Leaving the USPA

[Cajones 0]

Why are we bringing God into this??? He has better things to do than performing miracles.

The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

[VivaHeadDown 0]

This email you received was bad beacause:

1. Emotion based even if it claims otherwise. He didn't use facts nearly as much as opinion. He based most of his opinion on some problem involving his boogie, but claimed he didn't know all the details and didn't want to know them. How can you come up with a sound reason for an opinion if you only have half the information?

2. It was very short sighted. Since his feelings were hurt, everyone should quit the USPA. And instead of replacing it, he claims nobody realy cares anyway as long as we get to jump. Just how long does anybody expect to jump without some organization protecting us from the FAA, from whuffo lawsuits, and even each other? The rules we follow are there for a reason. They are not all perfect, but that should be no surprise to anybody. Nothing's perfect, or ever will be. If we all quit USPA, that would be the end of skydiving legally. Anarchy does not work.

3. It was unsolicited. We receive an opinion based email from some guy, aimed at Chris Needles, about political issues and how his feelings are hurt because of them. And he doesn't even explain it all. Hmmm, sounds more like a virus email than a responsible one. The only thing he acomplished with this email was to discredit the names he suggested for an organization he claims is worthless. Way to go, you schmuck. Don't let the USPA door hit you on the @$$ on your way out.

[PhreeZone 15]

It sounded like he was trying to stay out of politics between SA and the USPA by not wanting to know the info.

This is'nt the first time I've heard of the USPA chopping things up a lot to be printed. Even the Coach course add that they use with the JM saying how he's getting the rating even thought his buddies think its a waste of time was actually taken from a letter that was denouncing the Coach program and "selectivly edited" so that only the good things were printed. The Richmond boogie artical was altered a lot too from the authors orignal writings, where as the Good time one was chopped up and selectively altered so only certian things were published. They ask for pictures and writings every month, but yet they won't publish things that are submitted.

I think Rusty actually has pretty long term sight... he's been around for a while and thinks the USPA needs some new leadership and direction. His way of making this happen is letting everyone know why he's not renewing and then taking his money else where. If enough people do this, then the USPA will have to change to keep members or they will go bankrupt rapidly. If enough people leave, that allows room for another group to step up and take the members who have left the first one. Look at the groups in Scuba. Once there were more then one... they started working harder and fighting the fights their members wanted fighted so they could keep members. The groups work together on the government issues, but each treats its members differently.

Odds are the email addresses are from his webpage. I never signed up for his stuff... and never got an email.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[kallend 1,623]

Quote

Why are we bringing God into this??? He has better things to do than performing miracles.

Why should an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent God have any difficulty finding time to perform a miracle? That would seem trivial compared with, say, creating the universe in 6 days.

[diverdriver 5]

Using an AAD is still pulling. You gonna require everyone to jump a Cypres then?

The original part of what I was commenting on was that people say we should not have an age limit in the BSRs because there are other inherently dangerous activities that 16 year olds do. My arguement is that skydiving is way more inherently dangerous than driving a car. You are correct about the social acceptance of driving cars as not being inherently dangerous even though it is. I just think we need to take our collective heads back out of the sand because SKYDIVING IS DANGEROUS! (even with a cypres)

I think USPA has every right to put an age limit in the BSRs. Do people jump that are younger than 16? Yep. And most of the ones I've seen are the DZOs kid or a JMs kid. Who are they going to sue? I think they have made a more reasoned decision on letting their child skydive than Joe Schmow off the street who bought their 13 year old a tandem jump. Does it belong in the BSRs? Yah, I think it does. It IS a safety aspect because the general public does not know enough about what skydiving is. They can not make a truly informed decision to let their 14 year old make a tandem or AFF (etc...) jump. There has to be a line and this is where it will be drawn. You don't like it? Then lobby your board members to change it.

You guys can keep arguing semantics all day. I think I'll move on to something else now.

Chris

[billvon 2,396]

>Using an AAD is still pulling. You gonna require everyone to jump a Cypres then?

Nope! And if I was in charge, airbags wouldn't be a legal requirement either.

>My arguement is that skydiving is way more inherently dangerous
>than driving a car.

I agree there, for an experienced jumper vs an experienced driver.

>I think USPA has every right to put an age limit in the BSRs.

If the BSR's were the basic liability regulations I'd agree. And if you made the argument that 15 year olds inherently do not have the ability to skydive safely (which you might, but it would be a tough sell) then I could also see that point. But as things stand now, it is simply not a safety requirement.

>And most of the ones I've seen are the DZOs kid or a JMs kid. Who
> are they going to sue?

That's easy. DZO's kid sues the JM, JM's kid sues the DZO. Ten years ago I would have said "that would never happen" but now skydivers sue other skydivers. Heck, we have a BOD candidate suing USPA!

>It IS a safety aspect because the general public does not know
>enough about what skydiving is. They can not make a truly informed
> decision to let their 14 year old make a tandem or AFF (etc...) jump.

The issue is not informed consent, as that's not a safety issue. If the general public does not know enough about skydiving to decide if their kid can make a jump, they do not know enough about skydiving to decide if _they_ can jump, and that's clearly untrue.

[Antithesis 0]

I did not have my uspa membership at the WFFC this year. I planned on getting it there but they told me that I didn't need it there and that I could save my money for jump tickets!

Then I went to the Richmond boogie where I did buy my membership (I thought at least) It's been like 3 1/2 months since then. I finally called uspa to see WTF is going on. They said that they have never heard of me and it looks like I'm going to have to buy a new membership. F*CK THAT!

I travel the land, Work in the ocean, Play in the sky

[billvon 2,396]

>Then I went to the Richmond boogie where I did buy my membership . . .

Did they cash your check? If not, it might have gotten lost at the boogie.

[Antithesis 0]

I think that it got lost at the boogie... I'm trying to track it down now. I payed cash and the woman I payed walked away to fax it in. My guess is that the fax didn't make it and was some how lost in the atmosphere of running a boogie. I believe that I have little hope of actually getting this one resolved properly... I called the richmond people but haven't heard anything back from them.. So far uspa can do nothing about it. Grrrrrrr

I travel the land, Work in the ocean, Play in the sky