jigneshsoni

I wanted to add this question for my own training going forward. Are there any canopy control courses offered for a person not having an "A" license? I sure would sign up for one if that was an option.

I have come across so many articles, posts that talk about taking a canopy control course and improve ones basic skills to land canopy safely. I believe every time I read about this It implied one having an "A" license first. I find this very strange and a bit concerning. I mean shouldn't every single person doing a first solo jump should have enough knowledge about canopy control. I can understand this must be very challenging and one learns as you jump, but we are talking about life here or life left that is not quality here when a student is not able to land safely. I hear and read a lot of about freefall and all that is needed during freefall when reading about training but not much about canopy control and landing. I am thinking the most important thing in a jump is to pull at right altitude and the 2nd most important thing is canopy control while I think is not talked about much or trained much (at least not as much as other freefall stuff like turns, and rolls etc) All the above said I would feel a lot more comfortable and confident going through AFF if was a lot more confident about canopy control. Thoughs?

Thank for pointing out about my goals. I really had not thought about this in this perspective. My goal is sure to complete AFF as well as get the license. But never thought about how I will be current after that. On my first thoughts I sure want to stay current after that and not wait several months before I can jump again. I sure have some thinking to do now.

I live in NJ and I believe all DZs in this area are closed for the winter. I was wondering what DZs are open in the country all year round. I was thinking to visit one of them while taking few days off from work to complete my AFF training. I am seeking input on which DZs should I consider and why? How was your experience completing AFF within a few days? What are the challenges you had during this?

I was looking at the fatalities database and noticed that there was around 50% less fatalities in North America as compared to any year in last 10 years. How accurate is this information? Any ideas about the reasons about such a wonderful progress as a sky diving community? Is there a data maintained about total number of jumps?

Its been 4 years I did not jump. Things didnt go very well for me in my attempts to learn to skydive. With all the frustrations and cost, I gave up jumping then. I am ready again. I believe my biggest problem and challenge while learning to sky dive was "FEAR" I am sure everybody has fears when they are learning to skydive but I am starting to believe that I fear much more then most people. Or maybe fear impacts my mind more then it impacts others. It keeps coming in my way while learning. Well all that said, 1 postive quality I have is I never give up. So here I am again and making plans and thinking of everything so I can get started again and learn to sky dive. After a lot of thinking, I have decided my approach to learn skydiving and wanted to share it with you wonderful people and get your advise and suggestions for the same. Like I mentioned about fear is what I have to manage and it is not going to be easy. I feel that the lesser things I have to manage while in sky dive, the better it is for me to manage fear. Also we all know how student jumps gets expensive when you keep repeating levels. Based on my personality and the cost, I am leaning towards doing the Static Line route for learning to skydive. This will give me the opportunity to manage lesser things in each jump, exactly what I want. Give me the opportunity to get over atleast some fear of "jumping out of the plane" by getting more jumps for the money as compared to AFF. Please let me know your thoughts on this? Also I find that not a lot of Dropzones do Static Line training, I live in Central NJ. Please help me find a dropzone that will make sense for my goals?

I am back again. Its been 4 years now that I am out of the sport. I am one of those problem student who went through a lot to get it right, but it didnt happen for me. I have never given up on anything in life and not giving up on sky diving either, so here I am back!!!! I have been silent reader of the forums since ever and posting here after a long long time. I have been thinking about sky diving every single day of my life even though I didnt jump since last 4 years. But now I am ready to go for it again. I just have to do this. I have wanted this so bad since ever. Even though I did not jump all these 4 years, I still missed iy every single day of my life. So here I am, thinking about the right approach to get into the sport and get it right this time. Please give me all your blessings and good wishes. Any advise, suggestions welcome on how and where I should get started this time? Regards Jignesh

Your post reminds me of my own butt experience. :-) I did too many tandems in my learninng program. Like a total of around 5-6. I was taught to always lift my legs up when landing. So I developed a bad habit of doing it even in solo. My instructor warned me several times. But I guess I was not listening or whatever.....don't know..... Once I landed on my butt and it was pretty HARD. I guess I got a very minor hair line fracture or something on my tail bone. I walked funny for almost 3 weeks. If I hit my butt hard even on a semi hard surface, it still hurts.

