Planning to go skydiving for my birthday

[CaptainCrunch]

Usually between 200 and 250 per jump in tandem. Probably cheaper for the solo jump after ground school.

And I have been saying something really wrong and I apologize.

Your first few solo jumps are probably from about 3000 feet with an instant chute deployment. I forgot that it was much lower since its been a long time since I did the first one.

[Poison]

Um thanks for the stories guys.......

Can we give some positive vibes now??? Like how fun it is....
These busted knees and crying women stories is killing my mojo........

[CaptainCrunch]

my ground school first civvy jump was about $200 bucks. After that I paid about 80.00 per jump.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Poison

Um thanks for the stories guys.......

Can we give some positive vibes now??? Like how fun it is....
These busted knees and crying women stories is killing my mojo........

Its a rush, and incredibly fun, its something that everyone should try at least once.

Once the chute deploys and your gliding, there's no better view, and its completely peaceful and calm.

Once you get a handle on the timing of the landing your basically hitting the ground running and its an amazing feeling.

The first time you exit the plane it can be harrowing. I had an easier time just walking about of a plane as oppossed to climbing out of a plane and hanging off of the wing strut.

The first time that you let go, your body form is going to be terrible, and the pictures that they take are hilarious. and you won't remember much until the chute deploys and you grab the toggles.

Its one of the most fun things that I've ever done, thats why I did so many of them.

[Poison]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Its a rush, and incredibly fun, its something that everyone should try at least once.

Once the chute deploys and your gliding, there's no better view, and its completely peaceful and calm.

Once you get a handle on the timing of the landing your basically hitting the ground running and its an amazing feeling.

The first time you exit the plane it can be harrowing. I had an easier time just walking about of a plane as oppossed to climbing out of a plane and hanging off of the wing strut.

The first time that you let go, your body form is going to be terrible, and the pictures that they take are hilarious. and you won't remember much until the chute deploys and you grab the toggles.

Its one of the most fun things that I've ever done, thats why I did so many of them.

Much better!!!

Though i dont like the idea of being strapped to another dude, i think my first adventure will be tandum and ill go from there but im majorly stoked to try it out and hopefully build up to being able to do it myself.
So if you had to recommend then CC somewhere near Calgary youd suggesting Vertical Extreme?
They seem fairly new, at least the company, but the owner seems pretty veteran.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Poison

Much better!!!

Though i dont like the idea of being strapped to another dude, i think my first adventure will be tandum and ill go from there but im majorly stoked to try it out and hopefully build up to being able to do it myself.
So if you had to recommend then CC somewhere near Calgary youd suggesting Vertical Extreme?
They seem fairly new, at least the company, but the owner seems pretty veteran.

At least check out vertical extreme. It wouldn't hurt to have a call with them, tell them that your a bit nervous and would love some reasurrance.

They will probably let you come down and show you their equipment and procedures. Must good schools will do that.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Poison

Much better!!!

Though i dont like the idea of being strapped to another dude, i think my first adventure will be tandum and ill go from there but im majorly stoked to try it out and hopefully build up to being able to do it myself.
So if you had to recommend then CC somewhere near Calgary youd suggesting Vertical Extreme?
They seem fairly new, at least the company, but the owner seems pretty veteran.

Snicker, at least they don't strap you face to face.

Of course if your going down front to back and he reaches around and starts rubbing your nipples by mistake you've got no escape.

[DownhillGoat]

Thanks for the tip to check out Vertical Extreme. A group of us went up north of Edmonton a few years back only to be shut out by horrible weather. I ended up calling VE the other day and booked a jump for me and the wife for tomorrow. Really looking forward to it. We're doing tandem jumps, and it looks like you can get the reduced rates for future jumps plus accreditation for solo jumps too. I'm more interested in the freefall than the canopy time, so I figured go the tandem route, then maybe get certified down the road.

The owner seems like a pretty decent guy. Knew his stuff, and I believe he said he's been jumping for about 30 years.

I'll post pics and reviews on Saturday.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Thanks for the tip to check out Vertical Extreme. A group of us went up north of Edmonton a few years back only to be shut out by horrible weather. I ended up calling VE the other day and booked a jump for me and the wife for tomorrow. Really looking forward to it. We're doing tandem jumps, and it looks like you can get the reduced rates for future jumps plus accreditation for solo jumps too. I'm more interested in the freefall than the canopy time, so I figured go the tandem route, then maybe get certified down the road.

The owner seems like a pretty decent guy. Knew his stuff, and I believe he said he's been jumping for about 30 years.

I'll post pics and reviews on Saturday.

Enjoy and have a great fall.

