lewmonst

i jumped a 1981 sweethog for 2 years... until i just got my javelin this summer. i sent a photo in to sangiro a while back, don't know if it was ever up in the pub... it's for sale btw, if anyone wants an antique, yet totally safe and jumpable rig: sweethog (brown) with Falcon 235 main and Raven 3 reserver (never used)

welcome... just wait, with each jump, it just gets better and better... it changes though... this sport evolves from a thrill to a passion and a lifestyle... and i hear it just keeps getting better. i've only made 432 so far, and the more jumps i make, the more i want to make, the more i realize the endless potential and neverending discoveries and the other thing, that part that we cannot describe with words... just go with it, you'll see what i mean... oh and not to mention, all the amazing people you meet... spread the love

chuck, man, i was hoping to see you. I was at CSS from wednesday night until today... it was beautiful thursday and friday, lots of good jumps. saturday was lousy, but opened up enough for 1 and 3/4 loads, that is, a regular load and a 9800 ft. load. i had a great dive on that one though, 4 way flower launch, break to opposing sit with opposing headdown, got a dock in too (i should say, he docked on me, cuase i'm not that good, but i was there :) )... made 13 total down there. really good people, great boogie, good evening socializing as well... anyway, sorry i missed jumpin with you again. hey what's the xmas new year plan? i haven't decided yet, considering sebastian or eloy, or where i can get a cheap flight and hitch a ride to the dz...

bradon, i landed off becuase i was jumping the board... i opened and had 3 full line twists, which in my safire usually isn't a problem, but with the board, i couldn't kick out of it. so as soon as i saw the canopy not coming out of it and start to dive, i cut away the board, tried to hold it with a toe, but it fell away. i could then kick out of the line twists, and i spotted the board still falling. at this point i was at 1200 ft and at least a mile off the dz already... i decided to follow my board down (since it's a borrowed board in the first place - intermediate worth a couple hundred dollars) and i landed in a field near the board. it happened to be on the other side of a highway, which as it was getting dark, i decided it was better to backtrack the roads to an overpass than to cut through the fields and try to cross the 4 lane highway... even though i was only a mile or 2 out, the trek around was probably 5 or 6 miles... after walking about a mile or 20 minutes or so, finally a kind stranger picked me up. all this put me a half hour late getting back vs. the rest of the load... and they left the credit card and receipt sitting on the counter, like i'd said, dismissing my absence with "signature on file" on my receipt. i can take care of myself and don't mind walking, but if i'd busted a leg or something, i can't imagine how long i'd have been out there... usually they are good at keeping track of everyone, and seeing when canopies land off... but when they relax and assume everythings fine, that's when bad stuff can happen. can we say all's well that ends well? not really. i'm still disturbed by the whole situation. maybe more so i'm just offended that no one noticed... and moreso after the fact that they didn't think it was a big deal. and it wasn't, but it could have been... keep an eye on your friends

to answer your questions... i've been jumping at this dz all summer, i am experienced. i was first one out of the plane, doing a solo on a surf board... i did talk to manifest and staff, and they had called for me on the PA simply to come sign my credit card slip to close up for the day, when i didn't show up, they said they assumed i was in the packing hangar, and even signed on my reciept "signature on file" and left it on the counter. there were several people there, all of which admitted they had no idea i was missing, and i had been gone at least a half an hour after the rest of the load landed... and blue, to answer your question, yes. i tried to PM you back, but for some reason it doesn't seem to be working

i just had a dissapointing experience. nothing devastating by any means... but to make a long story short, i landed way off after a solo on the sunset load, and no one from the dz even knew i was missing, much less came looking. i'm glad i didn't get hurt, becuase i would have never been found in a field off a farm on a dead end road after the sun went down. but it's a little disheartening to think about if i wouldn't have been able to walk to a road... should you expect the dz to make sure everyone gets back from every load? i thought so. maybe i expect too much

those photos are just of the baby (36") board i've been borrowing from skydive green county, Hubi, which was left there by a guy several years ago... just got a loaner intermediate board i'm starting to work on.

not skydiving

fourhundredfifteen and chuck, i like the new photo better, and a website, rock on man. and the trailer, more power to you man, i'd rather have a trailer at the dz than a house in the burbs :) ps, some new surfin photos on my site, check out "Surf Discovery"... the rest is still a work in progress... i'm all about green and my name is linked to my website lewmonst.com d-24575

Anyone plannin to go to Carolina SS for the Thanksgiving Boogie? wondering if anyone here will be there, and if anyone from up this way wants to split driving... I'm thinking of driving from Ohio tuesday night and coming back sunday night. d-24575 (finally)

My student is now writing her persuasive argument paper on whether or not skydiving is safe. So i'm asking you to please pass along any reliable information, statistics, papers, books, articles, links, experts, etc, that she can use to argue that skydiving is safe. thanks for your help

all the skydivers know better, sangiro, we're with you on this one, and Heather, btw, good article. It's quite dissapointing to see the BASE gear companies trying to sell this equipment... this may be far fetched, but it's analogous to a personal gun. Many people buy them for safety, and then end up getting shot by their own gun. I think any whuffo with a base rig, might jump in panic when their chances of surviving in a building taking the stairs are probably higher than if they try to make a Base jump without any canopy control experience. if you live in fear, you are already dead

Previewed the demo copy of the Richmond Boogie video last weekend and was totally amazed. SteveO has done the incredible... the video is more like a movie, amazing graphics and special effects, picture in picture, art and design. SteveO isn't just a camera flyer, he an artist. And the raw skydiving footage.... wow! how about SteveO swooping the top of the manifest tent... there's professional quality shots of rw with jerry byrd dives, freefly bigways with rook & missy nelson, birdman big ways with Jari... nice job steveO call richmond to order a copy: 888-234-JUMP i also tried to find if he has a website, and i noticed www.newtribeentertainment.com (the name of his Video business) was just recently registered as a domain, but has nothing posted yet. but i was able to find his bio, if any of you are curious, he truly is a leader in this sport - can you set goals like what he has acomplished in 5 years in the sport??? here's his bio page - as part of Olav's school: http://www.1olav.com/StevesBio.htm i am UTTERly impressed again SteveO - you rock

damn sangiro is smart... i couldn't vote more than once becuase it tracks the IP address of the computer from which i voted... or did you put that in the code netadmin phree? and PHREE, cmon, you know i've told you before, white with blue ribs, NO stripes. stripes are out of style...

OH!!!!! i'm gonna tell bobo, he's gonna kick your ass!!!

our little tincan and grass runway amongst the corn allows us to jump just fine, i love the casa... but... the showers do smell funny, and the flies are really bad, but the people are good, so it's where i'd rather be every weekend.... BUT skydive chicago is like skydiver's heaven in the midwest. the showers smell bad there too, but the hangar, which i've seen 3 otters in at one time, and the kinda jumpin you can do there... can't be beat anywhere... if you get to chicago, say hey to missy, rook and mikeO for me... and roger of course

ok, phree, thanks for nothing, i can calculate your physics problem for ya if you really want me to... and as for adam "the surfer", how many surf jumps does he have? and how many surf jumps do i have? cmon phree you know this. so who's the surfer? i'd say neither of us yet... we're still on the baby boards. anyway, the point of the thread.... If anyone knows where that discovery movie is or anythign like that, that would be great. thanks

phunny you should mention that phree, actually the student is lisa's cousin, and she was already thinking about interviewing Jim, i've encoruaged her to come to SGC this weekend. The interview is a great idea, but a whole other section of the project... right now she's just looking for history. Thanks for all the links. She also has to do 2 articles for each subject: math, science, history, english, foreign language... so for example in foreign language she has to write about the author and something about skydiving in spanish or french. in history she has this history of skydiving, and soemthing else... in math she has to write something about how math is used in skydiving (me being the math teacher i've already thrown her plenty of ideas for that), etc... so keep posting the links/books where i can help her find stuph :) thanks everyone

i'm a teacher, and one of the students is doing her year-long "inquiry" project on skydiving - which just rocks... so right now i'm helping her find info for a histroy of skydiving paper.. Do you know of any good resources for the history of skydiving, other than searching google.com...???? all help is appreciated. Thanks

first of all i must say that my sympathy goes out to those affected by 9/11... so i can preface my need to just say: It blows chunks that Bridge Day was cancelled. I've made 1 base jump, at BD last year. and I loved it. i almost ordered base gear after that 1 jump, but it's hard to justify with not really having anyone to base with, and many great things to base off of in ohio... but i think i might go ahead and get base gear this winter... The jump, was incredible. Talk about ground rush, holy shit, and the new river bridge is high compared to many base spots... i have over 400 skydives, and that one base jump was like a first skydive all over again, it was the adrenaline rush of escaping death in less than 8 seconds... after all, skydiving in the beginning is all about the rush, but then when you really become a skydiver, it becomes a sport, not just a thrill, and there's a different kind of satisfaction. I'm not sure if base jumping loses it's edge after dozens of jumps like skydiving does, and i'm not sure if there's sport in it at that point either, other than the IPBC style & accuracy competition at BD... but i loved the jump...and will base jump again. as for danger, sure, it's dangerous, you need to know what the hell you're doing, and have safe gear. it's not like you can bank on your jumpmasters at the dz either, becuase there are no jumpmasters in base, you are responsible for yourself. probably the most dangerous thing to do is borrow gear... where've we heard that before

freeBASE ha ha ha ha ha ha ha so this really sucks i was really looking forward to bridge day. i'm very depressed, i think i may go jump off a bridge or something. (can anyone drive a getaway car for me?)

i just want to hang with the best in the air, so i just want to be a better flyer, so i just want lots of practice and jump time, so i just want to be sponsored to be able to practice and jump all the time... so i just want to be famous to get sponsored... so basically i just want to be famous so i can jump wtih the famous, in the skydiving world that is, cause cmon, other than troy's senseless stunts, what whuffo can name anyone besides db cooper in our sport? although, i like being able to do videos and give them to people, i like being able to teach and see the excitement of students, i like doing demos, and landing in the spectator area at quincy... just for kicks, maybe it shows the young and everyone for that matter, that they can do whatever they dream of doing... and i was a camp counselor, and i get a huge kick when a kid at a random place recognizes me and says hi and you used to work at camp kern, i remember you when you did this and that was fun.... becuase mostly i remember my couselors and how much admiration i had for them. they were my heros. same with teachers... it comes back to that email forward, that says, name a famous person and how they changed your life or somethig like that, and then name a teacher, coach, parent, counselor, role-model, etc, and how they changed their life. we remember those who directly influence our lives, and while the great and famous inspire us to dream, it's those people we come in contact with every day that teach us to believe in ourselves and pave the way... so with that in mind, i hope i haven't brainwashed my 7th graders too bad... and btw, CHUCK is famous, (nice new photo btw) but until now, how many of you would recognize him? i didn't, until in the casa he said "hey lewmonst" and i read his mudflap so check out my photo on the left - looks like commercial potential eh? so, anyone want to sponsor me? didn't think so

yeah, what chuck said

i can touch my elbows together behind my back, buncyh of doublejointed stuff, see over the aisles in the grocery store, read people's minds, rear rear float, skysurf

chuck, man, you rock. thanks... it's funny, all the tips you gave i totally understand after my first jump. my board was a borrowed old homemade board, with the front binding much closer to the fron of the board than the rear binding to the rear of the board... and both cocked at about a 45degree angle... i could get the board under my butt, but when i tried to stand, i had a hard time twisting my body to the iron cross perpendicular to the board, and i found both arms back behind me swimming for air, and off more to one side of the board... But, I loved the challenge of it, and want to buy one. I'm thinking small though, i'm in no rush to put anythign huge on my feet. i put the cutaway handle through my sweatpants and it was right on my stomache, and i wore a long sleeve T. thanks for the tip about the gloves, i have some, rarely use for anything but will try next time, after i cut the fingertips off... I practiced cutting it away 5 times on the ground... and i cut it under canopy and kicked it off at about 20 ft... landing was perfect. board in great shape. i had no problem opening, i went belly and turned the board parallel with me to throw out... it worked, but i can see why it'd be better to throw in a stand... I had no coaching or anything, just someone who knew the basics, and made 2 surf jumps, go over safety tips... not knowing how to fly it well. I do really want to get a board, so if you run accross antyhing you think would be good for me, let me know... THANKS CHUCK!! you're the best. lookin forward to jumping with you again.