pulliam5555

[email protected] thanks

I'll be moving to FL this summer also. I would definitely like to get in touch with some locals anywhere in the state. I will be living in Melbourne, which I am guessing is around 3 hrs or so north of Miami. From what I heard from Marta at Vertigo, there's a lot of good A's. So what's your experience vandev, good access, remote objects, ect.? Thanks

The main reason I got into skydiving was with the intent to BASE jump (and from what I understand this is a growing trend, good or bad not really sure). Anyways, I got the minimum number of jumps (100) and then I was off to the FJC with vertigo (75 of the jumps were done 2 weeks prior to the FJC, so I guess I was as current as possible with that few of jumps). Then I arrived at class with around 6 other students, all with jumps in the 1000’s, ok now I was a bit intimidated, what the hell was I thinking. But I pressed on, learned as much as possible about every bit of detail on packing, then away we went to make our first jump. The first guy to jump was an instructor, then I opted to go next, my adrenaline was already peaking as it is, and I didn’t want to watch other nervous jumpers go first. Kept my eyes just above the horizon and bailed off, everything went fine, chute actually opened, and I landed fine. Can’t describe what I felt, I just knew I wanted to do it again. Anyways I watched the next guy go (had around 8000 skydives). Immediately went head down and he felt his lines hitting the back of his feet as the canopy deployed, scary as shit. His thoughts afterwards was he was trying to correct his body position like he would in a skydive jump (pushing off the winds at 120), learned instinct from all his skydives. So for his exit (one of the most important parts of a jump), in his case his skydiving experience didn’t help him. Even some of the other experienced skydivers had issues with there exits initially. So what does all this mean to me: - As far as the exit goes, since my skydiving experience is limited, I had none of those instinctual habits to unlearn or be more aware of. So for learning how to exit, I felt I was at least at their level, if not a little higher, and I am quite comfortable with my exit. - However my canopy piloting is not even close to their abilities. But I recognize this and only jump things at my level with several outs. On lower objects (sub 300) I will only SL when other jumpers may take a 1-2 sec FF. Also I have a much smaller tolerance to the weather conditions. If things aren’t perfect, I don’t jump. For every one jump that I have made I have probably walked away 2-3 other times. Even when others have made the jump. - Now as for my learning curve, its going to be a hell of a lot steeper than someone with more skydiving experience. Slider jumps/Cliff’s/terminal jumps are not even an option for me at this point. After a few hundred of tracking/CRW jumps, and a few hundred BASE jumps, maybe. But until then, I am quite satisfied doing SL off a 240ft span or a 1-2 sec FF at a certain 486 footer. Lastly, this is not advice or a recommended way of getting into the sport, only my experience and what I felt comfortable doing. BASE jumping is all about learning the limit to your abilities. However in order to do that (without ever jumping) you must read and talk to as many people as possible so you can start to build some sort of context to go off of. Then when you feel ready (100 skydives or 8000+) take the proper training at a safe object with a jumper with a few 1000 jumps, and take it slow. Anyways, that’s my 2 cents, stay safe, Rob

I'm Rob and I'm scared of the ground

Are there, or does anyone know any BASE jumpers in the Alabama area that I could get in touch with? I will be in Montgomery AL from Sept 11th to Oct 14, and will have every weekend and night free for jumping. On the weekends I am definitely willing to travel a few hundred miles for a jump. Also any advice or info on some local objects would be most appreciated. My e-mail is [email protected] Thanks, Rob