westcoastchica

oh okay MM, that is all good. just didn't make sense (to me)to play with colors if you weren't even considering those canopies. coolio. oh well, maybe someone will be inspired by my blabberings. ha ha. i'll put the soapbox away now. Lara

not that i don't love playing with color options, but ummm, has anyone noticed the canopies up there? (if i am missing something, and we are just playing here, then nevermind, but if these are real considerations, then, hmmmm.) viking, i can't keep up with the day to day, but i sort of have a feel for your progression and i see that you are considering an FX and even a vengance. have you a clue as to how these canopies fly? have you spoken to lisa about the dynamics of these canopies? i am no expert, but i am pretty sure you would prosper from a little research into canopies and what is recommended for a new jumper. i have a pretty good feeling that at the school, you have had a shot at the PD navigator/silhouette, and maybe renting equipment from squareone has offered a spectre or a sabre/sabre2, but i am pretty sure that you may like to reconsider what your canopy choices are. if you want to go with icarus, maybe shoot at the omega. sabre2s and spectres may also be a good option. somebody back me up on this. lisa, chuck, somebody? the prospect of buying your own gear is very exciting, but should be taken one step at a time. i have seen far too many people jump into this head first and regret their purchases, even hurt themselves because they figure, i spent all this money, i better jump this stuff and learn to like it. it took me about 507 redesigns to finally figure out how i wanted my jumpsuit to turn out...because it was the only thing that i bought brand new and custom made for me. i bought everything else, but my altimeter, used. and it suits me fine. in the process of looking for used gear, i got one hell of an education about the different container and canopy companies and what they had to offer. a lot of these companies have stellar customer service and even if it isn't ASAP, a lot of times they will have someone for you to speak with personally, on the phone to answer any qyestion. PD and Sunpath spent an awful lot of time with me, even though they knew that i was in the market for used gear and i wouldn't be buying direct from them...and ultimately i bought their stuff...used. you and michelle and kimmer and everyone out there who are in the "new jumper" category have a huge road ahead when it comes to choosing gear. take your time and be educated. color schemes are great, but performance is the ultimate focus. what is going to perform best for you and your abilities. good luck in your search, dude! and when it is all said and done, i hope to be able to see that gear in the air on a jump sometime, k?! Lara

what the hairy heck? i skip one weekend out at elsinore and all chaos breaks loose! jake laid it all out for me when he came home and i nearly fell off my chair. i didn't believe him at first. glad everyone made it out safely. guess ya learn more from mistakes than from triumphs, but holy canoli this is one hell of a lesson in paying attention. seems like lately people have been pretty slack about paying close attention to the line up in the landing pattern. more often than not, i see people cutting other canopies off left and right, and it kills me. i stopped to let this one guy know that he cut it a little close to another person landing (because i knew that person was pretty wigged by it, but wouldn't balls up enough to confront the other guy) and i was really nice about it and just offered a suggestion that he be a little more aware of maybe less experienced canopy pilots, and the guy totally blew me off. later that day he cut off another person (a very big man with many a jump) and got his ass chewed for it. hard not to say i told ya so, huh? well, okay, so i didn't say i told you so, but i felt no remorse in standing five feet away from him as he got his ass rearranged with that "i'm not saying a damn word, doot doot doooo, but HAH HA!" look on my face. well anyway guys, this is why i dig these forums. even though maybe this could have been in the safety and training, these little posts stuck in here and there never seem to hurt. and most everyone seems to get on board and offer some decent advice/opinions. (although yes yes, we should all be careful about what opinions we take for good advice...blah blah blah.) so thanks for such a neat place to shoot the shiznit. hee hee. now then, who wants to bet on how many more posts it will take for this thread to turn into some horny joke? safe skies guys! Lara

hey everyone... TOM IS LIKE THE MOST BESTEST NEATO GUY EVER! how is that for some proper english? just to give everyone a heads up...tom has shot video for my team for both SSL meets i was in and he is a very giving and all-around neat skydiver/vidiot. hee hee. tom, this is Lara by the way, so glad you decided to come run a muck in the forums with us. i took the pictures from the last SSL so that i could make copies then i am going to give the negs and the big pics back to the brits, since they are visiting, i thought it was only fair. good momentos to take back to england, ya know? gosh that was a fun day. i am totally going to have to take you up on that offer to video a dive of me and jake. he is puting together a website for a class he has, and we need some still shots of us in freefall. there is no way he can get away with puting a skydiving website together without having like at least one photo of me and him in the air. ha ha. anyway, others you should look for on here, mandy is divaskychick? hmmm, can't remember. mark is shark. chaz is like chaz 1234. marissa already introduced herself, and tom, if you don't know who marissa is, i am going to be very ashamed. ha ha ha. ummm...well, everyone else will let you know who they are, linda and the rest. wooohoooo. go elsinore! Lara

i am sorry but we have such a bitchin group of women in here. and not that i haven't beat the freakin chick boogie topic like a dead horse, but if half of you guys show up at elsinore, i know it will be like the most fun i have ever had there (we already have a great group of women that jump there regularly, i am sure mandy and marissa will attest to that)...not that the guys don't rock, but they better freakin get the armor out because the estrogen, it will be a flyin'! i can't wait! woohoooooo! Lara

one thing that people tend to forget is that freeflying occurs at a lot faster speeds than belly flying and there are gear considerations that are very important to keep in mind. i waited longer than most to start freeflying, about 70-something jumps, but i wanted to be sure i was fully capable of getting to my belly STABLE any which way i needed to as well as farmiliarizing myself with all of the opening characteristics of my equipment in case of a premature deployment. freeflying is awesome and just too much fun, but it can really F^@k you in the buttocks if you don't have your s#!t together in your head. know your body and your equipment, and like everyone said, get some DECENT coaching. you won't regret spending a little cash for the insight that these people have to share. have a blast! and good luck! Lara

and once again, i just got busted for snorting with laughter here at work. i tried to hide it, but they could here my lame ass laughing three cubicles down. damn. there are some funny ass people in this forum. shark, i couldn't even tell you the last time we jumped together. but hell, i was all about goin along on your eval jump just for the entertainment value. ha ha ha! funny thing though...if like you, me, chaz and whoever else got together for like a freakin reunion jump, i think we would scare the hell out of ourselves at our progress. so, good for us, la la la. CROFT, errr, Lara hee hee

HA! you said, "gotta be real" oh girl, you gotta dish. p.s. are you comin to the boogie? i have had a few people mention your name and say your are just one heck of a chica! hope i get the chance ta meet ya! Lara

RANDY! oh how could you do this to yourself? you cheezy ex-marine! you have just sentened yourself to a good two months worth of teasing for this post. PAA HA HA HA!!! you cheesehead, you turn enough heads already that you don't need to be worried about what you are wearing. good Lord! but oh my, you did it, i am soooo not letting you live this one down. here i was ready to parade you around the chick boogie as the sweet, innocent, new kid on the block that needs some "special" attention, but now you are so going to be introduced simply as "the fashion diva." PAA HA HA HA!! sorry babe, you did this to yourself. and hey, you numbnut, check your private messages, i wanted to e-mail you about this past weekend, but your profile has nada. luv ya! Lara p.s. any girl that is making a run for the chick boogie, keep your eye out for randy, he doesn't need clothes to sell himself! not that i have eyes for anyone but my boyfriend, but you know...heh heh heh.

so, umm, why do the instructors get labelled as the sluts? has it not become crystal clear that the group we have going here in dz.com is possibly the horniest group of people on earth? HA HA HA! well, or just a bunch of big talkers. heh heh. but hey, extreme poeple often have extreme aspects to their lifestyle. sex is well, possibly one of the afore mentioned extreme aspects. ha ha. it is just a given. now, not that i am getting all defensive and paranoid just because my boyfriend is a jumpmaster, but there are many respectable men and women instructing skydiving today...well, okay, maybe many is a strong word, some? well, okay wait, a few? hmmm. one or two? uh oh, if you'll excuse me, i need to call my boyfriend. HA! oooh 12 more minutes to go home time. saweet!

not that i have anything productive to add...but i just literally snorted outloud with laughter because i read, "dude, grab a snickers" and "great googly moogly" and well, in this totally long and boring day, that was just too much to handle. oh my side hurts from laughing. ever laugh so hard and you are incredibly desperate for someone to share the laugh with and there is nobody around that will appreciate it? that is me right now, and that is why you are all now forced to read my stupid post. which reminds me, have you ever had such a funny ass skydive that you are under canopy, trying to make your way back to the dz and you are laughing outloud all by yourself under canopy and all ou can think of is spiraling down and hoping your accuracy is right on target so that you can land right next to your friend that was on the same dive, so that the two of you can fall down in the landing area laughing with one another? i had that happen to me this past weekend. too much fun. la la la. Lara

a lot of places hold the A license rule. no hanky panky until after the license is issued, and people seem to stick to that pretty well. my boyfriend was actually my instructor for part of my license progression, and although we became friends throughout the process, we tried like hell to remain in denial of our attraction. and as soon as i got my license, we started dating. nearly seven months and a whole lot of skydives later, we are still together. makes a cute story, i guess. funny thing though, i was so scared of getting him in trouble and he was so scared of influencing my skydiving career with emotional issues, we both fought every urge we had to consider ourselves dating...to the point of being ridiculous. but hey, what are you going to do? i think the A license rule is awesome and a great idea. emotions run high in this sport, especially as a student and it is incredbly common for students to have crushes on their jumpmasters. like a few others said, it is just natural to have those feelings. i know it sounds almost hypocritical, but in reality, i was so serious about skydiving that i was hell bent on following the rules...so we waited to date, and i think it was the best idea. and it all worked out great. i think waiting to go down the dating path was the best decision for the both of us...and probably for most people in this situation. (and that is just dating, sex is a whole other can of worms. some people can't even remain sane when sex enters the picture, let alone have the frame of mind to jump out of an airplane and deploy properly.) it sounds very sappy, but i think i have found my soulmate...and it only took jumping out of an airplane to find him. ha ha ha. he laughs at me because i call him my prince charming that turned in his big white horse for a twin otter and a parachute. oh enough rambling. two more work days til the weekend. woohoo! Lara

heard today that the normal national average of shark attacks in the us is 51, and so far we have reached 41....so apparently everyone is freaking out this summer over the amount of shark attacks, even though with less than four months to go, we still have room for 10 more attacks without risking an over-average year. hey that could be made into one of those retarded justification statistics that skydivers come up with to try and legitimize the safety of skydiving to whuffos. more people are attacked by sharks per year than die in a skydiving-related accident. okay, i just realized how morbid this post is. sorry guys. errr, i don't really have anything else interesting, no no, wait, i have something...it took approximately three hours from the moment of discovery for the news to spread throughout our entire dropzone of used condoms and beer bottles out by the swoop pond. the culprits have yet to be found. dna tests to follow. ummm, well that was still not very interesting. sorry jess, i think today, i suck at this game.

wow, so i lag in this post, but i couldn't help but throw my two cents in about this fabulous weekend, even if it is already wednesday... first van jump, first dc-3 jump, and first big time encounter with the dz.commers. 14 jumps in three days with chill time in between. ahhh how i do love this sport. how neat was it to roll up at perris with randy (diver123) one day and grasshopper another and actually have people to seek out? what a neat little family dz.com is. (and yes anthony, it was about freakin time! glad we got to roll up in the 3 together! and no worries, your sitfly will get there.) i was able to run over from elsinore to perris on saturday (one van jump) and sunday (one dc-3 jump) and made 3 or 4 jumps at elsinore the same day, with multiple slurpee stops and ample time snoozin' under a tree to boot. so it is totally do-able for all of you considering a multiple dz day. it's just too bad i couldn't drag sharky with me, but he was too busy learnin' to be a coach and getting hosed by my boyfriend in the eval process. HA! (just remember mark, every problem he threw at you as a pretend student, he learned from me when he jumpmastered me as a real student) just kidding, mark did awesome...his coach students will be lucky to have him. i wish i could have met more of you out there, and maybe sooner than later (now that the new crop of A-license holders are poppin' up...kimmer, get on it!!!) we can finally have that dz.com record jump with more than 4 people! yeehaw! i am still gunnin' to have it at the chick boogie october 13th and 14th, but we'll see. anywho, that is about all i have time to ramble on about...lucky for you. ha ha ha. it sounds as if we all had one hell of a weekend. what a bunch of lucky bastards we are. have a great rest of the week everyone, saturday is just around the corner! Lara

oh my gosh lisa! i had a blast with the 150 they sent out a few weeks ago. too much fun! i am sure that there will be a lot of interest. i don't blame you for the advert. hello! it is your job. and besides that, how else are we supposed to know? i will definitely steal the 135 sometime soon! so uhhh, why is it only thursday? hello? where is the weekend!? Lara

Had to share... So here I sit in my cubicle, ready to pee my pants because the demo I ordered from PD came today. I trying like hell to fight the urge to lay that bad boy out in the conference room and roll around on it in front of all of my cooworkers. *sigh* How many more hours until Load 1 tomorrow morning? Oh the pain! Well, since I saw a post about the whole demo/customer service dealio, I guess I should give props to Kolla over at PD. She is neato and swell and well, just gosh dern nice. Ha ha ha. I don't know how this happened, but I got this demo for exactly when I wanted it...and it was just released to the public like less than a month ago. And believe me, I have no ins...I am just a normal everyday jumper who wanted a demo. It was all too easy. ahhhh, good times. Anywho, for all of you sitting at your desk squirming around, waiting for the weekend to begin, multiply that by like a kabillionjillion...and you have me. Anyway, happy almost weekend everybody! I'll let ya know how it goes! Lara p.s. Alright smartasses, I am fully aware that I walked right into being teased about bladder control with that first line there, so BRING IT ON! I'd wear depends all weekend if had to in order to jump this Sabre2!

my best friend is a javelin j1, sabre 150, pd 143, cypres (bought it used and love it to death. it's all DOM 98. good stuff! exactly what i wanted) and hopefully (if i get the demo in a month or so) by my birthday (Christmas eve) i will have me a sabre2. oh please oh please oh please!!!!

