CSS anyone 2??

[Marion 0]

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He's such a good coach in so many ways.

Does he do hula hoop coaching? I need some help with that.

I did a really fun jump with Todd this weekend too. I learned that when I'm flying head up and taking docks in front of me, I'm very right handed. I just about had to pull my left arm over with my right. Can't wait to try some two handed stuff, but I think I need to smooth out the left handed docks before I do that.

Dave- I'm sorry for whatever bad thoughts I must have been unconsciously thinking about your mom. That's the only explanation I've got for why I'm the only one out of the whole Otter load who got sprayed with Jet A. On the plus side, I was planning on taking my rsl off soon for camera stuff, and the container could use a bath anyway...

[eUrNiCc 0]

^Amen, there were lots of fun jumps this weekend. For the first time in a while the FreeFliers vastly outnumbered the belly fliers . Thanks to everyone for showing up and breaking in the new SuperDuper Otter. Also, much thanks to Joey for the jumps and coaching! You rock!

!CLICKY CLICKY CLICKY! This week's pictures feature Joey, the Dawns, Yhevgeniy, Marion, Joe, David, Todd, Szabi, & Doug. Enjoy

Egad, A BASE life defiles a bad age.

[Marion 0]

Shouldn't you be studying for your final or something?

Joe- I'll be there Tuesday. I'll bring dessert and dip for chips and burgers (same as last time).

[Guido 0]

Let me know what you need brought, and if it is mentioned somewhere before if you wouldn't mind reposting directions. What time to be there? I'm off so can be there any time.

~How do you know where the line is
if you never crossed it?~ unk.

[Marion 0]

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and if it is mentioned somewhere before if you wouldn't mind reposting directions.

Check Joe's post on page 15. Not sure what else needs to be brought...Joe?

[mattlyle 0]

Since you live all of like a mile away, I'll be there. What's needed?

[eUrNiCc 0]

Woohoooo! I just finished my last exam and summer has officially started! YAY!

I'll see everybody at Joe & David's tomorrow!

Ohh, & here's my pick for video of the week:
Slaton swooping the new Icarus JVX... WOW (note the lack of stabilizers)

Egad, A BASE life defiles a bad age.

[MWGemini 0]

Nice pictures, Eric.

Joe- won't be there tomorrow. We've got the house inspection tomorrow and I've really gotta work on the wedding video that I've been putting off forever.

Marion- What's the story with the Jet A incident?

Does anyone have any experience with Flite Suit freefly suits? There are two being advertised that I may purchase. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/detail_page.cgi?ID=21332&d=1

Also, I'm trying to put together some new music CDs for the tandem videos. Does anyone have any suggestions? I've searched all the threads here and have a lot of the "usual" ones, but I'm also looking for some less common but still applicable songs.


Thanks,

Mike

[Guido 0]

Marion, 10 Q for the directions I knew they were buried in here somewhere.

We can work out what needs to be brought when I get there if I don't hear anything first, I'm sure Durham has a store somewhere.

~How do you know where the line is
if you never crossed it?~ unk.

[hajnalka 0]

I'll be there, with a cooler full o' this & that.

Turns out I have a busy Tues - phone conferences & meetings with mortgage loan officers, lawyers, etc. Plus I have to make some rigging supply runs.

Best case, I'll make a big batch of cucumber/mint/tomato salad, marinate some pork tenderloins, and bring some premium alcohol and beer. Worst case I'll just show up with some premium alcohol and beer
Dawn #2 - sorry I forgot the avatar pic AGAIN! I'll try e-mailing it.

-Dawn

[Guido 0]

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Worst case I'll just show up with some premium alcohol and beer

BEST case, you leave with more alcohol in than you came with.

~How do you know where the line is
if you never crossed it?~ unk.

[eUrNiCc 0]

Yay for new houses and dinner parties

Floaty: If you want a hand with the wedding video let me know. I FINALLY have some free time to work on video projects. I think i'm going to keep my computer in the trailer this summer so that I can firewire video straight to it from everyone's cameras and edit in my spare time.

