calledisrael

i hope this sounds encouraging.. because that's really how i mean it... thanks windcatcher... i have been discouraged tonight, because i feel just like you seem to, that i am often too emotional and artistic type... and i keep being not very good at this. i have problems with deployment because of a shoulder injury which i think i reaggravated today. i had had a very hard time in aff, and then found a new dz which has totally changed my outlook on jumping... and it seems like everything was starting to go right just in time to go way wrong. but what helps me from your post is to know that 1. i am not the first skydiver to feel like this, and 2. i know that i really love it... and for me it's still really worth it. whatever choice you make, i am confident it will be the right one for you. thanks for encouraging me and making me feel not quite so alone in it. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

Skydive Aggieland has free wireless how is it that i keep finding reasons to love this dz more all the time? life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

i used to work at a camp for kids with cancer, called star trails. it was really great. i have a great mcdonalds fries costume... if i were home i would try to count them and figure out a way to make them number-oriented. my friend anna has a great big mac outfit, too... (she actually met her husband wearing it, so it has good vibes... but that's another story.) life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

thanks. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

okay, last weekend i made my post-dislocation recurrency jump (hooray!) and thanks to great instruction, i learned alot and had a great time. but i have decided that i definitely need a shoulder brace. i have combed the dz.com archives and come up with these options from the various threadsabout shoulder dislocation: Bauerfeind OmoTrain Shoulder Support The Sully Shoulder Stabilizer Otto Bock Shoulder Support various homemade creations (love your rigger) does anyone else have others to add before i make the final choice? not all of them are an option for me because i have somewhat small shoulders/upper arms and they are just too large. and does anyone have any experience with one listed on the chutingstar.com site, shoulder brace for skydivers? life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

i was bitten by one in college when i was on summer camp staff - and think i got off pretty light. went straight in to the town hospital, we packed the wound, and i had to clean it and rebandage it every day. eight years later, the scar is pretty faint, no long term damage done. so prayers for you - keep us posted. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

he said he had taken a jumper the previous weekend... just buckled (himself) in, flipped over, and let the guy drop right out. it was fun to be at an airport where all the other pilot-types had such a positive view of the skydivers. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

what i did this weekend at the dropzone while i waited for my instructor to be ready for me. no, i didn't jump out - although the pilot offered. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

i moved from austin to the suburbs of pittsburgh for grad school. In 2002. I was shocked to walk into the local bank and discover that not only did they not do online banking, they did not yet do *debit cards.* mercy. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

i didn't have too much specific skills difficulty - just with relaxing more than anything and getting my emotions in check! i had to repeat 6 and 7. but i learned alot. good luck!! and have a great jump. pm me sometime if you want to meet or have coffee. i won't be around the dz this weekend - but i would love to meet others from around here and hear their stories. blue skies - ali life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

i repeated 6 because i had a good freefall and then a deployment and landing disaster. the repeat went very well... even after i almost chickened out in the plane. learned a LOT. then i had to repeat 7 just because it took me too long and i didn't make it through the dive flow. on exit my instructor somehow ended up all the way across the sky from me... and i just waited like a total yoda for him to fly back over before i started doing what i needed to. didn't get to track before pull time, so they made me do 7, take 2. was mortified at repeating levels for a while. then i realized that i really was learning, and it really was okay, and the whole point was to have fun and get better and walk away... which was happening. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

melissa... just read your post! i finished aff 7 in april but have not been jumping for a while because of travel... hoping to get recurrent very soon. glad to meet some other people in austin who got hooked. :) congratulations and blue skies. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

just got back from central asia (afghanistan.) don't know of any kazakh dz's, but the closest i got to jumping was talking to the army guys when i visited the base. apparently some of the american guys arrange group jumps with the german troops pretty often (sport jumps, not military ones) and they have quite a gig going down. it was pretty cool to hear about. :-) good luck - life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

Skydivers: Good till the end, or the total malfunction! i would buy it. diablita, your signature line is freaking AWESOME. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

being used to straddle benches in the otter... i went and did a tandem at a new dz the other day (to check my shoulder healing from dislocation) and sat on the floor in the caravan there. it was kind of a weird feeling to be effectively laying in the lap of my TM the whole time. (but the guys were great in dallas and i enjoyed that ride to altitude. after all, talk about a no-pressure skydive...) life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

not what you are looking for - but i was at skydive dallas last weekend, and they had a great tandem prep video. very clear and helpful. i was impressed. you might ask someone from there. (i did learn how much post-aff, tandems aren't really so much fun anymore. but altitude is still amazing, their dz was great, and their training seemed really excellent.) life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

yep, i explained it all to those guys (it was not at my home dz) and they were more than willing to help. but they didn't know me, and it was a really turbulent day. it was fine. i was in the plane, being focused, and went to touch all my handles and was like, ergh! something is very wrong here! it was funny. the guy in front of me turned around and said, you know too much to be a tandem. i laughed and told them the story (it was a four way team) and they all cheered for me when they went out. it has made me doubly zealous to do my exercises. :) like a breath of fresh air. for sure we will jump together someday... :) life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