I just don't know where to start.......Your words "Unless you're in the Army or the plane is going down, I believe everybody skydives for the same reason (regardless of what they say) - because it's fun. Pure and simple. Fun. My last actual jump - the nasty static line one - and my last attempt at a jump on Friday were not in any way fun. They were scary and painful and frustrating" they mean so much to me. I can completely relate to you since I have my own frustrating experiences. I have been jumping and just like you said...like everybody I jumped for fun...and want to jump for fun.....but like you, my jumps have been only scary painful and frustrating.......I don't think many people understand this.....it is not easy to have fun when all you feel is fear......it indeed takes a lot of courage to keep jumping in the hope to have fun while not having any..... I am very happy for you that you managed to have fun on your tandem.....it's good you found your "reset" button. I am finding my own "reset" button. I might consider your idea....maybe.....

Yes I am scared of skydiving. But who isn't? I understand it makes me incapable of learning when you are scared. The question is how not to be scared? I have read ton of post and books on not to be scared, but I don't think it is helping me much. Sorry about my tone in my post, I am just very frustrated not being able to achieve my goals in sky diving. Well goals could keep changing, but my current goal is to get my "A" license so I can jump unsupervised so I can afford jumping more and can develop my skills at my own pace rather than constantly worried about how much the jump has costed me and I was not able to clear the level. I just wish there was a better program to learn where each invidual accordingly to his/her personality could learn at his/her own pace at a reasonable price. As a student I have a lot to deal while I am skydiving, I should not be having to deal with eaither a perform certain things in the dive or "you just lost another approximately 175$" It is overkill of a price one has to be pay while not progressing. I appreciate all of you responding my post and your private messages, I know I will have to work this out somehow myself like most things in life, but any more guidance that will actually lead me to my "A" will be great. If I analyze my major issues while I am learning to sky dive are the following. I honestly do not know how to overcome it. I am sure almost all of you had the same issues but I guess those didn't affect you as much as it is affecting me or you guys handled it much better than the way I am handing it. I get all that, I just don't know what to do about it now? 2 major problems I have: 1) I am scared......who isn't? 2) $$$$$$. Thanking all of you for your advice and kind words. Regards Jignesh

Thanks for all your responses. Like always all you guys rock. I missed to mention a few things in my original post so here goes: I already did a 25 minute tunnel time. All my jumps were not AFF. They were combination of Tandems, IAD, AFP, custom. But on an averge it did cost me around 160$ a jump. The very reason I am posting here shows that I still want to do this; just don't know how. I want to learn to sky dive and enjoy it like most of you very bad; but don't we all have some kind of $$$ limit to how much we are willing to spend to achive something. Ofcourse I want to do this very bad, but like all of you there are also other things that are important in life besides sky diving. Family, job, kid, career. I really don't know about others, but just becuase I have to limit on how much I want to spend on things I want to do in life. Examples: I donate money to charity every year. It gives me happiness at some level. Ofcourse I can donate a lot more but does not mean I am going to. Nobody has "unlimited" resource of money. So we have to plan how much we can spend on what. Sky diving is a risky sport and scary too especially in the beginning. The thought of me jumping out of the plane brings a smile on my face and want to do it so bad. Also scares me, I don't want to die or get hurt. I have wanted this very bad; but like I mentioned I have a limit on how much I want to spend on this. I already crossed that limit just becuase I wanted it so bad convincing myself that it will be all worth it. :-) But it still didn't work out for me. I stopped and I still wanted it bad, so started again obviously didn't have "unlimited" resource of money this time either and not seeing myself progress is very upsetting and discouraging. Finally gave up........... I know it is going to be very hard for most of you to understand my situation becuase you didn't go through what I am going thorugh. You have to walk the shoe to find out where and how much it bites. But the only thing that makes me feel a little better is that I am not alone like you guys mentioned. Thanks for all your support. Now coming to the point, I have wanted this and sitll want this and want this still bad. I want to do this. Is there any way I can get this done without worrying about money. I have showed my committment to get this right by sticking to it for so long with the failures and injuries and still wanting it. Is there anyway, anybody, any DZ that can make this happen for me?

I have never given up in life. Always achieved what I wanted. But sky diving is 1 thing that is something I have not been able to achieve what I wanted. I have tried and tried and tried even harder and I failed. I know I know many of you are going to say "Failed, how come?" If you landed and are fine you didn't fail" But thats not what I am talking about. Here is my history of sky diving: Somtime in 2002. Wanted to pursue sky diving but there my personal and financial situation didn't allow me. But I knew then that someday I will sky dive and will sky dive good. In 2005 I decided to take the AFF program and I kept repeating levels. It's hard to explain why I kept repeating levels. I also injured myself, nothing major, but it would scare me. I wanted to get it right so bad. I was so determined to get it and get my "A" license. I was costing me a lot to repeat levels. I was not even having fun. It is easy for many people to say "have fun" But from my prespective it is not easy. It is scary, challenging and it is not easy to have fun with no success and even getting hurt. The fact that I still continued it tells me how badly I want to do it. But with no success it really is hard to go on. Money was the major factor I had to finally give up. I could not afford to keep spending money and not make progress. 2007 9 more jumps: In 2007 I jumped again since I wanted it so bad. I changed the place and changed the program which made mos sense to me. Again I was not progressing, I can atleast say very very slow progress and again I was not having fun. There was too much to deal with, the fear, spending money wihout mush progress and all that again the same thing. When you keep spending money and you are not progressing much and not having fun, I believe you get to a point where you start questioning yourself why you are doing this and all that? Also you keep getting injured here and there makes you feel even moe nervous and depressed. I finally gave up!!!!! OK now this is 2008 and almost end of the season, I wonder where did I go wrong? Don't I have basic skills that is required for this sport? Have I been so unlucky to get bad instructions 2 times? I doubt that. Was I not committed enough? I really don't know. What I know is that I want to do this. I want to enjoy this. I want to have fun. I really don't how? I tried 2 times, didn't work out. Are there other people out there who went through what I have been through? Am I alone? I just hope not. I have head many people struggled in their early days, but really don't know anybody who did actually made so many student jumps (costing average 150$) and still stick to the sport. I still want this and want this really bad. I live in NJ. I wish there was some place that would give me some kind of personal training and commit to me the way I would want to commit to sky diving. I wish there would be a way that somebody could commit to train me, work with my in every way to get me sky diving. Somway that I don't have to spend per jump basis, but spend for the program which would gurantee some results.

I am not sure if this suggestion has already been made. The traffic on this site and the active membership makes me think, this must have been brought up already many many times. Anyways, so I was wondering if there was a way to know who is online and if there was a way to chat with the person, just like you do it on yahoo,AIM,MSN. This would be great.

Thanks. I will definitely let everybody know when that day comes. It seems to be far, but I will make it there. I normally don't drink, but I want to get drunk so bad to celebrate this when it happens.

I think that people that over analize skydiving and it's safety like you are, are looking for a reason to justify quitting it. I do not mean to offend you but you might want to re think if you want to continue skydiving. I believe your intent was not to offend me. But those were pretty harsh statments. No offence taken since everybody can have their own opinin. I totally dis-agree with yours. I do not think people who analyze skydiving and it's safely are looking for a reason to quit. They are infact looking for everything that can go wrong and master all aspects of it to become a good skydiver. I do not think there is anythhing like "over analyze" It is just a perspective of 1 person for the other persons analyzing behaviour. On offence taken, but I have indeed re-thought if I want to continue sky diving many times, and everytime I come to the conclusion that "YES I WANT TO CONTINUE SKYDIVING BECUASE I LOVE THIS VERY MUCH. This does not mean I am not going to analyze all aspects of skydiving. To me analzing only makes me safer.

