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Maybe half a dozen. The most fun one was a military student at the old Brown Field DZ, who I ran into at the Argus. He regaled me with his exploits (including freefall in his military static line program) and told me I should learn to freefall, that static line sucked. He worshiped Denny Chalker, an ex-Seal who was also working at Brown at the time - and who had talked all of them into coming out to Brown to do AFF. I nodded along to his stories while I got my turkey sandwich. We got back to the DZ. About a hour later the class was finished and they paired me up with . . . the same student. He saw that I was going to be his instructor and turned a little green. Then Denny Chalker, hero to all young Navy guys, walked up; he was my reserve side. "Uh . . . . you know Master Chief Chalker?" the kid asked me in a low voice. "Yeah, we go way back," I told him. "Hey Bill," Denny asked. "Would it be OK if I do main side on this one?" I pretended to think it over and then said "Sure, Denny, just this once." Denny laughed. I thought the kid was going to pass out.

On this June 5th, I remember Jim Dishroon, WWII Paratrooper, my friend, fellow skydiver who died several years ago. He was one of those brave paratroopers who jumped behind enemy lines on the night before D Day. I think when I knew Jim he weighed about 100 lbs, if that. I don't know his story of what he did after jumping out of the C-47 Dakota, but a friend of mine said Jim once said the "Germans were shooting at us while we were coming down under parachute." Or words to that effect. I jumped a bit with Jim (he didn't jump too often). Jim drove an old Volkswagon (Hmmnn.. never asked him about that), chain smoked, pretty salty guy. He got his JOE (Jumpers Over Eighty) patch and I sewed all of his patches on his parachute container. Sides - flap- everywhere. After he died his son gave me his old helmet, gloves, dirt alert, goggles, etc. He was the real deal. I still have the stuff. Here's to Jim Dishroon. The real deal.

Hi, Maybe Mr. Dishroon was in the 507th PIR. This is a film about their jump on D Day, their fight at the Battle of the Bulge and their jump at Operation Varsity. d-day Down to Earth – Return of the 507th A unit of the 507th is training parachutists at Fort Benning now. Thank You, Mr. Dishroon. Al Paradowski, SCR 002

You! You! Fuck you! Gawd I've missed this.

I had a retired Army Vet here in Canada, well up there in age, in his mid to late 70's tell me that his best friend died because he saw one of his SL students going into a mal and jumped out after her to help her "untangle", not realizing he didnt have a rig on.... I was like "Wow cool story" now the sad part is I have a hard time believing most of his stories which BTW some are pretty cool.... a little too cool now that i think about it lol

Using double front risers is a valid method of gaining forward speed, but it's substantially less effective then inducing a hard turn.

Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you too! And fuck you too.... :-p I demand a recount!

I went 9 years without a drink... then I turned 10.

Answers from the other thread: (forum bug prevented moving these) Interstellar_court: Please tell me you are joking. You can have the MOST skill, the MOST training, the BEST critical thinking skills, the BEST equipment, and NONE of that makes it safe. These precautions only make it safer. It is a very much dangerous sport that can be done safely. I think you might have the risks of skydiving and the risks of a sport like bowling confused. I think that failing to acknowledge the risks associated, or becoming complacent, can only increase the risk overall. Dudeman17: You could not be more wrong. Your profile doesn't state your experience, but I'm coming up on 40 years in the sport, 30 of them as an instructor, and I'm not saying that I disagree with you, I'm telling you you're wrong. Dan BC is among the most experienced, respected, and wisest people in our sport, and you, I, and anyone else would do well to heed his advice. So much so that part of his profession is that people in and out of our sport hire him to give it. You should re-read his post and anything else you can find of his about 58 times or whatever it takes to penetrate your skull before you make your next jump. Meat_missile: Compared to what? The only sport I can think of that is more dangerous than skydiving is BASE.

Honestly, if your body can't handle the occasional quicker openings (I'm not talking the out-of-the-ordinary slammers), then I should at least think twice before skydiving. Because any high-speed malfunction (pilot-chute in tow, or just unable to pull it, or whatever) will result in your reserve opening while you're at terminal velocity. That opening won't be soft and snivelly by any stretch of the imagination. There is an element of risk inherent to this sport. You can do many things to reduce it like get a canopy designed and known for soft openings, get dacron lines, pack super-duper-well (or super-duper-trashy, sometimes that also depends on the canopy), and several other things alluded to in this thread. You cannot completely eliminate the risk of either canopy opening like shit. If you want to reduce the risk of hard openings as much as possible, I suggest you also talk to some riggers. Plural, each rigger has their own experiences, and none of them is godlike and all-knowing.