lauras

Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers : Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them, and Perfected Them, by Michael Abrams Saw it in the new non-fiction section in the front of the store!

Ahh, my misspent youth! Was picking up a pot of pasta off the stove to drain while I was drunkenly blabbing away. Didn't notice that I had set the tea towel I was using on fire. Dropped the pot full of boiling water & pasta, flapping the tea towel around like mad and set my hair on fire. Luckily, I was wearing shoes (I'm usually barefoot in the house) and didn't burn my toes right off. Not too much hair burned off and we were too drunk to eat anyway. The dog took care of the pasta later so all I had to do was throw a bunch of towels on the floor to mop it up. I'm far too mature to do that now!

Ha! We'll have a box of Depends and a 200+ sq. ft. canopy waiting for you at the beer line!

Oren registered 11 teams for Skydive City's 4th annual Srambles. With a dedicated Otter, he got all 4 rounds in 12 back to back loads, which was sweeeet!

The crown is up for grabs! Three time champion team captain, Alicia Wolfe, will NOT be at this year's scrambles. I'm putting my money on Bu. Or me. Or Jody. Or Mike. Great prizes from Larsen & Brusgaard, Skyventure Orlando, PD, Sunrise Rigging & Sunshine Factory. 4 tickets for 4 rounds + $20 for video. Lots of beer & plenty of public humiliation for everyone! Registration at 8am this Sunday. See ya there.

Wha??? I don't know of a single dealer that will do a full assemble & pack for free... unless they're "building" that cost in somewhere else on the invoice.

I doubt that he'd catch a break from L&B... after all, it wasnt' their equipment that failed, broke or damaged the helmet.

Ha ha, very funny muthaf*cka! See me for your ass kicking this weekend. This thread made me think of another time there was a debate about what an American looks like... http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1388820;#1388820

So, is this just a brown person thing or are you extending the green card request to anyone with a foreign accent...say, like at the nearest Irish pub or Russian deli or Vietnamese restaurant?

There are already enough people signed up to make 6 teams! If you're anywhere in the state of Florida, it's worth the drive!

Oren's loads his Katana 120 at 2:1 with no problems at all, so I don't see why loading should be an issue as long as you can have consistent good openings. One of the instructors at my dz also had discectomy and fusion of C4-5 and her Crossfire has been treating her extremely well post-op. Then again, none of us wear stuff on our heads, so only you'll be able to gauge how your neck is doing. A small Spectre or Triathlon lined with Dacron can be pretty fun, even though it has "thick ankles"! Tony Hathaway (www.tonyhathaway.com) does about 1000 camera jumps/year and has a Spectre 120 with dacron that he loads at about 1.5:1. That man swoops the snot out of that canopy. Seriously, he easily gets through the entire length of our pond on rear risers, gets grass stains on the stabilizers when he's carving it out, and generally makes most Velocity pilots look like a pack of candy asses! Anyway, keep up with the physical training - we're all stuck with it for life now! If you can see a Pilates trainer, I would highly recommend it. Try to find one who is certified in Reformer, Cadillac & Arc Barrel. You'll learn an entire new way to position and strengthen your shoulders and neck and become very aware of spinal placement. It's a little neurotic and obsessive as far as exercise goes, but I figure it can only help and I'd really like to avoid more surgery down the line. Not skydiving for 6 months made me a horrible creature to be around!

I had discectomy of C4-5 with fusion in December 2003 and The Big Man had discectomy of L4-5 in October 2005. Both of our herniations were due to degeneration and were exacerbated by relatively small things like slipping on ice and a couple of whacko Velocity and Sabre I openings over a couple of years. In my case, the herniation weakened my right arm and hand so much I couldn't lift a glass of water and I had constant shooting pain in the right shoulder. It was so much fun!! All symptoms were immediately alleviated post-op. I took 2 months off of jumping before the surgery and another 4 post. I slowly started jumping again, changing my canopy to a Spectre lined with Dacron for the softer, springy openings. My jumping has picked up in the last year, and it's not a problem to jump all weekend. I do have to be careful about stretching and I really feel it if I don't. I've also recently taken up Pilates (check out www.stottpilates.com) and even after just a couple of weeks, it's been a huge help with overall strength building and postural training. I've since switched canopies to the Pilot (also for the soft openings) and am now on a Katana. However, I've held onto my Spectre for those events when I know I'll be jumping quite a lot in a short amount of time or whenever my neck and shoulders aren't feeling quite so strong. Oren's herniation made his sciatic nerve go completely crazy, to the point that he couldn't stand up or walk for longer than 1 or 2 minutes. Life was impossible. As with me, his symptoms were immediately gone after surgery, with some residual numbness in his right foot that went away over 3 weeks. He had quite a lot of PT, involving mostly core and isometric exercises. After about 4 months off post-op, Oren started slowly jumping again, also with a Spectre lined with Dacron. Now that he's jumping more regularly, he's back on his Katana full-time but the Velocity is still waiting in the wings. I think with careful planning and listening to your body, you can come back to full-time jumping. You must be patient, though. Make sure you have a canopy with more forgiving opening characteristics. Pick "perfect" days to jump. Give yourself a season or two to pick up the pace and constantly monitor the health of your spine! Having a great surgeon who is also a very active athlete was a big bonus for us. We're on Dr. John Small's Family Plan! Good luck & let me know if you need any further information!

