jumpher10

I visited Mile-Hi recently and had a nice day of jumping. They had excellent facilities, very clean and neat. Lots of technology. Tv's everywhere for manifest, and for tandems waiting to jump who get to enjoy some television. Lots of room to pack. Friendly people, hott girls and lots of fun jumpers! My only complaints would be the trailer ride to the plane and back to the hangar after your jump. Especially the ride back, everybody stepping and falling all over your canopy. Due to the set up there, I understand its neccessary right now. I was also shocked at the amount of inexperienced jumpers doing bigger ways. Seemed very dangerous. I really enjoyed the scenery. Awesome rocky mountain backdrop! Overall, it was a fun time! I'd go back if I'm ever in the area again.

I went to SNE for the first time ever, it was during the Tiki Bar boogie. First off I was impressed with the facilities when I first arrived. It seemed like a really fun place. My first of 2 complaints, is that upon registration for the boogie, t-shirts werent a part of the package. I'm just wondering what I paid for? Yea yea, the booze, but other than that? The partying at night had lived up to the hype that I had been hearing for the past couple years. It was pretty awesome. But be careful, I've heard of girls choosing not to attend this boogie anymore b/c they feared for there safety. I'm not surprised, I witnessed some drunks have no boundaries. So if you want the chicks to keep coming, settle down a little people(not sure how much of this is really the DZs fault). My other complaint is that it felt very cliquey there. Some people didn't seem to inviting of others in there group of jumpers or just in general conversation. I watched this happen a few times, even to me. High five to manifest! Nice job! Don't let my feedback fool you, I did have a great time! I'll deff be back. Best wishes to Carp!

I recently attended skydive Elsinore DZ during the 10th annual Chicks Rock Boogie. The place had great facilities and lots of friendly employees and jumpers willing to help you out or jump with you. Everyone from the office girls to manifest, to tandem instructors chatting it up in the plane. It was a good vibe. I come from the east, everybodys a little bit more uptight. This was nice. I enjoyed 3 days of awesome jumping! The loads were turning pretty quick, despite some complainers on Saturday. What do you expect with a couple hundred jumpers there. My only complaint would be to have the packing mats swept off at night or in the morning. They got filthy real quick. Got back to NY and a cloud of desert dust and scorpians came out upon my first deployment. But seriously, that could have been cleaned up more regularly. Overall, awesome place that can meet all your skydiving needs. Plenty of wingsuiters, freeflyers, some belly flyers to jump with. Seemed like there was plenty of coaching available too. Thanks guys for running an awesome DZ!

I have found for myself, that while I find no comfort in accepting the worst possible outcomes that I do accept it and that allows me to not think about it and focus on the dive, which is where the focus should be. I didnt take AFF, but I did sit through a couple hours of a course after i was licensed with a friend of myne who was taking it. I was scared for my buddy, b/c i could barely follow along with all the material that was being spit out. He told me the course just felt like a blur and that he felt like he didnt retain alot. Now thats a scary thought when you're going up for your first jump. I took the static line course. I liked it b/c it was a slower progression. It allowed me to absorb all the things that were taught to me. Basically was safety procedures, arching and flying the canopy. That felt way more manageable than if i had to go to altitude and do freefall. I can't imagine how overwhelming that would be. And thats what i mean when i say "dont ride above your head". Focus on less and you'll absorb more. Then once you are comfortable and ready move on to the next thing. You can increase your safety odds. Learn from others mistakes, slow your progression by working on things you struggle with until its easy, plan your jumps in detail, find a jump partner that can work with you. Lots of things you can do. Skydiving is a risk. Is it worth it for you? You're the only one who can answer that.

Well I can't speak from experience with a serious injury in the sport, but I can speak from scary moments. I raced motocross for 10 years, and have been skydiving for 3 and have 160 jumps, 2 BASE. I have never broken a bone. The worst I've had is a concussion early on in my motocross racing. Now some may call this lucky. Id like to think its some luck but mostly good decision making and proper safety precautions. Heres what I do: understand and learn from my mistakes to avoid repeating them in the future, and I think the one that has kept me healthy all along is NOT "riding above my head"(its a saying in motocross) or know your current capabilities and skill level. Alot of people tend to push it to hard, to quickly with out mastering all the basics first. And thats when you get hurt. I think if you can do those two things consistently then you'll increase the safety of your jumps. And as one of the other guys said in a previous post, everytime you go to jump, you should be ok with the worst possible outcome as a possibility. Or else I wouldnt make that jump.