blakeman

We found a VHS, so bring it out and let's digitize it for the young pups.

You HAVE to put it on YouTube!

If they remastered that stuff on DVD I would buy the whole damn set!

Holy crap! Come to San Diego - you can have about ten of the damn things.

Anybody know where I can see the old Swoop Kerwin video? The tandem-thru-the-peas one where the camera guys says, "Wow, that was high speed!"? That was classic.

Everyone who is anyone will be at this boogie. In fact, the coolest people on the entire planet will be there, some of them will even have clothes on.

Dave Peterson's memorial will be held at Skydive San Diego on Saturday, November 7th 2009 at 4:00pm. Anyone who knew him is invited to attend.

Skydive San Diego has a brand-new website: http://www.skydivesandiego.com The new site is loaded with features including photo and video galleries BUT WE NEED CONTENT! If you have pics or vids of Skydive San Diego that you would like to showcase in our galleries, please email me at [email protected] and direct me to them! Thanks in advance! Blake

Celebrate the Endless Summer Boogie at Skydive San Diego on November 21-22! This is the signature boogie for Skydive San Diego- come enjoy fun skydives, load organizers, awesome food and beer, and one hell of a party. $35 registration gets you $20 jump tickets, t-shirt, dinner, beer, and the chance to win some free gear! If you have been to this boogie, you know you can't miss it!

Skydive San Diego has a helicopter this weekend! There will be a Robinson R44 (3 jumpers) flying jumpers at the DZ the last weekend of every month. Jumps are from 6000' AGL and cost $85. The jump is fun, but the ride up is the best part! If you don't have a helo jump in your logbook, come on down and get it!

N/A

There will be a helicopter based at Skydive San Diego the last weekend of every month. You don't need to wait for a boogie anymore! The R44 will hold 3 skydivers and will take the jumpers to an altitude of 6000' AGL. The jumps are $85. For more questions, call Skydive San Diego at 619 216 8416.

The Crystal Mt. course was scouted, flown, and set up with skydiving canopies in mind. If I were to compete in a US groundlaunch event, then I would probably run the JVX, bigger Xaos etc - especially knowing who would set up the course! If in Europe, chances are the course was designed by a Nano or Bullet pilot, so you might expect to see a different pitch.

Its called Speed Flying, and it is a very popular and growing sport in Europe. The US will not likely see the same growth or development due to the liability issues we see at ski resorts. Not to mention that ski mountaineering and paragliding are considerably bigger sports in Europe than the US. There are a number of manufacturers of speed flying wings. PD sells one called the Spire, but it is likely to be too expensive. The Gin Nano is the preferred competition wing in Europe, and the Ozone Bullet is pretty popular. Both of those sell for about $1500 USD and that includes the harness. Just Google "speed flying" and you'll learn a lot in less than an hour. Before going up and trying it, though, I would recommend finding some folks who have done it and can talk you through the dangers. This is not a harebrained idea ready for development, but is instead a full-fledged sport with instructors, competitions with rules and prize money, method-specific gear by a number of manufacturers, and a growing base of participants who not only know what they are doing but are unbelievably competent. It is also delightfully dangerous even when you know what you are doing, so be careful and get some instruction. One of the best instructors out there is Chris Santacroce. He's on the Red Bull Team, and he runs a paragliding outfit in Utah. Google him and contact him for good info.

Well golly. I guess you're right. I mean, the hell with USPA anyway. We don't need 'em. They pretty much just waste all our money anyway. The magazine sucks, the rating programs suck, I'll probably never get to that damn museum... And I guess you do know what they do there. My apologies. So, who are all those people anyway? And what do they care what happens to us? I mean, how many jumps does that Glenn Bangs fellow make in a year? Is he a real skydiver? And that Ed Scott guy, what the hell was he up to for so long at USPA? What kind of stake does he have in this? I heard we were paying him to be a lobbyist in DC for all kinds of issues... I say we save the money, and maybe get a college intern to do that stuff! Then we can spend all those membership dues on something really neato! Hell, while we're at it, let's just all get together and vote for free membership for all of us so we can spend that money on jumps! And on top of that, don't allow anyone with a financial stake in skydiving to have the reins to this beast. I'm sure we can all pitch in and get it done! It'll be by the jumpers for the jumpers! Yeah! Let the DZOs just run off and form their own damn organization - the hell with 'em! I'm pretty sure they don't give a shit about skydiving anyway! Most of those dudes are doing it just for the money anyway - most of them are driving Porshes and Ferraris when we aren't around, I'm sure of it! I especially like Nicks idea of the FAA taking care of us! I am positive that they will ask one of us to be their inspector. There's no way they will be irritated with one more thing to take care of. There's no way they would assign some entry-level bureaucrat without a single jump to take care of us. I mean, skydiving is a huge industry! Huge! There's dropzones everywhere! There have to be as many dropzones as commercial airports, right? We probably account for a similar amount of economic input to the nation, right? They'd have to listen to us, and take our best interests at heart. They probably wouldn't take very long to come up with a federally-approved training program that we all liked that required awesome instructors... and it probably doesn't cost that much to have one of those terrain-avoidance things in every turbine airplane (I can't believe that the DZOs wanted to sidestep THAT FAR - I mean, what a cool idea for a VFR jumpship that only flies a big circle to 13K!) I'm pretty sure the DZOs wouldn't have to raise our jump prices to add one of those in there...or maybe just close down... You know what? I would like to rescind my earlier post. I have clearly missed the point. No, I do not think DZs will renew their membership. We all know they spend $400 just to post that USPA logo on their website. There isn't a one of them that realizes that the Group Membership Fee is secretly called the Pay For A Good Lobbyist For Peanuts To Keep The Gorilla Off Our Backs. I'm sure they all think that that whoppin' $400 bucks is more usefully spent on something else like a DZ Inpection program that probably wouldn't even be paid attention to by the fun-jumper masses. Right?