SabreDave

Interesting quote dude! Bet there are whack of of folks with the same mentality blowing the shit out of your boys in Iraq!!?? Extremism is what it is, poisonous to freethinking! SabreDave

Yes I do make a habit of being quite vocal in my country for my country, absolutely. As for complaining on the internet........my posts so far have all been direct responses to your posts. You posted/complained, I wrote my opinion, that simple. When I made that last post your post stating that the US way is not perfect had not been posted. I am glad you do see it, really. That was my whole point because it seemed like you were of the opinion that you guys do it right, everyone else does it wrong. As for standing up, well that could be a whole thread by itself as things such as trade GDP, trade, population, trade etc...... must be taken into account. Again when the bully is 10 times your size it is alot friggin harder to stand up for yourself. To be that bully and say stand up is very, very easy As China takes off and becomes the next powerhouse economy of the world and the US becomes more and more dependant on this relationship you may just get to see what I'm talking about, say in 10-15 years. AS for securing oil, well I live in the richest oil province in Canada where our oil sands reserves are friggin huge, we actually supply quite a bit of petroleum products to you folks down south. SabreDave

Thankyou Kami That is exactly what I am saying! The point is PhillyKev, you are saying stay out of US business. I get it, don't have a problem with it just the hypocrisy of you, as an American, saying this to other people. It would be nice if you country practiced exactly what you are saying. From the verifiable accounts in Kami's link to loudmouthing and threatening Canada while we are trying to decriminalize marijuana , to screwing other countries over on things like softwood lumber, steel and the insane mad-cow issue. Finally I will say, take it up with your leaders if you don't like it. That way I can say something without actually answering the question SabreDave

I have a custom built PC. Did alot of research into the MACvs. PC thing as I really like Macs. In the end, I could not justify spending more money for less power. I have a 3.06GHz (800Mhz FSB) 2 GB Ram, DVD Superdrive. I run XP pro and use Photoshop7.0, Illustrator 10, Premiere Pro 1.5, Encore 1.0 and the thing has yet to crash while editing, capturing or rendering. A good site for comparing PC-Mac or just learning digital secrets is www.robgalbraith.com PC out;) SabreDave

You mean like how your country stays out of elections or head of state placements?? Considering how many times the US has been directly "involved" in the elections of another country that remark seems more than a little hypocritical! This opinion doesn't mean I think we should be able to be invlolved whatsoever but let's make that a 2 way street. Peace Out SabreDave

I make my living as a photographer mostly and a little bit of freelance writing. I have worked for daily newpapers and I have worked for magazines. I love my job and would never give it up!! Weddings?? Yeah they kinda suck but I shot 5 this year. IN total I netted $6,000 before taxes and after expenses. My total time commitment including running to the lab etc??? About 15-20 hours. Rough figures are about $333 an hour. It is easy work once you learn how. Commercial photography kicks ass. I charge $1,000 a day + expenses. It has not been hard for me to find work. I do not advertise at all but sometimes I do contact companies I think could use me and send them samples of my work etc. I work less than 35 hours a week and have a alot of fun doing it! Some of the photogs out there that are succesful totally suck-ass!!! If you are good, you can do it. SabreDave

I have to agree wth Zep on that one. I have spent a whack of time in western European countries and I have been in the US alot for vacation and to visit the shitload of relatives I have there. Much more relaxing to be in Europe. From the amount of paranoid tension to the way authorities act towards the public makes it a whole different ball game. And in response to the start of this thread...the US is the only countryI have heard about where kids under 10 years of age have been expelled from school for pointing their finger and saying "bang"! I just got back from my 10th European trip at the very end of August. I was much more "free" to do what I wanted in Europe than I could ever be in the US. From daylight, repeated jumps from dams in Switerland to jumping cliffs in a heavy tourist and air traffic zones legally all day to being able to get a to-go cup from the pub and walk down the street or go and smoke a joint with other consenting adults without fear of a Glock in your face and cuffs on your wrists. My experiences have been that if you are hurting no one but yourself, go for it. The US gov't likes to have alot of control over the private lives of its citizens. I will continue to make far more trips to Europe even though the US border is just 2.5 hours away. Peace SabreDave

The whole Mega-pixel thing just doesn't really matter anymore, seriously. I have owned a D1H for over 2 years now and I love it. It is only 2.74 MP yet I can get 100MB images out of it! How? Well let me explain. INTERPOLATION!! Lossless interpolation to be exact. This can be achieved through software including Photoshop 6.0 and higher. Programs like S-Spline work magic. My files come out of the D1H as 4x6 at 300 dpi, say 7 or 8 Megs. I can take my image drop it in the program at 4x6-300dpi and type in 20x30 at 400 dpi and chug chug chug it goes until it brings up the resolution to the desired level It can take 10-15 minutes to make very large changes and there are things you need to know such as turning off the sharpening in the camera which should never under any circumstances be set to anything but NONE.blah, blah..... anyway, I make a living at photography and have sold images to magazines that wouldn't believe me when I said they were digi files but they bought them anyway. www.interpolatethis.com has all the info and explains this stuff quite well. They also have a downloadable action for Photoshop to interpolate. And when using Photoshop to interpolate never go more than 10% at a time. One more thing, the D1H although an amazing camera is just way too heavy to mount unless you are a freak;) SabreDave

So who has a valid and current email address for Douggs and Coombesy?? The ones they list on their site both bounced back! If you guys see this or if anyone is in contact with them tell'em Dave from Canada is trying to get ahold of them and trying to get this link to them. Thanks. http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1702 SabreDave

