Downwinders with rollerblades

[drewcarp 0]

Anybody landed with rollerblades? Maybe some fast downwinders on the runway (only at a busy airport of course) or grass landings on those blades with the big off road wheels? Was also thinking you could do some sweet in town ground launching with some blades... and of course look sweet doing it...

Anybody got video / a story / warnings / thoughts / wanna give it a go?

[AggieDave 6]

Get your hands on a copy of Swoop 2. Before the last evolution of swooping freestyle folks were doing some goofy things. Including getting some points at The Ranch with a pair of rollerblades.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Calvin19 0]

If you find an area with a steep enough and long enough smooth surface I will launch it on lameblades.

[airtwardo 6]

d00d keep up, skates are SO 1980's...I know guys B.A.S.E. jumping with a pogo stick.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[jakee 1,257]

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If you find an area with a steep enough and long enough smooth surface I will launch it on lameblades.

San Fransisco.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[champu 1]

Too many overhead wires for the electric buses.

[davelepka 4]

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Anybody got video / a story / warnings / thoughts / wanna give it a go?

A story - a guy did this once out of the back of a Casa. Rolled right out the back. Broke one or both ankles on landing.

It can be done, but only if you're very good at whatever you're trying to do before you try it with rollerblades. Already a pro level swooper? By all means try a downwinder with wheels. Think wheels will replace the skill you need to do a downwinder? Think again.

[Airman1270 0]

I remember a photo in one of the "Skies Call" books of a guy exiting a small plane w/skates on.

Sounds like an almost certain broken ankle to me. How many people who might want to jump will decide not to after they see you on crutches and learn that you were injured while "skydiving?"

Cheers,
Jon S.
(Broke ankle on first jump. No skates were involved.)

[ibx 2]

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Sounds like an almost certain broken ankle to me. How many people who might want to jump will decide not to after they see you on crutches and learn that you were injured while "skydiving?"

If that deters them, they have the wrong attitude to begin with ;-)

[dragon2 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXYqmTkA5XI

@ 4:14 there's some skating

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[Ron 7]

saw a guy try this.... He ended up ripping his container apart on the tarmac after he fell.

One thing to consider (and he didn't) was that once you land, the canopy will have drag and may pull you backwards.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[jtnesbitt 0]

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d00d keep up, skates are SO 1980's...I know guys B.A.S.E. jumping with a pogo stick.

Even thats outdated, this past year base exits on a unicycle is all the rage :P

"If this post needs to be moderated I would prefer it to be completly removed and not edited and butchered into a disney movie" - DorkZone Hero

[skybytch 259]

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How many people who might want to jump will decide not to after they see you on crutches and learn that you were injured while "skydiving?"

That's why you never say you were injured while skydiving. You say you were injured while landing. The looks you'll get are priceless.

Besides, who, other than the dzo, tandem ride operator and USPA, really cares if they decide to do a tandem ride or not?

[hookitt 0]

Yep. Plenty of suggestions.

1 Be very good at skating. Not kinda ok at it, be excellent at it. Suddenly being on skates at high speeds without the skill to do it, is pretty dumb. It becomes apparent, very quickly, that owning good skate skills is necessary.

2. Be proficient at landing parachutes anywhere anytime.

3. Be prepared to abort and just land on the designated landing zone or somewhere else safe.

4. Wear good body armor.
- Knee pads, with plastic caps
- Elbow pads, also with plastic caps
- GOOD wrist guards, with big plastic splints in them in case you need to skid on them.
- Good helmet,
- A spine guard wouldn't hurt either.
- heel stops on the skates.

Don't downwind it. When you land, you must land evenly balanced and prepared to skate without the aid of the canopy. A person tends to rely on the canopy to hold them up, so the chances of falling on your ass is quite high.


If you want it to look good, you have to be good at both parachute landing and skating. Anyone can set a canopy down somewhere and land on blades. Doing it with style is not something you will do with low jump numbers and limited skating ability.

Doing it with some style also means you did it in control. If you commit to it, you'd better be ready for it. If you must abort, then make that decision at an altitude that allows you outs.

Good luck. Have fun, don't die

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[headoverheels 291]

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d00d keep up, skates are SO 1980's...I know guys B.A.S.E. jumping with a pogo stick.

