gale

Yeah, I saw it ages before I ever went on a skydive, but I didn't like it even then. I'm not really into advertising where characters die...even animated ones. Seems really bleak. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Congratulations. It looks great. Nice peice of art. Did you design it yourself? Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

My modest goals are to 1) Get my A before the nationals (it takes a little more in Canada then it does in the States) 2) Go to the nationals, try some new equiptment, jumps out of some new planes and just generally have fun at my "beer" boogie. That's it for this season, I don't have money for anything else! Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I just wanted to add that I just watch a 250+ jumper land downwind. He felt like an ass. It happens to everyone. Just try to learn from it, which you clearly are. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I just don't get it personally. I thought couples were supposed to have seperate lives, as well as together lives. I guess I could see myself spending a moderate amount of time at a dz so I could spend more time with someone else. But if you make skydiving a priority over EVERYTHING else then it's definately not going to work. There are some well balanced guys at my dz with wives and kids. True, they don't hang out as much as some of the other skydivers, but I would say they seem happeir overall. Balance. (maybe that's not a word that skydivers use ) Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Nope. When I did my first jump I was of the opinion that tandems are for wussies. I didn't want my life to be in some guys hands. I have since reconsidered this view, however and now think that if you're only ever going to do one skydive in life (crazy people) it should be a tandem, the experience is just more whole. (Plus you get a video!) Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I did my first on Sep. 22 2001, in Brentwood BC. I was really sick when I did it and really had no business choosing that day to try something so scary and drastic. We had done the ground schooling ahead of time and had the jump scheduled for the weekend. I was worried that if I didn't show up then, I would never do it! I actually had to take kleenex in the plane with me I was so sick. But it doesn't matter because all that adrenaline took over and I did it. By that night I was even sicker, probably from exerting myself. It still sticks out as the most scary/amazing/frightening and all round best thing I've ever done. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Well, the fever broke last night. So now I'm feeling a little better. I just have headaches, pain, and a nasty cough (probably from being so run down due to the infection). Hopefully this means I'm on the mend big time. It would be nice if I could sleep without being woken up by hacking up a lung though. Hopefully jumping on the wekend! Oh, and I got my first peice of skydiver mail - my membership to the CSPA! $80 a year for a little peice of paper, ah, it's great to be a skydiver! Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Well, being a newbie and hyper-concerned about altitude awareness, so I tend to check after one or two maneuvers. I jump from 10000 and pull at 3500 so that's about 3-4 times depending on if I flail alot and end up on my back or something. Then I check fairly regularly under canopy until I set up for final. I've been told by my coach that I'm doing well in that area (!) Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Oh, you have to take antibiotics to get rid of the infection. And then on top of that I've been getting a pretty high fever so I've been perscribed TONS of ibuprofen which also helps with all the pain. Apparently I was delerious and halucinating last night. All I can say is I don't know if I've ever been this sick before. Felt like I was going to die this morning. If things don't improve by tomorrow I guess I'm going to have to go to the doctor again. Sucks to be me. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

OK. My new jumpsuit. It's an RW suit with all the trimmings. It's from Tads, in Australia. It's purple, and black in an asymetrical pattern, one of the other jumpers says it looks like a FF suit. And there are blue grips. It fits really well and I love it. I've been wearing it around the house, just to say I've worn it. Thanks for the vibes everyone. Looks like no jumping for me well into next week, maybe not until next weekend. I can't sleep, can't eat, and can't really move, yup, it sucks to be me. All the while looking out the window at the perfect weather. Well, I'll post pictures of the beautiful new suit as soon as I have them. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

So my beautiful, new, pre-second jumpsuit got here this week and I can't jump becuase I have a #@!! kidney infection. I woke up this morning and couldn't walk without quite a lot of pain. So now I'm taking heavy doses of antibiotics and huge amounts of ibuprofen just to not be in agony. Oh, and did I mention the weather's perfect. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Well, not to rub salt in the wounds or anything but... I just got my RW suit from Tads and it only took a little over two weeks, and that's without rush service! And that's coming from Australia!!! Nope, I don't work for them or anything, I just thought I'd give a good gear manufacturer a plug.

