tempretired

Here are some of his regular comments to when aggravated: "You Motherless Bastard" "Panzy" "Put some elbow grease into it" "You little son of a Bitch" "How many times do I have to tell you" "Who do you think you are??? Answer me!!! After answering, he'd say "Don't talk back to me" While watching Philadelphia Flyer games "You Bums" or "Scooooorrr"

I'm not a big MTN bike person but I do a lot of road riding and triathlons. I have had a road bike for several years and recently bought a tri bike and I spent a long time researching. I also have a MTN bike that I use a couple times a month but it is fairly low end (Diamond Back Topanga with Shimano Alevio components) By far, I am not a pro and I'm just an average consumer that did a little research. Below are my findings. My experience leads me to believe that you should look for a bike with the components that you want because you can get them for a cheaper price when buy a complete bike. Adding higher end components to the bike after you buy it could cost a lot. Manufacturers get great deals on components when they are manufacturing bikes. So, they can include nice components on the bike that you buy without having to charge you the full retail cost of the parts. When you look at parts on a complete bike that you buy, you will see that they retail price of the parts is usually much higher than the purchase price of the bike. Depending on the marketing strategy, sometimes manufacturers deck out a low end frame with nice parts and sometimes they give you a highend frame with lower end parts. Another way to save $$, is to buy a model leftover from the prior year because dealers want to move the bike. For example, I purchased a very nice Tri bike last week and it is leftover from 2004. The components are Shimano Ultegra (1 step down from Shimano's best for road and tri, which is Dura-ace). The bike retailed for $1,850 in 2004 and I got it for $1,250. I'm not positive but I think ultegra parts (front and rear derailer, and cranks) retail for somewhere well north of $500 (closer to $700). The moral of the story is to shop around and visit as many bike shops as you can. There are great deals out there. Have fun.

At about age 10, I was driving in the passenger seat with my mother in her 1968 Mercury Comet. As we were turning left off of our street, I reached over with my leg and stomped on the gas pedal. Well, the car took off and my mother jumped the curb and side swiped the schoolyard fence. Before she could stop the car, she was already beating me silly. Also, at about age 10 or 12 (late seventies), I was a pretty good skateboarder but was only use to flat roads and a small skate park. Well, my grandmother had just moved to a very hilly seniors complex. I figured I would ride the long curved road, which was also a large hill, from top to bottom. I got about 1/4 of the way down and was going so fast that the skateboard started to shake and was uncontrollable. So, I bailed but was going to fast for my feet to catch up. I tumbled for what seemed like 50 yards with no protective gear. I had road rash all over my body.

One of the Threads indicated to keep trying new doctors until you find someone who can help. That is great advice. I had a sciatic pain shooting down my leg for two years. Visited my primary care doc and orthopedics who said they couldn't really do anything for it. They simply said it was probably a bulging disk. I kept going back to them and other docs during the two years with no help. I finally found a Chiropractor that was into sports. Through working with him, we found that it was not related to a bulging disk but was a condition called Periformis Syndrome where the sciatic nerve is aggravated where it comes through your Periformis muscle which is located deep in your butt muscles. He indicated that many Medical Docs don't really believe in the syndrome. He told me to lay off the biking and swimming for a two weeks but to keep running moderately and I should see improvement. I've been pain free for 2 months and I'm slowly getting back into biking and swimming. Just keep trying docs and chiropractors until you find someone that is forward thinking and on the cutting edge of trying new treatments and diagnostics.

Replying to "Gemini" about Funeral Home comedy. While pledging a fraternity in college, we had an initiation function that included something that we had to do at one of our fraternity alumni's funeral home. All week long, the brothers told us to make sure that we brought our condoms, which scared the hell out of us. The night of the function, the biggest loudest brother gave us a little pep talk. He told us that normally the fraternity followed sound moral values but that night was different and would be the only night that they would have no morals and gave us each a condom in case we had forgot. He gave us the opportunity to back out at that moment with no questions or shame; however, the downfall was that we would be kicked out of the pledge class. All 9 of us stayed. They told us that we would now be blind-folded and driven to the brother's funeral home for the initiation. They wanted us blind-folded so that we could not tell the authorities if we had later turned on them. After about a 3/4 hour drive and couple minute walk, they put us in a circle and asked us to stay there blind-folded until they determined if they were ready for us. After about 5 minutes of standing in a circle blind folded, no of the brothers came to get us. So, we took off blind-folds and found ourselves in the middle of the woods and had no idea of where we were. It took us hours to get back to campus. We didn't mind the walking considering that we were thinking things were going to be far worse. I still wonder if any of those guys were really considering doing it.

While in college, for 4 years, I was a laborer for a contractor that did everything but was a specialist in Masonry and Concrete. It was a crazy experience as the only laborer supporting the boss and about 5 other masons all yelling for something at the same time. My memory only recalls that the workdays were 100 degrees or 20 degrees and the worksite was always filled with mud or the ground was as hard as a rock and digging with a shovel was not an option. All for $10 per hour and no benefits. My name was also shitfor (short for "shit for brains). We also built several homes per year. Most of the work was mindless and my shovel was my favorite tool. Some days, I spent hours digging footings by hand. All kidding aside, despite my description above, it was the best job I've ever had despite it's pay. My co-workers were tough and rough around the edges but we were friends and there were no blue collar work place politics. You'd also learn a lot to help yourself with home improvements.

