{"id":19403,"date":"2017-11-09T16:15:46","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T16:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/?p=19403"},"modified":"2023-10-29T12:56:29","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T19:56:29","slug":"every-newly-licensed-skydiver-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/blog\/every-newly-licensed-skydiver-know\/","title":{"rendered":"What Every Newly Licensed Skydiver Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Jumpers
Photo by Dennis Sattler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not easy to be new in this sport. I know. I\u2019ve been there. And guess what? <\/span>So have all of the rest of us<\/span><\/i>, from the dudemanbro whose wingsuit videos you gawk over to the tandem master who told jokes to the back of your head as you were getting ready to face that door for the first time. You\u2019re far from alone.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to continue on this journey into the heart of skydiving, you\u2019re going to have to get past this steep uphill section when it would be <\/span>far<\/span><\/i> easier to turn around and roll back down to \u201cnormal life.\u201d There are a few things I wish I’d been told right at the beginning, so here\u2019s my best pep talk, dear friend. Pull up a chair and pour yourself a drink.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1. You\u2019ve Got To Give It Time.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the first thing I\u2019ll tell you: You need to not give up.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skydiving is an easy towel to throw in, after all, and you\u2019ll have plenty of moments you\u2019ll be tempted to. You’ll screw up landings and come plowing into the dirt in front of people you really wanted to impress. You\u2019ll exit the aircraft textbook-perfectly on some jumps and embarrass yourself thoroughly on others. You’ll be inexplicably terrified some days, waking up in the bunkhouse in a cloud of AV gas fumes and dread.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You’ll feel like you\u2019re boring the more experienced people who make the effort to jump with you. You’ll feel graceless and awkward. You\u2019ll feel slow. You\u2019ll feel as far as you could possibly be from \u201ccool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s okay to feel all of those feelings. The one feeling that you should diligently keep off the menu is despair. After all: The fun is coming! With every jump, you\u2019re moving ever closer to the moment you feel at home in the sky. Celebrate every little victory with everything you\u2019ve got. Accept the compliments when they\u2019re presented to you. (They\u2019re not disingenuous.) Pay the beer fines.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2. You\u2019ve Got To Keep Showing Up.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The fear and the frustration are bound to come after you. Every time you let them chase you off the dropzone, you\u2019re one step closer to walking away from the sport. Startlingly high numbers of people only make a couple dozen skydives before hanging up their A-licenses<\/a>. Don\u2019t be one of them. Be ready for the inevitable face-offs.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fear and frustration are tricky; they hide behind \u201clogical, responsible choices.\u201d There are errands to be done and financial obligations to be met and important social happenings to be attended, after all, all of which stand in the way of a weekend at the dropzone. Guilt trips will likely rain down on you from family and friends who don\u2019t understand your new obsession. Then, of course, there\u2019ll be the skydiving accident videos folks not-so-helpfully share to your social networks; the injured friends; the near misses that get you to freshen up on your emergency procedures at the same time as they get you thinking about your choice in hobbies.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know, in your heart, what\u2019s a \u201creason\u201d and what\u2019s an \u201cexcuse.\u201d You know, in your heart, what\u2019s a brave choice and what\u2019s a weak one. Allow the excuses to fall away from you; envision them as leaves, flowing briskly by you across a rushing river.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

#3. Be The Smartest Skydiver You Know.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a reason that most new skydivers focus all their time and financial resources on freefall skills. It\u2019s freefall skills, after all, that make for the sexiest videos, <\/span>n\u2019est-ce pas<\/span><\/i>? It\u2019s freefall skills that get you on the jumps with the hometown heroes at your dropzone; that get you the biggest group hugs; that impress your Facebook friends.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m here to tell you <\/span>it\u2019s a trap!<\/span><\/i> Try not to fall in. Right now, when you\u2019re more overwhelmed by the basic components of a skydive than you will ever be again, you need to focus what cognitive wherewithal you have left directly on the most important part of your jump: The landing. Now is the time to get canopy coaching<\/a>; to rigorously workshop your accuracy; to learn every minute idiosyncrasy of your canopy and KO your gear fear. The time to do this is <\/span>now<\/span><\/i>, in these early moments when you’re still actively programming the subconscious responses that might later save your femurs. The best advice: Don’t end up one of those D-licensed jumpers who can stick a slot in a world record but still semi-secretly hates the nylon overhead afterward.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"formation<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

#4 Be Part Of The Community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

YOU ARE WELCOME HERE<\/em><\/strong>. If you have to write it on your arm in Sharpie, do it. Stop worrying that everybody thinks you\u2019re a fraud; stop worrying that you aren\u2019t cool enough to hang around; stop worrying that they don\u2019t really like you. <\/span>They do<\/span><\/i>. That love you feel is real. You\u2019re part of the family now, and we want you here. And we really, really want you to stay.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"newly<\/a>
photo by: Dennis Sattler<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not easy to be new in this sport. I know. I\u2019ve been there. And guess what? So have all of the rest of us, from the dudemanbro whose wingsuit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":26214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afflearn-to-skydive","category-skydiving"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19403"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26540,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19403\/revisions\/26540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}