CanuckInUSA

What type of person do you want? If you want the adventurous type but hopefully still somewhat responsible? Well guess what? There's plenty of these sort of guys hanging around the DZs or some exit point (well at least the adventurous types are there). Do not settle for just anyone. Especially the golfing types who are hung up on their image and the status of their bank accounts. Get some skydiving experience, get licensed and then start travelling to the different DZs and boogies. You know you'll be able to choose from many many many different men as the ratio of men to women in the jumping world favors the females. I too still have a void in my life. But I try to fill it by doing stuff I enjoy doing and it takes my mind off of the void. Some day I may meet a girl who I like and who likes me. But I'm not going to put my life on hold while I wait to meet her as it could very well not happen or at least not happen for many many moons. Take care, be happy and try to live each day to it's fullest. There are so many cool things out there in the world to explore. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

High: Coming off of a great weekend of jumping the Perrine bridge in ID. High: Finally made my first stowed jump. It's good to get that one out of the way. It wasn't easy to do, but I did it. High: Knowing I still have so much to experience and learn. Low: We miss you Holly. "Party like a Rock Star" sweet girl. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

0:9:0 No humps ... Nine parachute rides. Only thing is I didn't jump out of any sort of aircraft. I was back at the Perrine this weekend. Because the beer rule doesn't really apply to fixed object jumping, I don't owe anything. But I did go stowed for the ... umm ... first time today on my last jump before leaving the bridge. I've got a long way before you'll ever see me huck myself off of something and do a double back gainer (the one I saw you do Tim two weekends ago was very nice), but I sure did have a good time at the Perrine and it's a great place to learn. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

My attitudes changed before this, but it was recently solidified on my latest downsizing escapades when I realized that: 1) I am travelling faster than I've ever travelled under canopy. 2) I better pay attention because of point #1. 3) I better complete my flair if I want to stand this up (or run it out). 4) I have seen others mess up and know that I too can mess up. Oh for the record, I do fly three totally different canopies: Crossfire2 119 (I love this canopy, but am only starting to scratch the surface of learning it), a Spectre 150 (what a great all around canopy capable of accuracy approaches as well as swooping) and my FLiK 293 BASE canopy (I never knew flying such a big boat would be so much fun) and I am equally capable of hurting myself on anyone of these puppies. But I will try and do my best not to become an incidents report by staying within my current abilities and I will hopefully not go any length of time not flying one of these canopies so as to hopefully stay some what current on all of them. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Hmmm ... could it be something with a POPS # associated with it? Actually I was there at the DZ very late last Friday (night jumps), so I'm not sure why we didn't see each other. But I'm off to Twin Falls this weekend to hopefully safely flic myself off of the most-bodacious legal 486 foot span. So maybe we'll have to meet up somewhere else? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

For sure my attitude has changed. It's all part of growing up in this sport. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

In some cases the egos of some people do get in the way. But I believe that in most cases what you are seeing here is that as people make more jumps and gain more experience they become more comfortable with the jumping environment. It's not easy to tell someone who's been in the sport a year or two and who's made X number of hundreds of jumps that they haven't grown up yet. Because according to the X jump wonders, they aren't newbies to the sport. Plus in some cases, the X jump wonder people have a natural talent and in some cases, these people you speak of may just be a tad on the lucky side (personally I think I fall into both categories). I could be wrong, but I truly believe that there is no single formula which can be applied to everyone. Jump numbers alone are not an indication of skill and neither is time in the sport. Is someone who's made 500 jumps over a five year period a better skydiver than someone who's made 500 jumps in a one or a two year period? My generic answer would be "No", the more current person is likely to have more skill. But there is no right answer to this question as we are all different and some people actually are very good despite their lack of time or lack of jumps. But I'm sure in most cases, the people with less experience and less jumps aren't as good as they may think they are. I do believe that the longer people are in the sport, the more experience they will gain just as the more jumps someone makes, the more experience they will gain. But once again, there really is no right answer which can be applied to everyone. People do need to realize that we are engaged in a dangerous activity and even the so-called ultra experienced people are capable of making mistakes and messing themselves up. So if the ultra experienced people can mess up, then the lesser talented experienced people can also mess up. We are all human (except for Clay's SOs) and are all capable of making mistakes. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

How more real can I make it? Once again, the sound of my only canopy in my rig on a jump with no AAD (except my brain) opening up with a nice CRACK less than 486 feet above the ground. But yes ... boobies are good too. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

My happy thought....the sound of my FLik canopy opening when I'm at the bridge this weekend and let's also not forget the sound of my feet touching down on the grass/beach ever so softly. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I can't say that I understand them either, but they sure seem like fun people with a great outlook on life and the world we live in. Life in Holland (minus the taxation) must be good. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Unless this fictional person took corrective measures at an early age, I think you would notice before your relationship ever started that they were different. Testosterone has a was of forever changing the body. But I do understand where you are coming from in the honesty versus lied to aspects of this subject and nobody would criticing you for feeling betrayed and hurt. However you said something "all hell to pay" in your previous post which sent up a huge red-flag which goes way beyond political correctness and is bordering on intolerance and possible violence. Once again, this is a very touchy subject with no real right answer for all. Each and everyone of us has our personal reasons and we as a society would be better off if we didn't judge people for their differences. If you don't want to be with one of these people, no problem (as I said I would have issues with being with a masculine transgendered person). But what worries me is the interolance many people seem to exhume here. Oh it's kind of funny that society seems to love picking on the MTF people. But what about the FTMs? There's out there and much harder to spot. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Care to elborate on what "hell to pay" means. I'm not critizing you for NOT wanting to be with someone transgendered (after all it's a very touchy topic for all those involved). But usually when people say stuff like what you just said, something not at all pleasant is soon to follow. Are you of the same mindset of John Lotter and Thomas Nissen, or are you different? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Sunshine why did you have to go start something like this? I'm with Keith and MissKriss on this one. It is a difficult issue and personally it would not be easy for me to date a transgendered person who shows too many male characteristics. But to blindly say that they are fucked up without knowing what sort of torments this person has had to deal with in their life is not right. The religious people seem to have that hardest time with these sort of things because their bible tells them that their God made people the way they were supposed to be made and that whole bible thing-a-ma-bob seems to black and white when the reality we live in is very much grey. Many so called experts in the transgendered and homosexual communities are now saying that people seem to be born with these feelings. Yet the religious people tend to think these people choose these lifestyles and that all they need is that Jesus dude in their lives. Horse-hocky I say. The religious people are just as fucked up as everyone else. If you don't want to date someone because there is something about them that seems wrong, then that's okay. It's your life and you can choose who you want to be with. But the world would be a better place if we didn't judge people different than ourselves and this is just one more example of how fucked up the main stream population can be just as much as how fucked up these people who are different than everyone else is. Stop judging people and take them for who they are. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I'm not sure I understand your motivation for starting this thread. It is one thing is you repeatedly see people getting on the airplane without their rig on or let's say the chest strap is not even done up. But come on dude, haven't you noticed that a lot of RW people like to jump with their chest straps a tad on the loose side? As an example, it's not uncommon to see someone like Omar get up a just before it's time to jump and start adjusting his gear. So are you to tell him that he's being unsafe? LOL ... I'd like to be on that load when you tell him this. As long as people follow what Ron said "that they are prepared to jump at 1k in case of an emergency" who cares if someone needs to adjust their gear before they jump. Just as long as the adjustments are made prior to the airplane being on jump run so as not to hose the people behind the person adjusting their gear. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Excellent ... As someone who has jumped at Skydive Moab, I can tell you that not only is the DZO a great person who will go out of his way to accomodate fun-jumpers, but the scenery is also beautiful. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I'm actually leaning towards spending the entire weekend at the Ranch at the moment because I haven't heard back from any other people who are planning on being in Wildwood (plus I'm not sure how much jumping a non-competitor will be able to do). Plus it would be totally awesome to get a jump or more in with Mike Ortiz (not to mention some tracking dives with you know who). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I kind of thought it was standard practice to keep at least one pull-up cord with your rig at all times (I store one in my leg strap housing ... or whatever it is called). As far as pin versus velcro. Obviously a newbie like myself doesn't have a whole lot of experience with the two. But thanks to an experienced jumper who lent me a velcro rig to practice packing with and the fact that BR built me a really nice Vertex 2-pin container. I have had some experience packing both and my BR 2-pin container hasn't been an issue (yet) as all of my jumps (only five unsupervised pack jobs) did open on heading. But I can see that a sloppy 2-pin pack job can be distorted if one is not paying attention to what they are doing. Anyway ... I am very happy with my BR 2-pin container and my 2nd rig (when it comes time to buying one) will also be a 2-pin container. Nothing against the velcro people, but I like the pin closure rigs. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

My apologies if you're not POPs eligible. I was just going on what Amazon said. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I saw a picture of Shannon in the Iwan's windy day at Byron thread and I must say that she's looking might good for a woman in her 40s. Mighty fine I say!!! Welcome to the POPs eligible years Shannon. I hit my 40th last October and am still the youngish youthful thinking same person I was before then. Maybe one day I will get my rear end to CA to meet some of the CA folks. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I take it you've done a little homework here? I have to admit I don't know very much about this Wildwood event. Is there a URL somewhere talking about it? It would be nice to see the younger bro and nephew, but it's also not the end of the world if I don't see them and stay at the Ranch. After all I don't think the bro and nephew even know I'll be in the NY area. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

It's hard to imagine quitting (even after making mistakes). But I guess I'm addicted worse than others. Life for me at my DZ hasn't been all that pleasant in the last few weeks and I'm really the only one to blame. You see a few weekends ago I came close to taking out one of the DZs more talented freefliers while in freefall and ironically this fateful jump came right after I just successfully completed probably the best jump to date I've ever made with this person. But because I came close to taking him out and another one of the more experienced freefliers was also on the jump, this other person decided to spread the word to some of the good freefliers and guess who's been blacklisted from their jumps? Your's truly. So now I'm either jumping with people with less jumps than me or jumping solos (hey I've got specific dives plans for those solos, so hopefully they will pay off in the future). But I didn't quit just because someone decided to tell others about this jump gone wrong. So if TT is reading this. Know that you are not the only one who gets into trouble. Many of us newer jumpers make mistakes as well and hopefully we learn from them. If that means getting blacklisted and not being invited on any of the good jumps, well I guess that's just what we are going to have to deal with. The bottom line, is that I just love being in the air and it doesn't matter how I get up there and what I do while I'm there. Just as long as I'm there ... in the sky ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I'm assuming that it was actually a "powered paraglider". Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I believe that I was planning on being at the Ranch on July 1st and 2nd and then was hoping that Dove would kidnap me and take me to the Wildwood swoop comp for the 3rd and 4th. But haven't talked with Dove in a while (I sense a PM coming). But it would be neat to somehow find my way to Wildwood as one of my younger brothers and one of my nephews are there right now working for the summer months. But the Ranch has been on my list of DZs that I'd like to visit. So I still think I need to show my ugly mug there as well. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

No I was cheering for the Flames. Actually I just wanted the game to go into OT (how much more drama do you want than OT in the 7th game of the finals) and the Flames came close to trying it with what appeared to be an open net and about six minutes left in regulation. But Nikolai Khabibulin shut the door really fast. But I was glad to see Dave Andreychuk finally win the cup. So now if I'm not mistaken, Dale Hunter now holds the dubious distinction of playing the most NHL games without a Stanley Cup championship. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Bump ... Anyone still planning on being at the Ranch or the Wildwood PST thing-a-ma-bob? I'll be in the NY area over the July 4th long weekend and am still unsure of where and what I will be doing. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over