Kelly

.. another thing... im going to florida and wanted to go to DeLand to demo PD reserves for a couple of days. After i had my reserve ride, its not just a possibility anymore. Im going to do whatever i can to get out there and ride a reserve a few times before the next mal. I'm going to pay for my friend to demo a reserve too. It's her christmas present. PD will also send a reserve to your dz for you for 2 weeks. I think the cost is 45 dollars. but i could be mistaken. just more food for thought. http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

I just returned home from 5 1/2 weeks at skydive arizona.I went there without knowing anyone ahead of time. When youre there for that long, you're hoping for a good enviroment. The good things: an excellent manifest staff. They do things right and they do things quickly. Beware though, the manifest window is for manifesting only, and that allows for accurate calls. THey say your name with each call, so questions about which load youre on are not needed. The office staff is polite and very helpful. The service is quick. The planes just kept turning, turning, turning. So many teams train there that a shortage of loads isnt an issue. The rides to altitude are fast, and most of the jumpers are safetly conscious and will provide pin checks and secure helmets for take off, help each other close the door, help with spotting, seperation on exits, everything. I felt completely safe with 22 other people on the airplane with me. They have a restaurant, bar and cafe with internet access and a laundry room. Bathrooms are located all over the dz and the showers are actually hot. Lets not forget the pool. A canopy control school, skydive U,skysurf training with kibi (i spelled that wrong), freefly coaching balloon jumps available twice a day, 5 seperate packing consessions,load organizing, a full service rigging loft, Rigging Innovations, square 2, its all right there. The do their student training in a seperate area, so if youre like me and opting NOT to work on a dz like you did before, you've got a break from dealing with all that. I noticed a few repeat students. So they must be doing something right if their retaining them. The staff is great. The people that work their work full time, so you start to recognize faces very quickly. Seperate landing areas. The grass is soft and I found it easy even with a still healing ankle inujury. The walk back from the secondary landing area isnt a bad one. There are lots of outs. I landed in the desert on purpose a few times, whether due to traffic or just to test my abilities in different landing conditions. The other jumpers there for the most part look out for each other. I had a malfunction and while i was landing out under my reserve another jumper was landing with my freebag and reserve pilot chute. They brought the golf cart out and picked me up and he actually got back before me! Also, knowing my anxiety over my landings, people were volunteering to video them for me. In fact, for my first jump after my injury a few of my friends came to the secondary landing area just too see it. The people there are awesome, great friends, totally cool. I cant say enough about them. Only a few minutes after i arrived People were giving me hammers and telling me where manifest was, explain ing stuff to me, helping me out. The staff at square 2 are awesome. THe camping area is just a few seconds away from the bar, good for when youre stumbling to bed drunk.. Those that live there are family oriented. Thanksgiving dinner wasnt takeout, but instead a big BBQ with a few friends. You wont get lonely out there. This isnt all, i just cant think of anything else. Ill post another review if i remember something. The not so good things: IT RAINED!! its not supposed to rain in arizona. and yeah, the desert does flood when it rains. I HAD TO LEAVE THERE!!!

i dont know where to start. i was sick last week and so i decided to watch 'breakaway'. i was all alone, and was able to pay close attention. a few days later i wake up and manifest about 15 minutes later. i could make a 6 minute call so i grabbed my gear, did a check and got geared up. i was in the airplane trying to figure out what kind of jump to do. i decided to do a handle dive. all i did the entire freefall was touch each of my handles in order, over and over again. the very next skydive i had a high speed mal, a hard pull. I didnt even have to think about it. 2 attempts, i knew nothing came out at all and i immediately dumped my reserve. i didnt even have to look for my reserve handle. i just got on it right away. from wave off until i was under my reserve was less than 1,000 feet. i think that watching breakaway, and doing the handle dive had a HUGE part in my being able to react so quickly, without any thought. we often find ourselves dirt diving or trying to find friends to jump with. Maybe your next jump with be a nice solo, just touching those handles. IT just might save your life. http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

