mdrejhon

The dropzone is full facilities -- restaurant, showers, bathrooms -- so you never have to leave the dropzone. There is also a swimming pool for the hot days too, and the outdoor tiki bar, which will be used as the DJ/dance venue for the Saturday. (the same as shown in the Youtube video link). Feel free to bring your girlfriend or boyfriend, or friends. (You're getting at least your A license first, I presume? It's also useful to have when you begin travelling to new dropzones. Also study up on boogie safety, too, and landing further out -- more people flying in the air than usual.)

Attached, for those who can't view the Facebook page

I have done two intentional practice landings on my rears only, so I'll probably go with "what I've tried before"... Very hard to stand up due to lots of forward velocity I didn't eliminate enough (I slid one, I think: Several years ago).

New professionally edited YouTube HD video of last year's boogie, 3 minutes long: BOOGIE VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnx7ajEVywI

Dude, airbags have killed people before... The industry is under extra scrutiny lately, and more people are on the Internet than when Cypres was invented in 1991. Even Facebook had not yet been invented when Cypres2 and Vigil came out. They still save far more experienced (non-student) skydivers than hurt or kill them. Even many of the 'reserve container did not open' were from rigging mistakes or tight reserve packjob, and removing the AAD won't make those safer. (Likewise, sometimes airbags don't deploy in an accident) Yes, some problems that needs to be resolved (riggers, gear purchases, AAD makers, etc), but I disagree if you say AAD's making skydiving less safe for experienced skydivers.

Try Jeff Prystajko, the RainbowSkydiver who did my www.rainbowskydive.com website. He also does the amusement park websites for the world's famous roller coaster amusement park: www.cedarpoint.com and www.cedarfair.com. He can be found at facebook.com/skydivingjeff

Meanwhile, Conservatives lost 1 seat today due to a recount. One more Quebec seat went to NDP today. http://www2.canada.com/story.html?id=4785274 This was a 5-vote cliffhanger...

On a side note.... some major developments about Rainbow Boogie 2011, all within the last 3 days: -- CONFIRMED Fellow Rainbow Skydiver JUST PASSED FLOCK-U COURSE !!! (flocku website list will be updated shortly) Our dropzone approved this instructor and he is now approved by Skydive Cross Keys to do WINGSUIT INSTRUCTION -- William Onieal will be bringing wingsuits, and Cross Keys has two wingsuits for rental! -- CONFIRMED Kirsten Johnson, the Gay Way organizer for Rainbow Boogie 2006, is coming back! RW fun jumps and possibly a new Gay Way World Record attempt, depending on attendance talent. -- CONFIRMED Also have 4 other RW coaches and/or organizers (Michael Gamble, Ted Berry, Tim, and me) to fill in for the Rainbow Skydivers novices too, if attendance warrants, to avoid leaving our fellow novices on the ground. All the usual Cross Key resident load organizers will be there, for all the straight jumpers too. Those of you who have gone to Cross Keys, already know them. And the annual Rainbow Boogie party (Saturday night) is starting to become famous, despite being mostly straight (even with all the rainbow colored dance lighting, the hundreds of glowsticks, the motorcycle flaming ring, and the 6-foot tall fake rainbow cake)...

Remster, what about the straight men in the pink or purple jumpsuits?

And appaerntly, her riding, is STILL giving her a warm welcome! http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Brosseau+admits+never+visited+Quebec+riding/4745582/story.html Clearly, this riding was disgusted at their other voting options. They voted in an obvious newcomer. I hope she takes her training seriously, goes to French classes (!!!), and accept's the mayor enthusaic invitation to show her around the riding. For the non-Canadians reading, this is a province in year 1995 that at one time wanted to separate from Canada. In 1995 they almost essentially declared independence from Canada. Quebec Referendum -- At one time, 49.44% voted for independence from Canada.

You all think the photo is a big moral dilemma? What should we do about Bin Laden's children? Pakistan seized nine children ages 2 to 12, from the compound. They were left behind by the US for Pakistan to deal with. [Reference: New York Times] Mind you, the children is additional evidence Bin Laden was really killed -- and they can be DNA tested too as being proof of Bin Laden lineage. (DNA also comes from the other Bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia too). So the release of the death photo might actually be immaterial in the long run. What is the biggest moral dilemma is -- these are stateless children educated by a well known terrorist. What happens to these children? Will Pakistan re-educate them, or jail them, or put them in a jihad school, or deport them to Gitmo, or put them to death penalty, or deport to Saudi Arabia, or? Many of these children have evil teachings, but would the same rule apply to those young enough (ie 2 year old) that wouldn't have a memory of the terrorist or teachings? And what will other countries, including the USA pressure them to do? Ouch. I wouldn't want to be the country to make that decision. Mondo BIG MORAL DILEMMAS there -- vastly more controversial than whether or not to release the death photos. This is easily another Speaker Corner topic. (P.S. Big kudos on nailing the SOB, by the way. FINALLY.)

