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Recently a young jumper told me something his instructor told him. He said "Never reach up to grab the risers before it sets you up."

So the question is, after you've tossed the pilot chute, do you reach up and wait for the risers, or do you wait until you get set up and then grab?

Are you refering to a skydiving student ?

Given that I'm asking this question in the BASE forum, I'd say no ... the new BASE jumper was taught by a well known BASE instructor. He was telling me a few things he'd learned during his training. It made me curious what others do.

I just had to be sure before i opened my st00pid mouth thats all.

As I've always understood it, being prepared for your risers and the direction your canopy is heading is allright, as long as when you reach for the risers(after pitching), you don't jam your hands into a deploying packjob. What I mean is that, hopefully you are face down in flight and everything is deploying behind you, what good is gonna come from trying to reach behind you and grab things you can't see. After pitching, square up for deployment and be ready for anything. An experienced mentor or qualified instructor could probably better explain this.

I've debated this with other jumpers before, but we haven't reached any sort of consensus.

In my humble opinion and relatively limited BASE experience, reaching for the risers before the canopy sits you up is a bad idea.
My reasons:
1) Poor body position is a major contributing factor to off heading openings, focus on body position until the opening is almost complete. Canopies aren't responsive until they're pressurized anyway.
2) If you reach for your risers and your hands get in the way, you might cause an offheading opening and/or injure your hand.
3) Watching video frame by frame has proven that I can consistently get my hands on the risers or toggles after being sat up, but before the canopy is fully pressurized.

I'm very interested in hearing other lines of reasoning on this!
-Josh

ps:
this really ought to be posted on Blinc as well, but I seem to have trouble posting over there.

Mick: contact me at jwhipple10@attbi.com

I'm guessing that the intent was to have the student continue to concentrate on body position (ie. head high, shoulders level) even after the PC is released and to avoid the possibility of grabbing/snagging a toggle prior to line stretch.

Ever seen someone not accustomed to deploying at low altitudes try to "climb up the risers"??

 Canopies aren't responsive until they're pressurized anyway.

I don't believe this is always true - it would depend on among other things how you packed and for what altitude (or object)... In my opinion, a canopy will certainly still fly (or spin) backwards if you pull down 2 (or 1) toggle during deployment but before pressurization, especially on slider up jumps, which may be important in the case of high E jumps?

If you're talking strictly slider down, I still don't believe you need full pressurization to turn a canopy, it just won't start flying forward as efficiently until it is...

Just my belief...

You know, I was just thinking about this myself the other day. Why do some jumpers reach and others do not.

I do it and didn't realize I was doing it. And then, when I consciously try NOT to do it, I still do. But I find I do do it more from 300' than at say 600'+.
I think it's part of that-- "okay, here comes the ground, and fast... Come on risers, WHERE ARE YOU RISERS... OH SHIT..OH SHIT..anytime now risers....WHEW.. There you are!!" Amazing what can go through your head in one second.

Part of the ground rush effect for me I guess.

I can see where doing so can maybe lead to less than on heading openings from skewed body positions. Not sure though. Will have to do some research on it. NOT.

Rod

(insert your favorite pre-post disclaimer here;i.e."I don't know anything.", "But who am I to say?", "I'm a low timer but...".etc.etc.etc.)

Grabbin' one riser, and missin' the other, could lead to some serious heading issues...
I found myself reaching in the past, but now make an effort to prevent myself from doin' so.
Now I don't grab the risers until I see which way the canopy decided to go. If need be I'll make corrections with the risers. In most cases they're on heading so no "emergency" corrections are needed, so I don't grab anything until I grab the toggles.


base704
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