danwayland

Thanks for this. I think you're right. I think I may be happiest working on my kneeflying as a way to add some head up capabilities to my bag of dynamic level 3 belly speed tricks. Too bad cause I think crazy legs sit daffies look a little cooler, and really I just want to look cool :) -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Nice video. Thank you. I think the knee flying in the beginning of that video is clearly a bellyable speed for her - though it may feel a bit high speed to her when she's on her belly. Just looking at her trying to move downwards during that same bit on her belly. Looks like an exaggerated belly downwards movement for her to my eyes. But she's able to do it. I think the section where she's head up daffy split is venturing into "beyond the flexibility I could achieve in the near term" territory, and I suspect the wind speed for her when she is doing that is higher than she could easily belly fly. Thanks! Great response. -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Anybody have any tunnel video of somebody flying head up daffy at speeds where they can also belly fly OK? I've seen head up flying done at belly speeds via knee flying, so I know that's doable. But I also feel like I've seen somebody in person who was in there switching between their belly and a kind of "crazy legs" head up daffy at the same tunnel speed. Is a "bellyable-wind-speed-head-up-daffy" kind of thing achievable by most freeflyers with enough practice, or is that venturing out into genetic freaks of nature only territory? Regardless of the answer - anybody got any video of something like that? thanks! Dan -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Sorcery! Burn him! That video is pretty much it. Thanks! Interesting that the flyer isn't going toward their feet. Seems like when I put my feet down I head towards them like an in face head up carve. Can't hold still. Maybe I need to play with letting my head and shoulders drop a little lower maybe.... But that's pretty much the backfly "Neo" shelf I was looking for. The feet are down, hips are straight and up. At first his hands are behind his head but then they're up high like I was thinking. Interesting. Witchcraft. -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Neoflying sounds like a great name for the body position I'd like a video of. Ideally, I'd love to see a video of somebody demonstrating the ability to fly the "Neo" position forwards, backwards, up, down, turn, and sidslide just like the videos that are easy to find demonstrating full directional control over belly, back, sit, and headdown. My use of "low" in the description of windspeed may have been misleading. I meant "low relative to speeds where a headdown shelf is comfortable and belly is uncomfortable." This "Neo" backfly shelf would ideally be getting flown around at wind speeds where it would be comfortable/easy for the same person to belly fly. Oddly, there's just nothing out there that I can find of this. It seems no more exotic than knee flying to me, but I just couldn't find any vids. -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Anybody able to post a link to somebody backflying a shelf at low wind speeds? By backflying a shelf I mean - pelvis high/straight, feet down, arms straight hands high, but at low (comfy belly) wind speeds. I'm told it's not just for carving. That one can fly around in that "backfly shelf" position in any direction. But I've never seen a video of anybody just flying that around different directions in a backfly shelf at low speeds. -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

No problem! I just uploaded it to google docs for you. You should be able to get it here: clicky pastey: http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B-3daD3nMayiNTdlNWViMGItYjJjNi00MzU2LWIxZjEtMTE1N2EyNzAzNjBi&hl=en -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

This same basic thing is posted on the freefly forums, and if posting the same thing to two categories is frowned upon, then I apologize unreservedly (I just don't know). I have a little Freefly Coaching Trapper Keeper that you might like to print out and keep behind manifest to help answer all those frequently asked beginning to freefly questions. http://danwayland.com/printable.htm and clicky http://danwayland.com/printable.htm I hope you like it, use it, and that it helps. peace out yo, Dan -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

I hear ya! I have a lot of balls in the air right now, and I swear if I didn't I would be there. You guys are always great about inviting / encouraging me to come down for these jive jams, and I really, really appreciate that. -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Exactly! I have a box with little pieces of paper with the points from the Taihiko Tournament dive pools on each one so that you can actually draw your 3 - 5 point two way dive at random. For 3 ways I also sometimes reference the VRW 4 way pool and just subtract somebody. Anything larger than 4 doesn't come up much due to the general freefly skill level in Virginia. -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Glad you like it! I'm trying to fill a void that I believe exists. There's a large group of people who make between 100 and 300 jumps a year who love freeflying, but simply can't afford (time or money) to do a lot of coaching and tunnel time (although I repeatedly state that, given the means, that's the best way to learn). These people are weekend warriors like me. Due to other things going on with career or family, they do not see themselves becoming full time freefliers or tunnel rats. But they love learning, they love teaching, and they want to be a part of the freefly community. Mainly - they want to be the best that they can be given the balance that they've struck in life. That's me to a T. And I think even though we all see more of the full timers (and look up to them for their remarkable skill), I believe that categorization represents the majority of freefliers out there. That's why God made Taihiko. An organized structure for us to learn as well as contribute to the freefly community. peace out yo, Dan -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

ARGH! Thank you. Should be fixed now. -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Hello Freefliers - I have updated the Freefly Coaching Trapper Keeper. It includes a Keep_At_Manfiest.doc that is good to have printed out at Manifest for reference. Take a look if you're interested, you can download it from here: http://danwayland.com/printable.htm I hope some of you like it, print it out, and find it helpful. enjoy, -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

I don't know if anybody could use this or not, but since I put it together for myself, I thought I'd share. The intention here is for freefly coaches to modify and print this suff out for use at their local DZ. Think of it almost like an open source freefly coaches' manual. All that I ask is that if you improve it, please send me the additions and corrections so that I can use them as well. Any materials not created by me were obtained off the web, and were already available to anyone and everyone for free before I ever zipped them up and put them on dropzone.com. All of the original sources are credited. All I did was get them all together, and in some cases, add page breaks in all the proper places such that they print out a little more nicely. http://danwayland.com/freeflycoaching/FreeflyCoachingTrapperKeeper.zip peace, Dan -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

