grimmie

Who knew we would ever miss that laugh... fly free Perry...

The last time I saw Danny was at Boogie in Belize 1. He flew down with Billy Richards and the gang in a King Air. It was great to see him and as usual he was stirring the pot. My wife, a lawyer for years, did our waiver, and you guys can imagine what Danny had to say about it! "A 5 page waiver in Belize!! What the hell..." and on it went. The two of them arguing international law all week! It turned into quite a comedy act. She was heartbroken tonight when I told her this terrible news. I didn't know Bob, only of him. I'm sick of this shit happening to all of our friends...be safe out there. Fly Free Men...RIP...

Fly Free my friend... Thanks for all of the laughs and support back in the day... Hit a couple of "hole in ones" today...

T-10 + an Ohio cornfield=Ouch! Falcon deployed at terminal=Snap! Agreed nickDG. The Nova was the worst all time canopy. I watched a jumper fall out of the sky at Eloy a few years back on one. He was landing by manifest and the otter was making a turn to head out to the runway. The prop wash buckled the canopy like a kleenex. He bounced from about 20 ft. and got up! I was amazed..he should have been dead! He didn't know they were grounded!!!

A DZ is one of the most intimidating places on the face of the earth for someone walking on to make their first jump, either tandem, AFF. static line or IAD. Some DZ's do a wonderful job of integrating the first jump student and the experienced jumpers and the DZ operations etc. Some DZ's just want the $$'s and don't let the door hit you on the way out! For someone to actually decide to take that first leap is quite an accomplishment in their life, however many of us forget our first day at the DZ, and what it was like. A positive first impression will help the retention rates, as will follow up phone calls and thank you letters. AFF course costs and gear are major issues, however I don't think that is entirely a negative for someone that is "hooked". Skydiving is like golf, or other sports, in that it takes a lot of time out of your life to get good at it. Some people in todays hectic lifestyles don't have the time to commit. And as we all know there are many other "extreme" or just plain fun other things to be doing...motorcycles, SCUBA, rock climbing, paintball, etc. If you live near a warm weather major DZ it is easy to get a bunch of leaps in a short period of time. A person at a summer only DZ flying a cessna 182 is going to have a long commitment to get good. As a sport we also can't keep killing our own. When an AAD, gear malfunction or other preventable things kill skydivers, it makes a person think twice about starting. And as our jump planes keep falling out of the sky it makes people not want to fly in them. Freeflying has also added an interesting dilemma to our sport. Back "in the day" there were boogies that you didn't want to miss because ALL the other kids would be there. 20 ways were the order of the day and you could meet all kinds of new people, because we were on the same jump together. Now the freeflying is breaking up the sport socially a bit, while advancing it tremendously skill wise. It's harder now for casual older belly flyers to show up on a weekend and get on a good load, or even know a lot of people at their own DZ! As for the jumpers making a living at DZ's around the world, it is possible. However look at their side of the coin. A person can be a great tandem/AFF/Rigger/camera flyer/ maintenance helper at a DZ and work there for years. It might take them thousands of dollars to get to a highly skilled and professional level. What does the sport give back to them. No health insurance, retirement plan, sick days, vacation days, or profit sharing! Even though said jumper has made the DZ owner lots of money over the years. And a friend of mine once told me (his father owned a midwest DZ for years) that his dad never knew a poor DZ owner. So now we get to the USPA issue. Is their role in our sport becoming a bit misguided? As members we spend money to sue business people and money to very poorly promote our sport. Is their role promotion or regulation? I know this has all been hashed out in other threads, but is it really in our best interest to have so many DZO's on the board? Is our dime being spent to further skydiving? Just food for thought. One final issue...will wind tunnels help or hurt our sport in the long term. Will we have 200 jump wonders that can outskydive most of us but can't fly a canopy to a safe landing on a bad spot? Will they eat up the money so fast that the jump tickets will rise because less jumps are being made? One thing for sure is that they have improved the skills of many jumpers for free fall! So is the sky falling or are we still falling from the sky? Maybe we're just in the midst of a cycle that will self correct. When someone asks me what it costs to skydive I tell them the truth.."Well, if you really love it, it will cost about $150,000, two ex wives and all of the friends you currently have".

You guys need some cheese for your "whine"... George mostly organized big ways or the "Mission Impossible" invitationals. He also helped Airspeed start the Arizona Challenge during Memorial Day weekends. His demeanor was more military than laid back...and he sure as hell yelled at less jumpers than Sandy McRobbie! His style worked on the jumps as evidenced by the 100way jewel success and some incredible formations during the MI camps. He created a pretty good freeflyer also, after Fritz almost took out the entire base of an 80 way many years ago, and got benched...lucky for me..I got his slot. And Fritz went to jump with Omar. George used to intimidate some people, but only the ones that didn't get to know him. He is actually easy going and has a good sense of humor. Making some money for putting up with a bunch of skydivers...I guarantee it wasn't enough for what he put up with!

I can't let lil' sis shell666 go without me...I suppose I'll have to suffer through one more LP week! And I need to get some more $$$'s out of MadJohn!!!!!

"Boogie in Belize III" has 152 participants this year, many who fly wingsuits. I will find out soon if there will be a fourth boogie in 2008. Thanks to all of you who are coming down this year...it should be epic!

Good point Bill. At all airports there are distinct patterns for all traffic...Helicopters, jumbo jets,business jets and cessna 182's. This situation is handled by the pattern first and foremost, and control tower help when needed. No matter what size canopy a person is jumping a 90 degree front riser turn from base to final will result in a smooth "eyes on the LZ always" landing. At bigger DZ's it may require a person in the landing area each day to co ordinate, correct and encourage jumpers to land into the wind, after flying a downwind, base and final pattern. I don't have stats to back up my theory, but I think at a wide open DZ such as Eloy or Perris a person gets the feeling and illusion of unlimited sky to fly in, resulting in less awareness of other canopies. We also need to do a better job of training our younger jumpers in all aspects of safety, from the manifest window, to the sky, to the packing area. And we really need to do a better job of retraining some of the experienced jumpers...the "it'll never happen to me crowd". But the biggest problem to overcome is "human nature", which we will never accomplish in any aspect of any sport...

Ambergris Caye,Belize (yeah, I'm biased...so what!) Airlie Beach, Australia Lost Prairie, Montana (nice photo Shawn!)

Only 20 slots left! Load Organizers; Doug Omar Fritz Jason Amy Freefly- RW -Hybrid -Wingsuit - No-Jumpsuits!

February 10-19, 2007 Ambergris Caye, Belize, Central America Super Otter to 13,000 freefall over the reef! Jump the world famous "Blue Hole" Nightly "events" Get out of the cold! www.skydivebelize.com This boogie is like "Lost Prairie" south! Join the "Pro Tanning Tour 2007"!!!