yvanpec

an analogy that speaks to me ! thank you haha Am I comfortable under my 190 ? not so much as I am with my 210 to be honest. Because I have more time under the 210. What is comfortable ? Jumping 4th, opening higher than everyone and still land first without any issue ? then I guess I am comfortable. Does it make me better than anyone else ? Certainly not. It does, however make me aware of what happens to my canopy when I pull either a brake or a riser. Keeping on pulling the brakes 3 inches to turn super safely will not teach me much. I just do all the more radical (to my level......so probably pussy stuff for most of you) manoevers at a high altitude. Thing is I didnt try to land in whatever position. I opened , had fun, played with my toggles, played with my risers, and I ended down there quicker than anyone else (all students). We werent on a full load and i wasnt ever in traffic. When the sky was crowded, I waited for my turn to land and stuck to gentle toggle adjustments. There were a couple German kids doing their AFF and A license. I think they jumped around 40 times in a week. Every 5 jumps, when asked when they'd pull, the number would be 500ft less than before. To me, THAT'S where the real danger is....wanting more freefall time and opening lower and lower. Good for them if they think they have time to deal with a mal that quickly after 40 jumps. I would never push limits with my pull altitude, but i'd push the limits of my 210 still gliding at 4000 ft because my instructor told me those canopies can be pushed without much risks. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

Very true stuff, and why I pay my USPA dues, to keep the govt. off my back as much as possible. If you look at the FARs, there is no rule requiring any jumper to open either parachute. You are just not allowed to bounce on a taxpayer. Yeah I was kinda surprised how the staff put equal amount effort in me having fun as well as me being safe. I mean, I like safety, but I have hung out at DZs in france where people were straight up dicks. Difference is, french DZs are held accountable for anything that would happen to you.....but fuck, I picked up this sport to have fun, not to get yelled at and be treated like crap because I don't have 12456 jumps. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

Money is not an issue but time is. It's still cold and snowy here (can't wait to land on snow ) so one DZ opens back up in 2 weeks but only on week ends. Coming march I'll be able to pound 15 jumps a week easy as I will have 5 DZs within an hour and half drive to choose from. I know I will get under something a bit larger for the first few jumps. The DZ is at around 1500 ft already so I wanna see how thinner air affects flight, and also, I have a traintrack (busy one), a powerplant and a fairly big river to deal with upon landing. Traintrack is about 150 ft away from landing zone Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

999 and you've got a deal ! joking aside, I don't really see the point in lying about experience. For all I know I could have started this post by telling you guys I had 120 jumps and used to fly 168 all the time, and I would have had the convenient answer. Fact is, I did not. Skydiving is like every other thing thats been practiced a while. Some will embrace change, gear evolution, thank the people who made a bold move. Some won't. I don't think there is any wrong in both. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

yup Craddock, I have spent a solid part of my life sitting on an engine or with something strapped to my feet. It definitely helps with reaction time and decision making. Especially surfing, where the decision making needs to be real quick and where foresight is also a must. I read on here, because I read a lot, that one should never buy gear he plans on using some time down the road....?? Plus, looking at that beautiful rig sitting in a corner of my house, you know what will happen.....I'll jump it because it's right there....I know myself way to well. Buy a Hershey bar to a kid, put it right there and tell him not to touch it....yeah. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

I felt I received very good training in the states, but again, i havent done it anywhere else so i cant really judge. From what I understand, the DZ is also known for it's cool vibes and friendlyness, so maybe I have started somewhere friendly and about to go somewhere different, which I am sure will be hard to adjust to. France has ABCD licenses, and sub Bs and Cs i think. Takes 50 jumps with 7 coach jumps to be able to do group jumps. In this case, I would understand I d have to show proeffiency to an instructor since I "only" have an A license. In switzerland, there is almost no online resources to study. I have "heard" that after around 50 jumps, or whenever the student "feels comfortable", whatever that means, the student can take a test and obtain a Swiss skydiving license, which is basically the one and only..... It's all disturbing haha Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

I was told that the global standard in aviation was feet and not meters. I get your point, but france and switzerland both use the metric system and yet they do everything differently. Even the AFFs can't be compared. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

