Possum

Not sure who told her she did everything right, but it was certainly no one from our crew.

Ray, you're point, summarizing between you're two posts, seems to be as follows: That the Perrine is the easiest jump ever, and people are getting hurt because we are putting sub-standard jump students off of it. While I agree wholeheartedly with the first assertion (yep, Twin is as easy as it gets), and suspect that you may be right about the quality of some of the folks making their first jump there (particularly if they're paying 100$ for their first parachute experience ever), I don't think you've gotten to the heart of the matter. In fact, I think commentary like your first post is part of the problem, accurate as it may be. I think I had the dubious honor of being the first hospital injury of the weekend- although, thanks to some timely Demerol, I actually got there after the broken-pelvis dude, who hammered in 30 or so minutes after me. In short, I made a slider up flat-n-stable (of the previous millennium), took a 3+ delay, did not have time to turn in, and pounded in cross/down wind and sprained an ankle that had been previously injured on multiple occasions. I would like to take this opportunity to thank gweeks for half piggybacking me to the boat ramp, as the boat itself was not running on Thursday. Anyway- what pisses me off the most about that jump was this- Due to an injury in October, I had made exactly 2 jumps in the last six months, the last one at least a month and a half ago. I was certainly in your category of experienced jumps in need of a quick Twin-style reccurrency. And I could have had it, had I had the goddamn good sense to take a few slider down, 1 second jumps, landed on the football field and re attuned my LSJTMMGMSA. This sort of reasonable thinking, I'm afraid, never actually came into play. My only thought was to whether I should do a flip or not. In fact, all I really thought about was how easy the Perrine was, and what sort of new stuff I would try. I had after all, taken 5 sec. canopy rides there before with no problem. So rather than get recurrent and then have a blast all weekend, I spent most of the rest of the time(I did hobble out and make a water jump the next day) sitting in a hotel room, disgusted with myself for what was, in hindsight, clearly a silly-ass combination of dumb and arrogant. As the weekend went on and the injuries mounted, one of which was the comp. fracture to a new (and very heads up, despite a shitty chain events she set off with what was almost certainly a packing error) girl who was with our crew, my disgust combined with a sort of mind-numbing sadness, which culminated with Monday morning's trifecta of shit. Or maybe that was from 5 days of Vicodin and beer. In any event, what I am getting at is this: I think that because the Perrine is so easy, because it is such a comparative "cake walk," many of us have had a fairly skewed perception of risk when we are there. Or at least I am completely certain that I did, and several other experienced jumpers I talked to expressed the same sentiment. I would assert that this sense of the Perrine as a cakewalk might manifest itself in; the nature of the jumps we choose to take ourselves; the type of folks we choose to put off; and how we act around the fledgling jumpers we make there.

I don't think this thread mentioned "smart" or "safe" up until this point- ergo, no need for smug commentary.

Roughly 2 inches.

hmmmm......where might one purchase these "opposing thumbs" of which you speak? BR? Vertigo? Thanks in advance, Mitch

The biggest problem with H20 towers seems to be getting past the ladder guards on the botton 20-30 feet. I think most city planners are more paranoid about their water supply than tower manufacturers are about antenna access.

Thanks to Tim (who also chatted with me about the boots over Mem day) and the other Hanwag devotees on this forum. Also thanks to Johnny U for letting me try his on in Moscow, and to Marta for selling them to me. Just got 'em a week and a half ago, and this morning they absolutely saved my right ankle. Cheers fellas, Mitch

Hey folks, bummer news here- my team, Cross Keys O2 Project, lost our inside center to what amounts to a season ending injury this past Saturday. We turned a 12.5 average with the full dive pool at our last meet a month ago. We are looking for anyone who has flown at or around this level that might be interested in doing some training camps in New Jersey in preparation for US Nats in Oct. Of course IC experience would be a big plus. We basically jump Majik's continuity plan, with our slot switch memory in the front piece. If anyone is interested, please drop me a line. Mitch

