SimonBones

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Everything posted by SimonBones

  1. It was only a scratch! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  2. Failure to buy a Cypres. Have a nice day 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  3. It hasn't happened to me, you can usually bitch and complain for a supervisor until the supervisor finally comes and sends you skipping on your way. I do know some people that have had some pretty nightmare stories though. One thing to keep in mind: when/if they ask whether or not you packed your reserve or were present, the answer is ALWAYS yes. Never ever tell them that you drop off your rig with a rigger to pack it and then pick it up because the only thing they will hear is, "someone else packed my bags and I was not present" which will put you in a shit storm. A friend went through this and they shut down a whole area and brought in the bomb squad and took her whole rig apart. Just keep your rig on you as carry-on, bring your TSA paperwork and your Cypres card. If they give you any hassle, just insist that you do not have to unpack any of it, ask for a supervisor, and tell them you packed everything yourself but don't have any of your tools with you to repack it. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  4. Hey out there, need some help. I shot some photos at a boogie this past weekend a few hours away from home. I dumped a bunch of the photos on a local computer to share them and the downloader accidentally clicked "delete after download" and deleted everything off my SD card (card was plugged in directly to computer). As what seemed like a quick solution, the person did a drag-and-drop and put the photos back on my card via windows 'my computer'. While plugged into the computer at the time, it showed my pictures were returned to the card even though I could not view them on the camera. I imagine a format was changed and now my SD card is being used much like a thumb dive or something. Now I'm at home trying to upload photos to my computer via USB and I can't find them anywhere on my camera. According to my computer and camera, there are no photos on it, but I clearly saw the transfer back take place at the original computer. I don't know how to open up my camera/card on the computer to view files and I don't have an SD card slot on my computer, just a USB. Any ideas to fix this at home? 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  5. Long time no see bro! I'm sure if you just stick around anyway there will be enough folks to put together a pick up team. If not, you can always put together a pick up 3-way FF team. That's what I did last year and it was a hell of a lot of fun! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  6. Welcome! But don't you think you'd rather train for AFF? You already sound like skydiving is up your alley, why not start training for your license? No tandem required! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  7. As much as I love Harry P (you're my boy blue), I have to agree with you on the D-ring. I've always been a fan. People can come up with stupid personal arguments for or against, but I think the D-ring is always best for when shit hits the fan and you need to get something out. That said I also must side with the super hot and sexy Harry P on the secondary riser covers. They seem so insignificant and small when you see them on the rig at your knees, but once you've seen enough toggles dangling in front of you on a "whatever it should work just fine rig" while head down, you come to appreciate the secondary riser covers. The toggles just don't ever come out on them. The idea very much reminds me of a very scary situation that happened last year: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3627483;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; I also have an old school Javelin (secondary), and I've freeflown with it quite a few times. But I also recognize it as an inferior option for freefly safety. I once lent it to a friend who had a premie on it. I never did so I suppose he took a bullet for me because that can very easily be fatal. My advice to the OP, please understand this: the terms "freefly friendly" and "safe" are not 'ON/OFF' terms. There is no such thing as 'YES/NO' when it comes to the subject. But some designs are definitely more 'freefly friendly' or 'safe' than others for certain applications. I've technically gotten away with a bunch of freeflying on less adequate rigs, but it doesn't mean that you will over the course of 1000+ jumps (which is what you should look for in a freelfy container). CAN you freefly on a modified Dolphin? Of course. Will you get away with it for 1000+ freefly jumps without risking the lives of yourself and others in the air with you? Probably not. I can totally understand wanting to save some money on a container that advertises 'less bells and whistles', but I can also understand the reasoning behind the folks who say they wouldn't want to be in the air with you. In this sport, when things go bad, they go very bad very quick. Most of the time you get what you pay for. There are over a dozen manufacturers who design rigs to be "more" freefly friendly. It's not just hype. They charge more for the (what seems to be to the untrained eye) improvements. But for the long haul they're worth it. It won't matter if you buy Mirage, Vortex, Micron, Infinity, etc. As long as it's somebody that has put forth specific standards towards tight freefly safety constructions. The Dolphin rig has its market, a cheaper rig designed for those who want to save a couple bucks. That's totally fine. If you want to take a future of freeflying serious, I would suggest a rig that makes freefly safety its primary focus for the sake of safety in longevity. