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Nine Signs of Obsession

It’s been a hectic month, with two vacations and lots of travel. I’ve spent countless hours on airplanes, but sadly, not the kind you can jump out of.  The end result: I’ve only logged six jumps in the past 30 days. Bummer.

These are the signs of my increasingly obsessive behavior and its sad consequences:

1) I know exactly how many jumps I’ve accrued in the past 30 days. (Well, I guess that’s pretty normal for a newbie like me.)

2) I spent ten days in a tropical and exotic place (Okinawa, Japan) where I climbed a waterfall, camped on the beach, rode a Ferris wheel, and went snorkling, yet feel the trip was missing something because there was no sky jump. (There is no DZ on the island or I would have gone!)

3) I was yapping endlessly about skydiving to people around the world. People feigned interest. I didn’t care. I yapped away.

4) Every time I flew in a commercial plane I wanted to click my seat belt through my (non-existent) harness.

5) My dropzone friends barely recognize me. I think they might be calling me a whuffo behind my back.

6) I kept nearly driving off the road because I wanted to see all the cloud formations and then daydream about my plans to fly around them.

7) 46.3 % of my vacation photos feature cloud formations. Really.

8) I brought a copy of Parachutist with me everywhere in case there would be a good location to shoot a “I took my Parachutist to…” pic to submit for publication. (And yes, I do have some fun potential submissions.)

9) I checked this blog obsessively to see what you all were up to. Look at how we’ve grown! Awww. So sweet.

So, I’m back. My A License is complete. The DZ beckons. The Mary stories will resume.

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A Little Intro

Hi everyone,

I thought it best to introduce myself…

Hi, my name is Lance, and I’m a skydiving addict! It’s been exactly 2 days and 19 hours since my last fix and I’m getting serious withdrawal’s – I like to call this “Altitude Sickness” 🙂

I live and jump in Durban, South Africa and needless to say, skydiving here is not quite what it is in the US and the rest of the world. Yes – It IS as awesome and as addictive as it is everywhere else in the world, but it is not as “Big” here as it is everywhere else…but hey – that just means I can get on more loads! 🙂

I’ve currently only got 39 jumps under my belt and am about to start (this weekend) my free fly training for my CAT II & III (Super excited).

I guess you could say that skydiving is in my blood – My parents actually met skydiving in Ohio, although my mom decided it wasn’t for her after landing in a tree, my dad went on to do 600 odd jumps and get his D-License.

I am very grateful to my dad for marrying a US Citizen, because it means that I am also a US citizen which would allow me to travel and jump in the USA without having to worry about visa’s 🙂 THANKS DAD!

I love skydiving life! Skydiving has completely taken over my world and only skydivers ACTUALLY understand how addictive it is, and why it’s pretty much the only thing I talk about!

Anyway, I am very excited about being able to write for Skydive Addiction and give my insight into the skydiving life in my part of the world.

Blue Skies everyone and happy days!

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The bug has bitten

“How do you describe your first jump?” I was asked.

“A perfect blend of sheer terror combined with complete peace.” Was the only response I could find that fit what had just occurred.

I was fortunate enough that the winds had subsided last Friday, and I was able to make the first static line jump of my progression. And like I said, it was the perfect blend of both terror and beauty. For those of you unaccustomed to the wonderful world of skydiving, it’s hard to put into words exactly what a canopy ride is like. At first, it’s completely blissful – the loud sounds of freefall wind and aircraft engine have long since faded out, and all you can hear is your parachute gently fluttering in the air, as it floats down towards the earth.  I laughed, giggled as you may say, as I discovered how easily I could point myself where I wanted to go. I could see everything; a three mile wide lake was like a puddle from here. Cars were toys that seemed to move so slow on roads stretched so thin. Then the roads got bigger, the lakes wider, and I realized I was quickly coming back to the world I only recently left. Then it was terrifying.

“What’s my heading? Where should I start my landing pattern? Which way is the wind coming from again, north-northwest? Where’s that? Wait the runway points which direction?”

Then I realized that Corra, my jumpmaster, was still with me via radio, and talked me down the entire rest of the journey. Like I said, pure bliss, and completely terrifying – and I can’t wait to do it again.

So far I’m in love with the Static Line Progression. I may not have gotten to freefall yet, but learning to freefall correctly should come easier, because I’ll already have some canopy flying experience – compared to an AFF program, where I would be free-falling and piloting my parachute on the same jump.

