Chubba

I think that's the key. Buy some nice conservative gear and KEEP IT, you don't need to take years off, but selling your gear is forcing you to. I sometimes cycle off for a few months here and there, no doubt in the future I'll end up having a yearly break or something. It doesn't matter though, because I have my nice rig with a Sabre2 loaded @ 0.95 sitting in my cupboard... can jump straight back into the sport anytime I want with that type of gear.

Right on, it's all just a different mindset. I jump a Sabre2 170 @ 0.95 and I'm very happy, going to keep it till 300+ jumps, learn wingsuit on it, learn camera on it. I have plenty of fun jumping it and I feel comfortable knowing I can stand it up 100% of times in ideal conditions and WHEN (haven't yet) I get into that extremely ugly situation, it's going to treat me well. Sure it's sucky in high winds, but I'm young (23) and want another 30-40 years of jumping ahead of me... so I just sit down when it's over over 20 knots pushing 25, chat with the blokes and jump again another day. I just wish everyone would stand up and say NO, a wingloading of 1.2 is NOT acceptable for a person with 18 jumps essentially... don't pussyfoot around the issue, there is absolutely no reason why he can't jump a 190 or 210.

I know exactly what you mean. Once I got to 100 jumps onwards, there was a new group of freshly licensed jumpers and guys learning the ropes of RW going out base and suddenly I was diving in. I think your time will come very soon to stop going out base EVERY single dive.

Oh of course, everything is very neat, by sloppy I mean if I didn't have enough pressure on the folds and the canopy escaped on me a bit, more volume essentially but everything important is still in the right place. If I keep perfect pressure when folding and bagging, I can close it easily with a closing ribbon, if it escapes a bit I use the ribbon just for simplicity sake... but never is the slider or lines sloppy.

This! I couldn't close my d-bag for the first ~50 packjobs on my Sabre2 without using the closing ribbon. Even now if I do a sloppy packjob or the canopy somehow gets away from me when doing the folds/bagging, I'll just reach for the ribbon and tada, 2 seconds.

That's beside the point. High winds aside, you would have been safer in every single scenario under a Sabre2 190 or 210. I don't see any reason why the OP should load over 1.0 given his situation. It's not hard or expensive at all to buy 2nd hand, put 100 jumps on a canopy then sell/downsize.

I would say go buy a 190 or possibly a 210 depending on how current you're intending to be (you have done both extremes it seems). The 190 will still be loaded close to 1.0, would be a perfect loading to learn on. No need to jump to 1.2 loading after 20 jumps.

Cookie gear is very expensive, you should have put that towards jumps at this point in time. All your jumps coming up you need strong focus, you got lots of skills to learn... whether it's learning the ropes of RW, learning to sit-fly, going on tracking dives etc. you can't truely focus on building these core skills while trying to obtain video footage. I've just gone through this stage, RW is hard, learning to FF is hard, your video is going to be terrible and you won't be focused on building these fundamental skills... not to mention the real danger of jumping camera too early.

Whether other jumpers survived safely under an elliptical for their first canopy is irrelevant IMO. There's a massive range of suitable first canopies avaliable, new or used... you would be crazy not to stick with tried and true designs for newer jumpers... the heatwave isn't one of them.

Talk to your instructors and pick a more suitable design. You don't want to buy an elliptical for your first canopy.

Tell me about it, they must be working very hard because once I went off AFF it was a insant battle. Even jumping with experienced skydivers, they don't go chasing you around, they fly their slot and it's completely obvious if you fly backwards or sink/float. God damn frustrating rel-work.

On that note freeatlast and this is most definitely the wrong advice, I bought my Sabre2 170 (loaded 1.0) purely from reading DZ.com. I was having very bad canopy control on a Fury 220, bad pattern, bad flare, bad everything... turned up at the DZ without consulting my instructors and told the DZO/CI what I had bought ($6500 rig). Absolutely kicked my ass... I recieved a grilling that literally put me in tears. Now I've passed over 100 standups in a row on my first canopy, I love it. I think DZ.com is a valuable resource for people buying their first canopy, just be sure to have these discussions with your instructors.

Make sure you demo some modern 9-cell ZP designs when deciding on your first canopy. I'm very bias but the results I see from new jumpers getting their first set of gear are very positive.

Wouldn't leaning back, pulling down the rears, lead to the pilot swinging under the canopy... therefor leaning back more etc. I forsee a similar problem with people reaching out a leg on landing and doing harness turns, then when it starts turning people stick the leg out which makes it turn more. Or perhaps I'm not making any sense at all.

+1 I hate looking into tinted or reflective glasses/goggles at anytime... skydiving or regular life. Docking someone with an open face + clear googles >>> random falling body.

Do I get to upgrade from the 1.2 version I purchased?

I jump an I-44 with a Sabre2 170 main, it's tight and still somewhat a pain in the ass to pack. I personally wouldn't try to get a 170 into an I-33, also take into account the small reserve as mentioned above.

The more I think about it, you should have given your AFFI's that nudge and recieved a solid explanation.

You're the type of person I like around the dropzone... no matter the experience level, you should always be looking (remember, never touch without asking) at everyones rigs.

As a fellow lightweight, just make sure your body can handle the extra weight when landing. It definitely puts additional stress and strain on your knees, after a bunch of jumps with weights, I've decided they're not for me.

How are you guys checking your own pins? Are you reaching back, popping your flap, feeling the pin then redoing the flap without looking? I'm a bit confused here or perhaps I'm extremely unflexible.

It's most definitely a "feel" thing, there's multiple variables when it comes to flare height. Best to listen to your instructors, they know what gear/canopy you are flying, what conditions you're landing under and how you are flying.

I have rubber bands, pull up cords and replacement closing loops in my "extras" section.

I have velcro-less toggles on my rig, the bottom part has never come out on opening.

Very important. It's not pretty, but let your body take the majority of the beating via a PLF... once you start sticking hands out and breaking them, there goes your livelihood.