aheavenlytiger

Hackish- I'm very happy that everything worked out for you in the end. Hopefully future border crossings will be easier

I also wanted to address something said earlier in the thread that I forgot to respond to. Someone mentioned diplomats not being inspected. That is mostly true, but the agriculture inspectors do have the authority to search their baggage to look for inadmissible commodities. The seizure of those items is a tricky endeavor sometimes, but usually the real diplomats are understanding. It's their spouses and underlings that make a stink. I recently encountered one diplomat (I believe he was from India, but I'm not positive after seeing a gazillion people since) who had repeatedly told his wife to stop bringing fruits, so when she did he declared them on his written declaration and was referred to agriculture for inspection. When the mangoes were found and subsequently seized, he thanked us for doing our jobs and threw it in his wife's face that he told her so.

Actually, you'd lose that bet, because I do work with other people who are members of the non-whuffo population. Frankly, I don't see why you have to be so hostile to me. I was simply presenting another side to the story. I didn't get snippy with any one here, and even managed to remain civil to you after you insulted me. I feel like this thread is beginning to get off-base a bit. I don't think this is the appropriate place on this site to spout hostile comments about the agency or its practices. That is what the speakers corner is for.

Not for nothing, but I AM one of these geeks, so I have to take some offense to your comments. Our job function, while you may not like it, is necessary. That said, if you're chosen for an inspection, you do not have a choice in the matter; every individual and their belongings are subject to inspection upon arrival and departure. If you take issue with that, don't leave the country. The attitude that you are presenting in your post is pretty much specifically the attitude that other people in this thread mentioned as being detrimental to courtesy during the inspection. Approaching an inspection with the attitude you have shown here will only lead to an aggravated inspector who may not have done 100% before, but by protesting being inspected and getting nasty, you have appeared to be hostile and potentially hiding something, therefore a more in-depth exam is now going to be done. The same would hold true for refusing to answer questions or being evasive in those answers. A thorough inspection of a piece of luggage involves removing every item from it, one by one, inspecting those items, and then inspecting the luggage itself. We are also not required to pack up any of your belongings after removal, so don't expect that to happen. As was said before, at an airport, you would probably be there (with exceptions) as the entire initial inspection is being conducted, but given the vastly different nature of an inspection on a vehicle at the landborder, that may not be the case there. The inspection procedures in the US are not all that different from most other international customs inspections, and some countries are much more rigid. The US still likes to believe that most people are law-abiding travelers, and therefore only a small percentage of those traveling are actually inspected. In the airport environment, I would venture to guess that much less than 25% total are examined (only a guess, but probably more like 10%). Many of those are random inspections. I have a simple solution to you not trusting people with your rig... leave it home locked away in a vault where no one but you has the combination so that no one will be able to be near it when you're not there to guard it. The only thing that I will agree with you that a very detail inspection of my rig would be warranted, but that is no different than any other time I would have my rig out of my possession in less than knowledgeable hands. Then again, I also make sure that everything is as it should be after throwing it in my car to drive up to the DZ or if I leave it out on a rack for a while at the DZ where things could be touched or dislodged.

HAHAHAHA I think I'd aim for the armpit or give ya a second a-hole, but thats just me. Foreheads are messy, and extra ventilation is a good thing, right? Realistically, they probably didn't probe the rig, and if they did, there would be some outward signs of it... a hole in the cordura, the flaps out of place, poptop not seated right, or something. Knowing most of the people I work with, there would be evidence. It would have been much more likely that they pull and tugged on everything that seemed like it could move trying to figure out places to conceal things. Seems like that is what happened, and I'm not surprised in the slightest that the main pin was pulled... could be anything in that compartment

Oh, and just a little fyi, the Cypres x-ray card isn't likely to do a whole lot of good when dealing with customs. I know that the x-rays we use here are quite different than those that TSA uses, and we don't get all the pretty colors all the time. Some of our machines are strictly grey-scale and we're looking at contrasts, while others we're selecting what it is going to highlight in color (food, explosives, money, etc). Either way, the picture is not going to look a whole lot like that card and will probably look like something of interest to someone who doesn't know what is really inside of it.

JT- I don't know of anyone will outright say that they are being destructive simply to maliciously destroy something. We have a just have a job to do. However, I will admitt that sometimes it can be "fun" to get inside something when necessary. I once had to shatter a pretty crappy statue to get at the inadmissible sausage that was being smuggled inside of it. The meat has to be incinerated as per USDA guidelines and that couldn't be done from within the statue and there was no other way to get to the sausage. The statue's only purpose was to hide the meat. Those passengers also received a $300.00 civli penalty for failing to declare the meat and concealment. I know its off topic, but if anyone is going to travel with anything edible, be careful, because that is the penalty for a first offense. Repeat violations go up from there. Monky- Beyond what you are doing, not much. In the airport environment, baggage is generally checked in the presence of the passengers (with rare exceptions). The information you are providing with your rig would be more likely used by the TSA screeners than a CBP Officer. If you are at an airport port of entry (in most countries), it should be fairly easy to explain to the customs inspectors what you have in your baggage and whatnot. At the landborder, things are different and you may not always be present for the entirety of the search if they select your vehicle for an in depth exam. In that case, you can do your best to explain what oyu have in the vehicle before you are escorted away from it, as they should be asking you if there is anything in the vehicle they should be aware of (more geared towards contraband, but its the best chance you have to get the information in). If you have serious concerns that your rig is being mishandled while you are away from it, the first point of recourse is to request a supervisor and ever so politely address the issue with them. Explaining the potenial life-ending consequences of mishandling the rig should be enough to make them understand why you are concerned. As soon as you start to become defensive or agitated, it is more than likely going to be perceived as though you are hiding something and they will only dig deeper. That said, I've never encountered a rig while doing an inspection, and I do many of them a night. I can't recall anyone I am friendly with at work ever getting one either. Since I work midnights, most of my coworkers and I see each other more than some of the other shifts, so they all know I jump and would call me over if they were to find something they even thought was skydiving related. Closest they've gotten was an altimeter from a paraglider. Then again, they also call me over for motorcyle stuff (mosty helmets and jackets) and to put computers back together after they took them apart and can't make it go back right because it seems that I am their go-to person for those tasks as well. Also keep in mind that frequently officers are drafted for overtime and it isn't entirely unheard of to have been working 12-16 hour shifts every day for who knows how long, along with day-off drafts. If the port you are at happens to be short staffed, well, you just work a whole lot to make up for it. Sometimes officers will just be cranky because they are damn tired and really want to be in bed as opposed to stuck sitting in an immigration booth or on a customs inspection line digging through people's underware. I would be lying is I said that I wasn't guilty of said crankiness. We deal with people from all over the world on a daily basis, and sometimes it is incredibly frustrating. Language barriers and cultural differences make our jobs more difficult than when we are dealing with flights full af returning American tourists. Unfortunately, it is in my expereince, usually the US citizens that give the most grief about being inspected, simply because they feel as though they should be exempt from inspection because they are citizens. The solution to that problem is very simple, andis essentially this "put your baggage on the counter and open it. If you don't agree with being inspected, don't leave the country again." I've had suitcases thrown at me, luggage carts intentionally run into my legs, voodoo and santaria curses placed on me, and all sorts of other abuse by people who didn't think they should be inspected. And after all that, the inspection happens anyway. Drugs have amazing ways of getting into the most unusual places... Edited because things didn't make sense the first time

I do have a suggestion for those who are traveling internationally with rigs... If you are inspected, especially if you are not present for the duration, do try to speak to a supervisor and the officers involved to find out what may have been done with your rig during the inspection. Pointy metal probes are used commonly to poke around inside objects and it would be tough to tell if a canopy was punched through if they accessed it from inbetween flaps on the container. I would like to think that something like that wouldn't happen, but almost anything is possible when people are involved

In a nutshell, not really, no. Our search authority allows for searches of people, their baggage, cargo and means of transportation to ensure all entry/exit requirements are met. Very few travelers are actually inspected when compared to the total number traveling, but both random inspections and inspections based on varying sources of intelligence are performed. "Inspection" sometimes includes accessing internal components of items, be it a salami, suitcase, computer, block of wood, panels/compartments of a car or whatever. Most officers will attempt to be as minimally destructive as possible while still accomplishing what they set out to do. Usually this means taking apart something the way it was assembled, cutting only a small portion of the item, or drilling in an inconspicuous location. Sometimes, however, this cannot be done. A personal search (of the traveler) is a different matter, and anything beyond an immediate patdown for officer/traveler safety has more rigid requirements as to what level of suspicion or probable cause is required and what the passenger will be entitled to at each stage. Regardless of what is being done, the process should be explained to the traveler as events occur. That may or may not have happened in the case this thread stemmed from, but explaining that the vehicle and its contents would be searched would be sufficient to include the rig that was inside of it. In the same way that when an airline damages a bag, a traveler has the option to formally request reimbursement from the government for damages incurred during an inspection. Once said request has been submitted, the government also has the right to then deny that request. I've attached a link from the public CBP webpage that you may want to look at if you want some more information. It provides plain English information intended for use by travelers. 19 U.S.C. 1467 and 19 C.F.R. 162.6 are the actual laws that provide our search authority. http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/

US Customs is now Customs and Border Protection, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security. I should know, they pay me to do inspections every day at work. CBP is now an amalgamation of what once were front-line immigration, customs, and agriculture inspectors. We have very broad search authority and can essentially inspect any person or their belongings entering the country at any time. I work at an airport (a very large airport at that), and things are done slightly different there than at the land border, but some things hold true regardless. While the traveler is generally present during baggage exams in the airport (with some exceptions) that is not always the case at the land ports of entry. First, given our search authority, we can inspect basically anything we want in the quest for contraband. This includes x-rays, opening things, drilling into items, dismantling or disassembling things, probing items, and pretty much anything else that can be imagined. Outbound searches are also conducted, but less frequently and usually with different focus. We do have the authority to search aircraft both entering and exiting the country. Those searches include opening or removing panels or accessing areas that will result in the necessity for an inspection by an aircraft mechanic/pilot before than aircraft can go anywhere. It is the nature of the job. Contraband is smuggled in some amazingly creative places, so almost everything is potentially suspect until proven otherwise. If you felt you mistreated, the issue should have been addressed with a supervisory officer at the time. If nothing else, they may have been able to answer some questions for you. While I understand your concerns for your safety following the inspection, I also have an intimate understanding of the concerns of the agency. I honestly see very little wrong with the inspection as you are describing it. CBP Officers do not come into contact with skydiving equipment as commonly as TSA does, given we do not deal with domestic travel. Unless you are lucky enough to be inspected by an officer who is also a skydiver, I can pretty much understand why concern was raised. In all honesty, I would never jump a rig after even the possibility of having it been inspected without giving it a very through inspection myself. If anything seemed even slightly amiss I would get as detailed as necessary, even if that meant a reserve repack or inspection my a rigger. It’s ultimately your responsibility to ensure your gear is in proper condition to jump.

Its not just the velcro that is really the the problem. Even when all the way cinched down the helmet isn't tight enough. It has a tendency to float up on the back of my head and move around some. Back when I had a big fluffy ponytail in there taking up the space that a normal size head would occupy the velcro was all the way cinched down. Now that my hair is much shorter than when purchased, I feel like I have a shrunken head. I don't foresee growing my hair back out any time in the next several years, so I have resigned myself to needing something smaller. The velcro on mine is still nice a grippy and the helmet is otherwise fine. I was really hoping for more feedback from other small headed people about their experiences with the sizing relative to other things, like hats or other helmets to get some sort of idea as to what I would want to do before asking the shop to order one for me.

Has anyone gotten an XXS factory diver? Is is super tiny? I've got a tiny little nut for a head and currently have a size small factory diver with extra padding in it to take up room. Quite frankly, since I cut my hair and no longer have a huge puffy ponytail to stuff in it, it is just way too big. It tried to come up off my head a few times this past season which caused me to either have to redo the velcro to make it tight again or just hold it on until after deployment. I guess I should have made sure the velcro was more secure, but if it wasn't too loose in the first place it wouldn't be so easy to get off. I played all kinds of game trying to find a decent motorcycle helmet to fit my head too, and ended up with an XXS that fits really well and is sized for heads 20-20.5 inches in circumference. Ultimately, I'd rather have a flip-up visor but keeping the thing on my head is more important. Any hope of perhaps an Oxygn in an XXS in the near future? Has anyone had experience with other small or extra-small fullface helmets that seemed to be cut smaller than the size chart would dictate?

Looks sweet!!!

I may not be a rigger, but I have done enough research on gear to know that the Infinity is most definitely not a copy of a Vector or Jav... Do some research and actually look at the rigs side by side and differences will become readily apparent. Oh, and Sangi, if you want people to give you a pleasant response you should perhaps consider wording your questions in a way that won't come off with a negative connotation

I had a Sabre2 150 in my G3 M4, and it was pretty loose. My closing loop was about as short as possible. I was also able to fit a Sabre2 190 in to that container, so perhaps the tray was a little bit big. Regardless, I can attest to being a bit concerned about the loose-ness and wishing I had a little more tension on the closing pin.