yeyo

I won a free tandem voucher and it was about to expire, so I had to use it.
Next week I was doing AFF, I was 34 in 2005.

1 hour drive...if this DZ closes, the next one closer is a 3 hour plane ride plus 1 hour by car.

Have a friend that on his first cutaway he had 10,000+ jumps.
Im about 2000 jumps, 0 cutaways. My brother had 2 before jump 100.

gowlerk

Ask about doing a tube. (Basically two side by side wagon wheels with grips across them)

Or 3 side by side wheels with another jumper horizontal inside the tube, making it a 10 way

billvon

Great story.

I was disgusted by this:

"The so-called congressional tax overhaul includes a new 12 percent tax on goods made in Puerto Rico on U.S. patents, as if they were a foreign country. Kick them again, harder, when they are down."

I'm not sure why _anyone_ finds that at all acceptable.

Thats what colonies are for. Exploit them, take everything you can for as long as they allow you to. Give back 10% of what you take, call it "help" and make them believe they will starve without you. Welcome to PR!
That 12% tax equals thousands of jobs lost, and thousands more moving to Orlando and Kissimmee

Good article, saw nothing exaggerated or false. Thats how it is today.
Less than 50% has power, government says more than 70%
Getting back up slowly thanks to ourselves and volunteers, federal government has done the minumum. FEMA gave me $325 for my 100% gone house, and I spent $1200 just cleaning debris hahah...thank you fema!

chuckakers

......

Trackers, is there any reason jumpers on tracking dives shouldn't break off at greater than 90 degree angles assuming proper separation from other groups or disciplines?

There is a chance of a collision if a jumper is trailing and trying to catch up. You can do a bit more than 90 maybe on a big way or if you see someone under you, but going back to where you came from is very discouraged and can even get you grounded in a camp. Ive been to about 12 angle camps and have maybe 1000 angle jumps, and breakoffs are talked about a lot in the briefings and debriefings.

I dont barrel roll.

I surfed full time for 25+ years, with sponsors and shit and traveled the world doing that. I stopped like 10 years ago so I cant call myself a surfer. Same here. If you quit jumping you used to be a skydiver, not anymore. Regardless of jump numbers.

Vertical jigging for Wahoo

Yeah Im rebuilding right there, but not wood this time!
Attaching before and after satelite pics of my street. My house had the red roof, just north of the pool. Looks like a tornado passed.

My house was in Arecibo, wooden house on the beach. You can imagine whats left Im in the south of San Juan now, parents home.

Some mayors are doing an OK job, when I say local goverment I mean the governor and his close team. Following all the stupid federal burocracy they are getting nothing done. Thats ok for the first week or whatever till they assimilate the hit, but a month later they are still scratching their heads.

Sorry, you got that backwards! FEMA is great, Trump is awesome...but yeah we are lazy

Check out this one from last week. A group of USA volunteers, I beleive from Florida, raised funds, charted a plane for $8000 and filled it with pallets of water. They were at SIG waiting for the delayed plane to land and found out later it was already parked at another hangar. When they got there FEMA had already unloaded the plane and had all the stolen pallets in the FEMA truck. The volunteers had to block the truck with the help of NatGuard and after some screaming they got FEMA to give back the water. They have a warehouse filled with supplies, food and water...I dont know what they are waiting for, probably their favorite polititian with a camera. You go there asking for supplies to distribute, and after a lot of paper work they give you 5 cases of water, when you have space, time, and volunteers to take and distribute 10 pallets.

Hey all. PR local here, now homeless
Only read the first 2 pages and saw a lot of disinformation!
Stop believing the news, ask a local.

Regarding the lack of response the first week or so, there were enough available truck drivers...but the military confiscated all the diesel and FEMA wasnt letting go the supplies.

About the people situation now, 35 days later, 90% of the work is being done by local and abroad volunteers. There are still communities uncommunicated behind mudslides and blocked roads, almost everyday families are reached by volunteers and they are the first contact/help from the outside. If volunteers with limited resources are reaching more people and saving more lives than the biggest mililitary and the most powerfull man in the world, they are not doing their best or they suck at helping. One example of hundreds: 4 days ago I was with a group of 40-50 people and 1 digger and I filled the gas tank of my chainsaw 35 times clearing the road for 14-15 families that were trapped in the mountains. This was less than 20 minutes away from 3 ARMY bulldozers parked in the shade.

About the Whitefish contract. A $300M+ contract was given under the table without auctioning to an inexperienced company, when another company couldve done the job for half the price, in a moment when the island is broke and destroyed and that money could be used for other important things. Is like: 'I have never done it, but I'll wash your car for $100, other people with experience can do it for $25, but Im your friend!' The fact that this company is linked to some polititians raises a big flag for people with half a brain.

Heres how it is so far:
Local goverment: D-
Trump: F
FEMA: D
Military: C
Community/local volunteers: A
Veterans/abroad volunteers: A++

On a personal note: House 96% gone (the bathroom survived ) I applied for FEMA assistance on Sept 30, they still have not assigned me an inspector. Is OK cuz Im staying with family, but there are thousands of people with nowhere to go that have not receive 1 bottle of water a month+ after Maria.

I was challenged once, this wont help for an organized event but it was fun.
What we did was take our phones with us, exit last at the same time from a skyvan and start tracking right away with the jump run. Deploy at 3000', farthest away from the DZ wins. Loser pays both slots.

That was me for the first 50+ jumps!
Praying for rain or strong winds on my way to the DZ so I could have an easy excuse not to do it.
What helped me and kept me going was remembering that feeling once you step outside the plane, where nothing else matters...and the feeling when you land where nothing is more alive than you. Those 2 thoughts for me were stronger than any fear.

Remster

******Anyone know of other any swoop fires with Vigils

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4416268

Unit fired within its parameters during a swoop and resulted in a fatality.

Saw it a few times at the DZ actually. All 3 times I witnessed, no injuries.

I've also witnessed 3 Vigil fires on final with no injuries...and pretty sure not the same 3 you saw. 1 in PR, 1 in Deland, 1 in Sebastian.

Won a tandem jump on a radio station contest. "Third caller wins blahblah" kinda thing. Had the certificate on my glove box almost to the date it expired. Did the tandem and the next weekend I was doing AFF.

me: 1,800+ jumps, 0 cutaways
my brother: 2 cutaways before his 100 jump
friend 1: 18,000+ jumps, 45+ cutaways
friend 2: 10,000+ jumps before his 1st cutaway

as you can see, they dont necessarily relate

Hey TK! Apparently what you think is very important to the universe! This guys cant sleep if they have a different opinion

Jason Gonzalez (Puerto Rico) has about 14,000

Nice you got that out of the way!
I still havent...after 1700+ jumps

....on a beach.

Hey! I was just answering a valid question, dont attack me!
But yeah, I do see and agree with your point.
I think that buzzing too close (

gowlerk

.... Do they enhance the experience of the tandem passenger, or are they for the pleasure of the wingsuiter?

They definitely enhance the experience. I've had 2 fun jumpers confess to me that the reason they took AFF was because of my flyby, they are now wingsuiters. And many others said in the post jump interview that their favorite part of the jump was when the wingsuit guy flew by...and I do them at a very safe distance and planned with the TI. Example:

https://www.facebook.com/yeyo.pesquera/videos/10152839913302494/?l=350340342696459455

PM'ed you, mister!