There is a well known fact that too much time wasted with wuffos can cause brain damage, symptomatically portrayed through apparent relapses in language and behavior. A winter spent nearly exclusively among non-skydivers is automatically synonymous with an inability to be a real, safe skydiver right from the git go on day one. Too much shit lingering. Here in the North we're about to see the end of winter – such as it was - as "our season" makes a comeback. And this means that those of us who have not been jumping with any regularity are about to get back in the air. As a result, March and April constitute the high season for ambulance drivers and spectators of the morbid.
Having even a couple hundred skydives under your belt cannot compensate for extended periods of inactivity, as too many people prove at the beginning of each season. Some of this is a misplaced confidence that performance proficiency is something one keeps once it has been attained, that six months or so has no effect on one's skill or acuity. Six months off may not impair your talent for learning, but it can dull things up a bit. Too much time walking among the mortals can make us forget where we have once been. Too much time away from the demands of our sport can erode our ability to respond to those demands. So it becomes important to be able to review, to be able to fortify before we are tested.
There are a number of ways we can ease the transition from an idle winter to a more vibrant and active spring and summer that is allowed to be experienced safely and to its fullest.
First is acceptance. Accept that some time has passed and that we are not superhuman. Accept that time away from any activity reduces proficiency. Accept that a diminished proficiency in skydiving is an increase in vulnerability to skydiving's darker side (no, I don't mean FreeFlying).
Next is education. Educate yourself as to your personal deficiencies and how best to get help in building them up and in confirming your strengths. If you were having any problems – big or small – six months ago, you are no closer now than then to improving. You're a few steps back, to be honest. Maybe landings have been a problem. Maybe your gear has been mothballed in a closet. Maybe you've put on weight. Whatever it is, don't just assume you can pick up where you left off. That place isn't there anymore anyway.
Ask questions about your gear before just putting it on. If you've had it hidden away, give a rigger a call and set up a time when you can hang with him or her and watch what a complete inspection and repack entails. Not a bad way to start a season.
Getting gear ready for a season means other things too, like batteries, goggles, jumpsuit repairs – all the things that just never got done.
A suggestion the USPA makes is that we all review emergency procedures at least once a year. No time like the present. The school can help, any Instructor can help, any S&TA, DZ Management. Not much of a reason not to, near as I can figure. The importance of this one lies in the fact that malfunctions make up such a tiny percentage of our experience. What are the numbers, once in 500 jumps, 800 jumps? So few low timers actually know for sure if let alone how they'll handle a malfunction. It remains one of the big questions we have when we start out. And you never know when you'll get your shot at proving your shit, either. This one gets to be a surprise, a test unlike all the others. We dirt dive everything else about a skydive, and we mentally prepare for the whole of our experience. But how often do you find yourself in a proving ground for any preparation you may have made for a malfunction? As ready as you may have been led to believe you are (off instruction, signed away, assured on paper that you're a fully proficient skydiver) question the veracity of that notion daily.
There's never a wrong time to learn about your gear. I don't mean how to do a cursory check prior to boarding. I mean a fuller understanding of some of the details when you're just handling your rig, wouldn't it be nice to be able to spot something unusual and not have to rely on someone else? Wouldn't it be nice to know if you know all there is, or if you're as ignorant as the day you started? Wouldn't it be wise to raise the ante a bit? Get in the game? A recent incident came to me that emphasizes the need to familiarize ourselves with more of the sport's details because it's more often the case that we are the only ones who can give our gear a thorough going over.
Here's an email I got from someone whose intelligence I respect. This person is not stupid by a long shot. But there's intelligence, and there's having the knowledge. Read on:
"…[My] cut away handle was apparently loosened during freefall and I noticed something flapping against my chest right before pull time. Perked my ears but it was pull time - no real time to investigate. Pulled and instantly heard my main risers release/never slowed down - Looked for cut away handle - gone, went immediately to reserve. Original pull alt at 3K, under reserve at 2.1K. Was a quick one! Anyway, I started thinking - what if the cut away was only partly out - the risers were on by a c-hair and I happily flew the canopy to 200 ft when they released due to a shift in rig! It makes me break out in a sweat to think about it... I go through safety checks all the time, but for whatever reason I was not checking my handles/riser connection after deployment which could have resulted in a really bad situation. Luckily the mal was definitive and I had only one choice to make."
(What's a "c-hair"?)
While a check of the gear upon deployment is a good idea, another good idea is to have done a gear check on the ground. We all relax about the thoroughness of gear check, but I can think of a number of occasions when someone who customarily does just an easy once-over decided to go full tilt and was saved as a result. One time was on borrowed gear with a deadly mal waiting on the as yet uninspected rig.
This is our slow period. Take advantage and ask questions. If you're new to the DZ, new to the sport, have been away for a while, or any combination of these, if you're not sure what "new to the sport" or "been away for a while" might mean, stop by manifest and introduce yourself. We'd like to get to know you and see that you get a fair shake at a safe day with us.
Other than safety, all hell can break loose for all I care. DZ management might have another take on that but this is the S&TA Corner. Let him get his own.
And as always,
Thanks for listening and please, come back in one piece!
Kim Emerson, S&TA