chrishines

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    18
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Gear

  • Main Canopy Size
    150
  • Reserve Canopy Size
    150
  • AAD
    Cypres

Jump Profile

  • Home DZ
    Cross Keys
  • License
    C
  • License Number
    20005
  • Licensing Organization
    BPA & USPA
  • Number of Jumps
    1300
  • Years in Sport
    13
  • First Choice Discipline
    Freeflying

Ratings and Rigging

  • Pro Rating
    Yes
  1. I think it's possible to understand the mechanics of human body flight without being able to perform it but a coach is going to be pretty shallow if he or she has never battled to achieve what the student is trying to learn. Some of the best instruction I have received has been along the lines of "think about X when you are trying to do Y" or "look in the direction of A when trying trying to perform B". These subtle instructions are not developed by standing in the door watching others fly. Questions of style aside, it looks like Olav can fly in all of the basic body positions and has learned to do so recently. Perhaps his recent acquisition of these skills could be of benefit when coaching a student to be able to do the same? Maybe the 1,000 hr + tunnel lords have forgotten small things that were useful to them when they first learned. I will reiterate, if you want to learn VFS (style) Olav is not the guy to call right now. But if you fly at Bottrop, want to get off the net and want the experience of a long time skydiver who's helped mold our sport then I would say Olav's a contender. Give Olav another six months and Fedykin could be eating his black factory diver! None of my comments are intended to dilute the excellent services of those tunnel coaches who have thousands of hours time and have assisted students through successful programs of learning. The two main tunnel coaches I've used have thousands of hours and are considered to be real rats. I am just trying to illustrate that this is a grey area and dismissing Olav as a coach is a step too far. In the end, it comes down to the student's preference. As long the coaching is being conducted within acceptable safety limits I think it's ok for the student to assess whether they are learning and taking their flying in the direction they want to go. Incidentally, I think the tunnel itself should be responsible for assessing whether a coach is safe enough to be allowed to operate at their tunnel . If you are a student tunnel flyer looking for a coach I think you should: Ask people you know and trust for a recommendation. Look at which coaches operate at the tunnel you want to fly at. They don't all travel! Do a taster session with the coach and ask all the questions I mentioned in my earlier post. After a few sessions evaluate your progress. If you're happy with your progress who cares what anybody else thinks!
  2. I saw the French 4-way VFS team (Team 4 Speed?) with covers on their Vectors the other week. They looked nice and secure. They had additinal wraps for their handles. They told me everything was made by a rigger at their home DZ in France (Brienne I think).
  3. Andy, I think we are in violent agreement on many points! No one single person has all the answers, what works for one student does not necessarily work for another. Nobody has perfected skydiving or tunnel flying, that's why we're still doing it. The truth is, there's no right or wrong, just different ways of doing things. The most important thing is that each individual follows what they want to do. Coaches help you get there and hopefully help make the ride fun! Of course I know you coached with Olav, it's why I raised it. With 20,000 jumps and 23 years in the sport of skydiving I think it's safe to say the guy has some knowledge to share. Granted that this does not automatically translate to tunnel! We are all agreed on this point I think. But when combined with 50 hours tunnel (in the past year?) I figure he's got something to say and something to teach. If I were a tunnel coach I'm pretty sure I'd go as far down the IBA route as I could. Although I'm unsure as to the detail of the IBA's commercial relationship with Skyventure. Could Bottrop even be IBA? Sure the instructors could be IBA rated but that's not quite the same (is it?). Would the IBA go to Bottrop to train instructors? ISG offers a competing technology to Skyventure after all. How does Bottrop view getting IBA rated? Maybe things are different for a non-Skyventure tunnel employee regards getting an IBA rating. I took exception to Fedykin's arrogant, dismissive and presumptuous view especially because he was essentially addressing a point of credibility. I think the original post and subsequent contributions from Fedykin were entirely negative and critical without positive contribution. Maybe you should have a word with your friend about negativity? At the same time can you ask him to pay his tunnel bill from 18 months ago? Fedykin evidently does not have a "botheredomitter", I'm not sure he could care less about anybody else. All his posts appear to be related to massaging his own ego, criticizing or creating controversy. Well.... he got some.
  4. Rstanley0312 if you are flying like Olav, great! Big up yourself cause it's awesome to be able to do that in the tunnel. I applaud your commitment because I'm sure it did not come for free! Everybody has to start somewhere, even the lords of the tunnel. As you get more advanced I suggest looking for a coach who you want to fly like and who fits the criteria I mentioned before. If you want to fly VFS style find somebody who is advocate of this type of flying and has some team experience. If you want to Freefly, find somebody who flies like you want to. If you want to belly fly, give up cause it's boring! - That's a joke BTW ;-)
  5. You make several good points about coaching Mr. Newell, I agree with you. I forgot to mention communication! So very important when getting tunnel coaching. I agree with some of the soft skills you mention too. Interesting, I like your approach. Who taught you? Structure yes but there's often more than one way to do something. This was the point I was trying to make with the VFS reference. There appears to be a bit of a pack mentality regarding Freefly body positions and tunnel learning. Don't get me wrong, I like the VFS style body positions and I'm doing everything I can to get better at them. However, there are other ways to fly too! I kinda like some of the stuff Olav's doing in there.... I also think the IBA is great! Having said that I've also seen a fair number of great flyers come out of Bedford. Not sure why you feel the need to jump to the defense of Fedykin (again)? He likes to publicly criticize others, should he therefore not be open to similar scrutiny himself? By all means start a more targeted thread about when tunnel flyers are ready to coach but that's not how this thread was started (by Fedykin).
  6. Fedykin (Piers Roberts), I find your hypocrisy to be of legendary proportion! You are questioning Olav's credibility to coach in the tunnel? You are in no position to make any kind of comment regarding credibility. In fact, I can't think of anybody right now whom I deem less credible than you. In case you are suffering acute amnesia you still owe me and my friends for tunnel time flown in 2008! Oh and apparently a former friend of yours is still chasing you for money you borrowed from him. Interesting that you can afford to attend Summerfest and holiday in Eloy but you can't pay back nice people who let you use their discount tunnel time (oh and people who pay your car insurance). I would hazard a guess that Olav is paying for his tunnel time or has setup a deal with Bottrop. Unlike you he appears not to be hopping from tunnel to tunnel, cheating, stealing and generally trampling on people who are unfortunate enough to get in his way. I'm not sure if you've noticed but Olav's been around a while. He appears to be the kind of guy who really thinks about what he does and you would have to be blind, stupid or psychopathically arrogant to deny his contribution to our sport! It appears all you are capable of doing is criticizing!? I cite your (personal) criticism of Marco Tiezzi, another notable contributor to our sport. What's your contribution Piers? Would I get tunnel coaching from Olav? No, not right now. I'm focusing on VFS skills, there are coaches much more suitable for teaching me these skills. Does Olav have skills to teach others? Absolutely! There's more than one style of flying! Flying for VFS, wearing a black jumpsuit and a full face is not the only way to skydive! Incidentally I subscribe to all three of these right now but I only got the black jumpsuit to blend in on big ways. I looked like too much of a dick in my bright white washing powder commercial suit ;-) When I have sought coaching in the sky or in the tunnel I have asked myself the following questions: Is the coach better than me at the skill I am trying to acquire? Is the coach capable of looking out for my safety? Can they spot bad things before they happen? Can they push me but not too far? Can they assist dealing with things when they go wrong? Do I get on with them? Are they my kind of person? Are they able to have fun? Can they help motivate me? What do they charge? From looking at the video and considering Olav's longevity in the sport I think that he could answer these questions positively for many people starting out in the tunnel. Not everybody is learning for VFS! The other thing to consider is that this video is from November last year. It's very possible that Olav's personal tunnel skills have changed since that time. It's possible to change your flying very quickly with lots of tunnel time. I personally flew a lot of time during December this year and made lots of breakthroughs. I consider myself a lot better flyer now than two months ago. Piers, you're a good flyer but I suggest you stay away from any debate involving credibility. It may also be best if you do not become a tunnel coach yourself.
  7. chrishines

    Airkix coach?

