divertech

Fact is most of these animals (that gets bitched about) gets killed on game FARMS not reserves, big difference. If it wasn't for hunters spending thousands of $'s to hunt these animals it simply wouldn't be profitable to run these game farms thus no game on the farm anymore (see how this benefits the heard?). Hunters pay huge sums of money to hunt the trophy/old animals thus making it possible to run the game farm and it keeps it open for the photo tourist. Please just bring your own prostitutes this is Africa AIDS is a problem

You are right of course, giraffe aren't all that difficult to shoot as your extensive experience in this regard must proof. Sure tourist with cameras "can" provide more income but they don't. Sure the locals can kill the nuisance animal, how are we making money by doing that? Sure the African savannah can balance it self, all we need to do is get rid of all the humans and fences, seems like a workable solution. No money is not the solution to everything but it bloody well helps doesn't it? Look I understand some people don't like or understand trophy hunting but it is the only way to keep wild life going on a sustainable manner. If there is no monetary value to animals people would use the land for other purposes to make a living. Well done on "travelling extensively through South Africa, Botswana and Namibia" I have lived here all my live and I am involved with nature conservation and yes I am a "biltong" hunter. PS You do realize that culling (look now it isn't hunting) happens in all parks in Africa?

Guys fact is that some animals needs to be hunted to "make space" for the new generation, unfortunately Americans (Canadians, Germans, Britts, Indians etc) cant stay and consume what they shoot so the meat generally goes to the local community giving rise to trophy hunting. African wild life conservation depends on these hunters, if the animals had no financial value they will simply disappear making space for cattle with financial viability. The photo trophy bunch don't spend nearly as much as you might imagine and what do we do with all the excess animals? In a perfect eco system the animals will sort things out among them self's but we are a couple of century's removed from a perfect eco system thus necessitating culling of animals, now we prefer it to be the oldest animals (trophy animals). By the way it seems like you all think it is easy hunting these animals in a reserve the size she did it in, trust me it's not as easy as you would like to pretend PS. The Dentist shooting the lion thing was grossly over played by the media without any facts lions are not on any endangered list (thanks hunters) Zebras and giraffe are common animals on game farms in Southern Africa and numbers needs to be kept in check.

That 12 year old just payed a couple of salary's over here in Africa, what have you done for conservation? Don't get upset over something you don't understand (I would try and explain it to you but I get the feeling you don't want to understand).

source? They get far more revenue in Africa from tourists who shoot pictures of the animals than they do from the few rich men shooting the animals with weapons. On a per person basis I am sure the Hunter pays more. But there are far more people today that want to go on a photograph safari. And pay good money for it. The number of legal hunts are low. Not low enough in my views. The photo safaris are growing. I can understand the trophy hunters that pay massive amounts to shoot a animal that is past it's breeding stage and is not contributing to the health of the group. Those are normally controlled by the government or it agencies. In this case though I would like to host the shooter in my garage for a couple of weeks. I have a few straight edge razors that need exorciseing. Plus my dog needs someone to piss on. Great, how much money have you and your dog spend on wildlife in Africa?

In my humble opinion Zimbabwe needs the $44k more than they need a Lion.

Boers are a mixed breed German, Dutch, French and yes Britts.

A basic safety course is what I had in mind (not the 30min camera briefing that is the standard now), I also like the idea of a progression plan if this is possible/feasible. It would be interesting to hear from experienced guys how they would do it and what they would have benefited from had such a structure existed when they were in-experienced. And yes a couple of free jumps with tandems wouldn't hurt in the future.

In hindsight I should have posted it in the camera section, I'm just curious to see what people think would be the best way to progress with camera and not have useless video's. Maybe a program of about a 100 jumps where your progression is monitored and improvements made while you focus on different skills or something similar to AFF where an instructor jumps with you on tasks. On almost all other skydiving disciplines there is a set course you have to complete to prove your skills before receiving a license, would something like that not work for video's?

Hi just curious as to how the more experienced guys will run a camera course for people that want to start wearing there Go -pro's, something similar to a canopy controlle course. There has been a lot said about the 200 jump mark as a starting point so lets say you can only go on this course after 200 jumps. We will obviously need to start on ground school and then have a structured approach from there on. How do you guys see this happening?

That was brilliant, excellent creativity.

Was lucky both times, all my stuff made it back to the hanger before me thanks to DZ friends. Only lost the cut away handel on the first one, hang on to them the second time round. My canopy is multi coloured so easy to spot.

We forwarded a mail "from" the CEO that all employees needed to work on Saturdays without additional remuniration, did not go down well until we mentioned the date. Bought pizza to make up for the stress. Was funny as hell.

Where do you think aluminum comes from and how do you suppose those of us in Africa can reply to your dumb posts?