JoeG

Quote

Even if spouting statistics as you so eloquently put, are meant as a means to encourage him?

Dont get your knickers in a twist. I had started writing my reply before your's was posted. It was in no way directed at you. I actually liked your post.

Quote

It is wrong to make skydiving out to be safer than it actually is. I view what you have said to mean that he shouldn't be afraid

I agree. Skydiving IS dangerous. We know it without having to be told. It is ingrained at the deepest level of our being.
However, we need to share what we have done to overcome our fear. In Beowulf's second post on this thread that is exactly what he did.

Let's not argue over whether or not this is dangerous or start spouting statistics.

The man asked for encouragement. Please help him by sharing your own experiences and what helped you.

Quote

stick around for a few more years, your opinon will change when you see friends get hurt and/or die.

You really think this is helpful?

I also recently started jumping again after a year off.

First, RELAX! This is supposed to be fun! Smile when you think about jumping. Visualize everything going perfectly. Instead of thinking about the things you did wrong, think about what you nailed and smile about it.

Coming back with 9 jumps, you will probably repeat an AFF jump. Talk to your instructors about your performance before, what you are worried about, and how they can help you.

Practice your emergency procedures until they are second nature. Practice them in a practice harness. When you make them second nature, you won't worry as much about how you will handlie it, you will know!

Once you are on the plane, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and visualize a great dive. Smile! Smiling really helps you relax.

Talk yourself through the dive out loud from the time they ask you if you are ready to skydive until you land. For example: Check in! (Breath) Ready! Set! ARCH! Positive pressure on my legs. Altitude! Relax!

If you verbalize it, you will do it, and saying it takes just about as much time as doing it. Verbalizing it also makes you breathe.

Here is a link to an article about relaxing in the USPA SIM
http://www.uspa.org/publications/SIM/2006SIM/section4articles.htm#mental

Seriously, though, focus on the good. Feeding your fear only makes it worse than it is. Remember, when you landed before, you were telling yourself "That wasn't as bad as I thought!" It really isn't as scary as we can make it out to be.

Knowledge, performance visualization, deep breathing, and smiling will do wonders for your anxiety and fear. Have fun, and welcome back!

Joe

Even more good news...my girlfriend is seriously considering doing the tandem progression. I can see Im going to be broke for a long long time.

Mark, I won't be there this weekend, because of existing plans, but I will be there next weekend.


Thanks for the kind words everyone.

Searching I found this post http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2017366 but it is a nonauthoritive answer.

The BPA website is a bit hard to search, but perhaps the best thing would be to call a local DZ where you would like to jump and ask them what is involved in crossover training to certify for BPA licenses.

I graduated AFF this weekend at the farm. I want to shout out a big thank you to my instructors.
Hans Paulsen
Mark Shimmel
Charles Woodard
Jim Vance
Stewart Cavanaugh
Mike Anderson

I would also like to thank everyone who has taken the time to chat with a new jumper and all the new friends I have made.

I was lucky enough to have my wonderful girlfriend Linda do a tandem on the same load that I made my lvl 7 jump on.

My lvl 7 jump went just about perfectly. I had absolutely the best time, and it was the first time I felt completely free in a jump. The previous jumps were what I would call "working" jumps due to the manouvers. I had manouvers to do on jump 7, but it felt more like just getting out there and having some fun.

I did my diving exit and was stable on my stomach, found my instructor and when he gave me the thumbs up, did my flip and came back up on heading. I then did my 360's and moved up closer to him where we hung out making faces at each other until 7k. I turned and tracked and pulled at the right atlitude. I got a little unstable at pull time, but held it until I was stable, then pulled. That dive as a complete blast!

I will be back weekend after next to start on my progress to getting my A. I already have several of the things on my progress card marked, including landing within 20m of target twice.

Anyway, im just so pumped! Thanks everyone!

Re: gatorade

Quote

It does noticeably rehydrate faster than water for me during a busy skydive day, without the excessive sugar punch of sodas. So I often intersperse a bottle or two in a day among the water bottles...

I am also particularly fond of iced teas and juices

Most sodas actually dehydrate you. Colas and several others contain caffeine, which is a diuretic, and the large amounts of sugar also act as such. Your body tries to dilute the sugar in your stomach, taking fluids from your tissues to do so.

Iced tea, made with actual tea have caffeine in them also, as well as many sweet teas have the same problems as sodas with the sugars. I would also be aware of very sweet juices such as orange juice or others that are sweetened unless you cut them with water.

I generally drink a large gatorade then alternate it with the same amount of water to stay hydrated.

Dehydration is nothing to mess about with. Water loss greater than just 15% can prove fatal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehydration#Symptoms_and_prognosis

http://faculty.washington.edu/kepeter/118/notes/water_balance.htm

The wording and syntax in the replied email is very similar to other nigeria scam emails.

Generally they "fish" for a mark, then have one of the members of their gang who can write reasonably well in english craft the reply email.

In the past I have had a lot of fun baiting these scammers. For some background on scambaiting read

http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm

Well, I had a great time. I got there Friday night and went out for wings and beer with a few people that were at the DZ. Saturday morning I did the FJC again with a new student. Mike Anderson and Al did the course (Congratulations Al on getting your Coach rating), and I remembered just about everything from last year, research, and reading the SIM, which helped put me at ease.

I was originally going to jump an AFF 3 jump, but ended up redoing the AFF 5 with a docked exit I think it is called and a single JM. I got to jump with my friend Mike Anderson since he recently got his AFFI rating. (Congrats Mike!)