Egad, A BASE life defiles a bad age.

[caseflyer 0]

Joe, what's up. I'll be there too. Don't really know what you need but I'll show up with some stuff unless you tell us specifics. See you guys tomorrow.

Marion--I just thought, I could sew you some grippers and botties on you jump suit with all of the RW you are starting to do (all two jumps)-- thanks againEric--cool pics
Casey

--------------TaiL FocKeR OuT-----------------

[eUrNiCc 0]

See ya tomorrow Casey.

Here's another neat video link. Pay close attention to the insanely low pull at the very end (the slider hits the stops at about rooftop level.)

Egad, A BASE life defiles a bad age.

[Marion 0]

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I could sew you some grippers and botties on you jump suit with all of the RW you are starting to do (all two jumps)-- thanks again

Did you know that I even did that belly flying diving exit thingy when I did a sitfly jump with Dawn2? Grippers and booties- geez Casey, it's not like I'm joining a 4way team.

Floaty- Last load on Sunday, we rode the plane down. Just as I got out the door, some fuel was shot back by the prop. It got on my rig and to be safe, I wanted to take everything out and wash the container. Oh well.

[jkwon 0]

Well I have a lot of food already here I think. But things I don't have are....Non-alcoholic drinks. Tortilla Chips. Regular Chips. Alcohol in copious amounts. More food. Tortillas. I have 4 lbs of FLank steaks marinated right now and dave and cynthia are providing chicken. If someone could bring desert and maybe some tomatoes and lettuce for the burgers. Maybe some different types of sliced cheese that'd be good. Swiss, muenster, chedder, mozzerella.

That's about it.

For directions:

Coming from 40 east:

Exit 276
Right at top of ramp.
Left onto Cook Rd.
Left onto Tall Oaks Dr.
412 Tall Oaks Dr. is me.

Call 9192604703 if you get lost.

Directions from 40 West: All the same except at the top of the exit ramp take a left.

That's all folks.

--joekwon

--joe
HISPA #69
The Best Band in the WORLD!!!
The new full length album "See What You Can Find"

[eUrNiCc 0]

Hey everybody and happy wednesday! There were a whopping 9 CASA and Otter loads today and 25+ tandems. Tomorrow will also be pretty busy, and there are about 15 students on the books for friday afternoon, so if you want to get on some light loads come on out! I'll post the pictures from joe's party on shutterfly soon!
Seeya

Egad, A BASE life defiles a bad age.

[MWGemini 0]

Do you know if there will be many videos tomorrow, Eric?

I may come out tomorrow, and probably Friday through Sunday. The weather forecast isn't looking so great for the weekend though.

I ended up deciding to buy that freefly suit, so I'll be sending off the money order tomorrow. Hopefully everything goes well with that. Maybe soon I'll be good enough to start jumping with some of you guys.

Mike

[Marion 0]

Hey everybody-

This weekend is Dave's LAST WEEKEND with us before he goes down to Florida for the summer.

He won't be around on Sunday, so we'll all be jumping hard on Saturday. Joey will be there for coaching/organizing, Cynthia is here, and I'm not working.
See you guys tomorrow.

[MWGemini 0]

Dave, on behalf of all the rest of us, I'd just like to say: YOU SUCK! .

Too bad I won't get to jump with you before you go. On the good side, however, I won't have to help you with your back pad thingie for a while, and when you get back, I should be able to jump with you. Have fun, be safe, get video.

Mike

[eUrNiCc 0]

CLICKY! < There are the pictures from this past weekend. There are still a few on my camera that I haven't had time to download.

Dave, it was nice jumping with you. Have fun in FL & have a great summer
This week there are a decent number of tandems on wednesday from 10-2, and a couple midday thurs. Friday is looking very slow for now, hopefully it will pick up.

Egad, A BASE life defiles a bad age.

