Jumping - From Airplanes To Bandwagons
September 9th, 2007 by Roderick RussellCasey just recently (re)posted his decade-old skydiving video on Maison Bisson, Cliff beautifully chronicled his own first jump at Z-Hills (Skydive City) over on Spiralbound, so I figure, as I was third to jump, it would only be fitting if I were third to post as well. So here you go!
Each of the three videos has its own unique stand-out features – Casey’s, for those who know him, stands out for how young he looks. Cliff of course was the only one lucky enough to do the AFF program for his first jump, so his stands out for the fact that it really was his jump. Mine? The funny hat! Yes, yes… the Jumptown padded helmets look ridiculously funny on everyone, and I’m no exception.
It was my intention, along with Scott (the reason I did the first jump) and Cliff, to enter the AFF program this season and begin working towards our fully solo jumps and licenses. Alas, after a bizarrely distressing month of unfortunate circumstances the plan had to be taken off the table. But it’s on the back burner still simmering, waiting to move to the fore again by next jump season.
With any luck we’ll find ourselves at Jumptown’s AFF Camp – a four day intensive training program that takes you from your Category A skydive through your E-2 jump and into solo jumping – then of course we’ll need to log a minimum of 25 solo jumps in order to begin qualifying for our licenses.
I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here – 100+ jumps at least, I’m sure – but I can’t wait to start freeflying. But, one step at a time…
About Jumptown
Jumptown is a skydiving club and dropzone in Orange, MA (70 miles west of Boston). Not only is it the home of the first commercial skydiving center in the United States, it is also the birthplace of sport skydiving itself and the home base of the Massachusetts Sport Parachute Club (dba Jumptown, actually…)
If you visit Jumptown for a tandem skydive, I’d recommend the jumpmaster that I had in a heartbeat. Ask for Kevin Barrett. He’s a fantastically friendly guy, is exceedingly thorough and even makes a great sightseeing tour guide on your way down. You’ll be in great hands that you can trust (though that’s never a question at Jumptown - everything is top-notch!).
Quick Note About Video Editing
The video above was shot by Ben Lowe of Jumptown and provided to me originally on DVD. Naturally I had to rip it from the disc (also performed minor edits) to get it to YouTube, and if you’re anything like me you may have become irritated at the availability of free (and good) ripping programs for the PC. For this one video rip I used Auto Gordian Knot (AutoGK) and not only was it free, it was dead simple! I’d recommend it. AutoGK ripped it to AVI, I then popped it into Windows Movie Maker (all free, simple and low tech – good for basic things), made my edits and exported the movie.
tags: aff, auto gordian knot, autogk, ben lowe, casey bisson, cliff pearson, dvd ripping, florida, kevin barrett, massachusetts sport parachute club, roderick russell, skydive city, uspa, united states parachute association, vob, vob to avi, windows movie maker, z-hills, zephyrhills, accelerated freefall, freeflying, jumptown, massachusetts, orange, skydive, skydiving, skydiving videos, tandem skydiving
September 10th, 2007 at Sep 10, 07 | 2:13 am
Any chance you’re planning a mid-air escape stunt?
September 10th, 2007 at Sep 10, 07 | 2:41 am
You’ve let the cat out of the bag! ;)
Interested in joining me as the freefall videographer?
Seriously.
September 10th, 2007 at Sep 10, 07 | 1:52 pm
I was interested to see that you had the chance to do some very basic relative work with the camera operator. Many skydivers seem to like the idea of interacting with each other, but like you I find myself drawn to “flying”.
September 10th, 2007 at Sep 10, 07 | 1:53 pm
Anyhow, at least you didn’t look ghostly white like I did. I blame the 2 hours of scary skydiving accidents and mishaps I had to watch before making the jump.
September 11th, 2007 at Sep 11, 07 | 7:08 pm
Cliff my friend, you had every reason to look ghostly white! I loved reading the chronicle that you wrote - I could feel *myself* getting anxious with all of the waiting and waiting on the ground! Besides, I was strapped to someone else who really was in control - the worst that I could have done was accidentally let go of the cord after pulling the chute, and that hardly would have been life threatening. The actual execution of *everything* really was in his hands - and my thinking is this: if I can’t change it, why worry about it! So if something went hideously wrong - well, not a damn thing I could do about it, so I might as well enjoy.
You, on the other hand, were entirely in control of your situation, which meant that the pressure was on *you* and nobody else - I fully anticipate (and hope) that I’ll be as just as ghost white when we start the AFF program again together.