It was hardest for me to learn to...

[sooperheidi 0]

In your first 100 jumps, what was the hardest thing for you to learn? Share your story!

[Arvoitus 1]

PRCP's, did 19 of them until I was cleared for freefall.

Your rights end where my feelings begin.

[rifleman 70]

Arvoitus

PRCP's, did 19 of them until I was cleared for freefall.

Same here - 12 down and still counting.

Atheism is a Non-Prophet Organisation

[CornishChris 5]

I'm still shit at everything. Especially landing.

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

[mcpep 0]

Same, took me 27 to get off the damn rope.

[milehigheric 0]

Diving to formations and matching fall rate...Still struggling with 8-10 ways and going low

[dthames 0]

Being older and not very flexible I had problems maintaining a decent arch. After about 10 seconds I would flatten out and wobble. It made me sore in my butt and lower back, so I knew I was trying, but just not able to manage it. The instructors were reluctant to let me go and when they did they often had to grab me again. I was not happy with myself and quit for a time. Thankfully an AFFI that was about my age showed me some exercises to do and after winter was over I started all over on static line and did a lot better. I figured I could afford SL better than AFF if I was going to be a slow learner. But as it turned out, all was well and I think largely to being in better shape when I came back.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

[Lukasz_Se 2]

Exits. Most of my exits are diving exits and they are not a problem but I still struggle with a normal exit facing front of the plane. Slow learner here :P

[Joellercoaster 6]

The freefall stuff, fortunately, came pretty naturally. Landings and exits too.

Though I would not have admitted it at the time, packing was the hardest thing. I packed for myself from early on, but it was certainly a struggle!

Unfortunately there turned out to be no quick tricks or great secrets (reverse S-fold and psycho pack are both nice, but they still didn't really fix it and nowadays I do neither) - just continuing to struggle until it gradually stopped being so hard.

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Land. I didn't even manage to stand one up until my mid 50s. Landing's still the hardest part for me and I still screw one up and eat dirt every so often. Usually when I'm wearing shiny new gear.

Funnily I didn't have any trouble packing once I got my own gear. I brought it home unpacked one day and that gave me time to look at it and figure out where everything on the canopy was.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[frogerina 0]

I am nowhere near 100 jumps....and expect to be a learner forever (of the slow type...). But swoop and dock is my current biggest nemesis...I think I may get the Guinness World Record for Number of Cat H (yup...swoop and dock) coach jumps repeated. Fortunately, I have patient coaches. Unfortunately, I'm running out of jumpable weather...argh.

[shropshire 0]

How to wait patiently till the next weekend

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[pchapman 279]

It was hardest for me to learn that I really needed to buy a weight belt to fall at the right speed (for someone tall and skinny). It wasn't a crutch but an essential tool that, if used earlier, would have prevented me from picking up bad RW habits and wasting time in freefall with others.

Also, it was hard for me to learn to move less when maneuvering in RW -- my legs were too busy, moving around and adjusting needlessly.

But all the above is because I didn't have any real RW coaching and just learned on my own.

[obelixtim 150]

Quote

Same, took me 27 to get off the damn rope. Crazy

That indicates your instructors were not very good. Its not a reflection on you, but rather a reflection on them.

Anyone doing more than 7 or 8 DRP's is not being trained properly, unless their jumping is irregular.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[Blis 1]

Im with you in this one... So far only thing i've had to redo on my S/L progression was the 5s freefall... And the reason it failed was unstabile exit (which i managed to fix) but lead to too long freefall...

[JohnMitchell 16]

I developed a flat spin problem (some of which I blame on mediocre instruction). I wasted 3 jumps sorting that out.

[Trafficdiver 8]

I had a flat spin issue to. I went to the wind tunnel. Never had any problems with freefall stability since.

Did pick up a nasty tunnel habit though.

[JohnMitchell 16]

Trafficdiver

I had a flat spin issue to. I went to the wind tunnel. Never had any problems with freefall stability since.

Did pick up a nasty tunnel habit though.

No tunnels back then. I blame my instructor a bit because I was taught the "frog" position lying on my belly on a packing table, straining to arch against gravity. Then was told to go do that in freefall. I couldn't have had more muscle tension if I was planking with cinder blocks on my back.

After three spinning jumps, I just went up, went limp and fell stable. That's when I decided to become an instructor, so I could do my students a better job, hopefully.

[feuergnom 28]

other:
realize and learn that skydiving and dz.com are as full of selfcentered idiots as any other sport/group

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

[mrubin 0]

To relax. Once I was finally able to relax in freefall, everything seemed to get easier.

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

[mattjw916 2]

Back-flying... I was horrible at that. That took a lot of tunnel to fix.

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[skydivecat 3]

Landing, hands down. Took a Brian Germain Canopy course and close to 100 jumps to fix that.

The entire DZ used to stop what they were doing and turn to watch as I came in on final. Earned the nickname Pigpen (from peanuts comic strip) due to the atomic cloud of dust and dirt I used to kick up every time I crashed in. I def would have been picked first had we ever put together a football team, I could take a hit!

I should have had someone video all my landings last year and put it to the song "I Get Knocked Down", would have won the EOY video contest hands down...

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

-Other: It was hardest for me to keep from talking about skydiving to people who didn't also jump. I'm sure it's almost annoying as people with children blabbering on and on about their rugrats to people who don't give a shit about that stuff.

[shorehambeach 9]

Without doubt for me - door fear.

I did not like that door opening during AFF and for the next 50 + jumps. The door and I were like opposite poles of two magnets.

[xijonix 0]

I had a flat spin on every one of my jumps from the time I was cleared to self-supervision until my coach jumps; Around 30 jumps. As soon as I had someone else flying with me, it just went away and thankfully stayed gone.