MyTwoCents

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Everything posted by MyTwoCents

  1. Sinterklaas will get you a sound bite any day Bill. And maybe a nice video too!
  2. Damn, and there we almost missed our monthly quota. Sad news...
  3. MyTwoCents

    Seattle crew

    Are you referring to the big one? Have you jumped that? Why didn't you call me? Hey Mac, this should have been a PM right?
  4. Dead Steve, right? I know the stories and quotes have been told here many times, but can anybody please indulge us once more. I can't get enough of those.
  5. On the other hand, a larger canopy has a higher inertia. In other words, it takes more force to get it turned around. Which of these effects is stronger, I don't know. Just throwing an unscientific idea out there.
  6. I did a forum search, but I was unable to find any links to an online version of a memorial video. Has anybody made one, and is it available online somewhere? I feel like crying, just need some footage and a sad song. I miss seeing GirlFallDown pop online in my ICQ list...
  7. If you go feet first, it's doable when treated with the appropriate respect. When I was younger we spent entire summers jumping a local bridge which offered platforms at 30, 50 and 70 feet. I guess the draw of gravity and human flight was strong even then. Around that time, it just so happened to be that two friends and I were all madly in love with this girl from high school. One day she came out to watch us jump. Trying to find ways to impress her, the topic quickly shifted to the legendary second bridge. One mile down the canal was a bridge with an arch that was 100 feet above the water. The story was that somebody had jumped it once, but nobody was sure if that person survived or not. Remember, we were sixteen... Ten minutes later we find ourselves at the bottom of the arch in our swimming shorts, the girl standing by the water. It was here we ran into the first problem. Picture an arch about four foot wide. The bottom of the arch touches the road, and was quite steep. So with cars wizzing by and honking at us, we each took turns sprinting up the arch to get to the point where friction would allow us to climb further. Now started a precarious shuffle to the top of the arch. Arriving there, we were 50 feet above the road deck, and 100 feet above the water. It was there we noticed the second problem. The arch wasn't completely against the water side. At road level, there was an twelve foot wide bicycle lane between where we stood and the water. We had noticed it from below, but standing at the top none of us were certain we would be able to clear it. Fortunately, teen romance and peer pressure enables even the most cautious kids to do stupid things. So five minutes later we played rock-paper-scissors, telling me I'd go off third. The first guy goes. He takes a solid launch, gets sucked down the void, falls fifty feet where he passes the bicycle lane by a mere four feet, falls another fifty feet and then makes the loudest splash I've ever heard in my life. Seconds later he emerges from the water, screaming of joy. The next guy took a few steps, cleared the bicycle lane quite easily, and makes another explosion in the water. A little longer this time, he emerges; not so happy. Screaming and cursing about how painful it is if your nutsack is pushed into your sphincter, I started to learn what exit point anxiety is like. Oh well, for girls and glory. Off I went... It all went fine. I landed with a big splash, swam to shore where we highfived and each got a hug from the girl. My two friends decided to go again. So they ran up while the girl and I stayed behind (even then it was quite obvious who was the smartest of us three). When they finally made it to the top of the arch, I suddenly noticed flashing lights on the road deck. Oops. The cops had shown up. They forced my friends to come down. Shuffling down that arch, gracefully falling past the bottom steep part; It seemed a lot more dangerous than jumping into the water. Meanwhile, the girl and I ran into the forest and escaped the 80 dollar fine my friends got. You'd think this would be a great opportunity to score the girl. Sadly, I was sixteen, shy and stupid. But at least we jumped the legendary second bridge. All hundred feet of them... Long story, but 100 feet is survivable even when your sixteen and stupid. Just make sure you go feet first and shit your pants. Dive head first however, and it'll require significantly more skill. I never dove from anything higher than 20 feet. Oh by the way, some of the numbers in the story above may be embellished, similarly to how the original poster's buddy embellishes his cliff jumps. The most common high-towers I've seen in public swimming pools are 10 meters, which leads me to believe you are correct. There are competitions that go higher, but they're not Olympic.
  8. The one trying to have kids with his fertile partner?
  9. I've jumped the Perrine with a small mesh and sail slider on several occasions with no problem whatsoever. At low airspeeds, the only effect of the slider is that it's keeping the lines together. Air-resistance against the slider has no play in it. Sail versus mesh is not an issue on delays less than four seconds.
  10. I'm not a lawyer, nor familiar with some designations for illegal acts, so pardon me for asking; are you implying that trespassing into a construction area is potentially more serious than trespassing into areas of an otherwise public building? I've stuck mostly to construction sites (cranes and buildings) thinking that it would be easier to get away with than if I were to jump, say, a office building that is in use.
  11. MyTwoCents

