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My first jump from a plane was in 2003 with the University of Portsmouth Skydiving Club. I completed 4 static line jumps in total that year but on the last, hurt my ankle quite badly and decided to stop for a while… 2 Years later (2005) I decided that I was going to do AFF in the UK and booked it. I managed to get to level 6 but was made to feel that I wasn’t good enough to be a skydiver as I could not seem to get the whole turning thing so, I basically gave up.

This was exactly 1 year ago. A couple of months ago I decided to myself that I was good enough to be a skydiver but just wasn’t given the support that I needed, so I called David at the FFU and booked a course for July. As soon as I booked it, I also booked 40 minutes in Milton Keynes wind tunnel to make sure that I had a good preparation for the course (purely because last year I was a very slow learner and I had to repeat quite a few levels). After 40 minutes in the wind tunnel I knew there and then that I was good enough to be a skydiver. Exactly one week later, I would be in Spain jumping for real!

Finally, the day came – 8th July 2006! I was up at 2am to get to the airport for my flight at 6am. I was greeted at Madrid airport by the lovely Aimee who drove me straight to the DZ. Once there, I immediately met my instructor, Luci. We started ground school straight away without hesitation. I completed my 1st jump at around 8pm the very same day. After knowing how bad I was last year, it was understandable that I had a few nerves before getting into the plane. On my previous AFF attempt, my nerves whilst in the plane and climbing to altitude were always completely shot and would feel physically sick. This time however, it was totally different. As soon as I got on the plane and we took off, my nerves just disappeared and I felt an overwhelming sense of euphoria flow through my entire body. I couldn’t believe it – Surely I couldn’t be excited when all previous attempts left me with a feeling of dread? Surely not? But I was, I was excited! My heart was obviously pounding quite fast but it was a nice feeling. This confidence, I believe came from a mixture of 2 sources. Firstly; the time in the wind tunnel made me completely believe that I was able to stay stable and turn when I wanted i.e. I COULD skydive!! – Second; Luci, my instructor, never at any point made me feel inadequate and was always very positive about my progression. I managed to complete the course in less than 2 days which, in my opinion is a complete credit to Luci.

By the end of the week I had managed to complete 25 skydives, including 1 Formation Skydiving (FS) coaching jump with Luci. Thank you so much Luci, you really are a star! Credit must also go to all of the instructors that were present at the time including Paula, Ulli, Tim, Pedro and Carlos. All of which gave me fantastic advice. I will be back for some more Ocana action in September/October to finish of my FS1 course with Luci. I am now totally hooked and I know that skydiving will now be a very large part in my life for a very long time to come!! Thank you everyone for a wonderful andmemorable time. It really was the best week of my life!!

Link to Mikeys AFF Course Skydiving video . This was made by Mikey from footage on his AFF DVD which is standard in our AFF courses.

I watched the red devils when I was a little boy and had the bug. I started in the raps system in the UK and due to the good old british weather only managed to get to 10 second delays before having enough and giving up. AFF in the UK was very expensive so i chose the FFU in Spain to have a holiday at the same time. Everyone here makes you feel like part of the family. Tim my instructor was fantastic, give him a pay rise. I had an amazing time and my best jump was level seven. The dropzone is massive and overall nothing could have been improved. Take my advice and book today without delay and remember ” Relax ” .

Having completed an AFF course in Cypress some years back in 1991 , I let life side track me. I then did a tandem a month ago and it reminded me of what i was missing and now here I am. I thought the setp was good with a friendly atmosphere. All aspects from a customer service point of view were covered..transport, hotel etc. Coming here was no hassle. I was very impressed with the relaxed but professional instruction method. Overall the course for me was very good, with the level 6 bing the best.

As I have already said the whole experience has been great. I obviously still have a lot to learn about the sport but at this stage things have been going well. From my prior experience of dropzones , this has been the best to date.

This was for me an Excellent course and a great place to skydive. Everybody just gels there. I worked with Paula and Ulli (instructors) and found them great to learn with. If you want to do an AFF course then do it at Freefall University, you won’t go wrong. A big “irish” cheers to everyone I met and made friends with. See you soon.

I did the skydiving course because I dont want to have any regrets when im old. THe dropzone had a great mix of professionalism and a nice relaxed atmosphere. IT was nice to have the swimming pool and the restaraunt together. The hard part about skydiving is deciding to come and making the decision to do the first jump. Its easy though after that ..maybe the excellent instructors?? Soon they are not your instructors , they are your good friends.. everybody is really friendly. Maybe thats why almost everybody here returns to jump again and again….

One thing you will never learn is to be as cool as Ulli , Paula , Pedro and the rest of the staff.. they are ace.. The best jumps for me were my first solo., first jump when my instructor didnt hold me and my first unstable …lots of best jumps !!

The Freefall University in Spain, it was a great idea to get our AFF there. I was qualified in two days , which was very good. The instructors at the University are well experienced, friendly and good to have a laugh with. I am sure I will be coming back to the Freefall University over and over again. Thanks for the fun.

To anyone who, like I was, is currently trying but failing to progress though RAPS, I would hightly recommend AFF and the Freefall University. The cost of the course is very reasonable and when you consider that you got your own personal instructor its actually really good value. This allows the instructor to concentrate on your own specific challenges and potential problems with progession. My instructor Ulli really put me at ease and, as a result, this improved my self-confidence and ability to relax in freefall.

Ultimately, coming to the FFU as someone who had previously struggled with RAPS for about 18 months, I flew through the course with no problems in the sapce of 3 days. If I can do it, so could you.

Before coming to the Freefall University I was a bit nervous about the whole thing I’ve done seven static line jumps in the UK but had no freefall experience. The night before I left home I hardly slept a wink but deep down I was still up-for-it even though I was leaving my wife and three children for a week. Once we got staring training I started to relax into it a bit. Levels 1, 2 and 3 were nerve-wracking but Uli and Paula instill a lot of confidence, especially when you see the footage of them letting go for the first time, absolutely awesome!! That’s when I started to think that I really could become a skydiver. LEvels 4, 5, 6 and 7 were when I really started to enjoy it. My most enjoyable jump was Level 7, rolling out a plane at 13000 feet is cool!! The whole experience is awesome. Flying through the air at 110-120 mph, shaking hands with Uli. This is the stuff of dreams! My whole advice to anyone thinking of becoming a skydiver is to go for it! All the staff and instructors are cool and will help with anything. Thanks to all the staff specially to Uli, Paula, Robert (the dodgy dutchy) and everyone else who I met. Hopefully I’ll be back in the summer. That’s if watching the video doesn’t finally convince my wife that I am crazy!! Blue skies

I only had 3 days to spare to do the AFF course and i got it done ! The Freefall University is one of the best Dropzones I’ve seen from profesionalism to cleaninless. The massive landing area is brilliant for those who are learning and everyone was very friendly and glad to give advice for any question we had. The fact we finished our course in one day was amazing and the videos we got at the end were brilliant, Cheers Andy.