Di0

Unless there are models of camera that mount themselves on your helmet while you don't look then throw themselves into your lines as you deploy slightly unstable or keep your head focused and tilted on something else while you blow past deployment altitude, it's *never* the camera fault. There is no such a thing as "camera fault", it's *always* the jumper's fault, sort of speak, even when the camera gets in the way. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I see what you mean. I will not claim it can be seen this way and some do. But I do believe there is a "passive waiting" and an "active waiting", sort of speak. Meaning, I want to use these tools as aids to know when my window is closed, oops, sorry you were distracted by something in the pattern now it's too late to turn, when I am already low, when I fucked up and need to go to plan B etc. or to reinforce that everything is alright etc, not as a "Pavlov's Dog Skydiving" sort of thing. I agree. Not sure I succeed, but again: like any tool, if used properly they can be great and effective, you can't disregard the use of audibles or digital readings to set your maneuvers all together. I do believe that for 1 jumper that uses them poorly, there are 9 that are helped in their progression by them. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

And furthermore ! ! ! I'm not a swooper. But we all know many that do. Some talk about using digital readouts, accurate to the foot, to gauge their swoops. I asked a very experienced friend of mine, who makes a living being paid to swoop, about that. He says he just looks at the ground and knows if he has the altitude to huck a 270, 540, whatever. Seems like a better way to go. Maybe it's a better way to go only because *he is very experienced*. He already survived that very dangerous phase where you progressively replace "hard-coded teachings" with your own experience. For the average person trying to learn and/or improve consistency, the aids given by digital altis and canopy are alarms are enormous. I agree that there is use VS abuse problem but at the same time you can't disregard how helpful these tools are based on a few examples of things gone wrong or on how a few jumper misused/abused them. Maybe when and if I'll have that experience, I'll be able to eyeball the enter point of a turn, right now I thought I could and I almost bounced following a low-turn (technically, I did bounce, just a little). Next weekend, you bet I bought a new digital alti and switched my N3 inside my helmet to get canopy alarms and took everything one step back to work on my consistency. These tools help me do just that. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Yes and no. I agree the usefulness of your own POV is extremely limited for freefall, where it's all about body position, but as I am getting more and more into canopy control, I do sometimes regret not having a gopro to "dissect" those landings that felt/looked good and rather than trying to mentally reconstruct them, I'd love to be able to look at the video and say "Ok, I held my front at that height for about that many seconds, let go and waited that many seconds and then toggles at shoulder level for an instant" etc. etc. etc. Try to figure out what I do differently on good swoops vs not so good ones (the bad ones, it's usually easy to say what you do wrong lol). I mean, it's not the only way to debrief yourself and it's not a conclusive tool but it would help, so I do find myself questioning the benefit vs risks of a gopro for this purpose, every once and a while. I honestly haven't reached a conclusion yet. Still wondering. :D I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

