cresler 0 #1 May 2, 2005 Hello, dear skysurfers of the "planet skies";)) !!! I am from Ukraine, it's situated in the center of Europe, between Poland & Russia. Skies in Ukraine are not very surfed by skydivers, because this sport is not very developed here. In my view, skydiving is the best of the best sport in the world!!! Never have i skydive, but i dream to become professional skysurfer! I can only imagine how it is cool. Now i am getting started to search info about this kind of sport. The first intersting web skydiving society i found is - "dropzone.com". Hope, i am in a right place. So, as i am the beginner, will anybody advise me where to find useful info about skydiving, it's history, it's technic, and so on? Will you be pleased to give me some links? I'd like to make friends too! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mdrejhon 8 #2 May 4, 2005 I'm a beginner, so bear with me. Newbie to newbie. (1) Get some GOOD book, to give you a reasonable primer. "Skydiving: The Parachuting Handbook", 2004 edition. (2) Research on dropzones that aren't too expensive to travel to. Consider the next country, if you have to, or even into Russia if they have a better dropzone nearby. (3) Do a test tandem jump or a first-jump course (or AFF level 1), to make sure you can handle it without chickening out. (4) For training, plan on a vacation for a week away to a VERY GOOD open-all-week dropzone and then start some AFF program (Accelerated Free Fall program). This will set you a couple thousand dollars, give or take, depending on location. Might be cheaper in your location. (5) Once trained, plan on going to a closer dropzone (even a less equipped one in Ukraine, once you've got the education and packing skills, etc.) all weekend at least twice a month at the absolute minimum to stay current and learn new things a little at a time. You'll learn a lot of skydiving disciplines before you even attempt to try "skysurfing". Other than safety, the most important thing in this hobby is MONEY... It's damn expensive! Of course, others will be happy to give better advice than me, but you have a newbie perspective now as a contribution. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cresler 0 #3 May 6, 2005 Thank you very much, Mark Rejhon ! It was nice to hear from you. I will train hard to have the success. To be true, i thought that nobody will interest to help the beginner, but i was not right. NIce advises, may i email you, Mark? as a friend? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Froggy 0 #4 May 7, 2005 Hey, cresler! I am a newbie myself, so I'm not really in a position of giving you an advice. However, while dropzone.com is an excellent source of info, you might also check out www.skydiver.com.ua -- this Ukranian site is (IMHO) one of the best, if not THE best skydiving resource in ex-USSR. You may change your take on popularity of skydiving in Ukraine! Ãîëóáîãî, ðàáî÷åãî, ìÿãêèõ! P.S. For the rest of the readers -- if you excuse me for a foreign language, the line above is a wishing of "blue skies, working canopy, and soft landings" in Russian... -------------- We were not born to fly. And all we can do is to try not to fall... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cresler 0 #5 May 8, 2005 2Froggy It's nice to meet here russian-speaking skydiver. Skydiving.com.ua is a useful resource. You are right, i didn't even think about such site in Ukraine. The reason - i have decided to find-out about amazing kind of sport at the first web skysurfing resources. Nevertheless, thank you. How much do you skydive? Or you didn't jump, as i? Are you russian, or ukrainian?P.S. As i see, russian translatiration doesn't work. Your message didn't appear in a proper way. Mind it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Froggy 0 #6 May 8, 2005 Cresler, You can check my profile for some info... I will also PM you later today (gotta run now) -- check the "messages" link on top of the page under "Forums" tab. As for the Russian ecnoding -- you can set your browser to "Cyrillic 1251", or "Cyrillic Windows" code page to display Russian chars correctly. BTW, there is also a Russian-speaking forum here on Dropzone.com (not very active, though): http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?forum=41; Blue skies!-------------- We were not born to fly. And all we can do is to try not to fall... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
heltzer 0 #7 May 9, 2005 Cresler, Looking at the results of last year's world championships, Russia and France are fielding the best teams, so that would be a good place to look for skysurf training near you. If you want to plan a trip to the USA, both Perris Valley Skydiving and Skydive Elsinore, my home dropzone, offer skysurf training. But the most important piece of advice was already mentioned: when starting out, find the dropzone with the best, safest training. You'll need at least a hundred or more jumps before you can even do your first skysurf. So, enjoy the training...and every single jump. Learn as much as you can. There is no hurry. And whenever you are ready to skysurf, let us know. Lawrence Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
