Freefly or RW jumpsuit

[AndyMan 7]

If you're sure you only want to freefly, then goahead, and only get a freefly jumpsuit.

To me though, there really couldn't be anything more boring. People who limit themselves to only one kind of jumping cut themselves off from the majority of skydiving.

Every good freeflyer I know also has well developed belly skills. They didn't just pick these up through reverse osmosis, they spent the time turning the points to learn how to do it. Why? because it's a hell of a lot of fun, too.

My goals as a skydiver is to be able to fly my body with the best of them in any position, wether its on my belly, my head, my feet, or hanging from wingsuits. Whatever new thing comes along, I'll be there trying to learn it, and yeah - I'll probably be buying a new jumpsuit for it, too.

Currently I've got 3 jumpsuits, and there's 2 more on the shopping list for this season.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[bodypilot1 0]

First of all buy what you can afford. If you can't buy things new, that are fit just for your body size, buy a used suit that fits you. A Freefly suit will be an easy fit as they are baggy. Or pants and a long sleeve shirt will work well and be affordable. An RW is not so easy for fitting a suit that is used, unless you know someone that is your body size. You dont want it to be baggy if you are a light person, thus you have to buy weights to make your fall rate relative to others, thus costing you more money? So, the RW suit will have to be a better fit, and probably better if you ordered it made for you, and the Freefly suit can be a baggy pair of pants and a long sleeve shirt costing you less. You can do both.So, chose whatever your mind and body desires. Choose the discipline that is the most prevalent at your DZ, and the people you'd like to jump with? Chose to be good at one, but dont suck at both?
Just jump, and your mind will be made up as to the discipline you chose by the people you chose to jump with......

Ed
AFF-I 94

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[bodypilot1 0]

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hanging from wingsuits.

How do you do that?

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[PhreeZone 20]

Off topic... but like this picture Picture of Robin from Bobo hanging under her on a BM flight.

Personally doing RW in my Freefly suit taught me a lot of really bad habits and it totally messed up my fall rate. Get a suit for both. You can get a RW suit for less then 200 if you look around.

400+ Freefly jumps and I've got 2 freefly suits. Eventually you'll end up ordering a new one every other year or so just since you learn how you want them cut to fly differently. I've got a fast suit and a slow one and I'm about to order a super fast one.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Nullified 0]

I'm going to introduce another thought in to this discussion. You don't need any suit at all.
Unless you're planning on competing, you're fine in plain clothes. I know plenty of kick-ass RW flyers who don't own a jump suit. There are advantages to owning one...grips sure do come in useful for RW piece maneuvers...but if your plan for the near future is just about going out, learning and having fun with your friends, you don't need one. You can launch most formations without grippers and you really should be able to hold a formation without holding on to something. Tracking? You can and should learn to track well without booties.
As for a FF suit, as mentioned in most earlier posts, the correct plain clothes are fine, too.
Besides, once you startdoing CReW, you'll be glad that you didn't waste all that money on jumpsuits
Stay safe,
Mike

If you're gonna' be stupid, well, then you're most likely stupid.

[bkdice 0]

Start with a basic RW suit. Learn to fly on your belly first. All I wanted to do was freefly too, but I am glad I spent some time learning the basics in RW.

An RW suit w/o too many bells and whistles won't be too bad a hit on your wallet. Maybe a few weeks down the road order a pair of freefly pants. You can get them pretty cheap ($100 - $150). Then, as you learn sit, order the entire freefly suit. This way you spread them out a little.

As much as I don't do much RW now, I still enjoy it from time to time and I think it's essential to keep those skills growing - even though my focus in freeflying.

Regardless, you are about to spend thousands of dollars in the coming months.

[skymick 0]

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You could get yourself a sweat shirt (maybe not a XXXL like me though)

If you are thinking about using a huge shirt or whatever for FF keep in mind that it could end up covering your handles (a recent incident in Aus was caused by this) so get someone experienced to check it out and make sure everything is tucked in

Cheers

[bch7773 0]

I would say get a basic RW suit... no booties, no inner-knee grips. you can learn the basics in that, and if you decide you like RW, you have a suit. if you decide that you want to get into freeflying, you can use the suit for sitflying if you don't have booties. or you can use the old longsleeved tshirt and shorts to learn sitflying. when and if you move on to headdown and stuff, you can then buy a FF suit with all the bells and whistles.

MB 3528, RB 1182

[champu 1]

I have a pit-special from tonysuit that I really like, and plan to jump the heck out of in the near future.

I also plan to get a pair of freefly pants as I seem to have "belly weekends" and "freefly weekends" depending on who grabs me by the arm at the 15 minute call

Eventually I'd like to be able to jump and have fun with any group. The way I see it, I've got plenty of time to let it all unfold.

/edited to add: also if you want to provide lasting entertainment to all those around you, try to sitfly with booties...

[rehmwa 2]

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Told you the belly fliers would freak out.

Funny quote above from C-USA - I've seen only positive encouragement from everyone to a new jumper (no one is taking the bait, this is a great new jumper support thread). The only 'my way or highway' comments were in the first three responses and all were FF. And with only 500 jumps, Canuck hasn't had the oportunity yet to get really good in more than a couple disciplines.

Yeah, swooping is fun too. But not for a newbie.

Still, I'd recommend the full blown RW suit - don't get anything half-assed unless you want to fly half assed. RW even starting needs the right suit or you'll have bad habits to break a couple thousand jumps down the road.

FF is more about total body awareness and control, but you can still work your way into it with loose clothes, etc. and get some suit really fine tuned when you get the skills you only get from a few hundred jumps.

Luckily for CrW, jeans or running tights, long sleeved t or sweatshirt, nice gloves you already have.

Again, be safe, get 'competent' on your belly and back before moving to the more vertical components. You'll learn faster.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

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[freakydiver 0]

I use every day baggy tshirt and pants for freefly suit - saved me a ton of money. Granted, I don't look as "cool" as some of the other freefliers on the DZ, but I couldn't care less. The RW suit is really a "custom" suit - i.e. it has grips and is purposley tight fitting so I'd probably buy that first. Not to mention you should learn RW as well as freeflying. My two cents.

-- (N.DG) "If all else fails – at least try and look under control." --

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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Being solid on your belly may save your life someday.

I sure hope you're not telling our original poster to resort to their belly skills while on a freefly jump. Arcing hard because you've become unstable on a freefly jump has a way of killing people more than saving them.

But this is out of the context of this thread.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[VanillaSkyGirl 6]

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Told you the belly fliers would freak out.
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Funny quote above from C-USA - I've seen only positive encouragement from everyone to a new jumper (no one is taking the bait, this is a great new jumper support thread). The only 'my way or highway' comments were in the first three responses and all were FF.

I agree with you. Everyone has been giving the original poster good advice about how to progress in this sport. Why is it "freaking out" if the more experienced skydivers are encouraging being more proficient at RW first and exploring all disciplines instead of limiting yourself to only one or two disciplines?

Many of the BEST freeflyers out there, still occasionally do some more advanced RW jumps to keep all their skills polished. (It's just embarrassing to see freeflyers who can hardly fly on their bellies, and I have personally witnessed this.) Also, when I was in the Airspeed tunnel camp, I was told by tunnel staff in the know (as well as by a world-class visiting freeflyer) that the Airspeed guys can REALLY freefly, too! I was encouraged to try to freefly more because it will also help with my 4-way goals. Vice versa with more advanced RW if I am a freeflyer.

The funny thing is that I initially thought that I was going to be freeflying only, so I ordered my custom-made Firefly freefly suit early on. At Jump 32, I learned the "mantis" and got a feel of what advanced RW can be by watching videos. I fell in love with the thought of doing 4-way. Freeflying does not have the same appeal for me, at the moment. Therefore, I never wear my freefly suit because I had to go buy another suit to do more serious RW in...a custom-made RW suit (Bev "Hot Bod"). However, I never say that buying my freefly suit was a waste of money. It will be used, someday.

Everyone begins to fly on their belly in the "boxman", and we all progress to either more advanced RW or to freeflying, crew or whatever. The thing is that for some reason, some (not all) freeflyers think that belly flying is little more than what they learned in student status! It's so funny because it's a whole different world in belly flying when you have to actually turn in sequence, take grips, remain relative to each other and work as one. There is also a rhytmn that you have as you skydive, like playing music with your body. There are so many details to learn, then perfect in ANY discipline, that we could never learn it all. One discipline is not superior than the others, they are just different.

Btw, I am only a 105 jump wonder, so take everything that I write with a grain of salt.

[webracer 0]

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I sure hope you're not telling our original poster to resort to their belly skills while on a freefly jump. Arcing hard because you've become unstable on a freefly jump has a way of killing people more than saving them.

Keep on fishing Canuck.
You're trying too hard to make an argument.

Troy

I am now free to exercise my downward mobility.

[ifics 0]

I bought a freefly suit, but plan on doing both RW and freefly (crew later). Its all fun as long as you're flinging yourself from a plane and falling through the air!! I do know though that my heart is in Freefly, I can't explain it but I "know" I don't want to go full on RW. My mind and heart are in freefly and my goal is that. I don't want to lose belly skills though, I want to be good at that also.

[jb092 0]

When I first started jumping RW was really the only game in town so I bought a RW suit. When FF came about I bought a FF suit. The RW suit went for years gathering dust untill one day I decided to do an RW jump. Now I use both suits and I am glad I didnt get rid of it. So the end of story is I would get both types.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Designer 0]

Both!

[Charlieb245 0]

Good thread. Im in the same boat. I have about 55 jumps and am about to get a jumpsuit and was trying to decide which to get or if i can do a two birds one stone deal. Ive asked around my local DZ and opinions are like ass holes... everyones got one. I tihnk the best thing is to get both, but being on a budget i have to choose only one for right meow. Can't make up my mind yet but will update my post when i do.

[cavscout73 0]

Look for used suits. I got freefly pants, ff suit and rw all for about the cost of 1 new suit. When you learn more and fall into a disipline with in the sport then get your custom suit whichever way you like.