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For judges, grips are much less visible when using suits with grippers. Especially with figures where on flyer is on the back, and the other on the belly, the actual dock tends to be occluded by the gripper. In our experience, the added 5 to 10 seconds freefall a bigger suit gets in comparison to Havok-sized suits, is not worth the almost 50% working speed in docks/maneuvers you when compared to small/mid sized suits. Tight fit, and clean lines are important on acro suits. Loose fit around hips/arms tends to result in more sloppy flying, especially when it comes to lateral motion. Regardless of brand, make sure you get a suit with a good tailor-made fit. Havok/Magister is the combo our team flies (weight related difference, dress for succes)

Just so you guys know...my first malfunction was caused by my packing for sure....I was having hard inconsistent openings so I added an extra rubber band stow to the nose slider....it helped so I added another stow....it helped so I added another...after like 4 stow wraps the canopy opened but the nose slider held the nose completely closed and never released. There were other canopies in the air with me and it didn't look like I was descending too fast so rode it in to kind of a hard landing. So I ditched that idea. Then I had an entanglement due to what I believed was lines not straight on packing and rode that in with no problem. My last one the canopy opened but the slider would not pump down and was stuck at the skirt band holding it closed....I pulled the toggles as hard as I could as a last try but the back of the canopy folded under and I went into a backwards spin at probly 35 mph rate of descent at least. Definitely cut that one away. The canopy was burned up somewhat so I sold it to a friend who had it repaired and jumped it for quite a while without a problem.

I believe that in both the USA and Canada, each category of license numbers starting from 1 (when licenses started in the 1950's or so) up to the present time. So your B license number will be based on the total number of B's issued to that point--which won't be the same as the total number of A's issued up to when you got your A, etc. I remember that when I jumped at his drop zone back in the 1980's, Canadian DZO Bob Wright signed my logbook as "E-8". Back then CSPA (but not USPA) still issued E licenses, but they were rare even then, and "E-8" meant that Bob had only the eighth CSPA E license ever issued. There may be some exceptions for example the honorary D-20000 of late President George HW Bush (who DID make a few civilian skydives but not enough to qualify for a non-honorary license of any flavor, let alone a "D").

Hi fellows, Why skydiving full face helmets are so expensive?? Any suggestions on where I can buy helmets with flexible prices?? Thanks a lot.

Thanks bro!

Here is my Paradactyl....I made about 200 to 300 jumps on it and had 3 malfunctions. I cut one away and rode the other 2 in since they were minor and I think I packed them into it. Would I use it for a reserve...absolutely not. Very inconsistant openings with it.

Definitely my round Piglet II. 400+ jumps and 100% reliability....we had over a dozen jumpers using them at my DZ (Issaquah Parachute Center) and not one malfunction in fact we never heard of a malfunction at any other drop zone either. Once in a while they would have a slightly delayed opening (maybe 1 or 2 seconds)but always opened cleanly afterwards.....and that was rare. I don't know of any malfunctions on the previous model either (Piglet 1).

Looks like you misspelled white supremacist.

So is California. Lefties have no sense of humor :-(

My guess would be in the 80's, when the 'higher' performance 7-cells were the norm. Ravens, Cruiselites, Comets, Pegasus', those sorts of canopies. When you could skydive and base jump with the same gear. I kind of liken that era to the muscle car era of the 60's and 70's. They didn't go as fast or handle as well as what you can get today, but they were badass and we had a lot of fun with them. What are the smaller, very high performance canopies being jumped today like for distance? My Cruiselite would get me back from anywhere and I often suspect that my current canopy, a 210 Hornet, is just a knockoff of the Cruiselite but built with ZP. I love being able to fly around and check places out under canopy even after opening at normal 2k. When Chesapeake was open and the winds out of the East I'd open a little high, maybe 3k, over the airport/dz in Chesapeake Oh, fly across the river to Huntington Wv, which is beautiful from the sky, then back.

This brought me a smile. My first reserve ride was on a 26' Navy Conical that was four years older than I was.

In another thread someone mentioned only needing whichever canopy was safest and it got me curious about when canopy development would have ground to a halt if we had stopped there. I really wasn't trying to dump on small canopies.

The question is, "So what parachute do you remember, or have now, that made you worry the least?" I guess that would be my most often used canopy nowdays, my Flight Concepts fully zero porosity Manta, a rectangular design, at 290 square feet. But I have had others, mainly large canopies. (This seems to be a common theme among those responding.) The big ones are not the most exciting, but they sure can be reliable.

I love Xenia. I don't get over there much, my back doesn't like the drive, but when I can get out to a DZ that's the one. It always feels like pulling into home.