Newbie Advice

[Mike]

I've been getting a bit more comfotable at the exit point. This means that it only takes me a few minutes to actually jump after gear checking myself, or prepping my pilot chute, being scared sh**less, etc... But this morning something was different.
I had the pleasure of hitting a site with some other jumpers a while ago and I noticed when they exited, they were not focused on the horizon like I've been taught. Now let me communicate to you these other guys had well over 300-600+ jumps each and were very current. I, on the other hand, still focus straight out and concentrate on going chest-to horizon with all 21 of my jumps. I've always felt very natural and confident in my exit position. I feel very stable and level. Now this morning I though how cool it would be to actually see the ground\landscape in freefall as opposed to just a view of the horizon, and I made a decision. I opted to look about 45 degrees down instead of straight out. I went through it in my mind several times and exited. I had an on heading opening right after I got to see trees and ground come up really fast! It was terrific. I think I'm going to be comfortable with 45 degrees for a while. Then maybe more later. I'll take it slow.
I would like to know, what do other jumpers focus on at exit? Do they just take in the scenery? Or are they that comfortable with body position that they can focus on other things? I've seen on videos guys saying things like "There's my point," and so. What is/was your experience?

Thanks in advance

C-town Mike

[guest]

I was just like you for my first 20-30 jumps. I think that sticking your exit is a mental thing that comes from first understanding the physical aspects of the launch. Unlike skydiving, we have no air speed to work with untill three seconds or so. The exits are purly gymnastic. When starting out, looking at the horizon is usually the best way to keep from ending up head down, but once you get a feel for what a good exit feels like, then looking where you choose comes easily. Your mind will try to play tricks on you and tell you that if your not looking at the horizon you'll blow it. Here in lies the challenge. Listening to your little voice will keep you alive but it can also hold you back. You have to decide for your self if your little voice is talking ##### or maybe is actually saying somthing you need to hear.
C-YA

[d-dog]

What your are noticing is the effect of body memory (or muscle memory) on the exit procedures of experienced jumpers.

After you get a fair number of jumps under your belt, you will start to develop a body memory for a standard, flat-and-stable launch. Rather than requiring you to consciously think about your exit to get a good launch, it will happen unconsciously. When this occurs, you can look mostly wherever you want during exit sequence.

Even when an experienced jumper has not jumped for a while, the first few "currency" jumps are often much easier than for a first-time jumper. It is the same principal that lets one ride a bike easily if one learned to do so in the past, even if that was years ago.

As an example of this, I was doing some dive training recently in preparation for aerial work. My first time off the 3 meter board, I was planning to do a simple head-first dive into the water, just to loosen the nerves and get in the flow of things. However, I'd been jumping alot and my "normal" dive into the water turned into a BASE exit, chest to horizon. I struggled to recover before I hit the water, but basically did a belly-flop. That's muscle memory - my jumping exits have been so numerous that they over-rode my old memories of how to dive into the water head-first.

Incidentally, I believe this is also why one's first aerials in BASE are often so exciting/terrifying. We spend months/years learning to exit flat and stable, and then all of the sudden we exit in a spin. It is an amazing feel to add these exits to one's BASE experience, though some jumpers have done so many aerial exits of one kind or another that they then find it hard to re-learn flat and stable exits. Again, muscle memory of the aerials over-rode the flat and stable exit, at least temporarily.

For now, I'd suggest you continue to look at horizon on exit and for 1-2 seconds afterwards. After you initiate deployment (whether handheld or BOC), you can look down and enjoy the ground rush. However, it is VERY easy to go head down when looking at the ground during exit. It just happens, even to very experienced jumpers. While I do not believe it is necessary to always look directly at the horizon, I do think that staring at the ground on exit is a pretty risky thing to do. Bad exits can (and do, and have) killed many jumpers, novice and experienced alike.

When you start aerials, you get to look forward to all sorts of goofy visuals: ground, sky, ground, sky. . .

Peace,

D-d0g
ddog@wrinko.com
www.wrinko.com

[guest]

At 53 jumps I'll go ahead and share what works for me. I naturally look down which has put me in a head low position a few times. I gave up on looking down first to get back to basics and re-learn how to exit powerfully and head slightly high.. and then enjoy the ground coming up. It's done in stages.

Allow yourself to start "falling" forward.
As you crouch down ready to spring up and away from the object, keep your eyes on the horizon and launch yourself, assume that stable slightly head high position. Thats stage one

The next stage comes just after you notice how nice and stable you are. Just look down and enjoy. I'm pretty sure I don't need to mention the pulling part :)

The biggest thing Ive noticed, is just do each step individually. If you focus on pulling or focus on the ground, the tendency is to not pay attention to the launch.

It works for doing multi ways.. 1st a Nice launch....then look. It takes but a moment to do that Gymnastic exit move, and determine your stability. After that you can turn your head with ease.

I hope that made sense, since I'm still defining new habits, and Moving away from some ingrained skydiving habits.

Next Suggestion Please

[Johnnyb]

I do my exits flat so i can suck the ground before i feel my hardware :7
Here is a image from this summer:
http://onheading.com/mig/index.php?c...PG&startFrom=2