Synapse

Wow. Very well said. Not many people could have made that analogy with networking. The all about me stuff sounds pretty good too, its nice to know that others have the same issues to some extent. I think I'll be doing a lot more of these jumps from now on. The insight that you and everyone else have given is invaluable. Its helped me reignite my desire to face the challenge and enjoy the rewards. I can't thank everyone enough. Looks like I'll be going to DeLand next weekend. Also I'm sorry for the short reply, I would love to put in something more meaningful, but work is keeping me pretty busy today. -syn They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin

Thanks for all of the info guys, its a lot to think about and is much appreciated. I think I'll be sticking with it, which I had pretty much decided before the post, but just wanted to put is out there to see what others had to say. Again, Thanks to all. -syn They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin

Heh, funny you should mention it... I just posted something pretty related. I feel your pain

Hey guys, I am posting this b/c I’m looking for advice from others who may have been through, are currently going through, or may know someone else’s brother’s sister’s cousin who has felt the same way about skydiving that I am feeling right now. Ok so here goes… [pour out all emotions for others to judge here] I love the feeling I get from skydiving. Its challenging, emotionally rewarding, and obviously a lot of fun. I like all of the people I have met in the limited amount of time I’ve been jumping (around 4 months) and enjoy just hanging out around the DZ to see all of the different types of people this sport attracts. When I’m jumping I have no concerns what so ever about my safety, this doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about safety just that I’m not thinking “holy shit I might die…what would that do to everyone I love….is this worth loosing it all for”. That kinda crazy shit. These thoughts never enter my mind the whole time I’m at the DZ, whether I’m just there for a single day or a 5 day vacation. I just face the challenge of learning what I’m there to learn and enjoying myself along the way. Now on the other hand, when I get back home from a weekend trip to the DZ and start reading on DZ.com about how some student or a guy with 4,000 jumps just broke their back or, even worse, died in some accident it is a little less than encouraging. It is then that I start to question whether or not the sport is worth it. I start questioning if what I am getting out of the sport is worth the risk involved. This is far from normal behavior for me. I’m not one to usually hold back on doing something I enjoy due to risk, unless what I consider fun is playing in traffic on the interstate… then logic has to step in.

Welcome to the forums man, I know exactly what you mean about the tunnel too, it helped me fix my problem with spins too. I recommend it over the "practice while the planet is coming at you" method to everyone who ask about getting into the sport. You might want to think about giving Skyventure in Orlando a try. They put a lot of work into their tunnel and from what I've heard its one of the best around. I'm not a very good judge of this since I've only been in that one, but it seemed pretty damn nice to me. They can also vary their air speed up to 150mph, so it should be able to keep up with your "virtual" fall rate. ...just a thought!

I think the solution to all of the problems with the airlines is to just hand out fully loaded AR-15's or AK-47's at the gate when you're boarding.

Nice one, sounds like it could even save some trouble on days when the winds aren't really crazy.

Good point and I wasn't trying to say this was a situation I plan to put myself into on purpose by jumping in high winds, I just want to be prepared if something changes while we are climbing to altitude. In my other life I'm a pilot and I know that winds can change pretty quickly, so I would rather know how to deal with the situation if it shows up (just as when flying aircraft) rather than just remaining ignorant to it with the hope that weather conditions would never change. Thanks for all of the advice everyone... knowledge is invaluable in this sport. -syn They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin

I've read in some threads on here about how bad it is to get pushed backwards by strong head winds, but I've never really gotten any instruction on exactly what to do when that happens. Lets assume that the spot is good and you can land on the DZ... what would be the correct way to land in that circumstance? Logic would say into the wind because if you were to go with the wind your ground speed would be waaay high, but is there something else that should be done? Possible using the front risers to try to penetrate the wind? Note: I know that asking my instructor is the best thing to do, but until I see him again I figured I would get dz.com's opinion.

