rogue108

Chris, I am getting to this one kind of late, but f*** those people. I have met you on several occasions and you are an excellent person and by no means dangerous. You were more than generous enough to take the time to coach me, which is definitely the sign of a dangerous self-absorbed skydiver. Only you and the people there know what happened. When I saw the video (a while back) it seemed like a funny incident, that was well within control. In my opinion, there is a trend where particular people who have nothing to do with an incident like to analyze and draw conclusions about what might have happened whether anything happened or not. These are the same people who like to walk around the DZ crucifying and labeling people for things (bad landing, bad spotting, getting on top of a freefly jump...etc) instead of teaching them a better way. I know this is a self policing sport and we need to keep it going, but this is ridiculous. This is skydiving and it is dangerous. There is no way we can make this into basket-weaving. These people should be doing something positive for the sport instead of trying to kill and label those who are doing good things for us. So a big double FU to them and their overworked keyboards. Forget them Chris and continue to do what you are doing. Oh yeah...Rant Over.

Bontrager Race. No longer made, not that light, but a nice riding steel hardtail. It was suspended with a RockShox Judy XL and a combination of Deore XT and Race Face Components. My road ride was Trek 2100, then Trek 5200 outfitted with Ultegra. I was able to borrow a Litespeed Ultimate for while, which was nice. All these rides are now past tense due to moving. Since you are considering a new bike I would look into Trek and or Specialized. I know everyone owns one but they offer a lot of bike of the money. I worked at a bike shop for about 8 years, which was a Trek/Specialized dealer and their product for the value and customer service was excellent.

Dont forget he has Prop to deal with should he overshoot wing. Also hitting a plane in freefall wouldn't be much fun, people hurt enough. Not to mention damaging the plane. I think having the plane in a comfortable relative speed was the goal, regardless of orientation

Done fairly well

Jumped when equipment was dangerous Remembered when sliders were invented Cutting away used more than one handle Wore a reserve on your belly Can spot a load

I haven't jumped in a while, but Max Cohn is an excellent coach. He is worth every penny. I wasn't a big fan until I actual go a chance to fly with him. He is an excellent freeflyer and teacher. I have met bad ass freeflyers, but they can't teach the skill. Max is very calm, through in his debriefs and has different methods of getting things across to a student. He is also a good judge of your skill level and will make sure the jumps you do are productive. He fixed out a problem I was struggling with in two jumps. He also knew when I was asking for too much in a jump and simplfied the dive, so I spent more time practice one skill instead for trying to do 10 skills once. If you can find Max coach at a boogie give him a shot.

JAFO - Just Another Fucking Observer

Dave Mustaine, apparantely had some severe wrist injury and he decided to disbanded Megadeth. I would guess that is about two or three years ago. Then he decided to reform Megadeth a couple of months back, released an album, and is now headlining Gigatour this summer. Seeing them back in 91', they were absolutely the tightest band, musically they were flawless live.

I really have nothing more to add other than what has been said, I was not there for better or for worse. Sara was one my best friends in the world and the other skydiver I knew well. Yonathon is also a good friend of mine and this is hard for all of us. I am only here to reinforce what he has said. Do not speculate, do not debate what you do not know, do not turn this thread into a argumentive debate or a circus sideshow. Respect those who are no longer with us. That is all for now.

Okay terrific He is right

I did 10 jumps on a new style GTI. Its a lot of fun and I find it rather relaxing. You can just cruise in the suit if you want or you can really work on flying it to get longer flights, formations etc. They seemed intimidating at first, with all the zippers and cutaways, but I found myself pretty comfortable after 2 or 3 flights. I also jumped mine using a Stilleto 135 loaded @ 1.4 and it was very managable. I had line twists once and just kicked out. Ideally an elipical is not the first choice to use jumping wingsuits, especially heavily loaded ones, but its not suicide to use one. It all depends on your comfort level and how well you fly at deployment. Later

See ya...Peace out and Enjoy

Isn't passing batteries especially D-Cells dangerous. You could kill someone if you dropped one. Hell for some of those "tools" you would have to pass like 4 D-Cells. It would be like a cluster bombing if enough got free and it would be way worse than a spaceball getting loose. Everyone should seek shelter, that day.

I apologize...I must have missed a couple of jumps on Saturday. That last jump on Saturday was beyond dark. A couple of people mentioned that they would have prefered staying in the plane, since it was so dark. I didn't realize jumpers were still up there until I noticed people were missing. The following day, Sunday was pretty slow and on Monday it was just Maggot and I. Anyway, Perry mentioned today that he really wants to just fly this weekend. So all wingsuit flyers who want to fly show up tomorrow or this weekend. Peace out

Let me correct the last post...The only flock was the sunset 8 way which cost Perry his DV camera. Other than that all that was done were two ways w/ Perry and solos. So any wingsuit jumpers that want to show up, please do. Perry would like to organize flocks of various sizes and experience levels. He also has demo suits available for those don't have one. C-Ya

This is last call...any one who wants to demo a wingsuit, come on out. Its one hell of a ride. If I remember correctly you need to have a minimum of 200 jumps, be current, and do your first flight with a BMI. If you have 500+ jumps you can be briefed by the BMI and go on your own. "Square" canopies are highly suggest for first time jumps and low timers. C-ya

Oh I wimped out and stayed till Monday to make time for shooting, explosives, and bird-man dives. It was a hell of weekend...thanks again.

Perry, Want me to let everyone know that he will continue to stay @ the Ranch this entire week from the 6th thru the 11. However, this last weekend very few people came out to flock or do demo as planned. So he want to get a flock together and do some dives. For those who don't know Scary Perry, he is a BMI and has demo suits with him @ the Ranch. So those of you that haven't tried it come on out and give it a shot. Contact the DZ for more information and/or ask for Perry. For those of you who just want to flock, show the hell up. He wants to organize some good flocks of various skill levels and size . The biggest we had was 8 on Saturday sunset, which resulted in a DV camera casuality [Perry's :( ] So all those who fly come out so we can put some fun dives together. Oh bring a DV Camera so we can capture it... Get the Flock one www.scaryperry.com (He is away from internet access right now).

To All: Perry asked me to tell y'all, that he will continue to be at the Ranch until July 11th. He is a Bird Man Instructor and is doing Bird-Man Wingsuit Demos 6th thru the 11th. There are also Birdman Pantz available for demo as well. So everyone who wants to get their flock on show up. Contact the DZ for more info www.ranchskydive.com www.scaryperry.com (He is away from internet access, right now)

We are at about 24 hours till the 1st load. Lets kick this one of big. Big turnout, Big Ways, Big Swoops, Big Party, and Big Turbine. Show John that we need a bigger turbine. Lets show everyone what Sussex is really about. ...without a whimper

If it takes a Slip n Slide...bring it...Get anyone that can jump to show up. I hear we can secure a larger turbine jumpship if we can get enough people to come out, possibly a Super Otter or a Super Skyvan. The ones of us that are showing want a bigger plane. So everyone and anyone show the hell up. We already have the a chopper and a Biplane....

Where is are we gonna party at since there is no camping on the DZ. This sounds like its heating up, with the whole Trojan...Skydive Blowjob...Toga thing

Get us one of the Grand Caravans. Maybe if we can get a list of people coming to the DZ? We can talk AireExpress into firming up a turbine for us. More details on which MonkeyClaw members are showing up.

Its just hard to teach freeflying over the internet. Its so much easier to show the skill in person. I can explain and clarify things much better in person. It also doesn't require me to write a 85 mile post. Its also easier to debrief a person right after a jump and based on their input to tell them/give them drill to work on their "weakness". I am not coach or an expert, by any means, but I found through my learning curve, those were the things that were done for me to help me fly better. That is why I don't post much in this forum, its just hard to explain things. For example, I find it especially hard to explain HD flying to people over the net. It a little easier in person, but its hard to define the "sweet spot" in HD flying. HD is a combination of legs, hips, and spine alignment, its so hard to see over the net what they are doing... That is my two friggin cents Freeflyer exist we are just on the different plane of existance

I have nothing to add that wasn't already in kturners post. Its all true, its sad and its not something you wanted to see. From the little I knew Raff, He is an awesome guy.