BeauRiebe

Thanks for the excellent article. You made lots of great points, and I just want to also add that the animal agriculture industry is hugely detrimental to environmental sustainability. It's been estimated that 33% of the global warming effect can be attributed to animal agriculture. One pound of beef requires over 1,800 gallons of water to produce! Like Bryan says, be conscious of what you're doing. How can you offset your love of jumping? I'm not saying don't ever eat meat - just perhaps eat less of it?

*insert your mom joke here* Thanks for the info everyone. I appreciate it

Hey all, With the recent advances in GoPro video quality, I'm curious if you think they have a place in professional tandem videography yet. I do not have a lot of in-depth camera knowledge, but from asking around people have told me that a Hero4 Silver, shooting 1080p/60fps on medium view will work great for shooting tandems, especially with the addition of a ringsight. I know that in the past, GoPro's have not been up to par with other camcorders and thus looked down on for shooting professional video, but what about with the updates in the newer models? While it seems that audio recording remains the largest drawback of the Hero4, can a camera-flyer using a Hero4 for video delivery as high quality of a product as someone using, say, a Sony CX? I've searched through these forums and couldn't find anything directly related to what I'm asking. If there is, I apologize for wasting your time. Thanks, have a good day! :D

24 now, started tandems when I was 23. I have another friend my age doing tandems too. There's a handful of us younger kids, just doing what we can do to stay up in the sky

Just came here to say that this thread is awesome. It's great to see a swooping thread with legitimate questions, helpful information, and an understanding that they still need proper coaching and training, rather than the almost stereotypical downsizing-swoooping-iwannagofast-femur comments. Good luck dude!

That's because you're doing it wrong. You don't want to "squeeze" the air out with the funk. It is designed so you more "wrap" your hand and forearm around the back of the suit and to your BOC. It is much much easier than trying to force the wing closed.

That's a messed up philosophy and anyone who does this likely doesn't have many real friends. Be friendly to anyone, 0 jumps or 10000 jumps. No reason anyone is better or worse than anyone else. We're all just there to smile and have fun, right? It's sad to know that this stereotype exists

I indeed have no problem getting my thumbs out of the thumb loops after deploying. I keep them lose and a quick easy "shake" frees my thumbs and I can easily reach my risers at that point.

Did I read that right- 30000 euros like $40000? That's like, more money than I have ever had. Good luck, wish I could join you, but holy smokes that's not cheap. I didn't know skydivers had that much money!

Just got my Funk yesterday, fortunately our smalltime Iowa dz decided to open for the afternoon! I got 2 jumps on it and WOW. I had been jumping a Havoc for a couple months before hand, and the difference is immense. In just 2 jumps, the biggest thing I noticed was the difference in pressurization. Exiting the caravan, I would drop away instantly on my havoc while the wings pressurized. Same exit on the Funk and I was a bit worried I almost hit the tail horizontal stabilizer, it had that much power immediately. Incredibly different than how my Havoc felt. Transitioning from front to back and back to front definitely took more of an input than in a Havoc because of the stiff wing pressurization. Don't need to say it, but yes it rocks on its back. Deployment is easy, but I noticed it's more difficult than a Havoc. By more difficult- I just mean it takes more focus/strength to collapse the arm wings and get to your hackey. After a couple practice pulls, getting used to the movement, it came easy and the design makes it simple to find my BOC. Flying it is easy, but I can tell this suit has a ton of range that I certainly haven't explored in my 2 jumps. I'm also excited to experiment with the arm and leg wing zips to play with how the pressurization changes. Definitely loving the suit, I couldn't stop smiling in freefall. Can't wait to really explore the depths of the suits performance! Cheers!

yea, why get the original when you can buy the copy - plus, you get to support the vietnamese people, namely the 10 to 12yrs old childworkers the company employs.. boom shots fired

that looks fun, what dz is that?

Don't get your hopes up to jump too often if this is a rigger slot. If you have ratings (TI, AFFI, Pro) and can prove yourself you may get to jump some or go on trips. Either way if you do get to jump, it's free! But you'll still have to deal with government/military politics and constant budget constraints.