Mantis

Leo was on the load ahead of me last weekend for his 99th. He is cool as hell. We chatted for a bit about his work in WWII after our jumps, he was enjoying a bit of his homemade wine. I know a lot of people have some stories about their lives, but Leo had my full and complete attention for about an hour while we conversated. The only thing I would say is that his skydiving pales in comparison to his service to the USA. Great dude, I feel honored to know Leo.

Regarding the danger part- I race motorcycles and there is inherent danget in that as well. I've come to grip with the fact that I may die roadracing, but i've also never had more fun. IMO that's part of what makes it fun. Realizing that jumping is relatively dangerous, but also quite fun. If you want a safe sport try tiddlywinks. If you want to have some serious fun jump out of planes. If it were completely safe everyone would do it.

Every time I jump (remember I an new) I feel new things like the wind on my legs, arms, or I feel my cheeks flapping. It's just a matter of knowing whats gonna happen, and then you'll slowly become more and more "conscious" if thats the word.

Well, I'm new also but I was in the same situation as you. I wasn't even sure if I liked it, but I did know I wanted more exposure to the sport. It felt like my tandem lasted like 5 seconds... I went on to AFF and I can tell you that every jump slows down more and more. I'm only on AFF 4 now but I can comprehend whats going on more and more as I gain experience. I now remember any signals I get, what altitude I was at when X happened, and things of that nature. It just takes a few jumps before you know what to expect. I say stick with it, you have a leg up on the folks who do AFF for their first time. You at least know what to expect on the plane ride and what it looks like when the door opens. Although it wasn't fear you experienced, the nervous anticipation is a really cool feeling and it a part of the reason I keep at it. Have fun!

LOL, nice reply. Like I said before, I am still very new and the whole experience is still a little overwhelming, and I have a lot to learn. I'm definitly going to keep at it and try to learn as much from my instructors as I can squish into my brain. BTW, my instructors over at MVS have made my intro to skydiving a whole lot of fun. Great people over there as well!

Hello everyone, great site you all have here. I've successfully wasted nearly a full day looking around here. I'm coming from the world of motorcycle roadracing and I am tracking to win the championship in two classes for the northeast this year. I did a tandem jump last weekend at Mohavk Valley Skydiving in Scotia, NY and was immediately hooked. This sport blows racing out of the water. I just wanted to say Hi, and I'm currently in the very beginning stages of my AFF class. I was curious if there are "golden rules" to this sport like there are with racing. I am an instructor for new racers and there are many small tidbits of info that dramatically increase a n00b's chance of success. I will say my instructors at MVS are great and we relate very well to each other. I was just hoping to absorb some more info that more experienced folks can tell me before I learn it the hard way. One thing I have learned from motorcycles is that you should usually listen to the guy with 100+ races under his belt unless you want to learn the hard way (trust me, I learned this the hard way). Thanks again!