MagicGuy

My mom isn't exactly for the idea of skydiving, but she knows that it's something that I love and that regardless of what she says, I'm going to do it anyways. She has friends that skydive and they also help to ease her worries. The only thing she asks of me is that I don't tell her when I'm going to jump, but that she wants to hear all about it after I land. :) I think she has a secret fascination for it but just doesn't want to show it!

Congrats! I hope yo be in your shoes very soon..

I don't have a skydiving license yet, just a student, but I think jumping with an iPod would be awesome. If you designated a playlist, you wouldn't have to fuss around with it so you could just focus on the task at hand, which is, obviously, deploying the chute and making it down safely. I just think it would be great, not saying I would do it without a good number of jumps under my belt. But I see it really heightening the experience.

Yeah, I plan on it. I only did tandems so I knew it was something I wanted to do seriously. My first tandem was great, but a bit overwhelming. I didn't eat anything beforehand so I was a little light-headed once the canopy was deployed. But afterwards I couldn't have been happier, and my next tandem was even better. Now that I know it's something that I want so badly (to the point where I think now that I've been exposed to it, I NEED to do it) I'll be going for my A License in April.

Skip the weekend, get it taken care of and you'll be back in no time. A friend recently had hernia surgery. He could see a decent sized bulge a couple inches above his family jewels. He got surgery, said it was more of a discomfort than anything, and was back to his job lifting heavy patients at a hospital within a couple of days. I'm sure you'll be fine. Ya probably don't want to risk making it worse by jumping this weekend, though. Just my $.02, take it for what it's worth.

I do smoke on occasion, but the natural high that you get while jumping is plenty enough for me. There are certain activities that I think smoking do enhance, but skydiving is one of those activites that I would never even think about trying while under the influence.

Well, the magazine was High Times which is focused completely on marijuana and everything surrounding it. I doubt the athlete submitted the photo if he was simply smoking a cigarette. Blue skies, red eyes, very clever I did a search and saw that there were a lot of past posts on marijuana and its use among skydivers. For good reason, most don't condone it's use for at least a day before a skydive.

A friend of mine pointed out to me an issue of the High Times Magazine, dedicated to pot smokers, a picture of a skydiver taking his last hit off of a joint before making his skydive. Obviously, this could be a very dangerous situation. I was just curious to hear some opinions of others regarding this. I expect to hear a lot of negative opinions, but look forward to reading them all. Blue Skies...

Too funny, but I can't blame the instructor for not letting him do a static line. Just the thought of having that guy controlling his own parachute is scary. I'll start practicing my door exits from a brick :)

Ya know, I almost said in my post that I wasn't going to go buy a rig off of eBay and try to jump it, probably should have. But yes, I absolutely would never attempt to do anything with this knowledge. I just love the sport so much, and enjoy learning what I can about it. I do appreciate your concern, and the information that you provided me with. At least I know what I'm looking at now! Thanks a bunch...

Hey everyone, I'm very new to skydiving, only been on a few tandems, but have full intentions of going for my AFF once the season opens back up. I'm trying to learn the most that I can about the sport so that I can go into my formal with some knowledge under my belt. I've seen a lot of pictures of skydiving rigs, and I was wondering if someone could enlighten me on exactly what I'm looking at. I often see two small pillow-like bundles on the back-pack straps of the harness. They seem to be connected to some cables. Are these ripcords? If not where on the rig is the ripcord located? I've also seen on certain rigs a small ball type of thing, right under the container. I'm assuming that this is for throw out type deployments, but I'm not positive. Was I right? I have looked everywhere for a diagram of a rig so I can know what everything is. I do apologize for my ignorance when it comes to skydiving terms. Like I said, I am an extreme newbie but like to learn everything that I can about the sport. Thanks for the information everyone!

I'm in Rhode Island, which kind of sucks because of the weather. I was hoping to complete the class before the jump season is over. I don't know much about skydiving, I've only been on one tandem. However, it was the craziest and most awesome thing that I have ever done, I think about it daily, and I can't wait until I can jump by myself and whenever I want to. Thanks for all the info, and treating a newbie like I belong here.

I'm curious to find out some prices on getting my A License. I'd like to hear some quotes on the price of the full course, from start to end, first time (well, one tandem) jumper to completion of A license. I'm also wondering how long it will take me to complete the course. Days, weeks, months? Thanks for the info everyone.

Hey guys, I'm brand new to the forums so I'll start off with a little intro. My name is Corey and I'm from Rhode Island. I'm 19 years old and I'm a magician. I've been fascinated with the idea of human flight for as long as I can remember (which got me started in magic) and even created my own illusion that allows spectators to see you levitate. Of course my fascination with flying has had me wanting to skydive for years and years. I had done the indoor skydiving in Vegas a couple years ago, but I was ready for the real thing. On Wednesday, August 17th, I got to live out my fantasy. I made my first tandem skydive at Skydive Newport in Middletown, Rhode Island. I hardly slept the night before, anticipating the best (and worst) of what could happen the next morning. At 8 0'clock I was woken up by one of my friends who was also coming along for the ride. It felt like I got about an hour's rest. On the car ride up all I could do was think about what I was about to do. I wasn't really nervous but I can't say that I wasn't thinking about all the "what ifs". Having two friends that were also taking the plunge definitely helped the situation. When we got to the airport we were kindly greeted by the owner and were given the paperwork to sign. Man, reading through that stuff wasn't exactly the most pleasant thing to read before jumping out of a plane. It basically said that you could possibly die and if you do your family can't sue the company over it. Knowing that the company had an impeccable safety record helped put me at ease. Once the paperwork was completed, the owner Marc went through everything we would need to know - body position, signals of when to uncross your arms etc. Because only two groups can fit into the plane at once, one of my friends stepped up to be the solo jumper. He would be the first to jump. When my friend arrived back on the ground, he was so excited that he was ready to go to an ATM and get another $200 to jump again! This was a great confidence boost. We didn't have much time until it was our turn to board the plane. It took about 15 minutes to reach our altitute of 10,000 feet. At about 9,000 ft my instructor hooked me up to him and reitterated the stuff that I would need to know. Once we were over our DZ, my friend's instructor opened up the door on the side of the plane...and holy $hit! This was probably my scariest moment. Hearing the wind blowing outside and the loud noise of the plane's engine was quite startling. But I knew there was no turning back. I waved goodbye to my friend and he was off. It was my turn...I scooted over to the door of the airplane and put my foot on the pedal outside of the plane. "Are you ready?"..."YES!!!" I shouted. "OK, ready, set, go!" and at that point I experienced the coolest thing I have ever done. We did a flip out of the plane, and man, those first couple seconds after exiting the plane are the best. As you all know it's a feeling thats hard to explain, but absolutely incredible to experience. Nothing around you, so peaceful and serene, and the feeling isn't that of falling, but more like flying. Absolutely amazing. The instructor than gave me the signal that he was deploying the parachute, which was a lot softer than I thought it was going to be. The parachute ride down was great, however not even close to the feeling of freefall. When I landed on the ground I was hit my many different emotions. Excitement that I had accomplished something that I have wanted to do for so long. Shocked at what I had just done. And dissapointed that it was over so quickly. Needless to say, I am HOOKED. For the past 3 days all I can think about is skydiving. I want to do it again. I want to keep doing it. I knew that I was going to love skydiving, but now I feel like I NEED to skydive. I am so glad that I did this. I honestly feel like a changed person. I can't wait to skydive again, and I hope to continue to grow in this sport.