oldwrinklyninja

I was going to continue with RAPS after my first jump. Moved location from England to Scotland and went to Strathallan for next jump and the weather wasn't good to jump in. The next weekend I damaged my knee while doing some hiking in Norway and that put a stop to thoughts of carrying on for quite a while. If it hadn't been for that I can see no reason why I wouldn't have carried on doing RAPS, which is a shame because the people there were really nice and friendly. In the time injured though I started watching videos of students and thought AFF seems to be a better way to go. I spoke about this on another thread, ( http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3519868;page=3) and my thought is, if I was to start doing freefall by RAPS, if anything goes wrong like going unstable there is not much time to deal with it - in AFF there appears to be more breathing room - it's put better in that other thread. A couple of people seemed to agree there was truth in this (and judged my gender wrong... maybe should change that picture). @davelepka Yeah, I figured it was a no-brainer, but if it is such a simple choice, why doesn't everyone do it? So I thought I would check, see if I was missing something important, can do no harm in checking. ...dust in the wind dude, dust in the wind....

Hello everyone, Following my RAPS jump last year, I finally have enough money that I can do AFF. I've been looking into doing it in my own country (Scotland), or doing it abroad - specifically the freefall university in Spain. Now, to do it abroad it's all done within a week, the cost of flying out there, accommodation etc, all except food and drink is in the cost. To do it at home, it's only at weekends, it's in Scotland (I automatically think crap weather) and the cost is only for the training, oh and the cost of getting there each weekend will be expensive too. Here's the thing, it's cheaper to do it in Spain by a large amount which would be enough to pay for food, drink and then some to come back home with. Now as far as I can see, there are no reasons to do it in Scotland, none at all unless you have a fear of the sun or don't like not being able to get a pint of Tennants. I suffer from neither of these. Have I missed anything important? The freefall university has great reviews on this site and it seems like such a no-brainer to pick it, but, just thought I would check before I part with the cash - so far the biggest spend of my life in one go barring my postgrad course! Oh - and I only found that from google, so if anyone knows of any other good places for AFF to look into that would be much appreciated too :) Hope to be able to start posting as someone in the sport soon rather than wanting to be! ...dust in the wind dude, dust in the wind....

Well, here's my personal view on it - as someone that's planning on doing AFF this summer my reason is current for me. When I got the urge to try the sport, I went to a dropzone to do a static line jump, got the days worth of training, swore at the wind that had ripped off I believe all three windsocks and came back a few weeks later. Jump went well, landed on my feet and generally felt amazing :) However, when I think of progressing like that it worries me because on youtube there are many videos showing AFF students going unstable during freefall, and I wonder - if I am on s/l, that means I'm starting from lower heights, which means if I go unstable there is less time to deal with it. I guess it's the idea that, if you have 14,000 feet to fall from, there is more time to get stable/get used to it. So from a 'I have no idea what I'm talking about' point of view, it seems safer as there appears to be more time, though this does conversely mean more time to do wrong in. I would do static line again, but, I don't think I would be so comfy with starting freefall that way because you're on your own and it seems like more action compacted into a smaller time frame. I only have these thoughts because there is an alternative. And probably because of the damaged knee I got from a rather aggressive Norwegian fyord has given me a year to sit and think about it rather than being able to do it after my first. Please, I would love for some explanations on why I'm looking at it the wrong way, because if my point of view is flawed then you could make it possible for me to try get my skydive license for a third-ish of the price if everything went well. :) Oh and the being cool thing - it makes me sad when people do things for that reason - there's not much dumber. Reminds me of the guy I did the s/l with, he had 4 jumps by this point, and after it he told me the best thing about it was that everyone on the motorway beside the dropzone would have seen him and thought 'wow there's a guy under a parachute - how cool'. I remember thinking why were you looking at the road, of all the things to look at.... ...dust in the wind dude, dust in the wind....

Hi, Sorry I should have said, the superman is the arch position - I called it that because the last time I saw it was on an exercise tutorial where it was called the superman. Thanks for your advice, I'll try them and see how I get on. I've also been told to try doing back extensions which I am going to have a go with. ...dust in the wind dude, dust in the wind....

Hello everyone, I'm very new to skydiving - I have only done one RAPS jump (last years summer was cut short due to a very sore knee injury unrelated to the jump). This summer I'm going to try to do as many as I can because it was such an amazing thing that I want more :) The trouble is though, during ground training I had problems assuming the superman position - specifically I cannot raise my front torso and arms more than an inch from the ground anymore. Now I would like to know if there is any specific stretches, or weights I can do to improve matters. I do have *very* shocking flexibility so I'm assuming that it's a problem there, but I am not sure if it is not strength also being a skinny lad. Standing, I can arch and get my shoulders and arms back, but I tried doing the position in the deep end of a swimming pool and was just as good as when lying on the ground. I feel this doesn't bode well for me and if I want to do this sport I need to much improve this. Oh and I'm 26, not quite old enough to be complaining about my joints but old enough to wonder about some of the strange noises they make :) So, any tips on what I can do, it would be much appreciated, Thanks :) ...dust in the wind dude, dust in the wind....