Skydiving

To me, it's very relaxing. I don't see the adrenaline side of it, because the sense of danger just isn't there in empty space. I got into some freeflying, and was decent at sitflying before I had to stop jumping. The advice that everyone gives you is true, be patient with everything. My 8th jump (first one alone) was awful. I tried all sorts of things and ended up getting my leg strung up in the lines when I opened the canopy. Just do a bunch of belly jumps with people qualified to jump with you as a super newb (only coaches and instructors should jump with people with less than 25 jumps). You're not considered experienced until you're in the thousands of jumps. I, with my 126 jumps, am like the paintball player on his 7th outing - can get around and get basic things done but am still quite useless.

Learn to pack soon, by someone who is well versed and can give you individual attention. My one cutaway was my fault and it was a packing error.

Be careful about downsizing. I jumped a canopy that was way too small for my weight and experience because in the interest of thrift, I had no choice (it was a rig that belonged to the club at school). If you don't have good spatial awareness, you'll get yourself into trouble. I flew better with the 190 sq ft one than the 210 we had because of the design, though I really should have been flying my version with greater than 220 sq ft (we didn't have one).

Lastly, RELAX. I've had at most two jumps that didn't leave me smiling, and it's because I felt incredibly cruddy before the jumps.

I'll throw some pictures on Google+ (in the interest of forwarding the website). You can also check out what I have on Facebook.

I bypassed the Tandem jumps and did my first jump solo in the Accelerated Freefall Program, and I kind of resent that because when I jumped I wasn't used to the sensation at all and spent my first 3000 feet tumbling spectacularly as I tried to swim back into position (works in water, not air :P )

I agree with Tolga though, it wasn't really an adrenaline rush, it was more relaxing. I didn't even feel like I was falling since I was already going at 90mph when I jumped. Once the canopy was over my head, just cruising around and enjoying the view was wonderful. I had the last jump of the day too, so I went at Sunset and once I overcame the immediate dread of "where the hell is the LZ?!" it was fantastic.

Might have to do it again sometime

 

 

 

I wrote out a bunch of my history a few years ago. ^

 

I know most of the older BMX guys that were active in the late 80's early 90's. I grew up riding with Jon Byers, who started Eastern bikes. As an east coast guy, we always were out trying to prove that you could be good even if you didn't start riding on the west coast.

 

Mat proved that point when he hit the scene. I haven't seen Mat in years, but we talk on fb every few months. I used to ride with Mat when I was in college in Tulsa (I was a member of TBD "Tulsa Bike Dudes"). I got to see the mega ramp before anyone knew about it, and saw him blast huge airs way before that first picture came out...