Emma

And maybe all this 'I love you', 'you hate me', 'I love you, really' stuff is better kept on PMs????

Totally agree. Are all non-married people promiscuous? Equally...are all married people non-promiscuous? I see that the poll has been phrased so as to open discussion...and has been effective. Personally I think the better route would be to ban marriage for everyone. Until such point as it actually comes to mean something. It's like a 'Life' sentence, which, as we all know, does not actually mean life.

Ok now come on Dave, we showed you ours, now show us yours? What did you get on your Cat10 dive? Personally, although it's interesting, I wouldn't necessarily take it as a huge indicator of future skydiving glories...or doom! I know people who got 16 points, but it does kind of make a difference if the people you jumped with are highly experienced or not... Getting your Cat 10 is where it all starts - it's a ticket to really begin learning - if that's what you want to do. It just gets more fun from here. Yeh, see, I KNEW point was the hardest slot...Bloody outside centre always bitchin' for no good reason...Don't know they're born...mutter mutter...

If God had intended us to drink water she wouldn't have invented vodka.

I think I got six. And those were painful. I was crap!

Ok, I have had 2 dreams in the last month that my teeth were either blackened and rotting, or covered in dark brown slime. And I also had a slightly perverted dream about Lego frogs. Do these mean I am weird?????

Hi Chris. It must be very hard for you to write and read this thread. I'm so sorry - you guys have always been so lovely and charming and I'm just sorry I never got the chance to meet up with you and Tommy at Fingerlakes in June. Lots of thoughts with you from the UK now, Emma x

Is that the reasoning behind the existence of the Women's Category? Just out of interest as I missed the debate about it at the time...

How wide apart your legs are can also depend on your size, weight, shape and flexibility. It is harder to arch with wide legs for many people, and an increased arch also gives increased stability.

I heard a bootie came off. Arse. Still an awesome performance.

Lol...totally! And if you can get matching rigs too, medals are certainly within your grasp....

Yeh but I think you have all forgotten the main point, which is that mantis just looks cooler. Image is everything, skill is nothing...

Lol...Wasn't that you rolling around nekkid on the bouncy castle on the night of the sumo wrestling and Hawaiian shirts? [*joke*] Don't worry, you seemed pretty sophisticated and elegant to me. We, on the other hand, were probably not...Damn lairy boys getting pissed on turbo shandies and bringing the good name of Great Britain into disrepute... See ya next time!

Your own body shape, size, weight and flexibility will also in part determine how mantis-y vs how box-y you are. A good coach (ideally top FS jumper themselves) would take a look at your current position and help you to modify it, if it looks like it would help your speed and/ or stability. Essentially the mantis is a less stable position than the box, but what you sacrifice in stability, you make up for in speed...Uh, unless you go unstable and funnel yourself...Pfft ASPD go pretty fast but they don't all fly mega-mantised-up.

Yep, I agree with you. My question was really rhetorical, in that I've always found 'the top' to be great, very friendly and nice, and when I've been there with non-team friends, everyone has had a good time. A place is what you make of it - there are many DZs where you will be 'stuck' doing solos if you don't make a little effort to be friendly and get to know people :) By the way Skymama, saw you at Deland, I recognised you from your old DZ.com picture - my team and I were checking out famous DZ.com's Skymama! But didn't want to seem too stalker-ish by tracking down you down there and then in the flesh. We'll say Hi over a beer next time...lol Emma

ROFLMAO! Bring on young lurrrrve.....!

I guess it's just what people make of it then isn't it? It's up to the fun jumpers (whoever they are) to get other people involved. Or do you think there is a conscious approach from 'the top', if you like, to be unwelcoming to non-team jumpers? I think management can set the tone for a DZ, but ultimately it's the people who jump there who make it fun or not, assuming the facilities are good.

Wow, a whole hour? I don't mean to sound rude, but you guys should try jumping in the UK some time.... An hour's wait when the DZ is busy sounds like a pretty effiicient operation to me. I guess we are all deprived over here and grateful for less though Incidentally, the people who voted that the DZ isn't 'fun'? You mean compared ot other DZs or just not fun to be at, period? It's a whole load funner than many DZs I know. But maybe I'm just a sucker for good facilities and sunshine...

LOL. I was expecting some cheesy opener but this one is straight to the bone! V good...

Hi Ray, I love Deland, it rocks. The staff are friendly , coaching is excellent, planes are awesome, great restaurant and bar. But the again, I've only used it for...ah...team training. Also I have not idea what it was like *before* it got all 'teamy'. I agree that sometimes there's a bit of a gap at the end of a day's jumping, but I've still been there for some pretty cool parties. Load organising might help out strays without a team, but then again, you need to get 'fun' jumpers (is team training not fun? ) there in the first place, if you do really think that's what's missing. I always assumed Deland 'positioned' itself as the definitive team training Dz; maybe it's this alone that discourages people without teams to jump there? I guess every Dz has a reputation which can work for or against it - it's easy to get pigeon-holed and once that happens you do have to work hard to correct an image that may have evolved, if it's not the image you want. Emma

Er...yes, that IS the point. The evolution of any language is based upon a continual shortening of the time taken to communicate an idea or thought. Period. It's not a personal thing, it's the way language evolves. So what does that matter to 'others'? Who are these 'others' and why would they care? In general, the only people who care about skydiving acronyms are skydivers. No-one else gives a toss because they have no need to understand what we are on about. 'Esoteric' terms cease to be so to people who actually spend any time at dropzones, skydiving and/ or talking to other skydivers. Therefore if you actually skydive, you will gradually learn what these acronyms mean. Just like the rest of us did. No I'm not. 'BOC' has no single word to express what it means, therefore it's easier and faster to say, or write, BOC, than Bottom of Container. The same is true of almost every acronym in existence. Yes, the critical part here being 'wordS' (ie plural) rather than 'a precise INDIVIDUAL word' (ie singular). The reason is not to 'HIDE' words. Why do you use such an expression? The meaning is not lost to those to whom it is relevant. What an odd concept. Skydiving is a welcoming community. If you don't understand what someone is saying, why don't you just ask them? No-one will mind.

SKYLARK - Come on then girl, where do you jump in the UK? I would LOVE to introduce you to some really friendly people and then you can see exactly how nice the skydiving community over here really is. How many jumps do you have now? Maybe you need someone to take you under their wing?

Skylark - where do you jump? I don't believe we've had the pleasure?

Hey Stefan..yeah, don't mind me, only just half worked out how this forum thing works! xxx

Acronyms, since you ask, exist because they are a way of short-cutting expression. Words emerge and evolve in exactly the same way. They are shortcuts to ideas, as discussed in greater depth by the famous linguistic theorist, Ferdinand de Saussure ('Landmarks in Linguistic Thought'). Any esoteric sport, hobby or activity will probably have more than its fair share of acronyms because there exist within it specific notions, concepts or processes without a precise individual word to represent their essence, or meaning, to the wider community. There are also more and more acronyms in common parlance today than in days of yore, due in part to the speed at which vast communities communicate and share ideas. The internet and the media have created a global community, as we all know. It is thus easier and faster to abbreviate using the first letters of a group of words, than to allow a new word to develop naturally to reflect the changing consciousness of that particular culture over time. Does that answer your question? Using acronyms is not peculiar to skydiving, it is a feature of the evolution of human language. Yawn # 2 and NO I am NOT posting nudie pics! Now, can we get back to abusing Will?