Zennie

Heh. The one time I opened at 3500, would you like to venture a guess where I landed? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

If you like low pulls without AADs, why not take up BASE jumping? Heck you don't even need to be bothered with a reserve for that. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Lowest pull I've ever done is 3500, but I'm new. But to tell you the truth, I have absolutely 0 interest in pulling below 3000. I want time to deal with a mal if I have one. *But* lowest pull I've heard of is ~800 feet. But that's just rumor. The lowest pull I've seen on a ProTrack is ~1700. Both good ways to get grounded at best, dead at worst. But, hey, it's your life. Then again, it is our sport. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

We are no longer the knights who say ni! We are now the knights who say... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Actually, blaze fits right now because calm zenmeister's seriously pissed off. Due to a sequence of financial events beyond my control I'm gonna have to hold off on the purchase for a couple of months. So, yeah, keep the votes coming and thanks all for your comments so far. Gotta calm down. Om... om... om.... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hey cyber, go read my rant at DZSports and then email me some lithium. I need it. Anyway, I packed one of my slammers, and the other two were packed at the DZ. So you can chalk at least one of those up to crappy packing (i.e. mine). I know for a fact that all the rental Sabres have pockets installed on the sliders to slow the openings down, but I still get bit. We all propack, so I don't think it's technique per se. I just think they're really fussy canopies. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Dang, your typing is pretty good for being drunk. Every time I've tried it, I go back the next morning to read it and go "Huh?" ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hehehehe.... You'll know it when it happens. I've had nice soft openings and at least 3 where I literally yelled "OW! F@#$%!!!!" I'd hang on the risers just to get my legs off the harnesses for a few seconds because they hurt so much. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Well, I haven't been in the sport long enough to say with authority, but I plan on packing my own because most (not all, but most) mals can be traced back to some kind of packing error. Not that I don't trust my DZ's packers. They're all good, but I still kind of like doing those kinds of things on my own. To me, packing your 'chute is kind of part of the sport. Not packing your own (to me) is like playing golf to the green and then having somebody else putt for you. It's not that difficult once you learn it. But it is a pain at first. I'm still wrestling with getting the thing bagged and the line stows nice & neat. But you only get better with practice. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Dang. Hope you're not target practice for 'em. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

This whole thread reminds me a hilarious movie that dealt with that whole American/British culture clash thing... A Fish Called Wanda. Kevin Kline's character just killed me. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Ooop. Missed that "in the morning" part. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

This was basically my thinking on the subject. But you mean you actually go out and buy clothes? I don't think I've bought anything in my 36 years of life. My Mom or wife always got sick of my old clothes and would just bring something home out of the blue. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hehehe. Those were good. Thanks! We have a lot of Brits in our office so I forwarded it on to one of them. FWIW, given the slant of most of them I would hazard a guess they were written by an Aussie, but they aren't too far off the mark anyway. BTW. Hey skreamer, you need to supplement those with "South Africans". ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I go by Ted around there. I wear a yellow Protec and usually jump in jeans and a sweatshirt. I've been jumping rental gear while deciding on my personal rig. Do you freefly & wear a green and purple freefly suit? If so, I've been with you on some jump runs. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Couldn't you make patchwork clothing out of the fabric? I was thinking some freefly suits were made from old 'chute fabric. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Just my $0.02. It was my understanding as well that a hook was toggle input and a swoop was riser input. But yeah, a lot of folks just use the term generically to refer to a low hard turn to build up vertical speed for a ground surf. I've played around with toggle hooks up high and they're kind of fun. Great for bleeding off altitude while in your holding area. I just bury a toggle, swing out level with the canopy about 180, let the toggles up and then feel myself swing back down. Even up high you get a sense of the airspeed these guys are generating (and why it's such a bad idea to do hard toggle turns low). ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I used a few pieces of software to create that web page. First, as far as the design goes, Square 1 has a canopy design applet that I used to do the color schemes. The applet is here. I created a scheme and then used screen capture software to grab the image, crop it, and save it to my hard drive. I used CaptureNPrint, which is freeware. You can get it at Tucows. I then used some basic image editing software (such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro) to resize the image down to thumbnail size so that it would fit easily into the table. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Well, I went through a lot of designs and these were all of my favorites. I have a couple I'm leaning toward more than the others, but I'm not very good at designs so I just wanted to see what others liked (and maybe confirm my preferences). If I went with any of these I'd be happy. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Actually, I just changed the name to "Bedspread" so you guys wouldn't get any more weird ideas. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hahaha.... Sorry. I called it that because that color scheme matches our bedspread. Nothing kinky. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

OK. I'm in the process of buying a rig. So I went to Square One and started banging out canopy color schemes. I've created a web page that shows each design and has a name above it. I would really appreciate your input on which designs you like best. After all, you're gonna see one of these in the skies soon! I want it to be your favorite. The link is here. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I drove my instructor crazy in my pre-wind-tunnel jumps because he'd tell me to relax, I'd feel relaxed and I'd still potato-chip like crazy. He'd say "It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. You're there smiling, and yet your not relaxed." The key, it turned out, was that I was only partially relaxed. My arms and legs were OK, but my hips and shoulders weren't. That's what I learned in the tunnel. I just let my hips sink down naturally , and let the wind kind of flow over my arms and put them where they want to be. Once you get the feel for the wind flowing around your body, then you can learn to start working it. Feel the wind flow around you! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

There's a place close by me that makes a wicked sun-dried tomato hummus. They also make an equally wicked sun-dried tomato couscous. MMMmmmmmmmm..... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I enjoy it when I get motivated to do it. I'm primarily into zazen meditation though (like, duh!). ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie