Me, Backwards

… I worked my ass off, learned a lot, and ended the weekend exhausted, sore, and happy.

This weekend was the first training weekend for my 8-way team - Perris Blue Ice.  I’m one of four new members this year, who joined with the four returning members (including our player-coach).  Our first weekend was in the wind tunnel in Raeford, North Carolina.

You may wonder why a California-based team (with two wind tunnels in the state and another just over the border in Arizona) would go all the way to North Carolina for wind tunnel training. Well, it’s true what they say - size matters.  The tunnels in California are both 12-foot (diameter) tunnels; the one in Arizona is 14 feet; Raeford’s is a whopping 16 feet.  Which means that an entire 8-way team can train together.  Some of the formations aren’t quite the right shape for a round tunnel, but the vast majority can be trained in the tube.

Paraclete XP Wind Tunnel

This video shows an 8-way team training in the tunnel.  That’s what we did all weekend.  Well, we’re not nearly as good as that team, but that’s the general idea.

Got up super-early on Thursday morning and Sean was kind enough to drop me off at SFO for my flight to Raleigh-Durham.  Connected through Chicago and was into RDU by late afternoon.  Met up with my old friend Brent for dinner (mmm Carolina BBQ!) and his wife joined us afterwards for coffee.  Really nice to catch up with them - I’d last seen them when I was in town for my 10th reunion 3 years ago.

Picked up one of my teammates at the airport and got down to Raeford quite late in the evening.  I dropped him off at his hotel and made my way to the dropzone (about 5 miles from the tunnel) where I was staying with my friend Steve who lives on the DZ.  He’d made up the extra bed in his trailer for me, and I settled in for a few hours of sleep before getting up to meet the team at 8:30.

The team, though Perris-based, hails from all over - two from Florida, one from Vancouver, one from Uruguay, and one from Alaska, in addition to two from Southern California, and me from Northern California.  We did introductions and began prepping for our first session.  Having never done “official” 8-way before, I needed to take what I’d read in books and put it into practice.  Easier said than done for someone who does not have a “3-D mind.”

But, all things considered, I think I did pretty well.  My biggest fear (largely unfounded, I think, given that the teams were put together with full knowledge of everyone’s skill and background) was that others would be flying circles around me.  I think I hung in there just fine.  We all made mistakes, and I certainly made my fair share, but I also tried to learn and listen, and I definitely showed improvement from session to session and over the course of the weekend.

We did more tunnel time in 3 days than I’ve ever done - I think my max was about 45 minutes in a day, and we did 4 hours total (1 1/2 hours each day Friday and Saturday, and 1 hour today).  I was so tired after session 3 on Friday I was a bit worried about making it through the weekend but as I relaxed and got into it I think I was able to fly more efficiently.

Dinner Friday was with the team - nice to spend some time and get to know everyone.  Crashed pretty early on Friday night in anticipation of an early start on Saturday.  Three more 30-minute sessions on Saturday, and we were done by mid-afternoon.  After agreeing to meet the team back in Fayetteville for a later dinner, I went back to the DZ thinking I’d shower and drive back to Fayetteville (a 20-30 minute drive).  After immediately running into some old friends and joining them for a couple of beers, I threw the “go to dinner” plan out the window and settled in for a couple more beers at the DZ.  Finished up the drinking early (another early day today) and got an okay night’s sleep and back to the tunnel at 7 this morning.  We had a long break between our two sessions today, finishing up at around 3:00.  I drove a couple teammates back to RDU, then settled in at my cheap motel down the road for a quick night’s sleep before an early flight home tomorrow.  Fortunately, I’m flying back into Oakland which’ll make it much quicker to get home.

All in all, I’m happy with my performance and progress this weekend.  There’s a lot to pick apart still, but I can see improvement and I think I learned a lot, so really, that’s all I can ask of myself.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 5:02 pm and is filed under Skydiving, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.