yay for you! i am so excited that you got back up! incidentally, i went and (on a last minute whim) did a tandem this weekend to check how my shoulder did. i missed the sky. no time to get recurrent, since i am leaving next week for 6 weeks, but at least i could do this... i forgot the glory of sitting in the door of the caravan at 13k on a beautiful warm afternoon. tandeming was horrible. for the first time i had nothing to do. so i did practice touches and some turns to see how my shoulder did and he told me to stop. i couldn't train myself out of what i was supposed to do - nice guy, great dz - i just realized that i know too much to tandem anymore. BUT I LOVE JUMPING OUT OF AIRPLANES and my shoulder did great, and so that was so worth it. good PTs are key, i know what you mean... i think the museum idea is fabulous. and i would definitely write a letter to whomever is over her - that is always a good idea. i bought one person the skydiver bear with a rig and everything - i found the link on here somewhere - they were just way too cute and an unusual gift idea. (my PT was all into the fact that i was a skydiver, and wanted an artifact of that.) i am so excited for you, piriya. thanks for encouraging me so much. hope we get to meet one day - life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

exactly. this is my biggest problem in skydiving - i am sometimes more busy thinking than i am responding. and i am learning how to do better with this, thanks to good instruction. my tandem instructor before i did aff called it on me right there. think *less*, he said, not that intelligence is bad, but you have to act out of it. "too much thinking can kill you." and i have learned what he meant when i ended up as a student in a low-pull incident. good, consistent training has proven so important to me. way more than all the books i have read about jumping and all the analysis i can do of situations - i value my teacher who taught me to put that aside in the right moment and just do my EPs out of response and muscle memory. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

I know I don't really "know" you, but I learned way more about being a good skydiver from you than you will know. When I thought I would never get back in ever, you were willing to jump with me and teach me.. and your point break imitations just made me laugh all the way to altitude... Thanks for teaching me, Douva. And best of luck and blue skies to you. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

i dislocated my right shoulder on my last jump... and am quite impressed. i did a bunch of left hand turns and landed no-flare just fine... but i can't imagine in that situation having reached over to pull my main with my left. i wasn't going to mess with it - going straight to reserve for me. i did lose the handle, unfortunately; begged them to let me look for it, but alas, no... props to your friend for good thinking - and a quick recovery. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

i wear one since i finished AFF. i just ordered a reserve pin to have one made, since i graduated on my reserve i thought it would be a fitting memento... thanks for the ideas of how to assemble one. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

Nick, thank you. I have - unfortunately - been a spazzed out terminal velocity student who went unstable and lost it at deployment (and kept trying, rather than only trying twice.) I had a totally amazing instructor who continued to come after me when I clearly could not get my shit together. He is the one who has taught me what it is to be a skydiver, when he turned around and said but you were my *student* and I was responsible for you. I didn't learn from that incident that oh, my cypres will save me - even though my cypres *did* save me. What I learned from him were the right lessons about responsibility, both my own to get a canopy over my head, and ours for each other. I learned the hows of my EPs and not in a theoretical way, and I am a way safer jumper now than I might have ever been otherwise, unfortunately. I learned more than many people might ever learn about how and why not to panic, and it has changed my life. I know what that edge looks like now. It's not that I trust my cypres now, it's that I have been well-trained and learned where to be confident and what questions to ask and how to *respond* in that critical moment. It's funny, when I watched this the first time, it just made me feel better for not being quite that stupid. But you have reminded me that the lesson here, the really good one, is about what makes a good instructor in this sport. I am still in skydiving, and will continue to be, because of how my instructor responded to me in that incident, how he came after me, and how he taught me through it. He could have written me off that I just didn't listen. He taught me how to be a *skydiver,* and I am thankful. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

i was walking around in a shoulder brace, since i dislocated my shoulder on a really bad landing... a young guy is like, aww, ali, i am so sorry you are such a wuss and your shoulder is so sore... i responded, it's all right, i am just taking care of it so i can jump again. he responds, oh, what did you do, jump off the steps wrong or something? and i just told him that no, it was my aff graduation dive, i was jumping out of a plane at 13k and still managed to land my canopy... who exactly is the wuss? he coughs alot and says, oh, skydiving, i used to be a skydiving instructor... i just laugh and walk the other way. :) i have offered twice to take him tandem since, and he just says, oh, i don't do that whole attached thing anymore... life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)

i need to watch this every time i wonder if *i* was a really dumb aff student... because this reminds me that no, no, compared to that i was brilliant... his body position is just horrible and i just about lost it when i saw him pulling the cutaway.. "his reserve chute finally opens???" how about, he finally *pulls* his reserve handle?? aw. pisses me off. life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. (helen keller)