i'll second that emotion. my packer's also a rigger so does that mean my gear's in even better shape??

Aerodyne.

http://www.nak.no/fallskjerm/ Try the Norvaygens...

Holy crap! I thought I was the only person born & raised in San Francisco!!! St. Mary's on Stanyan... You? To the OP: I was just back there last week. I'll second the deYoung and the Japanese Tea Garden in GG Park. The Museum of Modern Art is pretty good as well and in walking distance from the shopping in Union Square. You'll also get the aggro homeless experience, but it goes with the territory. PM if you'd like restaurant suggestions. I did take my parents to the Cliff House for brunch (my dad worked there as a waiter when he was a student) and was pleasantly surprised for a "tourist" spot. The view is great too.

Sprungli (can't make the umlaut...apologies in advance) for commercial,Jacques Torres for boutique. There's also Maison du Chocolat but the people that work there act like they're the last of the Romonovs. The Big Man and I call the Madison Avenue boutique Maison du Fuckhead.

Thanks, everyone! Craig's List would have been ideal if I had my act together a couple of weeks ago, but no dice at this late date. Oakwood wants a 3 to 6 month contract (I don't like LA that much!). So an extended stay type place it is. Townplace Suites by LAX. Not the ideal location, but it's reasonably priced and available and right now, that's all that matters! Cheers!

LA peeps: Do any of you have any leads for a corporate apartment (or hotel suite with full kitchen) that rents weekly? I need a 2BR starting either this Saturday or Wednesday 2/22 through 3/8. Los Feliz, Silverlake, Hollywood Hills, Wilshire, somewhere around The Grove, but at this point I'm starting to freak out so anywhere in LA is OK now. I'd like to keep it at about $1000/week. Any info is appreciated!

a new skyventure is being constructed in manhatten. on a barge, no less. should be ready sometime this year.

I hear ya! Toro totally plays a big part of my Lotto fantasies.

I think rolls are great for lunch, but I'm a sashimi/nigiri gal myself! I'm not as bad as my brother, The Sushi Nazi (tm). He'll have the occassional handroll, but otherwise, they're just yucky chunks rolled up in some seaweed. Total snob. The Sushi Nazi's Method (tm): You must start off with milder flavored fish (toro, amaebi, etc), building up to the oiler/stronger (saba, uni, etc.) and then finish with the cooked (unagi, hamachi collar, etc). I like to finish with the milds again if there's room, but that's just me.

There was an article about Timmy Treadwell in Vanity Fair a couple of years ago. It basically concluded "the dumbass asked for it." Interesting read about someone's complete self-absorption parading around as nature's savior.

No need to suspect any funny-business. Like all companies with excess stock, it's within Aerodyne's rights to have a sale. I'd suggest researching the fabric change from the Triathlons of old to the new & improved version before slandering the company. It's exactly the same stuff the rest of the fleet is made of. Yes, the hand feel of it is a bit different from the pre-2003 Triathlons, but it's still excellent zero-porosity - the same stuff you'd get from PD. People got really bent out of shape about how "soft" the cordura felt on the Icon when it was first released, equating it with sub-standard, cheap material, when in fact the denier is higher than that of the cordura used at Sunrise, Sunpath, etc. Surprise!

Pig Candy: Mix up some brown sugar and a little bit of cayenne on a plate. Roll each strip of bacon in the stuff. Broil on a rack on top of a cookie sheet until crispy. Prepare for rioting if there are people in your house.