IZombieMan

Hello everyone,

This is most likely to be a repetitive topic as most new skydivers go through the same or a similar dilemma.

I have finished my AFF a little while ago and made 10 solos, so now I'm at 18 jumps. I do know that for 18 jumps it's still early for me to be looking for a 1st rig and that I should wait until I have at least a 100 jumps that way I know what size canopy I'm gonna be flying for a long while. The issue is I'm on a tight budget and tight schedule.

I am in the army and I only get 2 weekends a month to come out and play. There is also the possibility of me moving to a different location, therefore the Square 1 demo is not ideal for me. At the same time renting a rig to complete 100 jumps is very expensive. Doing the math to complete 100 jumps I'd have to spend about $2700 in rig rent which is almost the cost of buying a used rig.

I'm 6'.1" 185lb, when I started my AFF I jumped a 280 main and now I'm jumping a 250. I know that the downside of buying a used gear now is that I will not be able to downsize. And here exactly where my dilemma is and my brain goes blehh.... lol

I'd appreciate your advices, thoughts and experiences!


Thanks for your time!


Dan

****UPDATE****

The fear was still there when I finished my AFF7 And AFF8. Then I had a much bigger problem... The terror of jumping alone doing my first solo. It wasn't that I wasn't confident in my abilities it was just a comfort thing. Having someone jump out of that scary door with me... I finished my AFF on Sat, I was so tired so I went to bed early. I woke up at 3 am thinking to myself should I do my solo tomorrow? Should I jump out of the plane alone? Maybe I should wait till next weekend... Then I fell asleep again.

I had set my alarm for 6:30am, the alarm went off at 6:30 and I ignored it after I remembered that the girl at Square1 told me that I had to come in early to the store at around 7:30 to rent my rig since it's the weekend and it's pretty busy. I eventually woke up at 7:20am. By the time I brushed my teeth and finished my morning ritual it was past 8am. I walked into Square 1. Pretty much looking for any reason to not rent my rig, but the girl was so quick!! She was like you're here for the rig? I said yes, she immediately grabbed a container and gave it to me and said put this on and let me know how it fit. What were you jumping yesterday? I said I was jumping a 260. She goes okay here you go. In a few mins of me going into the store I had a complete rig in my hands. I left the store, looked up at the sky and was like haha! Yup! I'm doing my solo today.

I geared up, went to the loading area and sat waiting on my plane. Told everyone I was doing a solo and that I was pulling high. They put me last in the group just before the wing suiters. We get on the plane, felt okay at first, but as we started reaching altitude I started getting nervous... there was a lady (from England I think) noticed how unrelaxed I was, so she kept smiling at me every time we made eye contact in a very caring way and I smiled back, It was very nice of her as believe it or not that really did help me relax a little.

Guys opened the door. We're at altitude-people started jumping, watched them go one after another as I touched my three handles, took a deep breath and closed my helmet's visor. It was my turn to jump. I stand at the door focused, trying to spot, I looked and I found the DZ but it looked too far for me and we weren't on top of it anymore. I remembered my instructor telling me to not jump unless you're on top of the DZ or close to it. One of the wing suiters came to the door to help me spot the DZ and he agreed that it was far. I looked at the rest of the wing suiters then pointed up with my finger and waved my finger in a circle asking the pilot to turn the plane. They were all upset about it and rolling their eyes. I did say that I was sorry but I didn't really care that they got butt hurt a little after all its for my safety and I lack experience to know whether I'll make it to the DZ under canopy or not.

The pilot turned around, this time I was right over the DZ; it was time to jump, I stand side ways next to the door and I dove to the side... As soon as my hands, shoulders and head were out of the plane, it was like the winds hugged me and said What up bud? Don't worry everything is alright. I watched the plane get further and further away from me, checked my altitude and I was at 10.5. I had planned to just stably fall, but as I was free falling I was like F. THAT! I'm gonna do some 360s, I did one to the left Checked my Alt., I did one to the right Checked my Alt. and then I decided to do a barrel roll, I did that and it was AWESOME! Checked my Alt I was at around 7G I decided to track, ("track") I tracked for few seconds stopped got stable checked Alt. and waved and pulled at 5G.

Canopy opened and the first thought that came to my mind after F yeah I have a working canopy was... holy shit! I did it... I'm a skydiver! Then I landed my canopy gracefully landing on my feet. The winds were so kind to me during my landing. I took my rig to ProPack and I asked the gentlemen how long before I can come get my rig? He said: You can go ahead and manifest. Sweet! I said. I gave the manifest my solo ticket and I was on the next jump in 30 mins on a sky-van (FUN!) And after that I was on the next jump in 18 mins and I jumped again. Every time I jumped it seemed easier.


As for that fear of the door it was still there, but we became friends and therefore it wasn't as intimidating anymore.



Thanks for reading! Blue Skies!

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. I feel a lot better knowing I'm not alone and that it is normal to feel this way.

I honestly have no problem during freefall or under canopy maybe a little when about to land the canopy but otherwise I'm having a good time.

@Russell_Jones, That skydiving duck cartoons made me crack up. It's like the whole thing was written about me! lol

You described how I feel in better words than I did. Thank you for sharing your experience with me, for whatever reason I get some comfort knowing I'm not the only one who feels that way.

I guess I'll have to continue doing what you had to do, which is push myself and throw myself out of the plane. I noticed that I've been came a little clingy - I have this awesome instructor who puts me at ease with the whole jump, that now I'm hesitant about jumping with a different instructor. We'll see what happens this weekend!

Thank you all for replying! The thing is, my fear is not of skydiving my fear is at the door when I'm about to jump out of the plane. Everything else is fun! And every time I jump and land I'm like why was I afraid of the jump? Everything was fine and I landed safely... Then I go up again and face the same fear all over again.

Hello everyone!

I'm a new member of this amazing community/ sport. I've done 7 jumps so far and going this weekend for more. I've had some problems early on before my 1 jump and at landing, after that with every jump I felt like my fear of stepping out of the airplane increased a little. I've asked around in my DZ if people still have that fear once they're about to jump out of the plane and some said it never went away. I guess my question is if it never goes away do you at least feel less fearful than your first 10-30 jumps? and when does it become less scary? The thing is as soon as I jump out of the plane I am completely fine and happy.

I'm all in with skydiving, I've always wanted to skydive since I was 10 or younger but sometimes I question myself. Any advice?



Dan,

Blue Skies!