RUN_FMX

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Posts posted by RUN_FMX

  1. I’m not a good enough canopy pilot to say anything actually helpful in terms of the different flight characteristics. But I did a few hundred jumps on a CF2 129 and about 250 so far on the CF3 109. 
     

    For sure the CF3 is a bit more ground hungry and sensitive on toggles but how much of that is the 2 vs 3 and how much is the downsize. 
     

    What I would say is that you could flip a coin and you’d be stoked with either canopy. I’ve found them both extremely consistent and reliable regardless of how you pack them and stand up landings are easy in all conditions. 
     

    You’ll pay more for the 3 but it will also be worth more when you flick it on to the next owner. If the CF2 is a good deal I wouldn’t hesitate too much, unless you’re like me and need to have the latest :)

  2. Posted · Edited by RUN_FMX

    Myself and my good friend Brent Findlay set a new national New Zealand record this past Saturday for the most number of jumps completed in a single day by a single person.

    Dubbed 'The Hundred Jump Project' our goal was to get at least 101 jumps in a single day each simultaneously to beat the current NZ record of 100 which has stood unbeaten since 1999. We managed to achieve an average of one jump each every 5.5 minutes for just under 12 hours non-stop (aside from fuelling obviously), eventually ending the day on 120 jumps each so we now co-own the new record.

    We jumped from 2,500ft (the lowest legal altitude under our governing rules) from a Fletcher aircraft. We had just the one plane but had 3 pilots who worked on a 10-jump rotation. We had an incredible ground crew of around 50 people including packers, pilots, safety, rig-swappers, catchers, food and hydration runners etc who all also worked on a roster rotation, our first jump was at sunrise 6:35am and our last jump was around 6:15pm. We are not night rated so we were restricted to daylight hours only.

    We used a total of 20 rigs with quite a large range of canopies. It was really fun to land a Crossfire 3 109, then 5 minutes later land a Saffire 3 150, then 5 minutes later land a 7 cell Krakken wingsuit canopy etc, it was a real test and we had 240 great landings.

    I know some of you will be referencing people like Jay Stokes and thinking that 120 isnt really a big deal, but it was a big deal for NZ and certainly a big deal for us personally. We used the challenge to raise funds for our local Mental Health Foundation, so far we have raised around $10,000NZD but we expect that number to climb as the NZ media continues to show a lot of interest.

    We both had one cutaway each which is pretty unlucky really. Both spinning linetwists which put us on our backs, pretty obvious you arent going to fix that from that altitude. Mine was at jump 55 and Brents was at jump 93. Both cutaways were textbook, kept both handles, landed exactly on target, swapped rigs and kept going.

    One of the coolest stats is that I got to do my 800th and 900th jump on the same day, which not many people can say.

    Anyway I just thought some of you might be interested in some of those stats. It was a super fun day and Im really proud of what we achieved. 

    Heres a quick story from one of the news channels here in NZ, one of many to report on the event.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124237213/friends-push-through-parachute-fails-and-fatigue-to-set-new-skydive-record

    • Like 7

  3. Just offering my personal experience hoping it might help you to move past it.

    I have what the doctors call 'hyperscoliokyphosis' which is a fancy word for saying that my spine is f*cked 7 ways from sunday. The curvature is extreme and the doctors have warned me it will likely put me in a wheelchair around age 60 (Im 30 now).

    The problem with the condition is that there is actually nothing you can do about it when it gets that bad. Your flexibility etc is not the problem, if you have severe scoliosis then your vertabrae have actually morphed from a rectangle shape to basically a wedge shape. In other words this curve is now part of your skeleton, all the stretching and yoga in the world wont fix it. I've spent the last 15 years working with every doctor, surgeon, GP, physio, specialist, personal trainer, witch doctor, massuese and yoga teacher that I could get my hands on and the end consensus is overwhelmingly 'aside from spinal fusion surgery theres nothing you can do so just deal with it'.

    The good news is it wont effect your skydiving career. I only have 600 jumps so I'm not exactly an expert but I can belly fly up or down to any formation no problem. Instructors etc at my dz are always commenting that I seem to be flying a little flat, but I'm always where i need to be....I think you'll just develop your own weird little style to fly around the scoliosis.

    I promise all of your concerns around this will be gone after 100 jumps. Just stick with it.

    The only real problem it causes for me is the pain in the lumbar spine (where the beginning of the 'hump' meets my lower spine) after a day of jumping, because thats where most of the pressure goes.

    X-ray is of me standing 'straight'.

    *edit to add* I didnt mean to make it sound like stretching etc wont help, it certainly will and you should most definitely be doing it (I workout 6 days a week to keep on top of my spinal issues), I'm just saying you cant change the shape of your bones once its this bad :) Spine.jpg

  4. Sorry to drag up the past, but I just came across some really old emails from 2010 from the beginning of my skydiving career when I paid Gary Lucas (his Sydney-based gear store was called Karnage Krew) $5,000 for a rig that I never received, which really slowed down my jumping for a while.

    I remember a few threads got started on here and it turns out a whole group of us got ripped off at the same time, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, and then he and his gear store disappeared off the face of the planet.

    Purely out of curiosity - did anybody ever run in to him again? Anybody get their money back? Or did his body turn up in a ditch in Mexico?

  5. Quote

    Quote

    That redbull drinking biker twat has done as much for several sports as Bill Cole or anyone has done for skydiving.



    Says the guy with the 80 jumps!

    I won't call him a twat, and I am sure Travis is a cool guy, but he is no Bill Cole nor does he measure up to any of the old timers that I have gotten to know in my short time in the sport.



    What does my jump numbers have to do with it? Im just saying, Travis (along with a handful of other noteables) literally revolutionized the sport of freestyle motocross the same way many names mentioned on this thread have revolutionized skydiving or BASE. I have to plead my ignorance with a lot of the names mentioned here, I got some homework to do, but to imply Travis' achievements in his field(s) dont mean as much to his sport as BC's do in his sport is just unfair.

  6. Quote

    Quote

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVvMGLJ0xww

    Bill Cole B|

    'Chuteless' on dizzdotcom



    Its a goodamned shame everytime I hear some new student/wuffo talk about watching a video of a guy skydiving without a rig to know they're not talking about this jump but about that redbull drinking biker twat.


    __________________________________________________
    That redbull drinking biker twat has done as much for several sports as Bill Cole or anyone has done for skydiving.

  7. I really am sorry to flog the dead horse some more. I thought I was over it but it still depresses me every time I think about how much more progressed I could be had my money not been stolen, or every time I fork out more cash to rent more student gear that doesn't fit me, or every week when the automatic payment is taken from my account to cover the loan I got to buy my first rig :(

    Anybody got any news/updates/results?

  8. I gotta say I agree with you Yoink.

    I would get no pleasure from seeing Gary in a hospital bed. I wouldn't even get pleasure from seeing him in a jail cell

    I just want to jump out of planes. It would be really cool to do that with my own gear, seeing as how I've paid for that privilege in full. It would also be cool to have $4000 to spend on nappies and baby clothes.

    Whatever Gary is doing, I don't imagine he's having too much fun with my $4k.

    I know there's people even worse off than me, and my heart goes out to them...

  10. I didn't make a single post in all the other 'Kkrew screwed me' threads because I guess I was still hoping that maybe, just maybe, if I kept my mouth shut Gary might just surprise me and a rig might just show up on my doorstep one day. Seeing as it's now been over 6 months, I think I can safely say I've been slightly let down :)
    What am I gunna achieve by whinging on here? Nothing really. Guess im just hoping for sympathy more than anything.

    Around Xmas time i finally became annoyed enough with renting student rigs, and I was starting to jump enough, to justify buying my own rig. I sure as hell couldnt afford it though. So I talked nicely to my bank, told them my hopes and dreams and organised a $4000 loan. Money in the bank, I just needed to find a rig. The money sat there for weeks while I hunted daily. Kate at SkydiveZone here in NZ was (and still is) AMAZING to deal with, but unfortunately she just didnt have anything to suit me. Summer jumping season was in full swing and i had a week booked off work specifically to jump so out of sheer desperation I started looking abroad. Enter Karnage Krew.

    Last year I had spent around $1000 with Gary getting helmet, goggles, alti, dytter etc etc and he was nothing short of brilliant to deal with. Discounted prices, quick replies, good delivery times, all round great service. So when Gary emailed me saying ' I have the perfect rig sitting right here in my office for you. Its worth way more than $4000 but if thats all you got I'll look after you and hook you up, just transfer me the money' I didnt hesitate at all. Money was in his bank the next day. 'Great' says Gary, 'You'll have the rig by the weekend.'

    The weekend comes. Nothing. The next week comes and goes. Nothing. A quick email to Gary 'Any idea how far away my rig is bro? I have a week off work next week to jump...' His reply: 'Sorry man I havent sent it yet, an even nicer rig is being sent back to me as we speak so I figured you wouldnt mind waiting a bit longer to get a newer rig'. Sounded good to me, what a nice guy. Waited a few more weeks (wasted my week off work). Another email to Gary: 'Come on dude its getting a bit silly, any update?'. His replies start taking longer and longer and the excuses get wilder and less believable. I wont clog up the forums with all his excuses but have email records of all of them for anyone interested. He even dragged a Nitro Circus crew member name into the excuses. I had a bit to do with Nitro Circus over here so asked the athlete, he had no idea what I was talking about but informed me he'd been ripped off by Gary recently also.

    Eventually his emails stop completely. He wont answer his cell phone. His shop phone stopped being answered by anyone. His facebook page disappears. His website goes offline. Threads start emerging on here about others in the same boat.

    In the mean time we get hit with the earthquake here in Christchurch. I lose my house, I lose my job, and I find out im about to become a dad (amazing news but bad timing!). I play the sympathy card with Gary. Nothing.

    Bottom line: I lose $4000, ill be paying the bank back for another year, I still have to rent crappy student gear and explain to my beautiful girlfriend and mother of my soon to be born son that I just gave a guy $4k with nothing to show for it.

    Im still jumping, Im still in love with Skydiving. Im just really, really bummed on it. Im just a dude who wants to jump out of planes, ya know, I didnt want the dramas.

    Anyways. Chute happens.

    Thanks for letting me get that off my chest B|

    Steve
    www.runfmx.co.nz

  11. Yea, 46 jumps...

    Long story short, every time I jumped I just did solos for waaaay too long. Couldnt afford coach jumps. Never even looked at my A licence card. Just jumped enough (barely) to stay current. Essentially wasnt learning anything each time I jumped. Real stupid way to go about it, but I recently gave myself an attitude adjustment.

    Anyways, a couple weeks ago decided it was time to sort my shit out. Hooked up with some extremely talented coaches and went from having nothing signed on my A card to having the whole thing ticked off in a few jumps. Honestly ive learned more in the past 2 weeks doing coach jumps than I did with the 20 solos before that, and now ive potentially found my first rig and taking the whole thing a lot more serious.

    Point is, dont be lazy like me. Getting your A is not hard, put the effort in at the start and begin your learning early. Not only will you be a safer skydiver, but it will stop people from laughing at you for taking as long as me to get your licence :$

  14. This was a weird situation, it was a clear blue day and there was literally just this one patch of cloud north of the dz in the oppostie direction from jump run. Being second group out, mixed with wind during ff, mixed with floating with the wind for a bit under the malfunctioned canopy just put me exactly in the middle of this cloud patch once reserve opened. I was out of the cloud within a few seconds - it was a 'patch' rather than a 'layer' - could have chosen my words better above :P

  15. Nice to get one out of the way fairly early on in the game.

    It was a coach jump just working on various freefall skills, fairly uneventful. After tracking I waved off and pulled at 4.5. Canopy snivelled for a good few seconds before violently snapping open with a harsh turn to the right, I was preparing myself to kick out of linetwists but then it stopped spinning and I realised I had a very messy lineover.

    Ive seen pictures and watched countless videos with lineovers but this just looked ugly, the whole left side was a tangled mess. I made the decision to not even waste time releasing toggles as I was still turning to the right .Checked alti, around 3300. Grabbed both handles, pulled right pulled left.

    Felt like forever until the reserve was above my head and when it did finally open i was in a thick layer of cloud and zero visibilty. Got on the rear risers before releasing toggles as I was afraid of a canopy collision in the clouds. Once free of the clouds I did my control checks. I floated for a while watching my canopy and freebag drift away in the wind to get an idea of where to find 'em - turns out everyone else in the air was doing the same thing. The reserve landing was uneventful, a nice stand up into wind landing with a bunch of people filming from the ground. I still had the cutaway pad in my hand but lost the reserve handle which im kinda annoyed at myself for.

    As Murphys Law would have it, the freebag landed in the thickest heaviest thorniest part of the surrounding forrest - couple hours searching and a lotta scratches later had the canopy and freebag in hand.

    And no, I hadnt packed it - another student had. The lineover was sitting in there waiting for someone.

    End result - The only thing I would change is I would have tried releasing toggles and pumping a couple of times - but it was just so messy I decided to go straight to emergency procedures. Im really happy with the way everything else turned out. Im safe, canopy and freebag found, had one handle in hand, happy.

  16. Please take that question the right way

    Obviously while you are skydiving you have to take it seriously.

    What I mean is, are you the type of jumper whos life revolves around skydiving? Everything you do and everything you say is to achieve the ultimate goal of getting to the dz and jumping this weekend.

    Or are you more of a 'When I can afford it I love nothing more than jumping but I have a family and a career and some things are just more important than my skydiving hobby' kinda person?

  17. Definitely feel for you!

    Firstly I would say its pretty important to be straight up honest with your doc or physio about what your doing, if you dont trust your doc enough to be honest with him/her then get a new doctor.

    I'm a lot younger than you (as in half your age) but a previous sporting past combined with a bit of bad luck has left me with arthritic pains I shouldnt have to worry about for 50 years:

    Snapped right ankle, snapped left tibia, snapped tibia again, ACL reconstruction in left knee, chronic tendonosis and torn patella tendon in right knee, broken rib, broken rib, broken rib, snapped collarbone, snapped collarbone again, cracked shoulder blade, x2 compressed vertebrae in neck, dislocated left wrist once and right wrist twice, a cyst has developed in my right wrist joint, 3 severe concussions and on top of all that I have a spinal disease that places huge load on my lumbar spine and is untreatable.

    All of this equals huge amounts of pain on a daily basis. But i actually find the worst pain is simply from lugging the rig around on my back. Joints all ache after a day of walking let alone skydiving, kickboxing, gymnastics, hiking etc.

    I guess what Im saying is you gotta know the juice is worth the squeeze. Provided your not causing any further damage by doing what ever, then you just have to decide if the pain at the end of the day is worth the life changing experiences your getting yourself into each weekend.

    Sorry i know im not much help. Stretch, exercise, yoga, diet, pills, big chutes, it will all help.

    Enjoy it now coz you cant when your in a retirement home...

    :)

  19. I started riding bikes when I was 4 and was a paid professional Freestyle Motocross rider (was an extreme biker guy) for 6 years. Rode with the Crusty Demons, broke 10 bones, backflipped, sponsored, the whole deal.

    When I started AFF I had no idea whether or not any of that was going to help me in skydiving or not. My instructors made no such assumption either.

    After (only) 36 jumps I'd have to say the tens of thousands of FMX jumps over the years really played no part in helping me become a skydiver. Except maybe how to keep a little bit level headed in high pressure situations, but even then a streamer over your head at 2000ft is a little different to under roatating a backflip on a 75ft jump.

    They are 2 very different sports, with similar consequences, that require 2 very different methods of training. If your good at soccer are you automatically good at rugby?

    Even if Stan was one of my FMX buddies and I knew how good he was on 2 wheels, I still wouldnt jump out of a plane with him...

  20. Dude its taken me a year to get 34 jumps :$

    It took my instructor 18 months to get his first 12 jumps, he is now nearing his 11,000th jump.

    Learning to skydive is not only a time consuming process but also really farkin expensive, no one expects you to drop everything and finish your AFF this weekend. Take your time, soak it up, hang out at the DZ even when you cant jump and smile, breathe, relax.

  21. Yeah man I chose not to think about the politics of it all as it all sounded pretty messy and I just wanted to jump out of a plane. I did level 1-3 in Methven then started talking to the crew at Abel Tasman and they invited me up for a few jumps. Did level 4-6 there. Came back to Methven, did the remainder of AFF and consoles. Ive since been back to Abel Tasman once for a mini boogie where i got a few more jumps in.

    Edited to add: Splitting wasnt a problem as long as my log book was up to date and signed.

    But sounds like you may want to look closer at the politics of it all if your planning on jumping back overseas.

    Either way - hope to run into you at some point:)

  22. I split my AFF course between Methven and Abel Tasman. Honestly, I cant say a bad word about either place. Abel Tasman host the famous Good Vibes boogie every year which is sick, and tend to have better luck with weather compared to Methven. Both teams are amazing people and both will get you through AFF efficiently and safely. Saying that, Ive never travelled to the other dropzones.

    If you end up at Methven, I'll see you there :)

  23. **'Anyway, Karnage Krew is back on track, we have Scott Palmer as a sponsored jumper and looks like we have a few more of the Nitro Circus coming into the sport with KKrew rigs. Keep an Eye out for Chad Kagey to enter the sport after we just sorted him out AFF.'**

    I think this is the single coolest thing about KKrew. Being proactive and bringing legendary athletes / personalities from other sports into the world of skydiving. Cant wait to see what sorta shit Kagy gets up to. Yeah Plamer!