daless

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Everything posted by daless

  1. Addictedwebzine seems to be a site that is attempting to use small tight nit groups like skydivers to drive their ranking up. They are recycling old fatalities and news worthy incidents. I don't know if mods can block clickys for them, or ban posts that link to their site, but they should if they can.
  2. Feel free to share it. I believe I posted it on his memorial page but if there's somewhere else you want to share it go ahead.
  3. Crazy that he went from dental surgery. I feel compelled to tell one of my favorite Scotty Carbone stories. As a new jumper and packer at CK in 97, I ended up packing for Scotty during the 100-ways. I had no idea who he was nor was I aware of his reputation for trying to pay packers with food, coaching, beers or anything else that wasn't cash. Nor did I have any idea of his reputation for low pulls. He was jumping a batwing...one of those with that distinctive pinkish/purple pattern and a reputation for slow openings. I was blindly packing as I was taught...roll the nose, cram it in the middle, wrap the tail and set it down. Scotty comes in after the first packjob, sets his rig down and looks at me: S - "What's you're name kid?" D - "Daless." S - "Nice to meet you Daless...JESUS FUCKING CHRIST DALESS, I'M PULLING AT 800 FEET!!! I CAN'T HAVE OPENINGS LIKE THAT!!!" S - "Pack it again but speed that son of a bitch up!" This time, I didn't roll the nose. About an hour goes by and the next 100-way attempt lands.... S - "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST DALESS! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU I COULDN'T HAVE OPENINGS LIKE THAT. PACK IT AGAIN AND YOU BETTER SPEED THAT FUCKER UP!!!" I sheepishly grab the rig and start packing it as he storms out the door to the back deck where his van was parked. I turned to my buddy and asked if this guy was gonna go in before he paid me. His immediate reply was, "that's Scotty Fucking Carbone...he's not gonna go in, but I wouldn't count on getting paid." Before I could even start packing the chute, he comes storming back in with a big old steak knife in hand. Scared the hell out of me to see this (to my 50 jump brain) crazy SOB coming at me with a knife but before I could react he said, "let me see that real quick...." and he took the knife to the slider basically cutting a huge X through the center of it. "OK" he smiled, "now pack it!" Those were my first years in the sport and Scotty was such a larger than life personality...I was just trying to figure out how to not get myself killed and here was this old grizzled ball of energy that seemed blissfully unaware of his own mortality. He absolutely blew my mind. I would also say that I saw the worst and best of Scotty in those years. That same weekend I saw him viciously berate Joe O'Connor (a relatively new jumper at the time) late night for going low on the 100-way...I mean just pure mean and nasty, I actually thought Joe might cry. I also saw him drop what he was doing to run to his van and dig out a tux (which he of course just happened to have with him) to give to a guy he didn't know who was going to get married on a skydive at the convention in 98, "You can't get married without a Tux! Hold on, I'll be right back!" A rare personality and just the kind of person who made skydiving special.
  4. Pretty sure this thread is a troll and this will get lost in the noise, but I think UPT should require this as well. When I took my rating there was another jumper who wanted to take the course with me who had a very hard time finding people who wanted to put in writing that they recommended he become a tandem instructor. I don't think it will really keep bad apples out, but it can be a wake up call for people when they go to a guy they respect and ask for a recommendation and he tells them no. It also helps foster a mentorship attitude from the senior jumpers because they don't want someone they vouched for being a shitty instructor.
  5. In the fatality thread, it was implied that the IE forged the signature of a legit IE on the applications for the instructors he gave ratings to. Is this true? Also, did the USPA make any effort to alert DZOs of this IE's suspension at the places the IE was known to be running ratings courses? I feel like the explicit answer to these two questions is kind of important, since it speaks to Bill's culpability. Perhaps the investigation is still ongoing and they can't comment yet but these are the things I'm still wondering about.