leg crushedMore exciting energy, in other words. Dave, my guy today, had me train on "circles" which means we jump out, you go into your arch, and you make a "circle check." Horizon, altimeter, check him giving me an ok on the left, an ok on the right, back up to the horizon, and practice my ripcord pull three times. (When you move your right hand to your hip, you have to move your left hand at the same speed over your head or you'll go into a spin.) Circle again, then enjoy the free fall until 5,500, wave, and pull. Did it all, no prob, he gave me high marks for handling everything "like the book."
We're under canopy and he gets me to put my hands in the canopy rigging to control our descent. COOL. That's pretty awesome - check right to make sure you're not going to hit anyone (because that's the stuff that will kill you) and pull right. Wheee! When it came time to land, there's a process in pulling the cables to your ears, one, to your chest, two, point your toes and pick up your feet and three, jam those cables to your crotch and scoot in, run run run, stop. YAY.
Everything was going PERFECTLY until Dave worried that maybe I wouldn't have the strength to pull the cables hard and down to my crotch so he grabbed them, too, and ended up over-correcting our break, which led to me getting my right knee under us, which crumpled, and he landed on top of me. D'oh! For a frightening split second, I worried that I'd broken my leg. I didn't. I've got ice on it now, and am making myself walk around every 20 minutes to keep it loose. Ooof.
He clearly didn't know I've been P90Xing it and totally had the strength to pull the cables on my own. (I even wore a tank top to show off my bi's and tri's, lol.) He apologized and said he was impressed with how strong I turned out to be. *head desk*
I go back on Sunday for my next lesson, "Leg Awareness." Pfft, one little goof won't deter me. (Dave said that normally when people land bad, they land BAD. He said we just landed awkward. Says the guy who wasn't on his leg... Heh.)
Some of the guys on the plane up with me remembered me from my first jump and were happy to see me back. They were jumping, working on formations, landing and immediately switching their packs with additional ones, jumping right back in the plane and jumping again. (Pro packers take their gear and pack them in between jumps.) They'll probably do 20 - 25 jumps today. Whoa.
