Zennie

Wreck dives rock. I did the Oro Verde twice when I was in Grand Cayman. Once at night and once during the day. Also did the Doc Poulson. That one was fun 'cuz you could swim around in it Jacques Cousteau style. As far as depth goes, I'm advanced openwater, but a lot of folks do deep dives (and night dives for that matter) on their standard openwater license. When we were in Grand Cayman my wife regularly went below 100' with me and she's openwater. The narcosis kicking in freaked her a little the first time, but after that things were cool. Yup. Noticed that the first jump. Funny thing is that my wife loves to scuba dive but is definitely a whuffo. I tell her she's as likely, if not more so, to die scuba diving than skydiving, but she doesn't believe me. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

You realize your e-mailbox is about to get deluged from every jumping code-monkey out there. Heck, I'd consider it but I've already got a pretty decent job. I noticed y'all do CORBA. Have you looked at TIBCO? I know the approach is slightly different (I'll spare the others here the geek-speak) but it's a heckuva lot easier to use. I did a little CORBA, saw TIBCO and never looked back. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Man. Seems like there's a fair number of scuba divers here as well. Boat or plane, I'll jump off it! We might have to get a scuba/skydiver club going here!

Our DZ (Spaceland) does pretty brisk tandem business, but I wouldn't consider them a tandem factory. I've never seen more than 3 tandems per otter load, and if this isn't a formal rule, it seems to be an unwritten one. Seems like a fair compromise. The manifestors do a very good job of keeping you on a load once you've signed up. The only time I've been bumped was for a big-way, not a tandem load, and they were very apologetic. I've had some waits to make a load, but I've never been bumped except for that one time. But I just like the whole atmosphere, so I don't mind hanging out to wait my turn. Truth me known, my biggest damper has been having to wait for a rental rig to get available. Can't wait to get my own so I can make more loads. Anyhoo, just doing a bunch of tandems wouldn't qualify a DZ as a factory IMHO. Like many of the others here, I would call a DZ "tandem factory" when they start neglecting the active divers in favor of the tandem/student drops. There's a certain DZ out West that has a really bad reputation of doing just that, and to the nth degree. I'll let others here identify that DZ if they wish. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

No can do on the cold-water diving. I've been spoiled on Gulf waters (e.g. Grand Cayman). Nothing like diving in just trunks & a t-shirt. My wife & I are gonna try to make it to Coz this fall. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Dang. Where's Carrie when you need her. She's the authority on this. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

No. That would be the "Love Stomp". ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

"Flyaway" is the company that runs the tunnels in Vegas and Pigeon Forge Tennessee. Their website is http://www.flyawayindoorskydiving.com/index1.htm. Great people. Helped cure me of my chipping problem while I was on student status. My instructor was amazed when I came back. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie Edited by Zennie on 3/5/01 12:55 PM.

Yup. 'Course I have nothing to compare them to, but I always felt good about the quality of instruction that I was getting. Plus, they've been really good about answering my post-student questions. And, they'll occasionally "pop quiz" me, just to make sure I don't stop doing the things they taught me. Some may get bent out of shape over that, but I'm glad they care enough to continue even after I "graduate". ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

First, like everyone else here, I congratulate you on beating your addiction. I can't imagine anyone giving you grief over choosing not to drink. They may rib you for not hanging out after hours, but certainly not for staying sober. I certainly wouldn't. If you're at a DZ where they do, find another DZ because those folks aren't worth hanging out with. Plus, if they use peer pressure to do that, what other things might they try to goad you into doing (like doing jumps you're not comfortable doing)? It's not worth it. But then again, I don't drink much anyway. Usually messes up my stomach I a big way so it's just not worth it anymore. I bring beer to the DZ when I owe, but I'll let everyone else drink it and just have Diet Cokes myself. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hahahaha! That's great! Bet there's a lot of guys who wish they were that chute. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hrm. I was taught braked turns. I use 'em pretty much exclusively when setting up my final approaches. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I just learned to pack this weekend (including first jump on my own pack job -- BEER!) and I noticed something that everyone seems to do. Once the chute is totally packed, they give it a little love pat. I've also noticed this on pin checks. I did it on mine and wondered if this is one of those skydiver superstitions, like a good-chute-karma sort of thing. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I think both sides are making good points. On the one hand, if I'm a DZO, I sure don't want some idiot who doesn't know his/her limitations burning in, giving my DZ bad press and thus hurting business. Fatalities are bad enough, but when they're totally avoidable, well, that's worse. On the other hand, I don't think that those who do have the experience and currency to perform high-speed maneuvers should be punished for the stupidity of amateurs. There are some guys at the DZ who do some pretty amazing stuff, and it's fun to watch (and I'm sure for them, fun to do) and they're always in total control. Our sport, by it's very nature, is pretty Darwinian. It can let you be as safe or reckless as you want to be. Nobody's with you in your canopy to bail you out. I guess this is no different than motocrossing, mountainbiking, skiing, etc where you are perfectly free to exceed your capabilities and suffer the consequences when you do. It's not the sport's fault. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Congrats froggie! I know how you're feeling. I was so psyched to get my own rig on my back. I'm sure you'll do fine. I'll just leave you with some advice that my instructor always gave me right before jump time: "Relax and smile!"

