So - I took a couple of years off after rejoining the jump community after taking - you guessed it, a couple of years off.
So, As the story goes, one of my daughters had/has some medical issues that more or less halted life as I knew it almost 2 years ago (October 31st, 2012). I had just received my main back from a reline and small line burn patch and was ready to add the AAD back into the gear fold. I had just been promoted and had all this extra jump money (the wife seemed to think it was meant for furniture-HA!). I was ready, the weather was finally turning positive, even though it is the fall, Dallas stays warm (95 today). Well, that changed, and we spent the next few months living on sofas in ICU and back home, then waiting rooms and back to ICU... not ideal conditions to tell the wife (who mind you, every time I have suggested she jump has followed the question with 'I'm pregnant' - I stopped asking her to jump) - hey I am headed to the DZ for the day.
With the bulk of this stuff in the past, fingers crossed, here I am, wanting to get back into this awesome sport.
Some background on me: I have 320-ish jumps without consulting the log book, still need to file that B/C license paperwork (so hold my A license).
I live in Dallas and am only 30-35 minute drive to Skydive Dallas, but never found the DZ all that inviting. Maybe it is because I spent so many weekends sitting around for the wind to die down, finally gave up on showing up to jump to just sit there, or maybe it was because the couple of people I did 'click' with have left the area. Either way, I am sure I am having some reservations about going back blind to what I found to be a defined group of people. When I left 2 years ago, I was just beginning to find a route into 2/3/4 way groups, but like most DZs it was difficult to find roads in with the more experienced jumpers - which meant the group i was joining was a lot of sub 100 jumps - not saying there is anything wrong with a low jump count - in fact I think that it made me work harder/improve my own abilities to jump with someone who is lighter in experience.
So now the return. Reserve repack, renew the USPA standing, work with S&TA for what I am sure will be some form of a check dive, etc.
My question is how have those of you who have moved to a new DZ or after leaving for injury, family, one reason or another, come back to our sport and reconnected with all that is new? Have you found the load organizers to be inviting? Maybe I just caught people on bad days, but I found I was doing a lot of Solo jumps. If anyone on here is at Skydive Dallas, before I reinvest in currency for everything, what else am I missing as far as testing/requirements for jumping, etc.
Thanks - EJ