I just searched the web, and I could not find one video of somebody backflying in freefall. Other than a tracking dive I mean. Nobody giving their foot to a tandem or taking a grip on an RW formation from their back. There are some really good videos of backflying in the tunnel, but none that I could find in freefall. I wanna see one. I backflew fairly well in the tunnel, but it didn't transfer 100% to freefall. Maybe because the rig keeps me from feeling the air, maybe because the tunnel provides a constant reference point, or maybe because I had a lot of practice in a short period of time at the tunnel, but then I leaked skills before I got to freefall, I dunno, but I wanna see somebody doing it. Anybody got anything super hot freefall backfly vids? thanks, -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Holy Crapoli! Just for clarification, I meant pics where the tandem was safely belly flying drogue out and the camera guy or tandem lurker was safely flying in a non belly position relative to the tandem. However, your, "Scariest Tandem Ever" response is also appreciated. Certainly not condoned, but enjoyed and appreciated nonetheless. I would especially like to see somebody safely backflying relative to a tandem (or RW) without the use of camera wings or sit suit and without carving. Just hovering on their back like the tunnel rats do. I worked on this in the tunnel over the winter with surprising success, and then was surprised even more when I found that I couldn't do it nearly so well in freefall (probably because of the rig? Or maybe because I didn't have the constant omni-directional relative points?) Anyways. It is now clear that I'll have to make many practice jumps to get this dialed in. Anybody else have that experience with backflying. Tunnel good - freefall bad? later, -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Anybody have any cool pics of someone flying relative to a tandem in a non-belly position? -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Not very much. If a seam or zipper does fail, I'm probably just going to sew it back up myself or pay a local rigger to fix it. They never charge that much and I'd rather not lose the jumpsuit for the time it takes to send it back to the manufacturer. However, if it was phrased correctly, it might indicate to me that the manufacturer is highly confident that the jumpsuit will go a really really long time without any patches or zipper replacements, and I would find that attractive. Again, not really. I think it does help get the name out there, though, especially if the name is prevelant on the rig. I think SunPath was smart to put the embroider the word Odyssey on the sides of all of their Odyssey rigs. Now everytime we see Alchemy, or even just regular joes in Parachutist wearing an Odyssey, it's a free ad for SunPath. I've never heard of Matter, so sponsoring some people might help get the name out there, but you might want to consider putting the name in large letters on at least the suits you give out to your sponsored people. But I think the key thing is creating a style that looks different and looks cool. -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Here's some info in a previous thread recommending cat crap. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=601104;search_string=foggy%20lens;#601104 I posted something about this a year or two ago, but I think the only thing we came up with was to mount an fxc calibration filled with with silica gel packs to my helmet. Cat Crap sounds slightly more practical, but not as creative. -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

I dunno about that. I think that if by efficient, you mean slow fall rate and a fast horizontal speed, I say the backtrack might actually have more potential than the belly track. Cool tracking dive photo I recently took - photo is actually a bit counter-prodcutive to my point because the belly guys are clearly having to arch pretty hard, but hey, it looks cool: http://danwayland.com/cgi-bin/i/030907/tracking2.jpg -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Very good tips. More food for thought when it comes to learning how to dock head down. 1. Match levels first. For a flower (hand to hand) you'll want to be eye to eye. 2. Then slowly close horizontal seperation. 3. Hover closely for a moment before taking the grip. 4. Dock and fly it for several seconds. But also bear this quote from Bruce Lee in mind: "Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was much more than a punch, a kick, much more than a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick." It's the same for us. Once we get into freeflying we analyze every little detail of exits, docks, and transitions. Move your shoulder in a little, raise your right knee, pick your chin up, etc. Then one day it clicks, and an exit is just an exit, and a dock is just a dock. So here's is the number one best tip I can give anybody that wants to get really really amazingly incredibly good at freeflying. It's the only tip that really truly works and that all freefly coaches universally agree on. Practice often, and don't get hurt So don't get frustrated. Just keep flying. I am so zen -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Anybody have a status update on Skyventure New Jersey? I found this link off of skyventure.com, http://skyventure.com/locations/newjersey/spage.htm and it indicates an opening date of January 15th, 2004. Somehow, I doubt that's still the case, though, because I'd expect to be hearing alot more hoopla about it. thanks, -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Just a follow up for the benefit of people doing future searches on this topic. Gamma correction good. Too much gamma correction does steal blue from the sky, though. Flattening out the midrange of the histogram, even better. I had never fiddled with the histogram before. Very effective solution. Were I a useful human being, I would have uploaded the same picture with the histogram adjustment, but alas, I did not upload it to the web. -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Wow. I, like, learned stuff. That's cool. Sounds like a little gamma adjustment might just do the trick. I agree that there are plenty of details actually captured in the shadows, but I was trying to bring them out with contrast adjustments which made everything else look washed out. Thanks for the new bumps on the brain. Dan -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com

Anybody know what determines shadow detail? I've noticed that in the past, when I was using good film, I've gotten really fantastic detail even if the suns not right behind me. Example of a slide (well, a scan thereof) with good shadow detail http://danwayland.com/3-18-03/wally2web.JPG With my 10D, I'm noticing many shots with nearly the same aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and lighting conditions have considerably less detail in the shadows. 10D pic with less shadow detail. http://danwayland.com/030720/lizsitweb6.jpg It's not bad, but it's not quite as good as what I was seeing with high quality film. It's not possible to always have the sun at your back. Sometimes you exit with the sun in your face, and sometimes you're looking up at a tandem at high noon. Anybody know what determines shadow detail? What setting changes to try? Whitebalance? Or do I just need to fork out for a flash. thanks, Dan -- Dan Wayland http://www.danwayland.com