Thank you very much to all of you who repsonded to my post. I just wanted to share my thought process since this has happened: 1) When this happened, for first 20 seconds, I felt I have broken both my legs. 2) When I stood up and a attempted to walk, it didn't hurt so bad. So I felt I am going to be fine. 3) Later within 15-20 min, it felt that I am hurt enough that I definitely cannot jump the same day. 4) Later realized that I am hurt enough that I might not jump for several weeks. At this point I got all the negative thoughs about "WHY i AM DOING THIS" ? This lasted only for around 20-30 min. 5) After that I just felt this is part of the sport and I am doing this becuase I love this. I will do this as long as I can. 6) It's been around 2 days now. I am healing faster then I thought and I want to sky dive more then I ever wanted to. Can't wait to heal completely and jump again

I am sure many of you had some or the other injuring while skydive? I was interested to know what are the thoughts you have in mind for next 30 min, next 3 hours, next 3 days and next 3 weeks? I am a student and have been through a lot to become to sky diver. I am very working hard to do this or maybe beating myself too hard. If you of you interested in what I have been through you can look at all my posts to get an idea. I reason I came up with this post is becuase my last skydive did not go so well. I wanted to share my thoughs after the sky dive and wanted to know the same with many of you of went through a similar experience. OK here is mine: I had a hard landing and both my ankles and kness are hurt. Can't explain the degree of hurt, but will try my best to give you the idea. I can walk, isn't that cool? but I can walk very slowly, limping a bit. I will be going to the doctor and try to get more details. PM me if any of you interested in more details of the injuries. But that's not my point of creating this post. The point is what goes through your mind when such a thing happens. To me as soon as I landed, I felt I might have broken both my legs for good. Since I was thinking all this, I do not get up from the ground for almost 10-15 seconds. it might have given ideas to other people that this is major, but thank god it was not so. I got up and started walking, even though slow. My right ankle was hurting, not so bad though. At that time I was convinced that this is not so bad. So stop worrying tooo much. But still I had lost awareness of place and time and everything happening around me since I was upset and sad on why did this happen and why I am stuggling so hard to get this. Why does it goes so easy for most of the people. Later why I was driving home, there were lots of negative thoughts. "SHOULD I BE SKYDIVING" Is this natures indication that I should STOP SKYDIVING? It was making me feel very depressed and sad. I am convined that there is skydiving is not much of a physical thing. It's all just the mind thing. I did not like the feeling I was not able to get something so simple. OK I know most of you think I am beating myself so much, but read on....... All these thoughs were only for around 45 min. I am not sure what happened after that, but suddenly I started feeing better, I was not feeling sad anymore. I felt I can still do this. there is nothing about sky diving that I cannot do it. If 1000's of people can do it, there is no reason I cannot do it. AND I AM GOING TO DO THIS. I now started feeling bad that my legs are injured and I might not be able to jump next weekend. Right now I want to skydive more then I ever wanted to. I just can't wait to do it again and do it all right this time. Comments? and your experience will much apppreciated.

I have wondered about this all the time. Is there even such a thing like "Safe Skydiving" I mean we are jumping out of the plane. This can never be safe. Now, I am sure there is more to this. I am more interested in opinions on the degree of being safe. I am more interested in knowing what people think unsafe situation for a person in general. I understand downsizing canopy is unsafe, but what if you have 1000's of jumps. Do sky divers draw a line on what they will do and what they will not do in skydiving that will keep them safe? I mean say if a person decided never to do any swooping, never to jump when wind is more then 14mph. Never to jump when there is turbulence more then certain degree. Stick to the same canopy size. Not involve in risky disciplines in freefall. Is this person any safer then most of the skydivers who do all the things mentioned above? Don't you think sky diving will become boring to such a person and that will actually make him unsafe? What do you think?

Wonderful News. It was so tiring to drive 5 hours to NH last weekend.

After my last post, I did the following: 2 more IAD jumps 1 freefall jump 20 minutes in Tunnel. I feel so good now. I have started having fun now. I find myself so much more relaxed now as compared to what it used to be, I can't wait to finish the rest of my training and get my "A"

Welcome back and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! I can totally relate to about all your experiences. I have been through the same. I am still going through the same/similar challenges. Let us both overcome these hurdles. I am sure both of us will be exellent sky divers pretty soon.

