Went Skydiving (Video if interested)

Cool, congratulations! Don’t think they had tandems back when I started. We used a static line on the first jump and then delayed times after that. I can’t think of anything more fun. What a rush! What altitude did you jump from?

@suoiruc

Jumped from 10,500'. Opened at 5000' (state law for tandems). According to the guy in the safety vid, tandems started in the 90's. 

I'm familiar with static line but what is time delayed?

Definitely a rush. I wasn't scared to jump but once we got to our top speed of about 120mph I was a little nervous.

Love seeing the huge smile on your face in the first picture!  Congratulations!

That was amazing to see. I don't know why but it was better then most documentary videos on the subject.  Nicely done.  

@dev

Thanks! They run a tight ship at Skydive Mountaineer here in Morgantown and the conditions were perfect. It also helps that me and Mark were super stoked for the jump and not too nervous because all the time we spend rock climbing and taking massive falls. 

Turns out the camera man, Will, actually made it into Parachutist Magazine as part of a synchronized jump display. I don't know how it is in the skydiving world, but it is a VERY big deal to making it into climbing magazine or rock and ice as a climber. I was pleasantly surprised that they were all really giving off a similar vibe that you get with white water raft guides, and climbing/ mountaineering guides. I expected it to be a little more straight laced and serious but they had a good mix of giving just enough info, rushing you just enough, and being personable just enough haha. During the part where the camera man is outside the plane, he is literally just holding onto the side of the plane. They kept reminding me to make sure I didn't accidentally kick him off.

All filming was done with a gopro on a helmet and I was provided with 5 or 6 raw clips. I just shoved em together with no trimming and added the caption at the start.

Also, funny enough, turns out the owner has been an outdoor rock climber in the community for a while and he was gotten the first ascents on, and bolted a lot of the outdoor routes here in Morgantown. Funny how all the "extreme" sports people here really overlap quite a bit.

Posted by: @ria

@suoiruc

Jumped from 10,500'. Opened at 5000' (state law for tandems). According to the guy in the safety vid, tandems started in the 90's. 

I'm familiar with static line but what is time delayed?

Definitely a rush. I wasn't scared to jump but once we got to our top speed of about 120mph I was a little nervous.

I started in the 80s which fits with your tandem dating. Finished with 31 jumps after deciding it was too dangerous. The time delay started with, iirc, 15 seconds after jumping untethered from the airplane, then pulling the parachute. From there, I think it was 30,45 seconds and if you did well, yout were free to do whatever you wanted. My favorite jump was with   gutted twin beach aircraft where 90 people packed in and jumped together. The sky was full of parachutes. Five of us hooked -up in formation then split up doing a backflip. Altitude was 14500 feet, pulling around 3000 feet. I think that’s around a minute of freefall. You can aproach 180-200 mph in a head down dive in an instant changing body position. That’s a rush as well.

@suoiruc

If you don't mind me asking, was there something in particular that happened that made you feel it was too dangerous?

I'm heavily considering getting into the sport and getting certified. I figure it is a little different gear and training wise now than when you were in, but I'd appreciate your two cents.

In my 31 jumps, I only had one partial malfunction (a snivel as they call it) where my main parachute took its time opening up. Some have had total malfunctions on their first time out. At this point, you pray your reserve was packed right. 

A jumping buddy and I often discussed the possibilities of all the things that could potentially happen and then slowly stopped going. One thing to consider is at 2500 feet (which was considered lowest point to deploy parachute), you have 12 seconds before hitting the ground. That’s not a lot of time to decide in panic mode, should you have a malfunction, whether you get rid of a potentially good parachute and use your reserve which odds are it’s good, not having a bunch of dirty laundry coming out like the movie,”Fandango”, lol. Master packers were only certified to pack reserve chutes so those should be good, right?

l don’t want to discourage you but would recommend getting good training and learning to pack your own chute, doing some more dives and considering things that can happen so your prepared when they do.