hey guys. how is everyone? i just got home from eloy a few hours ago. The 5 weeks i spent out there were absolutely amazing. First things first, i ment chris (albatross) and got to know him a bit. a totally awesome guy. funny as hell, even if he did tease the hell out of me. i waited a bit for the ankle to heal, started jumping again 3 weeks ago. Took it slow at first, but started jumping more my last 2 weeks there, in between the friggin rain!!. I ended up only getting 17 jumps in. on sunday my first jump i decided to make a 'handle' dive. all i did was touch all my handles in order for the entire skydive. the next jump i did a 2 way belly jump, number 55. I planned to dump at 3,500. my friend tracked off about 10 feet next to me... He witnessed what was about to happen... i waved off at 4 grand. went for my hacky and couldnt get it out. two attempts and nothing at all. I immediately went for my reserve. It all happened in less than 1,000 feet. I had made the decision that if nothing comes out at all ill go for the silver. if i feel anything come out, cutaway then reserve.. It's an awesome feeling to see that i can follow my own emergency procedures, just like i have practiced time and time again. how ironic that the mal occured right after the handle dive? weird. i also downsized back to a 150. all but the first 2 of my landings, and my reserve ride, were all stand up beutiful landings. Ill be going down to the 135 within the next few jumps. my canopy skills have improved a lot. my sit fly is getting there, im more comfortable jumping with new people, and more people. this vacation didnt go exactly as planned, but i did accomplish and improve more than i ever would have imagined. thats about it from me. Oh yeah! the people at eloy are awesome. I've got myself a new family! ~kel http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

hey guys! hope all is well. this is costing me a fourtune, so ill keep it short. eloy is amazing, and im loving it! more later http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

alright guys. its almost 4am and im still not packed all the way. wont have time today to post so i just wanted to say bye now! kel http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

everybody is around the dz. PJ was the one who pointed it out to me. you see, the rig looks right either way. It possibly could be designed to have the flaps laying next to eachother or it could be designed to have them lay on top of eachother. Do it to a jav or to a mirage, you'll see that something doesnt quite look right on them.. but it does on this one. i figured monkey claw could answer this question, but i wanted to know tonight. It's still a tight close either way. The pin is still firmly in place. I know because we used the original lenth one first, then we shortened it. ill call RI this weekend. thanks anyway guys. kel http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

lisa, it fits perfectly. It's absolutely amazing looking. The colors are perfect. AND it matches my FF pants. an added bonus, i saw a used gear bag in square 3, looked brand new. So my gear arrives and i realize that its the EXACT SAME COLORS as my container. So i had to buy it. Christian, Looking forward to finally meeting you. I'll be out there somewhere. Um, you dont have a picture. So youre going to have to look for me.. check out my website, you'll see a picture of me there. oh yeah, ill be using demo gear for a bit at first, cause I've got to get recurrent now. kel http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

aggghemmm... i have a legitimate post that i would like viewed. getting bumped to the bottom with off the wall repetative posts isn't on my TOP TEN list.. BTW, i got my rig and its assembled. will be posting pics soon! kel http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

hello. all things aside, this post makes it seem that youre pretty new to the sport skydiving and would like to learn more. Thats totally cool, and sharing skydiving info is what we do best here. But we normally have another way of going about it.. Im thinking that youre trying to figure out what youre getting into by taking up skydiving. Maybe an old friend was a jumper...? are you looking for them? in any case, most folks rent gear at first, then buy gear when they can afford it. as far as a tandem rig, they can run around 10,000 dollars. It is required to jump with a reserve, any fool jumping out of an airplane (notice i didnt say jumping cause BASE Jumping is related to our brand of jumping..) without a reserve shouldnt be allowed to jump. It wouldnt make sense. were in the sport to live life to its fullest, not kill ourselves b/c of a crappy pack job. so what is your story? and why are you asking about australian team jumpers? that one really quirks my interest, considering i have a few friends who are australian and proffesional skydivers... http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

my new voodoo just got here and its all ready. but i was wondering about closing the container. The flaps are numbered, so i know that im closing it correctly. Top, bottom, right, left. It seems like it could be properly closed with the left and right flaps touching, instead of on top on each other. Is this correct? it also looks right when I close the container with the right flap on top of the left flap. A friend pointed this out to me, and the only reason he noticed it was because his container is properly closed with the L&R flaps seated next to each other, unlike Jav's for instance, that close with each flap on top of another one. so which one is it? ive gotten riggers opinons, but i'd like to find out the actual answer that RI provides. thanks http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

