bigjim

Quote Adrian defined what skydiving could and should be. First met him at Sebastian 5-6 years ago. Blew me away when this skydive superstar just walks up to me and asks me if he could jump with me. Got to know him better over the years. This hurts. See you on the other side, mate.

.Ive got a frigging reputation to maintain. Your reputation just went down in flames, Bucko. Wait till the guys at rec. hear about your being over here collecting sympathy. Glad you made it. Hurry back.

Not true. I jumped there today and spoke with the DZO about this. A young lady made a low turn while on final after a night jump. She hurt her elbow and sustained a facial injury but she will make a full recovery.

I used to solve my Stilleto end cell closures with rear risers.Until one jump, when pulling a rear riser caused a toggle to fire due to friction with the slider.Spun up quick and low resulting in a cutaway. Moral of the story, pump toggles to clear end cell closure. Most of the time, the speed gained by releasing the brakes is enough to inflate the end cells.

I also attended Search I. If you go, you probably will make the biggest leap forward, skills wise, over the length of the camp than at any other point in your skydiving career. Not only to you jump with really good coaches, which you can do elsewhere, but you are part of a really well thought out program and the group dynamic really adds to the experience. . In addition, the seminar instructors, people like Pete Allum, Dr. John and Scott Miller are among the best in the world at what they do.

I jumped that helicopter at the Keys Boogie a few weeks ago. It was giving 4500 feet then a jump from a near hover. Get one if you can!

The USPA should provide two services to the members. One is to host and regulate competition. Although there are complexities associated with this, it is relatively straight forward and could, ideally, be handled for the most part by volunteers. The other function is to counter the efforts of the politicians and bureaucrats that would like to make America safe from skydiving. This is way easier said than done. It involves, at the very least, lobbying,and could involve licensing and the other self regulating aspects. All the other stuff like image promotion, publicity, magazine publishing, research, education, ect. is best left to those who will benefit most from it. That is to say, the skydiving industry which includes the commercial drop zones, the schools and the equipment manufacturers. Please don't flame me for being a Parachutist hater because I am not. I just think that the USPA should be as streamlined and focused on the two missions that I described and all the rest should be left to private enterprise.

I had fun when I was a student. *** ...and if you are a DZO and if you look at fun in terms of profit per jump, he had considerably more fun with you as a student than he has with you now.

Makes you a pro when your doing it for fun and money. Makes you a fun jumper the rest of the time. I agree with your statement about professional interest. I just think we need some balance on the BOD.

No really. Sorry to be so evil, but I'm still waiting for someone to explain this to me. *** I seems to me like you are looking more for an argument than an explanation. What in my attempt at an explanation do you interpret to be an insinuation that professional skydivers are evil? Hell, some of my best friends are professional skydivers. I merely stated a fact related to the profession of present BOD members.

I'm really interested. Someone break this down for me. *** A fun jumper, as the term is generally used is, as you yourself said. someone who jumps purely for fun. That is to say someone who is not a student, an instructor, or a professional competitor. As Body Pilot points out, there are several candidates on the ballot whose platform centers around advocating the interests of us fun jumpers on the BOD. As you probably know, most of the present board members make their living from skydiving.

You guys are dealing with a twisted sense of humor here. The more Dave and Michele tried to coerce Treetop into posting his original statement statement the more adamant he became about not posting it. Actually he did post it or part of it on rec. Since I have read most of this thread, I am nearing reader burn out I'm, not going back to rec, to find it and provide a link, however I'm sure some of the more computer literate could find it rather easily using Deja or Google. Anyway, Don's main complaint is that he had capitalized certain words for emphasis and someone edited these words back to a more grammatically correct form. but, in the process, diluted the emphasis that he intended to provide. Make up your own mind about Treetop but when casting your vote keep in mind that the BOD seems to run USPA the way they want to and that is not necessarily the way that the fun jumpers would like to see the organization run. Maybe it's time for a wake up call.

Rather than developing a big arch, which you would have to learn to lose as you advance in RW anyway, learn to fly in the mantis position.

CASA - surprised it's been missed

Industrial strength Freefly in Sebastian. Mike Swanson, Rook Nelson, Dave Brown and the rest of the Freefly Training center crew should be there, although you would have to confirm that with them directly. In addition to their coaching business, they are always organizing and fun jumping.

it was a way cool 82! Hope you had your jacket.

Maybe up Daytona way it was cool. Down here in North Cuba (Miami) it was the normal 85.

No self respecting sky diver has a car that cost more than his/her rig.

Tunnel First Skydive University now has a program where you do 20 minutes in the tunnel, then 4 AFF type jumps then a solo. Their site has details.

me too

Significant factoid for those planning to go.Skydive Sebastian is only selling 200 slots so everyone there has reasonable aircraft access. I understand the slots are going fast so if you plan to go, reserve a slot in advance. Belly, freefly and parties all rock hard.

Event is run by Skydive Sebastian http://www.skydiveseb.com/ they can answer your questions.