I am no way in place to give any advice here. I have had major problems. You can look at my previous posts to get an idea. I will just give a brief idea on what I have been through and what I plan now. This might give you some ideas: My first fun Tandem jump was in 2001. I decided to get my "A" in 2005. I started doing the AFP program. They call it Tandem Progression. I did around 5 Tandems. After that I did a total of 12 solos. I can say I wanted this so bad so did not giive up even after the fact that my jumps sucked. I was not performing the way I was expected to and kept repeating levels. I was told to have fun. But honestly it was not fun. I just could not get over the fears and frustration of repeating. Result I decided to STOP atleast for sometime. Now again in 2007. I have come up with a new plan. My conclusions about my failures was 1 major reasons: TOO MUCH OF FEAR, NOT RELAXING. To overcome to above. I came up with a new plan. I did 1 IAD jump. This costs a lot lesser and also you have not to much deal with too many things. You can just focus on 1 thing at a time. I plan to do 1 more of this jump. Then I will be doing some tunnel time and then do the regular AFF jumps. For levelling my fears, I spent a lot of time with my instructor. She is just GREAT. Do not have any of your questions unaswered. ASK OUT every question that crosses your mind. When I discussed my most fears with my instructor, that made me more relaxed. The result was after 2 years and my first jump, I get a "Stand Up landing" for the first time. This was my 17th jump. Any of the mentioned about was not a advice, but just my experience and what I have been through. The only 1 advice I can give is "Make sure you talk a lot with your instructor, talk abaout your fears and concerns"

There are many of you who already know how bad it was going for me when I first tried to learn to Skydive. For some reason, honestly I still don't know the reasons, it was not working out for me. I tried and tried, I tried very hard, I do know that. Finally I could not handle it. I could not afford to keep spending money and not progress. I finally gave up. Not on sky diving, but not spending money and not progressing. I never actually gave up sky diving. I sky dived in my mind for 2 long years. It was not a good feeling. I kept analyzing what I was doing wrong. Still don't know. I did have lot of other things going on in my life. I always knew and that I will come back. I always knew I wanted this very bad. I always knew I will do it. I just did not know when since all my terrible experiences. I finally decided to come back. It was not easy. But I did come back. I did my first IAD jump and ..... IT WAS A BLAST. IT WAS SO WONDERFUL. I jumped after 2 years and my first jump went so great. I just don't have the right words to describe it.. But I can say I had my first stand up landing. WOW. I still can't believe this. I can't wait to complete the rest of my training and get my "A" I want this SO BAD.

I am not sure if this is a weird question to any of you, but I was just wondering. I have come across many things in life for which I would be very excited about to fulfill it, achieve it. Many things in my personal life as well as work. Things I would be involved with full passion and determination. I would find myself almost everytime that I would lose interest in the activity after sometime. The "Sometime" could be few days to several years. I am sure most of you would have felt the same way about many things in life. I am not new to sky diving as a sport, but I can definitly say there is not much I know about the sport. I have yet to learn a lot. But was wondering how many of you experienced guys feel the same way? Did anybody out there ever lost interest in sky diving? Did you quit it for sometime becuase you lost interest and then come back? I was also wondering how would it affect the safety of sky diving if you are not enjoying it at the 100% level like you used to at some point?

I did my first Tandem jump in 1999. Spent around 240$ including video. Did the rest of my 15 jumps in 2005. Did 2nd Tandem for around 185$. Did AFP Program and never completed it due to many reasons, major reason being that I was repeating levels and could not handle the stress that was coming spending so much money. During the AFP program I did a total of 16 jumps. First jump cose was around 285$ and the rest of them were average around 170$. Spending so of money and not progressing was putting enormous stress on me and my performance. FINALLY GAVE UP!!!!!! Inspite of all this, I am starting it all over again. I have missed this so bad and have wanted this so bad. But I am very scared to history repeating. I want to be absolutely make sure this time, that I enjoy this and feel the worth of each jump. After a lot of thinking, have come to conclusion, Static Line/IAD is the way to go. I wish I had known about this when I started jumping.