CRWCheryl

Thanks, RedLine, for a well run event. Great fun! Oh, and there are 3 people who earned their CCR and CCS. (One also earned her 4 stack on that dive.) And one new CRWpup who loves the dark side!

hehehe.... I for one didn't feel comfortable enough in freefall at your camp. I hadn't had a cutaway for awhile. It's weird that the definition didn't include any information about the use of hook knives.

I am trying to closely watch all the videos you are posting! By the way, I'm pretty sure that Sergei is experienced in lightning jumps, too. I think I met him down in Florida last November. I think just possibly these posts took on that weirdness you see when you put things in writing. Sometimes they can be taken the wrong way.

Actually she has. I was trying to get her on the women's records a couple of years ago. I don't think CRW is her favorite discipline, but she has been a fabulous CRW supporter. Saskia, nice job on the CF FAI website/videos. I like that new fire breathing dragon you've got on the videos.

I jumped an AR7 for a couple of years. Tail pocket. No particularly hard openings. The landings were brutal, though. (Think 3 months with 1 stand up landing while doing team.... Not that I have fabulous landings, just it was the longest run of bad landings I've ever had.) At rotations, they were fabulous, dahling! And they are compatible with some other canopies, as long as you aren't used to compatible parachutes.

Whatever one you get, try it out on some line laying around. If it doesn't cut easily, it probably isn't what you want. You might try it out on microline, too, although CRWdogs generally don't do serious crw with microlined canopies.

Even before a CRW camp, there are things you can do to learn more about your parachute and relativity with others. The easiest is a game of monkey see/monkey do. Start with 2 people in the air. Make sure one of them is thinking of landing back on the airport. Set up next to each other. Test relativity to each other by both people going into full flight with no hands on the controls. Now, start playing with the controls. The lead person pulls front risers and stops. After the lead stops, the second person front risers and hopefully ends up in about the same original position - flying next to each other. Do the same thing, one person at a time, and test out other flight controls. Brakes, Rear Risers, maybe stalls, maybe different intensity of cross control. To get it out of your system, one time have the lead person spiral out/away and down/behind. Make sure that you are watching the follower so that they don't spiral down into you. For most CRW, spirals have limited use. They tend to put a person below and behind the formation until you have a good feel for them. (However, they are very useful in formation loads, especially when you are dropped high and in front of a formation.) When you get down AND LAND ON THE DROPZONE, consider whether your risers are set up with easy controls. Do you need your front riser blocks in different places? Are you able to pull on front risers with your hands in your brake toggles WITHOUT pulling on the brakes? Can you quickly get to all controls? Anyway.... A few thoughts on getting started, even before you are at a CRW camp.

Just a thought.... If you can list the specific rule(s) and possible interpretations, perhaps that rule(s) can be re-written to be more clear for next year. Thinking back, it seems like the CRW rules used to say something about the canopy docking being in control. That is not there now. A dock/formation that starts out with legal grips and then goes bad, well, you can get credit for it now. This message may sound out of place if previous comments about British Nationals are taken out of this thread. However, for any team to progress, they must know the rules when they are practicing for their nationals. And then they must be able to understand the reasoning behind a bust. This forum is an excellent opportunity to make things better in the future.

Congratulations! Great news! Who was in this new one? And did you learn the proper way to say arch?

Same here, but I am laughing and lovin' it!

hahahahahahahaha oops!

Used too.

Well.... I'd move up the cutaway altitude if you had a choice. If that canopy on his foot started to reinflate, the top guy would have a little more time to deal with it. However, if the two of you were communicating, I'd say you did it exactly right.

One chevron 3 way was redocked on the top chevron 5 way.... once. You can't separate very much on that. Putting the stairsteps back together can be a bit dangerous (ask Cass). You really should start with just a plain (4 way) diamond to diamond if you are inexperienced and playing with stairstep docks. Believe me, there is plenty of excitement (and pucker) as you are working out the dynamics in diamond to diamond. In fact.... you should probably get someone experienced around on that one, too.

Have you done a pullout yet? Those are fun!

Rotations today - 6 rounds. Tomorrow, the goal is sequential, but we have Tstorms coming in, so who knows. After we get a day of sequential, we're going for 8 way, then 2 way. Great turnout! 3-4 teams in 8 way, 4 teams sequential, 4 teams rotation, and around 9 teams in 2 way. Oh, and the score is one cutaway! Having a great time, but do wish you all were here! OK, I'm out of the judges fishbowl for the evening, but I've got to go back to homework now.

Hey, I saw it from the ground. Small but spectacular! (I would have joined, but I had too much fun on the previous dive and just decided not to press my luck.)

If you mount LONG hookknives on your chest strap, think about whether a twist in the harness could end up with the end of the sheath in your reserve handle. I've had one friend with a very difficult reserve pull years ago. After a fairly violent main deployment, her rig had shifted so that the hook knife ended up in the reserve handle and holding it in place. Luckily she worked it out and lived to tell about it. I've got a pillow alti on the reserve side of my chest strap. It gives my hook knife a buffer zone away from the reserve handle.

Your Dad was in on getting you those shoes for Christmas, Wendy! LOL! Maybe finding out preference for shoes might be worthy of a survey? I think I'm a bit in the minority, but I prefer the hightops - ankle protection, landing ankle support, and I like it for piloting. And, yes, Renate still managed to pull off one of my hightops in a downplane, but we found it in the grapes around Lodi. The only other time I had a shoe malfunction that I remember was when Chuckie Bacchus' brother pulled off half the sole of one of my shoes in a downplane. My toes were free, but you couldn't tell as I walked up.

You might want to go see a doctor on that. With my bad opening, I had thought I had fractured my C1 (according to an XRay interpreted by my chiropractor) for 3 months. I did have a concussion. Later on, my doctor had the Xray reviewed and said it wasn't conclusive. But regardless, he allowed me to get PT which helped tremendously. I had definitely ripped a lot of muscles in my neck and back. Anyway, I do jump with a foam neck collar now. I just don't want to take any chances anymore. Yes, I get razzed, but they hadn't experienced the kind of opening I had. It is harder to swivel your head with a collar, obviously. I've gotten use to it, though, at least for CRW. I don't see any kind of snag factor involved on it either. Oh, one other definite pro.... It's definitely nice and cozy in the winter time.

Ohhhh..... I see..... All the beer in Puerto Rico went to the waist. Its a good thing you've got another year before the 100 way weigh in, err, waist in.

Thanks, Kate, Take good care of the CRWdogs that are heading to Thailand for the upcoming freefall big way. I think you've got three of them heading your way, but there may be more. Cheryl

The row 10 wings were locked up by Liz and Annie. Girls Dock!

Oh, there is water, and aligators and other critters, cows and horses, too. Lyn and Kees and ??? landed out beyond the swamp today. Lyn introduced herself to a little critter. Shoot, can't think of the name of it, but some refer to it as possum on the hard shell. Pretty day, and tomorrow is supposed to be even better! Spirits are up. Good last dive for the base... except for the clouds. And Kirk has been showing off by spinning his 25 way above the dropzone.

Now hold on! Dirt dive is at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning. Sleep in until 7, I don't think so! We had a lot of seminars today. Actually, we've had all the seminars possible. Oh, also an incredible rubberband shoot-out at the OK corral. Not sure of the winners, though. There were occasional raids on the HUGE bag of rubberbands, though. Winds at altitude were 60 knots. After a jump, and most landing in town, we all found other things to keep us busy. Cheryl