1st Tandem Skydive!

[eugenefl]

I celebrated my 33rd birthday in July by treating myself to a tandem skydive. As luck would have it, Groupon had a $200 jump for only $130! I have incredibly mixed feelings about the experience. Sometimes I look at the pictures and video and think "Wow - that was awesome", but at the same time I question my judgment on going in the first place. Now that the jump is done I think the reality of "if something had gone terribly wrong" dawned on me. Needless to say, it felt incredibly humbling to be falling towards Earth from 12,000ft. The latter part of the safety thoughts is very biased - I had my cousin with me and his brother-in-law join me on the jump. My cousin's brother-in-law landed hard subsequently breaking an ankle and fracturing his wrist. His tandem instructor who was tethered to him at landing broke his leg, sprained an ankle, and re-dislocated a shoulder. Both got rides in an ambulance to the local hospital. Evidently, on the ride down under the chute the "instructor" told my cousin's brother-in-law that he had dislocated the shoulder 2 weeks prior and that he might need some help pulling the cords at landing. Well, it didn't go so well. I guess at <30ft before landing the shoulder popped and only one side of the canopy got pulled on. They hit the ground hard and landed on one side. Mind you, I was still floating down with my tandem instructor and was too far in the air to know who got hurt, but I could see down below and saw people crowded around a downed jumper. I just thought the worst.

Because of the Florida rainy summer, we waited out a jump earlier in the day ~12noon. About the time the clouds cleared 2 groups jumped before us, and we got delayed again. It seemed like a quick break came up in the weather and we were rushed into our harnesses and onto the plane - no training or safety briefing...nothing. Right at this point I was questioning the sanity of these people and started asking all sorts of questions on the ride up with no real good answers other than to maintain a basic position during descent. Needless to say, we all went out the side of the plane. I enjoyed the initial bailout and free-fall - the view was incredible - but once we were under chute I started to feel a bit queasy. The leg and shoulder harnesses were FAR too tight and I noticed that I was losing circulation to my hands and legs. I nearly blacked out and with the assistance of the tandem instructor I was able to reposition in the harness just enough to feel OK. At landing I was disoriented heavily, felt nauseous, and wobbled around. Mind you, I am an avid fan of thrill rides at most any theme park with no ill physiological effects. More importantly, I was awaiting the worst for my cousin's brother-in-law.

Again, it was a mixed feeling on the experience. I am glad I did it, but don't expect to ever do it again. (Thankfully I paid to have a videographer shoot still and motion photos during my jump.) I wish they would have walked us through a safety briefing of some kind with instruction on improbable scenarios and what to do in particular situations just so that my mind was set at ease. It was completely unscripted and felt incredibly rushed. To have a member of our group get seriously injured ruined the experience for me.

Anyhow, I hope my experience doesn't dissuade anyone from trying it for themselves. I think it's a worthy life experience that anyone should at least do once. Sometimes I smile about the jump, other times I get that pit in my stomach knowing someone I knew was badly hurt.

Attached are some pics. Your thoughts and comments on the injury part and my overall experience are welcomed. Given that we signed away all of our rights, I am curious if there is still some negligence on behalf of the tandem partner with the shoulder.

Take care all!

 

[edwinshap1]

My experience in Hawaii was somewhat similar. The State owned the landing strip the company used and there was no requirement to tell the companies that the airstrip would be shut down for painting...

We got there at 9am and had to wait 3 hours. At noon we found out that even though we had a reservation for so early, since we didn't get back first we were the fifth group to go. Mind you the guys doing this are living in hawaii skydiving for a living

So we get in our harnesses and jump. The harness was pretty tight around my thighs, but during the freefall all i felt was this weird peace. I couldn't hear anything, the landscape of Oahu is amazing from 13k, and once we reached terminal velocity it felt like we were floating. Once the chute was pulled my legs were in extreme pain. Turns out they don't pay for the luxury harnesses they use on themselves...i'd buy one if i knew how much it'd hurt otherwise.

My experience wasn't plagued with injury, and it was possibly the most exhilerating thing i've ever/will ever do (just cuz it's hard to beat jumping out of a plane) and i'd love to go again, but maybe by myself

 

[FastCargo]

Congrats!

Realize that doing something something like this always involves risk. Though the outfit you jumped with might have been a little questionable, even experienced professionals can have bad days. The risk is what makes it memorable.

FC

 

[pick1e]

Yikes, if I had a broken ankle and wrist because of someone unable to do their job I would be calling an attorney. If he had mentioned that BEFORE the jump I bet he wouldn't have jumped out of that plane!

I've always wondered if your ears continually pop? Sometimes mine don't and it's extremely painful. That would ruin the fun for me

 

[o1d_dude]

Don't give it a second thought.

You've joined the ranks of those who have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane and lived to tell of it.

That's about as close as you can get to actually flying like a bird.

 

[edwinshap1]

Yikes, if I had a broken ankle and wrist because of someone unable to do their job I would be calling an attorney. If he had mentioned that BEFORE the jump I bet he wouldn't have jumped out of that plane!

I've always wondered if your ears continually pop? Sometimes mine don't and it's extremely painful. That would ruin the fun for me

not sure if his waiver was the same as mine, but i do remember signing 6 pages pretty much waiving all liability no matter what. doesn't mean ur family can't royally screw the company into the ground through a settlement, but it does make sueing for injury mostly impossible.

big letters on the bottom of every page "THERE IS AN INHERENT RISK AND YOU MAY DIE!" i signed without reading

 

[Leo]

Awesome for doing it!! :clap:

 

[dixontj93060]

Good, you confirmed what I've always thought... My life and future experiences with my wife, children and grandchildren are worth far more than risking it at the hands of some "yahoo" that wants to make a buck off me.

 

[KennB]

You've joined the ranks of those who have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane and lived to tell of it.

As a skydiving / pilot friend of mine once told me, "Who said it was a 'perfectly good' plane?" :fly:

 

[Wayco]

Being an experienced skydiver with several thousand jumps (two hundred as a tandem instructor) it's interesting to read about the other side of the harness. I have been out of the sport for a few years, but still consider skydiving to be one of the greatest thrills of my life.
I was deeply involved in the sport in the '90's and was convinced to share the experience with others by being a tandem instructor by a drop zone owner. At first it was very rewarding, but as it became more popular, the owner wanted me to increase the number of jumps by not packing my own chute. This was not acceptable to me, having a perfect record with no malfunctions since my starting out as an instructor. After a while I was replaced with a younger, less experienced skydiver that could pump out the students at a much faster rate. Although many of my students continued in the sport, most of the later students didn't. That may have been due to my conscientious instruction, which took more time..... This may be what has happened here, push them out the door for dollars, with no regard for the future of the sport.
Being a tandem instructor is a serious responsibility. I always felt that it was an excellent way to share the experience of freefall with beginners without making them responsible for saving their own lives. But in the end we all make decisions based on our ability to accept risk. Skydiving is not for everyone, and I'm glad for that.
As a side note, my personal rig was much smaller and less comfortable than the bigger slower tandem parachute. Being comfortable is not your primary concern when experiencing opening shock. A loose harness can fail to contain your body during deceleration, which is much worse that getting your jewels squeezed.

 

[n5wd]

I celebrated my 33rd birthday in July by treating myself to a tandem skydive.

Reading your account makes me all the more glad that when I got into sport jumping, back in the 70's while I was stationed in the Philippines with the US Air Force, that I (1) had a few (3, if I remember correctly) hours of ground school before jumping and (2) that I went solo with a dope-rope (a static line attached to the rig and the airplane, so that when I jumped, the pilot chute was automatically pulled by my weight) instead of doing it with your dope of a tandem partner. Like Wayco, I also packed my own main, so you can bet I paid real close attention to what was going on!

Of course, I didn't intend for it to be a one-off event like you apparently did.

Did your tandem partner (I won't call him an instructor, since it didn't sound like you got ANY instruction!) by chance yell to the pilot: "Hey, hold my beer and watch this" as you guys exited the aircraft?

 

[ClayD]

i sprung more like jammed my ankle on my first landing.. i came in and flarred really late. the tall grass was slippery and allowed me to not break my ankle.
it still hurt like poop for weeks.

I think the problem with tandems is exactly what Wayco is saying, it is more of a tourist buisness than an enlighting education on how to spot and correct issues like horseshoe deploy, and be a "skydiver"

I saw a tendem where the main streamered, and the instuctor CUT and relesed his reserve... the lady along for the ride had absolutey no idea what had occured, her friends on the ground asked why the other chute "broke"....
you got some good pictures....

I cant wait to get my kids raised... i want to try some base jumping with those flying suits..........

 

[atxcple]

as a military jumper i have over 50+ jumps to include a few water jumps. and i can tell you that if your legs are numb well tingly it is good. i made the mistake on a long flight from fort campbell ky to dolphin island AL of loosening my rig just a little. then 30 min later we got the standup order and i had forgoten to tighten up.. needless to say i didnt ever do that again. rather have numb leggs. than smashed other things. the cold gulf waters didnt sooth anything either.:rofl: as far as injuries i would have taken spraines and / or a broken bone over 3 ACL surgeries on the same knee. would have kept my jump status if they didnt disqualify me after the 3rd surgery. i loved the feeling of jumping out the door for a nice fast float to earth.


guess thats why i use rounds in my rockets..just gives my a warm fuzzy feeling...