Skydiving

[Eleuthera]

So...

I'm planning on trying skydiving this summer (or spring). I've already started to win some advice from the interwebs at large and an acquiantance who's really into it. But I thought I might as well ask here.

Any tips, advice, warnings, great stories?

 

[lechat]

don't be a pussy?
seriously once you jump the decision is made and there is no going back but you will hate yourself if you get all the way up there and ***** out.
also not sure where you are going or how the do things but if possible grab a tape of the whole event so you can replay it later

 

[Angie7F]

I have never dont it before but my close friend did.
She said it was better than other sports because you dont have to do much.
All you have to do it get on the plane, and jump.
I thought she had a very good point

 

[Frezzato]

They'll probably tell you not to drink booze before/while you're there and it's good advice. Highly recommended that you follow that. I was with a friend for moral support on her first jump (I stayed on the ground) and she was taking swigs of vodka from a tiny flask. It's not necessary. All you have to do is remember what they tell you.

I will admit, I dislike the cavalier attitude with which almost all civilian skydivers go about their business. That's my fault though. The only times I jumped from a perfectly good airplane were from an altitude of around 1,200 feet in the Army. And the Army does such a good job of making things so exhausting and miserable that you WANT to jump from the plane. You will be filled with fear and that's perfectly natural. Just remember that the sensation of falling is pretty incredible, but the few minutes of drifting to the ground after chute deployment will be some of the most peaceful precious seconds you'll remember.

Spoiler: Not so great story about military jumps.

During the final (third) phase of Airborne training at Fort Benning, also known as jump week, we were on a C-130 getting bounced around at low altitude. For this one particular jump we were issued these plastic garbage bags meant for the reserve chute. See, it's time-consuming and expensive to dry out and repack parachutes, so we were to pack the reserve in the bag once we landed, if we didn't use it that is. But the turbulence was pretty rough at around 1,000 feet, so I think you know where this is going. Somebody got airsick and vomited into their garbage bag. In the close quarters of a plane, barfing can start to spread like a nasty rumor. I didn't hear it, but I smelled it, and I started gagging myself. I was able to suppress it by constantly swallowing but my mouth was bone dry. In order to focus I kept staring at a bare light bulb on the ceiling. And then I saw the bag. It was being passed forward.

Multiple trainees were vomiting into the same bag.

I closed my eyes and tilted my head back. I was sweating like crazy, as if somebody took a cup of water and dumped it over my head. Then I felt the plane lurch to one side as we did a slow turn. Turned out the wind speed on the drop zone was too high, so we weren't going to jump just yet. Later perhaps.

And that is just one of the ways you can convince 100 people to jump off a plane.

 

[Batou667]

So...

I'm planning on trying skydiving this summer (or spring). I've already started to win some advice from the interwebs at large and an acquiantance who's really into it. But I thought I might as well ask here.

Any tips, advice, warnings, great stories?

I did a few parachute jumps, not strictly skydiving since you get no "airtime" between exiting the plane and the chute opening, but I'd say it's a fantastic experience that everybody really should try at least once before they die.

I had a couple of friends who got seriously "into" it and bought their own chutes, jumpsuits, altimeters etc and went through the (long, expensive, but undoubtedly cool) process of working up through dummy pulls, to delayed pulls, jumps from higher altitude, and eventually formation jumping (where you meet up in the air with a dozen other likeminded psychos and make stars or rings). Around this point I decided that I had had the parachute "experience" and anything more would be diminishing returns for exponentially-rising cost (I was a fairly skint student at the time), so that's where I exited the hobby. I can see how it could become addictive though.

Basically: don't hesitate, do it once and don't be surprised if your first thought on landing is "I want to do it again!"

 

[Lilani]

So...

I'm planning on trying skydiving this summer (or spring). I've already started to win some advice from the interwebs at large and an acquiantance who's really into it. But I thought I might as well ask here.

Any tips, advice, warnings, great stories?

The way I understand, your first jump you don't have control over when the chute gets pulled. You'll either be physically attached to the instructor, or the instructor will have a cord attached to your pack that they pull to release your chute. This is so that in case you freeze up, your chute will get released no matter what. So on your first jump, you don't really have to do anything except get in the plane, jump, and land the way they tell you to.