bliston

I was there and checked them out - both are awesome. Foam was plush and the riser cover design looks sweet (very secure, but also seemed to release smoothly). The new foam replaces the old backpad option and you can get tuck tab riser covers if you'd prefer them (can't think of any reason - besides maybe having a pacemaker - that you'd want to...) Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

Leaving for the airport in a few minutes... We're hungry for battle... 4-way, 8-way (w/Onyx) and 16-way.... Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

why not for the toggles, because then the toggles or risers might "adhere" to the riser covers on the by... that would suck. Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

I've got a Viso and and Optima and the combination is awesome! Both products have worked flawlessly since I've had them. I use a sewn in pocket in my jumpsuit forearm for the Viso, which works well and I never have to worry about "forgetting it" I didn't have any problem with the interface and found it easy to set up. I think the fact that you can get a dedicated audible w/ swoop alarms and a dedicated visual for "not to much more" than an Neptune alone make the L&B products well worth it. Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

Not sure if you were watching me, my teammate Jim, or Dennis Rook, but the secrets to having a strong head high belly stance is to have positive pressure on the air with your arms and keeping your hips down. Your head can only be a bit above your shoulders, and unless you compensate with a lot of legs out, your shoulders can't be much higher than your knees (or else you'd be back sliding). So, really, a "head high" body position could also be called a "hips low" body position. Streching is one of the keys to this, most importantly your hip flexers. By positive arm pressure, I mean actually holding air with your shoulders, arms, and hands (not pushing down the air under your chest, but "holding" the air that is slightly in front of you). This takes effort and some physical strength. The result is that it helps your arch continue all the way up your body and gives you control over more air for your upper body to work. With these foundations in place, you can be more powerful with your upper body which, in turn, allows you to used more leg power, too. This leads to faster turns and more powerful slides. You might have noticed that during over /under drills, we were cooking across the tunnel - this is only posible with a strong arms and hips down body position (you can turn fast in all sorts of different cramped up body positions, but lateral movement is just as important in FS - turn for show, slide for dough) Feel free to email us next time you're at Skyventure NH if you want some help hammering out your stance - we're just 45 minutes away from the tunnel and can get up there weekends or weekends (if we're not training..). I think people get caught up with the term "mantis" and pull their arms all the way in and just fly with their knees. Really strong flyers use there whole body and body pitch in their moves. Best way to get better is to dedicate some tunnel time just to body position and fundamental skills. It's temping to want to do all 2, 3, and 4 way in there to "get your money's worth," but most folks will get more out of dedicated solo time. I'll bet that if you took two equal (non-pro) teams and had one do 8 hours of 4-way in the tunnel and the other split up and had each person do one solid hour of individual skills work with a coach(movement work, stop drills, grip drills, etc.), that the team that worked on fundamentals would kick the snot out of the team that did all 4-way. Done rambling for now.... Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

Awesome to work with you guys this weekend! I hope there's time in Radical Confusion's training schedule for another tunnel camp this season, but if not, we'll look forward to seeing you at nationals! Feel free to drop an email or PM if you guys ever have any questions about stuff. Take it easy, Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

I think it's BS that the French got to do that round 3 times. Especially since that sqeaked them in front of Italy for the Bronze. Of course they're gonna rip it on their third try... ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

Purpose is for the wind tunnel. I want to be dumping footage down real time so it's accessible immediately after we get out for debrief. When I hooked up the camera, the recording image was "showing up" in iMovie, and it even let me click "import" while recording, but I could seem to actually capture a clip. Thoughts? Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

I'm replying just because I know Laurie and Rob are sleeping no more than 3 hours a night these days doing everything they can to take care of their staff during the evening training and everything they can to assist with construction work during day. I don't think they'll mind me filling you in that the delays have been typical construction delays - siding guys that got behind schedule, painting guys that got behind schedule, etc. Laurie explained it as - you need to do A, B, and C, in that order, before moving onto D, E and F and if one construction person messes something up it can hold everyone else back since each step needs to be done in order - her exact words might have been different, but that was the gist of it. That said, the place is looking great! They're focussing on the finish work now and some of the counters are already in. Paint, doors, and cabinets are getting installed as I type. The layout plan is awesome and I think people will be psyched with how user friendly it'll be to watch, creep, debrief, etc. You'll even be able to look through a cutout in the second floor and watch people flying while you're signing up at the front desk on the ground floor. The owners are stand up folks and wouldn't say "by the boogie" if they didn't believe it to be accurate and I know they'll work their fingers to the bone to make it happen... Patience peeps - it's almost here. We should all be happy to have the fastest tunnel in the world in our backyard and trust that they want it to be open for business even more that we want to be their customers.... Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

I've got an Optima, and it DOESN'T record info. But, I also have a prototype Viso, which does (records info on the last 200 jumps and tracks total jump numbers). The combination of the two is awesome, and because the MSRP are fairly low - it might be worth the few extra bucks to get both a visual (small, light, and accurate) and an audible rather than just a higher priced audible that beeps and tracks stuff. I've found the "under canopy warnings" on the Optima usefull.... check out http://www.l-and-b.dk for more info on their products. Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

"Big enough" to turn pieces is a relative term. A few years ago, Airspeed apparently was able to execute EVERY block as a 4-way in the Orlando tunnel. The NH tunnel is certainly big enough to fly most if not all 2-way pieces. The more experienced the team, the more people you'll be able to safely fly in there. We've found, though, that we get more out of using the time to clean up all of our individual flying and work out 2-way piece stuff (and some four-way random work) - rather than spend a lot of time doing 4-way blocks. I remember being very humbled by the tunnel when we first got in... We weren't ready to do 4-way for a while. Especially if it's the first time for most people on the team, I'll plan to do a bunch of solo and pair work to get the most out of your first camp. Of course if everyone is doing well and flying on their centerpoints, then go for some four-way random work... It's just that it can be demoralizing if you rush into 4-way and spend all your time banging into the walls. If you build up gradually, everyone will leave happy... See you around! Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

I'm not sure what safety concerns you have - but the tunnel is running just fine. My team has had the opportunity to fly in Skyventure NH (during some downtime in staff training to see how it was for 4-way) and it is fast, smooth, and copes with a body being against a wall better than any non-recirc. tunnel that I've been in (orlando and perris). We were also in there during some nasty storming outside and even with the doors open didn't feel a bit rain. When I say smooth - I mean a noticable difference - the airflow is clean and I never felt any turbulance. It's got eight panels instead of ten, so the corners are a bit deeper (it's a little bit bigger than perris and orlando) and it's well lit inside - they've got lights above and below. Last impression is that the sucker is FAST, when they were just cranking it up I saw airspeed hit 160 and I'm not sure that that was max power. All of us on the east coast are in for a treat! Construction progess is moving along well and they'll be open to skydivers and the wuffo public in August! Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

Here's a couple more.... Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

Main D-bags are labeled with gold lettering. Just compare the container size (written on the tuck tab under the ring cover where your data card is) to the one stamped onto the d-bag. Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

chris, PMs back to you were blocked, the answer is "yes," the viso can be used as a real time speed meter OR a altimeter. In either mode, it still tracks the jumps and can play back you speed in real time once you're on the ground. It also logs the other stuff - exit alt., freefal time, top freefall speed, opening alt., and top canopy speed. It'll show you your speed in either TAS or SAS and in feet or meters (it's pretty easy to adjust the settings. ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

I've been jumping a beta model of the Viso in combination with the Optima and I couldn't be happier. I get the freefall and swoop alarms out of the Optima, which are ultra accurate, and the easy to use visual and logbook functions out of the Viso. I've got a forearm pouch for the Viso that's comfortable and working out well (it's so light and thin the only time I know it's there is when I need to look at it). I couldn't be happier with the how the two devices compliment each other and promise that it'll be worth the wait - and with the prices as competitive as they are, I don't know why people wouldn't go for getting both a Viso and an Optima for just $90 more than a Neptune (or just $50 more if you go don't want the swoop alarms and go with the Solo). Feel free to PM me with any specific questions, but I think the L&B website is pretty up to date with what each product does - http://www.l-and-b.dk Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

I heard from them (back a few years ago) that they didn't coat their reserve lines because it helps maintain elasticity and softens opening shock. If this is the case, I'll gladly put up with having lines that demand a bit of extra care to avoid hook fastener (I've had a high speed mal and had to deploy a Dash-M - it sucked ass). I don't pack much else besides PD reserves, so maybe I'm numb to the issue - but I haven't run into problems, even with other PD reserves... Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

