rabel

My favorite story that gets a look of horror from my whuffo friends and a smile from my jumper friends. I'm a casual jumper and after an extended absence I'm packing and about to bag it when I think I might have done something wrong and figure I'll just start over. I grab the lines and am about to pick it up and and shake it out when the woman packing next to me says, "what are you doing?" So I start to explain what I thought I did wrong and she interrupts me and says "Just bag it. It'll open." I start to protest and the entire packing area, about 20 people, erupts into a chant of, "Bag it! Bag it! Bag it!" I did. It opened.

I'll take Dudiest # 66, Dudes.

I'm a fun jumper at SSM approaching 100 jumps - went through AFF training there as did a few of my friends. Great dropzone for tandem students although the DZ does do a lot of them so it can seem like you're just a number being pushed through the system - on the other hand, they have excellent tandem masters and videographers who make your jump fun and everyone is very professional and safety-conscience. Very well maintained planes and excellent facilities and equipment. AFF training is very good, especially jumps 1-7. Again the only problem is that it's a large DZ with a lot of tandems so there will be a *lot* of sitting around waiting on winds, weather or coaches (since some of the coaches also do tandems, video, etc). Coach jumps are fun because with a large DZ you never know who you'll get to take you up and every coach has a different style. With a super otter running loads every 25 minutes or so they can put fun jumpers and AFF students on the same load as a gaggle of tandems so you're never really waiting for a plane, you're usually waiting for a coach. My advice for AFF students - SSM is a great DZ with friendly people and excellent training, equipment and facilities. They follow the training fairly rigidly but are flexible if you can demonstrate skills. AFF students (no matter the level) are serviced 1st-come, 1st-served so GET THERE EARLY and put your name on the board. Really, that's probably the best advice. If you show up by 8:30-9:00am you'll be taken care of quickly weather permitting. The S&TA will give you a hard time if you show up in the afternoon expecting to jump but he will do his best to get you on a load (although it won't seem like it, LOL). Also, when going through AFF, BE PROACTIVE - show up and put your name on the board, grab the worksheet for the jump you're on, fill out the wind speed information and grab your student gear and put it aside, turn on the AAD, gear check, etc. Then, when a coach or two are available, you'll be ready to rock and that can happen fairly quickly. And I mean after sitting around for an hour wondering if you're going to be able to jump you'll suddenly feel a tap on your shoulder with "can you make a 20 minute call?" They will sit down with you after every one of your jumps and give you a debrief so don't feel like just because they're busy you're getting short-changed. I've also noticed that the AFF coaches go out of their way to remember you and say hello the next time you're there so it is a friendly DZ, just BUSY sometimes. Meanwhile, bring your beer and hang out after the last load and meet some really great friendly people. Oh - edited to add: There has been some friction between management and staff although you wouldn't know it unless you've been around a while and happen to notice when staff leave, and even then only if you ask. They are very professional even with the friction and always, always safety conscience. You may hear the bad stuff on dz.com but just keep in mind that for every disgruntled staff member there are a dozen others who don't bother to come here to say "yep, another fun day doing coach jumps and tandems." I absolutely don't know anything about or care about the friction between management and staff as I've always been treated well there as an AFF student and fun jumper.