PPAAAH HA HA HAAAAAAA!! I have this mental image of carl reaching down to pick up the phone and doing a bicep curl as he puts it to his ear! FLEX THAT GUN CARL! AND GET TA PACKIN!!! HA!!! oops, wait till my boyfriend hears i have been baking other men pies all barefoot and sh!t, oh my. mark! keep your mouth shut or there will be shark fin soup for dinner! HA! this day has lost all legitimacy in my book. nobody warned me that once you started posting in here, your sanity gets flung out the window. oh my.

BONE! you weren't supposed to share that with everyone! now what are they going to think of me? besides, i had to do something to get rid of my crack habit...you understand, right? oh well, the forum opinion of me may not be affected by you letting out my secret breakfast habits, i think i pissed off half the people in here with my chick jokes in another thread. shame on me for being a female with a sense of humor about my own gender!!! down with suffrage! now if you'll excuse me, i need to go get myself barefoot and pregnant and get in that kitchen and bake carl a pie! hee hee. i am out of control today.

ARE YOU KIDDING CHUCK!??? i had to watch it on the webcast, cuz i had to work...but i was pullin for her all the way. (even though she was competing agains my boyfriend...gotta support the estrogen here and there) and on a freakin spectre! just too awesome!!! we were just talking about her this past weekend in the packing area, because some guy made some comment about not being able to swoop a spectre and my mouth flew open before i could even put my pin through my closing loop. i flung brigitte's name around like she was my best friend, HA! i was just makin those gender jokes because it seemed like this thread was light-hearted and i have seen how bent out of shape the gender wars have become in here at times. i was just joking. totally. flying my canopy has rapidly become insanely interesting to me, and the running joke about girls not being able to land cracks me up, and i don't take it all that seriously...even though it is true sometimes. what can ya do? catch me in four years and i will be running after brigitte's title of swoop queen...for now, i flair, i stand, i smile. and that is good enough for me. k? *** see, now clay, the "strap-on" comment, that is the response i was looking for. gender-bending prosthetics and skydiving/swoopin...what more can you ask for? Edited by westcoastchica on 8/1/01 02:04 PM.

HAAA!!! you said lilith faire! look howard (as in "the duck) check some of the other threads if you want to see some serious defensive male bashing. at least the chicas messin around in here can joke about gender without getting all bent. you have seen how it gets in the forum at times. and forget the shoe to be thrown.. i go for sharp objects...so, uhhh, anyway, how well do you think a duck could swoop with its wings clipped???

deva...check your hotmail shark...tammi is recovering fine from what i hear. don't know her personally, but i know jackie had planned to stay with her this week, cuz the other jackie (griz) stayed with her last week. i am sure she is doing well, she always seemed to be one tough chica. chuck...i think we may have a new paraperformance games event on our hands...freebag swoopin. what say you to that? i'm in. oh wait, damn, i can't participate...i keep forgetting about the fact that i have no penis. DAMN IT ALL! ha ha ha! michelle...let your instructor know that you were wondering if you could give swoopin your student gear a shot on your first solo and see what they say. keep a straight face if you can. ought to be worth a good laugh. now i am seeing how addicting this is...i have done nearly nothing here at work. oh the pain. is there therapy for this?

oh come on carl, you know you can't wait for viking to post those pics he got of the hot, sweaty, dzbone, man-muscle rippling as you packed, cuz you know that the women will come a runnin' when we have the next record attmept. and they all screamed in unison..."oh carl, yer so dreamy!" *sigh* PPAAH HA HA HAAAA!!! sorry, had to be said. hee hee.

DEVA! are you coming for sure to the chick boogie? how exciting!!! let me know if you need any help getting out here. ( i know it is a long way away. but like i say, it is a slow day and i am easily entertained.) and thank you for loving me for being random and without a general point. ahhh, sisterhood. PAAAH HA HA HA! and you are right, they are jealous...of a lot, i think. you know if they had boobies, they would never leave the house. hee hee. JUST KIDDING! sort of. HA! La PS AAAAAHHH HA HA HA!! michelle, it hurts, can't breathe. laughing too hard. oh my side. Edited by westcoastchica on 8/1/01 10:54 AM.

whatever mark! i can just see it now. we are all lined up in the door to make a dz.com chick record jump and you are on the load as a "solo" and oops mark fell out of the plane at the exact same time we launch the chick jump. uh huh. sure. it was an accident. really! HAAA!!! right! and what the heck? why wouldn't you guys be included in the day? pahleez. if any chick on here hasn't realized that MOST of the guys in here are like our biggest fans, then they are missing something. what fun is a chick boogie if there isn't a little testosterone around to tease while you are waiting for the otter to land?