Even thats outdated, this past year base exits on a unicycle is all the rage :P

Boenish was doing both (pogo, unicycle) off of El Cap in the 70's.

[robinheid 0]

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Anybody landed with rollerblades? Maybe some fast downwinders on the runway (only at a busy airport of course) or grass landings on those blades with the big off road wheels? Was also thinking you could do some sweet in town ground launching with some blades... and of course look sweet doing it...

Anybody got video / a story / warnings / thoughts / wanna give it a go?

I did it numerous times during the early 1990s on a Sabre 135. I was a very good blader but just learning to swoop so it was interesting, to say the least.

mike mcgowan filmed me on many of the jumps, then quit because "now that you've learned how to do it, it's not worth filming any more."

Naturally, next jump i smoked it into the loading ramp at eloy and careened into the fuel tank barrier -POW!

no injury but great video on my handheld held by someone else -- mike was pissed he missed The Big One!

bottom line:

as others have said, start with very good skating skills, wear a lot of armor (and your leg straps inside the protective pants if you don't want to buy a new harness), land downwind on a long run way, and... most important, stop flying and start skating a few feet off the ground.

and DO start on grass just to get a bit of a feel for it, but beware that grass'll keep you from rolling, so you'll face-plant if you're flying too fast.

conceptualize it in terms of skating fast straight off a 2-4-foot-high ledge onto pavement.

let up on the toggles so you pitch forward (to what would be a bloody face plant without skates) so that your CG is right, stick the landing then go to your front risers to keep the canopy penetrating the wind.

nothing to it.

SCR-6933 / SCS-3463 / D-5533 / BASE 44 / CCS-37 / 82d Airborne (Ret.)

"The beginning of wisdom is to first call things by their right names."

[mjosparky 3]

Dress up like this guy and no problem.

Sparky

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXWK8FE5kuw

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[ataltitude 0]

If you do it please make sure you get video of it

[93zx11 0]

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d00d keep up, skates are SO 1980's...I know guys B.A.S.E. jumping with a pogo stick.

Even thats outdated, this past year base exits on a unicycle is all the rage :P

That is so 2009.

We do BASE tandems hog tied to panda bears now.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/only-way-base-jumper-can-get-thrill-these-days-is,18082/

[mjosparky 3]

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d00d keep up, skates are SO 1980's...I know guys B.A.S.E. jumping with a pogo stick.

Even thats outdated, this past year base exits on a unicycle is all the rage :P

That is so 2009.

We do BASE tandems hog tied to panda bears now.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/only-way-base-jumper-can-get-thrill-these-days-is,18082/

You da man.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[happythoughts 0]

It was done at WFFC in the late 90s.
Three guys exited together with rollerblades on.

I'm not going to hunt through which one, but someone
will know. It is on the convention video for that year.

[hookitt 0]

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It was done at WFFC in the late 90s.
Three guys exited together with rollerblades on.

I'm not going to hunt through which one, but someone
will know. It is on the convention video for that year.

Was that the Nobs?

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I did it in Hollister in 93 or 94. My landing was spectacular. Not graceful but I pulled it off.

I messed up by failing to realize the wind had come up from 1 to over 20 and it was cross wind to the road I was to be landing on.

Hollisters landing zone is miles away from the airport so it wasn't a matter of just looking outside.

I failed to recognize how badly I was fighting to stay over the road. I finally bailed by turning left to land in the regular landing zone. I was too low to finish my turn so to unfuck myself, I turned slightly right and aimed it straight down the uneven dirt path.

It ended up being a Downwinder out of a 180 turn on a Johnathon 136 onto an uneven dirt path. I stood it up some how.

I crouched, leaned back and tried to slide on the wrist guards but that just flared the parachute so I kept rolling. My hands did briefly touch the ground but I just stood up.

To top it off, the guy who took me on my first AFF jump landed right next to me going backward.

THAT's why I say wear body armor, be good at skating and don't fixate on the task. If you need to abort, do it at a reasonable altitude.

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[jono 0]

I remember seeing a video of a guy rollerblading off the top of the cabin between the two vertical stabilizers in the pink skyvan. Very cool but not sure if he looked as cool landing though.

Remember you don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing.