Dolph

Hm, aisde from getting the equivalent of a US "B" license (allowing you to jump at any DZ), I am not sure I see the point. I may be dumb though. We have C (40 jumps, equivalent to US "B"), D (200) E (500) F (1000) etc. I haven't bothered sending in the paperwork for anything above C, except for the demo certificate. I mean, what is it an indicator of? Jump numbers and some skills, which you either have or don't have anyway. I may be missing the point somewhere.

I agree that it is all too common to see people go for HD flying for the wrong reason - it looks cool and for whatever reason there's more status associated with HD flying than HU flying. The reasons for that are many and a tangent to the subject really. Since HU is more or less the de facto basic position a sufficient level of performance must be obtained before moving on. Once you can fly HU and have the necessary control, I think it's important to venture into other aspects of freefying. Not doing so could seriously put limits on what you potentially can do. There are all kinds of cool stuff that require transitions between different positions. Which is perhaps your point. There are more positions than just HD. HD or HU aren't really positions at all but rather orientations. Within both is a wide range of possible positions and maneuvers that'll take a lot of jumps to get good at. In rushing to go HD one runs the risk of overlooking all the cool shit that can be done in the HU orientation. To me, HU or HD doesn't matter that much. The transitions and maneuvers done in either orientation (or between them) is the cool stuff. Especially if ya add another jumper into the equation.

I'm not sure skydiving requires ultra fitness. You gotta be somewhat fit (probably fitter than the average couch potato nowadays) but it's not like you need to sport a sixpack and run marathons to be good at skydiving. It's good to be of decent physical shape. Many of the top people in the sport are in excellent shape. Some are in pretty average shape and wouldn't win marathons or weight lifting competitions. There is naturally a minimum amount of strength and flexibility that's required. Once that's nailed down it seems it's more about body awareness and body control than raw strength or endurance. Take Niels Pedstrup, the freestyle champion. Small guy in pretty good shape. He's good in the air mainly because of his his acute awareness of what his body is doing. Of course he needs the physique to support him in doing what he wants but he's no superman of fitness. My fitness (or lack thereof) is just a minor function of my skill level. Training and jump numbers are more important by several magnitudes.