I've got a similar FTP set up and arranged it so that the still base is facing the outside to avoid riser issues and the remote plug is on the bottom so that it's protected (just drilled through the top plate). Other things that I did were: 1. mount the sight on the front and encase it in foam (to minimize snags, though if I had more time and patience, I would have mounted in inside the shell). 2. Made a foam cradle for the still (I just use a screw rather than a quick release because it cuts down on the weight and there's no reason to pull it off between loads since I can change film with it on). 3. Flush mounted the cam eye (be sure to mount it high enough so that the internal frame of the helmet doesn't press on it. I did mine a bit too low). Is that a newer HC camcorder. If so, how are you goiing to dub without pulling it each time to stick it on a docking station. I use a box for this reason? Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

For the Advanced class fantansy meet, "at their prime" is a tough term - Mass Defiance is getting faster every training weekend and will continue to do so over the next two years. If prime is just for the "winning year," Identity Crises would probablly take us. However, if you're considering prime to include our progress this year, I think we'd edge them out. And once we getting going with our weekly time at Skyventure NH, forget about it... we'd toast 'em. I think also in the race would be Gravity. On a good day with no video issues, the fantasy meet might be their's.... those folks can FLY. Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

13.2 - 15.5 - 13.7 - 14.7 - 13.2 - 15.4 winning scores over the last six years... go to http://www.omniskore.com/results.htm for the full scores of advanced from previous Nats. Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

Awesome! Keep us posted on when we should throw the "moving air" party! I know opening dates will be down the line from that point, but I think I can speak for a bunch of us that we be psyched to raise a glass when the fans crank up for the first time... or have they already!?!? Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

New England Skydiving League Meet 2 is happening at Skydive New England this weekend. Meet 3 will be at PSC on July 22 and 23. Highlights are: 1. No need to have a team, come on up, we'll get you jumping (complete teams also welcome!) 2. Meet Starts on Sat. at 8:30 am - 6 jumps total (we'll continue Sunday if weather gets in the way) 3. Free coaching from Mass Defiance 4. The only cost is YOUR OWN slot! No registration fee and free video slot! 5. Free t-shirts for winners and a raffle for all participants 6. DVDs of all jumps will be available, and also for this meet, 7. Free demos from PD - Spectres, Sabre 2s, Stilettos, PD Reserves, and more! For more info http://www.massdefiance.org/NESL.html Thanks, Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

In my case, not carefully enough. This week I was embarassed to find a small tear (about one inch) near the top of my reserve pilot chute. I had opened it to replace the closing loop with a slightly shorter one. I had had a mal during a training weekend on a month ago (my second live skyhook assisted deployment, by the way) and while I thoroughly inspected the reserve, I gave only a quick look over the rerserve pilot chute. Probablly nothing that it would have compromised the system (especially in a low speed mal b/c of the skyhook), but it still made me feel like an ass. It got me thinking that while I'm paranoid and anal when I'm inspecting and packing for others, I haven't always looked out for numero uno as closely. I'm not posting this incident to get hugs and cuddles or punish myself with a little public shame, but just to remind other riggers to treat their own equipment with the same care and attention that you give to your customers stuff. Maybe I'm alone in being a bit more lax with my gear, but I guess it's worth the typing if even one person catches something on their personal rig that they wouldn't have without reading this. Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

I've been jumping a beta model and I have been thrilled with it. It's light, easy to use, and has performed flawlessly. I'll echo that it'll be worth the wait. It's awsome to have a super long battery life and not have to deal with an "on/off" switch (it just says on all the time. Built in time/date display is a bonus. There's never a clock visible at the DZ (kinda like vegas to keep you there spending money....) and I generally don't wear a watch while I'm jumping. Ben Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!

Flat Top Pro, HC42, Cannon Rebel X (22.5-50 Sigma lens) 35mm, I used closed cell foam (w/ gaffer's over it) for the still cradle and to enclose the front mount sight - I'm a paranoid SOB when it comes to entanglements. I routed the still switch and the cameye up through the top plate to keep the wires internal, and resessed the cam eye button into the side. The cutway is Bonehead's new one - which I mounted dead center rather than off to the side to make it more accessable by either hand. Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website sticks!