- So you're about to get back in the sky
after a long break of jumping,
whether it's because you're only jumping four months a year,
like us in Canada,
or because we just went through a pandemic
that caused many dropzone to stop their activities
and so it might be a while since you've jumped.
When starting to skydive after a break,
there's some elements to take into consideration.
Some of you may even need to do
recurrency jumps with an instructor.
So in this video,
we're gonna talk about the USPAs recommendations
in terms of recurrency jump
and getting back into skydiving after a break.
And we have a special guest with us,
a skydiving instructor to let us know more
about his own take on getting back into the sky
after long break.
Coming up.
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it's Catherine Bernier from Skydive Vibes,
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all about skydiving.
Being a current skydiver really is the key
of being a safe skydiver.
And by current skydiver,
we mean a skydiver that is jumping on the regular basis,
which allows him or her to always be aware
and have fresh memory of the emergency procedures,
techniques and skills for skydiving.
So first let's check,
according to the USPA Skydiver Instruction Manual,
what they are defining as an uncurrent skydiver
and what are their recommendations.
So first, if you are an AFF student
and you don't have your A license just yet,
well, if you didn't jump in the last 30 days,
you are an uncurrent skydiver
and you need to do a recurrency jump.
If you are currently an A licensed skydiver,
well, if you've not been jumping for the last 60 days,
you will have to do a recurrency jump as well.
For the B license holder,
we are talking about 90 days
and for the C and D license holders,
we are talking about 180 days without jumping.
So if you're exceeding that number of days without jumping,
depending on your license level,
you will have to do some sort of a recurrency jump
with an instructor or a coach.
You may want to check with your Skydiving Association
because those recommendations may be different,
but keep in mind that for the USPA,
those are recommendations and not rules.
So it's not mandatory, but highly recommended.
So now that we know what is an uncurrent skydiver,
depending on their license level,
let's talk to our guest who is,
DJ Marvin from The Rating Center.
Hey DJ, how are you doing?
- I'm doing great.
I'm super excited to be here and join you
and the Skydive Vibe community.
- I'm so pumped to have you here on the show
at Skydive Vibes,
super excited to have your knowledge with us here.
First of all,
can you simply introduce yourself to the sky vibers?
- Yeah, my name is DJ Marvin.
I own and operate The Rating Center,
a full-time rating school,
where we train instructors and coaches.
We're based out of Skydive Spaceland-Houston,
Spaceland Dallas and Spaceland San Marcos.
I also am an instructor,
I've been a skydiver instructor since 2002
and have about 8,500 skydives.
- And I think that you're not only an instructor,
but also an examiner, right?
- Yeah, I'm an examiner.
I'm an AFF examiner, coach examiner, Tandem examiner.
- Great.
And for those of you who don't know what is an examiner,
the examiners are actually training the coaches
and the instructors, so that's pretty neat.
So like I just said,
I went over the recommendations of the USPA
in terms of what is an uncurrent skydiver,
depending on the license level you're at.
Since those are recommendations,
I'd like to know what is your take on those.
Do you agree?
Do you think it makes sense?
- My recommendations match what USPA's recommendations are.
If you're a student jumper,
if you haven't jumped in 30 days,
you should go back and do recurrency training.
You should get with an instructor
and make sure that information is fresh in your brain,
before you make a skydive.
For an A license holder, I agree with a 60 day number.
After skydiving for 23 years,
I have seen how quickly we lose that information.
And I think is very valid and very helpful for us
to feel comfortable, not just safe in the sky by doing so.
At 90 days, I have gone 90 days without skydiving,
with 8,000 skydives and I still did a recurrency jump,
even though my license requires 180 days
and it just helped me feel comfortable.
I think I would have been safe,
I think I would have been okay,
but comfort and confidence makes a huge difference
and our ability to perform safely in the sky.
So I went out with a buddy who was an instructor,
we did a check dive,
we made it kind of a joke and we made it fun,
but that fun made me comfortable
and allowed me to have a good time
and enjoy my first skydive back after a break.
- All right, so that's good to know.
And what is actually a recurrency jump?
What do you do in those jumps
and who should you jump with to make your recurrency jump?
- USPA has different recommendations
for different levels of licensing.
Of course, if you're a student,
you recurrency jump must be done
with an instructional rating holder.
That means either with a coach or an instructor.
If you have a license,
you need to do your recurrency jump
under the supervision of a coach.
Although the industry as a,
common standard will make different recommendations.
Myself, Skydive Spaceland and other organizations
will recommend that if you have an A license,
that means you can go 60 days without a jump,
you jump with a coach.
If you go more than 90 days,
that's what it takes for a B license holder.
They recommended an A license holder use an instructor.
So basically if you're one level
on current higher than you are, use an instructor,
it's smarter.
I've seen jumpers on a skydive,
who've actually used that instructor
and needed that instructor skill-set to be there,
to help them out.
And of course the knowledge base before training
is gonna be stronger and help you feel more comfortable
and confident.
As far as the skydive itself goes,
USPA requires for an A license holder,
proving stability on all accesses.
So an A license check dive does that the easiest way.
It's an undocked exit, you do a figure-8,
which is just a left 360, right 360, a back loop.
The instructor or coach move back about 20 feet,
you move forward a dock.
So you prove that you're able to control yourself
on all accesses and that you can perform safely
within a group.
And of course, get away from the group, track away,
open safely, fly a predictable pattern and land safely.
For an A license they're very prescribed,
for B C and D they say,
"Prove the ability that your license requires."
I'm paraphrasing there.
For the most part,
we still use that A license check dive for
B, C, and D license holders.
And for any license, I always plan points after.
Whether you have just an A license,
most people can do some simple side bodies
or compressed accordions afterwards.
If it's a D license holder buddy,
then I might take it to the next level.
- Very interesting.
And on the more general level,
I wanted to know what are your recommendations?
Not only on the...
The recurrency jump aspect of things,
but more about every skydiver that are about to jump
after a break, what should we consider?
What should we practice?
What should we consider in terms of our gear as well?
What are your personal advice or tips you can give?
- The first thing I would recommend is,
get into your emergency procedures.
That is the part that scares most of us,
that is the part that gives us most concern.
The Australian Parachute Federation or the APF
has some really great videos out there on malfunctions
and what to do in those cases.
USPA Skydiver Information Manual, Section 5-1
has some great things on emergency procedure review
and hopefully your student manual from your dropzone
will also give you good information.
I would definitely start there.
If you have your rig at home, if you do own your own rig,
put your rig on, tying it down,
put the handles where they belong
and go through your series of practice handle touches.
Reach back and touch your main handle,
as if you were deploying your parachute.
Lay down, your rig that you differently
when you're in free fall,
than it does when you're standing up.
While you're laying there on your couch, on your floor,
reach back, touch a handle a few times
and actually grab it as if your life depended on it.
Stand up and look at your emergency handles.
Grab your emergency handles and simulate Pilling
and cutting away and pulling your reserve.
Go through those motions.
Get on Google Earth, as skydivers,
we can't help but think about skydiving everyday, all day.
Don't tell your boss I said this,
but chances are you're sitting at your desk at work,
watching Skydive Vibe right now
and you should probably be working.
Shh, we won't tell anybody.
But get Google Earth and look at the aerial photo
of your dropzone
and see what you think your pattern would be.
Look up what the winds are that day.
Hopefully your dropzone has a wind meter available online.
If not, there are plenty of resources.
And then predict what your pattern's gonna be.
This way, when you show up to the dropzone,
you know your emergency procedures,
you know your equipment, you know your pattern
or at least an idea of what it could be that day
and your confidence will be much better.
Your chances of success and enjoy enjoyment,
is gonna be there as well.
- Woa, those are really interesting
and definitely worth doing, so make sure guys,
if you're about to jump after a break
or just if you're starting a new skydiving season,
just like us in Canada.
We actually spend up to six months
without jumping here in Canada every year.
So those tips are really interesting,
even for us, even in a situation
where there's no such thing as a pandemic.
Thank you so much DJ for sharing all that knowledge with us.
- Catherine, thank you so much for having me.
Skydive Vibers out there, you guys keep rocking,
keep skydiving, stay current.
And we hope to see you back in the sky.
- And guys, if you wanna check The Rating Center,
simply look into description of this video.
There's gonna be a link to their website and what they do.
If you wanna be a coach or an instructor one day,
they might be worth checking out.
So I hope you've liked this video.
If you wanna watch other videos from Skydive Vibes,
you can simply click here and make sure to Subscribe,
not to miss our weekly videos, all about skydiving.
On that, keep jumping, stay safe and blue skies.
("Future Vibes")