[MWGemini 0]

We talked a little Saturday night about people taking unnecessary risks, and how dangerous things can be done safely.

In the BASE forum, Tom Aiello once posted that he believes every BASE jumper begins with two buckets. One is skill, and is initially empty. The other is luck, and is filled to a predetermined and unknown level. Over time, the bucket of luck drains. When that bucket becomes empty, the only way for the jumper to survive (or escape injury) is if he/she has filled the skill bucket enough.

I agree with his theory, but only to a point. I'd like to add a third bucket, judgment. The volume of this bucket is the only one we can determine for ourselves. It is the good decisions in this bucket that allow us to fill the skills bucket over time so that when the luck bucket runs dry, we escape with nothing worse than a "No shit, there I was" story.

If we don't fill the judgment bucket, or if we allow it to empty, then the only story being told will be the story of how we went in.

This applies to every sport, not just skydiving or BASE. If we do not exercise good judgment at all times, eventually it will hurt or kill us. The only way to survive over a long period of time is to be conservative when we push our limits, so that we hone our skills without exceeding them. That way, when things go wrong, we've acquired the skills that will be essential to saving ourselves. That might mean flat turns at low altitudes, or landing on rear risers, or spending an extra hundred jumps perfecting a high performance maneuver before moving on to the next one.

We've all had friends get hurt or killed in various sports. I don't want to be next, and I'm taking every possible step to ensure that I won't be. Everyone should do the same.

I've attached the english paper I spoke to some of you about. I wrote it trying to explain things to whuffos from "our" perspective, but I think it might be a good read for some of you as well.

Mike

[Marion 0]

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If we don't fill the judgment bucket, or if we allow it to empty, then the only story being told will be the story of how we went in.

Yup. Judgment and skill are kinda linked together, I think. A lot of skill doesn't mean much if you don't know where the boundaries of that skill are. I think I'd rather have skill than luck, but I'd also rather have judgment than skill. All three would be nice, though.
In the skill/luck bucket analogy, I think the skill bucket includes the good learning experiences that we acquire over time, not just a level of natural ability.

I was just thinking about this stuff in the drive-thru at Bojangles. Funny that you posted too. I was thinking about people I know who maybe lacked a lot a skill but made up for it with good judgment and gained skill over time, and other people I knew who had a lot of skill but lacked judgment. Emphasis on the past tense.

You coming out tomorrow? I'll be there early.

• Quote

[MWGemini 0]

I've never put much faith in luck. I prefer to put my faith in the power of my own abilities. Going back to what I said earlier, I prefer to make my own luck by making the right choices beforehand.

That is not to say that sometimes fate deals us a losing hand, because that does happen. But in a lot of those situations, proper prior planning would have made a difference. We might not be able to prevent our canopy from collapsing at 50 feet in turbulent conditions, but we could have made the choice to sit on the ground for that load.

Even if we always have impeccable judgment, it only takes one bad choice to negate all of that. That bad choice could mean downsizing before you are REALLY ready, or moving up to 270s before you've got 180s really dialed in, or deciding to make a BASE jump in less than perfect conditions. Even if you've done everything perfectly a million times before, all it takes is one mistake, and the fatal chain begins.

The thread you linked to is a perfect example. By all accounts, that guy was a natural, and had taken several canopy control courses. He had taken the necessary steps to be a good pilot. His problem started when he allowed himself to believe his abilities were far greater than they actually were. He made a canopy choice he wasn't ready for, and then he made a high performance turn that he wasn't ready for at an unfamiliar DZ.

Or the guy who made his third BASE jump at Moab in turbulent and gusty wind conditions. Even if he had taken all the requisite steps to be a safe and knowledgeable jumper, his decision to be at that exit point in the first place was the beginning of a chain of events that rapidly exceeded his ability to compensate. He created his own bad luck by allowing his judgment to lapse when his skills were insufficient.

I'll be out there tomorrow, not sure how early though. When will you be there?

Mike

[skywade 0]

My 3 buckets are filled with shit.