Backwards Skydiving

[GreenLight 5]

I was just sitting over at the Bombshelter watching a whole plane load of jumpers land downwind in about 10mph of wind and started thinking about how the sport has changed. We used to jump belly to earth, open under larger parachutes with a proper wing loading and land into the wind trying for a no step landing. Now it seems most people are jumping head down, open very small overloaded parachutes and land downwind using up about 50 yards of landing area and still having to run it out.

We used to get killed by not opening a parachute or failing to do emergency procedures in time. Now it seems we kill ourselves by opening a parachute and then pointing it straight at the ground.

It's no wonder all I want to do at the DZ anymore is drink. The sport seems to have gone stupid. Is it all in my mind? Am I getting too old for this sport? Should I just take up bowling? What next? Landing without a parachute? Hey! It's been done. Not successfully, but it's been done. However it seems that someone is going to actually attempt it. If he makes it out alive, I say he owes a case of beer.... If not, we can piss in his crater.

Green Light
"Harry, why did you land all the way out there? Nobody else landed out there."
"Your statement answered your question."

[skybill 19]

Hi Larry!!!!!!!!!!!!,
LOL My sentiments exactly!! I still like flying in the standard RW stable position and I like to do tip-toe landings into the wind!! (No wind and I have to slide a bit) I guess it's time for me to make a visit for Air Trash Daze and we'll have to pull off a couple of "Deli Dives!!"

Talking about "Backward" Skydiving, remember Gary Cobb and his BCRW "Backward CReW!!??"

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[itllclear 1]

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What next? Landing without a parachute? Hey! It's been done. Not successfully, but it's been done. However it seems that someone is going to actually attempt it. If he makes it out alive, I say he owes a case of beer.... If not, we can piss in his crater.

Perris is a good place to try--what other DZ has a the county morgue right off the end of the runway?

BSBD.

Harry

"Harry, why did you land all the way out there? Nobody else landed out there."

"Your statement answered your question."

[slug 1]

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What next? Landing without a parachute? Hey! It's been done. Not successfully, but it's been done. However it seems that someone is going to actually attempt it. If he makes it out alive, I say he owes a case of beer.... If not, we can piss in his crater.

Perris is a good place to try--what other DZ has a the county morgue right off the end of the runway?

BSBD.

Harry

Hi Harry

I think Perris is to flat to land a wing suit unless the wind tunnel might help or they build a landing ramp. Like the ski jump folks.

R.I.P.

[NickDG 23]

Hi Larry,

Take heart, Brother. The same thing that happened to you (and us) will happen to them. Here's an edited version of something I wrote a while back . . .

One night about ten years ago I'm at a raging party in the Perris Ghetto and I'm wandering from group to group until sitting in with some Perris old-timers and they are railing on free flyers.

And oh, how we laughed.

We guffawed at the clothes they wore, especially the hats, you know the kind only your old Uncle Charlie wore, and we mocked the lingo, "they should call themselves the sick dope bombs," one said, and we rolled on the floor laughing . . .

I mentioned seeing young Fritz (or was it the other guy, I couldn't tell them apart) sitting at a table in the Bombshelter. He'd gathered all the salt, pepper, mustard, and ketchup containers, and he is arranging, and then re-arranging them on the table and he is sooooo serious. We rolled on the floor laughing some more, the poor saps, my God, it must hurt to be so young . . .

But, after a while I stopped laughing.

It hit me all of a sudden that we are about to be paid back for something that happened four decades ago in skydiving. These very old-timers I'm with are some of the ones who invaded skydiving back then, and literally reinvented the sport with their long hair hippie ways and RW while shocking the Straights who practiced mostly style and accuracy. Relative Work is the new thing. And it's hard to take for the Straights, as many of them still held that exiting more than one jumper on a pass is dangerous, some of these guys came up when that practice was outlawed.

Now with the advent of Atmonauti (a slightly different take on free flying) we see the first small signs of resistance to change in the free fly community. "Who are these guys," they are asking, "and why are they changing things?" Well, here's a tip my young brothers, resistance is futile.

Someday, about ten years from now, Fritz and a bunch of free fly old-timers will be at a raging party in the Perris Ghetto and they'll be rolling on the floor laughing. But their laughter will only serve to obscure the freight train that's coming right at them . . .

