here's what I think has most helped me from skydiving to base
CRW
-7 cell experience
-Teaches you about what your canopy can and can't do
-Teaches you to deal with unexpected circumstances
Tandem (instructor)
-Outstanding way to practice accuracy and soft landings.
-Forces you to make braked turns and corrections below 300 ft (unusual for most skydivers today)
-Forces you to deal with less than ideal circumstances (this idiot is trying to kill me)
High performance canopy flight
-Makes you think 5 steps ahead
-Quickly provides you feedback on when you've done wrong
Tracking dives
-Allows you to enjoy the next tall object
-Forces you to adjust your body to match fall rates and allows you to tweek that to maximize horizontal track or slow vertical fall
Freeflying
-Makes you work outside your normal comfort zone ie. I'm upside down and don't know where my friend is
-Makes you recognize and react to things quicker
10,000ft canopy rides
-Rarely used by most jumpers, but I've found it to be very benificial
-Allows you to tie your canopy into a knot and figure out how its going to react
-Teaches you what happens when you touch any combination of risers, brakes, harness turns, brakeline wraps, stalls, riser flares, etc, etc
Just my thoughts for today.
TJ
