5punk

Tomorrow (Sunday 3rd) I'm doing a 10,000 foot tandem skydive with a 5,000 foot freefall in Lancaster for Breast Cancer Awareness and so consequently am absolutely shitting it. Anyone done one before and have any tips and advice to share?

Will try and get pictures for you all and put them up here.

Wish me luck/less broken bones

Roman Totale wrote:

Code: Select all

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain. 

That's a cracking start *commits to memory*

Sky diving is awesome fun. An if you're tandeming then there's even less for you to think about. Sit back and enjoy the ride Oh, and hope the weather clears up a bit - cloud base below about 3000 ft AGL means no jump

friznit wrote:Sky diving is awesome fun. An if you're tandeming then there's even less for you to think about. Sit back and enjoy the ride Oh, and hope the weather clears up a bit - cloud base below about 3000 ft AGL means no jump

Fucksocks, really? It's absolutely throwing it down here and the jump is only about an hour's drive away. I'm really looking forward to it - will be gutted if I can't do it tomorrow. Although there are plenty of other weekends to do it I suppose.

Thanks for the advice, the best part of tandeming is that despite my fear of heights, I'm much less likely to bottle it. The way I see it is that the guy strapped to my back is gonna go either way, I might as well jump with him!

My (ex para) grandad always used to say that when they were handing out the parachutes they'd say 'if it doesn't work bring it back and we'll get you a new one'. Sounds like good advice to me.

My parents used to parachute/paracend. They're still alive and had a good time.

Also, I have the theme to Ski Sunday in my head now.

tandino wrote:Anyone done one before and have any tips and advice to share?

Use a parachute.

FatherJack wrote:
Use a parachute.

pfftttt

Good luck mate, and well done on raising money for charity

HOLY TWATBAGS!!11

That was the single most amazing thing I've ever done. Very nearly didn't get in the air at all but waited and waited 'til 6 and did it!

Turns out it was 14,000 feet after all and I had a bit of a freefall for 50 seconds. Awesome stuff. If the opportunity presents itself, do it. Hard.

/Parachute blog

Glad to hear you enjoyed it

I was very close to doing my basic parachute course when I was posted in Cyprus (where the Red Devils train in summer). However, of three people I knew that did it, two broke their legs and one died.

I was slightly put off after that :/

haha. well done on keeping that one to yourself until after he'd done it.

thats just beyond unlucky...

I have no doubt it was utterly freakish. The two who broke their legs were good friends, they just had iffy winds at ground level and ended up getting dragged across the floor. The one that died (a young girl in RAF admin) was just damned unlucky, her main chute failed and she didn't get the reserve deployed fast enough to prevent her coming in too fast.

It's worthy of note that all the injuries happened on the last day of the course where, if the students were judged to be competent enough, they would be allowed a short freefall.

I still want to try, just not with the army

You got to go sky diving AND help fight cancer?

Win.

Yay! You got bummed in freefall and survived. Gratz

Just discovered that I'm on the Black knights Parachute club website in their hall of fame. Turns out a parachutist's helmet is not the most flattering headgear ever! http://www.bkpc.co.uk

I had a DVD of it made by the parachute centre so when I get around to it, I'll try and get it on t'internet somewhere. Or alternatively just take a load of stills of it and get them on flickr.

What's interesting is that I have to deliver my best man's speech this coming Friday and I'm much more concerned about that than throwing myself out of an Aeroplane at 14,000 feet.

Any best man tips to offer?

First to say "Use a parachute" gets a face full of 5perm.

Use a parachute

Hehulk wrote:Use a parachute

That's what you get! My 5perm are big so you only needed 20 for a faceful!

tandino wrote:Any best man tips to offer?

I've not been a best man, but I have been a groom and I'm not bad at public speaking. What I told my best man to do was not write down everything you're going to say, just write down headings and choice phrases and make sure you know what you're talking about. That way you'll be talking to the audience as you would someone in the pub, rather than reading from a script where you'll be showing no emotion and if you lose your place it breaks the flow. My best man ignored this advice of course (same advice I gave him at college, which he ignored then too), while I chose to just lose my speech.

Dog Pants wrote:
I've not been a best man, but I have been a groom and I'm not bad at public speaking. What I told my best man to do was not write down everything you're going to say, just write down headings and choice phrases and make sure you know what you're talking about. That way you'll be talking to the audience as you would someone in the pub, rather than reading from a script where you'll be showing no emotion and if you lose your place it breaks the flow. My best man ignored this advice of course (same advice I gave him at college, which he ignored then too), while I chose to just lose my speech.

Sounds all very good mate. I have many jokes and the general foundations of a good, solid speech I think. Just need to make sure I flow with it and have JUST A COUPLE of pints before I speak