CAFFPM

WOW! are you inside your own head or what! I can totally relate! At night as I'm drifting off to sleep, I have these shock-you-awake flashes of myself as I go into the drilling for oil mode. But there's good news for you, not only was my first jump a flash that I still can't quite recall, what the group is saying is quite accurate. As a paramedic I can tell you that your brain is capabale of causing a myaid of negativity. The solution is in you, you simply must find it, you have to find the one thing that will motivate you to get into the door and then out of it. Here's mine, I see people die on a weekly basis. Lying in a hospital bed or in their homes, cancer, lung diseases, a heart so weak that they can't roll themselves over, maybe it's a gunshot or a traffic collision, the point is they keep dying, sometimes we make a diffrence but 99% of the people I see would live or die regardless if we were there or not. It doesn't matter if their rich or poor, black, white, yellow or green. They all die. My time is coming too, so is yours. I don't want mine to be in that hospital bed with a hole in the front of my belly where my crap drains out, I want to go out in a blaze of glory. And if it happens to be the hospital bed. Then at least I'll have the sweet memories of falling head first at 200 miles per hour, and taking in all of gods creation along the way. It's not a death wish. It's a life wish. Maybe that one will work for you, maybe it won't. I don't know you, but I feel like your more one of "US" than one of "THEM." So go find what works for you and then come and play...we'll be here waiting Skydiving: It's like dodge ball, with a really big ball...

So seldom do us new guys have an answer...I'm usually all questions but I'm a paramedic with a little high altitude (mountain) experince...Here's the deal First your heart rate is up from all the adrenaline, this begins well before you jump. Now you take that heart muscle, that is demanding oxygen, up to a place that is oxygen deprived, let's say 12,000 ft. You live closer to sea level than 12K so your blood doesn't have as much hemaglobin (the thing that carries oxygen) as someone who lives at say 8000ft and is not well adjusted to be at altitude(this is why it takes 3 months or more to climb Everest...acclimation time) Also, if it's cold (and usually is at 12,000) your body will shunt blood to your internal organs to keep them warm and happy, this has the side effect of making your kidneys think that they have a fluid overload and they make lots more urine than normal (ever notice you pee more when your at the ski resort than at the beach) so as you dump fluid out, your circulating volume goes down meaning your body must do more work with less of the fluid it needs (water). This is besides all the oxygen demands from your other organs and then you repeat this process let's say 5-10 times a day...your tired, dehydrated, likely haven't been eating as much making you low on fuel and maybe a bit hypoxic. You've sucessfully kicked your own ass. So, stay in shape (as you already do), Drink lots of water, eat something with some carbo's and fats to give your body some short and long term calories (trail mix is a good source of both) for the day and jump more

Thanks for the input, I'm planning on about 250 jumps/year or more. My work schedule is pretty forgiving and southern california weather allows for falling from airplanes year 'round...

Ok so i got through the whole AFF deal, from here I plan a number of solo's to polish those basic skills followed by some pro instruction and lots of jumps. My question(s) are this. 1. I'm going to slowly work down my canopy size before making a purchase, I know enough that I shouldn'd rush this process. Furthermore, I understand that two people of the same size don't always fly the same equipment. That aside what's an "average" size chute for somebody 6' 195lbs??? I want to get a ballpark idea of where I MIGHT wind up in the next few years. 2. What is the one thing I can do to become a safer jumper? 3. At what point should I look to join a team? What is an "average" number of jumps to start looking for an invitation? I'm sure I'll have more later...thanks for your opinions, I promise I won't take anyone's word as being written in stone. Skydiving: It's like dodge ball, with a really big ball...