Learning the different disciplines of free fall is one of the most rewarding parts of the skydiving experience. I did belly flying for the first 50 jumps or so and then started experimenting with free flying. I am young in my journey of skydiving so thought I can share my experience of how I have approached experimenting with the different forms of free fall.
Just learning to sit
I've been jumping less than a year and haven't even hit 150 jumps yet. I don't really work on free flying much. I mainly still belly fly but once and a while, I like to change it up. I've gotten back flying down, but when transitioning to a sit fly, I transition from my belly. Most people have told me that it's easier to transition from back to sit, but do what you're more comfortable with, right?
or wrong
The instructor that has pretty much been by my side since I started only really does belly flying. He does a lot of big way events and world record jumps. I get all my belly training through him. Free flying has been a just do it kind of thing. We jump out of a Cessna here, so sometimes it 2 tandems and one up jumper.
So once and a while, I'll jump on and go solo to work on free flying. When I go into a sit, most of the time I can get it, but it doesn't last very long. I have made the mistake of wearing my RW suit to free fly and well, that doesn't work. I also have the problem of my rig being too big on me, so it isn't tight to my back. So whenever I go into a sit fly, I can hold it for a little bit but then if I even slightly move wrong, my rig catches air and throws me out of it. Kind of a pain in the ass!
I'm working on getting a custom rig made now, I'm just really picky so it's taking a little while. The other day I did a jump with my friend Eric that jumps here at Alaska Skydive Center as well. He is a lot more experienced than me. We went into a sit fly and held it for a minute, but as soon as I started focusing on him, I lost it.
losing it :-(
To me, this is one of those things that you can't be taught. You just have to keep jumping, and slowly learn jump by jump. People can explain stuff on the ground all day long, but when you get in the sky, you're going to react naturally, and that's how you learn. By doing it wrong. Ha ha. I am determined to get it though!
XoXo Kris
Credits: Kristin Little