bdb2004

I was paraphrasing Lucas himself. But, whatever. I'm done here, you can take it up with him.

If all aspects of every movie were held to real-world standards, then movies would be pretty boring to most people. Every person with an area of expertise can point out where, how, and why Hollywood got it wrong...and would prefer that Hollywood got it right. We're all skydivers who recognize how unrealistic the scenes were in Point Break. You're a fencer who recognizes how unrealistic the the fight scenes in Star Wars were. I'm a wrestler who recognizes how unrealistic most of Vision Quest was. My friend is a driver who recognizes how realistic most of The Fast and the Furious was. So on and so forth. For the 1% of experts out there, it's frustrating. For the other 99%, it's exciting. And you know what -- for those 1% who are frustrated, maybe if they just stepped back and let themselves not be an expert for a few minutes, they might see the great work involved even if it's not even remotely realistic. The five minute free fall in Point Break was pretty fun to watch, even if it was entirely fake. Also, just curious, what do my jump numbers have to do with this discussion?

Whoa, settle down, Beavis. On the one hand, I love Star Wars. On the other hand, one of my best friends competed in Kendo in college (don't remember if it was club, intercollegiate, etc) at the University of Washington. One time (emphasis on ONE TIME) I put on all his armor, he put on nothing at all, then he took me to school. Also, his dad is a Japanese sword polisher trained in Japan and relocated to the U.S. in the 70s in order to provide traditional sword repair in the Pacific Northwest. So yeah, I know a little something about the difference between fantasy and the real world here.

(Note: I discussed this with a couple of instructors the day it happened, so please be gentle....) I think he is trying to describe a situation similar to what I had on my cutaway on jump 53. My lightly loaded Sabre 2 (about 1.0 WL) spun me up because I was a dumbass when packing. When I realized I couldn't get the line twists out or release the toggles, I started my EPs, two hands per handle method: Look red, grab red, look silver, pull red, pull silver. I did the first four just right. As I had my hands on silver about to pull, I felt myself getting jerked around. Afraid maybe only one riser released, I looked up to see my white reserve starting to open. Then, because I needed to finish my EPs, I immediately pulled silver. I didn't have to pull it. There was no immediate life-saving value to pulling it. The question the OP is asking is whether pulling it was good "to build muscle memory" or whether the few seconds it would take could be better spent doing other things (such as figuring out where I was landing and how to fly this weird canopy).

A few years ago I finally realized that women are not at all impressed by how much I know about Star Wars. Or professional wrestling for that matter. After learning to just shut the hell up, I was amazed at how my life has improved.

No way, Vader vs Obi-wan on Mustafar was much, much better. We'll not talk about Vader vs Obi-wan on the Death Star, however. As sword work goes the death star fight was the most accurate in any StarWars movie. Two masters facing each other botheknowing that it takes an opening that is imperceptible to lesser trained swordsmen and the fight is over with a single stroke. Just ad with all things Hollywood prefers flash over substance and o swords work now looks like amateurs swinging axe handles instead of razor sharp steel that will kill You before you know you've been cut much less a scifi lightsword that would be far more dangerous for its user as well as his opponent. Nonsense. The fight was dull because Obi-wan knew he was overmatched, so his only goal was to survive long enough to allow Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, and the droids to make it back to the Falcon. Once they were safely by the spacecraft, he surrendered and allowed Vader to cut him down. On Mustafar they were both out for blood, and equally skilled, and thus the fight was much more exciting.

No way, Vader vs Obi-wan on Mustafar was much, much better. We'll not talk about Vader vs Obi-wan on the Death Star, however.

My Step-father was awarded a Purple Heart in Vietnam. I have heard some of the stories of what he experienced when he returned from the war. Fast forward to last summer. He and my mom were staying in a hotel in rural Montana, when they heard two men fighting in the parking lot. They went outside and saw the two shoving each other right next to my Step-father's truck. Suddenly, one noticed his Washington Purple Heart license plate, told the other, and they moved away from his truck before resuming their fight. That is the respect they had for his service. Indeed, times have changed.

Lol.

At the risk of letting this thread devolve into something intelligent....a while back a colleague (a relationships researcher) and I discussed conducting a study where one partner was a moderate-to-heavy drinker and the other was not, and we would examine (mis)match in partners' perceptions of risk and subsequent real world consequences of alcohol consumption over an extended period of time. The project never came about, but I suspect that many (but certainly not all) of the same underlying mechanisms that we would have observed would manifest themselves in your study as well. I'd be interested in seeing your results when they are eventually ready for publication....

For what it's worth, I'm a skydiver...and a professor of psychology, who studies risk taking and risk perception, and alcohol abuse. Go figure.

My suit is also (primarily) black with purple grips. It was recommended to me that I get grey stripes where the grips attach to the suit. The theory was that it will help the grips stand out more. I don't know if that is true or not, but it actually looks pretty cool. Which is all that really matters, right?

Went bowling a while back. I saw this displayed on the display screen above the lane, and snapped a picture. Is it time to reconsider the bowling speech?

I've never posted here, but dude, I just have to respond at this point. I jump at the same dropzone as davelepka, He knows what he is talking about. You should listen to him. But that's not why I'm responding. I'm responding because of an experience I had yesterday. On my 75th jump, I was using a rental 220 Manta because my Sabre2 190 (1.0 loading) was having a reserve repack. On final, for some stupid reason, I flared a bit high. For some even stupider reason, I let up on the toggles. I let out an "oh shit" that my girlfriend heard from the picnic bench and PLF'ed the shit out of the landing. I haven't flared high like that since I was on student status. Thankfully I was under the 220 Manta. It might not have been so pretty under my Sabre2 190. And imagine what it might have looked like under a Stiletto 190....Or are you 100% confident that you would NEVER make that mistake?

I stopped by Skydive Temple when I was in Austin on business. The winds were gusting above 25mph, so I never got off the ground, but the time I spent at the DZ was not time wasted. I met some folks, had some interesting conversations, watched people slide across the ground in a beer cooler attached to a round... Everyone was quite welcoming, even though I was a visitor with low jump numbers who wasn't going to go up because of the wind. Absolutely nobody tried to pressure me into a jump, which was cool. Oh, and the indoor plumbing is a nice touch. I'm not used to that at a DZ. I hope that I'll be able to make it back to Skydive Temple next time I am in Austin. And maybe next time I will actually get to jump.