Tomorrow, I get to jump again. If the weather holds out as long as it is supposed to, I’ll be able to begin freefall. After a few solo free-fall jumps, I’ll be able to better compare the two programs. One thing I see that attracts people to AFF is that you do get free-fall right away. I realize that I’m sort of the static line exception – paying for all of my jumps at once allows me to basically jump as much as I can, where someone paying for each jump individually would want the most experience for the money up front. So the way I see it, if you saved the money and are ready to begin your skydiving license, go with the static line program if it’s available. It’s cheaper, and if you’re dedicated you can be freefalling a few days after you start the program. If you’re paying by jump, AFF gets you the biggest bang for your buck, right away.

What do you guys think? AFF or S/L? Either way, don’t just do one jump and quit, get you license! Blue skies.

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High altitude jump woo hoo!

Only 6 more sleeps until I get to do a high altitude 4 way jump with some friends.

For those of you who don’t know what that means… Normally, when you do a skydive, you jump out of the plane at 13500 feet. Or in some cases 10500 feet (if in a smaller plane).

If the plane is between 10000 and 13000 feet for more than 30 minutes, then they have to have oxygen available for the skydivers with a minimum of 1 mask for every 10 jumpers.

If above 13000 feet, everyone needs oxygen for the duration of the flight. (Exceptions are made for the first 500 feet at most DZs)

Above 20000 feet, each skydiver needs oxygen for the descent as well. (An oxygen bottle to jump with)

Now, because of all these regulations, Drop Zones reserve high altitude jumps for special occasions, plan it out months in advance (to be sure to have oxygen available) and take reservations as well.
I’ve been waiting 2 months for this coming Sunday.
Why?
Because this Sunday is gonna be my 1st experience with it.
What’s so special about it?
Well, when you jump at 13500 feet, it takes about 1500-2000 feet to stabilize, and an extra 500-1000 feet if you’re in a group to start doing formations. Leaving you about 11000 feet to play with right?

Wrong!
You separate at about 4500 feet and release your canopy at about 3000-3500…

So that leaves only 6500 feet of freefall to “play” in…. Falling at 174 feet per second, that’s only 37 seconds…

When falling from 20000 feet, you still need the 2500 or so feet to stabilize and start formations, plus separation at about 4500 feet, but that still leaves you 13000 feet to have fun with… OR 74 seconds of freefall with which to do your formation… You’re effectively doubling your play time…
Now that’s a LOT of falling =)

It’s costing 85$ plus canopy rental (Unless I can convince a buddy to lend me his :P)
And it’s gonna be 85$ well spent!

I’ll share my experience with you when I get home afterward!

Blue Skies!

-Adam

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Never thought that giving something would be so hard….

This week is one of the Héma-Québec blood drives, they’ve been putting ads all over the place with the whole “Give blood, give life” thing.
I figured to myself that I’ve done quite a bit of living, might as well share the wealth.

I’ve never actually done this before, so I wasn’t familiar with the procedures, so I decided Well, since I have a half hour lunch, been eating all day, that should be PLENTY of time.”

WROOOOONG!!!!

Turns out that the 2 minute procedure of drawing a liter of blood is actually followed by a 58 minute proceedure of filling out forms, answering questions and eating cookies….
I went to donate blood, and was sent packing because I wasn’t able to give them an extra half hour of my time…
I even offered to come back at the end of my work day, which is 4 pm give or take 10 minutes (sometimes I’m stuck working on something for a bit, but USUALLY I’m done at 4)

The woman tells me that they stop taking patients at 4 pm and aren’t willing to wait 5 MINUTES for one more…

They have a counter going on, and it’s aimed at 75 donors… They’re at 40 and today’s the last day… They spend millions on ads to get more donors, yet they can’t wait 5 more minutes for one?
Hell, they planted themselves inside the biggest office building in Montreal… 44 floors of offices, easily with 5-10 thousand employees overall, but they set themselves up to work 9-4?!?!
They’d have more donors being open from 7 am-9 am then 4 pm to 6 pm….
4 hour work day but at efficient times… Work smart not hard was something that I had always been told…

Anyways, I’m done ranting haha.

On another note: I WANNA B.A.S.E. MY OFFICE! Heck, if I don’t survive, Héma-Québec can take the blood that splatters on the pavement 😉

-Adam

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Statistically speaking, the airplane ride is the most dangerous part of the skydive (AKA why I decided to get my license)

What a day. In the last twenty-four hours I’ve slammed two 16oz redbulls, wrote some code for a few Facebook pages, toured 5 apartment buildings, almost fell to tears when I saw how much tuition has gone up and – oh yeah, signed up for a crash course in skydiving. And it’s only Thursday.

My name is AJ Stuyvenberg. I decided after my freshman year at the University of Minnesota that I’d rather stay in town for the summer and try to find work, than to go back to my small hometown and live with my family. I got a job at a bar, and a print shop, and haven’t looked back yet.

Which brings me to my skydiving tale. I’ve been looking skywards since I was a little kid, throwing army men with parachutes, even putting on a Superman cape, running down the hallway and diving head-first onto my couch asking my dad “Am I getting higher daddy? Am I flying?”

Naturally the day I turned 18, my friends and I took a break from a weekend of camping and drinking to hurl ourselves out of a plane 13,500 feet in the air. Needless to say, I was hooked.

Here’s the video – Warning, it’s uncensored:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH4aKlQIV3s[/youtube]

Like everybody who was smart enough to make the decision to skydive, I felt the unceasing desire to gaze skyward and wish for that feeling back. It’s impossible to describe to anybody who hasn’t jumped before, but I literally could think and speak about nothing but skydiving for days.

The only problem was that I was heading off to college, and carrying 13,000 dollars in debt with me. That really didn’t bother me, as I immediately began donating plasma and saving a little bit each month, all winter. I knew what I wanted, and I was going to do it. Now the time has finally come. It’s official, I’ve registered for my first class in the Static Line Progression tomorrow, and will be writing about it the whole way.

Currently, I’m planning on finishing the progression in 4-5 weeks. I plan on jumping every Wednesday and Friday, and hoping to jump 2 or 3 times per week. We’ll see whether or not that happens, but since I’ve saved enough to pay everything up front, the only factors involved in progression will be time and weather.

I’ve decided to write a blog about skydiving for many reasons. Part of my internship at the print shop I work at is to plan, design, code and implement their facebook and twitter page. Whilst doing such, I stumbled upon many interesting, and funny blogs written by regular people. I have found that the more I work with these social media outlets, the more I love them. So moving onto a blog was natural.

Secondly, I’ve found that an increasing number of DZ’s are moving to an AFF-only method of instructing students. I think the Static Line method of instruction is quickly falling out of favor because it takes longer to achieve freefall, and DZ’s charge less for it. Adam pointed out that nobody on staff at Skydive Addiction progressed using the S/L method, and thought I may have an interesting perspective. Hopefully I do!

I’m incredibly excited to begin tomorrow. I received a call from the DZ with both good news, and bad news. The good news is that nobody else will be at the course, so I’ll be there getting one on one attention from a jumpmaster. The bad news, is that the winds might be a little high for me to jump tomorrow, so it might have to wait til next Wednesday. I’ll be sure to post as much video, pictures, and blogs about them as I have time for.

I invite you all, jumpmasters, skydivers, students and enthusiasts a like leave a comment. I love hearing from new people, and I really want to see what you guys think. Did you start your skydiving addiction through AFF or S/L? Which do you think is better? Why?

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A quick welcome to…

The newest addition to the family!

When I spoke to AJ, he seemed very very very enthusiastic about his future addiction….
He’s starting his skydive lessons tomorrow.

So this is both a good luck, and a welcome to the family!

Blue Skies!
-Adam

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WEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Sorry for the long delays in between postings, I’ve just been so busy with my new job, with my summer plans, with getting Skydive Addiction on the map, with making excuses as to why I haven’t been posting, with procrastinating posting, and with a bunch of other stuff.

Seriously speaking though, getting Skydive Addiction on the map is my #1 priority…
Behind skydiving of course 😛

So anyways, this past weekend, I managed to convince 8 of my friends from a couple of DZs I jump at to join me on a bungee jumping road trip.
Needless to say, I heard at least 20 skydivers say:
“Are you crazy? How could you jump off a perfectly good bridge… WITHOUT a parachute?”

Yes, that’s right… Skydivers asked me the most God awful question in the world…
Why wouldn’t I? It’s quite a different rush from skydiving, and it’s a welcome change from the regular routine… Given, it’s not something you’d find me doing every day, but it’s fun once in a while.

So we headed to the Great Canadian Bungee which claims to be the highest bungee jump in North America. It’s 200 feet over a very very blue lake. Beautiful place actually.
I jumped there last year (as you can see on one of my 1st posts). And it was a lot of fun, so I decided to head back.

Turns out that when you’re 8 or 9 people, it’s actually cheaper to pay for 10 then it is to pay for 8 or 9… Group discount… So that’s exactly what we did.
And since I organized it, my friends were quick to put my name down as the person to do two jumps.
S-WEET!!
So the 1st person to jump is a girl named Stephanie, she’s done 5 tandem skydives, but doesn’t have her license yet. She’s never done a bungee jump however.
(They went by weight)
After 7 minutes of her standing at the edge not jumping and 7 minutes of myself and one of the other guys yelling at her to hurry up, she finally took the plunge… Ok, well she held hands with the instructor and he slowly lowered her backwards until she finally fell. HI HI =)

The others jumped right away, which was a welcome sight =D

My first jump was a normal forward dive with my ankles strapped in, didn’t give me the same adrenaline rush as the 1st time though (Which pretty much proved that once you face a fear, you never get that same rush again =( )

I even tested it… I started running back up the hill to get to the top… Half way up, I couldn’t breathe anymore… If I had an adrenaline pumping through my veins, I probably would’ve made it up without breaking a sweat.
So on the 2nd jump, I decided to strap myself in by the shoulders. The instructors at the top told me that since I was so comfortable with jumping off the bridge that I could do a flip this time.
We decided that I’d do a back flip. That back flip then turned into a double and if I had known how much more time I had, I probably would’ve been able to get a third in. Damn me and my dissatisfaction!!!!!

So after spending 2 and a half hours at the bungee jump place, we then decided to go grab breakfast at some random place in town… This place was on the 2nd floor of a supermarket… And I can say one thing… If we thought waiting for Stephanie to jump was a lifetime wait… Waiting for sunny side up eggs and toast to be prepared was an eternity.

Fast forward an hour and we arrive at Go Skydive. It’s one of those DZs that you wouldn’t be able to find if you didn’t know where to go… We didn’t know where to go.
We parked in the Gatineau airport’s parking lot, looked around for signs, but couldn’t find any.
We were given directions on how to walk there by a girl who had just completed her 1st tandem =).
So we get there, they check out our paperwork, the rigs we’re jumping, and so on.
Then they tell us that even though we’re regular jumpers who have jumped together before, they want us to jump with a coach ?!?!?!?!

My buddy Alex lent me his rig (Sabre I 170 in a Javelin J2 rig), he spent 15 minutes checking the gear making sure that everything was ok even after a rigger took a look at it and I had inspected it too… His reasoning was that he didn’t want my death on his conscience. I laughed, told him that I’d pull the reserve on purpose then went into the plane 😛

In the end, they decided to put 5 of us on a Cessna 182 (TINY plane!!!) instead of their Navaho (Still tiny, but bigger than the Cessna) but this time, we didn’t need a coach.
For those of you who don’t really know the difference, with a Cessna, you have to get out of the door, hang onto a strut below the wing, stand on a step and hang there before your jump.
On the Navaho, you jump out of the door. On the Twin Otter and the Caravans that my home DZs have, you not only jump out of the door, but you have a bench to sit on 😛

Anyways, the DZ’s landing area is bigger than the one at Parachute Montreal but the planes, much smaller.
The staff was nice, but the rigger who packed Alex’s rig after I jumped took ages… He also asked us different questions about the rig and forgot to collapse the pilot chute (a fairly dangerous mistake that can sometimes cause a malfunction). Anyways, all in all, I’d jump there again, but I’d also pack my own rig 😛

Blue Skies everyone!

-Adam

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Simple Joys of Skydiving

Things were different when I first started skydiving. Sure, I was in a completely different place in my life, given that basically everything has changed since that first skydive last April. It’s not so much life that was different as my attitude toward the sport.

(Back when nothing else mattered but freefall – check out that smile, couldn’t get much bigger) *Photo by Dan Mathie

At some point, likely earlier this season, a switch was flipped in my brain – one that took me from innocent newbie skydiver to one who has everything to prove…to myself. The fun challenges that I once thoroughly enjoyed became challenges that, if I didn’t conquer, I wasn’t satisfied with the skydive. I became easily frustrated. I expected to be able to master every new freefly move within a couple skydives. Needless to say, my Type A personality got the best of me.

So a took a break from the need to succeed and got back to that learning phase of my skydiving career by donning a wingsuit. Almost immediately that child-like excitement overwhelmed me. My attitude was once again focused on the excitement of the skydive and just learning the basics. It was no longer about trying to get somewhere fast, it was about enjoying the moment :).

