Backintothesky

Watched this last night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOI6N1dJ8Yk I don't think this does anything healthy for the sport of BASE jumping and in turn skydiving. It makes anyone involved look like a crazy drug addict who can't live without a fix. It left a sour taste in my mouth. Yes skydiving is dangerous and BASE is even more so, but it's documentaries like this that can have people deciding that BASE should be completely illegal everywhere to "protect people from themselves". The same reasoning some people have for banning drugs. I cannot imagine a single whuffo watching that documentary and not going "what a selfish bunch of crazy addicts". Whilst it may be the sort of image Jeb Corliss and co wants to project to the world, it will only damage the sport in the future and as a result skydiving.

0.42/43 HAHAHA oh god that was brilliant. Thank you so much. Made my day...

Nice spin! Normally line twists on a huge student canopy aren't going to kill you. Static line students have line twists on virtually every jump thanks to the prop blast spinning the bag around. No need to cut away. Were you spinning around or was the canopy flying relatively straight? Put it this way you did the right thing by pulling after being unstable for more than 5 seconds, you kicked out of line twists and you managed to safely land off in a small field. Good job! Technically none of us should survive jumping out of a plane. Don't be so melodramatic

You're not a horrible person, you are right to question 1 relatively small event - in the history of human cruelty 9/11 is nothing. It's also worth remembering how many other lives has 9/11 taken in the last decade. The 2 wars, americans, british, french, afghan, iraqi and everyone who has fought, died or simply been murdered because of one attack? I think the reason it sticks in the US psyche is because it was so shocking and the first large scale foreign attack on US soil since Pearl Harbour. There is less of a "thing" about 7/7 in the UK because 1. It was smaller 2. more importantly we have been dealing with this shit for a long time. We had the IRA try to kill us and I remember as a young boy growing up under the threat of bombings on the mainland. The evacuations, the closing down of the grand national, the murders of members of our parliament.... You guys haven't really had to deal with any of that, so 9/11 was a bit out of the blue for you. That said, 9/11 was a horrible event and my heart goes out to all those lost and their families. Horrible horrible event and I can still remember where I was when I heard and watching it go down on t.v. But you are right to suggest that perhaps the response has been a bit "over the top" in the last 10 years costing many more lives (inc. lots of American lives). I think we are starting to see the backlash from that in public opinion (and now British political opinion) re. Syria.

I probably would realise that i scared the shit out of them and could have killed them. If someone screams at me in another context i would ignore them till they calmed down. In that situation I actually think the OP was being quite polite given the circumstances.

Could of been much worse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVJnqpalazY

I'm surpised it opened at all if you kept hold of the "main handle" Where were you jumping? I live in the south of France too and am looking to start jumping at Pujaut though any tips for DZs would be useful!

Hey, genuine question here. Obviously your a Christian, would you mind explaining why you decided Christianity as your religion? Out of the worlds religious/spiritual beliefs, what made you think that Christianity was "the truth"? So basically you try to act like Jesus by that I mean you would look at a situation and think what would Jesus do if he was here? and do that instead of what you might have wanted to do? If your a good person, i am assuming here correct me if i am wrong that the voice of your conscience is what guides you do as Jesus would have. or is there another way to make sure you act correctly? The way it is usually explained is that you allow Jesus to act through you. If you act like Jesus you are simply playing a role. There is no conviction. When you surrender to Jesus you receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides you. In the beginning it is sometimes difficult to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit as distinct from the voice of your own conscience or the voice of a demonic spirit. The Holy Spirit will always guide you to a greater, stronger relationship with Jesus.

Wow, you must have been SOOO bored today!

Yep, you are absolutely right. It's not a logical point, but typically whuffos aren't thinking logically when they tell you that you are definately going to get killed skydiving and how crazy you are to be jumping out of planes. A little reminder that they expose themselves to risk of death everyday and that lots of sports they think are "safe" can kill as well is a good thing for cooling down their rather aggressive assertions. Of course it is not the same thing (though I would like to see the number of fatalities per year against number of participants for RC flying), but a little statistic like that can help them see that their beliefs about what is dangerous and safe might be wrong/misguided and then you can have a serious conversation about the real dangers of skydiving (which are never as high as they think they are - I met someone who thought the fatality rate for skydiving was 1 in 10 jumps!) You can get killed by just about anything. The thing that matters are the odds. The odds are you'll be killed skydiving before killed by an RC helicopter so your point isn't exactly valid with respect to explaining how "safe" the sport is.

Poor guy. A fatality last month as well. As cynical as it sounds, it's statistics like this that help us put the dangers of our sport into perspective for whuffos. "you can get killed skydiving." yep but you can also get killed flying toy copters :-/

Like people have said, the general public view skydiving as a thrill ride. They don't view it as a sport because they think all you can do with skydiving is fall straight down-they have no idea about bodyflight. It's really vexing to see DZs that just offer tandems because 1. It perpetuates this mindset and 2. If every DZ did that our sport would be over in a generation. Now look at the understanding the general public have of proxy flying thanks to people like Jeb Corliss. It's ironic that people understand BASE more than skydiving these days. We need skydivers as popular as that. And I fucking hate it when people ask "omg you can jump by yourself". I wanna slap them and the entire staff at whatever DZ they went to in the face. The DZ should have educated them and they should have opened their eyes at the up jumpers on the DZ and the fucking cameraman in free fall with them. Although actual students going through progression can ask some stupid questions. I remember going through RAPS progression and I was on 5 second delays. I was the only free fall student on the load, the rest were static line. One of the dope rope students asked me where my SL was and I told them I was on free fall. We go up and jump. As I'm the last to exit, I land last. And as I land this same student looks all excited and says "omg you had a malfunction". I say no and ask him why he thinks that. He replies "cos your canopy has a pilot chute"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySSxkqyATq4#t=101

He might be simulating canopy flight....? If not....

Hey, It was a couple of years ago, but at Airkix Bedford I got 10 minutes for about £165 Hope that helps.

Go....

Hey, I've done some time in the Bedford tunnel - the staff there are really nice (or were 2 years ago ;-). I got an extra 2 minutes in the tunnel from them because I was buying in bulk - I'm sure they could come to some cheaper arrangement in the event you took option 3....

Hey mate, Just my 2 cents. You want to avoid a "tandem factory". By that I mean where everyone goes to do their tandems and tandems are prioritised over fun jumpers. When you've finished your AFF you will probably want to keep jumping at the same DZ you learnt at - and you don't want to find that suddenly you find it hard to get on a load because they only want student jumpers and tandems (aka money makers) Check with the USPA on DZ B - they should have a list of affiliated DZs in the US. Obviously go with the one that is affiliated, but if they are both affiliated then perhaps DZ B is more focused on the fun jumper??? Divulge the DZ names on here - you'll probably get a quick answer.

Start BASE jumping. If you make your own gear (I believe it's difficult to buy the gear from manufacturers without the right experience and references) then you can avoid all the USPA problems. I'll keep an eye out for you on the Blinc Fatality List - what's your name?

Ultimately there is no real way to prepare people for it. Even deliberate cutaways have a third canopy as backup. The real thing is do or die or do and still die. Perhaps more people should become more familiar with the reserve packing system and learn all the measures in place to prevent the reserve malfunctioning. Maybe even watch their reserve being repacked.

I think this is a good point and not one ever discussed. I remember once my canopy suddenly diving to the left quite violently upon opening and I remember the sudden terror that hit me - I distinctly remember thinking "oh shit I don't want to have to cutaway". It was a temporary problem with the canopy and it fixed itself within a second but the jolt of fear was very intense. Ultimately I was ready to cutaway but there was intense fear of doing so and some noticeable hesitation. Once you've already got something over your head is it sometimes tempting to try and fix it rather than "risking" a malfunction on your last chance canopy? How many people hesitate to cutaway a bag lock? Probably none, but plenty hesitate to cutaway a line over or otherwise "slow" malfunction...

Yep I remember that - though wasn't sure if they did that for Tandems. Guess outside of UK things can differ- particularly when its just holiday makers looking for a thrill

I mentioned to a couple of friends that I was starting skydiving again and they said they'd done a tandem in New Zealand. But, they seemed shocked that I have always done my jumps solo (RAPS progression) and basically said "so your jumping again to take people on tandems?". Essentially they seemed to think skydiving was like bunjee jumping for the most part - a thrill ride and that skydivers just took up tandems. Had to explain to them about relative work, freeflying, accuracy, CRW and the fact that it is a sport! Plus they had no idea that skydivers could actually fly their body in the air. Obviously there's a limited amount of time TIs can spend with their passengers, but I would have thought that maybe a quick video explaining that if they liked their jump they could do RAPS or AFF and then pursue the various disciplines within the sport... The only thing I can guess is that they jumped at a tandem factory over there and thus the TIs didn't really see the need to enlighten them. I guess each dropzone has its own way of doing things - what do you guys do with your passengers/in the briefing? Do you explain the sport or just figure that most won't be interested in anything more than a one off?

Work your core (abs, back, obliques)

Oh there's gonna be so much beer! 1st jump in 10 years 1st jump in new country 1st jump from full altitude 1st FJC in a foreign language The list goes on!