    BASE catapult

    I had a heated discussion about this with Gunnar when we were having dinner in Twin a while back. He's a race car driver and argued that he had been subjected to incredible G-forces. I thought he was exaggerating but he made me consider that Gs are a vector (duh, they're a force, I should have realized this), so without a time-component you can't say much about the physical experience. Remember, the human body experiences Gs because different parts of your body (blood, organs, etcetera) are displaced at different velocities. In other words, 42 Gs for only one nanosecond would be unnoticable for everybody, whereas 6 Gs for ten seconds would be mildly uncomfortable for most. That said, 42 Gs sounds a little high to me for another reason. I'm too lazy to do the math, but to generate 42 Gs for even a short amount of time you'd need a lot of energy stored. My intuition tells me you wouldn't get that from those elastics. But again, I haven't done the math. Btw, Gunnar; so I believe you now...
  12. MyTwoCents

    canopy selection

    I wonder how many people that voted have flown more than one canopy, where "flown" means making more than just one jump on it. For what it's worth, I've noticed a day and night difference in stalling stability, rear-riser steerability and glide ratio between the Blackjack and the Rockdragon (based on about 50 BASE jumps and 20 skydives on each, if that's enough), in favor of the Blackjack. And that's coming from somebody who is not quick to give this kind of advice. I used to be a snowboard instructor, but even then I told people to just get the right length and beyond that just get one with a pretty image on it. It takes a lot for me to admit the difference between two things, but the Blackjack was a noticeable improvement. Edited to add: that is only in comparison with the Rockdragon. I can't say anything about other canopies like the Flik or the Troll. But my friends assure me they're great canopies too...
  13. Quote...threats or suggestions of physical violence are not tolerated on these forums.Quote What about tar and feather?
  14. Eh? If it's all the same to you, I'll stick to sites that allow for conservative jumping and appreciation of BASE, friends, life and the universe. Damn MTV-speak these days...
  15. Damn, I embarrassingly admit that I have never seen that spelled out so explicitly. Thanks for that, it made my rant worth it.
  16. There's an easy solution to that. Jump without a helmet until you hit something with your head. Then they'll all fit. , just fucking with ya. When are you coming down again?
  17. Thirty mile per hour winds, temperatures that indicate my local exit will be snowed in for the next few years, and a collection of BASE videos that I can play back by just closing my eyes; what's a man to do but to write on these forums? Worst case scenario, Mac will show up and give me shit. Five years ago I decided I wanted to make a BASE jump some day. Four years ago I told a friend I was only interested in doing a couple of jumps from a bridge, just so I could say I had done it. Three years ago I told my then girlfriend I would quit as soon as I got my BASE number. Two years ago the number hundred seemed particularly magic and a good time to retire. In February of last year I was on my way home from my last jump. No really, my last one! All my close BASE friends received a phone call that day. Which much certainty I called them I had quit and that I hoped they would still hang out with me even if I didn't jump. Six months later, I was back on the horse. Here I am, January of 2007 with just over a hundred jumps, and it seems that I have only learned four things...One; having confidence in what you believe improves your chance of success today. Two; admitting that yesterday's beliefs were wrong improves your chance of success tomorrow. Three; the relationship between skill and our chance of dying is beyond my comprehension. No matter what we do, our vision remains twenty-twenty only in hindsight. The odds feel the same today as they did a hundred jumps ago. Four; BASE is addictive. Lesson four tells me that tomorrow is important. Lesson three tells me today may be dangerous. Therefore, lesson two ought to take precedence over lesson one. To illustrate, here's a great example of the kind of stupid advice you'll get when a person gets too confident. Just two months later he made his last jump. No really, his last one! What a load of crap... Soon I'll realize how silly this post is and next year I'll apologize with an even more tangential post. Meanwhile, how about some of you contribute some articles to BASE WIKI? Cue Dead Man Walking, Mac, BASE 1072, Mountain Lion, and maybe a little Life Without a Net.
  18. Actually, I have to back Jay up on this one. I have seen some jackets that didn't impress me. One in particular was made by Six Six One, although their newer models may have improved. Interestingly, I can't find any word on CE or other certification on the Six Six One website (unlike Dainese and Velocity). But again, the Six Six One will still protect you better than just jeans and a t-shirt. I'm a big believer in armor, as long as people realize it's not a substitute for good body-flight and canopy skills. In early 2003, Dwain Weston wrote an interesting post about this on Blinc: http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/showpost.php?p=38665&postcount=2, a snippet of which is quoted here:
  19. Unless I'm horribly mistaken, I believe he uses my old knee and shin guards. Those don't clip to your boots, they have clips on the straps that clip into the sides just below the knee, as opposed to more traditional velcro designs. I was concerned the clip-strength would wear out after a while but nowadays I prefer them over velcro. They are faster to put on and take off, and velcro wears out much quicker (in the good old skateboarding days I had to throw out a pair of kneepads every several months because the velcro wouldn't hold anymore.) Unfortunately I forgot what brand they were, but hopefully Drew will chip in.
  20. I've made 50 BASE jumps and 20 skydives wearing the Velocity armor. I've made 30 BASE jumps, and 10 skydives wearing the Dainese armor (referring to their most common model, the only one I've seen other BASE jumpers use as well). I don't think many others have made as much jumps on both models. I've taken significant impacts (interesting BASE landings, mountainbiking and snowboarding) with both brands. I've also carefully inspected both and compared them in much detail. Here are my thoughts... They fit exactly the same. Any problem (bulkiness, shoulderpads, etcetera) you would have with Dainese, you would have with Velocity and vice versa, given the same size jacket. The template for both is exactly the same. The plastic molds are exactly the same shape except for some cosmetic engravings (logo, etcetera). Even the spine-protector is exactly the same shape. The protection is in exactly the same places on the armor. All pads except the spine-protector are just plastic cups over some foam. There is no difference between them whatsoever. I believe the spine-protector has a more complicated structure internally, but I can't compare the two without breaking them apart. It may be that one has a different honey-comb structure (if any) inside than the other. That said, Velocity is one of the few that actually makes claims about their testing. Dainese has only recently started doing this). See this page: http://www.highvelocitygear.com/menupages/products.html. Velocity claims to have more stringent CE compliance than Dainese and other manufacturers, and I have reasonable confidence that this is the truth as far as the common jacket goes. It appears a newer Dainese MTB model has now aquired CE EN1621-2 as well. The Velocity gear uses a light lycra whereas the Dainese jacket uses a large hole mesh. Although the mesh makes it look like you just came home from a gay swingers club, I personally feel it's slightly better against sweating on hot days, but not sufficiently to solely justify the price difference. On my Velocity jacket I tore out one of the spine zippers after handling it rather rough. This was easily fixed (thanks Carmen!). I have since treated both my Dainese and Velocity jacket more carefully when taking it off, so I can't say whether the Dainese zippers are better. On the Dainese jacket I have accidentally torn off one of the buckle straps that run across the chest. Again, I've since been more careful, so I can't say if the Velocity ones are sturdier. ...either way, both jackets have had issues (zippers and buckles) that tell me you need to treat them with some care when putting them on or taking them off. When ordering my Velocity gear jacket, I have spoken with the owner of the company. He was incredibly forthright (offering a return-policy if I didn't like it). We talked about the differences between the types of body armor for a while (in regards to certification mostly) and I was treated with the kind of customer service that you expect from BASE manufacturers (i.e., extremely good). I cannot speak for Dainese's customer service. Jay's experience described above sounds like it's quite good as well. To summarize, there is little difference between the two armors. All pads except the spine protector are just molds of plastic over foam, with exactly the same shape. The spine protector may be different, but I have no reason to to believe that Velocity's is better or worse given the CE testing. Dainese's armor may be better in wicking away sweat. However, Velocity's armor is significantly cheaper (150 bucks versus 600 bucks, that's not negligible). These days, I use Dainese armor on all my jumps. That is because they sell a full-body suit (which Velocity doesn't, I used to wear tailbone-protection shorts and kneepads for the rest). I gave my Velocity armor to a good friend who decided to get into BASE without having the financial means to buy decent protection. (speaking of which, when are you buying that full face helmet? ) Do you base this on their alleged reputation, their marketing, their pricing, or actual research? If the measure stick is safety, what are the facts to back this up? I'm not saying it isn't true, but I wonder if people respect Dainese mostly because they just happen to be best known company that charges the most. I think we can all agree on one thing; both Velocity and Dainese are still recommended over jumping completely naked.
  21. A worthy answer, for which I take my hat off. That was indeed what I was trying to do. Indeed I hesitated to make the point because some people can be sensitive as soon as their children get involved. However, you strike me as the person that can take an argument objectively without extrapolating. It appears that assumption proved true. No disrespect to your daughter intended in any way.
  22. I imagine most people will tell you it's not a recommended way to get into BASE. There are other methods that involve significantly less risk, yet don't require disproportionately large sacrifices. It's simple common sense, tested by a select few that take the shortcut without dying.
  23. Seconded; remember to stay head high. I think it's easier to go too much head-low (initiating a rotation on push-off, trying to get away from the railing, which isn't really necessary) than it is accidentally falling over backwards. I also prefer to look at the horizon. My dilemma the first few times was, do I stand with both feet on the edge and push simultaneously, or do I stand on one foot with the other foot already dangling backwards a little a bit and then step off? I seem to prefer the latter, although after a few it doesn't really matter much anymore. If it's any help, there's a floater fifteen seconds into this video.
  24. Perhaps I am gay. And I do as much as anybody (although I wonder if you have actually ever paid anybody for sex in the traditional prostitution sense of the word. Most people are all talk, but bail when push comes to shove. Would you be happy if your kid entering in said profession? Everybody loves hookers, right?) Alas, there is a time, a place, and most importantly; a healthy dose of it. Lately, I've seen mostly overdoses.