I saw a guy leave the DZ on his Motorcycle while wearing his rig. It was definately a complete rig. Pretty crazy. Imagine if he had an accidental deployment. We think he drove in and picked it up from the Gear Store and drove off. Nobody knew who it was.

Never been grounded but one day I should have been or should have grounded myself. A friend of mine was scheduled to do a Tandem on a Saturday morning. Normally, I don't go overboard the night before a day of jumping but I did that night. I was out till somewhere around 3am and we wanted to be at the DZ by 7:00 to get on the first load. Well, I was still feeling pretty good from the night before when we got to the DZ and I should have grounded myself. My buddy, the tandem master and I (and several others) got in the plane for the jump and I sat next to the pilot (porter). The pilot turns to me and says "Man, you stink. That is unlike you to be doing this. You gonna be OK" and I said yes (I don't know what I was thinking). The tandem master just laughed and said "You gonna swoop down to geek us" and I said OK even though I had never done it before. Fortunately for everyone, my stupidiy didn't hurt anyone. Following that jump I started feeling ok and I did 6 more before falling asleep on the hangar floor. On a day that I should have been grounded, I did more jumps in a day than ever before.

This is not my off landing story but it deserves to be told. One of the local jumpers was a military Pilot that flew C-141s (I think). It was a windy day and on her downwind leg, she flew beyond the treeline before making a turn for the base leg and final into the wind. As the turn to final was made, she wasn't getting penatration and ended up landing in a tree. When we asked how it was possible to land in a tree with all of her piloting experience, she laughed and told us that airplanes are easy land, as they have throttle control to help compensate for wind on final approach. On final while going straight down towards the trees, she said she kept reaching for the throttle for more power but didn't get any.

Can you give us the details of your Chuteless Skydive? One thread indicated that it/they were intentional.

The rigger that I use encourages practicing emergency procedures when I drop of my rig for a repack. So, I cut-away and pull the reserve at each re-pack. I've also had two malfunctions and never had a problem pulling the reserve. Ask your rigger if you can do the same. If you ask, they will not usually refuse unless there are unusual circumstances at that moment in time.

I hate to admit it but I have done that. It's common for me to fill the bowl pretty good. So, I've weighed myself before and after a couple of times. One time, I believe I was close to 3 lbs lighter.

In reply to "IMO he should've chopped it. We had one jumper on our DZ that landed a hybrid thriathlon with the crw bridle all knotted up so the topskin couldn't spread out. Now he didn't know THAT, but he knew SOMETHING was fishy. Only near the ground, at flare height, did he discover that a) the downward speed was pretty high after all and b) the canopy collapsed on him when he tried to flare, a + b = one hurt jumper." I had a similar experience on an Interceptor 225 when I had 60 jumps. My retractable system got gangled up and my Pilot Chute and D-Bag were hangning over the nose of my canopy tangled in my lines. Therefore, the canopy was not fully expanded and was slightly distorted causing a slow right hand turn. The turn was corrrectable but when I checked the flare it would slowly go into a stall. I sensed that my forward speed was too slow causing the stall early in the flare and thought maybe my decent rate was fast so I thought it was best to cut-away and not risk busting myself up. I cut-away. Most folks on the ground (including instructors) agreed but there were others who said it was wrong. I think my decision was correct and would do it again. In this line over that the person had, I would have chopped it.

1800 and delayed for a while. Another time, we got to a 1000 ft cloud base with 6 in a C-206 and the pilot told us that was it and that we had to go or go down with the plane. The entire plane said no until 1 jumper in the back said let me out. Then, everyone got balls except for me. I didn't have many jumps and was jumping borrowed gear. My incident report kept flashing in my head "Jumper does 1200 ft H&P with 100 jumps while using borrowed gear that was 30sq ft smaller, tappered zp as opposed to sq F-111, BOC rather than Leg". So, I landed with the plane.

Not a big fan of The Wall. Probably because I didn't like the movie. Every time I tried to watch it there was another annoying person watching it trying to explain what the hell was happening. However, "Wish You Were Here" and "Dark Side of the Moon" are two of my favorite albums. Head phones and Wish You Were Here beginning to end with a dark room and a strobe light is like taking trip to space and back. The Great Gig in the sky from Dark Side of the Moon is the best.

Bruce Springsteen "The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle", "Born to Run", Darkness on the Edge of Town" and many others. I've ruined countless tapes and CDs. Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Wish You Were Here"

Does anyone know if that is the Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia on the cover of the October 1982 Parachutist Mag? It sure looks like it. If so, does anyone know who the CREW Dogs are in the picture? I also wonder who's plane they jumped from (obviously not a base jump) and where they landed. That picture looks like they would be directly over the middle of the Delaware River. I know several people that have base jumped the Ben Franklin and landed in the river and along the banks of the river.