I must admit, I've done the same thing now that my "pre-second" jumpsuit just arrived. It's beautiful, and yes there will be pictures soon I'm trying to decide what I should wear under it for its innagural jump. Nothing? Something? I'm thinking purple bustier and matching undies. (My jumpsuit's purple and black) But maybe that's a little over the top. (By the way, the thought has occured to me that if I get injured and have to go to the ER with nothing on under my jumpsuit I might be a little embarassed. I know, that should be my biggest worry, right?) Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

OK, I have a computer science degree so I know a little about fail safe systems and I beleive it is the systems operator that is responsible for its safe operation. No system, hardware or software will ever be 100 per cent bug free so redundancies have to be put in by the user of the system. For example, you take three routers all processing information, then there's a polling box that polls all three and takes the two common outputs. This is just one simple example of how fault-tolerant systems are designed. There are similar processes for software as well. Of course, that assumes they get implemented in the first place I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I do sometimes say to the students: "You should be OK, we haven't lost a student in a week". Although they know I'm kidding. If I'm feeling mean though, I can tell them about falling off the plane, or first jump student injuries. But I don't do that. Honestly, I like first jump students and I like trying to calm them down. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Well, I was talking new. Plus you have to understand that the exchange rate we get isn't always quite that favourable and there are border duties and stuff. I bought 30 AMD worth of stuff from paragear and ended up paying about 65 CDN. Yup, it sucks. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

OH my god, I swear I was the worst person to be in the plane with for the first 15 jumps. I was soooo nervous. Like other people have said I swore on every jump that it would be the last one. I don't know when it really changed but I do know that at 27 jumps I do feel better now. I'm still really nervous, but I don't pace around the drop zone like before. I know that I CAN get out of the plane safely, I CAN be altitude aware, I CAN pull safely and on time, I CAN land without hurting myself (even if it's not pretty). Everything else is gravy. All I know is that you can get past it and I have to say that the people at my dz were supportive and yours probably will be too. Talk to them, use them as resources. Oh, and I found that having someone "tell me a story" it took my mind off of the jump while in the plane. (I heard about lots of cutaway stories that way, somehow that didn't make me nervous though) Good Luck. It just gets better. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

OK, I meant 10,000 CDN for a rig. And yes that's what they are new. Sometimes more. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Yes, I've read other threads that have said this. Honestly I'm not too worried about that with goggles. My contacts mever pop out as they fit me very well. Under goggles I really don't see why that would happen. That said, I understand it's a possibility. And yes, I'm assuming that you go into freefall for a while anyway, maybe not down to your normal pull altitude. (An instructor told me this was normal procedure.) I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Since there has been some discussion recently about emergency procedures in the plane recently, it got me thinking. I don't wear my goggles on the ride up to altitude. Yes, I'm one of the weenies that keeps their gloves/altimeter/helmet on the whole way but my goggles are just around my neck. So if I have to bail out, say at 7000', they won't be on. I wear contacts. How much of a problem is that? I remeber when I took the first jump course they wouldn't let us out of the plane even at 3000 feet without goggles on if we wore contacts. What are the chances that my contacts won't make it through the freefall? Obviously this would impact (pardon the pun) the landing. This could be avoided by just deploying immediately after exiting the plane but I was just wondering what the chances are of there being problems? Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I'm not a marketing exec. but just a thought: Isn't it possible that sales of things other then explicitly skydiving gear can go up through advertising at these events. Think clothes, drinks, cars, almost anything that wants to pull of that "bad boy, extreme" image. Now some of us might not want this but I would think there would be potential there nonetheless. Kids can't drive race cars either but people seem to pour a lot of advertising dollars into that sport. Just a thought. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I don't usually post two in a row (think post whore) but I was reading parts of this thread to a co-worker and when I read the one about buying new parachutes for each jump he said "so they're expensive" and I said "well yeah, at ten grand (CND) a pop you don't want one per jump" and he says: "it's only cloth and string man." Uh huh. But this "cloth and string" saves my life. (Clearly physics isn't his area.) Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I heard this one just this weekend. These guys had done cliff jumping and just wanted to do some skydiving so they "could get certified to BASE jump" because cliff diving doesn't get them high enough. Yeah, I wonder how many bones of theirs will be broken in the next year. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

The favourite one I can think of right now (and I've gotten it quite a few times) is: Q: So, are you going to do stunts in the movies? A: Yeah, because with 27 jumps I'm really their first choice. People think 27 is "so many jumps", it's tough for them to accept that lots of people have thousands. Oh, and people say: Q: "Isn't landing like jumping off a one/two (depends how dumb they are) story building" A: Yeah, I do that all the time. Then when I tell them I'm going to the nationals, they say Cool, what are you competing in? I usually say "sucking". Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind