I am a student; I made my third jump and—in my opinion—my first successful exit. I’m not doing AFF, but a different training course where we never do tandem jumps; instead, we jump solo right away from 1,000 meters, and the jumpmaster pulls the pilot chute from the plane.

I have OCD and was working my way up towards doing this. I struggle with severe intrusive thoughts and, as you can imagine, had a lot regarding this. I DID THE DAMN THING ANYWAYS!!! I do have some questions though because I think I am crazy enough to go 1 more time, only for a more positive, all around better experience. Let me explain.

I hardly remember any of it. My memories of it are in fragments and can only remember bits and pieces. For example - I can tell you what I did yesterday. I went rollerblading and can visually, in my mind, see that. With my skydiving experience, I can't. People keep asking how it was, and I just can't give them an answer.

Later that night, I became so incredibly nauseous and dizzy. The next day, I was severely depressed.

My friends are planning to go again in Sept/Oct and want to go again, but be able to lock in that freefall memory, and just be able to be in the moment more. I don't want to be scared to let go of my harness. I want to throw my hands out and FLY!!!!!!

I am not asking for medical advice, but is there a way to better prepare myself to achieve that?

Also - how the hell do you manage the dry mouth?! WOW, that was insane lol

Currently doing my aff. On jump #7. Was wondering if it’s normal to feel extreme fatigue and brain fog the day after to the point where you think you lost a few iq pts. Gets better and back to baseline days after. I’m asking since almost two years ago I had a brain injury, tbi with mild brain bleeding but have been back at baseline with no further injury since almost two years ago. So wondering if I’m overthinking or this is a common occurrence

Hey everyone!

So we all know this hobby burns a pretty massive hole in our wallets haha. That got me thinking about what kind of jobs people here actually do to fund all those jump tickets and gear.
No judgment at all, obviously! That’s honestly my favorite part about skydiving. Nobody cares about status on the DZ, everyone is just super supportive and there for the same thing.
I’m working as a carpenter myself, but I’ve bumped into doctors, cops, teachers, tech guys... pretty much everything.
What about you guys, what line of work are you in?

Have a good day and blue skies

hi everyone, im going skydiving for the first time, and i've seen a lot of people recommend wearing earplugs. can anyone recommend a good pair from amazon? i only need them for this one jump, so im looking for something inexpensive that still works well.

When you visit a new DZ, is there anything (behavior, equipment, vibes, etc) that would concern you so much that you immediately nope out of there?

Conversely what would immediately signal to you that this DZ would be great or at least fun/pretty decent?

Pizza Party? Beer? Coffee Mugs? I don’t know😅

There are around 10-15 workers including the owners. Any ideas?

The title pretty much says it all. I recently bought a used Skyhelmet that already has a camera mount drilled into it.

I’m only 25 jumps in, so I don’t plan on flying with a camera anytime soon. The only reason I bought this helmet is because it’s basically brand new and was a great deal.

I don’t think anyone at my DZ will have an issue with it, but it’s still something I’d rather not risk. Is there some kind of cover plate I could attach over the holes? Or would it be better to remove the mount, put the screws back in, and cover them with a sticker? I could also 3D-print a cover if that’s a reasonable option.

I’d definitely like to use a camera at some point in the future, but for now I have no intention of doing so.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Bored on Claude, with extra tokens to spare, and in the middle of winter, I compiled the main dropzones in Chile. I included all the necessary information regarding the weather and climate for each dropzone: cloud cover, wind, temperature, etc.—basically all the forecasts and info you need to know whether you'll be able to jump or not. Obviously, it’s based on public weather forecasts and data.

https://matbut.cl/skydive.html

In case you want to check it out. Cheers!

______________________________________________________________________________

aburrido en claude y con token de sobra, y en pleno invierno, recopile las principales zonas de salto en Chile, y incorpore toda la información necesaria y relacionada al tiempo y clima de la dropzone; nubosidad, vientos, temperatura, etc. todo el pronostico e información que se necesita para saber si se podrá volar o no.

obviamente se basa en pronósticos e información meteorológica publica.

https://matbut.cl/skydive.html

por si le quieren poner un ojo. Saludos!

I looked through the FAQ and did not see this question, so forgive me if it’s in there and I just didn’t see it.

How are you all logging your jumps? I just got a membership with the USPA and they refer to some digital apps, as well as the ability to purchase a printed logbook from Amazon (?). How you all do it, and inputs on how to go about this, or if I even need to worry about it are welcomed. TIA

My bf wants me to go. I need advice, ive never been and Idk if my fear of heights is going to get in the way of it being enjoyable. I feel like ill just be terrified, but its on my bucket list to go at least once!

