lewmonst

so i recently tried to get custom tags that said "GETHIGH" but the Ohio Dept of Transportation rejected me, twice. even after i explained the whole skydiving reference... so I was thinking, What are the best tags you've seen, related to skydiving, or something just cool like that??? or maybe ones you've thought of but haven't seen, :) like GETHIGH NEVR2L8 list on...

Chuck, Too bad all your students get run off by the scary golden knights!!! (ok, before you freak, i'm kidding!!!) Raeford really sounds like to me it has the best training method (i have jumped there, solo on a load of HALOs, man that was wierd). Pretty much the cost structure of the student program goes into the financials of the Drop Zone. The Fact is, most dz's make profits off students, and couldn't survive without students. they don't make enough money off experienced jumpers. but there's really no way around it. everyone to get to the point of being A licensed has to pay out the ass, not understanding why until you sell your soul to skydiving anyway... then you get it. As for me, shit, i've lost track. did static line progression 4 years ago, took 2 years to get my A. in the process i floated from my home dz to 2 others, at which, one raped me becuase i wasn't "cleared for solo" at 13 jumps and already having done a 4-way, proved stability and tracking and all that, never failed a step and completed all manuever dives early, but made me pay a "retrain" for $50 and for AFF level VII at $150, the one jump cost me $200... but i had to jump. i'm not bitter. on the flip side, another place i went to with less than 20 jumps lent me free gear, charged me a normal ticket ($17) and a guy jumped with me to just make sure i knew what i was doing, turned into a free coach jump following to the next one with a successful 4 way launch from a cesna 182, all still under 20 total jumps. oh, and that nice guy (thanks a million joe) taught me his way of packing as well... speaking of packing - i'm all about packing my own. I never paid for a pack job, besides student rentals, until i got my brand new safire, what a slippery bastard. I must admit, i wanted to make a 20 minute call and dirt dive, so i've resorted to a couple paid packjobs and offers from friends (riggers), and most of the time, "can you just please help me put this b#*@$& in the bag", "THANK YOU!!!". but it's getting easier to pack. and i still go back to believing packing is an integral part of being a skydiver, you jump, you pack. that's it. always paying for a packer is like cheating if you ask me. and besides, whom do you trust most with your life? (ps i must add a thank you to bobo and treeboy for the guys from SGC who know me, they've helped me with my new canopy and i appreciate it sincerely) oh yeah, my point was, you can't half ass being a skydiver, all your heart money and free time go into it. i think the point of this thread was $$$ - shoot... hmmm... 4 years, 309 jumps, 1 (very expensive) BASE jump... Quincy... Richmond... one used complete rig... a cypress... a new complete rig... probably around 10K or more... SO, does anyone want to buy a SweetHog with a Falcon 235 main and Raven 3 reserve, classic colors, in great condition, less than 300 jumps, 0 reserve rides, i can't pack a mal in that if i try. i need the money "visa, it's everywhere"

bottom line______ sabre smacker's suck. :) (can't go wrong with icarus) boneheads are great, but you gotta be particular about how you use them. i have had no issues with my mindwarp with pro-track AND pc-5 in dbox sidemount, primarily i believe becuase on every opening, as i throw my BOC pilot chute, i look to the right over my shoulder and lean my head forward slighty, upon feeling line-stretch, i grab my risers behind my head to be sure they clear everything around my ears as i bring my head back to a normal position, before i go to stow my slider. haven't lost anything or even felt the risers hit my head yet. it's all good. ps, if you get a sidemount camera, get used to doing this or something, just leaving your head looking straight down will get something snagged, especially with narrower shoulder harness (my jav), although my old sweethog never got in the way. one other thing i've noticed on bonehead's elastic protrack mount, it comes with styrofoam. i use the styrofoam with my protrack in there to keep the fit of the pocket tight, and since i still had a hard time hearing my protrack, i put the protrack uner the styrofoam (cut in 2 pieces for top and bottom) in the pocket. i can still reach my buttons without taking it out, and i can hear it. i'm surprised it cracked. make sure you have bumpers. BTW WHO REPLACES protracks from losing them on a jump??? I did lose one and my pro-tek helmet in May of 2000... and boneheads will survive impact with a hanger, a girl lost hers on a jump at our dz, didn't have it clipped, and it landed on the hanger (metal roof). not even a scratch i think. she's still jumping it. nice spot though. oh, and one last comment, i'm sure lots of people on ehere know the freefly chic you're talking about, it's not hard to figure out. just so, you know.

oh just suck it up. go jump. wooha am i enthused ;) yet?

did you read the whole thread? i think we've said that already. fyi

Send the MP3! [email protected] as for slower music... i didn't think i'd like anything that wasn't very upbeat until i got my Olav video - with Floyd - total mood music, more like seeing and hearing heaven, then getting the adrenalin rush of just the jump. it is a beautiful video, in the zone... keep the music lists coming!!! i already video 4ways and friends and such, and i am going to start videoing tandems, so i appreciate the help for suggestions to add to my play list... shoot... there's a fun one by green day to use but i can't think of the title... anyone else used green day?

well, i went to quincy instead of my brother's wedding last year... but it was his fault, i'd preregistered months ago, was traveling with someone, and had a ticket for the (invisible) jet jump on friday. i was driving on wednesday... so my brother tells everyone on tuesday that he's getting married on friday. but if it was a big deal anyway he would have given more than 3 days notice :) first time i jumped, i looked up skydiving in the yellow pages. found a couple places, called, and borrowed mom's car the next day at the crack of dawn to go take the class by myself. mom calmly freaked and called my dad, after i had left. i didn't know it until i was putting on the orange (spot-the-missing-student) jumpsuit and i turned around to him holding a video camera... since then, dad has always been my biggest fan, getting to the dz before me, sometimes without even knowing if I'm even going that day. I lost my protrack and wasn't going to buy a new one b/c of $ and he offered to pay for half. Won't help pay for new gear unless i get a bigger parachute. no thanks dad (smile) but i've only gotten him to go for 1 ride in the plane in the last 4 years of all this... he's even thinking of coming to quincy this year. the more he learns about how it all works and why we love it so much, the more he likes it. he even tells me how many points we got watching through his binoculars when i land :) and watches my video de-dirts... but i doubt i'll ever get him out the door. mom's cool, after coming to watch for 2 years, i bought her a tandem for her 53rd birthday, she loved it. i must say that i've never consciously thought about chosing between family or skydiving, but i know i have and do it all the time... and in the last 3 weekends i've travelled to cleveland, deland and chicago to jump... luckily now i am only responsible for myself. but i would definately not stop jumping for anyone. it is a part of who i am. and if anyone is a part of my life, they get skydiving too. whuffo boyfriends never have lasted very long. what color is your wristband? (am i still a newbie)

i'm curious as the the best and the worst, the most overused and the most unique songs people have seen on jump videos, firstjump/tandem to freefly collections... so please list all your favorite songs and artists to use in jump videos. and specify for what kind of video. Thanks (i'll start with the most obvious: Free Fallin by Tom Petty and my favorite: Pink Floyd on video from Skydive Americas by Olav Zipser)

8 in 8 years...yeah, but like i said before, i don't think most dz's make as many jumps in a year as Skydive Chicago does on a weekend... i think they did 140ish tandems while i was there on saturday

I'm actually glad to hear you were being sarcastic and not ignorant. But i really didn't expect to see sarcasm on this thread. And you can't impart your tone of voice, and i don't know you, or hardly anyone on this forum. all i know is what you post. hance the misunderstanding. i'm sure we could start a thread highlighting the ingnorance of media and whuffo's accounts on skydiving tragedies... knowledge is golden. btw, where can you read about cypress saves? get a cypres, turn it on

my condolences to Allison's family and friends as well... I just returned from Skydive Chicago Sunday night. It's always shocking and sad to hear of such. But I do think incident reports are useful. Not the way the local paper tells it, they tend to only say so many people died, when they really have no understanding of the sport, why accidents happen, and the ratio of incidents to uneventful skydives. I can't quote you how many skydives are made on average at Skydive Chicago each day, but from what I saw as an outside experienced jumper, the operations are thorough and seem very safety oriented. But again, I will look for the real S&TA incident report to understand what malfunctioned specifically. These reports are crucial to learning in my opinion, the "what not to do". Whether it's a rigging issue, or emergency procedures, or just a reminder on how to be a safe skydiver, we all learn from thorough incident reports. Remember the recent gromet incidents? If those would not have been reported, many more deaths could have resulted from skydivers who didn't know that piece of their gear could become lethal... and we all checked our gromets, replaced lose ones, and kept skydiving. If only the general media could portray it so that the public could understand, perhaps, relate it to incidents with cars, such as the firestone faulty tires, which killed many, but becuase the incidents were reported, many others replaced potentially dangerous tires. But do you stop driving and walk everywhere, no, the world will continue to drive... And you definately cannot just say a fatality is due to the parachute not opening. There is more to it than that. There are dozens of reason a parachute malfunctions, very few actually occur in a parachute completely not opening. and in fact, if you are familiar with incidents in the last few years, there are more fatalities of experienced jumpers under a full canopy (completely open parachute) than there are due to any sort of malfunctions. Be smart, no hook turns please, as so many outside really don't understand how skydivers lose their lives, all they know are the statistics. don't be a statistic... peace

i was going to say that... just say rook. i saw the video of his tandem when he was 4 this past weekend at the freefly money meet at SDC. of course, rook won the open class. missy kicks ass too.

got 306 skydives, ~250 RW, ~20 Freefly, ~50 camera, 2 tandem, 2 birdman, 1 base... plan on doing more freefly now that i have a safe rig. starting to also have my BIC, workin on JM/I and plan to get it all, coach, TM, AFF, etc... way down the road

Hey hey, hell yeah, I did my first night jump friday night in xenia, it was awesome. did a 4 way, just launched a round and watched eachother glow... the backdrop was awesome. i couldn't believe how cool it was, i really wasn't expecting it to be any more exciting that a normal jump, but it so was. the video rocks. right on

no shit, you guys were at richmond??? cool, richmond is my home DZ. great people there. The Stewarts are awesome. Johny is cool, fun to jump with. I actually got there late friday night, to catch the Otter for saturday, and I hitched a free ride to chicago with the plane and the Stewarts, watched the 4ish way out at 5 and off we went, i slept most of the way in my sleeping bag in the back of the plane until we landed and a load was waiting for the plane, and i had to crawl out with all my gear.... what an awesome weekend, forced myself to not jump as much as i could, cuase of $$$, but still did 5 Otter jumps at skydive chicago, and got back tonight with Otter (well, a different one, Roger has 3) Oh, btw, you all should have come to chicago, not only did we jump almost all day out of the 3 Otters, they set the POPS national record from a formation load, 3 point 40 way, the freefly money meet was goin on, Rook and Mike O and Missy and rusty and all them were showing off there stuff, night swimmin in the lake to cool off with the fireworks and all kinds of stuff going on, and I heard, back home you weren't jumping at all... :( sorry you missed out. oh, yeah, and today, their helicopter arrived, and a few got the intro ride, it buzzed the hanger several times... did get storms today, but as we left they were already on Otter load 20, after 40+ on saturday. the people up there rock also. ok, that's all i have to say about that

i'm there. well, for some of it. i'm goin to hit quincy and chicago. just haven't decided which first. What's the true story about the jet? i want to jump it, but will be very dissapointed if it goes down like last year, when they didn't tell us about not having it. i gotta say though, i just got back from skydive chicago tonight, and it was awesome. if you've never been there, holy shit, the place is a resort, and it was such a blast. i'm afraid if i go there first, i'll never leave for quincy. having done quincy last year, even won a B24 jump... can it get much better than that... oh i can't wait for august. if you see a really tall blonde chick in a mostly green dakine suit, that's me... peace

quincy or chicago? maybe you'll run into me. good luck accross the pond

anyone going to cleveland for the jumprun.com boogie this weekend? or aerohio for the NSL meet? just curious

i like the helmet, it fits pretty well, i haven't baked it yet. but i got a dbox for the pc5 and have seen a few issues. I guy in Pahokee in March lost his camera in the same set-up as mine. the dbox is closed with just one strap and a plastic buckle. i've been paranoid so i add rubber bands. And i doubt this is bonehead's fault, I ordered it from pier ltd., but the mount was such that the camera was angled too far down. i had to pretty much brake my neck trying to get anything but the ground in the shot, that's beely flying, or flying camera over a 4 way, i had to have them behind me about through my legs. And this is probably pier ltd's fault as well, but the velcro for the padding wouldn't stay in place, i pretty uch held it in place till i put me head in. and the audible is horrible... it doesn't align with my ear or the hole in the padding. Cmon bonehead, that's easy. so i took the d-box off, drilled new holes in the helmet, reglued my velcro in place, and cut a hole close to hear my altimeter, which i still have a hard time hearing sometimes... but i figure that would still have been easier than trying to send it back for modifications... other than that, it's a sweet helmet, and i still like it better than any others i've tried.

i like the helmet, it fits pretty well, i haven't baked it yet. but i got a dbox for the pc5 and have seen a few issues. I guy in Pahokee in March lost his camera in the same set-up as mine. the dbox is closed with just one strap and a plastic buckle. i've been paranoid so i add rubber bands. And i doubt this is bonehead's fault, I ordered it from pier ltd., but the mount was such that the camera was angled too far down. i had to pretty much brake my neck trying to get anything but the ground in the shot, that's beely flying, or flying camera over a 4 way, i had to have them behind me about through my legs. And this is probably pier ltd's fault as well, but the velcro for the padding wouldn't stay in place, i pretty uch held it in place till i put me head in. and the audible is horrible... it doesn't align with my ear or the hole in the padding. Cmon bonehead, that's easy. so i took the d-box off, drilled new holes in the helmet, reglued my velcro in place, and cut a hole close to hear my altimeter, which i still have a hard time hearing sometimes... but i figure that would still have been easier than trying to send it back for modifications... other than that, it's a sweet helmet, and i still like it better than any others i've tried.

yes PTiger, we know that, but students don't.. i didn't want to give her another new skydive word, cypress, that she didn't know. but by 1000ft, she'd be fine, you know. all student gear has AAD's, so she'd be fine not understanding how anything worked and just falling... ps. turn it on

all you gotta do, when that thing on your wrist is at the 4, tap your heels together and repeat "there's no place like home, there's no place like home..." jump more

bridle is the chord from the pilot chute (the chute that pulls out the big chute) to the big chute. hacky is just like a hacky sac you kick around, but it's permanently attached to the pilot chute, and you grab it and throw it to deploy the pilot chute and hence the main canopy. if you're still using a rip chord and spring loaded pilot chute, the cable thing that you completely pull out of the rig and hold on to so you don't drop and owe the dz $10. next time your at the dz ask someone to show you the difference between a spring loaded pilot chute/rip chord system and a throw out/BOC. as for the bridle being as little exposed as possible, that's to prevent horseshoe malfunctions, which is where the bridle comes out and pulls the pin out so the bag releases from the container, but the pilot chute is still stowed and the lines from the bag to the rig and the bridle to the rig make a horseshoe shape. it is the most lethal malfunction, hard to get the pilot chute out to open the main, hard to clear to open the reserve, often resulting in a tangled reserve in the main/bag... maybe i just unleashed too many new terms... sorry skies

so i avoided the thread... but note how the boys attention span quickly switches from tits to cars... so no one jumped in this contest huh... oh well. kinda like the wet t-shirt contest at quincy last year, anyone remember who won that one??? it was... hilarious

glad to hear you're moving to level 3. i'm surprised your jm's gear check missed a lose leg strap. it's all part of the whole importance of symmetry in skydiving. if anything is off just a little bit, you'll feel it... get used to the bruises. it won't be the last time, even if you're gear is snug... and a whuffo is a non skydiver, that who says "whuffo you jump out of airplanes?" (what for) they just don't get it. and a 3 point landing refers to airplanes, which typically land on 2 (or even 1) wheel first, then the nose comes down or tail for those draggers, then all 3 are on the ground. to touch all 3 at once takes mass skills on the pilot... or i guess 3point could be the steps you take after a good swoop.... anyway, blue skies is like saying have a nice day blew skies