burble

well...as good or bad as it may have been...this was the most un"nationals"like nationals that i'd ever participated in (at least to me). back at perris the theme seemed to be the judges, rather than the teams (at least from the awards ceremony thats what i got). this year it was about getting the competitors out of the way as fast as possible. imagine the inconvenience to the dz of having us all there. too bad they couldn't have gotten a c-130 to give us all one pass. at least the next nationals won't be at eloy.

i was lucky...i just kept getting hurt all the time! someone told me that if i waited till nothing hurt that i'd never skydive! ;) i guess everyone's a bit different...for me, i took the bandaid approach and figured that the longer i waited the worse it would be. so 3 months after i broke my pelvis (on my 121st jump) i went back and jumped. glad i did. once my gear was on and i was in the plane i felt a lot better. took a little while to get completely over the fear of recreating that accident...but it goes away once you begin to trust yourself again. and be sure to learn from your mistakes... and from those of others. doh!

i went to "watch" some friends do their tandems. i was embarrassed into going up and making a jump too. never thought i'd have any interest in jumping...i was flying planes back then. after the tandem i figured that i'd continue only up to the point that i could jump "alone". by level 3 i figured that well...i'd continue only to finish the AFF course. then i figured i'd continue only to the point of getting my A license. then i figured... i'd just continue. :) doh!

mine is one of the flip up type. not sure you really can modify the earlier ones without major surgery doh!