And what would you know, when it was time to put my freefly suit and weight belt back on, my attitude carried over from wingsuiting. It was about enjoying the skydive. Sure, there was still high levels of effort put into staying with the group, but it became less about trying to improve exponentially on every skydive. I was more relaxed, my head was in the jump for the fun and excitement of it. Of course, once I relaxed, the jump seemed that much easier. As a student, you’re taught to relax into your arch…same goes for freeflying. Turns out, when you really do and get your head out of what the jump “should be,” it becomes that much more enjoyable.

What once drew me to this sport is now drawing me back in even harder. Enjoying the time in freefall, whether freeflying, being a base on my belly, or in a wingsuit, it’s more about the experience than perfection. And now more than ever I believe if you spend a little less energy on trying to perfect a skill and a little more time enjoying what you’re doing – even if the jump goes to hell – that the learning curve will be higher.

(See that smile? Just like it was as a student…loving the innocence of this picture) *Photo by Sandy Weltman

Besides, no matter how precise your sitfly is or whether you can always stick that head down with the perfect transition, you’re still skydiving. In the end, that in itself is an incredible experiences.

So the next time you (and me for that matter) find yourself frustrated that your learning curve seems to be slowing down a bit, do your best to forget about it and remember what got you into this sport in the first place. Whether it’s the freefall or the canopy ride, your desire for skydive was once very simple. Sometimes, it’s the simplest things that can bring the most joy.

Love and blue skies!

Ashley

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How I got started

I’ve been putting off writing my intro post for months now and Adam’s been patient, even though he technically deleted my account once already! Anyways, I’m Greg — an adrenaline junkie and software engineer. I love rock-climbing, biking, running and have a long list of other activities I’m planning on getting to.

I’ve always been enamored with skydiving, and knew that I’d eventually do it. I landed an awesome job last year and finally had the means to start the PFF courses this season (it’s an expensive hobby). Adam had finished his solo certification the winter before, and he suggested I take the course at Nouvel Air in Farnham, Quebec. I started the theory courses and wind tunnel session on May 11 and was ready for my first solo jump for the coming Saturday. At this point, I’d never even done a tandem jump and was unaware that they encouraged it (I only found this out after my solo certification was done). In my mind, I had already committed to starting this sport, so a tandem jump would’ve just been a wasted $250.

Cut to the Saturday, and the entire day was rained out (this has been a recurring theme all season for me since I can only jump on Saturdays now). I waited around for almost the entire day with no break in the weather. Disappointed but determined to jump, I decided to go back the next day. Luckily the weather was better, and I was scheduled for my first PFF with two instructors. Now, I don’t know what usually goes through other people’s mind on their first solo jump, but I was not anxious at all. At this point, I had 20 minutes of wind tunneling under my belt, spent an entire day imagining the jump, read through the PFF and PIM handbooks multiple times, and was used to heights and falling (10 foot whippers in rock climbing can be pretty intense). I was as ready as one can be (or so I thought), so when it came time to step up to that doorway and jump, I didn’t miss a beat… that is, until I started falling. The feeling was so overwhelming, that by the time my instructors stabilized me, I literally forgot everything I was supposed to do. “Sensory overload” as they say. After what seemed like 20 – 30 seconds of bewildered staring, it all finally came back to me, and I did my circle of awareness, attempted some 360s and just worked on my general stability.

After that first jump, it felt like my heart was racing even on the way up for my second. I couldn’t wait to jump again! Unfortunately, the winds sped up on the ascent, so I had to go down with the plane, and was grounded until the evening. I did get two more jumps in that day, one of which was during sunset along with a plan B landing in some corn fields 🙂 The next week, I did jump #4 – #9 to finish the PFF course, with #6 as my very first solo (no instructors). It was at the end of all this when I was informed that I should’ve done a tandem jump first to complete the 10 required for the solo certification, but obviously it was too late 😛

Since then (May 24), I’ve only jumped 5 more times because the weather or wind conditions have been crap on Saturdays. I would love to jump more often, but working until 9pm on weekdays and reserving Sundays for rock climbing don’t give me many options 🙁 This may be a blessing, since I’d probably bankrupt myself with this sport.

As for my plans in skydiving, I’m hoping to finish (or at least start) my A license by the end of this season, so that I can travel and jump in other countries by next year.

The following video is from my 7th jump and the “test” for the solo certification:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln4UYwmcT7E[/youtube]