Talking To..........

[geronimo 1]

Talking To..........

Hey - all you jumpers out there - LISTEN UP!

I'm giving you a 'talking to'.

This is not a new-age politically correct 'These are the areas your
performance needs improvement.' talk.

This is the old school 'What the fuck are you doing!' rant.

What the fuck are you doing crashing into the ground!

What the fuck are you doing killing my friends that do everything right!

What the fuck are you doing colliding into each other in freefall or
under canopy!

What the fuck are you doing trying to kill me!

I am tired of reading about people crashing into the ground and into
each other.

Skydiving is risk-taking.
Risk taking consists of three stages:
(1) a learning process,
(2) a skill acquisition stage and
(3) a challenge stage.

A person accumulates information and "know how" about specific tasks,
such as a skydive during the learning process. The knowledge is used to mentally and physically rehearse the planned dive sequence. Additional knowledge is required to react to unplanned events that may occur.

Skills are acquired and mastered by applying the "know how" to simulated or actual dives. A simulated scenario is created when a person is in a hanging harness, and actual skills are learned that should be used again if an actual dive presents a similar situation. Jumpers also simulate body movements for freefall maneuvers during dirt dives and then perform similar motions on a real jump.

Challenge must always be present on a jump. Jumpers may press their
ability to swoop faster. New jumpers may be challenged by simple
maneuvers. More experienced jumpers are challenged by complex maneuvers.

You have to do this in order and you cannot skip stages - if you want to live that is.

Learn how to press your abilities without imposing additional danger on
yourself or others.

Help newer jumpers get to where they want to be in several steps.

Jumpers are not careless. We just bump into problems we may not see in advance. Seek out advanced notice about potential problems. Dedicate yourself to enhancing sport parachuting safety by disseminating information about equipment, environments and human factors.

Blue Skies - Black Death!!!!!!!!!

PS
Take this message personally. Take it to mean you if you are a new kid on a pocket rocket. Take it mean you if you see, but never talk to a new kid on a pocket rocket or on some load over his head. Take it to mean you if you think 'that jumper is too stupid, cocky or arrogant, to listen. Take it to mean you if you have ever fucked up - that should
bring everyone into the fold.

I hope this is the last 'talking to' I have to do.

.......
posted here by request of people that read it on r.s
.......

---
I have a dream that my posts will one day will not be judged by the color of the fonts or settings in a Profile but by the content.
Geronimo_AT_http://ParachuteHistory.com

[Frodo 0]

Hmm... I don't really see the point of posting this.
Tired of reading about people smashing into the ground on landings? Well, can you prevent it by posting this? Do you think those unlucky people are not educated about skydiving, not skillful enough? I think in most instances that ain't the case.

+ Would you achieve much by shouting "What the fuck are yall doing running red lights"? I don't think you would. after all the education, injections of common sense, horrible shows on realityTV, one factor is still left unchanged - the possibility of human error.

[quade 3]

Anybody wanna put their money where their mouths are and chip in to take out an "open letter" one page ad in Parachutist?

Jan -- if you wanna do this, put me down for $20. All we'd need to do is find 40 or so like minded individuals.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[sducoach 0]

If this is Jan she's using an alias. But, I'll match that $20.00.

Blues,

J.E.

James 4:8

[quade 3]

Oh . . . it's definately USPA BOD member Jan Meyer.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Push 0]

You got my 20 bucks.

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

[popeyefireman 0]

I am in like Flint, stick it with a 20 here

"I Yam what I Yam"

I am not afriad to die, only to die without living.

[Zenister 0]

I'm in for 20.

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[Luna 0]

Tell me where to send my $20!

I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

[ickleFish 0]

Could someone explain to a confused person who Jan is? And why she wanted to post something like this?

I'm new.....and British....that explains most things.

[skymama 35]

It's worth a jump to me if we can get even just one person to think more clearly and maybe save a life. Count me in for $20.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[wmw999 2,153]

Jan Meyer is a National Director of the United States Parachute Assn, and she is on the Safety & Training committee of the USPA. She would prefer to have education work for a lot of valid reasons, and is putting her money and her mouth where her opinions are -- always a valid thing.

That said, I'll bid $20.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[squirrel 0]

i think this person is going through the "anger" stage of a shocking event in life. i do believe the next stage is acceptence...

________________________________
Where is Darwin when you need him?

[ickleFish 0]

Quote

Jan Meyer is a National Director of the United States Parachute Assn, and she is on the Safety & Training committee of the USPA. She would prefer to have education work for a lot of valid reasons, and is putting her money and her mouth where her opinions are -- always a valid thing.

Ah OK, thanks.

My post sounds a bit harsh now, didn't mean that... I thought it was someone having at go at us for a dangerous sport.

[chuteless 1]

Sue....With the . ..

Deleted due to personal attacks. No personal attacks even if you consider yourself justified.

[squirrel 0]

"MEEEOOOOOWWWW! HEY! CAT FIGHT OVER HERE!" sorry...Dennis Miller made me say it, and he is only guy that should make a living by ranting.

________________________________
Where is Darwin when you need him?

[billvon 2,435]

>Do you think those unlucky people are not educated about
>skydiving, not skillful enough?

Heck yeah. If they were more skilled they would have been able to pull off the landing and/or not injured anyone else. There are people here who regularly land 3:1 loaded canopies; killing yourself (or someone else) under a 1.7 to 1 is a simple lack of education, skill and wisdom, nothing else.

[happythoughts 0]

Quote

i think this person is going through the "anger" stage of a shocking event in life. i do believe the next stage is acceptence...

Ok. That is what you think. Actually you are not correct though. Jan has been saying this for years. This is nothing new. She posts stuff like this on another newsgroup pretty regularly.

I've been agreeing with her for years. I am all for education. I think she is just the person to do something about it also.

[squirrel 0]

just sound like she was more focused on the anger then the deliverence of a message. i went back and read it again. and, yeah i agree with what she says...but i would like to add what my instructor taught me..."people themselves make the best decesions for themselves...we must not influence them to much." and, i have to say...darwinism is alive...if people would stop trying to be so cool (as in going to a small rig, or swooping, too soon ) and let themselves enjoy the learning process, and the fact that we actually jump out of planes and live, there may be less injury and deaths. ooops, there i go...ranting.

________________________________
Where is Darwin when you need him?

[happythoughts 0]

Quote

if people would stop trying to be so cool (as in going to a small rig, or swooping, too soon ) and let themselves enjoy the learning process

That is the concern of a lot of people. I don't think that I am a great canopy pilot. I have attended a number of canopy seminars. I guess the problem comes when I see people with less skill than myself doing things that are beyond their skill level.

Some warning signs that I have seen in the last two months.

1-A person landing in the swoop pond on two consecutive days.
2-A person butt sliding in after a hook because they were too low.
3-A person with their toggles buried in the corner while trying to save their butt and barely doing it.

You only get to make those mistakes a limited number of times. Education is the only cure that I know of.

[bunge 0]

Quade, count me in for 20, LTdiver knows how to get in touch with me if it happens..

BUNGE

I don't hate them, I just like us better.

[mjosparky 3]

Paul,
Put me down for $20, I find you this week end and give it to you, or Jan if I see her.
Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[geronimo 1]

Quote

Quote

i think this person is going through the "anger" stage of a shocking event in life. i do believe the next stage is acceptence...

Ok. That is what you think. Actually you are not correct though. Jan has been saying this for years. This is nothing new. She posts stuff like this on another newsgroup pretty regularly.

I've been agreeing with her for years. I am all for education. I think she is just the person to do something about it also.

Busted once again!
You are right I have been saying this for a long time.
Read http://www.makeithappen.com/spsj/introd.htm
the original, uncut, politically correct version - written in May 1988

As for the leader, it is an old organizer technique when you have a 100-way or so and people keep taking turns doing stupid mistakes. You give the 'Get Mad at Them' leader before saying the some old some old. You use it when people are just not concentrating & fly below what you know they can do. The leader I used here is a bit more extreme, but is based on a LOT of comments I get from LOTS of jumpers.

As for getting Parachutist to print it - good luck there. The f word word has to be replaced. Long time ago Parachutist used to have editorials that vividly described fatalities. That has long ago disappeared because we are trying to be mainstream.

Truffer might print it, but the last time he printed one of my letters he edited it so much that he completely changed the meaning. You'd have to get him to agree to no edits.

I apologize to Bill Cole and anyone else that may have been offended by my 'French'.

Mike - I'd use the $20 for a jump. ;)


-------

---
I have a dream that my posts will one day will not be judged by the color of the fonts or settings in a Profile but by the content.
Geronimo_AT_http://ParachuteHistory.com

[quade 3]

Does that mean I have your permission to;

Make slight modifications in order to pass "censors" and make it publishable as long as I don't change the basic meaning?

AND

Your permission to try to get it published either as an actual letter to the editor or as a last resort an open letter ad?

My plan, in the last case, would be to include the names of all of the folks that would donate to make that happen -- yours first, of course.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Jessica 0]

Put me in for $20 too. She's RIGHT. My whuffo friends are now telling me "Don't let anyone run into your parachute from behind." They're reading these stories without my telling them.

Skydiving is for cool people only