SquirrelNuts

Humor is the key. You need to try to relax the student...which will also relax you. I've never seen your instructor before, does he work here? That harness looks pretty loose. Wow! That is a lot of handles. Which one do you pull? OK, that one might piss off the instructor. Wow your brave. I would never jump out of a plane strapped to that guy. Well, you get the idea. They are worried about their safety. So joke about it.

You haven't been following the discussion of the Danny Page/Bob Holler incident very closely, have you? Word on the street is that Danny got away with a lot of dangerous skydiving behavior because he was one of the "cool kids." I don't think we deal with issues as effectively as we'd like to think we do, especially when it involves rocking the boat. Thanks for the example. That is exactly what I mean. My example is the way things should work, but I think we are moving away from that and I am trying to call attention to that fact.

Here is a link to the arrest record, it has all of his info including his picture. http://www.pascosheriff.com/webapps/IMS500R.pgm?TASK=disp&rrn=000088674&rnd=91095 Holy Shit! Look at the picture of this guy. Is this the picture they took of him when they booked him? I am not a shrink, but....Shouldn't he look beat down, depressed, sad or at least calm? He looks pissed!

Not entirely true. While you can't "control" other's actions, you can certainly influence them. Set a good example.. probably just to be ignored. Good start. I am starting to feel the love.

This is a very sad situation. My intent is not to blame anyone but to learn from our mistakes as a group. As a group, we study the cause of each skydiving fatality and try to learn from it. I think we should do the same for this type of incident. I think the underlying cause is the degredation of the skydiving culture. OK, bear with me for a moment. When a skydiver makes a skydiving mistake that is potentially dangerous to him/her self or to others it is dealt with immediately and vigorously. We do not wait until someone gets hurt to address it. I have both recieved and given these ass chewings and I assure you they were taken very seriously by both parties in every instance. Most importantly, these conversations did not always involve a member of the DZ staff. I never saw a repeat violation after one of these conversations but I assure you it would have been dealt with very seriously. So, as a group...we are responsible for monitoring and correcting inappropriate behavior we see at the DZ. This includes "Weirdo" or "Sexually harrassing" behavior. We are a very unique and fortunate group. I think we need to do a better job of watching out for each other.

I'd go so far as to say that most women put up with a lot more flirty/aggressive/sexual behavior at the DZ than anywhere else in their lives. What's cool and funny from someone who is popular and well-liked may be creepy and stalkerish from someone who isn't. What's "too far" from one person is "silly fun" from another." First of all let me say thank you to Randy. You are well liked and respected for a reason. Second, let me say to all the skydivers that knew about Salsa John's behavior...Shame on you. You can't rely on the staff to handle everything. They are busy working and are not aware of all the things that go on at a busy DZ like zhills. This should have been handled long ago. I am sure I will get some responses to that one. Lastly, and most importantly. The above quote is very bothersome and ufortunately very true. I would like to think most skydivers are of strong moral charactar, but there are a few bad apples. Their behavior should be dealt with, not laughed at. Especially when it comes to the "cool kids" If you wouldn't tolerate their behavior at work, you shouldn't tolerate it at the DZ.