dolphinka

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Everything posted by dolphinka

  1. You need speed for dynamic flying:)
  2. Friend of mine was there just in January and loved it! Coaches speak English well enough and I had heard the atmosphere was lovely Though I am not sure how much dynamic flying you can learn in 9 ft tunnel....:))) but it is just me:)
  3. Hi, try this one https://www.pro-fly.eu/focus their suits are €155 + VAT and they ship worldwide. they are also quite good at adjusting the sizes. My partner and I both have suits from them. Really great quality and looks too:)
  4. That’s awesome news that you started back flying, and video looks great too! Some good moves, very controller! I remember my first attempt was all over the place. Wan2doit have a good tip for sure, it’s so important to keep your head back when you start... there will be time once you progressed further when it won’t matter that back for backflying and you can be sloppy.... but most of dynamic flying needs a good handle on the head position:) check here my bad head position hehe... from 00:48 I miss tunnel so much.... I’d be in New York next Monday/Tuesday and was thinking of visiting the tunnel, but it is quite far away from Manhattan and maybe I should spend time exploring the city and not thinking only about flying ahahaha
  5. Thanks NWPoul, good to know! How busy does it get there during the day? Do you usually have empty slots or it is pretty booked up?
  6. Thanks alex1159 for the info. Do you know if there is a time limit on the hours you buy? So if I'll buy 10 hours, can I use it within 2 months or I have to use it within 2 weeks (i.e. 1 hour of flying per day?) Yes, I have heard that electricity prices are cheap in Russia, plus the general cost (salaries, accommodation, food) is cheaper too.
  7. I can agree with your fiancé, I not big fun of a skydiving idea yet either, why risk your life if you can enjoy the free fall in the tunnel with minimal risk (excluding risk of injury of course). Hey, don’t worry about body strength, it helps, but as I said I have non and still able to sit fly well:) What I mean about the suit is that if your suit is loose on your body it help your lift, watch your videos how suit flaps around your legs and arms and it has more surface to lift you, and help you when turning and side sliding. If you check my other videos on my channel you’ll see I have changed the suit when I got mine and the skills I could do well (backflying) was all over the place in a new suit. Because the new one was so tight in comparison it didn’t help me fly, I had to relearn how to do it with my body only. Hope it makes sense:) Happy flying!
  8. I don’t know about arrangements in Russia, but in Slovakia I fly during the day, any time I choose. You can get at the moment 1 hour for 399 EUROs if you buy over 5 hours, and of you buy 10 hours, you’ll get 1 hour for free on top. So less competitive than Russia, but still way cheaper for 14ft tunnel than anywhere else in Europe at the moment for that tunnel size. As for night flying, I personally would never go for it. I love my sleep, and I get so tired past 12 if I have to stay up for some reason. Then trying to learn new skills and perform well in the tunnel when I am exhausted, thanks, but no thanks. So I hope it isn’t a night flying, as 1 hour per day is quite a straine on your body as it is, let alone adding night flying....:)
  9. Depending on where you are located and how much in advance you get your flight tickets, travelling to Moscow can be more expensive than Slovakia, plus you need a visa. But I agree even then 2700 EUR sounds so cheap that extra cost can be easily justified. Tell us how it went, and maybe next time I’ll try it too:)
  10. Hi Snwboardr9876, I will add my 5 pence to the conversation. As someone who started tunnel flying 1 year ago and currently have 8,5 hours. I was pretty quick on my belly, it took me 45 mins (see a little video of what I could do before I moved to backflying, I found videos like that from other flying usper helpful! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_rQW74sALg&t=55s) before I moved to the back flying, not because I was super confident on my belly, but because I wanted the progression. It all really depends what you want to do in the tunnel, is it to learn skills that you take with you in the sky? I am more of a tunnel rat, not interested in skydiving per se, but super keen on dynamic flying. The progression also depends on your physical strength, ability to learn, ability to read instructor's hand signals, ability to actually feel what your body does, ability to overcome the fear (if you have any). Few things that I noted for myself, might not be accurate for others, but this is my experience: - You learn quicker if you relax, the more you fight the air and panic, the harder it is for the body to work out what it should do. - You learn quicker if you watch your own videos and try and analyse then what you do wrong - You learn quicker sitfly and headdown, if you have strong arms and shoulders, but most likely you will learn it the wrong way as you would overcompensate the poor body position with arm strength. - You will learn slow sitfly and headdown (I can't yet get headdown at all), if you have no arm or shoulder strength... my case lol, but with sitflying I had to learn to have a proper body position, in fact you should be able to sit fly without use of arms.... and because my arms could not handle the wind pressure, I had to find the different way not to use them that much:) I usually fly one every months or 2 months, but I do 30 mins (10 mins per session, then at least 30 mins break in between). The longer I flied in one day, the more things clicked in my head and my body. The best investment ever was to go on a week long camp, I did 5 hours and while I thought I could've progressed (in terms of new skills) more if I spread those 5 hours across few months, I actually learnt to fly with less effort, since in the last 15 mins of flying of the day, when you already did 45 mins, your body is so exhausted, that you have to figure out the less strenuous way to flying. Oh, another thing, unless rented suit sits well on you (not baggy) and you get the same one every time, I would suggest investing in your own suit, it will make a huge difference to fly your body and not your suit (if you have baggy suit). Good luck with your progression, it is so much fun!!