No whistles in freefall, but if I get some good speed up under canopy and look a certain way it will whistle dixie. Its not that annoying at all to me, but it may become bothersome over time. I'm almost positive the cause would be the gap at the bottom of the visor that lets air in since it usually does it when my head is tilted slightly up. If that is it you may be able to adjust the visor a little to make the gap smaller and hopefully stop the whistle. I'll give it a try and see what I come up with... -syn They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin

My pleasure, I hope you like it if/when you get it. This is the first full face (or any style) helmet I've had and I love it! -syn They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin

This is for anyone who is looking for pics of the boomerang helmet actually on someone's head. When I was looking into buying one of these some good pics were pretty hard to come across, so hopefully this will help someone out. (hope this is in the appropriate forum...) It fits pretty tight on my head and my cheeks are right up to the edge of the mask, so it looks a little cramped in there, but I like the snug fit... keeps it from moving around.

I also had to repeat level 3 after getting into one hell of a spin when my JMs released me and loosing altitude awareness until around 4,300 ft. For a while I thought that skydiving may just be beyond my capabilities, but after deciding to stick with it and getting some in a tunnel everything went great. I'm sure you'll get past the bump in the road and success will be all the more sweet once you've had a small taste of defeat.

Ok, I think I'll get sunpath to repack it and just have another rigger take a quick look at it when I get it back to see if it looks ok since I'm not qualified to make that call. -syn

Sweet, thanks for the info sdctlc. I did have a rigger take a brief look at the rig before I bought it, but that was more like a "is this worth the money" kind of thing... not a formal inspection. Having the manu. take a look at it during the repack sounds like the way to go. Thanks again, -syn

I recently bought a used Javelin Odyssey from tso-d.com (awesome guys btw) that I am going to have to have the reserve repacked in when I replace the soft reserve handle with a regular metal one. While surfing sunpath's website in my "spare time" at work I noticed that they offer a reserve repack service for $60. Now logic seems to dictate that the manufacturer would know better than anyone how the reserve should fit in the container, but do they know that much more than a qualified rigger? I guess what I'm asking is if its better to have the manu. repack your reserve or would any qualified rigger be just as good? Note: I usually jump in FL. fairly close to sunpath, so getting to them to have it done isn't as big of a deal as it would probably be for most people. -syn

I'm very new to skydiving with only 25 jumps and I have no idea how to judge how well a reserve is packed, but if I saw something on someone's rig that looked even remotely dangerous I would ask them about it. I wouldn't just walk up and say "Wow thats a horrible pack job!", but I would at least ask if thats the way its supposed to look. Maybe that would be enough to get them thinking about it or it may be some CReW mod that I was just ignorant to. Either way I would feel better about it if I said something rather than just forgetting about it because mentioning it may save that person's life. -syn

I'm planning a very small trip to DeLand this weekend to pickup some gear I'm buying as well as to make a few jumps. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on gear stores, manufacturers, bars , or whatever else to check out while I'm there. -syn

By no means am I very experienced, so don't take this as professional advice or anything. I had similar problems after my JMs released me on my AFF level 3, except my problem was an uncontrolled spin, and after having that happen just once I decided to stop until I could get some time in a tunnel. Putting myself into another spin just seemed like an unnecessary risk when I'm within a 5 hour drive of a tunnel. I hooked up with Skydive University in FL and went through their wind tunnel AFF course that gives you 20 minutes in the tunnel before you make your first jump with them. After doing that I had no problem at all with uncontrolled movements in freefall, not to mention the entire experience of the training was better since I didn't have to focus so hard on trying to fix problems with my body positioning. If you live close to FL or if someone else near you offers such a program I would highly recommend it. Just curious... how long were u in the tunnel and did you have someone there that was aware of your problems and trying to help you out with them? -syn They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin

Thanks for the warm welcome guys... much appreciated! Three instructors mostly: Rob Laidlaw - tunnel instruction and first jump Chromy (not sure of his real name... this is what everyone called him) - first jump Joao Tambor - remaining 7 jumps All of these guys were really great to work with and made the whole process go really smoothly. Also just this weekend I made a somewhat last minute decision to drive to DeLand and with very little notice at all these guys were able to hook me up with an instructor (Pete) to do a refresher jump on the first day I was there. -Syn

Hey guys, I recently went through the wind tunnel AFF course at Skydive University in DeLand, Fl and just wanted to share my experience with their training in case anyone else out there is “up in the air” so to speak about where to go for AFF training or is having problems with traditional AFF courses like I did. Its also a good chance to just say hi and let everyone in on my skydiving background. First, a little history about my experiences skydiving before going to Skydive U., before deciding to come to Skydive U I did 2 tandem jumps and 3 traditional AFF jumps at my local DZ (SC). Almost every one of the AFF jumps felt like somewhat of a disappointment since I seemed to be messing up my body positioning a lot in freefall. This problem became abundantly clear on level 3 when my JMs released me to do 90-degree turns on my own. Well that didn’t go so well. I made one turn during the entire jump… a left one… a very fast left one, which I let distract me from being aware of my altitude and went past my pull altitude of 5,500 ft. I finally pulled at around 4,300 ft. after getting the pull signal from one JM as I spun past him. The main deployed without a problem and I piloted it down to a safe landing. After that I almost gave up on skydiving thinking it must just be beyond my capabilities. After cooling down from it for a little bit I decided to give it another try, but only after getting time in a wind tunnel, so I contacted Skydive U. after reading about them online. From the moment I started talking to the guys there they assured me that the tunnel would clear up any control issues I was having, so I scheduled my training time and headed down to FL as soon as I could get away from work for a few days. The first day I was in FL there were issues with the tunnel, so we didn’t get to go there that day, but rather than waste a day the instructors at Skydive U changed the plans and went through a large part of the ground schooling. The next day we headed straight to the tunnel first thing in the morning and got started early since we had already covered the ground school portion the day before. The tunnel was amazing, period. With each of the 20 minutes I was given with the package deal I was making leaps and bounds towards much more stable and controlled flight. The instructor made sure to always point out the GOOD things about each of my time slots in the tunnel rather than harping on the bad was really enthusiastic, so by the end of the tunnel time I was ramped up and ready to go jump, which we did as soon as we were done. After training on the ground for quite a while, the first jump went pretty good besides a little instability on exit, which I attribute mostly to nerves since it was my first jump coming back to the sport. After we stabilized and I did my PRCPs my 2 JMs released me to do my 90 degree turns, which I actually did this time rather than spinning uncontrollably! This was a much welcomed change. The debrief was thorough and once again focused on what I did correctly rather than constantly harping on mistakes, although they were brought up and discussed. This seemed like a very good balance to me that kept me with an overall good feeling about the jump. For the sake of time and space I’ll shorten this to say that the rest of the jumps went just as well as the first and I completed the course of 8 jumps (3 of which were coaching jumps) without having to even come close to repeating any levels. Also, since control in freefall was no longer such a big deal (i.e. problem) the instructors could place additional emphasis on canopy control without having to worry about overloading me with information and I was able to fly and land the canopy without any assistance from the radio after the first jump. The chance of flying myself in at my original DZ in SC on my second skydive wasn’t even thought about since so much emphasis had to be placed on body positioning and so little was given to canopy flight. All in all I was very pleased with Skydive University’s (www.skydiveu.com) teaching methods (positive reinforcement, clear goal setting, etc.), their knowledge of what they were teaching, the course layout, and the attitude of the instructors. All of which are very important to the success of any “teaching” program, so I would definitely suggest those guys to anyone having problems with traditional AFF courses or that’s just looking for a great place to get quality training at a very good price. Note: In no way am I trying to blame the problems I had in regular AFF on the jumpmasters I had or their techniques, I am no where near being qualified to make that judgment. All I know is that for me personally the training at Skydive U seemed to be more effective. -Syn PS: Sorry for the ungodly length of this post, I tend to babble!

I'm looking at buying a used Pro-Dytter audible altimeter from someone in a different state, so I can't "try before I buy". I'm planning on using this in a bonehead boomerang helmet and after looking at the dimensions on www.l-and-b.dk it seems like it may be somewhat of a tight fit, so I was wondering if anyone knows if the two will play well together.