Yeah, it almost doubles freefall time. Yes, you need oxygen in the plane for that, but you don't need special gear once you exit the plane as your blood will have enough oxygen. For CK's king air 22,000 feet loads, AAD is required, B license is reqiured, and you do have to go through a special oxygen briefing.

Sounds like a guy I know that we call Theonlyski! Or that straight guy who popped out our huge cardboard rainbow cake at Rainbow Boogie 2010. Whoops... I see now that for some reason the link got broken by accident. The fixed clicky: See my post about the phenomenon of straight men/women at Rainbow Boogie here

I posted on Facebook that it seemed Quebecers would rather vote an inflatable doll or a teddy bear than somebody else in their constituencies. Some longshot placeholder ridings were filled with crash test dummies like this because Quebec used to not be an NDP place. The results surprised Canadians -- it had the same shock value as if UTAH become mostly DEMOCRATIC or some other shocker scenario... Quebec isn't an NDP province. AND, never in Canada's history that the Canadian liberals fell to just 11% of the seats (Many majorities in Canada in the last century has been Liberals) Now, I'm hoping the NDP is going to put these people into an intensive political training program, and eventually replace the weak links, because I am rooting for NDP to provide a healthy counterbalance to the Conservatives, which I hoped wouldn't have gotten a majority. (Note, I didn't want an NDP majority, either -- though I would have been OK with the short leash of a NDP minority with a Conservative opposition, to see how the NDP gradually reforms their party into a more mature party, after many of us got tired by the scandals of both Conservatives and Liberals) Many Quebec incumbents campaigned on the platform of not trusting these untested newcomers, and FAILED. Quebec likes Jack Layton, so they're probably now counting on leader Jack Layton to be the puppet master of the newcomers, bring them in line with the default NDP vote. And fire the misbehaving ones before they do irreparable damage to NDP, even if it means sacrificing a few seats to the other parties in order to save the rest of the NDP. The whole country is watching on NDP from both sides!

Dropzone.com is a distraction from Canadian federal politics. *dizzy* Hint: Above the 49th parallel, we elected a robot to lead our country.

Sunset jumps can be done on an A. It's night jumps that needs to be done on a B. DZ might oganize night jumps too. We had that at 2009, but there was a lack of interest in 2010. HOWEVER, the underwear jump is already a Rainbow Boogie tradition! For underwear jump, there's an opportunity: The CK regulars designed a Rainbow Boogie special: a famous swoop-and-chug obstacle courses on the last load of Saturday. On that specific load, four men went up in underwear in 2009, and seven dared in 2010, including A STRAIGHT MAN too (gadzooks), and IIRC, I believe a straight girl went lingerie. You landed accuracy as close to the course as you could, then you took off the rig, ran a foam obstacle course, balanced a bat on the nose, threw upwards a water balloon and caught it splat on your head, then slid on a slip-and-slide, then finally chugged a can of beer at the very end (or just poured on your head, if you preferred). Fastest time in the obstacle course won. A full Otter load did it, only one third was in underwear. This year there might be two loads volunteering to do the obstacle course. For 2011 there might even have a separate, dedicated Otter load for the underwear jumpers this time -- separate Otter load for the straight men -- as two Otters and a King Air are flying at this year's Rainbow Boogie -- as probably will the biplane. I missed the King Air 22,000 foot morning jumps because I streched my neck ligaments in an abrupt Sabre opening, and had to sit out the remainder of the boogie. corpkid, are you straight or a RainbowSkydiver? Either way, click the Facebook link from our website below and friend me/join the Facebook group and say hello there -- will be happy to keep you updated on the specifics of the boogie! I believe you're a new face, corpkid...

You are right. I know there were at least 6 closeted and mostly closeted men at the last boogie. But I already included this count in the 25%. ...One of the main load organizers for the gay group of Rainbow Boogie 2009 is a gay owner of a Canadian dropzone, where most working at the dropzone don't even know he is gay. He was 'out' at Skydive Cross Keys. ...Also, last year, we had a gay freefly organizer of a freefly team, who's sorta in the closet in the skydiving community. ...Also, there was gay TI too as well, who's in the closet in the skydiving community. To the point I actually didn't know he existed at Rainbow Boogie 2009, but only knew for 2010. These closeted men opened up more at the boogie, though continue to remain discreet. Also, some in the closet in the skydiving world, are 'out' at home. But yes, I will not be surprised if there are even more closeted or bisexuals that I don't even know about, etc. And yep, you're right about the (CHICKS | POPS | TEXAS) group. Though we're also a hetero-friendly group. Coincidentally, we got members of a Texas 4-way team coming (3 are RainbowSkydivers - 2 members and the video guy...)

Would it be cost effective for a big dropzone to resurrect one of those parked Caribou's? I think these would make excellent bigway airplanes.

Canada's new map is attached below. We are a BLUE & ORANGE country -- RED is almost gone! Honestly, our voting system is broken. We've voted a Conservative MAJORITY on only ~42% POPULAR vote.

My resume is on MONSTER. They know I am a contractor that is typically hired on 6 month or 1 year contracts. Recruiters I've never replied to, tend to re-contact me once every couple or three months. High skill jobs such as mobile software development for iPhone is pretty hot right now, for example. But I also get contacted for stuff I really don't want to do, too. So there are times I have been without work for a few months. I think it's a matter of skill mismatch with things people want to do. If more people wanted to retrain dramatically from web developer to becoming a welder or construction worker, or accept a large cut of income to switch careers like from bank-app iPhone/BlackBerry developer to an entry level EA Sports game developer (For more fun programming stuff at HALF SALARY), it's hard to refactor a lifestyle or accept work, especially if you have a house, and especially if it doesn't cover the mortgage payments enough, and can't relocate easily either. I read that in the Depression of the 1930's, many retrained to dramatically different careers for the War (USA participation in WWII '41-'45) and that helped lead a massive recovery. I can't help but be worried that flexibility of the workforce is lower than back then, but then again, the modern society including the Internet and the cellphone may compensate (i.e. working from home, etc). I find LinkedIn and other forms of networking (in person at agencies too) slightly more effective than things like Monster, but it's still a tool for me, to keep an eye on the barometer. A surge of incoming Monster recruiters means a hot job market, and it means I can make decisions whether to extend my current contract or not, risking downtime between contracts if the market is not hot... And also to keep a pulse on nearby cities, too. I survived the recession by being flexible lcoation-wise (but I do feel like I missed the mortgage bandwagon, Canada's mortgages havent fallen like USA mortgages). I've worked in 3 different major Canadian cities in the last 3 years, allowing myself to be far away from my loved one... We have downsized by 50%, but now our family income is finally higher, and we are now relocation-flexible, and probably now would throw my first mortgage at investment property in a few years (vacation/rental/future retirement) instead of a permanent location that limits my future ability to relocate for job options during the next economic crisis... Anyway, Monster is a good tool to keep the pulse on the job market and regionalness of it (some areas are hot, and some areas are downtrodden. During 2008 crisis, there was still a hot market for mobile devices in parts of Montreal and Toronto -- RIM, Nokia, etc -- that made my decision to relocate temporarily). if you have a good keyword-heavy IT resume. I do get dozens of useless email, plus a few relevant gems that really helped make a few of my career direction decisions (Even though I didn't reply). My general rule of thumb is to ignore recruiters that are more than 500 kilometers away, with just a brief glance... Now we are more or less semi-permanently in Toronto, with just an easy train trip away from Ottawa/Montreal in an emergency pinch... Being a consultant also means unpaid vacations and no benefits, but, other flexibility aspects compensate. It's the best way for me to survive at the moment. I've had to become more adaptable. My textbook case shows reputation can be damaged by stupid replies to headhunters. Therefore, the best policy is to ignore messages from recruiters you're definitely not interested in. That way, they don't put you on their blacklist or whitelist (Many agencies long learned ago that employed people generally ignore them, until they become jobless). And Recruitment XYZ Los Angeles, might also have satellite offices in New York City and Memphis. You don't want to be on the blacklist if you live in Memphis. So, If you don't like being spammed, don't reply with some stupid messages that put you on a black list. If you consider such recruiters your opponent, learn how the opponent works/operates, and play the game strategically instead. Some recruiters are great teammates, and some recruiters are sleazy players. Unfortunately sometimes both of them are working at different satellites of the same agency in different cities! Create a separate gmail account for use with Monster, and autoforward them as low-priority emails to your smartphone (So you only need to occasionally glance now and then, more often near the end of a contract, unless you're between contracts)

Never in my lifetime, I have not seen such amazing volunteers, all the straight girls and straight men at Skydive Cross Keys who really turning Rainbow Boogie (yes, that "gay" boogie) into Skydive Cross Key's most popular annual boogie. They have out-marketed our boogie beyond our Rainbow Skydivers group. Lately in recent years, the straights significantly outnumber the gays at our boogies -- the Saturday night dropzone party/dance/banquet night was 75% straight people and 25% gay (GLBT) people. And everyone was still celebrating something rainbow related. (i.e. items sorted into rainbow colors. Like red shooters, orange shooters, yellow shooters, green shooters, blue shooters, purple shooters.) Even though we were massively outnumbered by the straight guys/girls, we all blended in the party. The 2010 party was a huge success -- DJ's were supplied for 2010 including dance lighting equipment, and we supplied rainbow xmas lights (over 2,000 bulbs), several hundred glowsticks (bulk 1,000 glowsticks on ebay for less than $100 - we gave several for free to EACH person) and some fun stuff like the huge fake rainbow cake & the motorcycle hop through a flaming hoop (all on video, of course!). Cross Keys decided to make our boogie the main 'party' boogie of the year, and our advertising is mainly by word of the mouth -- ask anyone who's been there; it's been multiplying annually and now I'm doing less organizing work I did in the smaller event of 2006, thanks to all the amazing volunteers in RainbowSkydivers, and the straight volunteers too at Skydive Cross keys. While I still work hard to make it happen, I have not seen such an amazing willingness and self-sustainment of volunteers in my lifetime, ever -- big Kudos there. Cross Keys ran 2010's largest one-day number of turbine loads during our boogie. Our boogies have tended to sort of become a collection of parallel events, each independently organized to delibrately coincide simultaneously on the same weekend, and then we all shared one big rainbow-themed party. And, the people at Cross Keys are also respectful of the gay aspect and the need to recruit from our group, even as we are being massively overrun by the supportive straights. Cross Keys even set up a skydiving booth -- the world's first -- at the Philadelphia Gay Pride Parade, to recruit the local tandem market. Our RainbowSkydivers Facebook group supplied 2 to last year's 2010 boogie. Thanks to all the straight volunteers, this is why we changed from a small originally-roaming boogie to a boogie currently making Skydive Cross Keys, during these last three years, the official home dropzone of our now consistently-annual boogie. (Though from time to time, we host unadvertised mini RainbowSkydiver meets/reunions/mini-boogies at other dropzones) I would not be surprised that eventually, we may be 90% straight, 10% gay. (Do I hear the irony of Kinsey?) No matter, we're compensating to make sure that the gays still find each other & don't confuse the straights. This year, I haven't announced our boogie on dropzone.com Events area (so greenies, not cross posting here; I'll let this thread serve as the official Rainbow Boogie thread instead) -- I felt it more appropriate to point out the real interesting (and humbling) trend of a gay boogie of being overrun by straight men/girls that's celebrating the mutual love of skydiving & a good party with us -- the topic matter of this posting is a huge thank-you to the volunteers who are making it all possible. (Too many to list -- I never got to meet EVERY single one of them!)

Wow, lots of gorgeous women, most the guys are gay . . . sounds like a target rich environment for a single guy to meet girls. Shah, are you listening? Actually, you'll be surprised to know that lately in recent years, the straights significantly outnumber the gays at our boogies -- the Saturday night dropzone party/dance/banquet night was 75% straight and 25% gay. [url=http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4108829]See my post about the phenomenon of straight men/women at Rainbow Boogie here[/url]

We guarantee you will not be expelled from Rainbow Boogie, August 4th to 7th, 2011. Although lately, most of them are on straight girls who have also been enjoying our boogie too... (We are popular there with everyone now -- Last year, our boogie had Cross Keys' busiest day of the year!)

Your one warning. (A greenie should say that instead. ... I don't appreciate the language used on a fellow jump buddy, labrys)

It really, really, really depends. Definitely YES use your instructors, your DZO, your safety officer, to help you decide on the best canopy. The safety gene tells me to get a 190. Which was what I was originally going to get. However, I went 1.1:1 too for my first canopy, but I had 59 jumps and intentionally kept renting longer to make sure 170 was okay, once I got the unamious okay from everyone at the dropzone after a 170 became available for sale. About 600 jumps later, I still have the 170, even though I've jumped various sizes down to 140 dozens of times. Now for my jump numbers, I'm relatively conservative compared to a lot of skydivers... I'll be the first to tell you a brand new ZPX Pilot 168 is much safer overall relative to a rental Sabre1 190 that has more than 500 jumps put onto it. It even lands slower, both vertically and horizontally. And even on the same model, a brand new Pilot 140 with proper lines, lands safer and slower than a rental Pilot 150 with 700 jumps. My experience with various rentals and demos tells me to add around one or two downsize level factor for brand new versus a 500-700 jump used canopy of the same size. Therefore, if you strongly desire the 170 instead of bigger, try to buy new or low-jump item of one of the popular beginner friendly models like Pilot, etc. But, most of all, don't think about it until after you've gotten your A!