beetnerk

I started skydiving/AFF at the Champaign-Urbana Skydiving Club last fall when I was 18 then finished out my A-license in January in the student training program at Skydive Spaceland Houston. Since then, I've been skydiving with the UIUC Falling Illini Collegiate Skydiving Team as the (currently) only girl and travelling to Chicagoland Skydiving Center on the weekends to get more altitude and larger formation jumps. I've been thrown into a nuclear lake, hit jump number and freefall time for my B-license, and gone through ground school for the canopy course. This summer, I'm hoping to hit my C-license and make some hot air balloon jumps. Eventually, the goal is wingsuiting and BASE jumping. Now that I'm travelling to more dropzones and have enough tunnel time and training experience to begin more advanced diveflows, I figured it's time to introduce myself and get to know more of the community. I'll be tenting Friday-Sunday at dzs across Missouri + a few neighboring states this summer, so if you're located at any of those areas and want to get some jumps together feel free to reach out! I'm also open to US dropzone recommendations and meeting other USPA Collegiate Nationals competitors, so if you're planning to enter this year (or need extra team members) let me know! Blue skies! -Kathleen Beetner, ig: @kathleens_shenanigans

I'm 5'6" 110 lbs, I started on a 240 with 50 lbs weight belts etc. and that was always a difficult landing, but I started sport climbing/lead climbing and doing arm workouts to improve my flare capability. I think the biggest thing on those canopies is flare timing, a great way is to watch first person videos of people flaring and stand up and flare with them, listen to the sound of the canopy etc. I went from early unfinished flares to perfect landings almost overnight.