How do I go about joining a skydiving team?

[JohnnyMarko 1]

I get the idea now...don't get me wrong, I love checking out the forums and looking at freefly pictures and all that stuff, but I never take advice from the forums or think I can do cool stuff right now...I take advice from my instructor and my instructor only..any student who reads these forums for actual advice is dumber than a box of rocks

[JohnMitchell 16]

I think Dave is funny as hell.

There are a lot of smart asses in skydiving, and none of us should take ourselves that seriously. And he is right: your first team is your AFF instructors, and they kick you off later.

Stay in this sport long enough and you'll live through tragedies that will make you try very hard to prevent it again. And then it will happen again. That's why we can be a little harsh with our answers sometimes, because we really want you to listen, learn, and make a lot of jumps.

[skyjumpenfool 2]

O.K. You're interested in getting involved with team skydiving. Here's some food for thought....
http://skyleague.com/indexX.php

When you're ready, there'll be a slot on a team for you. The first step in your journey to the moon is deciding you want to go there.

Welcome to the sport!

Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."

[PhreeZone 20]

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I just asked if students are hated cause anytime someone with less than 25 jumps posts a question, merely asking about information, someone with 2500 jumps feels the need to say "whoa, your still a student...your a moron for asking about swooping, your skill level is so far from even thinking about swooping blah, blah, blah"...everyone was a student at one time and I myself respect experience jumpers and am just trying to learn from you guys

The phrase I hate to hear the most at the DZ when I'm working with a student: "So I read online that its better to do it this way.". That phrase right there usually results in having to double the ground instruction time to get them to forget everything they read and to do what I am trying to teach. These forums are great, once you know enough to know to ignore about 99% of the info on here.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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I've got a few dropzones reasonably close to me, so that's not a problem. I just can't find any information on joining teams. This seems like a really fun activity to do with other people, and unfortunately all of my current friends find the idea of jumping out of a plane to be terrifying. I don't want to be one of those people who's always by themselves jumping.

Most skydivers neither jump alone nor join teams.

You meet people who like the same sort of skydiving, figure out what sort of formations you're going to build, and just do it.

Some people come from drop zones where the more experienced jumpers invite less experienced ones on jumps and help them progress as skydivers. Some drop zones provide load organizers that will take a group of people on a jump that's likely to go well. You'll probably have more fun at one of those sorts of dropzones.

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Any ideas of where I could find info about this? How could I hook up with other skydivers that have my level of experience, or in other words, other people that are just starting out?

After you're proficient enough in your skydiving discipline of choice to jump with other people and successfully complete planned formations (could be 50 jumps for belly-to-earth, could be 1000 jumps for free fly unless you spend a lot of time in vertical wind tunnels) you talk to other skydivers until you find enough that have the same goals. Maybe you just want to jump with the same people a lot of the time and go to the local competitions. Maybe you want to be serious, make 500 team jumps a year, hire a coach to work with you, and go to training camps together.

[steveorino 7]

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Any ideas of where I could find info about this? How could I hook up with other skydivers that have my level of experience, or in other words, other people that are just starting out?

Yeah, I would try looking at a dropzone, I've heard skydivers hang out there.

This is a team activity, your first team will be you and your instructors. Get good enough that they kick you off the team, and then worry about finding a new team.

You're not funny. So whoever told you that you were lied to you.
Thanks to everybody else.

One thing you should try to learn ASAP is the skydiving community is very small. Taking an attitude with an online post that was meant to be funny and thought provoking could follow you around. My suggestion ... chill, read 99.99% and post .01 %, learn from your local instructors and ask them the questions. This forum is a great place to learn about the difference between gear (when you actually know how your gear works), chat among friends, and simply enjoy the family (crazy uncles like Daves as well) Just my 2 cents.

steveOrino

[Skydivesg 7]

Hey trooper.

After reading some of these posts you are obviously starting to see that skydivers, in general, have pretty strong personalities.

I also think that a lot of them are too old to remember or have simply forgotten that when just coming to the end of the teenage years a person is all gung ho about any activity that peaks their interests.

Some even forget that most things that teens participate in are called "teams", even if the activity is more about the individual. Swim Team - Dive Team - Golf Team - Debate Team - Tennis Team - Wrestling Team - etc etc.

And maybe they don't remember that when we were younger and wanted to participate in something, we had to "join a team" to learn the activitiy.

I'm glad you took the iniative to ask questions at the risk of getting made fun of or even taking a verbal lashing.

I will tell you this: many of the people on this site, especially some of those with whom you might take issue above, are actually very knowledgable and have a lot of good information which they are often willing to share. Even if you think some of their attempts at humor are less than stellar.

Hang in there and keep asking questions. More importantly don't let some internet forum dissuade you from pursuing your dream of "Human Flight".

Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.

[davelepka 4]

Just to add another, somewhat productive point, just about every jump in skydiving is a team effort.

The way fun jumping works at a dropzone is that before each load, various jumpers will get together and plan a group jump of some sort. The size and make up of the group changes from jump to jump, and from DZ to DZ.

You may show up, and see three of your DZ buddies, and do a 4-way formation jump for your first jump of the day. The four of you will plan out who jump first, second, and so on, and what formations you will make in the sky. You'll rehearse this plan on the ground, then go make your jump. For that one load, you guys are a team.

You may land from that jump, and find that it went so well, everyone wants to jump with that same group again. You may land and find that two more of your friends have shown up, so you plan a 6-way jump, and for that load you're on a 6 person team.

The general idea is that once you have a basic 'A' license, you'll always have people to jump with, and for the most part will make most of your jumps with other people. You don't need to have a set 'team' to have group involvment, in fact most jumpers don't. You go to the DZ, and see who's there, what's going on, and choose your jumps based on whatever you want to do.

Putting together a formal team is generally reserved for after you have 100 or so jumps, and have tried the different types of skydiving and liked one so much that you want to focus on, and compete in, that one type of skydiving.

So, back to my original idea, just go make your first jump. For your first 25 or 30 jumps, you will have a great deal of structure and planning to your jumps, that thinking about anything but the very next jump is almost a waste of time. Not to sound like an AA meeting, but take it one jump at a time.

Now go make one jump and report back on your experience.

[jim_32766 0]

Keep asking questions and absorb everything you can from all good sources. I too am just a beginner and am continuously amazed at the knowledge the more experienced folks freely share. Once you get your first AFF jumps done come back and read some of the answers again. I guarantee your learning filters will have changed.
Good luck and keep chasing your dreams.

The meaning of life . . . is to make life have meaning.