NWFlyer

I've used eTrade and CapitalOne360 (started using it when it was ING Direct). Both are pretty easy. I don't actively trade on eTrade at the moment, but have an IRA there that continues to grow with existing investments. CapitalOne360 had an automatic investing plan that met my needs - $12/month for up to 12 trades; I set it up to withdraw a certain amount every month and invest it in the funds (mostly) and individual stocks that I choose in the proportions that I choose. Can change the amount or investment mix at any time, and it allows me to grow my portfolio through dollar cost averaging with very little active trading on my part. (Unfortunately I believe they've eliminated that particular automatic investment plan for new investors, though I've been grandfathered in on it). Easy to use, and it works for what I want. I suspect the "right" choice for you may depend on what you want to do - active trading or more passive investing, etc. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Occasionally you'll see an "all you can jump" day or weekend as a promotion, but I don't think there are any that have it as a regular offering. I've also seen larger dropzones offer a season pass that allows for unlimited jumping over a certain time period. Here is a relatively recent thread that discusses some of those. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4512025 Also, a good number of dropzones will discount ticket prices if you buy larger quantities. So, for example, if one ticket is $25, 20 tickets might be $23 per ticket, 50 tickets might be $22 per ticket, and 100 tickets might be $20 per ticket. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

1450ish jumps, paid for nearly* all of them as well as all my gear and all of my tunnel time. Plus team coaching and other continuing education like canopy courses. Hell no, I'm not going to do the math! *I probably have 50ish jumps that I haven't paid for - jumps where I was the organizer, some coach jumps, a couple free loads at boogies, and a couple times where I won a free jump tickets in a raffle. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Age is a less critical factor than considering: 1) How many jumps are on the canopy? 2) How has it been stored when not in use? 3) Is the canopy / design one that is still common / popular? I helped a coworker who'd been out of the sport for nearly 15 years sell his stuff recently. Most of what he had was gear that's less popular today, but he also had a Spectre 190 and was pleasantly surprised to hear that even though it'd been in a closet for 15 years, that Spectres were still popular and that a 190 would be a popular size for newer jumpers, so he could actually get a good price for the main. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Just because it's probably old gear doesn't mean she has to go old school and try to find a phone book in this day and age! She could probably look them up on the USPA directory or with the Google (though to the OP, be warned that just doing a search can get you some booking companies that aren't actual dropzones). http://www.uspa.org/FindaDZ/GroupMemberListbyStateandTerritories/Minnesota/tabid/379/Default.aspx "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Point is more that if the LO isn't keeping an eye on that to the best of his/her ability and hammering on it post jump (to the point of possibly grounding someone from their jumps if they are willfully ignoring the DZ's safety rules), then yeah, he/she isn't doing their job, IMO. Is it the LO's fault - no, the jumper who violated the safety rules fucked that one up all by his/herself, but an LO can (and IMO should) be an important safety influence at a dropzone. This thread did start out with a ridiculous presumption - that someone who's a highly skilled tunnel flyer is necessarily not a good organizer. But it's also brought up some good points that organizing is about a lot more than being able to design the raddest skydives. For that, I think it's been useful, not ridiculous. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Pretty generic image - probably a stock photo. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

In the world of scuba, I'm a rank noob, so I have pretty limited perspective to evaluate the technical details of this analysis. However, the psychological parts absolutely ring true and familiar to the sort of fatal hubris we see in our sport. http://scubatechphilippines.com/scuba_blog/guy-garman-world-depth-record-fatal-dive/#A_Fatal_Attempt_Dr_Guy_Garman8217s_World_Depth_Record_2015 "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Brought them out to the holiday boogie at ZHills several years ago. Dad absolutely loved hanging out on the deck watching canopies and aircraft operations. Mom enjoyed it too, though she's not as much of an enthusiast as Dad. Introduced them to some friends, they got to watch me and the BF do a few jumps and land, I showed them an Otter while it was parked, it was all a fun day. ZHills is one of the DZs that's wonderfully set up for spectators with plenty of seating on the deck, food, decent restrooms, etc.; not all are so comfortable for spectators to hang out. We left mid-afternoon that day and there was a fatality on the DZ later that day. While I know my parents understand the risks of skydiving, I was very glad that we weren't still there when it happened. That's something to consider if you feel like that might freak out your guests (whoever they may be). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

This sport's not for everyone. Good luck with whatever you choose to do next.

Whatever someone is willing to pay for it. Size of the canopies may make a difference in price because of a different level of demand. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

FB posts indicate they got it this morning: 164. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

You could do much better by feeding those videos through Microsoft's Hyperlapse algorithm. Instead of taking every 10th frame from a single source, as they do in the demo, you'd use frames from different cameras with similar orientation. Then, by changing the frame input order, you could create a virtual camera that's free to travel throughout the entire formation. Oops, sorry, I forgot to turn on the sarcasm font. Why did you even bother with it. It reads like petty jealousy, even though you dont freefly. Aw, shucks, Squeak, it's been so long since you got up in my grill. I've missed it so. And if you read that as petty jealousy, methinks you might be projecting. I'm cheering heartily all my friends who are participating in this record, as I have friends who've done other records and competitions.

