Well if you’re looking at this site, we’ve probably met. Also, you may be fairly amused by the few blog entries of a fairly young jumper. There’s also a handful of things about the “amped” in “Amped Skydiving.”

I lost my right leg below the knee in 2005(?) No, I don’t really remember the exact date, because it’s not really all that important to me. I was about 30 when it happened. I’d tell you how I lost it, but that would take fun out of making up stories when you ask me at the DZ.

Skydiving

I started skydiving in 2009, well after my amputation. So I have never jumped with two legs. I’ve only lost my leg in free fall once (technically it was on deployment.) We managed to find it in a close-by neighborhood. If you’ve ever looked for a cutaway main, or free-bag, you know how remarkable that is!

As of this writing I’ve done just over 2,900 jumps. They’ve been a variety of formation, coach, AFF, CReW, and camera jumps. I freefly a little, and go on the occasional movement jump. I have a good number of night jumps, a few balloon, and helicopter jumps as well. All fun stuff!

Coach Examiner

Covid really screwed a lot of things up for people. Among those things were people’s instructional ratings. To make things worse, there were not that many USPA Examiners really handy in Eastern New England. While I had been an evaluator for many coach candidates earning their first instructional rating, I couldn’t do anything to help them get those expired ratings back. So I decided to become a Coach Examiner to help out with that issue. After all, how hard could that be?

Hard.

It took a couple years of working with some really great mentors, a bunch of jumps, and countless hours of classroom time. In 2023 I finally earned my CE Rating. It was way more work than I expected, but I feel that I’m a better skydiver, and better instructor because of it.

Coach Courses

I love teaching, and I hate bad teaching. One of things that I enjoy the most about coach courses is that they are actually courses that teach people how to teach, not just what to teach. It’s interesting, challenging, and rewarding.

I give 1-2 Coach courses per year, and help out with others when I can.

That’s all I’ve got for the moment. Maybe we’ll see each other around the DZ somtime!