Akey

I do not wish to discredit the dropzone as it could well end up becoming my local. It treats fun jumpers very well, it has an excellent atmosphere that i have not found elsewhere, I did not meet any skygods or any other snobbery for that matter and everyone was very helpful. In all honestly i think it was one of the friendlist DZ i've been to, its only really the tandem thing i find a bit wiered. I mean in all honesty i do find myself asking if it actually matters, i mean would any student be bothered? At the end of the day, they still got to jump out an airplane...

Stay alive Get out of debt, ideally stay out of it... Buy a rig Get FS1 and my B licence Ideally reach 200, but in reality i'd be happy by just getting in 100 or so. Maybe nearing the end of the year try out some ff, or else start to train for fs.

I visited a dropzone the other day (shall remain undesclosed) and was rarther surprised to find that they were charging full price for altitudes of around 5-6k to tandem students. On seeing one of their videos i heard it mentioned that they would be going to 'around 10k' however they didn't appear to even get 10sec of freefall, i think i counted around 8... I did not feel i could say anything due to low jump numbers etc. but it did make me feel a little uneasy. What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever experienced something similar and what would you do? I mean the tandem students were still really happy etc.

Just wait till jonny gets fit again (i'm off to see him play this week) and robinson decides to come back to the international circuit and you'll be sorry (please say yes, please say yes!!) As for the haka, apparently it gives the all blacks a psycological advantage, ideally we would have an equivilant to make it fair, but somehow i don't think a morris dance would psyce up the team in quite the same way...

So that you realise how much fun it is, spend loads of money on it, wind up in debt and learn that you have to try clincal trails once because it is sooo good for humanity?

Does this mean that i have a larger pack volume...

I need to buy that book, but it is like £100... Oh well, there goes a load of my student loan!!

I am a brit, and i would like to think we don't do things that differently. Although looking here under 'movie myths' i would like to ask the following: where the fuck can you get 'typically' 80 seconds freefall without O2, although maybe i'm, wrong if these guys are pulling at 2-2.5 grand

Mate, i completly respect your decission. You did the reasearch, you made a couple of jumps to see if it was for u and decided that it was not. It's great to see people who make the effort, even if it means that they don't go into it in the long run, they are still more educated about the sport. I wish more people did this, then there would certainly be more skydivers! Also, if you really want to get into it, i reakon downloading a few gigs worth of movies from http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php will probably convince you! Hope u get to jump in the future, and remember, you can't take life too seriously or you might end up dead.

Did my aff in a week, some people take a year. Depends how much money you have, how much free time you are willing to sacrifice, and also on the weather. Passed mid July, prob. spent £2200-2400 at a guess (only have my own helmet, goggles, alti, jumpsuit) (although uk jump tickets are more expensive). As for how many jumps you can jump, well, for me that depends purly on how much more i want to put on my credit card Max is 7, lowest is 1. How much will you pay once your certified? Too much, yet not enough.

So would you call someone who has done 1 or 2 dives sometime on holiday a 'diver', no. (and i doubt they would either), they have done a dive, they are not a diver. In the same way, tandems students have done a skydive, they are not a skydiver (IMHO). If you are taken round a race track by a racing driver, are you a racing driver? My very first skydive was a tandem, i turned up to the DZ, did my jump, no one really said much to me (and i did not expect them to either, although i did make an effort) and i went home. The reason i did it was to confirm to myself that it was worth the money to do aff. I saw it as an experience, nothing more. I do not see that as the start of me skydiving, i see my aff level 1 as that. Now just to confirm i have NOTHING against tandem students. I encourage my friends to give it a go, and i recommend it to anyone, both simply for the fun of it, and also for a way to confirm to yourself that it fits you (like i did myself) someone is thinking of getting into it, and i agree that the DZ would not operate without them.