I arched like a mofo out the door, and we had a great exit. Since it had been such a long time since I jumped last, it took me a few thousand feet to relax enough to allow Mike to release me. Once he released me, I was pretty stable, and was able to keep a heading, did an altitude check and banged out a 360. At that point we were at 6k, so I did no more maneuvers, and pulled stable and unassisted at 5500.

I had a beautiful opening and after doing the controlability check, practice rear riser turns and headed to my play area. Saturday was a marginal wind day, and several people were landing in different directions, which threw me off a bit on the landing, and since I was the second to the last one out, I did not see the first person down. I followed my plan though, and landed within 20m of my intended target, which was nice being able to add that to my A card. I slid in the landing on purpose, as there really wasn't any wind to speak of, and my flare is less than perfect.

I was going to go ahead and do my AFF 6 jump, but with the extreme heat (101 F) and not having eaten, I wasn't feeling up to it. My plan is to come back next weekend and do my AFF 6 and 7 jumps, as well as a solo, if everything goes well.

I had a blast Sat night hanging out with everyone. It was great seeing everyone that I knew before, and meeting several knew ppl.

Anyway, I know its a long post, but I am really excited about jumping again. I missed this.

Joe

As luck would have it, I WAS planning on leaving work today at 2:00, but now I have a meeting with the CEO of the company I work for. Either way I will be there tonight, but I may be pushing sundown before I get there. I am NOT looking forward to setting up my tent in the dark, so I am going to do my best to be there in time.

Quote

if you were at the farm a few weeks ago, you might have seen me nervous after I had a lineover malfunction. it was nice to be nervous again, i have to admit. it is a bit of a wake up call.

I guess so! I for one am glad that these parachutes don't have malfunctions more often than they do, but that doesn't mean I won't practice like its going to happen on every jump.

Man im so amped about jumping again, plus the folks at the farm are awsome.

Quote

The best thing to rember the BEER!

I am a firm believer in bringing the beer...

Beer speaks louder than words.

Quote

I am one of your instructors.

Yeah but I know better than listen to you

Seriously though, I will be looking forward to jumping with you again.

I believe I did AFF 3 with you the first time, so I will seriously be getting the Deja Vecu vibes. If you will be there Friday night maybe you will have a second to put my mind at ease, if possible, and go over the dive flow so I can sleep on it.

What kind of beer do you prefer? I will be bringing a case of newcastle, but if you have a different preference, lemme know. I gotsta take care o my 'structors.

Hello all.

It has been a year since I last jumped (AFF 5). I am going to get back into it this weekend, weather permitting.

I wasn't able to jump due to other responsibilities last summer, and eventually lost the desire, but in the past three months it has been steadily growing in my mind.

I really really hope to get four jumps in this weekend, if possible. I spoke with Hans @ skydive the farm today, and I agree that I should sit through the FJC again, and he would like me to do AFF 3 again to make sure I haven't lost the meager skills I had gained while with being watched over by two instructers.

I have been reading the forums on dz for I guess over a year now, although I very rarely post (read: lurker). I seem to know you all through your posts, and thought it might be time for you to get to know me as well

I have the time and inclination finally, so its time to jump! I have missed this greatly, and I can't wait to get out there and have some FUN!


I have to admit I am a bit (ok more than a bit(ok very)) nervous about jumping again, but I still practice my EP's so I think I should be ok after receiving additional training and drilling. In actuality, I seem to get the most nervous once I am under canopy.

Since I already know the dive flow for AFF 3, I don't expect to have too many problems, and it really is amazing how nice it makes it when you visualize the perfect dive.

If you have any suggestions for making my reintroduction go smoothly, I would appreciate it, although please realize I will discuss anything I have a question about with my instructers and won't take what you say as the gospel truth. Amen, brother.

WOW that is so sharp. Who did you have make it?

I am shopping for my first jumpsuit and although I would never purposely copy your design, that is a seriously handsome suit.

UGH. That's shitty.

At the very least you could add it as unpaid on their credit report. It could come to bite them in the ass when they try to buy a car or a house.
I know it's not a good solution, and I hate that we have to cater to the lowest common denominator, but it might mean recovering at least some canopies.

Being that I am still on student status, I haven't demoed a canopy yet, but don't manufacturers get a credit card before sending a demo out?

Etta James is incredible. Her music is silky smooth velvet for the soul. If you get a chance to listen to "A sunday kind of love" or "At last", I think you will agree.

Also another group from my hometown of Knoxville, Robinella and the CC String Band is worth checking out if you like swing, bluegrass and blues.

Anyway... carry on...

Hey, I was just going through some of my old posts and realized I didn't thank anyone for their time in answering this. Thank You all for your time and thoughts and sorry it took so long to reply.

Hopefully I will get to finish my AFF at Dublin. I kind of lost interest briefly, then it was too cold for me, but im back.

Joe

Getting old.

It can't blow up by means of fire getting inside the can. It CAN blow up if the outside of the can gets heated up though.

Work Van

318/22.1=14.4 mpg

My $400 civic

448/9.95=45.025 mpg

1991 Honda Civic I paid $400 for. It gets 45 mpg on the highway as long as I don't push over 80 mph.

I drive back and forth to work for two weeks on a 10 gallon tank of gas.

It takes me under a 1/2 tank of gas to drive the 200 plus miles to the farm.

Fuel going up means it takes an extra 2 or 3 dollars a tank to fill up, so Gas prices aren't making much of a difference to me, yet.

Sales are above last year. Targets are just targets. If you are doing better than last year, then sales are up.

If you don't like the pressure, ride it out long enough to find something better. If the seperation package offered is good, does it give you three months to find something else? Are you willing to relocate?