noggydog

I think out of the three thousand tandems done at my home dz maybe 100 of them were poised exits. Most exits are flip or flips of some sort, and some other creative stuff. I haven't heard one side spin story or overly gnarly situation. But thats probably due to the instuctors being used to getting stable from all sorts of orientations. The thing with doing unstable exits and disorientating maneuvers is it prepares you for that wuffo that does "all the wrong things". I'm a relatively new tandem instructor, when I was going through my course I picked people that were going to give me a realistic, and some not so realistic situations to deal with on every jump. Also that would teach me what a tandem canopy can do, its not many a TI that can truelly trash there canopy, and since we learn to do it with our own we sure as better know what the canopy above your head can do when you have a person depending on you to get them to the ground safely. Fly your body and that canopy. There are alot of situations I think tandem masters don't think about. A friend of mine posed a great one to me this summer. What would you do if you had another flyer tangled in your drogue? What if your drogue entangled with another flyer you cut away and your main container locks? If your getting bored think of the most obscure thing that could happen and figure your way out of it. Ever touched your hook knife in freefall or under canopy? I know this is a little off topic but it goes along with never going to terminal, you may never have to deal with the situation but its better to be prepared for the occasion than just wish it never happens. Oh and we do go through drogues quicker than the average DZ I think.

La la lala, I was the first to jump bskyz new camera, its way cool

Thanks everyone for the great advice, I want to do well at this so I'm trying to prepare myself with as much knowledge as I can. A couple of you said to show confidence, I hope with this tips that I will help students to be more relaxed and get the most out of the experienced I can. My first tandem was life changing, I hope to help others gain something from having a great experience. THANKS AGAIN!

I know this has been asked before but any advice or links to good threads on this subject would be greatly appreciated! I know all the manuals forward and back and on my training jumps I picked instructors that would constantly throw different senarios at me and help me learn as much as I could before I was allowed to take students. So I ask of all of you what advice you have for student interactions and other techniques you find to be very beneficial that you've learned through experience. And if you don't feel like typing again, point me too previous threads and I will be just as happy. Thank you very much!

hey hollywood, you know me I've been spending a gazillion dollars on coaching and stuff, something thats free that I do alot are head stands and visualisation. You can work on putting your legs and hips in neutral, forward and backward positions. With your legs in the x position while standing on your head when you put your legs back to initiate forward movement you at the same time rotate your hips forward to maintian balance. And the opposite when practicing backward motion. All this transfers into the air and is a good free way to start to build a little muscle memory and make your actual jumps more productive. Visualise practice jumps and imagine how you think the jump should feel. Many great athletes use this, just watch any awesome 4way or great FF routines, those of us who are learning may not be doing the crazy stuff they are but it helps in all the little things we need to get our bodys to do. I haven't put much time on my head at all, but hopefully will be working at it more soon. I know of two guys there that could help you out though. Good luck

I've had a bunch of in air coaching and a little over two hours in the tunnel, with Mike Swanson. Both were excellent but I really enjoyed the tunnel time. I feel I was able to be more relaxed and concentrate on precision flying much better, granted sitting was different in the tunnel but the combination of back, sit, and hd(only on the net) in that environment have given me a much better sensitivety to feeling the air. Pre and debrief were great, I ask alot of questions and am very critical of myself and he did a very good job addressing my concerns. Camera framing was good. Separation was fine. I will be getting lots of more coach time in the future, sky and tunnel. The only other People I've seen coaching are, Brian Germain, Dave Brown, and Sisco and they all had very positive coaching methods. I'm sure there are others such as yourself that are also very good. Hope this helps, this is just my experience, I also come from a heavily coached sports background and being very competitive have gotten alot of coaching in these other activities, and value any instruction I can get. My two cents in what works with my competitive personality is that I would rather get instruction from coaches that are into or have been heavily into competition due to that they probably have had to think more about their movements and positions in order to try and be on top of their game.