not yet but ill be there by feb. for a few months. I'll be stopping by at a boogie at Port Maquarie for the end of feb. but ill be traveling not jumping for the most part. http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

hey guys. I was wondering who here jumps out at eloy. I leave on monday night, staying at a family friends house monday night then heading to eloy for 6 weeks on tuesday. I'll be there until Dec. 20th. Since this is one of my last posts for a while i just wanted to say bye to everyone. I'll see ya guys later! if you jump out at eloy make sure ya say hello. ~kel http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

stacy. no worries. its all fun and games until somebody blows it

jimbo, it was a night that i did forget. except for the parts where i passed out on jori's neighbors deck.. or how i got sick all night.. or the way i felt the next day dealing with all the 'luggage' all day.. arggg. ewwww. hard liquor. eww. and tell stacy to stop posting bad pics of me!! haha! ROF. http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

well, ya know that im a woman, and im a skydiver, so that makes me a skydiving woman.. basically, im flying there now. I know, i had about a gazzillion different plans. but now that i havent jumped in 3 weeks, 3 days and about 8 hours, and my ankle is getting better, im really anxious to get jumping again! i dont want to be in a car for 4 days. i want to be at a dropzone, jumping my flight leaves philly international on monday around 6pm. i get to arizona around 11pm. staying until dec. 20th. yeah! kel so who here jumps at eloy? lemme know so i can look for ya! http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

alright, who submitted this one? http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/gallery/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Dropzone_Members/Dropzone_Pub/What_the_Hell&image=kelly_bj.jpg&img=&tt= i swear i can explain. You see, I saved somebodys life, or so he thought i saved his life.. in thanks he brought me rounds at the tiki bar all night... this was just one of those shots, just happened that i spun the wheel and landed on BJ shot. hahaha~ imagine my surprise when i found that one on there! thats some funny shit!! kel http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

harro, hey. you going to the Freefly boogie SB is putting on at Port Maquarie end of Febuary? http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

no pics of Damo huh? and that boy told me he was skydiving... hmm. I guess he never remembered to repack that trash-pack-shove-it-in-the-bag-cause-I-gotta-get-to-the-airport-now!! pack job.. ah well, there will be a pic of damo up soon anyway... see below! :) http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

ipoc is my favorite team. but i guess im a little predjudiced.... http:// www.ipocskysurf.com/gallery/index.htm http:// members.aol.com/skysurfnj/menu.html http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

Ive added much much more! im looking for links to legitimate safety articles. if anyone can help me out, id really appreciate it. what else should i add? kel http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

remi, thanks for correcting that

hey guys! Hell has frozen over~ ive finally figured out how to create a website!! whoo hee! the main page is up, and i do have links to 2 other pages, but they show up when they want to (the computer illiterate's term for "i dont know what the hell im doing.." you can check it out at http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

ill have to think about that ... but you guys should be able to tell one of the easiest things ive ever done... i did it ! i did it! http://www.geocities.com/flynfroggie/skydiving_friends.html

something that has worked for me in the past and that I will do again when im healed up enough to jump: go back on radio. It's that simple. Landing is one of the major mental things. You think youre going to screw up a landing, you do. Ive been on a radio several times. AFF for one, my 2 solos, when i downsized to a 170, then my first 2 or 3 jumps under a 150. I went to the orthopedic today and he told me its better if i wait a couple more weeks before I jump again. that will have put me out for at least 6 weeks. And that's 5 weeks more than im comfortable with. Since i graduated AFF i was jumping at least once every 1 1/2 weeks. so even though im jumping the same canopy that ive been on for the past 15 jumps, im going back on. Just cause im worried that ill hurt myself again, and i know that having a trusted friend who is skilled in radio comm. is a big comfort. my advice, go back on radio. dont rely on the person to land that canopy for you. Still be very active in deciding when to flare. It's a good feeling to start to flare just as they tell you FLARE!. It will give you the comfort of knowing that you were making the right height decision. just what works for me.. "i can not attest to what i did, just what i remember...." ~me, after one too many