filonic 0 #1 March 6, 2012 Hi, I'm Alex. I've been lurking on these forums since september, right after I started AFF. Since then I've spent all of my money and then some on skydiving and tunnel time. I have about 5 hours in the tunnel, 118 skydives. My home DZ is Skydance Skydiving, in Davis, CA. For those who haven't been there, you should definitely check it out, it is a very safe DZ with a lot of wonderful people, staff and funjumpers. I ordered myself a brand new complete rig right after aff, but PD had a waiting list months long. Shortly before I got it, I had an extremely hard opening that hurt quite a bit and busted the blood vessels in both of my eyelids, and I started having severe pain in my arm. I got my new rig and I got to jump it a few times but once I got in to see the doctor they gave me an MRI and grounded me. I haven't jumped in 6 weeks because it turned out that the hard opening caused a bilateral fracture in my L5 pars articularis and 2 herniated disks (C5-C6 and C6-C7)in my cervical spine, one of which I am having surgery on this thursday. The C5-C6 disk herniation pinches the nerves that split off from the spinal cord at that level and causes alot of pain, weakness, tingling, and sometimes numbness in my left arm. I am very anxious to get back to jumping and get back in the tunnel, and hope to eventually fly a wingsuit and do some photography. Doctors say that after the fusion surgery I am having on thursday, I should be able to jump again in 4-6 months. Well, that was quite an intro, but I thought I should make up for lost time! Nice to finally step into the light!unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 7 #2 March 6, 2012 Greetings Alex and good luck with your surgery! I'm curious, did your hard opening injury happen on a rental rig from that 'safe' & fun drop-zone? Heal fast!! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
spikes2020 0 #3 March 6, 2012 do you know what the chute that opend hard was, and also what is your new rig and chute. Anyway good luck and welcome!~Cheers Jon W Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
parasyte 0 #4 March 6, 2012 Man, reading about these hard openings causing spinal problems resulting in surgery are doing NOTHING for my confidence in enrolling in AFF. Anyway, good luck with the surgery and I hope you have a speedy recovery! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SlackBeef 0 #5 March 6, 2012 QuoteMan, reading about these hard openings causing spinal problems resulting in surgery are doing NOTHING for my confidence in enrolling in AFF. Anyway, good luck with the surgery and I hope you have a speedy recovery! Of course stuff like this happens to people and it is unfortunate. Nothing is without risk though now-a-days. You can start jumping and have nothing go wrong, but eventually something will go wrong. If you get injured or not only time will tell. I have about 8 cutaways and I slammed into the ground doing a hook turn. It is just something that happens but can't let it stop you from doing something that you love doing so much. If you don't think you can come to terms that you might get injured then skydiving may not be the thing for you. I hope you do enroll in the AFF program at your local DZ. It will be something that you will do forever! Blue skies and Safe Landings. To the jumper that got injured, fast recovery and heal quick so you can enter the world of wingsuiting. That is a blast, I own a Phantom3 and a V4. Heal quick man.GO BIG OR GO HOME! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
spikes2020 0 #6 March 6, 2012 If hard openings scare you, you can always take actions to prevent this. There are several chutes that are known for their soft openings. My chute is a spectre and is well known for its slow and soft head on openings. This is a very nice canopy if you want to do wings suits later too. I have only put 20 or so jumps on it (not enough to really tell) but every one is head on and soft. Even with my noob packing skills. Just dont forget your slider!!Cheers Jon W Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skymama 37 #7 March 6, 2012 Welcome to the forums! She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man, because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
filonic 0 #8 March 7, 2012 Quote Greetings Alex and good luck with your surgery! I'm curious, did your hard opening injury happen on a rental rig from that 'safe' & fun drop-zone? Heal fast!! Hi, and thanks It is hard to say for sure which rig I was jumping because I was jumping rental rigs and student rigs at the time, and I actually had 2 separate hard openings, and continued to jump after both, so I can't say for sure which one caused which injury or if one caused both. I suspect that the first hard opening caused both the L5 fracture and the herniation. I think the second one just made it worse and caused me to get medical attention. So that being said, my best guess is that this damage all occurred when I was jumping an icon student container with a navigator 240. The harness was a terrrrrrible fit on me, as was the case with most of the student gear I jumped(one size fits none). I am also a big guy(6'2" 210) so that could have made it worse. -Alexunanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
filonic 0 #9 March 7, 2012 Quote do you know what the chute that opend hard was, and also what is your new rig and chute. Anyway good luck and welcome!~ Hi, thanks. I think it was a navigator 240. I now own a wings vision with an optimum 218, storm 190, cypress2. -Alexunanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
filonic 0 #10 March 7, 2012 QuoteMan, reading about these hard openings causing spinal problems resulting in surgery are doing NOTHING for my confidence in enrolling in AFF. Anyway, good luck with the surgery and I hope you have a speedy recovery! Don't let my story discourage you from doing AFF. If I knew I would sustain these injuries learning to skydive, I would still do it, I love it that much. You might find that you love it that much too, or not! You'll never know unless you give it a shot! The vast majority of people never have a hard opening bad enough to cause injury in their entire skydiving "career", I just got lucky!unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
filonic 0 #11 March 7, 2012 Quote Quote Man, reading about these hard openings causing spinal problems resulting in surgery are doing NOTHING for my confidence in enrolling in AFF. Anyway, good luck with the surgery and I hope you have a speedy recovery! Of course stuff like this happens to people and it is unfortunate. Nothing is without risk though now-a-days. You can start jumping and have nothing go wrong, but eventually something will go wrong. If you get injured or not only time will tell. I have about 8 cutaways and I slammed into the ground doing a hook turn. It is just something that happens but can't let it stop you from doing something that you love doing so much. If you don't think you can come to terms that you might get injured then skydiving may not be the thing for you. I hope you do enroll in the AFF program at your local DZ. It will be something that you will do forever! Blue skies and Safe Landings. To the jumper that got injured, fast recovery and heal quick so you can enter the world of wingsuiting. That is a blast, I own a Phantom3 and a V4. Heal quick man. Thank you for well wishes and your thoughtful message to the guy considering AFF. I can't wait to join the world of wing suiting, hope to join the world of wingsuiting as soon as I possibly can! (within reason of course ) -Alexunanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
filonic 0 #12 March 7, 2012 QuoteIf hard openings scare you, you can always take actions to prevent this. There are several chutes that are known for their soft openings. My chute is a spectre and is well known for its slow and soft head on openings. This is a very nice canopy if you want to do wings suits later too. I have only put 20 or so jumps on it (not enough to really tell) but every one is head on and soft. Even with my noob packing skills. Just dont forget your slider!! Yes sir, thank you, good advice. I have put about 20 jumps on a Spectre 210 and I found it to be reliably soft and on heading s far as the openings are concerned. I don't love the glide on the Spectre too much though or the 800-1000 ft snivels I experienced most of the time. I spoke with PD about this and they assured me that the storm had openings that were similarly soft and on heading, but a substantially shorter snivel and a flatter glide. however I haven't gotten a chance to jump mine yet so I can't verify that. BTW As regards packing technique, I am also a meticulous packer, I get crap for it constantly, I regularly spend 35-40 minutes on a pack job and will re-do anything I am not 100% confident about. I was told by PD however that I should not roll the nose or even push it in, but to simply leave it where it is, and only roll the tail a few times. -Alex -Alexunanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
filonic 0 #13 March 7, 2012 Quote Welcome to the forums! Hi! Thanks for the welcome and the sympathy and the hope Nice to meet you by the way, I've read quite a few of your posts! -Alexunanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skymama 37 #14 March 7, 2012 Quote Nice to meet you by the way, I've read quite a few of your posts! Whew, I'm glad you would still like to meet me after reading my posts! On many occasions I've had people ask me if I'm Skymama when they see me at a dropzone. I usually ask, "do you like her?" before I answer...I never know! She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man, because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
