sabregrl

Thanks everyone for your comments. To answer a few of them, the pilot chute has about 300-400 jumps on it, the winds were a bit weird on Saturday (the morning showed Santa Anas out of the east, grounds are usually directly from the west) and there was a little turbulence under canopy. The guy who mentioned the PC being out of trim is someone who's been in the sport for over 20 years and has been everything in the sport so he is very experienced. Since the twisting has only happened twice and the hackey inside of the PC happened once, I will look at the PC more carefully (and the tape and how it looks when I cock it) next time that I jump. The PC still looks in really good shape so I'm thinking this may be just a fluke. I have packed parachutes for one summer (over 20 rigs a day) and seen the twisting before but when it's on my rig, I get more interested. Thanks again everyone for your help!

I got down from a normal jump on Saturday and my pilot chute ball was inside my pilot chute and my pilot chute line was twisted (pretty significantly). One person at the DZ (not a rigger) said that my pilot chute was "out of trim" and the only way to fix it was to get a new one. Any thoughts?

The drama continues - all I will add is one word...karma.

I will be moving to a new state soon and decided to look at some of the dropzone reviews on dropzone.com. While doing this, I started doing a cursory review of a couple of other dz's that've jumped at. It was an interesting activity. I noticed that at one dz, there were a number of staff who posted a review. Isn't that considered biased and advertising since they have a vested interest in getting people to come to their dz? Should they be allowed to do a review? Also, for some of the posts, the reviews were done by people who have never posted or done a review before and don't have any information (or sketchy information) associated with their profile. Are these real people or made up names put together to add yet another fake, positive review to the dz. Makes you once again question everything you read...

I guess I go more for substance than flash. As I mentioned before, there are always people there to jump with. As for loads turning, this summer I took advantage of the $10 jumps and would get back to hanger and barely have enough time to pack before I got on another load (15-20 minutes). I wouldn't get to the dz until after 2pm (due to the dog-factor) and would get 4-5 jumps in before sunset. I would have so much fun, I'd go back the next day meaning that my jump rate increased x 4 (I used to do 2-3 jumps a weekend). As for the excitement/magic of tandems, we didn't really get to interact with them very much at SDSD since they we trained and/or suited up in an area away from the experienced jumpers (similar to other larger dzs). In other words, out of site, out of mind... I get to see them and interact with them in the hanger at Skydive SoCal and they ask me questions and we talk on the ride back. I really like that, but maybe that's just me. I think that we are very fortunate (as I've said before) that Southern California has 4 dropzones within driving distance, one of which is one of the best in the country (Perris). We have all kinds of dropzones that can cater to all kinds of jumpers. We are lucky to be able to pick and choose and find the right one for us. I think that those skydivers in the middle of the country or in Europe think we are very spoiled (and we are) since some people only have a small dz and can only jump a couple of months a year (due to weather). So everyone, come visit us in Southern California!!

I wish it was only 2 weeks - It's going to be more like 2 months between the glasses and the Lasik. That means November. I'm going to go through skydiving withdrawal. I may have to come down in the evenings just to hang out and take in the smell of jet fuel to get my fix... That's the longest I will have gone without skydiving in over 5 years! I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it. Don't forget me : (

I just got mine yesterday and it's BEAUTIFUL! Thanks Kelly!

Hey Guy, I'm there every weekend! I always have people to jump with. You cannot mention who's jumping there since I haven't seen you down there in 4 months - one month after it was open. It's a dz with a positive vibe, and those who "grew up at Brown", know what I mean. We interact with the tandems and AFF and pick up on their excitement. I like jumping with the people just off AFF too. We hang out at the end of the day, drink our beers and watch the sunset. I smile from the time I get there until the time I leave. I have found my home dz...

My thoughts and prayers are with Adria. I wish her the best and am sending positive and healthy vibrations up her way. Tell her family that there are hundreds of people that she has touched with just her smile.

Thanks for posting the pics. I still cannot believe that I was part of this amazing trip. The beauty is breath-taking. I wanted to post the pic of Denali that we could see from the air but dz.com is saying it's too big. I don't know what I liked more - jumping onto (actually next to) the glacier or jumping out of the helicopter or being part of the Alaskan Women's State Record. Hell, it's all good.

Well, I am getting my double-wides removed and getting regular leg straps put on and hip rings. They didn't feel comfortable walking nor under canopy - but that's just me. Before I ordered them I asked everyone who had a new Infinity and they all told me to get the double-wide leg straps. Now, they were all males, so maybe there's a difference there (well, I actually know there's a difference THERE). Kelly was really nice on the phone and I'm going to send it back next week. I liked the fit of the rig otherwise - especially around the shoulders. It seemed to be more contured. I had a picture of my rig but lost it somewhere in e-town. I'll send another when I get it back but it is beautiful.

I flew to Alaska two years ago for the Summer Solstice boogie. My rig went through x-ray with no problems but the security people wanted to "open" my friends' rig. I guess they thought it was a backpack. She showed him her Cypres card and they let her through. My friend and I walked on board with our rigs on our shoulders. No one mentioned a thing. We transferred planes in Seattle and walked around the terminal. Whether people didn't realize we had a parachute on or not, I'll never know. The only person who said something to us was a pilot who passed us in the terminal after we got to Alaska. His only comment, "Don't you trust our flying?".

You guys are a sick bunch. Here is a picture from today.

Update on my eye today: The blood is slowly oozing (or redistributing) throughout my eye. I'm assuming that by the end of the week, the entire white part (sclera) will be blood red. There is no pain so it hurts everyone else more than me. The eye doctor said that it will get darker red and get worse before it gets better. Thanks for everyone's comments and insights into the problem. I'm glad I'm not the only skydiver who has seen this. In other words, I'm not the only freaky looking person :)

Hmmm, yep. But I've been jumping Sabres for almost 600 jumps (hence the name "sabregrl") and rarely have hard openings. I really think with Sabres, the openings depend on the pack job and body position. The last jump on Sunday was spent with me working on my head down and fast transitions. That could have also been the reason for the broken blood vessel. Although I did mention that I felt I packed myself a "spanker".