sillie1111

ughhhh this hurts...... ~Shelly

This might be a little further of a drive, but its a much better deal! [/url]http://www.jumptown.com/aff/affcamp.shtml[url] Check it out! ~Shelly

yeah me and a few of my friends were there all this weekend hiking out the long way. Im so surprised we didnt see anything,apparently he was very close to the trail or at least thats where the cops were looking. We all thought it was just an animal. We def noticed a little odor too, and some flies. I feel bad for the poor hiker who found the body but at the same im glad it wasnt me cause a few times I hiked out alone. When we saw prob 20 or so people standing looking over the canyon wall with a bunch of cops mon, we walked over to asked them what they were looking at and some girl told me they said on the news they found a body. Funny they all drive out to the bridge to see a dead body, kind of morbid huh? ~Shelly

Hey congrats on your 1st jump! By the way those are some HOT camos you got there ! ~Shelly

Of course camo is still in weren't you at bridge day this year? I think everyone was wearing them...Really I just want to be like everyone else Besides if you weighed 115lbs and it was freezing, you would be wearing anything you had to keep you warm too.. I would have settled for regular snow pants but I don't have any im a poor college kid, anyone want to donate some cash so I can be back in style? Please!!!!!!!! Because you know BASE jumping is all about style ~Shelly

this was last weekend :) ~Shelly

Unfortunately at your size even when you get into your own gear you will either have to buy all new gear fit to you, or you will have to put up with having a rig that is to big. Chances are when you get your own gear you will still be jumping a relatively large canopy, and most second hand rigs with those size canopies are usually sized for larger people. It is hard to find a used rig with canopies bigger then 135 or so that will fit small people like us. Believe me I have been looking for a while now and have had to settle for a jav with a b-15 harness which is still way to big for me! Good luck hopefully you get lucky and find something right for you. ~Shelly

Quote: sadly the new breed of BASE jumpers (In my opinion) are not the people that make decent choices Hey Mac just a question here but who are you to say that I don't make decent decisions? Just because I'm new to BASE? You don't know much about me or my abilities to make such a statement. I have been doing a lot or research reading talking with jumpers local and non local jumpers as well as my post here to help me decide what I'm going to get for my new canopy. I chose to get all of the information I could get from many different places to be sure I got the best information I could get and to ensure it is not bias to say jumpers who have jumps on only one canopy. I wanted to make decisions based on many circumstances and view points and not because some jumper with 1000 or 1500 BASE jumps says so. I want to self educate myself. Is that such a bad thing? Should I just do as I'm told and let more experienced jumpers think for me? I agree with tr027here I will and I have decided who's advice am willing to take. As far as no one questioning Tom's post, I was questioning Toms previous posts on backsurge because from what I read in his old posts didn't make much sense to me and I have never seen it personally during the past year that I have been doing ground crew. He did a great job in explaining where he was coming from in his own eyes. What he said made sense to me and I saw no reason to question him. Now am I going to make my decision because of one post? No, nor am I going to make my decision based on quifmiester's post. My final decision will be based on my comfort level and knowledge of what is what. I'm not saying I agree that newbees should be giving each other advise I'm certainly going to take comments from more experienced jumpers far more seriously then those from newbees, but I'm not going to discount their post at all I see his advice only as his preference but just because it his preference I'm not going to go out and by myself a blackjack I'm just going to keep in mind there are some who enjoy tat specific canopy. But like I said the people who replied to me giving me concrete explanations on their view point are going to hold more weight when it comes time to pull out my "Credit Card"! Yes sadly I must be another skydiver with a credit card (insert sarcasm warning here). Thank you again to all who responded to my thread, although the initial thread was not to ask what canopy I should get it was merely to clear up some confusion about new jumpers and dangers of vented canopies it was none the less helpful in many ways. Hey look at it this way it could be worse I could go out buy all brand new gear top of the line which I could let the factory decide for me what canopy container ect.. to get. Buy myself a FJC and when I'm done take my proclaimed base jumping self (cause I will know everything) up the local A and throw myself off, but don't worry my accuracy will suck too so I will make sure I only do a go and throw so I'm open high enough to set up a great skydiving like right hand pattern and land right on the big X I'm going to painting in the middle of the landing area! Ok so who's with me come on it will be fun. We can even dayblaze it so we get cool video . Hopefully you don't take me to seriously on that last part ~Shelly

Hey Thanks! I have actually already seen this video, it does a good job showing the diff between vented vs non-vented. I actually got to see quite a few examples in person off that bridge this year, that was one of the reasons why I am looking into vented for my next canopy. We were standing at the bottom watching jumpers and you could tell every time which were vented and which were not. Most of the non-vented canopies were just scary to watch! It definitely got my mind going! ~Shelly

Wow Tom, Thank you I found this post to be very helpful in understanding the backsurge phenomenon you are referring to. It is also very helpful in understanding the opening sequence in better depth. I did mention before my friend with a vented fox almost seems to have his canopy hang when it initially opens. You mentioned "This creates a noticeable backward movement of the canopy. I've seen this backward movement stop (and the canopy stabilize in a nearly parked flight mode, sinking almost straight down), and I've also seen it turn into a full on stall (with the canopy losing altitude fast until the jumper pops the toggles and the canopy recovers by diving forward to gain speed)." Could my observations be because his brake settings are too deep? Each and every opening (slider down) looks exactly the same on his canopy pressurized then it just hangs for a second, he is very quick on his toggles so once he pops them the canopy goes right into forward flight by the time he gets to his toggles. Asfar as not wasting my money on new gear, I need a new canopy anyhow, I would like to make a trip to the prine this spring to further practice object avoidance as there are no suitable objects to intentionally practice on in the North East. I would like to stay consistent on one canopy and if I plan on jumping more experienced objects when my skills are at par, then wouldn't it make sense to buy a vented canopy now so I am consistent with my canopy? ~Shelly

Yes, but it's pretty condition dependent. A "good" brake setting in zero winds can result in backsurge in significant tailwind. So do you have two different vented canopies you use? One for no wind E or B's and one for tail winds, both with different brake settings? Or do you adjust your deep brake settings for each jump? Please note im not going to be messing my brake settings in any way i'm a long way from jumping in zero winds and my current canopy is not vented and the brake settings are fine. I'm just trying to find out what other jumpers do for these types of situations. ~Shelly

I'm just comparing his canopy to other canopies on the same jump with similar wingloadings. One jump I can remember well was a SL slider down very little tail wind, both deep brake settings, a vented fox compared to a mojo. My observations very well could have been because of the different types of canopies. But it appeared that the mojo and the fox both hung for second before moving forward. The only difference I observed was the mojo took quite a few breaths and was pressurized significantly lower ~Shelly

Hey guys thanks for the responses! So am I correct in understanding back surge can still happen even if you have good deep brake settings? Or was this because when vents frist came out there was not alot of research done and people were messing with their brake settings too much? Currently im jumping a non vented fox which I do like the way it flys and lands. I do recognize though I am only jumping easier objects now I do know at some point I will be jumping more advanced objects (when im ready of course) and will want a vented canopy. I was thinking it would be good to train myself on a vented canopy so when I am ready for more advanced object I am also under a familiar wing. I will be buying a new canopy soon as I am underloading my 225 so the winds that make it good for me to jump in also make it tough to not be blown backwards under canopy! I am trying to explore all options for a canopy. I think a vented is the way to go. It makes sense that a vented canopy will pressurize faster therefore become a flying wing faster but the reason I asked is because I have a friend with a vented fox but when he opens it appears from the ground anyways that it takes the same amount of time then a non vented canopy to start flying forward. Almost seems as it just hangs there for a half of a second or so exactly the same as the non vented canopies I have seen. My friend has also complained about the landings with the vents so he sent his canopy back to have valves installed which improved his landings considerably. ~Shelly

I have looked back in previous threads and I read tom a's first base rig recommendations but I am still a little confused about a few things concerning vented canopies. As I was reading I saw a lot of threads talking about "backsurge" when the brake settings are to deep, as well as "surging forward" when they are to shallow. I know you want your brakes set so your canopy has very little forward speed. From what I understand a vented canopy is not good for a beginner because the canopy is more likely to surge either forward or backward upon opening? Is it not possible to use an ideal brake setting on a vented canopy? Or is it just vented canopies are more susceptible to this behavior then a non vented canopy therefore shouldn't be used by beginners? Another question I had was regarding forward speed of a vented vs non vented canopy initially after opening. If a vented canopy is designed to pressurize faster then an un vented canopy does this also mean in the event of a 180 you will begin flying towards the object you just jumped from sooner giving you less time to react? Thanks! ~Shelly

Congrats! Hey and I LOVED the jumpsuit im serious about my rig it would match beautifully heheheh. anyhow glad you had a good time! ~Shelly

I never said that I was making a comparison. [/reply ] HHMMMMM "If you look at a Surfer they are tight all over. Skydivers are rarely tight all over " This sounds like a comparison to me :) ~Shelly

Hey did your did yur girl get fat or sumthing? Sounds like a touchy subject for you. Go find yourself a hot surfer girl at once. Cause there in much better shape and all, and no one wants to here you complain. Dont waste any more of your time going after us fat sky girlys we obviously arnt worth it. LOL!! This craks me up. Oh yeah did it ever occur to you that maybee some of the women here are happy with the way they look? And there whole goal in life is NOT to please you. If you don't feel good about yourself on the inside you will never feel good about yourself on the outside, no matter what you look like. We see all of these women on TV with the "Perfect body" Who says there bodies are perfect? You, so thats all that counts. A hundred years ago the perfect body was more like a size 8 or 10. Now the perfect body is a fit size 2. And maybee in another 100 years it will be a size 0 who cares? The human body is a beautiful thing even if it isnt perfectly in shape. ~Shelly

These are good! http://www.jumptown.com/gallery/The-Old-Gallery/ParodySalutation [/url]http://www.jumptown.com/gallery/The-Old-Gallery/SJuaire [url]http://www.jumptown.com/gallery/The-Old-Gallery/Kevmanbat ~Shelly

If your a guy put your feet together so it doesnt hurt as much! I landed in the cornfield at CPI my first jump on non student gear. They told me to flare at the top of the corn, and to land in the rows crosswind, if this where to happen. So thats what I did. I had a great landing, almost stood it up (Corn was only 8 or 9 ft high) but took one step and tripped over myself . The top of the corn was about my flaring height anyways so i did not have to change much, except my landing direction! I thought the advise I got was pretty good, it worked for me anyhow. ~Shelly

When is your long weekend? Jumptown in Orange ma is having a CASA boogie July 21 to July 24. It is about 75 or 80 miles from Logan Airport. The people out here have good vibes, a HUGE landing area, lots of outs, and areas where you can pitch a tent. http://www.jumptown.com/events/events.shtml Its going to be a kick ass weekend, we will be having 40 ways, new england crew record, speed skydiving, load organizing by Dennis Rook. Its going to be a good time. You should come out and visit :) ~Shelly

Ian, No one is pushing me to downsize, they just tell me i could and would be fine. Which im sure I would be fine however i love my canopy and am in no rush to go any smaller for a while. Just wanted him to clarify what he meant by 1:1 being a good wingloading, because as you know most of the people here at jumptown are very conservative and i always thougt 1:1 was way to high for someone new, but as im learning more that it is not quit as extreme or dangerous as maybe i thought it was. Still saying it is not for me yet, but not as bad as i may have thought it was. ~Shelly

I am also hearing people tell me my wing loading is to low. "Jumping 1:1 is the way to go at your experience level." Are you saying that his current wingloading of .85 is to low,or just that 1:1 is a good rule of thumb? Im confused because I was always told 1:1 is to high for someone just learning. I myself load my canopy about .85:1 and that is when im wearing my full ten pounds of lead. Is there any real danger to jumping a lightly loaded canopy? (Well other then jumping in winds but my impression is that low timers shouldn't be jumping in high winds in the first place. If student are on the ground so am I.) I seem to be seeing alot of "well i did 5 jumps on this size. Then went down and did another 5 jumps on this size" and so on. Is this the normal path to downsizing, doesnt it seem a bit fast? Its not like your going to really learn how to fly a canopy if your first 70 jumps are on all different size canopys. Also is it really a good idea to be jumping a wing loading of 1:1 by 100 jumps? even if those 100 jumps took you 2 years to accomplish? Or am i wrong? ~Shelly

Ill have to remeber that!!

YES!!! He should be flying back to Jumptown for a visit say hi to the woman for me! See you at Jumptown Steve!

Congrats on your first cut away! Sucks you just got a repack though I guess now you owe me and Brian some booze!! FYI he likes Vodka So did you get your main back? And now what are you going to do about your balloon jump, its on the first right? Is someone there going to re-pack for you? Well talk to you when you get back form AZ. stay safe!! ~Shelly