Jumping again after a year - scared.

[riggerrob 643]

Good points.
If you keep your mind busy with the details of the skydive, then you it will be too busy with details to fret about random fear.

[airtimebabe24 0]

holy cow~ well said!

"The most wasted day of all is that upon which we have not laughed..." Nicholas Chamfort.

[matthias 0]

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I remember what's it's like to be on the plane, to watch the others exit and to stand at the door about to leap into space.

It's tough to be tough. I can't believe I've managed to jump solo.

It takes a real man to admit when he's afraid rather than deny it, but from what I read you still have the courage to face those fears head on. Anyone should be able to respect you for that.

I'm a AFF student and beginner myself, so my input is whatever its worth. The first paragraph, right before the exit...yeah, I know too well what that's like. I couldn't even begin to guess how fast my heart is racing during the hotel check and the exit count.

You faced your fears 9 times, and you have the willingness to do so again. Many (whuffos) have let there fears control them and dismissed the idea of putting themselves in harms way. You have a strength that they don't.

That's as much as I can say as that is how I am looking at my own personal situation. Best of luck bro.

_________________________________________
trance/house mixes for download:
www.djmattm.com

[Cloudi 0]

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RELAX! This is supposed to be fun! Smile when you think about jumping. Visualize everything going perfectly. Instead of thinking about the things you did wrong, think about what you nailed and smile about it.

This, among other things in JoeG's post, bear repeating. Wise beyond your experience level, IMO.

Practice, practice, practice. Don't feel stupid if you have questions. The only dumb questions in skydiving are the one's left unasked if you are unsure. Better to find out on the ground, than having to "self educate" in the air.

Visualize your skydive going exactly according to plan, but don't beat yourself up if it doesn't. It's not a race. Learn at your own pace.

Breathe. Smile. Do your best.

Kim
Watch as I attempt, with no slight of hand, to apply logic and reason.

[mjosparky 4]

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I know my limits and my gears limits, and do my best to operate with those limits.

PD-143R - Maximum Exit Weight for an expert canopy pilot, 200 pounds for a WL of around 1.4:1.

Your exit weight, 230+ for a WL of 1.61:1. I would say that is outside of the limits.

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[LawnDart21 0]

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Your exit weight, 230+ for a WL of 1.61:1. I would say that is outside of the limits.

I feel so violated....lol

Just goes to show how we can't always take things on the internet at face value....lol. Yup, I have a PD 143R, and yup, my exit weight is 225lbs. But what my profile doesn't show is that, my 143R is in my closet.....lol, and my 225lb exit weight is on a tandem system these days. 1000 of my last 1050 jumps have been tandems.

That said....lol, I will concede you have a point, although for me, in my personal experience, a PD143 at a 225 exit weight opens, flies and handles exactly as I want/need it to. It's not a blind choice based on vanity of rig size (if it was I'd lose 5 pouns and jump a PD 113). Even at the monsterously high wing loading of 1.6.... my 143R is everything I want and need in my reserve, and yes, I've landed it in a 30x30 backyard, not just an open field. So I would argue that it's not outside it's limits at that loading from personal experience.

Edit to add for reference sake, the Max suspended weight for the 143R is 254lbs.

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My other ride is a RESERVE.

[Angelfish 0]

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and do it on an "unpressured" day ... a day you're not planning to jump so you don't *have* to jump.

I do find that this helps me out a lot. I watch the landing patterns, I observe the seasoned skydivers on their flares, I also get to observe how happy and relaxed they are. It is also fun to see the tandem passengers waiting their turn for their first freefall!!! That is the most fun of all.

______________________________
Don't fear the reaper. ... BOC

[pirana 0]

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Not to start a "pissing" contest here or anything, but have you looked up extreme sport fatality stats lately ?? Hell, scuba diving is more dangerous . . .

Taken from Dan Poynter's Parachuting: A Skydiver's Handbook 6th edition.

In a recent year over 140 people died scuba diving, 856 bicycling, over 7,000 drowned, 1154 died of bee stings, and 80 by lightning. In 1982, 43,990 people were killed in highway accidents, 1,171 boating fatalities, 235 airline deaths, and 1,164 light aircraft general aviation fatalities.