The majority of people on earth would be skydivers, and the cost of a rig would decrease massivly due to an increased demand and more efficent manufacturing processes :)

Yep, you have a very good point, but i still feel the same way. I also totally agree that relitivly speaking, i am a complete noob in this sport, but i would like to think that i recognise myself as one, as opposed to seeing myself as the next gods gift to skydiving. In addition, i plan to stay in this for the long run, so i guess i do see my self differently to some guy who turns up, does one tandem in his life and brags about it to his friends for years to come. P.S-I know it doesn't make jack difference to an experienced jumper, but i hadn't updated my profile. Actually have 35 jumps now (by end of sat. over 40

I totally agree with people seeing skydiving as a rollercoster thing. When i say i skydive (which i now try and avoid as it warrents a load of Q i have answered a billion times in the same way), it really bugs me the way loads of people say 'oh, i've done that' or 'i know a friend who has skydived' and all they have done is a tandem. Not having a moan at people doing tandems, thats great, but it doesn't make you skydiver. I think it is the fact i worked my butt off to save up, spent time and effort putting in the work and people just see what we do as the same as being a tandem passenger. If you have done a skydive, you are a skydiver...wtf? Now i am not saying this is a good attitude to have, coz it means i'm less likly to talk about the sport, thus it is less well advitised, but i can't help it, and i bet a load of people out there are the same.

Risky, i wouldn't, main problem is battery life. Rechargables get worse and worse the more times they are used so on a refurbished one it would probably not be that good. Creative players give you alot more for your money, i would go with one of them.

Yer, i think money is a big reason, my friends keep saying they want to do it (one guy was really serious) but the money issue... For me, i traded in a car, lots of trips abroad so i could learn, obviously i see it as being well worth it, others don't.

Oh no no, i'm sorry, i did not mean it like that at all, and i am sorry if any offence was caused, i do not wish to sound big headed, i know i have the most to learn of everyone.

Okay we could split hairs all day. The thing is, there is no point worrying about it. If its going to fail, its going to fail, but if so, what was the point of worrying anyway, coz it was always going to happen!

I don't know how many thousand base jumps have been made over the years, but this is how many complete mals have happened over those many many thousand, i have alot of time on my hands at this moment... Info from http://hometown.aol.com/base194/myhomepage/base_fatality_list 1. June 2nd 1982 (#3) (although this should be picked up in a gear check) 2. March 7 1983( #6) (but v. unlikly 2 ever happen in skydiving) 3. 1986 (#10) (Not sure the full details, but being sceptical this may have been a failure to deploy) 4. October, 1987 (#16) (although i doubt this would happen with a spring loaded pilot chute) 5. 1990 (#22) 6.June 10, 1990 (23) Although again, with a spring loaded pilot...) 7.December 2,1997 (52) (although doubt this would happen with spring loaded pilot) 8.September 27, 2001 (59) Report sounds v. typical media, and although it could have been a mal, could also have been base specific problem of lack of altitude. 9.August 15, 2002 (#67) 10. October 11, 2002 (#71) (but maybe would not have happened with a spring loaded pilot chute) 11.January 27, 2003 (#73) 12. October 9, 2003 (#78) But could have been a problem with over delay as opposed to gear mal. 13.March 15, 2006 (#94) There are other deaths from impacts, but the ones which were more obviosuly due to probelms locating pilot chutes/low pulls were not included above. Being sceptical, around 13 people have died in BASE due to gear mals. If you were to say 'that would not happen in a skydiving situation due to XYZ', then you one could well reduce that number to 4 or 5 if that. Anyone care to make a guess how many base jumps have been made? both a high and a low number. Then you could make a rough estimate of the chances of a reserve mal.

I qualified abroad in spain, deffinatly the way to go IMHO, better weather, get it done in one go, and cheaper!

I've head that a hot air balooning is several times more dangerous than skydiving i kid you not.

greatest film I can't wait till the film, he is such a genius 'kazakhstan is the greatest' Greatest fim

At the moment, the idea of me doing that a 150 sounds a bit low, but then again, who knows what i'll be like at that many jump #. Thanks for all the advice, i think i've realised that i am a GOOD 2 years off being able to get near a comfortable jump # to go with a tandem (am a poor student), thanks for all your advice anyway!

When you say min. 500 jumps, is this any 500 or 500 odd jumps the vast majority are FS jumps?

What experience level would you expect in order to jump with a tandem. I.E-D-licence holder jumping with a friend who is a tandem passenger (obviously okay). But what about say a B/C licence holder? (I personally would NEVER jump alongside a tandem at my current skill level, i'm just asking how long it would be before i could, 200+ jumps?)