arai

amazing vid. I've been looking into paragliding recently and this vid definatly makes the urge to try it stronger.

why the recomendation? are there any specific features / performance it does better than the etrex vista? I wont be base jumping anytime soon so I'm happy to stay in the gps's that work well from aircraft exits

haha I love in that news video that they were starting an investigation because they wanted to know what the individuals were doing and why they were parachuting from a crane, as if it was some sort of evil plot and homeland security was at risk. Though I guess to be fair, for most people the simple answer that its fun probably doesnt compute.

anyone here had experience buying gps's online? I've been looking at the garmin eTrex Vista and while most prices are around what seem to be manufactures recomended, 370ish for the eTrex Vista Cx or 240ish for the eTrex Vista but on places like ebay you can find them new in box as low as 130 -150 or so. I've seen some really good deals online compared to retail in the past so I dont jump to the too good to be true, but rather ask around to see if anyone else has had positive/negative experiences. thanks -arai-

now... your all skydivers, so I expect a lot of option 5's

yeah I'd love to get a gps, but right now its on my "to get" list, haha along with a whole lotta skydiving gear. Though I do think that with the phoenix pants you need forward speed to get the slow fall rate. It feels like I'm rocketing along pretty good as I cover a lot of ground and have had to work in a wingsuit like flight plan. I find I hit what feels like the sweet spot when I'm in a bit of a head down attitude the gps would be a nice addition, and its on my wishlist of things that will continue to take my paychecks as long as I'm skydiving ;) -arai-

thanks for the reply's, I'm definatly trying to be well rounded in my development so I'm not going to focus soley on one type of jump. I tried the tracking suit a couple more jumps this past weekend, and I got my fall rates down to the 74 mph range, but I know I can get better still. I think with a couple more jumps I'll be able to dip into the 60's and keep it there. Still experimenting with the body positions, and I think I might put in that tension system a few guys in the base forum have got going in their suits. also working hard to get some rw type jumps to get better at making corrections and flying with other people -arai-

amazing stuff, I thought the start of eloy was great when you started doing the ceiling runs.. too cool.

who's gonna buy it now that you've fondled yourself while wearing it?

thats crazy, I cant imagine what went through his head when he finally pitched. -arai-

I'm built for tracking and wingsuits, or so I've been told (tall and lanky) theres a few wingsuits around here, not a large number, but if I get good with the track pants I might be able to get a bird or two to come and play in the air I think it would be unlikely I'd be able to try out the impact system as I've definitly never seen one around my dz and I'm not able to travel a lot right now, but I'll have a look throught the pages for more info on it, the pf suit also has the edge price wise. I'm planning a trip down to a big dz this fall to try and get a lot of jumping in when it gets cloudy and colder here. I'm just waiting for my stupid rig to be ready, my cypress was on its 4 year check when they found something wrong and had to send it back to germany so I'm patiently waiting its return.

Okay so its not a wingsuit, but it was my first chance to try tracking in something other than shorts and a tshirt and wow what a difference. I was able to try out the pf jacket and pants this past weekend and had a blast when a set was loaned to me for the afternoon. It definitly felt different than a normal track and felt closer to what I had imagined a wingsuit might feel like, just in terms of how your movements affect your flight etc. When I had first seen the prodigy I was hoping it fell in the category of something I could get started on before the 200 jump minimum recomended, but after looking into it found that it still fell into that category. So I'm thinking of getting the pf pants and jacket in the interm as it was great to fly and I had a lot of fun. Anyway, I've read through all the pf jacket threads I could find so I dont really have any questions, just had a great weekend and got a chance to try out something new which made my day. -arai-

yeah right around 6:30. It looks like a flyer is in the start of the ass grab doc, but he/she collapses' their wings pretty high from the lower jumper and just bowls right through him. It gets replayed a second time.

haha holy crap whats with the cannonball through the flock, bowling for wingsuits? nice vid -arai-

I'm just looking to get personal opinions on the 200 rule and what someone might be expected to have the experience to avoid at 200 in your own words. I've probably read through this whole forum, and own Scotts wingsuit book, so I have seen a lot of threads on what wingsuit makes a good first one, I've read about what types of training to focus on prior to starting (ie symetrical pulls, tracking, belly skills, dive planning. stability etc etc) . I've seen the back and forth arguments about how some people feel the newer entry suits (prodigy, impact etc) may or may not make entry into wingsuiting happen earlier than 200 jumps. While others (probably the majority) remain confident that it just makes the first jump easier, but that you should still be at the 200 mark before attempting. I've heard of cases of newer jumpers starting earlier than 200 and being fine, and even seen some experienced birdflyers adding in with "yeah well she/he had their head on straight, so it wasnt a problem" while still returning to the popular 200 rule in later threads I guess the point to the last few paragraphs is to say that I'm reasonably well informed into wingsuiting in general, and can even make educated guesses as to the reasons you would want to have 200 dives before starting, but I'm just curious to hear what each of you believes the 200 rule prepares divers for? If you started off someone early what did you see in them that eased your nerves? if you started early (or late for that matter) did you ever find yourself in the position of feeling like you'd wished you had more experience in a particular aspect of birdman flight, or skydiving in general? what areas? Just bored on a thursday afternoon, watching all my birdman videos, so no need to point me to a search function, and if you feel that this topic has been covered to death in a more general sense then no problem, feel free to skip it. blue skies -arai-

yeah I'd expect a more structured course teaching someone how to deal with breathing underwater. I have my padi advanced open water, and the courses I took were a lot more structured that what you seem to be describing. First was a lot of classroom and theory work so you can understand certain things about scuba; the gear, the types of calculation tables you use, why you become less bouyant as you descend, why you need to breath out slowly as you ascend, etc etc. then was the pool time with exersises such as regulator switching, rescues, getting in and out of gear underwater, clearing masks, dry suit training, understanding gear up procedures etc. Then we did a few dives in the ocean and got to dive a local wreck in fairly shallow water, and after that got my basic certification. I won a contest and went back for my advanced training and again enjoyed it very much with some open water boat dives. I cringe a bit in some of the places I've dived as I see tourist places trying to tell people that they'll be safe and they will keep them in "only 40 feet of water, so no problems" and the course consists of paying your money and putting on your gear *scary*

haha, okay I'm all for walking away and just letting it be, but in a situation like that I think you are in fact obligated to point out how deep the bullshit he is standing in is. I love stories like that

I believe he means the dz is doing 45 tandems a day, not every individual tandem master

hmmm, looks like a crazy dive, but it always seems that tv loves to portray non realistic facts to get it to sounds more dangerous. they make it sounds like he leaves the cage at 1100 feet then fumbles with his gear for a second or two before deploying. But the shot of him under canopy sure as hell doesnt look like he deployed below 1100 feet.

I'm interested in hearing stories/advice of buying rigs online. I'm at 25 jumps now and have been jumping a hornet 190, and when talking to my local instructers and riggers when I mentioned buying a 170 (something like a sabre or pilot etc) they thought that would be fine. The trick is finding gear that not only is the right canopy size but fits me, I'm 6'3". Our dz requires cypress or eqiv for A licence holders, and next year they will be manditory for all jumpers so I know I need that as well I would love to find something local so I could jump it and see how it feels, but I know that when your looking for something specific its easier to find it on a place like this with the amount of people that post ads. I'm curious as to how you sellers deal with the obvious problem of someone wanting to see the condition of the gear before purchasing? Is it possible (or rather likely) that a seller would ship to a dropzone to have it checked out by their rigger (almost acting like an escrow) to protect both parties? I'm really interested in getting some gear, and have seen a few ads that might fit my requirements, but wonder how to protect myself, both in terms of what the rig should be worth and the condition its in (especially being new to the sport) but I recognise that the seller doesnt want to get ripped off as well. So I thought I'd see how people who have bought rigs in here before have dealt with it. I'm hoping me being in Canada doesnt complicate it too much sorry for the questions but it could be worse right? I could be asking if I should buy a stiletto 120 because I found a really good deal and not to worry cause I can just take it easy for the first 50 jumps thanks -arai-

great thanks for the details, okay so I know the result was the truth, but I imagine you had to set up a seperate take for the "swoop in front of the car at the finish line" Did that all just happen, or after the win from the wingsuit did you go again to get that swoop shot? If not, nice timing, and cool shot -arai-

haha great piece of tv, nicely shot too. I think its good how top gear keeps itself an intesting show, or at least an entertaining one. great job

I'm lucky enough (at least I consider it lucky) that I get lucid dreams quite often, lucid dreams is dreaming while being aware that your dreaming. for me usually an event in my dream will happen that I will recognise cant happen in real life, and I will realize I'm dreaming. At this point any number of things can happen. But I guess it would be best described as a matrix type world. I know its not real, so I can do whatever I want, as I read somewhere once "you can do anything you’ve ever wanted and go anywhere you’ve ever desired" and because I know its a dream I can kind of alter the rules of reality (again kind of like the matrix) for instance I can kind of defy gravity by knowing I can kind of fly, or jump off super tall buildings and land like spiderman. the interesting part is that sometimes the flying bits really require concentration, I know its a dream so I know I can break the rules, but in some dreams I can only bend them rather than break them so It requires focus, while other times its as simple as breathing. I can also kind of teleport into another area or bit of dream by thinking about it. anyone else here experience lucid dreams? despite my efforts, explaining lucid dreams to people who havent had them is like explaining what skydiving feels like to people stuck on the ground. I've learnt how to do things in my dreams before I ever did them in real life because of lucid dreams I found a couple cool quotes from websites so I'll put em up here to give a bit better explination Lucid dreaming was defined as becoming aware you are dreaming; the actual level of awareness varies, however. When the level of lucidity is high you are well aware that nothing you experience is real, and you realize that you have nothing to fear—you cannot be harmed by any situations that may seem precarious. The second quote here gives the best explination, but just think of what you can do and experience with that kind of control. To fully experience lucid dreaming, you have to remember that you are not governed by any laws in your dreams: you have complete freedom. Instead of walking to school or work, you can fly. While in mid-flight you may spontaneously decide you’d rather explore the elusive depths of the ocean without a breathing apparatus, or travel at incomprehensible speeds and explore the endless heavens around us without a ship. Or perhaps you’ll remember a book or a movie that captured your soul—perhaps you’ll become the main character of that book or movie and live for a short while in that story. Or maybe you’d just like to live your own life, with the added bonus of not being restricted by any consequences of your actions. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to tell off your boss, or push your car to its maximum speed (and beyond) on an open stretch of highway. Regardless, it will likely take a while for you to fully appreciate the idea that you can do whatever you imagine—you’ll likely think things are not possible during your first few lucid dreams, and be unable to do them.

I'm sure everyone gets them, but last night I was treated to a pretty cool one. I was walking along on the ground and the wind was crazy strong, but for some reason I wasnt blowing over. The cool thing that happened was that I decided it was strong enough for some freeflying. So I would run and jump forward (think in a superman position) and I would be "headdown" into the relative wind, and just hold there, then I could "backslide" up. So the wind was still sideways and I was head down into it, but I could backslide within the air column so I could actually start rising away from the ground. I could switch to stand or sit, and keep on flying up away from the ground, the wierd thing was that the wind wasnt really affecting the other people on the ground, just me. it was kind of like a sideways wind tunnel. When I would finally get a couple hundred feet into the air, the wind would die out, and I would switch to a birdman position and glide back down the ground and kind of "flare" to a standing position and have the softest touchdown ever. Then the wind would pick up again and I'd freefly back up to alt. After awhile I'd get to the ground and just decide to bird man back up to altitude so I'd run into the wind, spread my wings and up I'd go. after the first few times to alt, I looked around and noticed that giant robots were destroying the city, so I started flying around the place and it got a good look at it all as I was "flying" around the city, it got kinda crazy action adventure after that but thought the freeflying part was fun. -arai-

well I worked on it so I think I have to go see it, though it sounds like its not doing all that great with reviewers. Good thing I get to go to a screening so I wont have to pay