Might as well throw my piss into the wind, mostly as a criticism for abusing stats. Raw numbers are pretty meaningless. By posting raw numbers only for activities that all kill more people than skydiving, you insinuate that skydiving is safer than any of them. (If that is not your intent, then what's the purpose of the post). You could slice and dice it a boatload of different ways, but I bet that raw numbers is the only way skydiving stays at the bottom of a descending order list of fatalities.

Bee stings and lightning? That's not even apples to oranges - it's apples to automobiles.

Even though the data they use is not granular enough to explain why and when skydiving is so dangerous (to them all jumpers and all jump activity presents equal risk), underwriters are dead on in putting it near the top of their unacceptable risk listings.

If you want to provide meaningful numbers, you've got to factor in # of non-fatal events, or total number of events, or even start dicing up events by type or something combination of those things.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[JeffNo 0]

Yes, that was well said. I think the "knowledge bucket" metaphor comes from Brian Germain's safety article called "The Long haul." It's worth reading too. I would do a link to it if I knew how.

[freeflyit 0]

First off, I can think whatever I want to think.

>>I don't mean to give you a long winded rant, its just that your still green in the sport, you already came across rather abrassively with the "some dropzones suck" thread, and here you are again making a very inaccurate generalization about fear in the sport. <<

I sereiously cannot belive you are riding me again because of what I said in this thread and relating back to the dropzones suck one. I don't want to get kicked off again but I'm not going to try to reason with you ither. Bottom line, I'll say and do what I want.

[Ron 10]

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Skydiving is a safe sport, safer than most of the extreme sports out there

You base this on???????

No offense but two years and 73 jumps might not make you qualified to make that call in regards to jumping.

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Have faith in your DZ, in your rigger, in your packer and most of all in yourself.

Eliminate most of the above except for the bolded part and you would be bang on.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[LawnDart21 0]

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First off, I can think whatever I want to think.

Of course you can. Just don't assume that because you feel a certain way about something, everyone must feel the same way or thier lying.

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I don't want to get kicked off again

Not getting kicked off is easy, just don't break the rules with personal attacks or advertising.

--
My other ride is a RESERVE.

[D.B.Cooper 0]

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It takes a real man to admit when he's afraid rather than deny it, but from what I read you still have the courage to face those fears head on. Anyone should be able to respect you for that..

Today was supposed to be the big day. I put to good use all the great advice I got here; smiling and thinking about the good things I did and everything. It worked great as I was only slightly anxious on the way. So I got the DZ (not my regular one) and I immediately felt the butterflies when I saw the plane and everything. I tried to relax and waited a bit to see other skydivers land. I felt quite nervous as I imagined myself in the plane and at the door. Part of me wanted to jump, part of me wanted to go home. I finally decided to go for it and talked a JP but he wasn't the right person to talk to and he told me to talk someone else. That person was busy so I waited.
But I never went to him. I told myself I didn't have to jump today and before jumping again I could go from time to time to a DZ just to hang out. So I left the DZ and bought myself a 20 minute flight with a friend who had never been on a plane. It made me more confident to be back in the air in a small plane.

The funny thing is : had I bumped directly into the right person I would have probably jumped.
So I'm thinking of going to my regular DZ and try to jump with the JP I did my AFF with. Maybe that would help.

I feel very disapointed in myself. Yes it takes a man to admit he's scared but it also takes a man (or a woman !) to overcome his fear and do what he has to. Today I wasn't man enough to do it.

I know I don't have to skydive if I don't want to but this is something I really wanna do. It's just those first steps after so much time on the ground that are hard. I just need a JP to put a rig on my back and tell me that I'm on the next load with him. I would jump for sure then.



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"I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked."

[hymandd732 0]

I believe you should forsake skydiving and take up tennis.

Freefall Hall

[sswayne 0]

I had a similar situation coming back to the sport after 3 years off. With only 21 jumps I was a little nervous about doing everything "right" and surviving my next jump.

I dropped by the DZ late on a Saturday to talk to the DZO and watch some landings and packings... just to get the "feel" of it again. That actually reduced my anxiety a bit right there.

Then the next morning, I took a short AFF refresher with a thorough instructor and he felt I was ready to go, so I was set up on the next load. That review reduced some anxiety as well which was slowly being replaced by confidence.

We headed for the plane and everything came back to me as I rode up to altitude, including the anticipation buildup right to the door. But immediately after exiting, it all went away and I remembered why I came back in the first place. Problem solved.

I found that practicing pulls and EP's in the plane and simply relaxing and breathing during freefall did wonders to balance my confidence/fear equation.