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PalmettoTiger

Howdja getcher nick?

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I have no idea how I got my nick. I know that I was, umn, impaired, when I registered, and I had a really good reason for choosing what I did. But now I just look at it every time I’m here and go “what the f**k?” As I’m sure everybody else does too. Dirt really sucks, man. Yeah, it really does. Whatever. :S
Josh

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OK, the story. Like I mentioned in another post, I was "born" at Cross Keys on May 6th last year. I tried to make lotsa jumps, but not having a car and NJ being windier than it deserves to be, I didn't get a second until almost a month later when I had moved to SC for the summer. Then I switched health insurance, and since I had to wait for it to take full effect I didn't get a third jump (T-II refresher) until the end of September back at Cross Keys. Another month passes, another tandem jump. Then I didn't get to jump until March 10 this year; I was delayed because of winds when I could get to the DZ and lack of transportation when the weather was decent. So at any rate, I finally find myself with reliable insurance, reliable transportation, and reliable weather. I think to myself, "finally I'll be able to finish the student progression without any more refreshers."
Not.
It's March 18th, a gorgeous day. I've come early to the DZ for the FJC (second of my career), brought donuts in case I ended up a little late (I wasn't, but I shared the dozen anyway), and been going over emergency procedures in my head for the entire drive down. Rob-O and I go over all of the gritty details, I hang in the harness and do all of that fun stuff, practice PLFing, dirt dive, dirt dive, practice emergency procedures, dirt dive, and then wait on the winds to calm down. The pilot and DZO take off for a helicopter ride... I think the DZO is learning to fly a whirlybird. But as Finagle's Law would have it, as soon as they get over the treeline the winds die. We're all abusing the manifest staff (only verbally, getcher mind outta the gutter!!), manifest is promising to abuse and then fire the pilot, and when they eventually return the winds miraculously stay calm.
Gear up, gear check, board, take off, relax, think about the dive (AFF IV), relax, realize the video guy is not on the load, bitch, gear check, think about the dive, relax, relax, bitch, relax. DOOR!! S#it. So much for the relaxing. 5 freeflyers get out. A 2-way RW leaves. And now it's just me and Rob-O. Relax...? Nah. Get in the door. Hands on either side of the frame, left foot back, right foot in the corner, knees outside, duck, put the head out muthaf@cka! that is a blast of breeze to wake you up!
I'm so shocked by the full 110 kts of wind in my face (all my tandems had been from inside the plane, not outside, if that makes any sense) that I basically tunnel down to a point. Swivel my head, there's Rob-O, he looks happy, give him the ol' Ready-Set-GOOOOOOoooooo.... We're tumbling... tumbling... uh, arch harder idiot! Ahh, that worked. Now where's Rob-O? I can't feel his grip on me any more. At this point I still have total tunnel vision. No sense of what's going on, I think because I'm concentrating so much on flying my body and learning what different movements do to my position that I'm actually "navigating" by inner-ear position sense than by visual cues. I check alti, 11k. Wasn't I supposed to do something like PRCPs? I still feel like I'm tumbling, tho! Where's Rob-O, he'll know what to do. I see something moving up and to the left out of the corner of my eye. S#it! I've tumbled so much that he's lost me. Is he back? Is he back? No. S#it. "If you lose your instructor in freefall, pull immediately."
I dumped at 8,500 with Rob-O about 1 foot off my right side. I'm so compact - arms and legs in - and, ahem... "denser" that Rob-O that he's had to go head-down to keep up with me. I'm really only expecting him to be holding on to me or immediately in front of me, so not knowing where he was I bailed and he didn't stop me in time because what's the first part of this jump? PRCP. Duh. Well, I don't need no steeenking practice pull! Get it right the first time.
On the ground (after this oh-so-graceful landing) they asked me why I bailed so high. Working up my best Austin Powers imitation, I said "Caution's my middle name, baby! Yeah!" and it kinda worked because my middle name does start with a C.
So there's the partial nickname. Not quite as sexy as "skybytch" or catchy as "skyslut" and in general not a name that attracts babes, but there's still hope that I'll land something racier than "Caution" because no one at the DZ uses it all the time.
Here's hoping, at least.
Blues, squares,
PTiger

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Tiger! Stop it! Reading the down-to-every-last-detail posts like that is to me what watching porn is to a lonely horny guy :D!! That was really cool though. That “breeze” from sticking your head out the door really does “wake you up”, don’t it?!? I still remember sticking my hand out of the otter the first time only to have it blown backwards and thinking “HOLY S**T, I’M SUPPOSED TO GO OUT IN THIS?!?!”
Josh

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Oh yeah, that too!! Stick the leg out and then WHAM!! against the back of the door. "F**K MAN!! You want to to crawl outside the plane in that shit!!??!!?? What the f..k am I doing here?!? MOOOOOOMMMMMMMY!!! The fact that I'm desperate to do just that again proves that, despite of what you might say, skydivers ARE crazy. You've all heard the quote "I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!". WOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Enjoy it will you got it!!
Growing more jump-horny with every day - Josh

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I did most of my AFF from a King Air. You climb outside and hang onto this little bar. For the exit count you go out, in, out ..ARCH and go! On my level IV, my first time with 1 JM and no one to block the wind on my left, I got stuck on the first out. I leaned away from the plane and then the wind was blowing so damn hard that I couldn't pull myself back towards the plane to finish the exit count! That wind was just trying to rip me off the plane! I didn't know what to do because if I just let go my JM wasn't going to be in synch with me and he had been stressing how important a nice exit was. But no one had ever mentioned what to do in this situation! So there I am hanging onto the side of the plane desperately trying to figure out what to do! Plus I knew the rest of the plane was waiting for me to get the heck off so I wouldn't screw up the spot! Finally I decided to try one more time with all my might and if I couldn't do it to say the heck with it and just let go. Luckily I made it. Afterwards my JM gave me a tip that if you turn towards the back of the plane a bit so your back is taking the brunt of the wind, it helps. I tried that on level V and it worked great. I love the sound of that wind though, don't you??
Blue ones,
D

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Quote

F**K MAN!! You want to to crawl outside the plane in that shit!!??!!?? What the f..k am I doing here?!? MOOOOOOMMMMMMMY!!!


*laughing* I remember thinking a lot of times "I'm actually paying someone a lot of money for the 'priviledge' of doing this shit!!" Insane! I love it! LOL!
Pammi
"The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live."
-Joan Borysenko

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well, I read this post this week at work, but as I am temping at the moment, I didn't want to take the time to log on and write it out.
So, how did Pyke get born??
Well, it was jump #17(S/L) and I was still getting the hang of doing everything right. A very uneventful exit, dive, and deployment. The fun started when I was about 1000' up.
I noticed that after *quite* a long time, I hadn't moved my alti needle off the 1K mark. So, I thought I would relax and enjoy the view. I was lined up for the edge of the paddock and looked as though the trees that were in front of it were going to be missed my miles.
Next thing I know, my canopy shakes violently and I am now moving backwards and my alti reads 800'. "Shit, where did that 200' go?!!" So, I sorted out an alternative landing site - still moving backwards, as now the paddock was out due to the trees, and planned my approach. My canopy shakes violently again, and now I am moving sideways away from the alternative landing site and backwards as well. "Well, shit, this is new to me, what am I to do here?" I thought to myself. Next thing I know, there is the HUGE expanse of the Fisher & Paykel factory's aluminium ceiling opening up underneath me. I think to myself, "You're kidding me, I am going to land on the roof!!!!??" And, before I have a chance to DO anything, I pick up some forward speed. Normally this would have been fine and put me on a target for some flat ground at sea level, but here I am flaring and landing on a roof of the factory - some 45' in the air!!!
So, once on the roof, I lay there thinking, "How the hell did I end up here?" I watch the others under canopy all make it back to the DZ and guess they are probably wondering where I must be. I bundle up my chute and try to trash pack it in the rig (I wasn't certified at this stage and hadn't seen too many pack jobs, so I just used the ripcord to hold it in place) and walked around on top of this factory for like 40 minutes trying to find a fire escape or something. Nothing!!
After some monkey climbing on drainage pipes and negotiating myself and the rig on to a level about 6' off the ground, I threw the rig on to the grass and jumped off myself.
I managed to find one of the chase/search vehicles after a few paces down the street. I was just laughing to myself and they were all serious and questioning me on where I had been and whether I was hurt or not.
Back at the DZ, I relived the story in vivid detail and they all just cracked up. I was instantly(!) awarded the "Frogs Arse Award" given every year for the greatest blunder without injury - and it was only June!!!!(it's normally awarded at the X-mas party)
So, they let it go until the X-mas party. At the X-mas party the re-lived all the year's blunders and gave out the prizes. As I had been awarded the "Frogs Arse" already they called out for me to do a mandatory jug skull for a penalty, and as I was nowhere to be found when they were at the keg (busy in a safety meeting:$), they all starting shouting, "where's pyke?"
Thus, pyke was born!
Arohanui,
Pyke:P
NZPF A-2584

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I've had this nickname for a long time. Started when I was washing the car at a rapid pace one day long ago, and one of my friends said "wow look at that dutchboy go". It's sorta stuck since then. I don't know who he is ;), but in my youth there was a computer hacker that used to use this handle. He wrote some really cool stuff too.
When I lived in West Michigan nobody called me this, for obvious reasons. After moving to Atlanta I've revived this nickname.

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