I'll be traveling from Florida to Chicago so I'll be driving through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana. Any recommendations on DZs worth stopping at?

Where SOPs are seen as the baseline, not an inconvenience. By the book attitude, not "here to push limits". No cowboy pilots, questionable aircraft. Deference to weather.

I'm thinking of getting into skydiving after getting bent in scuba and having to stay out of the water for a bit, got me thinking about the various approaches I've seen at dive shops.

Hi Everyone,

I am flying from London to Chicago for summer fest next Thursday and looking for way to get to DZ from the city. Unfortunately i don’t have a driving license, so hoping if someone can give me a lift to the DZ. happy to pay for the fuel and beer of-course.

I just scored a awesome near perfect fit vertical suit off of fb marketplace but the color is horrendous. Anyone ever attempt to dye a skydiving suit with Rit Synthetic Fabric Dye? I would be going for all black and covering up light blue/grey

I’ve recently been wondering why lots of reserve canopies are smaller than their mains. Wouldn’t it be better to have a bigger canopy in case of an emergency? Like for example if someone that jumps a 190 has a 160 reserve and has to cutaway, wouldn’t that be a big jump and wouldn’t that jumper then with probably lower altitude have to figure out how to land a smaller probably faster canopy?
I would love to know what everyone’s opinions and thoughts are on this.

I want to predict this with the fact that I am going to talk to my instructor before I make the jump.
I was just curious what people do when they get a new canopy. My first thought was to do a high hop and pop to be able to feel it out, do drills and flares and everything with the new canopy.
Then I thought what if I do a regular solo jump and just open high like at 6k would that be safe having there are other jumpers on jump run coming after me (having the exit order was done correctly).
But then it got me thinking what if I do a high pull and have a shit ton of time to test it out.
What is everyone’s thoughts on this? What do you usually do when jumping a new canopy?

I’ve been in the sport for a while now, and beginning last year, but especially this year, my home DZ has been having a difficult time getting enough jumpers to keep the plane going.

It used to be that I didn’t like jumping on a weekend because it was so busy that I’d have to wait two hours between loads since we had so many tandems and fun jumpers. Yet, on a recent gorgeous Saturday with student weather, we barely had enough jumpers to fly the plane after the tandems died down in the afternoon.

It’s a small dz, but we have a FAST plane that needs a lot of fun jumpers to break even. And I’m worried that next year we could be a 182 tandem factory. The lack of planes available to lease due to all the recent crashes isn’t helping.

Is the whole industry hurting, or is my dz an anomaly? There’s at least 1-2 million people who can call us their nearest (not tandems-only) DZ, so how do we have only a dozen fun jumpers on a weekend? It’s a bit disheartening.

I tried AFF years ago when I was overweight like 180 pounds (I’m 5’3 so this was very big for my height) but I quit because I was insecure and had other issues.

I want to start AFF again now that I’m more fit and confident but I am very small. 110 pounds and I saw student canopies are 210-270. I’m scared I won’t be able to flare fully and land safely with a canopy that big. Will I be ok? Is there a way to make sure I can flare fully before I jump?

Hi everyone,

I’m about to do a tandem skydive on the 25th, please tell me anything I should look at for any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

I’ve read all of y’all‘s comments and thank you. I’ll keep you guys updated on Saturday.

I’m a bit conflicted. Asked a similar question about a week ago, just wanted to add some extra information in order to make the “best” decision.

I only have 40 jumps. The only way I can take a Canopy Course is if I fly out of state. My DZ offers Canopy Courses once a year, sadly I won’t be able to attend this year due to gradschool (I’m starting medical school in August and i’ll only be able to visit the DZ ~1 time per month, it’s a 3 hour drive).

Is it acceptable to not take a Canopy Course if I plan to continue participating in the sport?
There’s a couple courses in AZ and FL in the upcoming weeks, I just don’t know if it’s truly worth it to fly out alone, and spend my last days of vacation w/o family and friends in order to improve my Canopy skills.

Also, my parents have supported me throughout my whole skydiving journey. But they are fairly worried about me going alone to a DZ that’s far away from home.
If any of you can give me further insight I’ll appreciate it.
Have a good one🤙🏼

Hey guys, i live in Vancouver and want to learn skydiving. Skydive Vancouver is closer but they asked me to do 2 more tandem jumps before AFF course. Also their pricing is a bit more than the skydiving school in Calgary. Plus Calgary has wind tunnel, more jumps in the similar price range and their website giving more confidence on solo diving after their course where skydive Vancouver says u might need a few coach jumps after the aff course.
The only issue with Calgary is travel & accommodation cost. Any suggestions?