Tatetatetate

It varies. I'm a long term foreign johnny in the UK, though I'm moving back home for a bit next year when the rental agreement and my job contract runs out. Although I can code switch just enough to sound like the locals I have no problem with my Rs but slurr my schaw sounds. Everybody thinks I am an abrupt dick because of this. Thank goodness for international schools eh? Thing is I don't think in English. My accent is indistinct and people all seem to wonder where it comes from. What annoys me the most is British people have absolutely no respect for time and punctuality. Somebody will say on the phone they will be there at X time. In Asia when you say you are going to be there at X time you are going to be there at X minus 2 minutes. I think it has much to do with Fawlty towers the show about the American and the Waldorf Salad. Brits don't complain and just put up with it or quietly rage. The last thing is the undertone of violence that seems to pervade everywhere. I was in the post office a few weeks ago and a random fight broke out. At the bus station you see people chasing others with broken bottles and the rare times I drive through the city centres....

Ah Seville I like this place, firstly its reasonable, namely because the DZ is quite a distance away through lots of empty fields. It was a 20 minute drive. From the nearest mini town bollullos across an unsealed road. The DZ is at Le Juliana. Anyway why not stay in bollullos, there is a grim ass hostel called the Gadaffi which costs 20 Euro a night. Or there is the Skydive spain staff house which is 17 Euro a night. Or Bob's house. Public transport is attrocious. There is NO public transport to the DZ. There is no real viable public transport from Sevile to Bollullos. If I were you I'd cancel the hotel booking, and see if you can stay more local in bollullos. As if you do you can often grab a ride to the DZ with some of the staff who work there. or even hire a car. I found I could hire a car for about 170 Euros which was considerably cheaper than taxis. (note I am both old and hire the crappest cars from the dodgiest car hire places) Granted there ain't much to do in bollullos. And there is even less to do if you decide to stay at the DZ bunk house. But tbh there ain't much to do in Seville either. I've passed through there a number of times on motorbike.

Lets just hope your 100 isn't as costly as mine. I had to chop and lost my main.

How/where would I get it done? I'm thinking of selling my secondary rig, AAD,

Sure but this takes an awful lot of effort. Myself unable to get decent coaching at my former home DZ (5 jumps with 5 different coaches spread weeks apart). A lot of people say go somewhere else. But its a 3 hour drive to the next DZ, a 4 hour drive to the next one. I've driven those 3 and 4 hours. Only to find there are no coaches there or the weather has turned unexpectedly. Do that enough times and you think bugger this, a flight to Germany/Holland/Spain is only 2 hours and costs less in gas. 99% of skydivers do not get to their 100th Jump - Major John Horne (my AAFI). The BPA issued 750 A certs in 2010. There were about 750 people who did not renew their BPA. I was one of them but instead of quitting I decided to go out every 3 months overseas.

Although he might sound like a troll, it is not a unique experience this guy is having, as my above post says. I got seriously bored of skydiving. The UK rules pretty much said I was not allowed to do anything but fall straight down the tube. The USPA is pretty liberal in what it lets you do, other skydiving bodies are not so liberal and will even restrict and prevent you from doing anything but fall down the tube and do nothing.

Try something new. I did 68 solo jumps and had 5 coaching jumps (all weeks apart with a different coach each time) before I quit for a while as simply jumping out alone was boring. Making a cup of tea was more exciting tbh I kid you not. What new stuff? Formation jumps, Free fly, CReW. Of course that depends where you are. As if you're in the UK you're shit out of luck because the regs mean you need to get qualified in such disciplines. Which isn't a terrible thing, except the combination of bad weather and lack of coaches. Namely because they are all busy flying camera for tandems, jumping tandems etc etc. Means that there are no coaches unless you practically live at the DZ.

I haven't updated my profile on here for a while. But 18 jumps came and went over a year ago. I've got considerably more jumps than my profile states. Secondly instructor? Rigger? I don't have one of those either. I don't have a home DZ and I'm not welcome at any of my local DZs either. I rock up to overseas DZs and seldom visit more than twice.

I've made four purchases fairly big ones (2xAAD, two rigs) on DZ.com and I always brick myself when paying for it. All of them arrived as described though. Usually scammers are pretty easy to spot and you can usually tell quite easily people who know their stuff as they will use terminology only peeps who throw themselves out of planes would know. Though this does not always apply! My 2nd rig was bought off a guy who was tunnel rat . Had done 1000s of hours in the tunnel. But it didn't click with him in the air. Phoned up his tunnel to check if was legit though and it came in the post a few days later.

You must be British, as the USPA, DFV and other skydiving bodies make it a requirement to pack your canopy as part of the A certificate. The BPA only requires it for your B certificate which is pretty silly tbh. Essentially go to a DZ and ask for somebody suitably qualified. Then ask non vested interests if you can trust them. I don't mean the CI, I don't mean their family or their friends. Just ordinary other non affilated people. Then ask others if you can trust them as well. AND STAND YOUR FUCKING GROUND if you are being messed with. I was messed with badly for a VERY long time. And tbh I fucking hate them for it. Call me bitter, but its 12.30am and I'm rather drunk. Contrary to what they think I can pack. I had to when defecting to another skydiving body. It cost me three or four beers. What happened with me was I was being messed around. But was too meek to stand up for myself and knew no better. I kept being told pack one more time and you'll pass. I passed their test TWICE and jumped 47 of my own pack jobs but still got denied. Being told pack some more and you'll get signed off. They never did. Those bastards just kept taking my pack jobs and claiming the £5 pack job fee for themselves. It got to the stage where some of the people, realised they had me by the balls and got free stuff off me. It seemed incredibly strange watching people who were signed off pack line overs into their rigs. Yet getting bollocked because I wasn't qualified to pack. It came to a head when one last packing test (my third) I'd gotten the line overs out. And they started making noises about needing some more practice. I throw the rig on the floor and kick up a fuss. And earned myself a life time ban from this DZ and my total contempt. The whole DZ then turned against me and made shit up about me, like failing the test at Langar. Except I'd never been to Langar, I paid them a visit AFTER I'd been banned. But never jumped or even got the rig out of my panier. Or you're shit with your canopy control. All because I landed in a hedge around jump 20. (I retired from the UK scene at 82 jumps). Today I am Persona non grata at most UK DZs. TL : DR The moral of the story is be careful, choose your coach carefully as well and don't take any shit. Loyalty means NOTHING.

I think this is where we differ completely. I seek excitement and the life/death edge thrill. Which is why if it was safe it would be boring to me. It is still why I go out and race motorbikes now and again There is a high and very real risk of injury and or death. This is probably why I get so frustrated at the BPA scene. As it seems more a test of patience than anything else. As what others have said. Sitting around all day drinking tea isn't my thing at all.

No, I have a very very different risk assessment for myself tbh. Firstly if things were 100% safe then everybody would be doing them. Which would reduce the allure of it. Without risk, without danger without problems. Life would be boring. I like risk. Secondly skydiving is ALREADY incredibly safe. Compared to other things: Motorbiking for example. (UK) 560 motorbikers died horribly last year. I've witnessed people die as well. Next year 500 more will die and the year after that another 500. 1500 bikers are seriously injured and or crippled from crashes. In fact Luke L an acquaintance of mine was killed two days ago. Yet the biking community vehmently oppose any restrictions on our ability to kill ourselves. Leg defenders for example opposed in the 1980s. Hi visibility laws again opposed recently. Bike armor laws again opposed. Again on 100bhp power restrictions and licencing restrictions. So I can pass my licence and ride a 195bhp missile if I so choose. The police had a massive campaign about proper riding gear and were lecturing people about it. So a bunch of us got stopped and lectured. All of us stripped down to just helmet and underpants and rode off as a laugh. Strangely perhour horse riidng is EVEN more dangerous than motorbiking. Therefore if ypu made it 100% safe it would be boring, and it is often why I do not buy the constant its for safety arguments which are constantly used as a method to end arguments which have merit. Some people just say its for safety and kill off any debate. Seriously please don't go down the BPA route where everything is justified on the basis of safety. According to their rules I should be dead by now.

Some interesting ideas here folks. Thanks

Its a big question of time which is the more pressing issue. I'm currently doing 85 hour weeks. Which is only set to increase over time.

I've found I simply can't commit the time and money and in my case especially large amounts of money since I don't jump in my home country (UK). Some might say jump in the UK but the signal to noise ratio is pretty bad in the UK. To get where I want to in skydiving that is awesome freeflier. While money isn't super tight, I see my rigs as money just sitting their depreciating, while the cypres and Vigil's slowly expire. Except I have massive reluctance to do it. As I sort of have the feeling if I sell it I'm out. and it is yet another barrier to getting back in. Does anybody else feel the same way? Apparently the guys who sold me my rigs felt the same way and they ended up sitting in cupboards for years before they were even advertised for sale.

Sure. A year ago, I just stuffed it in a kit bag. And used a ratchet strap to secure that to the seat. I then bought a big CD box, an aluminium one and bolted it to the seat and the grab rail. It did not actually fit 100%. So I would undo the pin, pull out the main to sit ontop of the reserve container bit. Then close the box up. Later I got a specutacular deal on some hard luggage (think $5). and put them in the side cases. It means filtering doesn't work anymore and I stick a ratchet strap around that just in case.

Kayak? They have a multi destination facility. I used them on a Beijing, up to 6 destinations can be input. I found them a tad more expensive than booking the individual flights. But less of an arse ache to do so.

I'm not that kind of person. Has to be flowers, a nice dinner and music. I mean I don't want to be called a slut right?

I'm not sure what you're getting at. I'm just telling it how it is..... I may well live in the UK but I jump in Europe instead.

If it wasn't for the $2000 plane ticket, 4200 miles. Oh and the TSA probably wanting to stick their hand up my bum. Your DZ would be my home DZ

What you are talking about is the BPA. Basically the A licence is worthless, in fact so is the B. You can only jump with coaches and nobody else. You have to get a qualification called FS1. Which means about 10-15 coach jumps. Which sounds simple enough right? Except outside the three big DZs in the UK. There are no coaches. Even at the massive dropzones. I've been to I've been unable to find coaches. Well strictly thats not true, there are coaches, but they don't coach. . Since most of them fly camera or are tandem instructors. When faced with the prospect of making money + a free slot vs a free slot only. For example my old DZ which I am banned for life from. 13 people with coach tickets. 5 of them are tandem instructors 8 of them fly camera for the above tandems. The BPA fucked it up even more. Whereby to get coaching experience you need to coach people. Except you can't coach people unless you are a coach. Therefore you can't get coaching experience. This sums it up nicely: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3ylri6Oz21qehv22o1_1280.jpg So yes, if you had 2000 jumps. You would not be allowed to jump with a 100 jump wonder as you're not a coach. There is a ruckus about this over at the other place. You get several factions: The fuck'ems who are the BPA council and big dropzone types. Who don't see any problems. The massive home DZ guys happen to have the massive DZs as their home DZs who don't see a problem. Ah yes a 3 hour drive each way (with $10 a gallon gas) and taking tons of time off work is absolutely no problem at all! The others. The ones who reside at the smaller DZs who find massive difficulty in getting coach jumps. (I got what 6 coach jumps in 8 months coach shortages were so severe). Who are ignored by the Fuck'ems and told to man the fuck up by the massive home DZ guys.

That assumes that all advice has equal weight and all advice is good advice. Which is it not! I've had contradictory words given to me between rival DZs. And sometimes DZs are motivated to give you 'inaccurate advice' to maximise their revenue. A big sticking point for example is my rig vs renting theirs. When I knew no better I was 'unsafe' because I landed in a hedge around jump 18. 60 jumps later this was STILL used as an example of my shitty canopy handling. Strange how I can stay aloft on a paraglider for a very long time. I defect elsewhere and strangely I am allowed to jump my own considerably smaller rig. Therefore what was happening? I also pass things I was 'unsafe' on at this newer DZ. Ha the worst piece of advice was to stick with the BPA for so long. I jump elsewhere and enjoy it considerably more.

I don't need to give it a bad rep. Unless you think I've got 2000+ fake user IDs. An awful lot of DZ.com people seem to be in general agreement. I simply choose not to jump in the UK. I said it once and I'll say it again. I don't like the UK scene for a number of reasons. I know I cannot change it. So I do the next sane thing and take flights out to places I consider better. You said it yourself on the retention thread. There is a sharp relief on those who have experience of jumping overseas and those who jump in the UK. I see a chasm. I mean as an indicator, look at the UKS retention thread. You've been group wanking over that for 7 months. What has changed? I know and you know that if I were ever to return I the stuff I do whatever that happens to be would not be allowed. And I would again have to look for non existent coaches. I mean FFS Alex. Hib has a lack of them.... your DZ may offer one slot coach jumps but a lot of people are....... well lets say they won't complain to your face about it.

You don't count! Your business is based at the DZ. Thats like Bill D at Lodi saying he's always at there.

Contrary view ALERT In a microcosm the UK is a mildly OK place to jump (and I mean Hibaldstow nowhere else). IF you can put up with some of the stuff which goes on.... I can't put up with the things which go on, and I'm outspoken about it. Which made me a total pariah. I'm quite sure many people on here will fill you in on this. But alas I don't care since I don't jump in the UK, not that I can jump in the UK anyway! But in a wider view of the whole skydive community, like Europe and the USA. Even holy fuck how much is it for a jump ticket, you're kidding me right? Japan. Then the UK is not a very nice place to jump.