You could do much better by feeding those videos through Microsoft's Hyperlapse algorithm. Instead of taking every 10th frame from a single source, as they do in the demo, you'd use frames from different cameras with similar orientation. Then, by changing the frame input order, you could create a virtual camera that's free to travel throughout the entire formation. Oops, sorry, I forgot to turn on the sarcasm font. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

It is critically important for head down woeld records that each participant provide a view of the record from his or her individual vantage point. This is then stitched together using photo editing software to provide the official picture for judging. Either that or removing the camera will so impact their equilibrium that they're better off keeping them on for the record as it will encourage balanced flying. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

No real background in nutrition other than trying / experimenting to see what works. I do have 3 full seasons of training mostly at Perris and Skydance (so, hot, dusty climates where you really need to manage nutrition) with teams that did 8-10 jumps/day training schedules. For me, personally, I found what worked best was a protein & fat-heavy breakfast (eggs, breakfast meat, yogurt), with some coffee and water to start the day, then just getting in small amounts of food constantly throughout the day with a big dinner at the end of the day. Water constantly throughout the day. Fruit is good for the quick carb hit (bananas rock for the potassium and the ability to shove them down your piehole in record time between dirt diving and gearing up), and salty snacks (trail mix or roasted /salted almonds were my choice, I'd either buy the small packages from Trader Joe's or make my own small baggies that I could shove into my jumpsuit and eat on the ride to altitude). Water's something you've got to get down at every opportunity, and supplement with your electrolyte drink of choice (I personally love coconut water, others like sports drinks or powders that you can add to a bottle of water). I'd get in a routine of drinking water after every single skydive - it's not something you want to get behind on. I feel like the biggest variable on flagging is not the number of jumps, but the overall length of the day. If you're starting at 7 or 8 and doing jump 6 at noon, that's one thing. If you're doing jump 6 at 3 p.m., that's entirely another in terms of energy management. For my team if we got off of our 20 minute call routine for more than one jump, it meant we were going to end up doing fewer jumps than we'd intended just because the day got too long. Faster pace = less likely to flag at jump 7 or 8. Christy Frikken did a nice series on "designing your training day" that gets into a lot of this. Here's the link to Part 3; the links to Parts 1 & 2 are at the bottom. (She was my coach for one of those seasons, so I had already internalized a lot of her wisdom on this stuff and you'll see it reflected in my own preferences above). http://www.skydivemag.com/article/designing-your-training-day-part-3?articleId=skydivemag%230%23JmTtRejSQ863J7QTKK0HGw "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Flying alone on my belly, I like to work on precision stops & starts - you can use the walls of the tunnel as reference. Face off to something you can use as your starting point of reference (the door, the tunnel instructor, whatever). Turn 90 left, then 90 back to start. Then 180 left, 180 right back to start. 270, 270 back, 360, 360 back. Repeat in the other direction. Focus on crisp turns, keeping your center point in the center of the tunnel, and stopping exactly at the mark you intended to stop on. Fall rate drills are also helpful, and like someone else mentioned, turning down the air and working on slow fall can be a good challenge. Give the tunnel instructor a heads up that you're going to be working on that so he/she is aware you'll be popping up and down. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

not for overseas travel, the bag weighs 8kgs. I'm a huge fan of the Osprey Shuttle 32, which weighs half that. Best wheels I've ever seen on a rolly case, and the bag itself is well-constructed and roomy. http://www.ospreypacks.com/en/product/wheeled_bags/shuttle_32__110l?tab=description "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Nice coverage! http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/skydiving-destination-sells-adventure#.VavneoWH_8Q.facebook "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I think it was the recovery from delicate microsurgery that required the 10 day ICU stay. Sounds like it's one of those things that requires careful monitoring to make sure that the surgery "takes" and blood is flowing correctly. (Not a doctor, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but that's what I gleaned from a couple articles). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Yeah. I am not married, so don't have the wedding ring thing; I'll occasionally wear rings but generally only to the office or out for the evening; never ever skydiving or even when I'm doing anything remotely active (although I suppose Fallon wasn't doing anything remotely active either). And with that, I also realized that I typed "Jimmy Kimmel" in the first post and it's beyond editing time. I know the difference between my snarky middle-aged white guy late night hosts, really I do. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I thought the risk of de-gloving a finger was bad enough, and now, thanks to Jimmy Kimmel, I'm aware of ring avulsion, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CztT_pBFQv8 "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I worked for a technology consulting firm that did a mass layoff not long after I started. The way they handled that was actually a pretty solid example of best practices; they were straight up with everyone, had a company-wide conference call discussing the decision, etc. I breathed a sigh of relief that (especially as the new person) I'd made it through that round. About a month later, one of the people that was in my training class was gone. A week later, another. A week after that, another. No communications whatsoever about these layoffs more broadly, but as you might imagine, the rumor mill was on fire. Around Tuesday or Wednesday one week I got a call from the admin assistant to the VP that I reported up to. She scheduled a phone call for me with him for Friday morning. (Employees were mostly virtual and scattered around the country). Thursday night I was out with a bunch of friends and I said "Yeah, I'm getting laid off tomorrow." "How do you know?" Well, let's see, people have been disappearing one by one and a VP who I never interact with at all has scheduled time with me tomorrow. Yep, that one was a biiiiig surprise. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I'm probably one of the few people in GenX (born in 1970) who has both a defined benefit & defined contribution plan from a private employer. I'm still aggressively contributing to my own retirement just in case it all goes tits up, but since I'm vested and the pension is well-funded, I'm optimistic that it'll be around when I retire. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Let them know you're a student skydiver; they may be able to connect you with a coach who has experience working with skydivers. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke