DescensionX

Maybe thats how you see it. For me, when I go to the drop zone, I stay all day long (just like skiing). I do all kinds of things from jumping, to learning to socializing to drinking beer. So I CAN compare the two.

It really all is relative when it comes to price. I took a helicopter ride around Manhattan and it was about $250. It was cool, but nothing like a skydive. I just payed about $40 to take my family to a stupid movie. Payed $250 to rent a car for 3 days. When I think of it that way, $30 seems pretty reasonable for a skydive. I voted $80. I'd still jump at 50, 60 dollars, but much fewer jumps. What is a lift ticket at a ski resort now? Around $75?

What kind of jumpsuit are you using? I am curious because I am a fast faller. I weigh a lot for my surface area. I went low almost all of the time, and what fixed it for me was the right jumpsuit. Get a baggy fitting suit made of material with a lot of drag. If you find you are going low all the time, that might mean you are a fast faller. It is a lot easier to pick up speed than it is to slow down. The right suit as a tool can help. It also sounds like you could benefit from booties on your RW suit. Do you have those? The larger booties can really add a lot of drive to your forward motion when you point your toes out. It was like a miracle the first time I used a suit that had them. Also nailing the exit is really important. It is easier to stay close than it is to have to fly to the formation after a lot of separation. Also, keep your eyes on the formation and if you see any kind of separation, react instantly, but react slowly. This will minimize the separation and/or over-reaction.

I have guns and a lot of ammo. Anything else I would need, I would acquire with said guns.

I'm a relative newbie, so take what i say with a grain of salt. But it seems to me like there might have been a few too many risk factors going on here. 1 - New drop zone 2 - Never packed on grass 3 - Fast jump run pass (250 knots!) 4 - An 8 way RW dive (with 68 jumps!) 5 - A night jump That seems like too much to tackle with only 68 jumps under your belt, but that is just my hunble opinion. I would not have made that dive. I'm glad you are okay. When you have multiple risk factors all adding to each other, that is a recipe for trouble.

Magical and mystical thinking in the human mind would have much less effect on a person’s life if other humans didn’t consistently use it to their benefit. Unfortunately religious and political leaders have taken advantage of this weakness for centuries to consolidate their power. Once you can get a person to discard logic and follow based on emotion you can get them to do almost anything. Religious organizations, priests and pastors have a vested interest in perpetuating myths that maintain their influence and power. Religious organizations prey on people like a drug dealer. They prey on the young, the poor, the weak and people with unmet psychological needs. Once hooked the believer is entangled in a web of comfort and social structure that is difficult to escape. Like the addict you can't expect the believer to view their situation rationally. Their paradigm is fundamentally altered by beliefs they harbor in their minds. Religion creates an altered state similar to drugs. When somebody in church is whipped into a frenzy they attribute the physical and mental feelings to a higher being. This is planned, just like the producers of Old Yeller intend to make you cry when the dog dies at the end or the producers of Rocky intend for you to be excited when Rocky wins. Followers are puppets in a well-orchestrated routine, refined over the last few thousand years. An alcoholic will give an illogical and nonsensical justification as to why they think they do not have a problem. In their mind the benefits outweigh the problems. Similarly, a religious person will defend their religion the same way. Everybody outside the alcoholic’s world sees the contradictions. Everybody outside the religious persons world sees the contradictions. Given the right situation, both can be fixed if they are willing to step outside their situations and act based on logic rather than what feels good. Fear of the harsh realities of the world probably led both individuals into their situations, so learning to cope with these fears is essential for them to lead a happy life without negatively affecting the people around them. This is the paradox of religion. Religious people so commonly profess to be giving and selfless when their entire belief system is based on self-preservation. Religion is selfishness at its worst. Every good action in their life is motivated by the desire to please their god to ensure their own comfort and assuage their fears of the unknown. Every bad act can be blamed on some opposing evil power. People acting in the name of a higher power, which infringes on society around them, are absolved of responsibility because theirs is thought to be the righteous belief. There is absolutely no way to prove they are right but they will defend their position more vehemently than any other belief they hold. This is the definition of irrationality. This is the crux of the matter. Religions are certainly NOT benign. They are the source of much pain, misery and death in the world. I have hope for society however. Eventually we will discard these superstitions like a child discards belief in Santa Clause. To continue the drug addict analogy, Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny are the gateway myths that lead to belief in a god.

I hate the direction this society is heading. I really don't get it. All I can say is my opinion. I didn't go to college because I had to. I went because I wanted to. I studied what I was passionate about, and what I wanted to focus my mind on. I never once had the thought "is college worth the money". Will this make me rich? If that is your motivation, you surely won't be a History major now will you? If people would follow their hearts and minds instead of obsessing about money and material posessions, we would be a lot better off as a society. Having said that, it is outrageous how expensive college is right now. Education is traded like a commodity folowing supply and demand principles. This is a big mistake in my opinion. There will come a time in the near future that people cannot afford it. When that buble burts, it will make the current financial markets crisis look tame.

A lot of BMX riders ARE 14. The world has moved on. As society evolves, so do sports. There is a hugeinterest in BMX. Do you think they'll have snowboarding in the winter olympics? Did you hear that ths is the last year for baseball and softball?

Thanks! That was a great story. May I suggest you submit that story to Parachutist magazine, and they might publish it. It is of interest to all skydivers.

As someone that went through both the static line progression and the AFF progression, I am glad I did the static line jumps. One of the coolest things I've ever done was climb out and hang from the wing strut on a cessna, and let go. Plus, when i did AFF, I was already comfortable under canopy, so that removed one layer of stress, and I could focus on the freefall part. I'm glad I got to do it.

Hello, I'm in a similar situation as you. My home drop zone made me take the first jump course ground school, then make a couple of recurrency jumps with an instructor. It was expensive, but well worth it in my opinion. I remembered 99% of the information, and it had not changed since the turn of the century. But it is that last 1% that will get you. Regardless of what anyone tells you here, you'll have to do what your drop zone tells you to do. So expect to shell out some money. But like I said, it is well worth it.

I usually deploy around 3500 ft. I have this thing that just happens automatically in my mind. When I see "less than 5,000 ft" my mind switches over from "relaxing and enjoying the dive" mode, over to "saving my life" mode. So I deploy as soon as safely possible after that. Which is usually around 3,500. I can see the need to track further on big ways, but I don't do those yet (obviously). Given that, I see no reason to open below 3,000, since there is really nothing to gain except risk. It's not like I'd be messing around enjoying the scenery for that extra 5 seconds at the bottom end at 2,000 feet.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=292&scid

I'm kind of surprised. The original post was an obvious troll, and most of you fell for it. I've been a long time lurker, and thought you were smarter than that here. Anyway, this web site is tame compared to others that I frequent. There will always be jerks online. Cowards with big mouths pretending to be tough guys because they can hide behind their computers. But overall, the skydivers I know are mostly really cool folks.

There is a Square3 skydiving gear shop at Cross Keys in New Jersey. It is about an hour and a half south of the city or so.