AFF Student Skydiver

Today was pretty hectic. Two jumps and then a 16km run in preparation for the Ras Al Khaimah Marathon (RAK Marathon). I can certainly tell you that in October last year I was sitting on my butt watching Prison Break or The Sopranos all weekend. This year is kinda different.

Level 4 & 5 rocked. I really got the hang of staying stable and really hanging from my arms and extending my legs. I think I’ll eventually learn how to stay stable in the Mantis body position. Mantis looks a little different (and cooler) compared to the normal box man position. I really feel like my arms are too high. But JM says that is fine, I’m stable which is the main thing. I guess I can refine it a little as I jump more. By the way, the JM in my level 3 video is doing mantis.

Level 4: Exit was ok, but I would have flipped over backwards if JM wasn’t there. I’m getting into the arch just a little too early. If I keep my legs straight and wide for the first few seconds then I can have my whole body facing into the wind and then as I gradually fall forward I can then arch. Pull sequence needs work and JM suggested that I need to concisouly look through my left hand as I put it in front of me and deploy. I need to stop looking at my altimeter as if it is a watch. When I do this my heading changes very slightyly. Stand up landing in canopy today, and I still managed to miss the gigantic puddle.

Level 5: Within 20 minutes I was up again. Exit was much better, legs straighter and wider. I have a feeling though that when I do my first solo exit (if the exit is like this) that I’m going to flip. On this jump I faced JM and then did a 360. I remember facing away from JM on 360 and looking over the horizon and all I could see was the Gulf and blue sky. It was pretty cool. On the pull sequence I reached my left hand in front and saw the horizon through my fingers and deployed. My head didn’t dip forward. So pretty happy with that jump. I felt really stable too. Another standup canopy landing, I thought I would definitely land in the massive puddle lake thing. The wind had picked up since taking off and I did not get much wind penetration so it was looking soggy for a little while. The day before I saw one fun jumper land in the big puddle. She didn’t do a standup either and fell backwards into the ankle deep water. Poor thing didn’t feel jumping again.