bert_man

i got through at about 7:52 or so, and the guy said there were two rooms left, then "Oops, one was just taken, there's one left. Would you like to make a reservation?" "FUCK YEA I DO!" -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

I just reserved the last room at the holiday inn for bridge day! You may commence ass kissing now. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

6'5", but I can deal with a tight fit (My skydiving rig's already a bit small, so I'm used to the discomfort) I was born in december of 1985 I weigh about 200-210 lbs depending on how much food I eat the day before I'm going to BD to make my first jump from a relatively safe object, and also soak up as much information and meet as many people as I can I will attend the FJC, as well as the packing course and all other available courses I don't understand the last two questions. Are you looking for a personal reference who could provide testimony of my attitude/abilities? Or are you reminding me that I will likely get hurt or killed in the sport, sooner or later? I'm very interested in the extra gear. What do you have? Send me an email or PM if you'd like. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

Here's what I've decided. I'm going to try like hell to get good gear before BD, but I can't afford to rent right now (I've already cut back on beer to pay for the hotel room ). If I don't find something, I'll just jump my vector (very, very carefully). I'll save some money to buy a real base rig this winter (as well as a new skydiving rig) and take a good first jump course first thing next summer. Thanks to everyone for all the input! -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

Actually, barring an acute MI, you have an extremely good chance of making it to the ground alive. Making it back up onto your feet afterwards is the main issue. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

I used to get them almost every night after I first started. Usually, they would be *really* lifelike, very good 2-way freeflies that would last for a long time. After about 5+ minutes of screaming thru the clouds doing stuff that would make jimmy tranter look like an AFF student, I would realize that we had lost altitude awareness/double malfunction/etc, and I would track into some trees or something, bounce, and end up rolling across the ground at a high speed. Then I'd stand up, dust myself off, and find my buddy and give him a high five and talk about how awesome the jump was. I'd wake up in the morning completely psyched, ready to go out and do another one! Then I'd go to the DZ (in real life) and marvel at how much I sucked in freefall (compared to my perfect dream) and then suddenly remember that if I didn't pull, things wouldn't turn out as well as they did in the dreams I really wish I could get those dreams back with the same intensity and frequency that they had last summer. They were so lifelike it's scary. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

I made the decision when I was 13, when I talked to a then-AFF student that I randomly met through a family friend. I decided that on my 18th birthday, I would make my first skydive. My 18th b-day rolled around, and after looking out my window and seeing two feet of snow (Dec 1, cleveland, ohio) I figured that I might have to wait a month or two. Once the snow melted I called the nearest DZ and tried to sign up for their first static line class of the year. It kept getting delayed, and I called them every week until I eventually talked them into running a class. My first class had a total of two people in it. That was April 3, '04. I'm now 19 w/ 180 jumps. Fly Free! -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

http://www.lukeoliver.com/thesis/ http://www.apf.asn.au/apf_admin/downloads/hpcanopyhandling.pdf -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

Here's what you should do... Make a real tetrahedron out of bamboo, then just grab six random DZ bums and tie them up to it. For added effect, try hooking leonardo da vinci's first parachute (the pyramid-shaped one) onto the top corner. Then wrap christmas lights around it and tie cowbells to it and drop it over downtown cleveland in the middle of the night and see how many UFO reports come in! -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

I'll just wrap a 'Go Fast' duffel bag around it, then after I jump I'll just pull it off and dump. As for the gear, sure, it looks like a deformed, shit-stained pillow, but it still works exactly like it should. [knockOnWood] I don't see any reason for it to pick this jump to fuck up. [/KnockOnWood] As for the $200 to rent, arent base containers only around $600 anyway? And, Finally, VISA has been my proud sponsor for quite some time. Unfortunately, they've lost interest in me, and won't give me any more money -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

On my 10th or 11th click I got "embrace sexy models!" I'll have to use that sometime while talking to a client -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

25x25 gravel area. Pea gravel -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

Yea, the bruislite is pretty ragged out, but I jumped it for much of last year and now I can do a killer PLF (no pun intended). Jaap - by jumpgroup do you mean the four 113-jumper groups dictated by registration date? If so, being the 5th last to register, I'm probably in the fourth group Tom - I found that rental gear costs around $200, which is far out of my price range. The loaner gear idea sounds great, however, and I'll talk to a few base jumpers at my local DZ to see if I can work something out. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

