Married to the Wind: Making smart choices

An early morning return to Skydive Houston meant that we were ready to jump lots after a miserably cold housebound week, excited at some big way practice (as promised in SDH’s last newsletter). Unfortunately, the coldish temperatures scared the big way organizer off and we were left to our own devices for planning some fun jumps. Not having enough belly jumpers to make anything significant in number, Jason, Jim Culhane, slaDE and myself made 3 RW skydives together.

After my final jump, I was grounded (self-imposed) due to the high winds which were blowing faster beyond my comfort zone. A rough gusty landing was enough to send me scampering for safer ground, ice in hand nursing my booboo. In addition to that, three super bumpy jumps with weirdly sluggish canopy input had me choose the safer option, for me (everybody has there own comfort level. The drop zone relies on each individual skydiver to make informed smart decisions on when to jump or not).

Wind wus I may be, but past experience has taught me valuable lessons on where my comfort zone exists. As the old saying goes: “It’s better to be safely on the ground wishing you were in the air rather than in the air wishing you were safely on the ground”. Darwin’s law will weed out those who make poor choices. And I don’t want to spend another 4 years grounded, nursing another injury (as I have done before).