The season of 2011 has been a good one — albeit, very busy with life and kids — and with what time I have to even think about skydiving, I’ve used to actually skydive – not sit and write about it. Though today, I simply had to find the time to write a few quick notes about such a fantastic weekend; and the progress made over the last several months.

Last I’d posted, I’d gone through the a canopy course with Brian Germain – which I would highly recommend for any skydiver. I followed that with a dozen 7,000 feet hop-n-pops to work on the skills learned, then focused entirely on coaching and two to four way skydives — I was trying to prep myself for the AFF course taught by Bram Clement. I could have written a dozen posts about that course – if only I’d had the time. At different points throughout that week I’d thought I was surely going to fail, followed by the next day when my ego would tell my I was head and shoulders above the class, followed by the next day of certain eminent failure.. At least for me, that class was a week of extreme skydiving. Not to mention the heat wave Mother Nature decided to give us!

The 95 degree weather, with just as much Michigan humidity, surely didn’t make it easy – but I managed to pass three of my four evaluation skydives; with all thanks due to awesome Instructor Examiner, his wonderful assistants for the course, each and every one of my classmates, and even one quick prayer to God after landing on my last eval! But by that point in late July, I’d managed to almost fulfill one of my largest desires since first jumping out of a plane five years ago – I was an AFF Instructor. At least my membership card said so.

Real life, as it often does, quickly stepped in; I found myself back into a daily routine.. work, home, and kids.. barely enough time to even look at the skies with wanton lust. August and September soon passed, with barely a few jumps, and none using my new found Instructor rating. Then my unspoken prayers: If only, there could be one more summer weekend – in October.

Well damn it, there was. Seven days of supreme weather made for skydiving; and even more (yes, more!) my schedule for work and children seemed to part like the Red Sea and I found myself at the dropzone. A few coaching jumps and then I got to funnel a two-way train exit into another sit-fly attempt, and then my trusted DZO approaches me to tell me I’ve been cleared for AFF – a privilege previously withheld pending review of my competence for the task – and that’s it. As quickly as the autumn leaves turn from green to red, yellow, and brown – I took to the air today with two first jump students. I was very pleased with both students performances, as well as honored to look across those students and see the Instructor, then a Coach, I met on jump #12.

Today marks the beginning of another long journey for me. No more than my first skydive made me the skydiver than I am today; did my first Instructor jump today make me the competent Instructor I wish to become. As much as the night after my first jump four years ago, I’ll end this post with a simply thought in my mind… I wonder what comes next.

Blue Skies.

I had the excellent opportunity to be in Brian Germain’s Canopy Course over this past weekend and not only did I learn so much more, but I think I gained a glimpse into how much further I can go in this area. Not only was I able to expand on the things I now know I know, but the things I now know I don’t know, grew just as much! And as you will also learn in Brian’s course, both of those are surely outweighed by all the things I don’t yet know, I don’t know yet!

The course began promptly at nine Saturday morning and began with some basic topics, what is pitch, yaw, angle of attack, etc.. As our class was composed of several jumpers still on student status, a few more with the ink still wet on their A licenses, and only two experienced jumpers including myself; if I was initially a tad bit concerned I might not gain as much in a classroom with such a wide range, those concerns were quickly relived. If anything, the skill I saw displayed by Brian under canopy and in freefall, and his vast – nay, from my perspective, I’ll just call it his “infinite” knowledge about canopy design and control, aerodynamics, human psychology and it’s relation to skydiving; all may be overshadowed by his ability to teach and convey that information others.

Those basic topics were quickly built upon in the classroom and expanded in the air – we were again some very lucky Michiganders with two days of perfect weather; and by perfect I mean jumpable all day (a bit cooler and less humid would have been nice). With two canopy skill hop-n-pops from 7,000 feet on the first day, and four more jumps on the second day it was an amazing learning experience! The last jump on Sunday (#426) was truly memorable – a two-way tracking dive followed by two-way canopy relative work with a true “celebrity” of our sport; surely a perfect time for my first try at carving some turns in unison with another canopy!

Though I’m proud of the advancement in my canopy skills this weekend, this post wouldn’t be complete without admitting a mistake of season’s past. As Brian drilled several “new” concepts into me – some started sounding familiar; my own local S&TA (of re-re notoriety), had tried explaining the method and importance of lowering my slider before; and our Rigger on staff took his time as well to explain the dangers of uncoordinated turns in turbulence. Though I’ve truely found joy in every second of freefall (well.. except the last few seconds on jump #4), I’ve always viewed the canopy ride as just a safe way to ground so I could start dirt diving the next jump. I think when I stopped enjoying the canopy ride, I stopped learning more about it, and hence, began to forget some of the lessons I had already been generously taught. It’s time to listen up to the experts that already surround me.

Overall lesson learned this weekend: I need the same attitude upon landing as I do when I exit an aircraft. I’ll still PLF when if I ever need too, but until then, I’m gonna smile at the ground, lean into it, and dare it to try and catch me.

Good luck Mother Earth – I’ve had Planetary Avoidance Training now ;)

For today’s post.. I’m going to tell you about a few other jumps on my mind.

Jump 1: I will always remember my first jump – especially when I see my FJC Instructor across from me on skydive. I’ve met a hundred other Instructors since, but it’s hard to imagine following anyone else out of the door on that first jump. Brenda gave me the confidence that day to take my first one-way plane ride to altitude, and somehow, in eight short hours of instruction: she made me believe I could fly.

Jump 149: It’s all fun and games until suspension lines start snapping. I can very distinctly remember sitting in the saddle at 3,000 feet looking up at my busted parachute. I’d already had a high-speed malfuction and cut-a-way, but this three minute canopy ride was the longest of my life — choosing to land a busted but working canopy, rather than cut and take a chance on a reserve ride, was seriously one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in the sport.

Jump 239: Solo Night Jump, Forth of July. To be alone, falling at 120 mph, slowly turning, watching every firework display for 50 miles around. Simply amazing. I’d never felt how “big” that holiday is – it’s not just your city shooting fireworks into the sky – but the entire Nation at once! You just have to go up a few thousand feet to get a good view of the show.

Jump 371: Over four hundred times I’ve “held my hands up high, feet and knees together, prepare to PLF, and get ready to flare”; it may have been easy for us all to recite those words (or some version of them) when we first got our A license – but are you ready, I mean really ready, to PLF on every landing? Whether it be pilot-error, funky winds, or a hundred other things, sooner or later you WILL have a rough landing – you may break your back, twist an ankle, or just roll it out, stand up and go manifest for the next load — the quality of your PLF makes the difference.

Jump 390: I’ve done Cat-Fly-Arounds dozens of times (it’s my favorite three-way), but when recently asked to sign an old log book entry, I just couldn’t picture the jump. Flipping back through my own log book, I was able to verify the jump – but I still can’t quite picture it in my mind. What can be learned from a jump I can’t remember? A reminder to slow down and value each jump a little more.

Jump 413: Getting coached by a student. As I equaled or surpassed the experience and currency of some jumpers I initially looked up to for guidance, I noticed some tension when I started returning to them – giving advice rather than taking it. Those tensions quickly fading as they realized I was merely trying to help them as they had helped me. The shoe was on the other foot early this year, as I struggled to quickly rebuild my currency, and had a previous low-timer with a fresh Coach rating point out some basic body position errors in my flying. I don’t think I took it as gratefully as I could have, I’ll have to do better next time, all I’ve got to say about that is… “it was April”, and… Thank you. Feel free to signal me some toe-taps anytime. ;)

The weather has been less than perfect through most of April and May, but I’ve been able to get 17 jumps in so far! With a weak last season, a long winter just behind me, and only getting one or two jumps a day, the first dozen jumps were all four-way or smaller and without my camera. Gladly, the weather blessed us last weekend and I was able to get six jumps, including a few bigger groups, and 8-way that went well and an 11-way that could’ve been better. But thats okay, we’ve got a lot of season left in front of us :)

I also picked up the new GoPro Hero HD, so look forward to some really great quality video’s this year! Of course I couldn’t resist putting it right on my helmet, so without further ado, here’s the first video for the year:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150198312734413

Looking forward to a lot more jumps with everyone… so next time you see my cam in freefall, come say hi!

Winter is more than a season, it’s more than bad weather and snow shovels. It’s the long void between one great season at the dropzone and the next. It represents many months of seeing good friends less and your family more. No more long summer nights discussing the days successes and failures or cold spring mornings waiting around for enough skydivers to make a load. No more quietly sitting back and watching the new Tandem students nervously pace around as they wait for their ticket to be called.

I have come to believe, that “Winter”, to a skydiver, is more than just the season of winter from December through March. Winter and all it’s cold, dark, and lonely glory; can be found nearly anytime of the year just where you would expect it – far away from the dropzone. See for yourself.. stop skydiving from July til September, trust me – you’ll start feeling Winter while it’s still hot enough to sweat.

In my few years around, I’ve seen people come and go from the sport, some jump for a year or two, then take up hang gliding or rock climbing instead, they merely prefer spend there “Summer” elsewhere. But sometimes others are forced to take time away from the sport. It’s easy for the weather, career, family, kids, life or a new wife to step in the way. Thats Winter. An unmovable object, keeping you from the things you love.

Luckily, no matter how it appears from the depths of it, Winter is a temporary object. It can fade away slowly for months or years, or even give you few weekend breaks before it suddenly ends one day. It can last one season, or it could be a twenty year stretch.

When a long and slow winter finally begins to wane, it’s good to know the sport you love is still there. When you start hearing the birds chirp, know that you will fly with them soon. Winter does end, Spring will come, just close your eyes and smell the jet fuel. You know when you get back to the dropzone, your friends will be waiting for you, as if you just took too long to pack; no hurry, there’s always room for one more on the next load. Once Winter ends, it’s as if it never even happened.

It’s been a long, long winter. But it’s almost over now.

I’ll be skydiving tomorrow :)

Jeromy

With the help few online calculators, I’ve estimated a force of the impact required to remove the 3M VHB tape was approximately 250psi – 15 times the amount required to crack a skull! So in general — don’t do anything to your GoPro camera, that you wouldn’t want to do to your neck!

In any case, since I first got my GoPro, I’ve been a huge fan. It’s a (relatively) cheap, well made, easy to use, small, point of view camera. It can handle the rigors of practically any extreme sport, in or out of the water! If you don’t have one yet, check them out and get yourself one (after consulting your local Instructors to see if you’re ready to fly with a camera). Word to the wise though, if you jump out of a plane and land on your head – it’s not covered under the warranty!

#——————————————————
Hi Jeromy

Sorry to hear about your crash, it definitely does not sound like fun.

Unfortunately, an extreme crash such as this is not something that we can cover under warranty, so you will have to purchase the housing from our website. I will, however, send you out a couple of stick on mounts. Just specify which stick-on mount you want (flat or curved) and I will send you out three of them.

Let me know.

Many thanks,

GoPro Support

http://www.gopro.com/support

#——————————————————

Anyhow, after initially landing on my feet/knees and leaving a 12 inch divot in the ground, I continued to fly forward another 20 feet where I landing on my head, removing the 3M mounting tape cleanly from the top of my helmet, breaking the mounting mechanism off the bottom of the clear case, and embedding the camera about 6 inches into the ground. I rolled through on my my neck and bounced another 20 feet where I touched down again and finally rolled to a stop.

Amazingly, my camera itself is still functioning perfectly (although, quite sadly, I had forgotten to turn it on for that jump). However, the mount on my helmet that was lost due to the 3M tape losing it’s grip (granted, due to a high speed impact with the ground!), was my last curved mount. Also, although the case itself is still intact, the clip that snaps into the mounting bracket was broken off completely and could not be found. Truthfully, I consider myself very lucky that I was not seriously injured.

My question to you is this: Is this the type of average “wear and tear” that might be covered under warranty for a camera that is designed for extreme sports? Whether covered by warranty or available for a moderate fee, please send me a replacement case and mount immediately, I plan on jumping this weekend, and after this experience, I’ll make sure I always have my GoPro turned on!

Jeromy Alexander

Everyone already receives The Parachutist, which as published by the USPA displays the professionalism of our sport.  I think Blue Skies displays us – when we’re not trying so hard to be professional!  If you haven’t already subscribed, get over there and do it!  It’s worth the cost of a jump ticket to read the stuff that got them kicked out of their first printer!

The weather on Friday kept me at home, and really, even Saturday and Sunday didn’t look that great. However, things seem to work out when they need too, and this was no exception. Saturday came and the clouds rolled back enough to get out there and get a few in. Of three jumps on Saturday, the second was great. Just a simple three way with Glenn and Mac, but Mac had the great idea for us to swap camera’s (you’ve gotta love the way the gopro’s click in and out of their mount so easily). So below, for the first time on this blog, you can see me in the video!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ttwn5hlCY8

On Sunday, everyone (well, actually just most) that I wanted to be there on my three hundredth were there, so i tried to squeeze onto each load and get the jumps done before the weather went bad. On jump number 298, Jon, Franz, and I went out to do a very common skydive at our dz, a “Cat Fly-Around”, you can see it the first half of the video how the jump is supposed to go.. but towards the end, appearantly Jon and Franz and decided to fuck with me a bit by turning the two way and not letting me get into my next slot!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=duZXjnJ_7g0

Next was my 300′th! In the beginning, this started as just a small jump.. maybe a four way. But one by one I saw people around the dz that I just couldn’t not invite and then someone brought out the hoop. Yes, “the” hoop.. it’s the hoop that set the world record hoop dive (21 people through the hoop, World Freefall Convention, 2002). My first mistake on this dive? Think I should try to go through backwards on my first attempt. My second? Managing to kick both hoop holders.. and my third misktake? Thinking they might let me go through the hoop a second time! Oh well, fun jump!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lWdildIyS8

Just for reference, out of my current jumps, I’ve got 40 on student canopies (from 288 to 210) the next 100 on a Sabre-1 190, and the next 150+ on a Pilot 168. For the day I decided to demo the Pilot 150, as that would be my next logical step down. However, the Aerodyne guy, after watching me land a few times, though I’d be fine with the Pilot 140, not so sure myself, what do you think, with my progression and an exit weight of 190 pounds?

Anyway, on to the days video’s! In the first one Jon does a backflip, Chris does a half barrel roll, I do a strut curl exit and wave goodbye to the pilot!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkwwkamcqLY

Here are to good examples of stable cessna exits: Jim does a diving exit, Ian goes out poised.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSZ4X0F6-P4

I had plans to drive down to Ohio for the weekend to meet with Ashley Mead from SkydiveChick.com and take a small tour of the local dropzones in her neck of the woods while helping her check off the last few items on her progression card and hopefully to be there when she got her license!

The first stop was Cleveland Parachute Center for a few jumps from their Cessna 185, the first jump was Ashley’s hop-n-pop from 5,500 feet followed by my exit.  Watch carefully – you can see how I figured out that the step on a 185 is about six inches higher than a 182!

The second jump was an interesting one.. but no story about it here (go watch the video, be observant), you’ll have to come find me around the bonfire to hear me tell you the story about it!

After the second jump we took off back to Cleveland to meet up with Shawn at http://www.voodoomonkey.org/.  We know how many skydivers wear  a closing pin necklace.. but how many of them would put that pin on them permanently?  Only two that I know of..  but who among us couldn’t use a little good luck charm on that pull hand?

After the tattoo’s it was back on the road the Canton Airsports to meet up with the crew there just after sunset.  I got to meet a lot of great people and couldn’t wait to come back Sunday morning to jump with them.  First jump was with Rick, Christa, and Tkoa – we never quite built the first round, but a fun jump anyhow!

Next I got to fly outside camera for a hybrid attempt, it was the group’s second try at it and they were pretty sure they were going to get it.  The were so sure, they made two of us squeeze onto that camera step to do the video for them!  I couldn’t keep up with the fall rate once Rick stood up under the two way, but I love the footage I got of the first camera guy colliding with group at exit!  I tried to go into a sit, but I just couldn’t hold it stable, I need to practice my free flying abit more for these situations…

And finally, the last jump.  All during Sunday we’d worked on getting Ashley card checked off, three ring maintenance, packing (I got to jump her pack job on the first jump of the day), and she was on the plane during the second jump during her check dive to get her A license!  We thought that was the end of the day, but a few more tandems walked in, and we had just enough to send the plane back up.  For her first licensed jump, she said she just wanted to do something fun.. no learning, no practice.. so I offered to just spin her around and see how far I could throw her across the sky!  This was a great end to a great weekend.. A great new dropzone to visit, a newly licensed skydiver to jump with, a new skydiving tattoo.. it doesn’t get much better than this.

The month started with jump number 229 on the 3rd, a pseudo coaching dive with a Christian, a jumper back from a 7 year layoff.  He’d already done a recent recurrency jump with an Instructor at another dropzone and then another with an Instructor at Skydive Tecumseh.  But on this jump we were still working on some basic fall rate and docking skills.  This jump definetly cemented my decision to enroll in the coach course later in the month.  Later that night we did a 13-way dive that had experience levels from 43 jumps to 12,142 – I remember there was a plan, but the video just shows a big ball of shit!

The 4th of July was very special – a six point nine way, a five point nine way, a four point eight way, and one of my best sunset tracking dives!  Thats my camera on the leader and it’s me docking on the left.  Most importantly, we did night jumps on the fourth, and no matter how much I try, I can not explain how patriotic I felt watching hundreds of fireworks and dozens of grand finallies covering the ground beneath me.  I got video of my solo night jump, but you can’t really see much – hey, it was night time!  But I forgot to turn on the camera for the following four way group jump on the next load!  That Sunday continued the many more bigways, up to a fourteen way skydive!

USPA Coach Rating card

Jump number 250 was my first jump flying outside camera for a four-way (they got three points).  Being a part of Brian’s 1200th, Margret’s 1200th, and Mike’s 1800th skydive was very rewarding, and was a very well done skydive!  On July 16th & 17th I was able to enroll in a Coach Course by Bram Clement at SkydiveRatings.com and got my Coach Rating card in the mail a few days later!

The next day brought my first experience as a Coach – telling my student they were grounded due to weather – even while everyone else was still jumping :(  But she took it well and I was able to do my first Coaching jumps the next day on the 19th.

The jumps got lean towards the end of the month, but the quality surely improved.  There was a 29 point two way with me and jon;  and finally ending the month with Greg back in the air and a five way missing man dancing spider!

All in all a great month… Night Jumps, Big ways, Coach Rating course, my first (and so far only) student, first outside camera jump, and a lot of quality fun jumps in between for a total of 38 skydives!

Perhaps becuase I did just recently get my coach rating, now was a very good time for me to read back and remember.  And, in the process of that, I’ve went back through my own log book, and the notes I kept then, and have added those stories here.  For any that are interested, here is the journey I took in June, July, August, and September of 2007.

How many of you take your experience for granted?  Do you remember the racing hearbeat of your first jumps?  What was your experience before jumping out of an airplane was just another day?

January – 1 – Just one jump, but what a great – and cold – one it was!

February – 18 – What can I can, ELOY baby! Hot Air Balloons & High Altitude Jumps!

March – 3 – Waiting for saftey day was rough, but it sure was nice to be jumping back at home.

April – 25 – Not bad and I bitched about the weather? Even had my first official team jumps :)

May – 8 – This was a rough month personally, way too much RW in the way of my jumping :(

June – 37 – Finally back on track for a great month, ended by following out my good friend Patrick out of the plane on his first AFF jump!

So, wth the first half of the year over and already standing at 92 jumps already, 228 total; and with really the best part of summer still coming.. how many will I end up with this year? 300? 350? 400?!

One thing I know for sure is that I need to learn to stop bitching about the weather! I’m starting to confuse myself with someone still on student status!

Jeromy

Ahh, but thats not even why I’m posting today. All winter long, waiting for skydiving season to open, is no easy wait. Mostly it’s the Michigan winters, the combination between the absence of my favorite past-time and just a healthy bit of cabin fever.. it’s not fun, but once it’s done, it’s done.

Opps.. not this year! We had a great opening day this year.. a little cool and windy in the morning, but that settled down very nicely into the evening; I got eight jumps all day (my best ever)! Then the next day, what happens? SNOW! Can you believe it? 6 inches of snow in April? It’s crazy, though, it does look like it will be gone fast enough not to interfere with jumping next weekend.. :)

Airline tickets are now booked.. come February 11th, I’ll be leaving my way from Jackson to Detriot to board my flight to Eloy, Arizona and Skydive Arizona. Lets all hope the skys are blue, the temps are warm.. and there is NONE of that rare desert snow that week!!

I couldn’t advise this for the faint of heart, but for those die hard fans that need to get a little altitude fix somewhere in between November and April — you’ve gotta try it!

This year I lucked out – although everyone was doing hop-n-pops from 4500, we had gary on our load (3 at a time in the cessna) who was doing a jump with his tandem rig to keep his currency with it, so we went up to 6500.

Me and larry did a nice two way exit, him floating, me diving – for the first few seconds i started to get that swimming sensation – perhaps two months off was just too much, but then the muscle memory kicked in and i felt back in my element :) We got together easily after that, and got three points pretty quickly (round, Larry 360, round, Me 360, round).

So far for the year i’m averaging 3 points per jump!

On the todo list before next new years day — New gloves, my fingers are still de-thawing!!!

(Temp 16 degree F at ground level)

I did three jumps; a two-way with my coach (to get my license current), a four-way (my first), and a solo jump (where i got stable on my back for the first time). I had three stand-up landings, but all were off target. My first was off by 15 yards, the next two by more than 50! I guess I’ll have to get out there and practice some more!

After five months waiting through winter, and a month waiting through spring weather… It was nice to finally get some altitude. All in all, was it worth the wait? Of course it was! Next year, I’ll try to be more patient!

Wow, what a way to spend the last summer of my twenties.

Jeromy D. Alexander
A-51917