Hello all, I just purchased one of the five remaining jump passes for bridge day. Now I'm committed! I wanted to do it last year, but it never happened. I have one main concern, however. I don't have BASE specific gear! I've been told by various people that I could jump my 1983 Vector I (skydiving rig) as long as I made some modifications to it and used my old F-111 Cruislite 220. Modifications such as a large pilot chute, long bridle, no d-bag, mesh slider, etc. I've also heard that rental gear is available. My funds are limited, but I would also like to avoid becoming a bridge day statistic. What do you all suggest that I do? I'm sure that everyone will suggest that I rent proper gear, so can anyone clue me in to how much it costs? Also, would it be reasonably safe to use my skydiving rig with the required modifications? I've heard that this is relatively common. I've even heard that there is enough time to use your reserve with a short delay, though I will definitely not be placing much faith in that claim. Also, I apologize if this post breaks the 'don't mention location names' rule. I figure that this event is large enough and legal enough to be spoken of openly. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

I've been jumping without one since I got off of student status. Had one or two rather close calls with other people in the air, but I haven't lost track of alti yet (knocking on wood). If I could set aside the extra cheese to get one, I would. At this point, I can't afford one, so why sweat it? -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

It was my first convention, and I had a blast! Demo'd two very nice canopies, flew my first wingsuit (beer), jumped out of a wide variety of aircraft, enjoyed much free beer, loved the toga party, and co-founded the blu-tod-hos (read: blue toed hoes) Also, I think I saw your cutaway. It was on monday, a spinner, opened the reserve at maybe 1000 feet or so, on the other side of the 'landing' runway from tent city? If so, your delay had me quite worried after hearing about the saturday incident. Good save, though. edited to ask billvon how he got a free HALO jump!? The envy is leaking out of my pores.

-Hooked up a demo canopy wrong and jumped it without doing a full continuity check (one full twist in front left riser) -Hooked my own canopy back up on the same day and jumped it, only to find 1.5 twists in the front left riser, 1 full twist in the rear left riser, and 1 twist in right front riser (both times I was hurrying for a load, and had to transfer canopies between one set of risers) -Reached for my hacky to deploy, only to find a released brake line in my hand with the toggle flipping around in the air behind me -Once found myself deploying directly above another fully-open canopy, and saddled out about 200-300 feet above it -Banged my head on the tailgate of a casa while running and jumping out (no cypres, but had a cheesy gath helmet ) -Landed in the weeds while over/undershooting the target (at least 20 times, probably more) -Barely missed trees while landing my round reserve after a cutaway (which was caused by mismatched toggles on my 1982 vector 1 risers) -Forgot to look for DZ on a 2-way CRW jump until 5,000 feet (landed 2 miles away from DZ) -Got very close to a really bad midair collision on a 3-way freefly jump (no cypres, couldnt stop shaking for about 20 minutes) -Hummed down to 2000 ft on a helicopter jump (it was a stupid idea anyway) then had a hard pull that took ~3 seconds to clear (due to sloppily packing my pilot chute) -Somebody grabbed my reserve handle in a head-down dock and almost pulled it -I ran to the plane once, only to realize that my D-handle had popped out of the pocket and was banging into my chest with every step -Forgot my altimeter a bunch of times (no audible or cypres) -Joined a few magic carpet rides with my fellow muff brothers (a few very bad judgment calls ) -Got to the front of a tracking dive and happily kept tracking straight for a while without realizing that everyone else had turned around and flown back to the dz This list is probably surprisingly long for someone with only 176 jumps, but I guess I'm still alive and kickin' (for now). I can, however, say that I have never owed beer for landing on the runway

aww hell, $65 for one weekend!? fuck that... -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

thanks! -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

I'm trying to find the icarus website to get a demo of their safire2 159. I jumped one for 3 jumps at the wffc last weekend and it was great. www.icaruscanopies.com doesn't work. Is this the wrong one?

I heard this second hand, so it may not be true, but I trust the source. Somebody at my DZ once reportedly had a manufacturer (who's name I won't mention) pack his reserve while it was there for maintenance. 120 days later he had it repacked, and the rigger reportedly found a packing weight in the tray with the reserve! ...as if rigs aren't already heavy enough... -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

If you find it can you pm me a link? I'd love to read it. Thx -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

or count the fleas that are leaping out of his hair for dear life when they see you coming -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

i bet there's still nothing like taking a look down and seeing what color jumpsuit that guy on the clubhouse porch is wearing -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

omfg lol that's the second funniest thing i've seen all week! (the funniest was a lone flagger standing in the road by my office with a stop sign holding up traffic, about 3/4 mile away and out of view of the actual construction) i love when the conductor-guy 'swims' across the frame. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving