skreamer

Excellent advice Tom! I live in London, name the dropzone and the weekend and I'll be there! (hee hee, bet you never saw THAT one coming did you?)

Well, considering I did AFF in South Africa, then bought my first rig (with brand new Cypres) and have just got back from a week's skydiving holiday in California, this is a really easy one for me : 1. very 2. very 3. poor

Try this : Start visualizing your skydive now already. Picture yourself manifesting, see yourself kitting up and walking out to the plane. Then see the plane taking off and you doing your '1000 check. Imagine that door opening. Where are you going to place your hands and feet before you exit? Picture yourself in freefall and then dumping. Then visualize the canopy ride followed by a good flare and landing. And lastly? See yourself buying shedloads of beer for not jumping for 5 months!!!

Lummy speaks the truth. I had completed AFF in South Africa (January 2001), my last jump there was my graduation hop n pop. I did my check-out jump and conversion to BOC in the same jump at Skydance last week. They were then totally cool with me skydiving at Skydance. (do I need to repeat how awesome and friendly I found Skydance?) Now the really frustrating thing is I can't post a positive review yet because Skydance is not listed on the new DZ.com (yet). I have mailed them and asked them to list asap. /s

I'll see you again, when the stars fall from the sky... /s man, this new thread, while borderline esoteric has turned out to be way cool

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl Year after year...

You got into skydiving after (and as a result of) your friend hooking it in??? Man that took some balls - instant respect! /s

Just remember Omri, you have to cut your hair short to be a good skydiver! /s Just having a laugh, good luck and enjoy it!

Dave, is that from a Pink Floyd lyric? (I'm presuming your post was rhetorical and you do actually know) /s

This thread is becoming waaaaaay too intellekshewwal for me. Beer! Hooters! Woo-hoo!

I am a newbie (33 jumps) and am interested in trying freeflying. What are the special considerations as far as safety and drills are concerned in freefly? I have been told audible altimeters and not attempting to freefly with other inexperienced freeflyers are pretty much mandatory. What else should I take into account? /s PS a similar thread was started in the Talkback forum, but I am interested in getting the 'Safety and Training' angle. Also, how do you old-school belly flyers feel about freeflying? Do you feel the RW discipline you have dedicated most of your skydiving career to is now in serious decline popularity wise as a result? Or do you feel there is enough scope in the sport for both to thrive? I do realize that I am posting a fairly contentious thread, but am looking for rational, objective advice/feedback (please).

Good advice! Also, when you are new to it and totally crap (like me) make sure that you ONLY jump with guys who are really experienced. If only one other guy jumping with you has the same lack of experience as you, the results could be disastrous. I felt really safe at Skydance because the guys I jumped with all knew I was the newbie and jumped accordingly. I was a lot more relaxed and open to trying new stuff as a result. /s

You can NEVER look at enough britney spears fakes! /s

lmfaopimp Nice one Zenmeister!

When the wind blows from the east plant the seeds in the west... /s (sorry, just wanted to see if I could do the cryptic posting thing too)

Funny thing though, us South Africans, the Canadians, the Kiwis and the Aussies all declared war the day after Britain in 1939. Hmmmm, now I wonder how great America (including Texas) would be today if we had also decided to wait 3 years before deciding to get in the mix? And for the record, less than 15 years after the English had imprisoned South African Boer women and children in concentration camps, we volunteered for the first big one. I think I'm starting to see why people think us South Africans are so aggressive and always keen to fight (as borne out by my inflammatory posts). Aaaah, I must be getting home-sick!

Dude, I can't believe this! Markus is the very guy who promised to take me free-flying! And he lived up to his word too (the very next day). Last week Thursday I got another 5 jumps in at Skydance (day after I posted this thread). Anyway, I had managed to sit-fly in my 4 fun jumps (hey what else are you gonna do jumping on your own). Anyway, so Markus rocks up for the sunset load, strolls up to me and says 'So, you still want me to take you head-down?'. Hell yes!!! Then I go over to him and try to give him a jump-ticket. The dude would NOT accept it, no matter how I tried (I didn't want to potentially screw up the jump for him). Anyway, so we get in the Cessna, but he is still wearing his work clothes (for those of you who haven't been to Skydance, Markus is sooooo laid back he is practically horizontal). Anyway, I was thinking 'He's wearing his rig, but he is also wearing leather boots, denims, a hooded top and a baseball cap - exactly how do these freeflyers do it??'. Next thing, baseball cap disappears and skydiving shit starts appearing (it had been stowed behind him on the plane). Thing he is pulling on a balaclava and then I'm thinking 'Oh shit, I'm going skydiving with the IRA!!!'. Anyways, we get to altitude, JP gets out first and is hanging off the strut. I get out next and am facing Markus, he grabs hold of my harness and does a head-count. I would love to say I went head-down on my first attempt, but I totally hosed it. Training kicked in and my head went back in an attempted arch as soon as we stepped off. Anyway after 3 seconds when it was clear the head-down action wasn't going to happen, we separated. I struggled into my sit-fly and was happily just watching Markus and JP (it's one thing to watch free-fly on video, but trust me when you see these guys doing it yourself - WOW!!). Anyway, it was the sunset load, and on my left I could see an almost full moon rising - I so wish I could convey how beautiful it was, but this medium will never allow it. So then, next thing I see Markus tracking towards me and I'm thinking 'Dude, what the fuck are you doing?, you are headed right towards me!!!'. But then he got closer and I realized he was back-tracking and smiling up at me. He flew right underneath my right foot (about 2 meters below me) and I just stayed in my sit, with the world's biggest goofiest smile looking down and beaming at him. And when we all tracked off, I was watching them tracking below my feet, while I tracked off. It was the first time I had really watched other people tracking while I was doing the same. This was my favourite jump so far, and any of you guys looking for a place to jump : go to Skydance. As for the rigging shop : after I bought my jumpsuit there, they tailored it for me TWICE. I didn't even ask, Ryan just came up to me and said bring your suit back to us, so we can make a couple of changes for you. The guys at Action Air told me I was 'jonesing' and then I had to get somebody to explain it to me. Just to give you guys an idea : that same day (Thursday) Ed had to take a student up for his graduation hop 'n pop. They asked if I would like to go along (me say no to a skydive???). Anyway, it only cost $8 and counts towards my B license. Student went first (poised), I bombed out after him, and Ed jumped last. To be honest, I was a bit scared, because after all those jumps from altitude, '3000 felt REALLY close. And my PC tapped my ankle (my head was pretty low when I dumped). But I will do it again any day. More good news, I have just found a DZ in the UK that is still open, now I am just praying for decent weather - I WANT SOME MORE!!! Sorry about the long post guys, but I am still totally geeked (as if you couldn't tell). /s ps to give you guys an idea about Skydance, I am already making plans to go back in June for their boogie. I still have 6 Skydance jump tickets (high winds on Friday and Saturday) and refused to sell them because I want to go back and use them myself dammit! I have got 33 jumps in totals now and have decided screw the A license and am going straight for my B. pps Congratulations on your engagement, can I make a suggestion? Make your wedding vow 'For richer or skydiving'

Hey Mark We have a lot of sheep here in the UK that need to be *put down*, think you could send your army over to lend a hand? (poor little sheep now they really are going to be f*&$ed whichever way you look at it...) /s

Hey Dutchboy Less than 20% of Americans will ever travel out of the US in their lives. That 20% is probably almost entirely made up by your military invading little countries in Africa where the people are only armed with sticks and blunt stones. Also, it really amazes me that 4.5 million tandem jumps were made in the USA last year - according to Time magazine one out of every three Americans is overweight and and another one out of every three is obese. But, hey, you guys aren't fat, you've all got that genetic problem which only affects your part of the world....

lmfaopimp You crack me up, dude. One of the funniest things I have seen on TV here in the UK (best comedies in the world, and don't anybody think of trying to argue that one!), was an episode of Steptoe and Sons. The old fella is flying on a Boeing for the first time (visiting the continent). He is just finishing up in the bog, when the captain announces 'Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now flying over France'. The old chap says 'Good!' and flushes the toilet. That really creased me up! /s

Probably caused by Caps Lock, you might want to get rid of that nasty little problem... Just kidding, actually you might want to try posting this under the 'Gear and Rigging' forum, there are some really knowledgeable guys posting there who have given me quality advice in the past. Now stop shouting at us!

Hi Pammi You make a very interesting point there. Here is my $0,02 (£0,01) worth : if you are too scared to pack your own parachute, but only want to continue skydiving as long as somebody else is packing for you, then maybe you shouldn't be skydiving. I learnt to pack the end of last week when the weather turned to shit, and got to go out and jump my own pack job (my last jump at Skydance). I'll tell you what, I got a little nervous all over again, but forced myself to do some backloops and not dump high. When you know you are taking responsibility for the entire skydive (including pack), you take your safety drills VERY seriously. To any other newcomers out there, please consider my advice : learn to pack as soon as possible and then go out and make an ape-jump with your first pack job. You will be forced to ask yourself some very serious 'what if...' questions and won't be able to hide under the assumption 'But, my main will always open and fly fine...'. Learning to pack also gives you a thorough understanding of the deployment process, so you should be better able to identify a true malfunction timeously. I have noticed that fatalities seem to be classed in two categories : 1.)Student jumpers bouncing (often never going for their reserve) 2.)Experienced jumpers getting complacent/over-confident and hooking it in. I have confidence in my ability to avoid the first situation and hope my ego never leads me to the second. Anyway, these are my thoughts. /s

Mike is right (as always). And, Mike, the sooner we get all these bloody foreigners out of England the better. If you weren't born here, then you bloody don't belong here. England for the English, that's what I say. Everybody with a dodgy accent should be deported (starting with any bloody Frenchies). /s

To Steven Soderbergh : Does this mean skydivers can all direct movies? To Bjorn Borg : Will the women of your country be going forth anytime soon to follow your advice?

Hmmm, I will definitely take this advice whenever a Texan is around. Now I understand why you guys love those camp 'Village People' John Wayne outfits so much! And to think I was told San Francisco was the gay capital of America. /s (stirring as always... )