Thanks alot, yes it was my first time in the tunnel, still have a long way to go but its deffinately an invaluable tool. I have a little more time tonight, actually I think your going to be there. And working on getting some other coaching soon

Just got done 2 hours of freefly in the tunnel. My experience is super positive and I can't wait to get back in. Everyone progresses at their own rate, I saw some guys on their back for 5 minutes, some for considerabley more, they don't want you to move on to sitting before your ready. Backflying for me was alot of fun, its great to start to feel and learn to use the air on your back, and carving on your back is an introduction to HD carving. Mike Swanson was my coach, if you can work with him do it, excellent coach, and when your off the net and flying, you'll see how good a flyer. I can't say enough. You really gain an appreciation for all your body surfaces and how to feel and utilize them. Everyone on our group from 130 lbs to 220+ was able to fly off the net, some working harder than others, but hey we are all different

credit definately is bad in the wrong hands, I've been a sales man and have seen alot of the problems it can cause. I've got excellent self discipline, and great interest rates, and unfortunatley you can't get shool loans for skydiving... wow its like 75 degrees in FL right now, its supposed to get to 8 degrees here tonight.

Keep it up, its interesting reading your posts, I'm kinda at the same point you are in your HD progression, unfortuantley its been cold as hell here and no jumping as of late, but hey I'm moving to FL in a week, yaaaaaay, tunnell camp yaaaaay, new credit card to abuse yaaaaaaay

Me and my friends have been riding for about seventeen years and have been fortunate enough to have gotten alot of free stuff from alot of differant companys, so I've gotten access to a wide variety of gear. In my personal opinion as far as boots go you can't go wrong with either Burton or Salomon, reason being they've put tons of money into their R and D, I've found them both very comfortable and as supportive as I want, and customer service is very good. As far as models that all depends on what you want to do, if your more into freeriding you traditionally want a stiffer boot then if your a park rat. Bindings, Burton all the way, mission series or up is what I'd reccomend, again depends on what your doing. If your thinking step in their the way to go too, they have a new binding out that is pretty sweet from what I hear. In my opinion you can't go wrong with this stuff, check out their websites they're pretty helpful, if you have any more questions let me know.

45 minutes to the one that goes to 10, 3hours to get full altitude..... I think I'm moving 3 hours south next summer

Yeah yeah!! Any Pics? Keep it up!

too damn cold Maine

vibes vibes vibes vibes vibes vibes

57, damn thought I'd do better

You could have a spark misfiring problem, but it could also be as severe as a blown headgasket, wich if it gets worse would deffinately be a problem. Find another ride, hard one to easily diagnose. Does it sound like its missing when it loses its power, or does it stay smooth and just do nothing? When theres a will theres a way, get to the DZ.

whats it doing? Not idling" shaking rattling, loud?

I hear ya, I had three wisdom teeth rmoved on wendsday Yogurt for dinner

Very nice, that is pretty good

crossover thought from the snowboarding sponsorship world, I was fortunate enough to have some excellent sponsors for a number of years and got to see alot of people come and go. I found that guys that may not have neccesarily gotten much adveritsing publicity from their riding, but were just great people to be around and showed real enthusiasm for what they were doing, and an eagerness to help the sponsors in whatever small way they could tended to stick around. The ones that tended to try and build a relationship with the reps even if it was just offering to help out at a demo or give someone a place to crash, even just checking in once a month to let them know how their competions were going. The good sponsors also recognized their riders for what they brought to the local more personal everyday level of the sport. And the gimmy gimmies tended not to get product for more than a season or two. Theres alot of BS that happens two, but I figured I'd throw in .02$.

You can find it all over the place in northeast ski shops, if that helps at all.

End of september to early october, not exactly sure yet. Can't take another jumpless New England winter, and also very focused on being somewhere good to progress, near a tunnel. Sooo sebastian seems the place!

HI Hi, moving down there for the winter in a couple months, would love to have a new friend to jump with!

1:0:0 Rain rain rain, clouds, Bad opening two weeks ago has got my back still all Jacked anyway. Hopefully in another week I can jump without reinjuring it(didn't let it heal long enough the first time). Hope everyone else had a good weekend though!