Antidote

Hard openings do happen, but it's not the norm. Opening so hard you hurt your back is even more rare. A lot of it is in how the canopy is packed - there are some stochastic variables but the most deciding factor is how it is packed. Go out and enjoy yourself. Bring this issue up with your tandem master and I am sure he can give you a much more detailed and satisfactory explanation of the things involved

Think you handed it fair handedly, providing him with information he needed to make a correct decision. When asked about whether skydiving is dangerous, I merely say "It's dangerous to some level and you can add all the danger you want as you go". Usually this elicits a request for more info, which is the way I like it. People tend to listen more when they have asked a question directly rather than when they're more or less being told. I also tell 'em that if they're in the sport for ten years and are relatively active jumpers, they're probably gonna get hurt or have a friend get hurt. Or killed. Maybe that is over the top but it is my experience so far - and I have by no means been in the sport long (a little over two years). I might be a bit jaded based on personal experiences though.

One thing I was told when I started out in the sport: Don't let your ego get ahead of your skills. Other than that, welcome to the skies

Race should not be an issue with regards to role models. Or tandem instructors, or instructors, or just about anything. Suppose you exchange "Asian" for "White" in the examples Jeff commented on. "I'll only jump if I just with someone who's White". "Nah, my role models need to be White". That sort of screams "White Power" and shaven head and nazi memorabilia, no? I dunno why there is a lack of ethnic diversity in skydiving. There are probably many explanations - and sadly enough, riggerob is probably right on the mark, despite me disagreeing with what he described. Racism isn't limited to caucasians only. Preferring people of a similar or same ethnicity isn't necessarily racism though - although it is a selection based on race and some associations that (might) be there - such as cultural similarity and so on. Re: economy. I started jumping while I was unemplyed. I had around $800-$1000 a month - to pay housing, food, books for my studies, clothes and whatnot. This in a country where everything is at least 30% more expensive than in the US. Still managed to get certified and get 100 jumps in the first year. If you want something enough, you find the way. If you don't find the way, it's either not possible, or you do not want it enough. If anyone could give me the psycho-sociological explanation as to why we see few (in relation to the general population split up) "minorities" in the sport, I'd sure be interested in hearing it.

What's to be expected is weather holds and then frantic activity once the weather clears. At our club we make sure the tandem passenger knows this. If he or she is informed about it and still elects to be an arsehole about waiting time, we offer the money back. RE: honouring requests - I think it's done to the extent possible at most DZs. For sure, there'll be days when it's not possible or when the staff is just overloaded with things that need to be done. A request for a certain tandemmaster might rank low on the priority scale in such circumstances. Not jotting down the requests seems a bit odd to me as it's not something that requires many resources. Can understand how it can happen in a stressed environment though. I don't know if you have any experience working directly with customers. If you do, you'll know what I'm talking about. On a sidenote - if you're not prepared to spend somewhat of a good deal of time on the sport, it might not be for you. Currency is important for your safety and if you cannot maintain it, you'll not get the full enjoyment from the sport (for instance, you'll be more apprehensive) and you put yourself and others at additional risk. Skydiving is unlike some hobbies in this respect. It's also an activity where whatever you do matters a great deal. Don't expect open invitations to join any given sub group at a DZ. While most are openminded and forthcoming towards newbies, a lot of us see 100 students a year, only to see 5-6 of them continue in the sport. We learn in a short time that we'd be wasting our breath 95 outta a 100 times, so I for one take a more passive role. Take charge there and I think you'll find the social aspect of the sport extremely satisfying.

Heh or at 500 jumps. I mean I didn't appreciate what the good freefliers were doing when I had 100 jumps. Sure it looked cool, but how hard can HD be? Have the same thing with FS right now [how hard can it be?], but have had some humbling FS jumps to take away some of my arrogance.

I really don't know, to be honest. The only true way to gain that experience is by subjecting you to situations where you might need it. I don't disagree with your assessment in any way. I wondre a bit whether it's practically feasible (tunnels not available/too far away/economic cost not something the student finds appealing etc). Tunnel time is to some degree readily available for US jumpers. In most other places in the world it's less accessible. An ideal situation would be tunnel time before first jump but I doubt it is practically feasible in most places on earth. Still, it'd be good practise. If there was a tunnel nearby, they'd had to kick me out of it first though

Hm yes, but isn't that sort of like treating the symptoms, not the disease? There are numerous situations where one, even after much time in a wind tunnel, can become unstable. In the ideal situation, body position should not matter with regards to altitude awareness. OTOH tunnel time would certainly help with confidence and reduce the risk of sensory overload so it'd not be a bad idea. Ultimately however I think altitude awareness cannot be gained in a tunnel - some other factors that contribute towards losing it may be reduced but good habits wrt altitude awareness can probably only be learned by jumping a lot. Maybe there is such a thing as a "degree of altitude awareness loss". A total one where you just don't think about it and a less severe one where all of a sudden you get this "something's wrong" feeling - check your alti and ooops, time to track away and pull. Seems like this was the latter.

Blah blah blah blah. He can call for whatever he bloody wants. Won't happen. We recently went from 110km/h to 130 km/h and it's been pretty well received. Try pulling it down to 100km/h . Whatever political group that pulled that stunt would find itself removed from power and replaced by a more speed friendly one, probably anti-EU. They talk a lot, the fine gentlemen in the EU. That is probably why so much of EUs budget goes to agriculture - all the bullshit they spew out can be sold as fertilizer that way. I wouldn't worry too much about it, and I doubt you worry about it either

I sometimes wonder if there is such a thing as a "shedding of innocence" in skydiving. What I'm talking about is the process of starting in the sport where eevery experience is extreme or perceived as such. Then moving on a bit - now it's just cool and fun and party. Sure there are the risks but hey that's kinda cool too in a "living on the edge" newbie way. The that innocence is taken away by some experience - a near miss, broken bones in some mishap, friend that gets hurt or friend that gets killed. So as you say it's always a continuous evaluation of risk vs. reward. However once the innocence is "lost", I don't think you can go back to looking at the sport in the same somewhat naieve and idealistic way. Maybe I'm way off base here. Just personal experience.

Went through the exact same thing. After a while, it got much better. Before I started I figured I'd do about 100 jumps a year. After I had my first coplu of jumps, I lowered that to about 40, because that was what I thought I could do so to speak, overcoming fear and all. In the year after I got my certificate, I did 450 jumps and although this is personal experience I think it does indicate that the fear thing will not only get better - you'll start to truly enjoy jumping - all aspects of it (even packing n some machotistic way) Doing lots of jumps in a short time is a good way to deal with it, because it's a hurdle that must be overcome.

I'm with you Dave. I've landed off a bit more than ten times too. If I don't think I can make it home, I'll land off. If I'm stupid enough to not check the spot when a newbie spots (Cessna DZ), there's a higher chance I'm landing off. Lots of good reasons to choose not to try to make it back, really. I gather it's just about picking the best spot to land given the situation at hand.

I've got a business trip coming up in June. Going to Bulgaria, and I leave and get home on a Saturday which means I'll miss two weekends of jumping (or oone and a half at least). So, if there are any dzs anywhere near where I'm going, I'm bringing my rig. I see three dzs listed there, all with old Russian planes but I cannot work out if they're close. Going to a place called Varna. Anyone know more?

Other. Don't calculate it. I am as bad/good as I am. Some statistical numbers won't change it. I'm having enough problems remembering to log my jumps, heh.

#2