The111

OMFG, isn't that dangerous? Where were the props?! EDIT: Ok I'm starting to feel really stupid here... usually when I make jokes people don't get them, but I'm pretty sure you were joking, right? I haven't flown a WS yet so I don't know how feasible your little story is, but it sounds pretty ridiculous. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

My boss didn't write the article... I work at Lockheed Martin. But point taken... the guy who wrote the thing needs to be told SOMETHING! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Good point Quade. DW you're probably also right. As I said I don't know a lot about skydiving history, but I do know that TV rarely represents anything accurately. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

My boss in corporate America (I've shown him a WS video before) handed me this newspaper article today: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-vl-lafferty083103.story Is this true? I've never flown a WS or even seen one very close, but I thought I heard you only have to unzip something to fly your canopy. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

BASE surf actually :-P Yeh I almost wrote it that way. Now show me a picture of BASE FF! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Also, I don't think anyone really addressed my question as to why surfing is dangerous? Someone mentioned dbags bouncing off boards, but someone also mentioned that out of the "greats" who died, most of them weren't surfing when their incident occured. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

1,2,3,4...3? 5 comes next. I like this explanation a lot. One of the old threads I dug up compared WS to surf tracking speeds; it said that a great skysurfer probably couldn't even keep up with a belly tracker. Off-topic question: how do freefly horizontal speeds compare to belly tracks and wingsuit tracks? I always hear that HD newbies are "all over the sky" so I'm assuming horizontal speed is good, but coupled with the faster downwards speed makes it quite different from WS or belly. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Worst part is I use the two-handed method and grabbed my silver with both hands. :( I actually felt the reserve firing off my back (even with 50 jumps I knew that wasn't the feeling of a cutaway!) and immediately recognized my error and grabbed/pulled the pillow as fast as I could. I can't explain to this day why I did it but you can bet I do 10 emergency procedures (with visualization!) every time I put on my rig and am just itching for a chance to prove I can indeed cutaway first. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I'm left handed and recently pulled silver, cutaway (in that order!) in spinning line twists and somehow came out unscathed. Thought it's not fair for me to blame the incident on anything other than sheer freaking out and fucking up, it's interesting you mentioned the left-handed thing. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hasn't stopped BASE from becoming popular on the cult level. But then again they've (BASE) also managed to separate themselves from skydiving to some degree which maybe helps that status... skysurfing could never exist in that way since they (surf) need to exit from the same planes at the same DZ's as normal skydivers. Unless... surf BASE! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You know what's funny, and I'm sure I'm not the first to think about this... I just watched Fly Like a Pro and they were talking about landing considerations for big ways. They said the obvious: if you end up under canopy lower than everyone else or fly a high WL you should land first, if you end up under canopy higher than everyone else or fly a low WL you should land last. Here's the irony: if a high WL and low WL dump at same alti, the high WL will be under canopy much higher, but in general he would want to land first. Not sure what to conclude from all of this, except maybe the high WL's should dump lower I guess... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hmm, I wasn't aware of that. I don't know a lot about skydive history or even who the big names are. Forgive my ignorance, but what makes it more dangerous than a normal skydive? Besides the obvious, that it's very difficult to stay stable. Only possibilities I can think of, and this is total newbie speculation... - spinning so much in freefall you pass out? - deployment more risky? (this problem exists for WS though I think...) www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I searched around some old posts about skysurf but didn't really find an answer to this. I'm assuming it used to be more popular? I guess a lot of people like to do what most people at the DZ do, so if something goes down in popularity, it goes down exponentially. I do enjoy jumping with other people, but I'm gonna try it when I have the experience, even if I'm the only one left interested in it, and if I like it I'll keep doing it. :) www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Now thats what I'm talking about! That was amazing! You! fhajf fhjwa kgog fhejf ?! Im buying you a Pizza! Wow, the second Strong Bad reference I've seen on DZ.com. Not sure what it had to do with Kevin's reply though... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Get with the times, man... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Depends how many frames/sec... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Ok, sorry, misunderstood your first post. Glad it turned out all right. :) www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Umm, care to explain how you lived? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Ahahaha, I'll bet I'm more alcoholic, single, freakish, and depressed (except @ the DZ!) than most skydivers! I'm afraid with more jumps though that I will start developing a "tolerance" for skydiving and it won't cheer me up or give me as big of a natural high as it does now. We'll see... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Sux. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Me too... I've found the best solution to thinking too much is drinking too much, And skydiving of course. I jump at DeLand, incidentally... dunno the guy tho. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Are we confusing post whore with postaholics? I didn't know whores had 12 step programs... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I figured as much... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Oops, shoulda specified. I pro pack. Not sure how well I explained my confusion, but sometimes when I have the nose between my legs and I start to flake the material out to the sides around the A and B lines, it seems like I'm flaking in the wrong order, it's usually obvious when it happens... Like for example with a 7 cell I have 4 A, 4 B on each side, and there is some material between each of the 4 lines, so like 3 "flake pockets" that I make with my hands, and sometimes the material is already flaked a bit if I carried my canopy to the hangar nice and neat and didn't get it too tangled. But it the material is pushed way to the inside and I have to put effort into pulling it out past the lines, sometimes I make the stack in the "wrong order"... if this makes any sense. Like I said there are 3 flake pockets I'd make for one group/side, and there is an optimal way to stack them. The colors make it easier to tell sometimes I think. Oh well, I still feel I'm not explaining well enough... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hmm... I'm a pretty new jumper with 69 jumps and almost as many pack jobs, I plan on always doing them myself. Anyway, I have a new rig on order but in the meantime I've been renting gear. I'm getting better and faster at packing, but still have to stop and think sometimes... The other day I noticed that the striped color pattern of the 7-cell Spectre I was packing helped me out when I got confused. I was flaking the material around the B-lines on one side and it was hard to tell which order to flake in, if that makes any sense, so I looked at the other side which had fallen into place easier and just copied the color scheme. Well, the canopy I have on order is also 7-cell Spectre, but solid black with color on the center cell only. Now I started thinking that maybe I've made it so packing will be more difficult... but I'm sure there's another way to follow the material seams with your hand and determine how to stack your flakes, right? I mean, reserves are solid color, so it must be possible to make good pack jobs without alternating colors. :) www.WingsuitPhotos.com