Swooping.....people are different!!!!!!!

[Reginald 0]

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The problem is that nearly everyone wants to be, or thinks they are, that guy "who is different." I'm not a swooper, but, well, I'd like to think I'm different, smarter, and a little more skilled by nature than others too (at other skills). But, well, by and large I'm not.

The penalty for not being as good as you thought you were is greater in swooping than in other skills. Me, I just look stupid when I mess up because I wasn't as good as I thought I was, but I don't hurt myself.

Wendy W.

You have an excellent point. Studies have shown that people are frequently wildly overconfident in themselves. While there are prodigies out there there are not as many as there are people who think they are (to totally make some numbers up for illustrative purposes) 0.05% of skydivers may be prodigies able to swoop very early but 5% of skydivers think they are prodigies. That means 4.95% are putting themselves in over their heads and don’t realize it.

"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

[Bartje 0]

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That being a D license and/or 500 jumps minimum on a ram air canopy, with the swoop attempts being made on a canopy in which the swooper candidate has made at least 200 jumps, with a currency of at least 50 jumps being made in the preceding 60 days with no less than 2 jumps having been made in the preceding 7 days.

Why put it in numbers?
A skydiver, or student, can participate a swoop competition by the end of the summer when he, or she, did kearn to skydive, that is asking for problems.
If you talk numbers than I say minimum 1000 jumps before participating a swoop event.

As I understand the item is when to learn to swoop, then 4 à 500 jumps is required.
If you talk canopy control, it can not be early enough to start with. I give canopy control already with the first jump course.
But he, that is just me, ...

A FreeFly Gypsy