  11. Good insights, thank you bambambambam:) Never tried this, will try it next time:)
  12. I have the same fear, so can relate very well. First time I went all the way up to touch the vents I almost had a panic attach. Do you fly with your coach together? I found that when we fly together on the back on high speed you stop seeing where the "head height" is really, as the other person is moving up with you. I also found it easier to do it once I could sit fly comfortably and go up and down easily. My coach also did a lot of drills with me transferring from belly to sit fly, and of course back to sit fly, so if something happens on high speed and I shoot up, I have all confidence that I can transition from belly or back to sitfly and come down. That gave me tons of confidence! I still do sometimes drills of just going up and down and every time it gets easier and easier. Good luck!
  13. As someone who started tunnel flying not that long ago (though I am not a skydiver), I can say that you need to take into account your physical strength too. When I started my first 10 mins would knacker me so much, that I'd be aching few days after. Now I can easy do 30-45 mins in a day without much impact. I prefer to do 2,5 mins sessions, then break 2,5 mins and so on. I found 2 mins just not enough and session feels rushed, strange how much extra 30 seconds can add to your session. I also did big breaks between sessions (a month or so) and I did hour after hour every day. I found pluses and minuses in both approaches. Enjoy the tunnel!
  14. Thanks! Makes sense now, my first few times I remember the tunnel instructor will always point that I needed to extend my legs. As I was progressing, I was told quite the opposite, that I need to bend my legs more (had to relearn)... Bending the legs ensured that I can fly at higher speeds, I think I started with 90mph and now I am at 120mph (due to back flying that requires more speed). Very interesting!
  15. Hi [mbailey465], can you explain more please? I am a tunnel flier, not really planning to skydiving per say, but I find it super curious to read about how skills can be translated from sky to tunnel or from tunnel to sky. What do you mean by "flat body position", I arch when belly flying in the tunnel quite a bit, isn't it the same in the sky? thanks!
  16. wan2doit, thanks! I still think it is to do with my arms/shoulders haha, and I'll explain why. It was my first 30 mins in a new suit. Old iFly suit I was flying at 64%, new suit I have to fly at 73% on my back. In fact my first belly flying in it was okay, but back flying was a disaster (https://youtu.be/ppos2ewTa4k). I couldn't get how to fly my body (and not the iFly suit). So to do the belly to back I needed 70% speed, it was extremely hard for me to move forward (I now can see that I should utilise my legs more), so the main struggle belly to back is to move forward before I do cupping, and by the time I get to cupping position I am already so tired that I don't have enough strength to open up the chest so I don't bounce on the net hehe Good tip on keeping the legs bent, thanks, I can see I try to stretch them out too quick! Thanks for the link tip, I didn't know the forum doesn't so it automatically and when I did notice I couldn't find how to edit my post (checked everywhere, but still have no idea how to edit it ).... Added: I can edit this post no problems, but in my other posts I don't have [Edit] button as an option... so weird!
  17. https://youtu.be/v_O0X0aQv-I This is my Belly to Back transition, I found it much harder to get as my arms/shoulders are not that strong to push myself up and round:) Not sure if this is a good progression for 2 hours of flying?
  18. So here is my update: Since the last post I did 2 hours of tunnel time in total, last session I got almost comfortable with belly to back and back to belly transitions. Tunnel boogie has been changed in September from 10 hours to 5 hours only, as sadly one of the instructors had died in skydiving accident:( As I now have all my gear, here are my thoughts: 1. Elbow pads is a must when you move to back flying. In my first backfly session (without elbow pads) I hit my elbow on the wall, it still hurts sometimes 3 months later.... 2. Jeans are okay initially but leggings are so much better. I wear long leggings and it works well even in hot weather. 3. I found base layer with a hood at MEC (in Toronto) that works really well under the helmet. 4. No to buffs... my hair was tangled so much at the ends as buff came off from my collar... 5. I did 30 mins per day sessions 3 times (1-2 months apart) and boy my body hurts the next day... so worrying now even more how I can do 5 x 1 hour days in a row haha I'll tell you more at the end of September. I am just waiting for the tunnel to send my last videos, so I can share the final progress, but here is the video of my figuring out back to belly transitions https://youtu.be/w_iL22KdOxQ.
  19. Wow! thank you so much wan2doit for such a detailed response, this is what I was looking for. I will definitely go for it now, my elbow still hurts and it prevents me to do certain yoga poses (annoying)..... May I ask, how did you hit your tailbone? I would've never imagined that in this sport you can hit a tailbone?! I know how much pain it is, I am an advised skier who decided to learn snowboarding last year and within my first 10 mins on the slope I landed on my tailbone. Hit it pretty hard while wearing super tough armour shorts Dainese.... so I get that you can do it with snowboarding, but how can you impact it with flying? (confused)... Thank you!
  20. wan2doit, I am in the process of buying my own gear for indoor flying, if I'll wear g-form elbow pads on top of the suit won't it come off? Also I can customise the suit so the pads fit under, but I have a white arms and material is a see through, so black pads will be visible. I was thinking of pads like this in white, does anyone know if they will protect my elbows? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elastic-Elbow-Support-Breathable-Anti-collision/dp/B015O4KA6U/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1526463804&sr=8-5&keywords=soft+elbow+pads+white I definitely need it, did first 20 mins back flying last week and hit my elbow couple of times, it still hurts:(
  21. Thank you, this is useful! 1. Great to know, I will go for knee pads then only, already had few bruises as the tunnel is quite small (12ft) and I am quite tall :) 2. Milton Keynes UK is the tunnel, I fly generally by the end of the day and wear jeans under the suit, never was really hot or cold to be honest. But I was told that if you fly in the morning it is usually much colder. 3. I have looked at them, but 430 EUR vs 155 EUR is a big difference, I don't know if I will continue and I also read that when you move to dynamic flying you'll need a different suit. So didn't want to invest a lot now and people seems to have good feedback on the Pro-Fly suits. 5. Okay, this is good to know, hopefully I'll build the strength to be able to handle 1 hour per day. Maybe will book few sports massages too, just in case :)
  22. Hi everyone, I am quite new to tunnel flying, I only did just over an hour and absolutely hooked. I got my level 1 and next time will be starting back flying. I am going to boogie camp in September for 2 weeks for 10 hour coaching, I have a few questions that maybe some people can help me with. 1. I read the Gear thread and found it very useful. I am planning to buy Pro-Fly suit which is quite cheap and tailoring is free of charge (I am 6'', so need longer legs). I understand that it is ideal to have knee and elbow pads. Knee pads will fit under a suit, but the elbow pads will not. How important it is to have elbow pads and do they really have to be under the suit or on top will be fine too? 2. How hot does it get in a tunnel? Can I wear long leggings and long top (sports compression one) or it will be way too hot? 3. As a female, I have a really long hair. When I go skiing I can't get the buff to cover my full head AND neck, so always end up with hair sticking out in the front. Did anyone tried sports hijabs? Never tried it, as I am not Muslim, but it seems exactly what I might need to cover my head and neck? https://www.nike.com/gb/t/pro-hijab-y7mzD8/NJNJ3-010 4. As another options, are cookie buffs longer than normal? Will they work to cover the hair fully and still cover the neck? 5. I do exercise, but I am not super fit. At present I only did 10 mins once every month (our tunnel is quite far away and it takes quite an arrangement to go there), initially my body used to be a wreck just after 10 mins, but last time it actually was okay. So how much is too much? Can I handle 1 hour per day for 10 days? or on day 3 I won't be able to move? I am trying to get fitter by September, but there is only as much I can do... Any experiences from anyone that was not super fit when they started to fly? Thank you!