Rugby82

Try www.lookma.de. I think you won't find a cheap RDS anywhere.

Try contacting Frank van Gelder from LookMa (www.lookma.de). He makes a new type of lead vest which is much more comfortable than most current belts and vests (and with a cutaway). When you wear one it doesn't feel like a belt with the same amount of lead, it's much more comfortable. He also takes in account your height and weight to place the lead in the position that will help you the most for controlling you fallrate.

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The UK jump scene is run by a bunch of dinosaurs like no other to be found on this planet. Anyone who jumps there for fun is pushing shit uphill.

BPA and the politics that go with it make it the worst place in the world to skydive.

Save your money and zoom across to Spain or Holland.

A lot of people tell me that, Sarah a kiwi who sold me her AAD, told me jumping in the UK killed her love of skydiving.

Jo a Elisnore regular from 00-05 said pretty much the same things.

Funny enough an ex BPA council member (the VP) no longer jumps in the UK and jumps in Spain instead.

I hadn't considered Holland tbh... where would you recommend? As I was going to ride out to Spain in 2012 but Holland is of course much closer.

Only DZ in Holland I've visited is Texel, I was impressed. They have a good attitude to jumping, and welcome everyone. I know a few Dutch jumpers, they're all pretty good guys...I've heard that the other DZ's are OK as well.

Conversely, the 5 or 6 DZ's I visited in GB sucked, without exception. Very poor attitude and vibe during jumping, and it comes from the top down. Show up at the DZ as a stranger, and you WILL be ignored....

The less experienced know nothing else so can't really be blamed, they reflect the example set. Most British jumpers I've met can't believe how much fun skydiving can be, till they jump in another country.

As you can gather, I have not, and never had, much time for anything influenced by the BPA.

i vouch for texel as well, i was there three weeks ago, really nice facilities, cool instructors that didnt hassle me too much with papers (just the usual, insurance, license, logbook, didnt even look at the rig), welcoming jumpers, even tough i wanted to make a solo because there were mostly bellyfliers around, i still got pulled to do another WS-jump..

i'll go to texel again! oh, and relatively cheap too at 25 euros a pop.

oh, and the scenery, being an island n'all.. really cool place!

You could also have a look at Teuge (http://www.paracentrumteuge.nl/). You can make a lot of jumps there and a really good DZ too. Or if you wanna jump from an International Airport you can try Rotterdam (www.skydiverotterdam.com), the only problem there is you can only make 4 jumps a day because the DZ is an half hour drive from the airport.

I don't have one but a lot of people around me use them all the time. They seem to do a good job as an alti. The only problem is that the batteries aren't lasting for that long (say about 10 hours). Here they are also used a lot by tandemmasters when jumping with heavy clouds.

You should try the LookMa gloves (www.lookma.de). There the best gloves I've seen for skydiving and the only ones I've tested that will last for a very long time!

I tried the Neumann, Akando, baseball gloves etc but these are far better.

Not every goggle/sunglasses fits all heads, especially for skydiving. I, for example, tried about 70 different goggles and sunglasses and none of them fit my head. It took me 3 years to find some sunglasses I could use for skydiving. My eyes are pretty deep and the room between my forehead and cheek is pretty big. This makes it near impossible to find glasses that I can use for skydiving. The problem with goggles is that they distort the view.

I also like the concept of changing lenses for different types of jumps. The Gatorz Converter has this option but the glasses seem to pop out while skydiving (I have a pair and glued them). This is why the Oakley could be very suitable for skydiving.

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There are a HUGE number of goggles available for skydiving, all of which are nowhere near that amount.

What do you hate about goggles, and have you checked your local gear store for other options?

I have a pair of flex fits i bought for $15 7 years ago, and although a little bent, still get jumped.

I really love Oakley too and am also wondering if these can be used for skydiving. I own 7 pairs currently (ranging from a whisker to a juliet fire polarized) and love 'em all. None of the Oakleys I have work well for freefall so I use Gatorz for skydiving.

Maybe I'll just test a wind jacket. Really like the Oakley glasses although I have nothing bad to say about the Gatorz.

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On a non skydiving level, I'm an Oakley snob, having 3 pairs currently, with 2 extra lens kits for my M frame (yeah, I'm old school ), and having had 2 more pairs before.

Totally agree with dragon2. Get a reserve that is similar or even bigger than your main. There's enough stress involved after a cutaway and you don't want even more stress hanging under your reserve.

Even with the PD Slinks it was pretty hard to get them through both the top of the riser and the Louie Loop.

Made my fist jump with the risers yesterday and oh boy they are looooong. Even with my 6'7" and long arms I had to reach to remove my slider. The Louie Loops are really nice and work perfect. Really lovin it.

Rigger is on holiday. There are lot of riggers here so I thought I could ask here just to make sure.

Just received my new UPT 25" risers with Louie Loops and a new set of Slinks. I have switched canopies a couple of times for myself and others with slinks which was pretty simple with used risers.

The problem with brand new risers is that the top of the risers where you put the slinks through are still straight and not set like a ^ (see picture) with used risers. Because of this it was pretty hard to get the Slinks through which eventually worked out but I had to flex and fold the top of the risers. Is there a standard way, like folding the sides under, to set the top of the risers properly to give them a nice ^ shape or does this happen naturally?

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Baseball gloves are really nice too for skydiving.

I realize of course, you meant batting gloves (I have a couple pair that I love for jumping) but for a split second I had an image in my head of a fielding glove. Might make it a little tougher to get to your handles.

Baseball gloves are really nice too for skydiving.

Gotta love the American sue culture . In Europe you can do a tandem when you fit the harness and do AFF when you're 16 or younger.

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This isn't a benefit of low wingloading, it's pure luck. People have died doing this even with low wingloading.

I think you missed his point. Pretty sure the OP was saying that for any given mistake, a lower wing loading typically results in less severe consequences.

See post #15 for more clarification.

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I'm looking at getting one but for increased visibility. I don't think I'll ever need to worry about drag enough to need a removable slider...

For increased visibility a removable slider is perfect. I bought mine for this reason and also because I sometimes got stuck with my sidemount in the stock slider. It's the best thing I bought in years. Stowing it takes less time then collapsing it and trying to get it under the skytie. When you're used to it it only takes about 1 to 1,5 min to put it back on.

Simply a brilliant reply Dave. Thanks for that. Couldn't have said it better. I totally agree with this one!

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This isn't a benefit of low wingloading, it's pure luck. People have died doing this even with low wingloading.

Luck had nothing to do with it. It was simple physics. The jumper hit the ground at a survivable speed because of the large canopy over his head. Had he been on a Crossfire 2 loaded at 1.8 he would have been seriously injured of maybe dead. See the difference.

Sparky

You will never hear me say that low windloading isn't safer than high wingloading and I will never argue with anyone about it because it's a fact that high wingloading kills easier. Surely, in this case, with high wingloading it probably would have been worse, although I've seen people walk away from big crashes under highly loaded canopies without a scratch (but that's really pure luck).

In the case of dropping a toggle at the last moment, as stated here, both high- and low winloading can have devastating effects. I've seen this happen to both students and highly loaded canopies and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Would he have done it maybe 20-30 ft higher the outcome could have been much worse. That's why I called it pure luck.

This isn't a benefit of low wingloading, it's pure luck. People have died doing this even with low wingloading.

Like many have already said here, sell the canopy. Modifying the slider and putting new lines on it will cost you the same as selling the Sabre and using that money to buy another canopy.

With the Sabre you will get hard openings even if you do the modifications, probably not every jump. You can wait for that to happen and then save the money of 6 or more months being not able to jump because you fucked up your back and buy another canopy of the money you saved while sitting at home. I just wouldn't recommend this option because skydiving is just too much fun to do!

To back this up. A good friend of mine has problems with his back and he had a couple of hard openings and wasn't able to work or skydive for 4-12 months every time this happened. Please don't look for excuses to keep the Sabre because it's in great shape.

Thanks for the advice but I'm not looking for a real RW-suit. I'm looking for a FF-suit with which I can do all the other disciplines. This suit probably wouldn't be suited for FF and I don't like booties.

My current and first FF-jumpsuit is worn and I'm looking to buy a new suit which I would want to use for Tandemvideo, FF, some RW-video (also have a suit with wings) and funjumps.

I'm 6"8' (198 cm) and weigh about 225 Lbs (102 KG) without my gear. I fall fast on my belly but have a average speed for FF (Head-up).

I want a suit that gives me the range to keep up with the slower-falling RW-people and tandems and also be able to keep up while doing FF-jumps and fastfalling tandems. I also want grips on the suit for RW-jumps.

I already did some searching and found a couple of suits that could be the right one for the job.

- Tonfly Uno.620
- Sonic Aerial
- Rainbow Designs Dragster

I would appreciate some good advice because these jumpsuits aren't cheap and I really wanna make the right choice.

My first advice would be to sell the Sabre 1, you clearly bought a canopy you don't want. There are a lot of canopies that have slow and comfortable openings. Some examples are a Icarus Safire2, PD Spectre and PdF Electra.

A back brace will interfere with your freefall abilities because you can't utilize the full flexibility of your back.

I also have a LookMa removable slider and really love it. Currently using it on a XFire2 - 139 and the openings are even better than with the stock slider. I've also seen other designs (like UPT) and they all seem to work well. The customer service of LookMa is also great.

This is some footage I shot a couple if weeks ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVe1ia-zfgo). You can have a look at around 3:45 to see how the LookMa system works.

Just one more thing. Start real slow for the first 2 months. Do a lot of reps (3 * 15-20) per exercise.

After about 2 months you can add more weights although it might seem that you can do this earlier. Starting to do this earlier will probably lead to injuries.