NickD BASE 194

[steve1 5]

Well said Nick. Some freefliers do kind of ruffle the feathers of some of us old time RW jumpers. I mean how dare they be so far from the norm, of us cool old farts.

I know almost nothing about freeflying. A while back I went on a tracking dive with a bunch of free fliers at Lost Prairie. I mean this was a lot different than what I was used to. Everyone dressed and acted totally different, and I wasn't sure wheather or not to trust this bunch. But climbing to altitude there was that same feeling of comradery that I've always felt making an RW jump with friends. There was that unconditional feeling of acceptance even though I really didn't fit. What was more important was that we were all skydivers about to risk our lives together. Hell, they even accepted an old fuddy-dud like me. To them I was probably the freak on the load with my belled jump suit, and short hair-do. I mean there wasn't a piercing to be found anywhere on my old weathered over-weight body. But, I was still a brother skydiver.

To tell you the truth, there was a feeling of exuberance, on that load, that I haven't felt in a while. Maybe that's the reason old farts like Pat Works are turning to freeflying. So, I guess it's never to late for an old dog to learn something new....Steve1

[mjosparky 3]

When you get down to it, we are all skydivers and we all do RW in some form or another.
Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[GreenLight 5]

Yep.... Yep.... and Yep.... I guess there will always be change and with that comes evolution and progress. The only thing I really miss is landing on the grass. That's getting more and more dangerous to do with people streaking by at 50mph downwind. The other thing that bothers me is when the first guy down sets the landing pattern for downwind landings. That's just wrong. I think the swoopers need their own landing area. But then again, we, the belly flyers are now the minority and nobody is going to build us our own landing area. So I guess we suck....

Pat Works? LOL! I thought he only jumped at Ol' Farts meet...

Green Light
"Harry, why did you land all the way out there? Nobody else landed out there."
"Your statement answered your question."

[wartload 0]

Very well put, NickD! I think the free fly folks may, in a way, be going "back to the future". In the days during the transition between style & accuracy jumps vs. RW, I can remember often wanting to, and occasionally doing, a solo freefall. There was something extremely relaxing about exiting high, going into the best delta that I could, and actually feeling the buffet of my body moving through an unstable air mass...then slowing it down enough that the PC wouldn't smack me too hard when it opened.

I'm not really so sure that I understand making a practice out of intentional downwind landings (look very cool, but cool doesn't seem to be a good reason for hurting/killing so many people).

[MissBuffDiver 0]

I GUESS WE SUCK!!!... We were the trailblazers for todays jumpers! We had great times! We did great things! We accomplished many skydiving records! We did what no man had done before! We laughed! We cried! We got drunk! We got hurt! Some of us even died! We were and are still a family! The OLD FARTS...The ICONS...The best is...WE are still family... still jumping...still getting drunk...I GUESS WE SUCK...HELL YEAH WE DO! P.S. Let the NEWBIES do their thing-We did ours ....I'm AIR TRASH and VERY PROUD OF IT... [Snoopy is coming to PERRIS] I love you Larry...See ya June 4...SANDY***Every man has his day

Sandy

[GreenLight 5]

Can't wait to see ya Sandy! We will drink to the good ol days... Drink chugalug...

Green Light
"Harry, why did you land all the way out there? Nobody else landed out there."
"Your statement answered your question."

[jbrasher 0]

The prop is turning full circle.

Red, White and Blue Skies,

John T. Brasher D-5166

[MikeJD 0]

Seems to me - and I hope I'm right - that there's ever more room for all the disciplines in this wonderful sport.

In the UK, at least, I noticed that after the initial freefly 'fad' a few years ago, RW/ FS had a bit of a resurgence. I know quite a few freeflyers at my local DZ who are always keen to get onto big-way belly loads.

And freestyle - which I thought would probably lose out to freeflying - also seems to be making a comeback.

We even still have the occasional Classics meet.

I say, we've never had it so good. Vive la difference!

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[markd_nscr986 0]

Ahhh.......the hell with it............

I'm going back to style and accuracy

Marc SCR 6046 SCS 3004