nael

When I started jumping a (now) friend who started jumping at the same time was so scared on a couple of jumps that she had tears running down her face in the plane.

She always got out and she overcame the fear. She now has hundreds of jumps. My advice would be to push through it - everyone feels fear. I did my first jump in 7 months a couple of weeks ago, and I was really scared. It's nothing to be ashamed of, the more you jump, the less fear you feel.

Good luck!

We have 3 of these in Australia too - Picton, Warnervale and Nagambie. Awesome planes all round.

Someone asked a group of us a few weeks ago if we think we'll ever stop skydiving, and even without thinking I said "yep".

I know I won't be skydiving forever (but I also know my boyfriend will be, which is fine) - right now, and for the past year and a bit, I don't have the money to compete in 4 way, which is all I really want to do. I've got my tutor rating now, but I'm just not getting the same feeling anymore. I know for sure that if I could do 4 way I'd stick with it (I like to be the best I can be at anything, and it's really frustrating knowing the only thing holding you back is money), but at the moment I just question whether the risk is worth it when I'm not absolutely loving what I'm doing.

So yeah, I won't be doing this forever - but I also feel like I'll go back to it one day (I'm only 26 now, so maybe in another 25 years I'll have more money to invest in the sport).

I check in the order of:

Leg straps
Chest strap
Hackey there & pilot chute not protruding
Cutaway handle
Reserve handle (go through EP's one last time)
Reserve pin (check myself)
Main pin (check myself)

Door opens - one last hackey check before exit.

Hi George! Welcome to the forums and to skydiving! I jump at Picton regularly. How did your course go in January? I see you're up to 8 jumps now, so I'm assuming all's good.

I'm sure I'll see you at the dz.

Nic.

Hey FW, welcome to the sport! I've haven't ventured to Nagambie yet, but know lots of the regulars there from around the place - you'll learn so much from those guys so stick around! I jump in Picton, Sydney (which also has heaps of awesome skydivers!).

Good luck with the rest of your AFF (don't worry about repeating levels, I had to repeat Stage 7 and heaps of people have to repeat a stage at some point!).

Chrissey, I saw you over on the skysurfer forums (www.skysurfer.com.au for those that haven't been there yet)! Welcome again - I still haven't got around to meeting you!

It's pretty scary seeing the ground coming from that angle! Glad you're ok (now!).

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Translated:
"Dude, I was like, so out of it that I totally bone-fucked that skydive. Fo' shizzle."

Thanks for the laugh Dave!

N/A

Does anyone have any good photos of (big, obvious)tears in a canopy while in flight?

If anyone does, please contact me and I'll give you all the details of what we want to use them for.

But we still need money to try to win those prizes. I think I'll sit back and be a cheer squad for the winning team this year. For those interested - I do take bribes to cheer for the 'best' team.

Welcome back to jumping! Sorry to hear about your accident. How many jumps have you done since you've been back? I bet it feels great to be back in the air!

Welcome to the forums and the sport!

AFF can be pretty scary, nice job on taking control of the situation. I've only heard good things about Nagambie and there's a lot of talented jumpers there to help you out with anything you want to know.

Have fun!

Aww man, looking at the new dive pool makes me want to do more 4 way sooooooo much. It sucks having no money.

Yeah, but it's usually said with a little jest in the tone. That article makes it seem like we get out and fly at each other and see who's lucky enough to survive the jump, just to go back up and do it again.

I saw this article yesterday and thought that whole article was a pile of crap. The last line especially got me when they quoted the guy saying skydivers would find a way to make it dangerous if it wasnt dangerous already. Way to take a joke and make it sound like fact.

Sorry to hear about Nexgen Benno, it was such a close comp!

For those who are interested, Zach had surgery on Tuesday which apparently went quite well and he is now getting through each day with a lot of morphine at this stage. We're leaving Brisbane tomorrow cause we need to be at work on Monday but we'll see him a few more times before we go.

Congrats to all the teams at the nats, it was a crazy, close (and disappointing for some) year in all events.

I did the 3 way novice last year when I had about 80 jumps. We got first place, but we were the only team to complete all the rounds.

Congratulations guys, up and on to 4 way! Are either of you coming up to the Nationals? Scratch teams at the Nats are a great way to learn about comp and 4 way.

Are you coming to the Christmas party on the 17th? $10 rego for dinner and free beer. There's gonna be heaps of people at the dz, best time to meet us all!

Welcome to the forums and to skydiving. My name's Nicole. I'm in Australia too. What dz do you jump at?

Hey Timmeh, how many jumps do you have now? Are you gonna be around for the Nationals in Toogoolawah in January? It's gonna be lotsa fun!

Welcome to the forums and to skydiving!

Don't listen to Lainey, she's never there anymore! You'll have more jumps than her soon! hehe

In all seriousness though, good to see another girl getting into it! I heard you've been talking with Dave (I'm in the same team as him). My name's Nicole. I'll point out the guys to stay away from at the dz *cough* all of them!

Welcome to Picton and good luck with your AFF!

My mum hates it. She's offered me money to quit skydiving many times. She makes me send her a text message every day when I finish jumping but I usually forget.

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The format is humps : jumps : owed. Humps can be replaced by something else if it's sufficiently important or interesting. But to take the place of shagging, it'd better be damn interesting!

My numbers:

1 reserve handle dislodged during a jump : 12 : 0

12 team jumps, with our coach standing in for our injured point. One interesting jump where a stuffed-up block move dislodged my reserve handle. Fortunately, it didn't result in a premature.

Um, you forgot about the guy with 30 or so jumps who did a solo exiting after us and somehow ended up between you and I on deployment and deployed between us!

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If your ears are blocked and unable to equalize from ground pressure, then you would get relief as you fell toward denser air...

Sorry, but this isn't true. From my experiene on the weekend, my ears were clearing in the plane and on the ground (for the most part) when I had a cold and the rapid change of pressure in freefall caused a LOT of pain simply because my sinuses were too congested to keep up with the rapid change in air pressure. This happened to me on the 5th jump of the day, there was nothing different about my sinuses on that jump compared to all the others that day, but that's the one when my sinuses gave up.

Don't kid yourself - this shit hurts, it's not fun and it could put you out for a long time if you blow the ear drum, not to mention your loss of balance.