So another couple of weeks have gone by and I've still not been back to the dropzone. Life has got in the way and I have many demands on my time, plus it has been cold and wet and windy, and definitely not camping weather. I am not that obsessed by skydiving that I will hang out in freezing cold weather where there's no possibility of going up in the plane, just to talk about jumping, lol.
I will however, head back to the dz this weekend. I have booked myself onto a progression course, so will hopefully pick up some useful information about canopy handling, spotting, JumpMaster duties and maybe even have another go at packing a parachute or two. If there is any jumping (seems highly unlikely given the current weather forecast), I may even be able to put a little of it into practice :-)
I have pretty much resigned myself to some form of recurrency jump schedule next season as the UK season is over for some dropzones already, and will be over within the next few weeks for pretty much all the rest. Having only just got my A licence, my first few jumps next season are likely to be quite unnerving, if I haven't jumped for 3-4 months or more. Having considered going abroad to jump to maintain currency, I rejected the idea for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, if I don't jump in November, I will not be current for jumping anywhere else since I last jumped in September. Assuming I do manage at least one jump over the next few weeks, even if I jump somewhere warm in December, that would still only keep me current until late Feb. Since that is also likely to be extremely poor weather conditions in the UK, there is a very high probability that I would need to do some form of recurrency jumping regardless.
Secondly, I do not want to run the risk of 'wasting' my winter sun holiday on jumping. Without FS1, I cannot jump with anyone who is not an instructor, coach or has at least a C licence so that means either jumping solo, or paying for instruction. Whilst I want to practice my landings so that solo jumping is not such a bad idea, I can see that turning up alone at a strange dz overseas could lead to spending a lot of time on the ground alone as well. Fine if I'm on a secluded beach somewhere; not so fine at a busy dz where everyone else is having a ball. Though perhaps that is just the introvert in me speaking - pretty much every experienced skydiver I've ever met has been very gregarious so maybe I'd be engaged in a social life regardless, lol.
Thirdly, I still don't really know if I want to continue. And that's the biggest question - should I just bow out gracefully now? There are myriad pros and cons to the decision and with everything else that is going on in my life right now, skydiving is a very low priority. So I'm prepared to see what happens at the progression weekend and consider my options after that.
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