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  8. Hey guys, I've decided I should probably buy one of these small netbooks things for the school semester, but I don't seem to know anything about them. Does anyone have any good advice on them and what to look for? 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  9. I don't think this is really something that Obama or any political party can necessarily take credit for. If you were surprised by this, as if Obama just magically decided to do this out of the blue without any previous lead up over the last several years, you're just ignorant and have never heard of the SOFA agreement standing between US/Iraq: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.-Iraq_Status_of_Forces_Agreement This agreement was hammered out during the Bush administration through collective negotiations between the Iraqi parliament, US DOD, and US state department. Here's a little spoiler if you're one of the yahoos who keeps frantically asking yourself and everyone else when all US forces will be withdrawn: "On November 27, 2008, the Iraqi Parliament ratified a Status of Forces Agreement with the United States... all U.S. forces will be completely out of Iraq by December 31, 2011, but allowing for further negotiation if the Iraqi Prime Minister believes Iraq is not stable enough" and "A referendum of Iraqis will be held in mid-2009 on the pact, which may require Coalition forces to leave by the middle of 2010." Why were forces there so long? Turns out Iraq was asking for it and the UN mandated the presence of the multinational force in Iraq until at least the end of 2008: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sc9207.doc.htm Read people read! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  10. There were so many skydivers attending the service that seating ran out and many skydivers stood. What an excellent and well deserved showing. Over the last year I have been frequenting the rigging loft at Spaceland to tinker and learn as much rigging as I can. Dennis was certainly a pleasure to be around and he always seemed to be filled with smiles and great stories. During a conversation today it was discussed that Dennis would have been perfect for a "Can you stump Dennis" rigging game, where if you could find a rigging question he didn't know the answer to you would win $5. He seemed to know everything! I'm going to miss his laugh and that big curly mustache. Blue skies Dennis and see ya on the other side! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  11. I don't think anybody is trying to intentionally screw anybody. It's labor day weekend and DZs will want to have an event for their body of fun jumpers. I think it's great that each of the two DZs are planning something fun. Instead of being mad that another DZs event may affect the turnout of the other, I would be happy that you live in an area where multiple DZs like to plan events for their fun jumpers. We're lucky. In some places, none of the local DZs give a shit. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  12. Damn I feel called out and you're totally right... there were totally 3 skygodesses on the jump and you hit all three. Carrie Dawson Penelope Howe Shannon Kidd The three next skygodesses to represent TX on the womens world record this fall. I believe Amy and Melsinore said it would be around a 30 way, so TX will be about 10% of the women's world record! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  13. May I present to you, the new 2010 TX state head down record: http://events.brianbuckland.com/#/album/05f13r/photo/3070144/ 23 Skygods came together and built this formation this past weekend at the boogie in Dallas. The event was faced with some pretty big weather trouble given the passing of hurricane Alex in the area and it's associated storms. Two training/tryout camps were held to build up to this event and due to the weather we knew we'd only get 2-3 attempts and less altitude than we'd hoped for. Because of this we knew we'd have to trim down the size of the proposed formation, but had conditions been better this could have very easily been a 27 skygod formation. This will put TX in the books as 3rd largest standing official state head down formation in the country. The first would be the 108 skygods claimed in Illinois in 2009 and the 24 skygods claimed in Florida 2003. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  14. False - If you can't fly at all on your belly, you're not a freeflyer. If you can only sitfly, you're not a freeflyer, you're a sitflyer much the same that if you can only belly fly, you're a bellyflyer. If someone can only fly on their head and nothing else, than I'd call them a head down flyer, not a freeflyer. Freeflying is all orientations and axis. All. If you call yourself a good freeflyer, than you must also be a good belly flyer. It's included. Nope. I think being a great sitflyer means you're a great sitflyer. But if that's all you've got, than you're not a great freeflyer. There's a reason why competition freeflying includes maneuvers and randoms on belly, back, sit, and head down flying. To master freeflying, one must master all that freeflying encompasses. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  15. Mediocre/lousy freeflyers are mediocre/lousy belly flyers. Good freeflyers are good belly flyers. Excellent freeflyers are excellent belly flyers. But this is not true the other way around. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  16. I started editing up my video for the film fest last night. It's only about 40 seconds in right now, but I think it will win where it stands so far. Prepare to be blown away! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  17. Well then if what you say is true, then it means the flyer probably never showed up. If the flyer had showed up, and was a proficient flyer, I personally would have slotted him/her on the dive. Your friend still has a chance to try out as there is another tryout camp in two weeks at Skydive Houston and if this person really wants to try out, all he or she would need to do is show up and let me know. This problem is easily fixable and your friend can still try out for the TX state record. I'll give you my word on it, but in order to do so, the gossiping and the secrecy needs to go. Let's not act like children, just send me the contact info for the individual and I will get this problem fixed. I can not address your complaints if you do not give me the information I need to do so. Instead of coming online and talking smack, spreading rumors, and calling people names, let's just try and rectify the situation like adults. Secondly, I have no idea what skygod you're talking about. The real world keeps proving that there is no black and white, only shades of gray and two sides to each story. I can only ask that before passing judgment on the people I know to be nice people trying their hardest to do something good for others, try contacting them with your concerns. I'm sure you'll find there is more to the story, there always is. I've flown a little with you before, granted not enough, and though I don't know for certain, I don't think you have a lot of experience with head down bigways so I'll try to paint a little picture for you about "skygods". These head down bigways were often flying 6 way bases. This means that 6 very experienced head down flyers/camp organizers paid $25 per jump ticket to roll out and hold a base for 15+ people to crash into them so they could try and work on docking. They did this over and over again, jump after jump. Though I can't speak for the finances of others, I personally shelled out over $400 (on a full-time college student income) and drove 5 hours each way to Dallas so that newer head down flyers could learn the required skills to help build a new state record and generally improve the TX freefly scene. I did these jumps recovering from a broken arm and left with plenty of the normal bruises you get from sitting in the base getting bumped around. Nobody in that base was rich, nor did they have a magic tree that money grew from. We all take our turns paying it forward. There was a time when I knew nothing of head down flying at all. The mentors who taught me (who I still look up to) where always some of the coolest, selfless, and down to earth people I'd ever met who did the same thing to pay it forward to me when I attended my first head down ways. So yeah, if there are any "skygods" in TX, they certainly didn't show up to the Dallas bigways. Every person who showed up was there to try and do something constructive. When you're ready to address your complaints by doing something positive and constructive, let me know and I'll do whatever I can to help. You know exactly how to contact me, there is a PM button to the left and my email address is listed. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  18. Interesting... very first time I've ever heard anything about that. Especially since I was there. I don't remember seeing you there but since you seem to know something those of us who were there didn't know, and want to suggest so in a public forum, care to enlighten us all? From the direct memory of someone who was there, as far as I know, every person who attended and was safe enough to fly with others head down in the sky was jumping with us. The groups were numbered in the 20's with jumpers coming in from several states away. I got a chance to meet some cool new people
  19. The head down bigway camp in Dallas went excellent. Many up an coming freeflyers learned a lot about bigway dynamics and even impressed themselves with large steps of flying improvement. A video from one of the jumps was posted on FB this morning: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=681876327417&ref=mf Next and last bigway camp will be at Skydive Houston during the Heat Waves boogie on the June 19th weekend out of the skyvan. It is open to anybody who can fly safely on their heads around others. Even if you don't think you can close pods consistently, feel free to come fly with us and hopefully we'll teach you how! Those who can prove they're rockstars in the bigway will get an invite to the TX state record on July 4th weekend. The current standing record is 19 and we already built an 18 way at the Dallas camp. See you at Skydive Houston in 3 weeks! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=117881534917975 -Simon 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  20. Fast Andy made it in to Parachutist for his first time! I've definitely got to get my video edit started. There are 2 hours of FREE wind tunnel time on the line for the film fest winner! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  21. I get in Wednesday night, I'm only 5 days away!
  22. US Navy 2002-2008 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  23. I also find that many high performance canopies flown at low WL tend to be more prone to problems in wind turbulence than a lower performing canopy at low WL or an HP canopy at higher WL. HP canopies like the Katana and XF tend to close off the nose more for decreased drag but may then require a bit more speed to keep it safely pressurized (which comes from higher WL). At low WL, these canopies have less speed and therefor may have more trouble staying pressurized in turbulence. I believe this is another reason why canopies like Katana and XF are more recommended to be flown at higher WL. This is where the general improvement in opening characteristics comes from with higher WL as well. Sure you could fly them at lower WL, but why not use the right tool for the right job? You could potentially be saving yourself from canopy collapses and spinning malfunctions. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  24. Well then he'd be right. I'm pretty awful. But in my defense, then so was every other instructor at the DZ as were all the boys at the wind tunnel. In fact, I'd even use this logic to go ahead and say that SunPath makes pretty poor student rigs. They're just too difficult for students to understand and have far too many complicated handles with far too complex procedures. Alti-2 makes pretty poor altimeters. They're just too difficult to even find when they're on your hand and even harder to read. PD makes poor student canopies. There are waaaay too many steering lines with far too complicated procedures for navigation. It's truly a shame in this day and age that all these perfect students out there have to overcome the challenge of terrible and misleading equipment only to then have to face poor inferior instructors. I can't even imagine how the students of 30 years ago survived. And why aren't they instructors now? 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook
  25. I've only ever turned a student away once. I can honestly say I did my best and really gave him everything I could. He truly truly truly was NOT cut out for skydiving. I've had slow learning or problem students before, but this guy... to this day I feel speechless over this guy. I taught an FJC with 3 students. He was one. He was so incredibly slow and confused the whole day that in the interest of the other students, I had to finish their training separate and come back to the problem student. Nothing made sense to this guy. I spent almost the entire day working with him on just the basics of understanding the equipment. After about 8 hours of taking the main canopy out and showing him all 3 handles, he still could not understand the difference between any of the three, could not identify correctly which handle did what, nor which handle to pull in malfunction situations. After 8 hours, much of which was one on one. At the end of the day, some other instructors and I gave up and sent him on a tandem. He did awful on the tandem. He was fetal and completely rigid the entire time despite hand signals, never once looked at his altimeter nor made any effort to deploy even with prompting. This student went on to do 3 more tandems all with similar results. But we kept trying. We tried and tried and tried. We even sent him to a wind tunnel where he did an entire hour. After that hour, the wind tunnel instructors were completely fed up with him and said he was about where he was when he first got there. The hour did absolutely nothing for him and the tunnel instructors were not very keen on having him back. I guess there is only so much fighting and flailing with an over 6ft thicker guy before you just throw in the towel with trying to teach him anything. We still kept trying and he still kept coming back to the DZ every weekend and would hang out all day asking questions and watching people pack. After a few weeks he signed up for another AFF FJC which I taught AGAIN and had similar results to the first time. After weeks of being at the DZ and two full all day FJCs, he still could not identify the basic difference between any of the 3 handles. Eventually I gave up and sent him for private 1 on 1 time with the DZs most experienced instructor as myself and all the other instructors just could not get anything out of him. After a few more weekends of work with the chief instructor they finally agreed to take him up for a level 1 AFF. Apparently he was completely unresponsive in freefall, made no effort to look at his altimeter ever, was JM deployed after prompting. He was completely unresponsive to the person on radio and ended up taking a downwinder barely missing a building, but walking away unhurt and trembling, pale as a ghost. At that moment he finally decided for himself that he could never be a skydiver and left. Every instructor on the DZ gave him their best and every single one would eventually give up and turn him away. I protested him even going on that AFF jump. This was a few years ago. He was actually a fairly educated man. I think he was either a doctor or lawyer. Some people, just are NOT fixable no matter the instructor. Sucking in freefall is one thing, having no ability to grasp the concept between different handles or understanding even the basics of the equipment is something else. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook