This weekend marked the beginning of my journey as a true skydiver.
I began my Advanced Free Fall (AFF) jumps. Essentially, these are a series of skydives where you are accompanied by one or two instructors in free fall and you learn how to become a solo skydiver.
What’s great about AFF is that you progressively learn more and more about free fall technique, steering the canopy, safety and everything else you need to know in order to jump out of a plane on your own.
On the first day you have ground school – anywhere from 4 to 6 hours of instruction – to go over the basics, review emergency procedures, and run through the skydive again and again.
And then, you make the jump! The first jump with your own parachute. Upon deploying the ‘chute you get an exhilerated feeling, one of complete freedom and awe.
Personally, I howled at the top of my lungs!
Then an instructor talks you in via radio from the ground.
This weekend consisted of my first two AFF jumps. My instructors over at Cleveland Parachute have been beyond amazing and they really helped me with some great lessons learned.
#1 – Altitude Awareness. ALWAYS, no matter what is happening in free fall, always remember to check your altimeter and know where you are in the free fall. 5,500 feet sneaks up on you fast!
#2 – Arch (and proper body position). If you’re not falling as smoothly as you’d hoped, arch your back. Hard. Then, check your legs. Odds are you need to point your toes a little and adjust to shoulder width apart.
(As you see here, I needed to bring my legs closer together a bit)
#3 – Relax. Find something on the plane ride up to calm your nerves. Personally, I sing to myself while visualizing my skydive. Adrenaline is supposed to be flowing. After all, what fun would it be if you weren’t a little on edge? But sheer terror isn’t going to help much. Breathe. Focus on your arch.
#4 – Break the skydive down. Take it one step at a time. First you have to exit the plane. Then you have free fall. ARCH. Then you can think about your in-flight progressions (circle of awareness and deploying at 5,500). And don’t concern yourself with malfunctions. They do happen, but rarely. And you’ve been trained how to handle it.
#5 – Trust yourself. You know what needs to happen. You’ve been over and over it with your instructors. Trust in your abilities and allow yourself to have fun.
(Everyone should have this smirk during free fall. After all, it’s FUN!)
But if the skydive doesn’t go as planned, brush it off. If you pulled at 5,500 and got to the ground safely then you succeeded. No one is perfect and just think, there’s always the next jump to improve.
Blue Skies!
Ashley