Hey, anyone have the ssl meet scores? They're not up on the NSL page yet. Thanks, Mitch

"I think the easiest, most consistent exit is a star, three out, one in: the inside (IC) gives the count, holds chest straps of middle (OC) and rear (T). Front (P) holds on to aircraft with right arm, already presented, OC grips P arm, T grips OC arm. On exit, P and T get IC grips, and IC releases chest straps. " I like close to the same setup, but as a Stardian, instead of a star. Its easier for the point to get his/her hips into the rel wind. IC takes rear chest strap and point's right arm gripper, and OC takes point's leg, rather than his arm. Other than that, the grips and positions are the same as Dave's Star. I think one of the strengths of both the Star launch, and to a slightly lesser extent, the Stardian launch, is its simplicity of grip taking, which helps newer jumpers relax in the door a bit better, as they are not as confused about which grips to take. I've used the Stardian while coaching several scrambles teams, and it has worked every time. Mitch

The heck with you guys. My team got rained out this past weekend. The only breakthrough I made was when I finally finished folding a month or so of laundry. Which sucked. But I'm not jealous. Now all my socks have a home. Yay. Mitch

Also, if you ever plan on doing 4 way in the tunnel, you basically have to know the letters and some of the numbers, as that is the best, bordering on only, way to write your dives out on the white boards.

Dude, I hate to break this to you, but the unbridled use of letters and numbers (which can be quite useful if you're on a serious team trying to turn points) just makes you look like a 4way dork to the rest of the skydiving population.

The only thing I have to add is consider the weight distribution on your feet. I think there is a tendency to weight the foot (usually your left) that is next to the door. This is intuitive, but also detrimental to exiting with your hips first. If you balance more of your weight on your far leg (usually the right) you will have allot more power available for blasting your hips out. At least thats the advice my IC gives me on those exceedingly rare situations where I exit from inside the aircraft.

I think the replies to this post got significantly weaker following its forum shift. Booo! Mitch

Not sure, but I have have had a similar sounding block described to me. It was called a "Venezuelan Connection."

How does multi support the tail pocket? I had heard of strip prevention and and heading, but not that. Mitch P.S. The container works great, thanks again dude.

I have the DVD, and it is most emphatically worth the money, if 4way is your thing.

I'm not obsessive about 4way. However, my boss is obsessive about our job, to point where he expects something he calls "working" to sometimes take precedence over my team. I suspect he is in cahoots with my landlord, who thinks I should "pay rent" with money that could be going to training jumps. Come to think of it, my parents and sister are a bit obsessive as well, wanting to "spend time together" on perfectly good training weekends. Thank God my SO doesn't cotton to any of that nonsense. Mitch

Looks like Omniskore has the results up anyway, which is good, since the Mondial website seems pretty hard to navigate. Just click the usual buttons.

My team, Cross Keys O2 Project, has made about 100 dives so far this season, and plans to make about another hundred. You probably won't get allot of folks telling you what kind of a deal they have with their DZ, since that sort of thing is usually confidential. Mitch Tibbals

Tough talk for an anonymous post. While there have been plenty of player coach teams, which have met with varying degrees of success, this is probably the first time anyone has actually gone out and publicly talked a bunch of trash about how well their pc team was going to do at Nats. That, I think, is what all the fuss is about.

With the exception of blocks 20 and 13 (and the 3 way pieces of 2 and 4), you and the IC won't be turning many pieces together- your piece partner will most likley be the point, and his will be the Tail. Good luck and have fun!

If I understand your question correctly, the answer is yes- everyone tries to get to their position by the shortest possible route. There is no set inter from B to 1, from 1 to C ect. You could go head down to get there, if you really wanted to.

I second the Snowshoe idea- probably the best skiing within a reasonable driving distance for you. In fact I'm leaving for Snowshoe at noon today- we have a slopeside condo through Sunday.