Thank you all for your input. See, I asked a question about the rig, and I kinda knew the answer, I needed that so I don't go and buy it. BUT! I have just read the thread monkycndo linked in his post.......Now, how does someone can downsize from 190 to 129 without anyone at the DZ noticing ? Did they just allow it ? I am pretty sure I can look at a container and roughly know what's in there. a container with two 190s dont look the same as one with two 130s in it. I am also pretty sure that the person in charge of the DZ here would inspect my gear thoroughly before letting me jump. And if they don't, that'd dissapoint me a little bit because I'd feel let down in some way. Just like if yall answered "damn right bought that 150 reserve". Too much concern is not necessarily good, so is a lack of it. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

I totally agree with you. I think the sport has developped enough to a point where you can find info pretty easily. Everytime I asked a question to any instructors at the DZ, my questions were received with lots of understanding and led to great discussions. It was really enjoyable and it made me feel like people cared. Norm said to me " Confident, cocky, dead". It's in the back of my head for sure. What is sometimes hard is to deal with different structures. In switzerland, the DZ said they had no problem letting me jump a 190/190 canopy. Only 6 people per load, not much canopy traffic. Then I go 20 miles out in France and they said no way, I need at least a 220 and a student AAD. If I drive a car for a good bit, there is a good chance I'll get to know the car. If I drive any other car every other day, I'll know a tiny bit about each car, right ? So what's best ? Knowing a bit about 5 different canopies or knowing one canopy well ? How does sitting in a painful harness wanna make me practice canopy flight ? Being comfy under a 190 or hurting under a 220 ? which is safer ? Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

So, I wanted to discuss a couple things that seem interesting to me. PLease PLEASE don't see this as "let's do whatever we wanna do and fuck an advice" but more as a discussion topic. I smoke. It'll certainly kill me and make my life miserable when i get lung cancer later down the road. I drive. And I break the speed limit every single day. I ride a motorcycle, and I ride it like a moron. If i wanted it to be 100% safe, I'd watch it on TV. I cross the road when it says don't cross.You know, the one where you hurry a little bit because if you don't, you'll likely get run over by that sweet Honda Civic. I have drank more than reason would allow,on countless nights. I surf big waves every chance I can. I used to skateboard, and always wanted to jump the 12 flight of stairs instead of the 11 one that was right by it. With all the above accounted for, as long as my gear is in perfect working order, let me tell you that the least of my worries is a .1 overloading on a reserve chute. And AGAIN, not caring doesn't mean I don't UNDERSTAND it. it might sound stupid for some people, but I feel like....let's not get too hypocritical on advices we give and choices we make. I also noticed something during my short stay at the DZ: Natural Abilities I have seen people not find a pull handle. To this day, I still can't even comprehend how that's possible. I have seen people turn right under canopy when the instructor was yelling on the radio " TURN LEFT !!!! LEFT !!!!". I have seen people simply give up on their AFF altogether. I have seen people show up for AFF and not even knowing that there's 2 parachutes in a container....."Hey I want to drive.....ohhhhhhh there are different gears ????? no way !"........... I m sure if your life has consisted of watching sport on TV, your learning curve is a little bit steeper than the guy who did some surfing, gymnastics, hell.....whatever that teaches you body and space awareness. Now, if I was an S&TA at a drop zone, I'd consider everyone a retard and put them on the safest gear, wingloading, just because I would not want to be blamed in case of an accident. That's understandable. I was given instruction to practice my flare, do the landing pattern on my 1st and second jump. On my third, I pulled and once under canopy I heard "Yvan, give me a practice flare and do whatever the fuck you want " which I didn't take as a " pull hard on a front riser and go swoop that landing" but I took it as a " I must be showing good enough skills that they take time away from me to give it to the other guys who are really struggling with this thing" So again, not saying I won't be taking advice....I love advice, but with everything else in life, it's pretty clear not everyone as the same natural ability to perform such or such things. I'd rather have someone capable on a 1.5 wingloading after 100 jumps than a complete retard on a .8 wingloading that still lands crosswind cause he can't figure it out after 80 jumps. Fire. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

Hi all. So I passed my A license in the US. But I live in Switzerland, and the French border is only 10 minutes away. It is a nightmare to figure out what DZ needs what in terms of experiences and licenses. The french told me they dont care about my A license and I am gonna have to do coach jumps to be able to jump there. The swiss say since I am a swiss citizen I MUST pass my Swiss license. I am sure that if I only had my Swiss license, both the French and Americans would give me crap. Why doesnt the USPA, the french, the swiss, the germans etc etc etc all sit down and decide on a standardized, internationaly recognized license training ? this baffles me. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

haha yeah I have heard it's gonna be a bitch but I have found a DZ close to home that has a USPA rating. and since I am gonna be in florida 3 to 4 times a year, made also sense to pass USPA licenses. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

I have been reading a lot and talked a lot with my instructor. Before starting to jump i could not really understand why people would wanna downsize quickly, but now, I can certainly understand it more. Being under a 240 and 220 was fine. We had maybe 3-5 knots of steady winds during my first 8 landings and I stood up maybe 6 of them. Now, I didnt try crazy stuff but I played with rear risers on my second jump already, because I am very curious of all the mechanics of flying. Then i rented out the safire 2 210 ( My landings were better but the wind was maybe 10-12 so I probably had lesser horizontal speed to deal with.) and I felt like it was more fun, and the responsiveness made me feel more secure because I could adjust quicker (which i understand is in fact the issue with low experience). Then I jumped a 190 and everything was even better, and i am still at a .9 wind loading. Point is, this could be a feeling someone could very much want to feel again, and therefore push to make bad decisions. That being said, I'm fine renting gear to the point where my coach tells me to I can fly a smaller canopy. I thought maybe a 150 reserve wasnt that bad but i had a strong feeling it would be a bit too aggressive. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

that's what I was thinking (I am not sure how 40sqft of canopy affects flight due to my newbieness). I'll keep looking then . Thx ! Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

hi all. New to the sport here. I have done some extensive (I mean, exten-fuckin-sive) research on gear as I am looking for my first rig. I think I found a sweet sweet deal but asking for advice is always good before dropping the moneyz. My exit weigh is approx 168 pounds. 170 if I had a good night at the bar the day before. I have jumped Nav 240 and 220 during AFF. Then they put me on a Safire 2 210 for a few jumps and finally a 190 for 5 jumps. I have 30 jumps, but since money is not really an issue, I wanna buy a nice comfy rig. I jumped a couple rentals that made me wanna land that canopy veryyyyyyyy quickly (you know, when the leg straps cut into your femorals....). I have found an Icon i4. date of man. may 2008. it has a smart 150 reserve with 0 opening, a cypres 2 and a 150 mamba. I contacted the seller and offered to buy the rig minus the Mamba, because apparently I will die flying it. And I dont want to anyways. I want a docile main as my DZ here has a landing area the size of a paper towel. The whole system has 2 jumps on it. Owner just had his second kid and want to retire from jumping. He is OK to sell me the rig (no main) for 2700 bucks. Also, it fits like a glove. I got to see it in person and it looks perfect. stitching, material, everything ! It has an RSL, soft res handle, hook knife... I called Aerodyne and they said I could stuff a 188 zpx pilot in it. So, I was thinking, start with that for a few hundred, then i can put a 168 in it, than a 150 and finally, if ever, a 135. So I am thinking it's a sweet sweet deal....since it'll last me forever. Any input ? Things I should consider ? thx guys. Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.

hi everyone. My name is Yvan, I am from Geneva, Switzerland. Blessed to be in an awesome country for skydiving, basejumping and wingsuiting. I am quite new to practicing the sport, although I have had an interest in it for quite a while now. I took advantage of the shitty weather here to go to Florida last month to get my AFF and A license done. Did that at Skydive Sebastian. Got super lucky on wind the first few days and was able to knock my AFF out in less than 3 days :) The DZ here opens back on jan 18, I am counting the days ! C yall around here. Yvan Pec Better be on the ground wishing you were up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground.