SimonBones

That's a pretty long angry rant. I love you too! Actually what I said is that 95% of the freefly scene was between Skydive Dallas and Skydive Houston. From traveling around to the different DZs, that's what I've seen, that's my opinion, and I'll stick to it. Feel free to keep disagreeing. Didn't mean to sound like I was knocking your DZ, don't remember mentioning it anywhere, but you sound angry enough I'm sure I must have. Sorry you don't like me very much I like beer

Great DZ/factilities - yes, but not freefly scene related. Huge landing area - yes, but not freefly scene related. Excellent fun jumping scene - debatable, but still not freefly scene related. What active freefly teams are there at Spaceland? Last I remember, Anomaly was done a couple years ago and Bling has been gone for longer than that Sorry, not more than 5% of current TX freefly scene at all. Look up where the TX state freefly record is/was/has been and where the tryouts are. How many spaceland folk were at the last TX freefly state record? How many Spaceland flyers will be at the tryouts/record this year? Probably only Rory (he'd better, he owes me a thumb!) How many Spaceland freefly teams competed at the 2009 nationals? 2008? The answers to the questions above are as follows: none, possibly one, none, and none. As much fun as I've had there and as good friends as I have there... it's just not where the freefly is going on in TX this year, last year, or the year before. Not really a freefly DZ anymore. But that could change in the future. It always does eventually. All DZs change in their crowd and scene over a couple years. I will say though that Spaceland is the place to be for some serious 4way RW work. There are some fantastic committed 4way belly RW teams there and are good people. Spaceland is pretty much on some of the leading edge of TX 4way RW and TX belly bigways. Great place to go if 4 way RW is what you're looking for. Freefly ways however, you will currently need to drive to either SDH or SDD. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Skydive Houston in Waller TX sent three freefly teams to the 2009 USPA Nationals to compete in artistic freefly and 4 way VFS and all three teams came back with medals. Two team members at SDH in Waller were on the 108 way head down world record. Two members of an SDH freefly team are level 4 IBA wind tunnel coaches. Dallas also has some good freeflyers Between those two DZs, you're looking at over 95% of the TX freefly scene. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Cool! I've got some confirmation dates for some head down bigway camps coming to Texas. May 29th weekend - Skydive Dallas June 19th weekend - Skydive Houston July 4th weekned - TX state record attempt at SD Dallas These camps will be going on during a DZ boogie and will be organized by: Brandon Chouinard - Formerly of team VIBE and Gravity Rats VFS. Brad Cole - Current VerTex member and Skyventure Colorado tunnel staff and myself All three of us were on the recent 108 way record. Each camp will use a mix of Dallas, Houston, and Denver tunnel flyers warming up for the TX state record. All safe head down flyers are welcome to come learn some bigway fun and if proven, could earn an invite to the state record. The current record is 19 but we're aiming to shatter that big time. Let me know if you need any more details. I know head down bigway camps are few and far between throughout the year for up and comers to come learn at so I'm throwing this out there publicly. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

?? We trained as a VFS 4way team all last year and took silver in the advanced class. Once all of our VFS comp jumps were done, a few of us got drunk and decided to register for the 3 way freefly as a throw together team since there were only 3 registered teams there and it needed 4 so it wouldn't get cut the following year. No training, no practice together, and we took silver after throwing together a routine while drunk. Good times . Our friends had a team called the 'OutLaws' so we came up with the team the 'InLaws' I love beer. I doubt I'll be doing the artistic again this year though. I don't think I could be up in Chicago for that long in order to hit both comps with school going on. So we'll keep chugging away at our VFS training 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Penelope Howe, Robert Villalobos, and myself return this year after winning the silver medal last year at nationals. This year we're joined by Brad Cole and Justin Russell (Formerly of team VIBE) on video. Some info from above was removed as "advertising" but long story short, we'll have some camps going on during our tunnel training weekends. If you'd like more details or just want to come fly with us for fun in Denver, just shoot me an email or PM. I guess I'm not allowed to say publicly what dates we'll be there Sshhh! It's a secret! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Which year are you thinking of Pops? Last year I clearly remember only fun jumpers getting on those free loads and every promised slot was given away. I was there up and ready to go every morning. Maybe you're thinking of an older year where a separate and unrelated boogie organizer attempted to merge boogies? As far as my memory serves, it was pretty easy. You walk up to the table with your rig and your buddies, manifest for the load, and get on without paying a dime. Is it possible one's memory degrades with age? 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

This year Skydive Houston and Skyventure Colorado have teamed up to put together our new VFS 4 way team SDH VerTex. We will be training one weekend a month at Skydive Houston as well as doing free freefly load organizing and free coaching. We will also be training one weekend a month at the Skyventure Colorado tunnel in Denver. We will also be running a head down bigways camp at Skydive Houston sometime in the early summer (date TBD soon) in preparation (and tryout) for the TX state head down record attempt at Skydive Dallas on the 4th of July weekend boogie. So! Lots of freeflying to be had this year between Texas and the Denver tunnel! Keep in touch of you want to come party edited to remove advertising~skymama 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

So let me get this straight... Seven FREE otter loads and FREE Vitamin water? You mean any regular Joe Skydiver could come to the boogie, and get on seven otter loads for FREE? Then get free drinks to rehydrate while packing? James, this is really starting to sound too good to be true! Are you sure your numbers are right? Surely NO other boogie does this! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

And does this mean that if I'm more religious and conservative I'll get laid more? 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

I've met quite a few licensed black skydivers, though they are few and far between. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Because there is no shoe deal in skydiving. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

I'll do it for you Dave But only to 10 on the open class: 1) 42 points - Steve Curtis the Samurai Ninja Master 2) 39 points - Rob Antalocy 3) 35 points - Matt Hill & Justin Tucker 4) 34 points - Simon Bones & Shannon Pilcher 5) 33 points - Nicholas Daniel 6) 32 points - Brad Cole 7) 30 points - Sarah Curtis 8) 27 points - Jeff Johnson 9) 26 points - Mark Weinman & Darrel Walton 10) 24 points - Kim Winslow & Dwight 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Ooh there were delicious home made chocolate chip cookies and one of those macadamia ones from the bent prop restaurant. I was the happiest boy alive

Wow! I didn't know Washington DC was in Texas! Wait... I'm confused... how does a tea bag party in DC reflect poorly on Texas? I haven't seen anything like this in the year and a half since moving here at all 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/10/navy_pregnancy_101709w/ 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Aahh. I guess what I meant to say is that females serving in the military have never gotten pregnant in the history of the US military. It's all either a myth or fake evidence planted by the 9/11 Illuminati conspirators. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

You may want to double check that. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/25/iraq.us.soldiers.pregnant/index.html Let me rephrase: But the fact that female service members get pregnant (as is their right unless currently stationed in Northern Iraq unless they get CO permission) or But the fact that female sailors do get pregnant (as is their right) or But the fact that female service members do get pregnant (in general) Jeez. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

I agree that making the argument that sending women to sea in a submarine will lead to a substantial amount of pregnancy is silly, especially since this is not a huge problem for most other military units. But the fact that female service members do get pregnant (as is their right) presents a much larger problem for the submarine community than many other military communities. The submarine community is a relatively small community compared to surface ships, aviation, etc. A fast attack submarine has a very small crew where each individual member is more vital to the command readiness than say... an aircraft carrier. If a couple sailors get pregnant on a carrier, it's really not a huge deal and doesn't really limit the movement ability of the ship. Even on smaller surface ships like destroyers, frigates, what have you, a sailor can be replaced by a sailor of similar job from another kind of ship or from a shore command if movement would be limited by pregnant sailors. This is not so true with submarines. Submariners really only stay within the small submarine community and don't transfer to/from other kinds of ships. Once in the submarine field, they generally stay there. It's sort of a qualification specialty that require special schools for. If one or two women stationed on board a submarine were to get pregnant before a scheduled ship movement, their inability to be deployed could limit the entire ship mobility and mission readiness. There is an extremely small pool of people to draw from to replace submariners who can't go to sea for some reason. I'm not saying at all that every, or most women, would attempt to get pregnant to specifically avoid a 6 month deployment. But it really is no secret that 'coincidentally' the highest occurrence of pregnancies for a navy ship happens shortly before a scheduled deployment. While this is an unfortunate reality for many military groups, its impact would be far worse for the submarine community. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Isnt it great that some women want to actually serve their country since so many men FAIL at that patriotic duty??? yes it is great that they want to serve and I think they should if they want. but the sub does not allow for seperate quarters and unless they can live with that they should not serve on board a sub. 90 something beds, 140+ people. They'd have to be okay with sharing beds with men too and changing in front of them. There is NO privacy. Not to shower or take a dump. Not many people regardless of gender like the idea of sharing a bathroom with other people of the SAME gender while taking a huge dump, even less the opposite gender. I don't think most men would actually want to share their bathroom with women when they have the shits. This really goes both ways. This has been discussed to death too. Mostly by people who've never served on a sub. Where would you find a crew of women where the majority of them had years of experience in operating multi billion dollar fast attack submarines? Even if you wanted to do this, there is not a single woman alive now with the experience to supervise operations on a fast attack submarine. Good luck getting a crew of 140+ women together where at least 50% of them had supervisory abilities in operating fast attack submarines in covert operations. They just don't exist anywhere. Easier said than done. There also needs to be a pool of people to draw from with experience when if you could find these women. What happens if it's time for your XO to rotate to another command? Where would you find another woman XO with 10+ years of submarining experience to rotate in? This would make promotions and billet rotations impossible because there is only one single place these women could go to or come from. Yeah, much easier said than done. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

It's been something talked about for years but ultimately decided against because of the space restrictions and the limitations that places on berthing spaces and bathrooms. SSBN subs are far bigger than your fast attack ones and would be a lot easier to create separate berthing spaces and bathrooms with some modifications. I don't think it had anything to do with complaining or progressive movement. Women will still not be allowed to be stationed on 688 class fast attack subs because there literally is not enough space to have separate berthing spaces and bathrooms at all. It's pretty communal. Saying that the military is lifting a "ban" on women in subs is a bit misleading as women were never really "banned" from going on board one or going out to sea in one. I've personally seen a woman on board a fast attack sub for short 3-4 day trips to sea more than once, but these were not woman service members who were stationed on board, just part of engineering or science teams riding the sub for specific purposes. There was actually a pretty standard procedure for when this sort of thing happened. Three male junior officers would be cleared from one small room and sent to berth in the enlisted quarters so that the woman would have her own room. Unfortunately this would remove 3 bunks from the pool of roughly 90-something bunks available for the crew of 140+ sailors. The junior officers bathroom was reserved strictly for her which denied access to one toilet and shower of the 5 toilets and 5 showers on board for 140+ people. While this can be done for very short periods of time out to sea, you can't reasonably do this for a 6 month period. It's never been about sexism or banning women. It's really just been about the absolute lack of space for separate facilities in current submarine designs. While they've figured out a way to make this work for SSBN and SSGN subs through modifications (nobody I'd ever met ever really disagreed this was possible), I really don't ever see women realistically being stationed on the 688 class fast attack subs. It's not terribly difficult for someone to get a tour of a 688 class sub if you go to somewhere like Groton CT, Norfolk VA, or San Diego. I think if you went and saw the spaces for yourself, you'd agree it's not really practical to station both men and women on it. That's just how this class sub was designed. And it's been discussed to death by everyone who's set foot on one. Maybe future class fast attack subs will be designed and built differently to allow for it. Who knows. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Well shit, according to the Mayan calendar we'll have about 7 months to enjoy it before we all die. You can't take your money with you! Might as well blow it all when it opens. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

According to the board photo that Trunk posted, I tied at 34 points with Shannon Pilcher. It also looks like Matt Hill tied for third with a 35 but I don't remember him getting a prize. Thanks to Steve, I walked away with 10 minutes of tunnel time, a cookie, and a box of brownies

Nick was such an awesome guy and the news of his passing saddened me deeply. Nick recently took silver in open class artistic freefly at the 2009 USPA Nationals. Nick was one of the first guys to help me start flying on my head in a tunnel when he worked for SVNH and eventually was the one to award me my IBA flyer PRO rating when he achieved his T4 rating. I have very fond memories of us running around naked at the 2008/2009 New Years boogie at Z-hills with many of the Ranch hands. Thanks for all the good times bro. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Now well hey wait a minute... did you just say... free beer? It's like you truly know what skydivers want. Brilliant! And wait a minute again, did you say FREE otter loads? Like people don't even need jump tickets? What's the catch? Where are the strings attached? Surely you couldn't mean that skydivers can get on multiple plane loads for FREE for just showing up to a boogie! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook