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With the increasing popularity of freeflying, I see more and more AFF graduates who want to buy freefly jumpsuits right off student status. I have nothing against freeflying (as I eagerly try to increase my own freefly skills), but I do think it is a bad idea for AFF graduates to jump straight into freeflying without spending 50-100 jumps learning how to do relative work on their belly. I know many skydivers these days eventually choose freeflying as their favorite type of skydiving, but I believe some graduates are missing an important step that I’m sure 99 percent of today’s best freeflyers learned how to do at least decently first, and that’s relative work on their belly. An AFF graduate has a higher opportunity for learning relative work skills on his or her belly due to the lower speeds and increased ease of initial stability. There is also less of a danger of a fatal freefall collision between beginner bellyflyers than beginner freeflyers. The difference in speeds of two beginning bellyflyers is no where near the potential difference in speeds of beginning freeflyers. Even if you have your heart set on freeflying from the get go, bellyflying relative work skills can lead to better freeflying skills. Basic relative work skills of eye contact, smooth docks, fall rate adjustment, center point turns and the like are imperative for relative work whether you are on your belly, your head, standing up or sitting. Bellyflying just allows you to develop some good relative work habits at a slower freefall speed. Also, many AFF graduates fail to recognize the added gear responsibilities for freeflying. Much of the gear manufactured 5 years ago was not made with freeflying in mind. Failing to have your gear inspected by a local rigger to make sure it is freefly friendly can lead to a dangerous situation in the air. I highly recommend buying a RW bellyfly suit first to get used to skydiving on your belly before flipping onto your head. Your overall skills in the long run will be much better.

One of the most basic ways to advertise in the skydiving business is on pull-up cords. Nearly everyone who jumps uses pull-up cords and there always seems to be a shortage of them on any given drop zone. Some skydivers have chosen to use the “power tool” to close their main container, but even most of those people still carry a pull-up cord in their rig or gear bag. A couple of years ago I began using pull-up cords to advertise my business, Chuting Star Rigging Loft, as well as my 4-way team, Mr. Pink. At that time I found one advertisement in the back of a Skydiving Magazine for a company in Washington that printed pull-up cords. With little knowledge of anyone else in the market, I placed several orders with the company, receiving 400 pull-up cords for $300. The quality was great as was the customer service, but at 75 cents a piece, it seemed steep. And even more expensive was an order I placed for 100 pull-up cords for my wedding, which cost $100 or $1 each. I really had nothing to compare it to until I saw another little classified advertisement in the back of Skydiving Magazine. This company claimed it specialized “in small to medium quantities at low prices.” I soon found out the ad wasn’t lying and that I could get 400 pull-up cords for $187 or 47 cents each. I placed an order expecting a lower quality, but instead got an expanded design selection, faster service and a similar quality of cord and printing. The company, Endangered Species, is based out of Colorado and is owned by Neil Shannon Walker. In two weeks, I had 200 Chuting Star Rigging Loft pull-up cords advertising the Rigger “Rant and Rave,” along with 200 Mr. Pink pull-up cords advertising the team’s web site at www.mrpink.tv. Obviously I highly recommend Endangered Species for any advertising you want to do on pull-up cords. The company can be reached by e-mail at pullupcords@yahoo.com and Neil usually returns e-mails within 1-2 days.