MagicGuy

Nightingale is right on about cold reading. There are a lot of magicians, well actually, a sub-division type of magicians who refer to themselves as "Mentalists", who use cold reading. Mentalists do all types of tricks that involve reading people's minds, making predictions etc. They just use cold reading in a different way - as entertainment. Sylvia Browne is the biggest bullshitter I've ever seen. Not to mention that she has no personality whatsoever. I've been to the StopSylviaBrowne.com website many times. The amount of evidence that goes against her is amazing. I do, however, believe that there are a small percentage of people out there who do have some type of psychic abilities. There's this lady, Lisa Williams, who has a TV show where she talks to the dead. Of course, with tv editing and whatnot, I'm sure they make her out to be a lot better than she is. But what she does goes beyond simple cold reading. It's a pretty interesting show, to say the least.

I have to agree with Doug, here. Knowing nothing about your canopy skill or education on canopy flight, I'd have to say that if you are nervous about it in any way, than don't do it! Just the fact that you say that you will only jump the canopy if there is wind concerns me a little bit. IMO, you should be able to land your 170 in any kind of wind conditions before thinking about downsizing. Just judging by how you worded your post makes me think that you can't do that yet with the 170. Anyways, good luck with whatever you choose to do. Just don't do it if it's because of money issues.. no amount of money is worth getting hurt (or worse) for.

Pretty cool video. The one entitled "Dreams" is even crazier than that one, though.. It's on SDM.

I hope they aren't premonitions.. I haven't jumped in a few months and I've been having some pretty.. horrifying, to say the least, skydiving dreams. Just last night I dreamt that first, I saw a Twin Otter completely cripple to the ground, and then I misjudged a set-up for a swoop and almost killed myself. A few weeks ago I had another dream that I was watching a bunch of people land on a beach for a special event. The wind picked up really badly and horrifically, two of the jumpers died. Those are only two of them.. I have been having some really, really bad dreams lately related to skydiving. I have always had this thing with dreams. I have at least 1-2 dreams every night that I can remember. Sometimes they are so real.. and sometimes I swear that they must mean something, or are a prediction of something to happen. Really wild.. considering that some people never remember their dreams. Oh and as a kid, I used to be able to wake myself up from bad dreams. It was cool - I'd hear my voice, like it was coming from a big speaker and echoing, while dreaming.. and it would just say "WAKE UP" really loud, and I would wake up. Wish I could still do that. Dreams are cool.

This is what I saw as one of the biggest issues here. Most people have bad timing on their flares because of problems with depth perception. This is something that can be worked out, but it should be worked out during the day. Your depth perception is going to be even more screwy at night, with strobe lights and ground lights and not to mention the added stress and adrenaline of jumping at night in general. Heal up, get some serious canopy coaching, and please, don't jump at night until you have your landing issues worked out! Glad to hear you are in high spirits and want to return to the sky. Landing is the biggest problem it seems and CAN be fixed. Good luck.

Oh.. My.. God.. Thank God you didn't have to use that reserve. There should be more action taken against the rigger in question. That is just insane.

Evo's are nice and all - I mean, they look nice and 291HP in a car that small = fucking fast. But.. my brother had an Eclipse and that car was the biggest piece of shit ever. Everyone that I know that has had a Mitsubishi has had nothing but bad things to say about them. For 32k, I at LEAST want a 6 speed. Nevermind the whole interior to me looks pretty crappy. I'll take an STi, please.

Spectres can slam you just like any other canopy can! I never 'fully' flare out of a track, but I do wave off before I pull, which seems to slow my speed down enough where I still get long, on heading openings.

Yup, it turned out to be pretty terrible. Ya know movies that have bad endings? Well, they ended up fucking up completely and crashing the boat, not even getting a chance to try the other parachutes. LAME! I wish Mythbusters was on like it was supposed to me. Sorry to anyone who tuned it!

That just made my night.

Aw common, you have never seen "Cutaway"? "What's a whuffo?" "Someone who doesn't skydive. Comes from "Whuffo you jump outta them planes?!" A classic..

I won a Young Author's award when I was in first grade! I performed magic for David Copperfield. And I was on Miami Ink. That about sums up my 15 seconds.

Good to see LBFM gone. She should've been gone weeks ago. Watching her always reminded me of watching a not-so-bad, average person sing karaoke. I bet Brooke would be a blast if she had some tequila in her, as well. Body shots, anyone? Smiley kid - definitely needs to stop licking his lips. And I can't stand how he looks like he's going to cry after every performance. Get this fucking kid OUTTA HERE! Too bad all the little teeny boppers are gonna get him to the finals. Bad hair emo boy is going to end up taking the cake. That's my guess.

So Discovery Channel fucked up their listings apparently. Says that Mythbusters should be on right now but instead, their new show Smash Lab is on. They are testing parachutes! They are trying to come up with a way to stop a high speed boat in a crash scenario. They already made a tandem skydive (at a dropzone with a pretty sweet Otter painted like a shark) and now they are testing different parachutes to use for the job. One of the guys, I'm guessing inexperienced with any kind of canopies, was just setting up a paraglider and while holding it, he got a gust of wind and the thing almost took him for a ride. Pretty funny, actually. Check it out!

Thanks, DanG. I was kind of pissed by the attitude, too, but I didn't have the energy to write a decent response (as opposed to "fuck off") so I didn't bother

THE BEAST!!! Yes! The Beast! Thanks Doug.

I've had those pains. I got really nervous and the doctor put me through all types of tests. It freaked me out that I was getting these pains.. and I am only 22. They turned out to be gas. I drink a lot of energy drinks on the weekends at the DZ. Usually start the morning off with one and then have another half way through the day. My favorite one is the Mountain Dew AMP energy drink. We have one at our dz.. for the life of me I can't remember the name. But they are only $1 and they taste pretty great. Sobe has one that is Blueberry Pomegranate flavor, in a big can, and those are probably the best tasting type I've ever had. But they are a little pricey at like.. $2.50 a can.

Like Doug said, tracking is an important skill, as well as being a blast when you get good at it. I would second the fact that trying to blast into the track position from your normal arch will definitely feel unstable. I do it in two parts - straighten legs and gradually bring my arms and shoulders to track position. The straightened legs will start your forward movement and the arms will just add to it once you get them in place. Don't worry about trying to get into position so fast - speed will come with practice. Try getting a friend that's a coach (and that has a camera helmet if you can!) to come and work with you. Offer to pay his slot for him.. sometimes you'll get a nice coach that will just go up with you for free. Having someone else there will definitely make learning a lot easier, especially if there's a video that you can debrief with. Keep working at it.. most jumpers never stop trying to make their track better. Once you get some more jumps and get more confident with tracking, multiple person tracking dives are some of the coolest jumps you'll make! Good luck.

Just to add to what billvon said, as a solo person trying to hang onto that step it's not that easy! Whenever I take camera step I can't wait for someone else to climb outside of the door because it's not easy to hang on, especially when the step and/or handle is pretty low profile. As for doing flips out of the plane, that's a different story. As someone else said, as long as you are comfortable with getting stable after a disorienting maneuver (which you should be if your instructors graduated you) than I say go for it! Step out of the door with your back to the prop and let it blow you over = gainer. They are my favorite exits, by far. Have fun!

I did probably.. 15 hop and pop type exits from full altitude before going for the 'real thing'. For some reason, they scared me so much and were the last thing I had to do for my A License. I put them off until I was getting sick of doing solo jumps.. with 55 skydives under my belt! Needless to say, the full altitude exits gave me all the confidence I needed and I nailed both hop and pops on the first attempt. And I'm glad I did - they still remain one of my favorite types of jumps. Lots of time to fly my canopy, and still get a little bit of freefall at the same time!

Marko and I exchanged some emails and I hope that I can shake his hand one day and put all the bullshit in the past. He realized what happened and is going to do what he's got to do to make sure that it doesn't happen again. He is in good hands. I know the instructor he talked to and he will be good to go. Marko, hope you realize I wasn't trying to be a prick, bro. I was really only looking out for you, dude, regardless of what anyone says. Be easy and stay safe, brotha.

I have no idea who it is, but I don't think it's Marko, actually.

Does anyone else smell a sock puppet or is it just me? I smell it! I smell it! Coming on here, straight to this thread, defending Marko and personally attacking the people whose opinions he didn't agree with. Hmm...

Well, if Marko can teach people and he has 200 jumps, surely I can teach someone something with my almost double amount of jumps. I'm a coach so technically, I can teach people. But thanks for looking into that before coming on and attacking ME about it. And yes, by watching his video there is a lot that he can teach people. Plenty of things to learn by watching that video. You made a reference about getting bombarded at work. Only difference is, we are not working here, we are talking about a sport that we all engage in and how to help someone not kill themself. Huge difference. Bottom line, he asked for opinions, I gave mine. And I don't feel bad about one bit of it.

.. is already out! I can't believe it. I went to the store to buy a 12 pack of White Ale and lo and behold, there is no White Ale and in it's place.. Summer Ale!! First day of Spring was a week ago and Summer Ale is already here. That was not a complaint! Yay for Summer Ale!!! Makes me a lot less depressed about the shitty, cold weather we are still getting up here in the Northeast.