YES! ECCE HOMO! Which was my initial point, it's not even worth to start a big argument, in the life time of this thread some of us did close to 200 jumps and few of us probably more than that. By the time even a fast learner has acquired the skills to fly a gopro he certainly has close enough to 200 jumps that is simply easier waiting than trying to convince a DZO of how good your mental and physical skills are, and I don't say that sarcastically but just because it's true. Sometimes it seems that people that want to jump a gopro at 160-170-180-190 jumps they do it just for the sake of proving how different they are, rather than "conforming" to a rule that, by the way, saves people. But I find it funny to open a poll, which is by definition a way to ask for the opinion of people, and when the almost total unison response is what we don't like and is along the line of "200 jumps is a good measure, maybe even too soon" we go mad and decide that it's not worth dealing with *us* people. Next time don't start a poll if you don't want to deal with us people or if you're not ready for answers you don't like. Start a blog and block the comments. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Wait, what? Wasn't the GoPro this magical gadget you "turn on and forget it exists" but supernaturally turns you in a professional and seasoned videographer? How can somebody be "amateur" with a GoPRO? Also, a lot of people at the DZ had to buy a GoPro to mount and their helmets, not all of us give a shit about getting crappy quality selfies with a stick doing stuff that the rest of the world doesn't care about only to post on facebook with "We are heroes" in the background to show how cool we are when we scuba, skii, visit the Taj-Mahal. Also, your unique skills to videograph your last kayak trip do not necessarily apply when skydiving, when dealing with a reserve bridle around your apparently snag free go pro mount.. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Yes, it's *us all* who are confused. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Meh, not so sure, for the most part it's about having the requirements, which are simple (a couple dozens accuracy landings left to the jumper to log honestly, a couple of 2-points 8 ways, a quiz and the jump number), I have never heard (but I could be wrong) of somebody refusing to sign the proficiency card of a jumper that satisfied all of those because "they felt he didn't have enough proficiency for a C license". In my opinion, the minimum common denominator is the jump number. That being said, 200 jumps to fly a camera? Let's be real, that's about a year into the sport for somebody that takes it seriously. At that point you are probably not even done buying all your gear, so getting a camera setup at 200 jumps is kind of a natural progression IMHO, let alone the safety discussion it even makes sense that you buy other, and more useful stuff, in your first year. IMHO. From what I've seen in my limited experience, 200 jumps is about right. Make it 150 and people will ask why 150, make it 250 and people will ask why 250, leave 200 and people will ask why leaving it at 200. It's a reference number and the line must be drawn somewhere, it's not even worth it to try to make a personal argument out of it and bring in "personal skills" on the table: if it was a jump number so high to be impractical to reach in a reasonable time, if that took years, yeah, I would get that. In the youtube era people get frustrated. But 200 jumps? Really? It's like ~20-30 good weekends of jumping. A 6 to 8 months window. It's a very controllable itch. Do them, focus, learn, then jump camera. Or not. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Consider to limit or not party at night until late hours with lots of drinking, try to get a good night of sleep and, if you're in generally good shape, you'll be in tip top shape for back to back days of jumping. It's no big deal. But if you party, drink, etc. most likely you'll waste good morning hours because of sleeping in or hangover, some people do it, I personally don't find it worth it because I also drive 80 miles to the DZ and I want to make the best out of my limited time there. There is a lot of peer pressure to drink at DZs generally, but also after the fourth of fifth time you tell people to piss off, they understand and get the message. ;) Don't be afraid to do it, most people only pretend to care if you drink or not anyway. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

What NWFlier said is spot on, there is no reason to buy an RW suit without booties and an RW suit without inside grippers or with flimsy grips will eventually make you (or your jump buddies) hate that suit. I use a Tony Pitspecial which is probably the most famous/used/common RW suit and for good reasons. I love it. I recently had a chance to look at a bunch of suits made by this guy: http://www.xpxarmor.com/product/xpx-armor-rw-suit/ and I was honestly stroke by the building quality. Stitches, reinforcements, grips, materials, everything seemed made with durability in mind. Two guys in my RW team needed a suit and ordered one right away and the only reasons I didn't it's because of self-control (shelling $500 on another RW suit, logic said no :) ). At least at a first look, it blew every other RW I've seen out of the water. Worth to keep them in mind or shoot them an email to get more pics and info (their website is pretty uninformative LoL) Then it comes down to personal preference, ask around your dz and see what brands are around, how people like them, etc... there are a lot of very good options. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

What the fuck does "I can only do pickup" mean?!? Is he a fugitive from the FBI? Next thing you know, he can only do pick-ups at a gas station of his choice that will be said to you once you're already in the car. LoL. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

This will change. Solo jumps are like the coolest thing for you right now, but trust me: they get old FAST. And when they do, you'll regret not having a suit that is proper for the group discipline of choice, either a usable RW suit (i.e. booties and proper grips) or a decent FF suit. I've seen it over and over again, people buying a "student" suit at 10 jumps because DZ jumpsuits are ugly or smell bad, only to ROYALLY HATE their jumpsuits 50 jumps later when they actually realize what they need. My 2 cents? Suck it up until you can get a jumpsuit you can actually use to do things with it. Buying a jumpsuit with that mind approach, fashion queen snob, don't wanna use the goofy DZ jumpsuit for 20 more jumps, is a great way to waste money that right now you really need to get you started, IMHO. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Ahah! Congratulation, man! Glad the tip helped, it will only get better now! :) (But be ready for the occasional frustration on figuring out group exits, in due time, with less than ideal body position because of the crowded door, a hella lot of fun though!) Welcome to the hill! :) I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Nasaspaceflight.com is pretty well respected from what I can tell. The Author seems to have decent credentials that stand up to a cursory google search. I wouldn't immediately dismiss it as enquirer or tmz material. Yeah, that's why I am said "weary" and I didn't say that it has to be dismissed as bullshit right away, but as I said, it's not blatant bullshit but the sources are not "rock solid" either, you know. Still, of course I am interested in the hopeful developments. :) I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Also, yes. It helped me A LOT at the beginning. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Try to make a self conscious effort to "point your toes" immediately, this should put enough tension in your muslces to keep your legs in place and, at the same time, it should also help in making you aware of where your feet are and pointing the legs in the right direction. You don't want to "stretch" your muscles, you want to keep some tension, sure, but not tightened up or locked in. You need to find a good balance. Not sure it will help but at least it won't hurt either. LoL. I generally find that telling the student to point his toes when his legs are "noisy" help quite a bit. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I am, generally speaking, weary of anything that comes from a site called nasaspaceflight.com and has no affiliation to the actual NASA website( nasa.gov). I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Since this just came up and it's mentioned in the other thread, it's a good starting point to get some ideas... https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sn2BCmnDUUM Duct taping the base might be a good, cheap, quick starting point. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Not my DZO, not all DZO's are bad actors! To Jimmy's comment, being a small or big DZ should have nothing to do with it. I jump at a 182 drop zone and our newly rated instructor is not jumping handicam with the fresh rating, regardless of comfort! In all fairness, you do work for pretty awesome DZOs. :D I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I jump it with Oakley Half Jackets on my nose (http://www.caccessories.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/26/women-sunglasses-2010122661.jpg) and I assume those are bulkier than the average prescription clear glasses. Definitely a lot of room between your nose and the visor for any type of "normal" glasses/sunglasses. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Same thing as a VISO II, only searched through http://www.gizoogle.net/: http://www.gizoogle.net/xfer.php?link=http://www.l-and-b.dk/products/visual/viso_ii&sa=U&ei=1lJBVbmMLNHeaJa2gegJ&ved=0CBQQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNFIJ_tfCYrNQva8UN4VJaqd7dy5Fw I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Words from SunPath for the Javelin as well: http://blueskiesmag.com/2015/04/29/sun-path-alternate-bridle-routing/ I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Eheh, I honestly don't think they are *that* bad, they do convey the message, especially when you start jumping, they stuck in my head quite well! :) And as long as one takes the extra time to make sure the "right" meaning is conveyed, I don't see a problem with them. As said, I firmly believe it's not my job to rephrase them, but to make sure they are understood. Then I generally don't care too much in a refresher, as long as "pull, altitude and stability" are all mentioned in the right order. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I know of at least a couple of people that never did a tandem and went straight into AFF. It's not "common" but it generally doesn't cause more reactions than a "eheh, that's cool!" from other skydivers. Incidentally, if you stay in the sport long enough, you'll have your chance of trying a tandem for free when recurrency season comes around and TIs needs experienced skydivers to be taken on refresher rides. And that's actually pretty funny because IT IS a very different sort of experience at that point. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Ah-ha, John! Thanks for the feedback, I'll add the problems that aren't immediate emergencies, so to speak. And I'll try to make my refreshed more interactive, great points, thank you. As for the 3 Freefall priorities, yes, tred is right: I was referring to: - PULL - pull at right altitude - pull at right altitude and stable I know they might not be the best way of wording them but that's how they are written in the SIM and how they were taught to me, so I try not to modify important things like priorities. http://www.uspa.org/SIM/Read/Section4/CategoryC/tabid/239/Default.aspx If I see that the guy is confused, I usually elaborate by saying "basically it means that if you loose altitute awareness for any reason, you should pull, it means that if you're unstable and blow past your deployment altitude, you should pull. Altitude is more important than stability". But if the guy picks on the wording of that 3 priorities that way, I am happy because that's "The Standard". Considering my short experience, I think I should change the standards the least possible and only if they are not clear right away to the student, not simply because "I don't like them". If you know what I mean... ;) I also received a feedback in my PM box to make sure I check the importance of the "checks of 3s", when and why they need to be done. Something I do of course, but I might not verbally stress how important they are. That's also good to note. :) Thanks, guys! I really appreciate the feedback! I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.