Before I earned my A license, toward the tail end of my student training, I was told that once you’re off student status the real work begins.
At the time, I shrugged that comment off, focusing on how great it will be to finally have earned my license. And now that I have, I see just what was meant by that statement.
The last skydiving outings have been a lot of work. I’ve started jumping with groups of other experienced skydivers and have been lucky enough to be invited on some big ways with competitive jumpers who have thousands of jumps on me.
As fortunate as I am to be learning from these folks, it doesn’t come without hard work and serious concentration in the air.
Being the least experienced of, well, anyone I’ve ever jumped with, if a dive goes awry, it likely has had something to do with me. But, when it goes well and you can look back at the video and be proud of your jumping skills, it makes all those little blunders worth while.
Here’s a great example of a 6-way from this past weekend. After a couple of rough exits, we pulled this off beautifully! I can’t stop watching the five of us hold on to this formation perfectly.
It’s a feeling of pure satisfaction to know I was a part of that. Sure, there’s still lots of work to be done, but can’t I just admire what was accomplished for the time being? This jump definitely ranks high on my list of fun skydives.
It’s also been fun to get out and play around in the sky with Jeromy. He doesn’t mind doing these fun jumps with me every once in a while, and honestly, I think he enjoys having me chase him around the sky.
What have been some of your most memorable fun jumps?
Blue Skies!
Ashley
Awesome 6-way! I haven’t participated in anything bigger than 2-way jumps with my Teddy Bear (or my old coach Laticia). Unfortunately, for me, the season has come to a close as my boyfriend (and only ride down to my DZ—I live in NYC and have no car) just started med school and no time.
Until next summer, I guess!
One of my most memorable fun jumps after getting my A license was my beer 2-way with Bear. We both had tunnel time, so we were confident in our belly-flying skills. Oh ho ho. No. I rapidly learned it’s one thing to jump with your coach, who has thousands of jumps; it’s something else altogether to jump with your boyfriend who has exactly the same flying experience as yourself.
Number one rule I learned: ESTABLISH A BASE. My boyfriend has about 60lbs on me, but we can control our fall-rates pretty well, so we thought we’d be okay. Our exit was linked and hilariously bad, but we got stable quick. However, once we let go, he sank like a stone. We then spent the rest of the dive playing “catchup” and continually passing each other in the air. The instructors later told us to have one of us act base while the other flies. It helped us tremendously in our other jumps, but I think I may need to invest in a weight belt. :-/
Another thing I learned was that establishing eye-to-eye contact with new skydiving partners is critical. My coach Laticia and I have our unspoken communication down and our jumps go really well, even if we haven’t planned anything in advance or dirt-dived. Me and Bear? A lot of our snafus come from the fact that we haven’t learned to read each other in freefall yet.
Blue skies! Amazing jumps!
JJ – I’ve definitely learned a lot from jumping with those more experienced than me, but it’s a quick reality when you jump with someone who’s pretty close to your level and there’s no one there to correct for the mistakes you make.
You know, I travel to NYC a lot for work. If I’m there sometime before the end of the season, I might have to plan a day for jumping and would love to get in a jump or two with you. I’ll keep you posted on that.
That would be AWESOME. I would love to jump with you! Definitely let me know!
In truth, immediately i didn’t understand the essence. But after re-reading all at once became clear.