Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Over Fifty, Not So Nifty

I have fifty one jumps now.  Most of them still look like this:
It's usually my fault.
Of course my inner critic pitches a fit. 
I'm struggling, but I can't take the critic too seriously.   Scolding and name-calling won't make me better.
What is going to help is for me to listen to debriefings as to what went wrong... ...and then get back on that plane to try again.
Recently I was ready to board the plane, eager to redo a botched jump.   Would I get it right this time?
Then I looked toward the landing area.
And saw this:
I'd never seen so many dust devils at one time.  They were having a convention.  Or at least a flash mob.
I really wanted to get back on the plane and retry my fumbled jump...
...but it occurred to me that one of two things could happen.

Either I'd land unscathed (by luck,) and falsely conclude that scary winds were no big deal.
Then there was this possibility:

No thanks!
I scratched, but stuck around long enough to see some other jumpers come down.
That was a bit scary... 
...and a bit unnerving!
It's a good thing I scratched.  Nobody got  hurt, but there were a lot of, ah, unconventional landings...
 
...you know someone's landing went wrong when the kids at the DZ are the first to yell "beer."
I haven't mastered many skills, but at least I'm learning it's a bad idea to practice them when the wind gets weird.