Has anyone out there ever skydived at Skydive East in Pittstown NJ? What did you think? Me and two of my buddies did a few static line jumps with surplus military gear at Skydive East back in the Summer of 1992. We used T-10s, belly mounted 28' round reserves, Bell Helmets, Jump Boots, and Coverals as jumpsuites. We thought that was the way to go and had no idea about AFF or Static Lines with Ram-Air Parachutes. Despite being behind the times, we learned from Doug Angel and Dick Lee. Both had very low D License numbers. Does anyone remember them or know where they are now? They were all business but they are great guys. I have some awsome pictures of me and my buddies all geared up before our first jump. I show the picture to folks at the DZ now and they get a kick out of it. From there we transferred to United (UPC) and went through the AFF program.

My condolences to Yonathan and the x-keys family for the loss of Sara and Ron. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of you. I was an acitve skydiver at x-keys from 1994 through 2000 and moved away in 2000. I've been back a few times since then and did some skydive U in 2002 but I'm sad to say that I never had the pleasure of meeting Sara or Ron. After reading all of these posts, I can see that they were wonderful people and I wish that I had met them. Again, my thoughts and prayers are with you. Blue Skies to all.

As I recall, he deployed at 10,500 3 or 4 times and had 2 or 3 tree landings. This student was actually amused by his mistakes. We would ask him why he pulled so high and he would say "I don't know. Every time I reached 10.5, I would repeat the words 10,500 Pull and then I would pull.". You'd have to see it in person to appreciate it because he'd be telling the story in his third world country accent.

A foreign military send a soldier to be trained at our DZ back in '93 or '94. He was being trained at our DZ so that he could go back to his country and train his country's soldiers. He was jumping all military gear that they had purchased from Paraflite. I'm sure that I may not have the story perfect but here is my recollection. In his first couple of jumps, every time he got to 10,500 to do a circle of awareness (or was it PRCPs), he would pull and immediately be open and alone at 10,000 while his AFF instructor would deploy at 2,500. Actually, I think the instructor deployed shortly after him the first time to try to help guide him back to the DZ and after that left him alone. Also, in his first couple of jumps, he had a few tree landings. This has to be the worst student that I can remember and he was being trained so that he could train his soldiers.

I don't post replies much but your post is very interesting. While all of the replies to your emails make perfect sense and many of them could be the issue with your friend, I think you have a relevant point. The only way to know is to talk to your friend. The reason I think that this post is interesting is because I fall into a few of the categories and I also fall into your category. Currently, I am not skydiving for a few reasons. Back in 2000, I moved to a new state/city for my job and work was overwhelming. So, I was only jumping a few times per month (if that). Then I got married in November 2002 and we had our first child in November 2003. That sort of ended it. I just don't have the time to get to the DZ and make enough jumps to stay current and I feel currency is the safest way to do it. Also, I think about my family too much up there. I must also be honest with you. When I was active, I think I was a little like the way you describe your friend. I am/was a pretty good safe skydiver and enjoyed it tremendously but there were times when I was uneasy for one reason or another. I was never scared but I was uneasy. During the days that I felt uneasy, I would still skydive but would do less jumps that day to make sure I was ready. Let's not forget that we all have seen or known people who have been killed or seriously injured skydiving. Hell, we've all made some big mistakes and made it through. So, this is probably more normal than people care to admit. Despite these feelings I still loved it and continued to skydive. In the summer of 2002, I took the Skydive U course and that helped me tremendously. Maybe you can recommend that to your friend. To fill the spiritual void due to not skydiving, I now run, bike, swim, weightlift and do trialthons, marathons, half marathons, etc. I know these things take up time like skydiving but I train early in the morning or late at night when everyone is in bed. These things might not give me the adrenaline rush but they do provide me with the same accomplishment, soothing emotions, and spriritual feelings that skydiving did. One day after my family grows up, I'll be back. Maybe sooner. sorry for the long reply.

Pretty funny. Although I am not a smoker, I know the Terry was known for stealing lighters. I think he stole Pete Warners lighter a few hundred times. Do you know Terry from Cross Keys, Chambersburg, or one of the Delawary/Maryland DZs? I know him from Cross Keys. Terry graded my A Licence test back in the summer of 1994.

Regarding the mystery person. It looks like all of you guys are from the west coast. So, I guess the picture is from the west coast. However, I'm a former east coast jumper. The person on the far right looks like an east coast guy named Terry Crowe (I'm not sure if it is spelled correctly) that was an instructor/S&TA at X-Keys when it first opened back in 1994(ish). Terry has been skydiving for a long time in many places and this may be a picture from his younger days. Terry is a former Navy Seal. Great guy and great safe skydiver. That's my guess.

I failed level 4 AFF. When doing forward motion to redock with the JM I went mach 1 towards him, got scared and put on my version of brakes, which was knees to chest. Before I knew it I was on my back under the JM. So, I arched to get stable and started doing perfect backloops. I did about 4 before I got stable. As I came around each loop, I could see the JM in a serious dive. As I got stable, he nailed me in the back and came around the front of me with a bloody mouth. We still had some time left. To my suprise, he released me for the wave off and pull. I had to repeat #4. Next jump, I was very nervous.