For most of those "stealthy jumps" off the bridge you can see all sorts of traffic going by as the jumpers exit. As for the claim of more Rad than 2nd BASE............ nah, I don't think so. Some cool shots and angles granted but the editing and style of jumps on 2nd BASE looks more appealing to me personally. Probably due to the extra "E" factor. To each his own but to me it is the "E's" that float my boat. 12 days until Norway:):)...................................... SabreDave

Just bought one 3 days ago. My buddy has had his for several months and it has performed well in the little exposure it has had to BASE. The image quality is stellar, the mic is so-so and the still capabilities are pretty average. So, great video and avg in the rest but who seriously relys on a vid cam for stills anyway?!? Compact and light also!! SabreDave

The Troll MDV is the only BASE canopy I have ever flown. So far I love it. I am 240lbs without gear and am jumping the 290. My first 3 jumps with it were from 250 feet (PCA) into semi-crappy LZ with rocks etc. Longer than expected canopy ride, great/powerful flare. First FF was from 550feet, 1.5 seconds. The video shows very fast pressurization and no "jelly-fishing" of the top or bottom skin. This LZ required a sink-it-in landing into big rocks on a 50+ degree slope. STELLAR!! Very gentle landing. I have no complaints at this point with the canopy in any way!:) SabreDave

Hey SAm

Well, I can kind of comment?!? On the size but not the loading. I have a brand new Troll in the 305 size. After talking to a few people most seem to think that any opening speed differences will be small and quite likely undetectable. That being said I am pretty green so I am interested also in other's views on this. My canopy has vents/valves and seems to open pretty friggin fast. I have a 46 inch ZP and it does its job. I am loading the canopy roughly .83 when geared up. Opens great, flys very nice and has a great flare! So far................very happy with it! Hope that is somewhat useful?! SabreDave

Exactly how high is Felix's jump??? I have watched a total of 4 static-lines and one TARD off of a local 110ft. Span It was -15C and the landing was rock-solid, frozen Canadian soil! Jesus can't be that much lower if at all!? Canopy times were probably around 3 seconds. SabreDave

A few things to consider maybe?!? Photos are all about balance in everything from the composition to the settings on the camera. I always use manual settings when I am shooting anything but that is just my preference. The light meter in a camera is calibrated for 18% reflective grey. It can be easily fooled but newer cameras are better than ever. If you were to use "sports" mode what you would be doing is tellling the camera to open up the aperature as much as possible to attain the highest shutter speeds possible. Whenever I am shooting footbal, hockey or other pro sports I am opened right up to f/2.8 to attain faster shutter speeds as well as to blur distraction from the background. My thoughts would be along these lines. If you want to use an auto shooting mode I would consider either aperature priority or shutter priority for this. If your aperature is wide open you are losing depth of field. If you shoot at f/8 you willl have the sharpest image quality possible as well as the added benefit of more depth of field (more of the pic appears to be in focus). This means if you are moving around a bit and varying your distance to the subject things will still appear to be sharp and in focus. The wider angle the lens is, the more inherent depth of field it will have. The other factor is of course the shutter speed and ensuring that it is fast enough to catch the action without blur. The reason that the auto modes seem to do the trick is that film has a wide exposure latitude so if you are off on the exposure by a even a full stop or so it can be corrected when printed to look just right. For anyone looking to hone their skills a little, try shooting with a digi SLR or shoot some slide film. With slide film if you miss the exposure you will see it as it has very little exposure latitude. That ramble might not make alot of sense to you but PM if you want to clarify any of it. SabreDave

So, myself and 3 other Canadian freaks are heading to Europe this summer for a little BASE mayhem. What I/we need is some pointers and it would be nice if a few people could PM me so I can pick their brains further, We fly into Amsterdam (hehe) on Aug.7th, on the 9th we pick up our rental car. It looks as though we can drive through Denmark (Faber??) to the northern tip and take a ferry into southern Norway. Is this so?? Is it the most logical driving route from Amsterdam? How long will it take and what will the ferry costs be? Anyone in the Amsterdam area with something nice to share? Once in Lysebotn what costs are there?? Boat rides etc., any thing that may catch us by surprise. How much does beer and food cost there (very important;)?? After 10 days or so we plan to then drive to Switzerland to the very popular valley! Best places to stay there and local contacts to get the beta and ethics from?? Costs for trams, cable cars etc. Also, we would very much like to finish this trip off with a leap off the mushroom rock!! Best company to get a lift from?? Cost?? Feasabiity? Trip of a lifetime!!!

Well, as a fairly new rig owner........ I have a Gargoyle (regular) and a Troll 290 MDV. The construction of the container is great!! Well built, well designed and it looks awesome. As for the canopy, only done 3 jumps on it but I am happy so far for sure. Great flare and again the constuction looks totally solid. It is a 290 and I am 240 pounds. It landed great at 3600 feet ASL. SabreDave

Hmmm, how about some bailing twine or maybe a Trojan tied together?? For a buck a yard or less for military spec break cord why use anything else?!?!? Really, I am asking! It just doesn't seem to make sense to me. Also, a friend showed me how to back up the break cord with another piece of break cord to ensure it all happens in the right order. Seems like a good idea for the really low stuff!? SabreDave

As for helmets, alot of the skydiving helmets out there look sketchy at best. Even if they are made out of great materials they have to be designed right to take advantage of strong materials. Also, there is no standard that I know of to compare the strengths of these lids. So, I have a Giro ski helmet that I think is made by Bell. It is perfect for skiing, skydiviing and BASE. You cannot see this helmet in your peripheral vision at all. It is fairly light and will take a friggin solid whack and absorb as designed. "I'd like to thank my helmet." A world famous quote, or it should be! SabreDave