[TSXCman]

go for MAX ALTITUDE!! 14000 ft or whatnot. 10 000 goes by in about 30 seconds, and the free fall is the best part. 14000.

and tandem is fine, it allows you to jump from higher right away

[Phanuthier]

Today sky diving, tomorrow base jumping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttz5oPpF1Js

Tiny hi-jack, the guy that did that video, i met him a few weeks ago and he was showing one of the most amazing lines I've ever seen, up in the Baffin Islands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHvXseq9Ios

[Gobsgraham]

CC hit it on the head above. As previously mentioned - Don't go to Beiseker. I used to jump out of Didsbury and they were a great group of people there. At that time they had never had any serious accidents and were very serious about compliance with all "recommended" guidelines for parachutes/reserve chutes/instructors etc. At that time and maybe still now there are no actual laws for anything.

I never did a tandom jump but jumped 7 or 8 times until I did my first solo freefall and that was the best feeling in the world. I would probably recommend tandom because you will get that feeling for a lot longer. When you jump from 10,000 feet you will get to freefall for (I have no idea how long) 15-20 seconds and then glide down for another few minutes. When you jump solo you are only jumping from 3000 feet so you don't even fall completely horizontal before your chute opens. Then a minute or two glide down.

Either jump will be great and make sure you go with good friends. The people that you jump with and the people at the jump site make up a lot of the experience.

[COGENT]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I remember the first time I went to Med Hat, and I hit the ground and dragged and heard screaming over the radio. One girl had crawled out on the wong and wanted to be let back in the plane, which they don't allow. She refused to let go. The instructor held a conversation with her for about 5 minutes and she finally let go and missed the drop zone by a good 10 kms and landed in a farmers field.

Was this at the Sky Diving place in Bow Island?

I went to the place in Bow Island and did my first jump solo (a few hours of instruction first of course). The instructor holds your chute while you climb onto the wing. He gives you a countdown, you look up and let go of the wing. You get about 4-7 seconds of free fall then the chute automatically opens. All I remember was how bloody loud it was during the free fall and just seeing the plane get further and further away from me extremely fast. Next thing you know, everything is quite. Looked around for awhile, then realized I was dangling from a parachute 7,000 feet in the air... that's when I started screaming from excitement, fear, realizing I just jumped out of bloody plane. They could hear me on the ground.

You'll have a blast man... I recommend everyone tries it.

On a side note, I had a way harder time bungee jumping.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by COGENT

Was this at the Sky Diving place in Bow Island?

I went to the place in Bow Island and did my first jump solo (a few hours of instruction first of course). The instructor holds your chute while you climb onto the wing. He gives you a countdown, you look up and let go of the wing. You get about 4-7 seconds of free fall then the chute automatically opens. All I remember was how bloody loud it was during the free fall and just seeing the plane get further and further away from me extremely fast. Next thing you know, everything is quite. Looked around for awhile, then realized I was dangling from a parachute 7,000 feet in the air... that's when I started screaming from excitement, fear, realizing I just jumped out of bloody plane. They could hear me on the ground.

You'll have a blast man... I recommend everyone tries it.

On a side note, I had a way harder time bungee jumping.

Same experience

[HockeyPuck]

I went on my first and only jump by signing up through the UofC website and I remember driving out to Didsbury sometime around 2002.

Did 3 hours of instruction for the solo dive and got a video of it as well.

Amazing experience - so quiet, so peaceful. What seemed like 5 seconds of free fall was only about a second, but I will never forget the quietness between letting go of the plane and right before the chute opens fully. Just awesome.

I jumped from 5000 ft - landing was pretty good, I did a dive roll when I landed and it seemed to be a good way to land and save my knees. My cousin did a faceplant trying to land without rolling, so I would recommend the dive roll if you can.

If you go solo, try not to look at the ground - look at the plane - it's pretty cool watching the plane get smaller and further away. If you look at the ground, which my cousin did, you tend to do the holy #$%# I'm going to smash into the ground, arms and legs flailing dive. Looking at my video I was able to keep proper form because I was kept looking at the plane.

Awesome experience, but probably going to be 1 and only time I jump out of a plane.

[flamingreen]

Did some skydiving when I was in Interlaken last year, had an absolute blast. You'll have a great time Poison.

[Poison]

One question, when its tandem, are you strapped back against back or are you facing forward to the instructors back, or are you in front and hes behind......
(Man this sounds waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay offside)

[CaptainCrunch]

Your strapped to the front of him, facing him, sharing a groin strap

[CaptainCrunch]

Which reminds me, when your shoot opens the first time and that v strap between your legs accelerates into your body at like a 100 miles an hour.

Real uncomfortable.

[Poison]

U just said they dont strap you face to face??? Now youre saying they do??