edenney

Well if you really want that video just let me know and I'll hook you up. Visiting hours here are very liberal but I spend most of the day working with PT and OT so evenings are best. I don't remember you oweing me a beer but I'll take you up on the skydiver blonde :). Everything goes better with blondes ;). Hey, I'm even on an air bed, could be interesting! Eric

It's great to be back. Even if it is on a dial-up connection from a hospital bed...

That was a fun jump. Those Birdman suits are a blast. I believe my camera is in the back of my car which has been sitting in my sister's garage since the day of the accident. I'm not sure if I was wearing my camera helmet or a Pro-Tec on that jump. If you have a DV camcorder you can bring it to the hospital and I'll transfer it for you. No way for me to transfer it to VHS.

Wow, how overwhelming it is to read this thread. This is the first time I've been online since the accident 3 months ago. I can't possibly thank everyone enough for all of the kind words, prayers, good vibes, CARDS and flowers. I can't believe how many cards I received, they filled an entire wall in my room. I had my sister read them to me shortly after they brought me out of the induced coma in late August. I was still really cloudy from all of the morphine so I look forward to reading them again when I get out of the hospital. I need to send out some special "thank you's" to some people so in Academy Award fashion here goes: Extra special thanks to Laurie Ross who was by my side every available minute supporting me and my family and providing updates on my condition. She also brought me my Oreo Cookie shakes and food from Jack In The Box as soon as they allowed me to eat solid food. My mother has officially adopted her so I guess I have a new sister . Thanks to Lisa (Mouth) for the constant updates to this thread and for jumping on a flight all the way from Georgia as soon as she found out what happened. My family really appreciated the support and so did I (even if I was in a coma). Sorry we had to postpone the trip to Hawaii but I promise we'll go as soon as I can walk again. Thanks to Emily and Jeff for the T-Shirt donation drive. They raised $725 after the T-Shirts were paid for. And thanks to all of you that bought the shirts and in some cases just made donations. Thanks to everyone that donated blood whether it was in my name or not. During the first 48 hours I went through so much blood that they cleaned out all of the local blood banks for my type of blood. Thanks to those of you that posted pictures of me, I'm sure it was nice for some of the people that couldn't put a face with the name. Thanks to Molly, Jason, Tim, Rob and Aaron for the support with what I'm going through and what lies ahead. It's helpful to talk to people that (unfortunately) have been through similar situations and it's inspiring to see how well they have recovered. I'm sure I've left out some people and I apologize in advance. I'm really touched by the response from the whole skydiving community, even those that don't even know me. Thanks to all of you for everything. Now a little about me... Following are the injuries I sustained: Broken pelvis, sacrum, right femur (MULTIPLE breaks), right tibia, right fibula, right ankle (pulverized and inoperable), right foot (pulverized and inoperable), left tibia (compound fracture), left fibula, left ankle, kidney and MASSIVE internal bleeding. I remember telling the paramedics on the way to the hospital that they needed to cut me open because my abdomen was filling up and felt like it was going to explode. Seems I was right... The first 48 hours were very bad and the doctors gave me less than 1% chance of survival. I was bleeding from every orifice and my entire body had swollen up to the point that I was unrecognizable (except for my hair Laurie told me). The trauma team worked on me frantically throughout the first day and night and managed to keep me alive (somewhat miraculously). However Sunday morning my heart stopped and I flatlined for about 7 minutes. They finally managed to get a faint pulse but my lungs were 100% filled with fluid preventing oxygent from getting to my brain and organs. One of the doctors told my mom that there was nothing more that they could do and that they would get me cleaned up so the family could come in and say their goodbyes. In steps the doctor that saved my life. It was only his first week at the hospital and it was his day off but after receiving the page he showed up in shorts, a t-shirt and a baseball cap. He immediately ordered that they do several radical things with me. Without getting into specifics my condition slowly (very slowly) started to improve over the next several hours. Gradually my condition improved and as mentioned in another post they took me off the ventilator on August 7th (my mom's birthday). I don't remember that at all due to the drugs they had me on. It was short lived as I almost immediately contracted the staff infection and pneumonia and they had to rush me back to surgery and back into an induced coma. I fought through that and they finally brought me out of the coma sometime in late August. It's very odd to lose a month and a half of your life... I believe they did 5 surgeries on me while I was in a coma and they did two more on my legs and abdomen after I woke up. Current status: I'm in Loma Linda for rehab as you probably know by now. I am non weight bearing on either of my legs and won't be for some time. I still have metal fixators sticking out of my left leg and holding the bone in place. The ones in my right leg were removed about 3 weeks ago. My right tibia and fibula are essentially healed. My right femur closely reselmbes that of the Terminator, more metal than bone. Unfortunately one portion of the bone hasn't healed and is displaced possibly requiring more surgery. My right ankle and foot were wiped out and they were going to amputate them until they finally found a pulse. I cannot move my toes and all I have is a strong "pins and needles" feeling throughout my entire foot (not pleasant). The ankle is pretty disfigured and my foot is offset to one side. They could not operate on the ankle or foot because they were so badly damaged so they just let the bone fragments grow back together in whatever form they could. My left tibia that had the compound fracture has still not grown back together despite the bone graft surgery (most painful night of my life by the way). They have changed my diet in hopes of spurring growth to that bone. Cross your fingers that it works or I'll be needing further surgery on that leg. My left foot and ankle are good and have normal feeling thankfully. Looks like that's going to be my good leg when everything is healed and I'm walking again. Unfortunately that's too far off and the hospital can't keep me that long. They are discharging me in 2 weeks. Not sure what I'm going to do since I live by myself and won't be able to support myself due to my legs. If anybody out there wants to come stay with me rent free for a few months let me know

Not to mention a full day of riding roller coasters on Monday at Magic Mountain

22 months 612 jumps

Would also suck if the person they're hanging from had a premature deployment at 160 mph . Or (worse yet) the hanger had a premature deployment. I have a beautiful picture of a 10-way hybrid labor day weekend taken by Eli. Certainly Parachutist cover material but the main flap open on Eric Rodin's container (one of the two hangers) would have prompted a flurry of letters to the editor no doubt Guess that's a little off topic from the original thread but you know how that goes....

Hilarious. Nice job of getting into his slot once he found it though

As if you haven't gotten enough replies to this already. All I can say is that if you have insurance, don't think twice about paying a visit to the doc. Most likely that's a $5 or $10 co-pay and a 30 minute visit. I think most everyone has some pressure issues of varying levels but if it's persisting for days or weeks after jumping that isn't normal. When I started skydiving I was already having some problems with one of my ears closing up on me when I would lay on that side. Sometimes it would stay closed for seconds after lifting my head up and sometimes for minutes. However after jumping my ear would be closed up and sometimes quite painful for days. It was driving me nuts and I had nothing to lose so I went to Urgent Care to get checked out. Sure enough (despite using Q-Tips regularly) I had a virtual ear plug made of wax that was completely sealing my ear. Took them about 10-15 minutes to flush it out with warm water and something akin to a turkey baster and I've been a happy camper ever since. Hopefully that's what's going on with you since it's quickly and easily remedied. As someone mentioned, you can also get a do it yourself kit but if you've got insurance it's easier to let them do it. Good luck!

Last month, Spectre 150. Intend to requalify on a Spectre 120 in the next couple months... Sick of hop-n-pops at the moment

Best supplementary resource I know of is Jim Wallace but he's not exactly on the web . Seriously though, he handles the night jump training out here at Perris and with his 17000+ (maybe approaching 18000 now?) skydives he offers an incredible wealth of information in almost everey aspect of the sport. I know he has a document that he hands out when he does his night jump training. I would suggest emailing him at [email protected].

Hmmm, that pretty much describes me during the week....

Unless you have a specific reason for putting all that weight into one object, you might consider a weight belt and a weight vest. The belts are very comfortable, you hardly even notice they're there and they can easily carry up to 18 pounds maybe more. I know the vests carry 10-15 pounds as well. There are a number of different places to purchase these but they're not cheap if they're made specifically for skydiving (like anything else in the sport). The weight belts are $125 with 10 lbs. of weight I believe.

Curious, did you travel with your rigs out in plain sight or in gear bags? Happy to hear that you didn't get too much grief....

This occurred just a couple hours ago and is posted in the incidents forum but it seems applicable to cross-post here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=557&ncid=755&e=1&u=/ap/20030223/ap_on_sp_au_ra_ne/car_nascar_skydivers_hurt

This from last weekend...

I'm STILL recovering from a very long night on Bourbon street a couple weeks ago. I barely made it back to the hotel before the sun broke over the horizon. Let me know if you happen to stumble across a small black flip phone that was seemingly swallowed up by the floor at the Bourbon Street Blues Company.

I always stay at the Days Inn. It's about a 1-2 miles away from the DZ and has a pool and jacuzzi. They offer a skydiver discount but it's still $50-60 a night. If $$$ is your primary concern then the IHOP would be your best bet. As mentioned previously, you can't beat it for the money.

Last year a C license was required for landing at the Casino. They were able to secure a secondary landing area at the airport for those that did not have a C or weren't comfortable with the landing area. It's wide open over there....

It's at Bluewater (that's actually a town) which is about 30-50 miles south of Havasu. The scenery is awesome and landing at the hotel is cool. The airport is a quick 5 minute bus ride away from the casino where you land. Though the landing area is one big hazard there... not much in the way of "outs". Attached is a picture of the landing area as seen from the balcony of one of the hotel rooms.

Definitely (Though it's not actually at Lake Havasu). Last year was a lot of fun...

I got one on New Year's Eve shortly after I left the DZ

A lot of people failed level 4, myself included. I too would start to spin and couldn't seem to stop it. My JM would just catch me as I would come around. After failing it twice (the only level I had any trouble with) I started to doubt whether or not I was ever going to be able to get past it. 3rd try I got a different JM and a different approach. Best advice I can give you (and you'll hear this a lot) is just to RELAX. The more nervous you get the more rigid your body becomes and the less likely you are to have a good arch. A good arch is key to passing this level (and RW in general). Next time you try the level do your best to relax and take a few deep breaths as you approach altitude. Try and take your mind off the jump and don't think about the problems you had on your previous jumps. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

At 6'0 and 135 lbs I know all about this problem. A good relaxed arch from the hips will definitely help but only to a point. Get yourself a weight belt and it will make a world of difference. They're really comfortable to wear (as opposed to the vests) and it puts the weight where your arch originates from in the first place. The additional weight will allow you to use more of your body as a control surface and help prevent floating or popping up that occurs when you dock or take a grip. Since you're still going through AFF that isn't a problem you've encountered yet but you will soon enough when you start jumping with others. Perhaps your DZ will have a belt (or even a vest) that you can demo. Good luck!

Best/most successful 00 to date was my 100th. 3 point 13-way. The rest of the 00s have gone to hell but they're all fun