SkydiveMonkey 0 #1 August 6, 2002 Enjoy the power and beauty of a Super King Air. You will not understand the power and beauty of a Super King Air until you find yourself in a Cessna 182 at 10 grand on a cold December morning. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself wearing a student rig and recall in a way you can't grasp now how scared shitless you were and how fabulous that first time really was. You were not as afraid as you imagined. Don't worry about where the next jump ticket is coming from. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to steer a round canopy away from that bloody huge tree coming straight at you. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your jump-crazed mind, like the unexpected sight of blue sky from your office window on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing every day that scares you. Hook it. Be reckless when jumping other people's kit. Don't put up with people who are reckless when jumping yours. Freefall. Don't waste your time on hop 'n pops. Sometimes you'll pull high, sometimes you'll pull low. The race is long and, in the end, it's only to manifest. Make up complex dives. Return with shit loads of points. If you don't succeed in doing this, take up freeflying now. Keep your old log books. Throw away your incident reports. Arch.Don't feel guilty about skydiving taking over your life. The most interesting people I know didn't feel guilty at 22. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't. Go to plenty of boogies. Be kind to your load organiser. You'll miss him when he's gone. Maybe you'll get twists, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll chop it, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll be a tandem master at 40, maybe you'll do a naked horny gorilla on your 75th birthday. Whatever you do, congratulate yourself far too much and get the beers in for the others. Your holiday choices are DZs. So are everybody else's. Enjoy someone else's canopy. Fly it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what it'll do on opening. If it mals, hey, at least you can still jump your own rig on the next load.Letch, even if you have nowhere to do it but during first time courses and with tandem passengers. Ignore the weather forecasts, don't ever follow them. Do not watch too many freefly videos, they'll only make you feel dizzy.Get to know your CI. You never know when you'll need him to turn a blind eye to you doing a Mr Bill. Be nice to your pilot. They're your best link to more altitude and the person most likely to ignore the fact that you can't see jack shit whilst trying to spot at 12 grand. Understand that most first timers will come and go, but a precious few will carry on. Work hard to travel to as many DZs as possible, because the older you get, the harder it will be to convince your other half that you really just have to go away and jump again this weekend. Jump the C-130 once, but leave before it makes you a hypoxic. Jump at Headcorn once, but leave before you land in the nearby lion sanctuary. Swoop. Accept certain inalienable truths: Jump prices will rise. Manifestors will snarl at you. You, too, will jump with a hangover. And when you're old, you'll fantasise that when you were young, jump prices were reasonable, manifestors were nice, and hangovers were NEVER as bad as this. Respect CReW jumpers. Don't ever expect to get away with not buying the beers after a 'first'. Maybe you'll have a brand new Javelin. Maybe you'll have a brand new Stiletto. But you'll never know when either one might get repossessed due to that 6 month holiday you took at Sebastian last year. Don't mess too much with your pins, or by the time you're at two and a half grand, you might regret it. By the time that you're at fifteen hundred you WILL regret it. Be careful whilst hooking it in, but have time for those can do the longest surfs. Cheap beer is a form of recycling. Dispensing it is a way of fishing old stock from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the sell-by date and celebrating your latest 'first'.____________________ Say no to subliminal messages Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Snowbird 0 #2 August 6, 2002 Good words to live by, oh yeah! QuoteDon't feel guilty about skydiving taking over your life. How about feeling guilty about not feeling guilty that skydiving is taking over my life? Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea. -Robert A. Heinlein Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alienangel 0 #3 August 6, 2002 Very kewel indeed dude Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nws01 0 #4 August 6, 2002 Did you write that? Youused to be a one line post whore! What happened to you? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hawkbit 0 #5 August 6, 2002 Now to put it to music and make some jump money off of it ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "You don't quit playing because you get old, you get old because you quit playing" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkydiveMonkey 0 #6 August 6, 2002 I had it forwarded to me - it's a varient of "The Sunshine Song" or "Sunburn" or something like that by someone - can't remember. Will post it when I get to use my own pc tomorrow. QuoteYouused to be a one line post whore Come on - it was sometimes two !! ____________________ Say no to subliminal messages Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites