antibac

I don't tip. I already pay the coaches $200 an hour for coaching. Tipping isn't custom here though. If I want to show my appreciation, I'll get them a bottle of wine or something. Or a hug.

I like the way we do it at our DZ. We have one person who is not jumping that day, who count canopies and make sure everyone lands safely. On big events, where we have more than one plane, jumpers have to check out when going to the plane and check in when they've landed.

I was scared too before my first hop n pops. I practiced stable exits from altitude before I did them though.

I did my AFF last year, and my focus after level 7 was just to do the basic stuff. Stable exits, 360s, etc. I also seeked a lot of information from my instructors, especially regarding canopy flying (I had issues landing where I was supposed to). Safety has always been an important part of the sport for me. 1 year later, I still ask instructors a lot of questions. Got so much to learn! Basically I just enjoyed my jumps, relaxed, and had fun. When I got my A-license, I started doing coaching jumps, and found out that I wanted to start out with freeflying. Have also done a lot of tunnel the past few months. I've attended a couple of canopy courses too, and will probably go to more next year. Now my goal is to train a lot next year, and eventually compete in the nationals, hopefully in 2014 :) So, yeah, just enjoy yourself and be safe. Talk to your instructors about the path ahead. They might give you a few good pointers :)

My canopy flying was terrible, could almost never land where I was supposed to. Also had problems landing the canopy properly. My freefall skills have always been pretty good, though I was kind of tense on my first 10 jumps.

He passed as well :) And just for the record, the camera flyer is a girl ;)

Not just weekends, every day, 12 hours a day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ6IYnoAxBs This is the video.

It's fairly busy. We did about 16k jumps in 4 months. We're a seasonal DZ.

I've gained more friends than I've lost. I've been living on a DZ for the past year, so naturally my friends haven't seen much of me. I've kept my good friends. I talk to them several times a week on the phone, and sometimes when I have time and they have time, we meet up, and it's just like old times. I've probably lost a few though. Might've lost them anyway, just because we've lost touch with each other, not really because of skydiving.

If you feel fine, sure, why not. Personally, I think 10-15 jumps in a day is enough for me. I'm usually pretty tired then. As a student I did maximum 3 a day. When I had about 50 jumps, I started doing closer to 10.

Ah, it's true. I've spent about $36k the past 12 months.

A friend of mine jumped without an instructor on one of his AFF-jumps (the instructor forgot to unbuckle...), and he did fine! He did what he was taught, and the camera man filmed it, and he passed.

We have a wind tunnel close to our DZ, and 5 min tunnel time is included in the price. It's too soon for us to say if it's helped reduce the AFF-level repeats (the tunnel is quite new), but we haven't had a lot of repeats this year! I think it definitely is positive for most people, but it's not a "sure thing" that will guarantee you to pass all the levels. We've had students that just doesn't seem to "get" it, that end up doing more tunnel than what is included in the AFF-course. If you can afford it, I'd go for it. Wind tunnel is a great tool. EDIT: Just want to add that I didn't do any tunnel before my AFF course, and I did fine. I've done 6 hrs tunnel now though, it's awesome.

No, but airport security are sceptical to the AAD, but they are not prohibited. It is allowed to carry on in Europe, I know lots of people who have done it.

The only issue I've had with my stability is wobbling, if you know what I mean. This happens when I'm tense. What helps me is looking at the horizon, breathe calmly and slowly bending my legs a little (this is because my legs have been stretched out way too much). I also thought practicing dummy pulls helped, my issue was being too wobbly right before deployment , also turning against my will (not fast turns, but enough to give me slight line twists :p). If I exited at 15000 feet, I would be stable until about 5000 feet, where the wobbling and turning would begin. This is definitely because I was really tensing up, I just needed to relax, which is easier said than done :) Had a bit of the wobbling issue during my AFF-course, but it's mostly been a problem on my level 8-jumps, but I've managed to "fix" the problem now :) Practice, practice, practice. Just take your time and don't stress it, talk to your instructors about it. I did, and I got the "breathe with your stomach"-tip, and that actually helps a lot. You'll get it eventually, nobody is expecting you to be a pro :) Just have fun! Oh, one more thing, do you get your jumps filmed? I thought this was really helpful! Maybe it could help you out a bit?

That is unfortunately so true.

Just curious; is it supposed to be bad to see between your shoulder and the strap? I've seen this on myself several times, never been an issue.

YES, it is really helpful. I had all my levels recorded on video, and it really helped me see what I was doing wrong, what I was doing good and what I could do better. It's totally worth the money.

Sweet! Yeah, pretty sweet. I asked my instructors (which I should've done before posting here, really), and got good briefings and understood more what to do. Even got to do a jump off DZ, on a beach :) I've been told several times to look forward and not down before landing, but still I've been looking down... which probably caused me flaring too high. So, I've stopped looking down at the ground, and both my flare and landings are much, much better now. Improved a lot on the last 9 jumps I've had the past week. Was pretty demotivated earlier, now I'm not. Happy, happy, happy :) Also, regarding the not having radios-thread, apparently it's not allowed in our country, so my DZ are not being cheap. I've also realized that I don't really need it. Now I've been doing exactly what I've been taught, and that has (naturally) helped a lot. Too bad jumping season is over here at this DZ, blah.

Sorry, I'm not going to follow this advice nor take it up with my instructors. I'd rather land with my feet and knees together, and do a PLF if I need to. Did awesome landings today, finally I'm getting the flare :)

You can actually choose? In my country you have to have AAD to be able to jump.

Again, I'm not a male. Haha. I thank you for your tips, and yes, I slammed my back pretty hard before. I've discussed everything I'm curious about and need help with, with my instructors. No worries.

edit: never mind