    Frazer Smith is a really good coach, I did quite a bit with him last year. He's one of the instructors at Airkix but he does 1:1 independent coaching too. Ask Andy or Tevor at Airkix for his contact details.
  8. I'm looking for anybody interested in doing some VRW at Cross Keys when the weather gets better. I just moved to the area so don't really know anybody yet. I want to get into VRW and Head Down sequential stuff and am looking for like minded people wanting to progress/practice their skills in these areas. Ideally I'd like to find 3 other people so we could work on the VRW dive pool. See: http://www.vrw4way.com Reply to this thread or PM me if you are interested. Cheers! Chris
  9. Real shame cause I just moved 30 mins down the road. Gonna head to Paraclete but it's about 9 hours drive :-( Should be worth it though.... I guess any investment plan can fall apart, particularly in the current climate. Would have thought Philly would be a great location though. A few major cities are within driving distance and there are a fair few drop zones too. More than enough to support a tunnel methinks....
  10. I meant to write something about this a few weeks back.... I just got a new MXV + TG1 Black Box from Cookie and was really impressed with the customer service as well as their product. I ordered the new toys just before a trip to Florida leaving little time for construction and delivery. The delivery arrived only 3 days after I clicked the order button on their website (not bad for Oz to US!). I called to just let them know I'd really like to receive the goods before my trip. The helmet was already made up and ready to be shipped. I really like it when you call and the guy you speak to actually knows what's going on with your order. The box is precisely machined and the TG1 slides in perfectly. No need for any tweaking even by somebody as fussy as me. The helmet is very comfortable and I have confidence that the cutaway will do what it needs to if I ever need it. As for the TG1 the jury is still out because I only have maybe 15 jumps with the camera but it's doing what I expected. So far I've had better results with Auto Focus but it depends on what kind of skydive you are on. I took the Liquid 5 lens but will probably get something a bit more refined at a later date.... a good lightweight camera for general purpose use. There are a couple of threads on this camera so check them out if you would like more technical info. Chris
  11. Thanks :-) I did not think of this person as a friend, more a like minded invidual with mutual respect and decency. Unfortunately it appears I was wrong! If you get 2 mins please sign up or the group on Facebook. Or at least think twice about trusting anything that he is involved with.... I would be gutted that this guy gets to rip off more people in the same way. The other person who commented did at least hope I got my money back, which I appreciated :-)
  12. I think it's relevant to the topic. This thread is about somebody enquiring what tunnel sharing is. Be careful who you share tunnel time with and how you do it. It can go wrong! No?
  13. To clarify: I am NOT suggesting that a wind tunnel has scammed me. The two tunnels I mention are purely for reference purposes so as to help describe what a wind tunnel is. I am saying that an individual has scammed me. I use the word SCAM because I know that he has done this to others too. There maybe more people I'm not aware of who have been ripped off by him too. I think somebody who steals from multiple people in the same way can reasonably be described as a scammer!?
  14. "naive"? Well, there are worse things to be accused of being so I'll take your comment on the chin. To clarify one thing, my entire point is that skydivers are a wonderfully diverse set of people but they have proven (to me) to all share common values, well until now. The group can be viewed anonymously and you can join without providing any personal details to the group. However, please note if you are joining Facebook for the first time you will need to give them an email address. Facebook is a social networking site allowing you to make connections with people and groups at varying levels of privacy. I would like to keep the story in one place so I can update it if there are any developments. The individual in question may actually respond! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36762954554
  15. Please take a few minutes to read this group on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36762954554 Please join the group to show your support. Thanks in advance :-) Chris Hines