DHead 0 #26 July 23, 2003 My skydiving is all my friend's fault. At work 2 1/2 years ago a friend suggested skydiving to a group of us on industrial placements. He had alread done a tandem for his 18th and loved it and wanted to take it up. He managed to persuade 6 others but I was still unsure. Stupidly, I eventually gave into peer pressure and Paid my £50 deposit for the course. Sadly couldnt jump after the course due to crappy weather, but we were back 2 weeks later. I remember my first static line count as being "1000, 2.... JESUS CHRIST.errrrrrrrrrr canopy... yes... er toggles... WOW" Out of the 10 of (2 others did it later due to peer pressure and to say they'd done it) 7 made at least 1 more jump. I nearly quit after being put back on the rope around jump 20. But somehow I managed to not do AFF and get my cat8 18 months and 48 (about 20 dps) jumps later. And the guy who made the first tandem got his too, but a bit quicker. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
juanesky 0 #27 July 23, 2003 Mine has been on my mind the same day I saw the first skydiver actually land against a brick wall. I was 5 YO. From that moment, I just made parachutes with my toys, you know those plastic green soldiers, and plastic bags, and climbed all kinds of tree to see them fly, as well as our 3 story house, where our neighbors would call my parents...... I tried everything from then on, doing just dangerous stupid things such as jump of 30 feet clifs into the waves, using an umbrella to test the veracity of Mary poppins, Flyng in my bycicle after running to a ramp close to a ditch full of water, perhaps 5 meters high. I even got detained once on a small airport for having the bright Idea of throwin my bike over the fence, climbing it and riding on the runway while small planes landed...... Oh yes, I was lucky enough to get just bruises, never broke a damn bone, until 21. I was lucky to joined the airforce as a cadet, after a brief stunt on the army, managed to survive helicopter rides hanging from ropes, yet never could get to actually jumping from the damn plane. Until we actually went on the paratroopers training. Men, of all the crap i had to go through on my trainings, I guess that one was the worst and most demanding of all. Try carrying those damn rigs and running around with them at 90 under the sun for a couple miles....... PLF was the instruction, no doubt about it, and they made sure you had your legs strong enough to do it anyhow, anywhere. And then it was there, 20, inside a C-130 with those huge rigs, scared as hell thinking, WTF was I dreaming about? Then it was there my turn, to follow the guy out the door, there were 50 of us on the load, with the T10s, and the count 1-1000, 2-1000, 3-1000 check.....ooppss I guess I started walking on someone's canopy and we almost became entangled. So much dreaming for this moment, and it may be my last. Damn. I just remember pulling the big silver handle on my belly to get that sucker out. We both survived. I did a couple dozen more jumps and took a 12 year hiatus from it due to work, school, family, and all those things that take over our lives. Back in the air and thru AFF a year now, and can't seem to be able to get enough. Blue skies."According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
