Working on the website has inspired me to try to locate some of my first skydives.  Finding the videos from after I started dating Matt was easy because he has them neatly cataloged and saved on an external hard drive. Unfortunately, trying find earlier stuff has been a challenge! 

In 2004, video and stills meant you left the drop zone with a VHS tape and a roll of film. I have absolutely no idea where my VHS tapes are, and it's been a LONG time since we've owned a VHS player.  I vaguely remember transferring my VHS skydives to a DVD, but over the years I lost track of the DVD. 

When I met Matt, I didn't have very many jumps. On most every jump I did with him, he was wearing a camera. I am very fortunate that most of my skydives are on video.  One year, he gave me a video of my freefly progression.  It's hysterical.  I start out on my back, and there are a number of jumps where I keep corking out.  It's pretty embarrassing to see how bad I was in the beginning! Once you've got a video of you doing something awesome, revisiting the learning process isn't very appealing.

In addition to better skills, the quality of video has significantly improved over the last decade.  The cost for decent cameras had dropped and sharing video has never been easier!  These days, people leave the drop zone with a thumb drive!

After hours of watching an assortment of old videos, I put in one simply titled " Sarah's Jump DVD". We have a WINNER!!!! I was excited because it contained my first tandem & my first AFF jump! Matt and I watched them during lunch today. Hilarious!  Unfortunately, they are an old file extension that my computer doesn't like! Now, I am in the process of trying to extract the video from the DVD.  So far, it isn't going very well, but I was able to get the airplane and freefall portion of my fist tandem!  Yay!

I just started the upload to You Tube.  Yikes!  112 minutes remaining!

After waiting the full 112 minutes, it didn't work!  GRRRRR....now I have to try something else.