it would be OK to ask them about their experiences afterward and follow with a phone call. Tell them you are following people through the excitement of the tandem. When you talk to them afterward ask: 1) How was EVERYTHING (people, plane, dive, vibe, etc) 2) Were you made aware of AFF training and understand what it is? 3) What is your opinion of learning to do this on your own? Follow it up in a couple weeks/months with the same questions. As for how to grow the sport (and i DO think it has room to grow) you need to strike when the metal is hot. You need to talk to people right after their jump when they are riding the high. Get them some AFF information. Discount their course if they did a tandem with you. Have a post-jump debrief! Make sure your instructors talk to them. When we left my tandem I recall them talking about the AFF course and offering a discount. My FJC is next week. My constitutent I went with didnt know there was an AFF, didnt love his instructor for the tandem, and thought of it as a ride. He didnt sign up. Neither did the two women we ran into on our load also doing tandems. Most people see it as a ride. It is. We should be happy about that because those 96%ers are making a LOT of revenue for the sport. A lot of DZ's are staying afloat because of tandems. 4% is a low retention, but maybe that is just a factor of it being so accessible? That, and maybe not everyone is ready to skydive. Lots of people just arent able to task that much responsibility. With an experienced jumper, its possible... on their own... maybe only 4% of all people are able? You are not the contents of your wallet.

Come to New ENgland and jump both Lebanon, ME and Pepperell, MA but make sure you do it in the fall when the leaves change and the scenery is just SO beautiful. Both DZ's have great people and good times :) Then make sure you look me up! You are not the contents of your wallet.