SimonBones

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Gear

  • Main Canopy Size
    79
  • Main Canopy Other
    Velocity 79
  • Reserve Canopy Size
    126
  • Reserve Canopy Other
    Decelerator 120
  • AAD
    Cypres 2

Jump Profile

  • Home DZ
    Houston, TX
  • License
    D
  • License Number
    28573
  • Licensing Organization
    USPA
  • Number of Jumps
    4000
  • Years in Sport
    10
  • First Choice Discipline
    Freeflying
  • First Choice Discipline Jump Total
    3000
  • Second Choice Discipline
    BASE Jumping
  • Second Choice Discipline Jump Total
    160

Ratings and Rigging

  • AFF
    Instructor
  • Tandem
    Instructor
  • USPA Coach
    Yes
  • Pro Rating
    Yes
  • Rigging Back
    Senior Rigger
  • Rigging Seat
    Senior Rigger

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  1. Wow holy shit. Changing the name of my hard drive to G totally fixed the program. How freakin weird is that! APE9 won't work unless it can draw from a hard drive labeled 'G' and G alone. Thanks buddy
  2. Wait, I think I'm figuring something weird out. My external hard drive where all the videos are stored is called H, but when APE9 tries to look for it, it insists that the address of the file is in a drive G. No matter where I copy the video file I want to use to, APE9 insists it must be found with a similar address except in drive G. I don't have a drive G and I have no idea what has gotten into this thing. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  3. Fuck. So I've got Adobe Premier Elements 9. It was working just fine. After I had a hard drive issue and ad to replace it, I removed and reinstalled the program and now it won't work anymore with .mts files. When I try and click on the mts files in my catalog it tells me first that it can't find it and opens an explorer window. When I click on the file in the explorer window it says, "This type of file is not supported, or the required codec is not installed". Eventually I cancel out and it tells me "Could not locate some files". How the hell do I fix this? 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  4. During the warm ups we did some 6 way base launches, results were pretty inconsistent out of the side of an otter, so when it came time for record crunch time, we opted to stick with the 5 way sit base. There is no final decision on break off, not sure where you heard this. On these record jumps there were maybe only two people who were front flipping to HD for break off. Roughly 4-5 people were turning 180 and tracking off feet first. The rest were just turning 180 in their sit, moving forward a little bit while clearing airspace above and forward, and bellying out to a track. I'm not a big fan of the latter, but it hasn't really caused any problems yet. The video guy belly's out as soon as the first wave of folks turn their 180 to stay out of danger's way. All in all things went pretty awesome. With practice camps and warm ups, people are getting pretty damn good at launching sit formations, diving/floating on their feet through the hill, and absorbing waves in the formation. There's going to be some pretty cool sit stuff going on at Carolinafest and I'll be sure to get some more going at some of the other events I'm doing this year. Skydive Dallas is also starting to hold some camps of their own in the feet first arts. Glad to hear it, I always heard they suck on their feet up there. But I'm glad Texas is leading the feet first revolution. There are plans for a 20 way at Skydive Dallas later this year. I attached a pic of one of our 5 way base launches. Enjoy
  5. Sorry been behind. School finals been keeping me down. More news on the National Sitfly record in August at Crosskeys: Brian Buckland and Leland Bendel are confirmed for shooting the historic event. The first ever two plane shot all sitfly formation in the history of the world, and first ever official US National Sitfly formation record. Fuck yeah. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  6. Damn, I can't believe I'm just heard about this. I haven't seen Howard in years, but I remember him being a pretty cool guy to listen to. One time back in 2006 I talked him into bringing out some very old army surplus gear he'd saved from jumping decades ago to let me try jumping it. At first he was all about it. The day before he was going to bring it to the DZ for me he shot me an email canceling because he'd decided the equipment was just too dangerous to jump anymore by modern standards. I bugged him about it a few more times and couldn't get him to change his mind, but he sure did get me all excited with some of the old stuff he's got. I hope some of it does make it to the museum. See ya on the other side buddy. -Simon 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  7. Check out this link: http://www.pia.com/piapubs/TSDocuments/TS-112.pdf Heard the M2 stuff second hand from an ex employee at a Florida H/C manufacturer. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  8. After the whole Arus debacle, US H/C manufacturers have developed a standardized testing system to give official approvals for AADs in their systems. Even Cypres had to go through these tests for approval even though they've been in use for 20 years. As I understand it, the M2 failed this test at two very major US H/C manufacturers over a serious issue with their cutters and did not earn approval for use. The company now has to go re-engineer their cutters and try again. It may be a while before they are approved in the US for use in rigs by the manufacturers. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  9. Story is that an instructor was in the tube preparing to take some first time flyers who were sitting in the anti-chamber when an entire fan motor with blades came crashing down through the tube and through the net. The instructor ducked for cover in a corner and was very lucky to have the motor and spinning fan blades pass by. Apparently he received only minor injuries from debris and happened to end up on the only small corner of the net that was left. This could have very easily been a fatality. There is video from the driver's seat that will likely never see the light of day, though I heard this all directly from the mouth of someone who watched the video and who is very close to that instructor. This happened more than a month ago. Some measures were taken to try and keep the story from spreading or video being leaked. In my most recent trip to Florida, the official story from some other instructors was that the tunnel was down for an overhaul and motor replacement for a few weeks. One of the major discussion points in the conversation I had with some of those involved were the lack of a real preventative maintenance program with skyventure. Whether that is true or not, I can't say. I find it really interesting that when a serious incident occurs in skydiving or BASE, details get spread everywhere and incident reports are shared with the community. In the wind tunnel culture, any incident however major or minor is generally covered up tightly. Just my experience with other (smaller) incidents in the past. This information is all second hand to me, so take it as such. This is by no means an eye witness account. Consider it a rumor. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  10. I jumped with him a couple months ago. Seemed like a really nice guy. Damn, I'm really disappointed to hear this 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  11. Good call. Thanks. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  12. I have an RSK.5 with an Optimum 126 and AAD in it. This will be the same reserve tray size as yours. It was definitely a tight fit, had to lengthen the closing loop a bit from factory recommendation. I've been getting the feeling that the Optimums don't actually pack a whole size smaller. I think that's exaggerated a bit. I seriously doubt a PDR99 would be too tight. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  13. Since when do you decide for every resident in the state of Colorado why they live there? Perhaps there are people who live in Colorado for Mile-Hi skydiving? 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  14. Pulled up this thread doing a search looking for a relevant thread. Washing a rig for someone and had to take the reserve of the risers. When I pulled out the soft links I found a bunch of black grime on the metal rings from what appears like melted black junk from the super tack. I couldn't find any evidence of it melting onto any of the reserve line, but it's all over the metal ring, a little on the soft link line, and on the inside of the reserve riser. Does anyone think there is any cause for concern over this? I can't think of any reason why there would be since I assume it's just black wax I should be able to just clean off the metal and reuse. I figured it was best to ask before I make assumptions. Can't help but worry there is some far off chance that all that melted waxy stuff may weaken the soft link or something. Thoughts? Maybe someone used some really cheap crappy super tack? I haven't seen this stuff get that melty and all over the place before. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  15. Haha, no one's pissed off mate. Tone is tough to get through in type. I like the discussion. I don't think it's fair to set a standard on what some people perceive to be "typical". I've met people who have struggled with head down flying for years but were ninja on their feet for thousands of jumps. In that case, should we turn them away form a head up bigway because they're not comfortable with a pressured head down transition in tight proximity to the formation? Even if we know full well that they could perform the break off just as clean if not even cleaner on their feet? It sounds like you're of the opinion that in order to be very skilled on your feet, that you must also be already even more talented on your head. While I agree that for most bigway folks I've met that does seem to be the case, I don't think it can be made as a blanket statement. Some people just have a natural knack for doing shit on their feet and some sort of mental block with the upside down-ness. And by all means I wouldn't tell anyone they can't head down it out if that's what they're better at doing when a record is on the line. I'm sure at that moment plenty of people nowadays would prefer it. But I'm just not sure I agree that someone necessarily has to be great on their head in order to perform that well on their feet. In the mean time while an official record is not on the line, I think it's a great opportunity for people out there to push themselves to plan more feet first flocking dives instead of the traditional sunset track. Spend a summer doing that and see how the feet first flocking skills develop out there. Spend a summer doing transitions from feet first flocks to head first tracks of different orientations, it will get a whole lot easier and less awkward. I think in time with a training mentality like this, more people will let go of the security blanket of head down flying when it comes to head up bigways. Honestly, in my personal opinion from experience, I think a lot of folks are scared of feet first flying. I think a lot of people feel they've proven themselves in the bigway community with their head down flying and are insecure about having to perform up to those standards on their feet. On your next bigway event try and get some folks to take sit slots, be last divers with you, and dive to the formation on your feet, see how many people step up to the plate. As you can see from some events past: http://vimeo.com/21361181 Most people would rather dive on their head and flip to feet anyway even when it's not a record, why? 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook