By Wendy Jones C-42940 Austin, Texas To describe how skydiving changed my life, I’ll begin with why I did it in the first place. In February 2013, I sustained a complete ACL tear and three impaction fractures while practicing my other great passion in life, tae kwon do. The orthopedic surgeon gave two options: 1) have reconstructive surgery including a tissue graft followed by nine months of physical therapy or 2) never do martial art or sports involving legs again. The decision was easy, since a life without recreation is unimaginable to me. However, nine months with no tae kwon do, no gym, no sports, no anything except physical rehab was a bitter pill. By Brian Giboney Legendary aerial cinematographer Tom Sanders, D-6503, has filmed skydiving scenes for dozens of movies, including “Drop Zone,” many James Bond films and the original “Point Break,” which inspired thousands of people to become skydivers. His resume also includes countless TV commercials, the award-winning documentary “Over the Edge” and coordinating filming of the 1988 Olympic Rings skydive.

In 2005, USPA awarded him its Gold Medal for Meritorious Service. He is the 200th person profiled since this column began in February 2000.

Skydivers who enter USPA's instructional rating hierarchy by becoming a coach, instructor or examiner take on immense responsibility. Psp Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2012 Ketteiban Isometric Exercises. But it is the USPA Examiner who assumes the highest responsibility, since he has the sole privilege of teaching and certifying others to be coaches and instructors. An examiner's failure to fully meet his number-one duty—to fully teach and certify a skydive instructor—has a threefold effect: Instructors are inadequately prepared and can't be all they are expected to be. This leads to students who are not thoroughly trained or motivated, which decreases their safety levels and increases the chances that they'll quit out of frustration. And then the sport suffers a decrease in participants and a potential black eye from incidents or accidents that were preventable. A cloudless blue sky enveloped the entire Eastern Seaboard that early Tuesday morning 15 years ago.

Shortly after 9 a.m., it would be scarred by dark, acrid smoke rising from New York City; Arlington, Virginia; and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. A northerly wind blew smoke from the burning Pentagon over the townhouse offices of USPA in nearby Alexandria.

The streets and highways were clogged with federal workers sent home for the day, so USPA staff members stayed in place and tried to work but more often were pulled to the TV news or searched the web for updates. By Matt Hoover D-29246 Milpitas, California Skydive Chicago, Summerfest 2015.

Last day, last jump. Something I'd always worried about finally happened. I had to cut away over a giant cornfield. With only hours of daylight left, I knew the chances of finding my main were slim. Those cornfields are notorious for claiming canopies every summer. Yet somehow, I beat the odds. I found my canopy eight days later while sitting in a chair some 2,000 miles away.

Every year thousands of people of all ages and professions ventured forth into the world of sport parachuting. Many have since embraced it as their favorite sport. Some will go on to become professional competitors and instructors. Others simply found it is a terrific way to spend a weekend. Newcomers to the sport have a lot.

This was the result of perseverance, technology, helpful friends and some luck. Here's how we did it and a loose set of guidelines for jumpers in similar situations.

One of the most important duties of a USPA instructor or rating course examiner is handling the administrative requirements for jumpers’ USPA licenses and ratings. While some do a great job of taking care of their paperwork, USPA is forced to reject a substantial number of license and rating applications because the people responsible for submitting them did something wrong. The end result is often an angry license or rating candidate and a backlog in the processing of all licenses and ratings. Essentially, everyone is paying the price—in the form of delayed applications and a system that is moving much more slowly than it should—for those who are making mistakes.

By Kevin Bukstein  B-38806 Madison, Wisconsin I was three jumps away from getting my A license when I had to leave for college. Seven years later (and many failed promises to get myself licensed), I finally returned to my home DZ, AtmosphAir Skydiving Center in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. When I started skydiving in 2005, I was by no means a featherweight skydiver. Due to my heavyset appearance, I was affectionately nicknamed “Cannonball.” And during my seven-year hiatus from skydiving, I had packed even more weight onto my already stocky 5-foot-7-inch frame. I was pushing 260 pounds when I passed the certification jump for my A license. How many of you have muttered, “Whoa, that was faster than I expected!” (or a more forceful, colorful variation) after blazing in for landing on a hot, humid summer’s day?

Maybe you paused for a moment afterward to ponder why the landing was so much faster than anticipated, or maybe you just shrugged it off and blamed it on a gust of wind and then rushed to pack for the next load. Pondering the “why” is a worthwhile exercise, actually, because although a fast landing can be a rush if you know what you’re doing and are anticipating the speed, unexpectedly landing more quickly than normal can cause a bruised ego, broken bones or worse. And this is especially true for less-experienced skydivers. Did you ever look at a photo of a skydiver passing through a hula-hoop and wonder just how cool it must be to do a hoop dive? The 2009-2010 Skydiver’s Information Manual even had a hoop dive on the cover, so they must be fun and safe, right? Well, they are lots of fun, but in reality, few hoop dives go as designed, so everyone needs to stay heads-up when the original plan falls to pieces. Since most hoop dives end up looking more like Keystone Cops movies than anything resembling skydiving, the jumpers must prepare carefully and have alternate dive plans in place.

With the approaching warmer weather and the start of the skydiving season for a large part of the northern hemisphere, it’s a perfect time for drop zone staff to gather and hold a season-opening staff meeting. One of the tasks USPA requires of each rating holder is to attend a USPA Rating Renewal Seminar annually. The Skydiver’s Information Manual defines the seminar as, “A meeting of USPA instructional rating holders to exchange information, introduce and discuss new ideas, and to develop, improve, or assure the quality of skydiving instruction.”.