That's a very good suggestion. My wife-o is generally pretty good about me jumping... although she does occasionally try to find "other" things for me to do come jump day. "Why don't you do this... Why don't do that...." It's kinda funny. I've also found that the more I've done it, the better she's getting about it. She's discovering that, yes, I do come back alive and in one piece. She also knows how concerned I am about safety, so I think that puts her at ease as well. I doubt she'll try a tandem, but I've talked to my DZO, and he's very cool about her riding up in the passenger seat on the otter so she can watch us do our thing. Maybe your wife can try that as well. That way there's no jump obligations, but she gets a second-hand view of what it's all about. Plus she gets a fun plane ride out of the deal. I'd also point out that our biggest contention point has been the expense. You have to plunk down an awful lot of money for training and your first rig. Once that's done, it's still a little pricey, but it's more spread out. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I have been working with a Sabre 170 lately. I trained on a 190 and I was shocked at the difference 20 sq. ft. makes. On the 170 I'm loaded at 1.09 and that's really about the limit of my abilities. It comes in much hotter and I'm still doing PLFs while I dial in the flare (basically I keep starting my flare too late). I was standing up every 190 landing and I keep PLF-fing my 170 landings. I can't imagine strapping on a 150, and that would put me at about 1.2, which is still "low" by many diver's standards. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hey hopper, you in Houston yet or are they expecting yukky weather in Cali-for-nye-ay on Saturday as well? Just coorious. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Oh man. Here's to hoping he makes it through. Question. I've run into turbulence on final approaches and it's kind of disquieting. Can turbulence create a stall that will cause the canopy to act like you put it in a hard toggle turn? I have to wonder how many people have done low toggle turns trying to compensate for turbulence, but only making the situation worse. I'm not saying that happened here, but people just don't start hitting the toggles for no reason. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I thought so too when he told it to me. When I tell it to whuffos they give me this really weird look that says "That's morbid". The uplifting nature of the story seems lost on them. We are a misunderstood lot. Then again, I've been misunderstood all my life. **Sigh** ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Oh man, lessee.... hockey, golf, alcohol, drugs, playing guitar, running, rollerblading, raquetball, weightlifting, archery, hunting, several martial arts, geeking with computers (which I do for a living now), skiing, Buddhism/Taoism, scuba diving, bungee jumping... Some I still do, some I don't. Give me time and I'll probably think of about 50 others. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

froggie: Wow! I wouldn't wish what happened to you upon my worst enemy. But my motto as of late is "Life is nothing but interpretation of events." Sounds like you've dealt with it in a very healthy manner. Another observation I'll make (as you can see, I do this a lot ) is that skydivers as group seem to be very open about themselves and their feelings. Even the guys. I've met so many folks that will just sit down and talk about life with me, and it's just so cool. For you to open up like that takes a lot of courage, and I salute you! That brings me to my next theory (which usually immediately follows my "observations" ). Skydiving give people courage. When you overcome the ultimate fear... the fear of falling, fear of death... everything else pales. Most people don't talk about their feelings, or even deal with them internally, because of fear. Once fear is removed, we deal with our issues and talk about how we feel. I can help but think of Yoda's words "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." Conquer fear and you conquer suffering (both yours and others). Basic tenet of Buddhism too, BTW. Carrie: Your story reminds me of a talk I had with a friend recently. He was depressed and decided to jump solo one day. As he was in freefall he thought "You know. I don't have to pull. Death's right down there. I can just not pull and burn in. It's my choice. I can choose to live or I can choose to die." Well, at that moment he had what I would call an "awakening" and others, including himself, would call a "religious experience". He realized life was worth living, thanked Jesus and pulled. His life has been great ever since. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

While this thread is in FLA , my folks have a winter condo in Naples. What would be my best bet as far as DZs go? If I go down to visit, I'd like to get some jumps in and maybe strap my Dad to a tandem. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Responding to my own post. I figured out how to make all the "New" icons go away without going into the threads... you have to completely close out the browser and return to the site with a new browser. Just going back and forth in the same browser instance (and hitting the refresh button) doesn't do it. Ya gotta exit out completely. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I've met a fair number of people now who started skydiving during a crisis period in their life. Divorce seems to be a common one. I started mainly because I had always wanted to and reached a point financially where I could swing it. But it also seems to be a good "liberator" for those going through difficult periods in their life. Just out of curiosity, how many here started when they were going through rough times and how did it help you? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie