Perhaps an interesting comparison...hmmm...

[drewboo 0]

I posted this morning o0n a thread called "have you ever pulled low". On my way to work i thought of this comparison. I started in the late sixties...it was a different sport than...round parachutes, belly mounts etc..etc.. ...everyone seemed to pull low once in awhile..people would do it for fun or for the thrill..perhaps every 40 or 50 jumps ya would smoke one down..to get a thrill....once was in a two way passing through 1100' knew it..wasn't worried...saw a friend do an intentional backloop below a grand once...this was with round parachutes which weren't as reliable as squares are today. On the post this morning people were writing..i paraphrase here.."Yeah once..i was stupid."
I did it a bunch..did i feel stupid? not at the time..a reality check says i was..but i didn't feel stupid at the time...it was what was. Ill still get out of a plane today at 1500 if they would let me...am i still stupid? perhaps.
The comparison i thought of is...perhaps fifteen or twenty years from now..there will be a post on here..
"DID YOU EVER HOOK TURN!" .... people may post YEAH..i did it once i was stupid.
Why do you do it..for the fun.im sure...for the thrill im sure...same reason i would pull low. I dont have anything against hook turns..have a blast! its what is.
But in thirty five years of jumping out of planes..i have heard of more people dying from hook turns in the last decade..than i have ever heard of from pulling low.
Just a comparison..i mean no insult or disrespect to anyone..keep on having fun.
!

never track faster than you can see

[tbrown 26]

No, you're absolutely right, a lot of people would pull low now & then for some adrenaline and they usually got away with it. A good friend of mine in San Diego used to routinely dump a raggedy 5 cell foil at 1500 ft and the guy never had a cutaway that I knew of. Eventually he married and adopted the woman's son, after that he pulled above 2 grand for them.

But the Reaper has a way of catching up with people who make a habit of it. One photographer in Florida back in the seventies stayed in freefall to film a cutaway after a 16 way. He pulled close to a grand, wrapped his pilot chute on his camera, wrapped his round reserve in the main and made a big stain on the runway. Another was a woman who always dumped 15'ish, until one day her pilot fell over on her back, then cleared her back, only to baglock. She cutaway and hit the ground at line stretch on her reserve, leaving a 12 year old son alone in the world.

Some of the younger generation should at least try pulling below 3 grand, just to see that it won't bite them, but below two grand you need to be fast on the draw - and prepared to accept some heavy consequences.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[bhammond 0]

I started in 91 and pulling low was what we did from time to time, usually on a sunset jump... but back then I was jumping a Falcon that needed only about 75ft to open, you knew within a fraction of a second that you had a good canopy... the high performance canopy's of today can take 1,000 feet to open on a good snivler... I think todays youngsters are applying what they perceive with todays opening's with what we did years ago,

[wmw999 2,584]

I really don't remember a whole lot of sucking it low on purpose. Note that a whole lot of people pulled between 2 and 2500, but that was normal then, and not low. There were the occasionals, but my memory (from about 8 years of pretty active jumping in the 70's & early 80's) was of probably less than 10 people deliberately pulling in the range of 1200'.

But hey -- that was mostly in Texas. Maybe we all are just safer here

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[drewboo 0]

Wendy..
ya remember ten people that would on occasion pull low
hell..in 1968 10 people at a dz was a boogie!! LOL
Thanks for ya post, Y'all

[SkydiverRick 0]

But hey -- that was mostly in Texas. Maybe we all are just safer here

Wendy W.

[AggieDave 6]

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I've seen 4 cypres' fire since I've moved to Texas

Funny, I've never seen a cypres catch on fire...that would definately suck...

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Zenister 0]

lol.. Ive seen two in WA and one in AZ..


where is 'six-seconds' anyway? havent seen him post in a while..

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[SkydiverRick 0]

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I've seen 4 cypres' fire since I've moved to Texas

Funny, I've never seen a cypres catch on fire...that would definately suck...

Stop, drop and pull

never pull low......unless you are

[freeflir29 0]

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I really don't remember a whole lot of sucking it low on purpose.

I remember my Dad telling me that he quit jumping in part because of "Low Pull" contests. His last jump was in 1965. As others have mentioned...."pulling low" is all relative to equipment. With rounds you didn't HAVE to cut away. Just pull one handle and that's all ya got. It either worked....or you reeled the reserve back in and tried to get it to open for the rest of your life.
Well...I was in Florida back in January. One of the instructors there has about 14,000 jumps. He was jumping a Sabre 2. Which we all know opens relatively fast. I asked him why he was flying that canopy. His response was "I'm an instructor and I do a lot of things
that cause me to suck it a bit lower than most people. I like the brisk openings. It's just a safer canopy for me." I just kind of said "Oh....makes sense to me." I walked away thinking......"Damn.....that's one smart dude." The other weekend I was wanting some ground rush. Tracked away from a 2 way, sat and waited, dumped about 2 grand. Popped a brake on my Stiletto. The left side of the canopy folded under during deployment. Thought I was gonna chop it for half a second. By the time I got it worked out and brakes in my hands I was at 1000 Ft. I wanted excitement.....I sure got it..... I really prefer to pull at 3K most days.

[drewboo 0]

Ahhh...the thread wasn't meant to be a pro or con low-pull issue...but is there a COMPARISON between the old pulling low rush...versus...screaming at the ground horizontal with your canopy......same thing....different..
safer...more deadly?...opinions anyone?

drew

[Zenister 0]

i would imagine that if any given activity were not exciting enough for an individual, they would continue to find ways to push the envelope that makes it exciting or find another activity...

if you come down from a jump completely stoked (for whatever reason, great dive, low pull, nice swoop) you probably continue in that fashion, if not you keep pushing until you find your level (or something stops you)

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[freeflir29 0]

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if you come down from a jump completely stoked (for whatever reason, great dive, low pull, nice swoop

Yep.....I think I will remember my first 360 hook for the rest of my days. After I landed I said to myself..."Cheese and Rice that was STUPID!!! I'll never do that again." However, I was literally high on adrenaline for the next 3 hours at least.

[drewboo 0]

Off the top of my head(along with most of my hair)
Comparisons
1. Both create a rush
2. Both push the envelope
3. Both can be deadly

Differences
1.One is legal
2. one is not

[freeflir29 0]

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Differences
1.One is legal
2. one is not

and the USPA cops WILL come to get you.

[drewboo 0]

I have to plead ignorance on my own thread.. i don't hook..i don't know how..i never will..i no nothing about them...
so let me politely ask...after a brief sentence here...if a person were to choose to open at say 1500'..he has what 8 to ten seconds to react and save his butt...
what is the lowest you can salvage a bad hook turn by time you realize its crap and you've messed up badly..
how many seconds of reaction time do you have?
believe me..its just total curiosty on my part...as far as im concerned keep swooping