Merrick

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it too much Zennie, you're alive & you've definitely learned something. I found out this weekend that uncurrency can cause the occasional brainfart, just as easily as being complacent. I did two really stupid things that could have ended up very badly this weekend (one very similar to what you had done), all because of bad decisions or simple stupidity. First, on my first jump back since I broke my leg, we had a long spot, and instead of opening high I pulled at about 3,000. My canopy normally opens consistently in about 500 - 700 ft, but for some reason sniveled out well over a 1,000 ft this time. So, that put me really low on the wrong side of a tree line, in low winds. I knew that I could make it over the major part of the trees to a little circular clearing, but I also knew that it was going to be close... I made it just fine & set the canopy down in a very tight spot with trees all around me, I simply should have landed out, there's a nice huge field on the side of the tree line that I started out on (bad decision). On my second jump Saturday, I pulled at about the same altitude, but for some reason I guess I thought I needed to give my pilot-chute a quick inspection before I released it.... I pulled the damn thing out in front of me (sheer stupidity), of course once it inflated it was pulled from my hand & wrapped around my right arm, it pulled me up into a standing position, whipped me around to my left, and took another wrap on my arm. I pointed my hand straight up above me, it unraveled from my arm, and the canopy opened about 180 deg off heading. I don't have any idea why I did this, I've never done anything like it in any of my previous jumps, the whole time I remember thinking horse-shoe, and when that thing unraveled from my arm I immediately put my hands on my handles waiting to see what I had to deal with.... luckily everything was fine! I made a few more jumps on Sunday & they went much much better I'm glad to say. The good thing is I'm alive & unscathed & learned two very important lessons, two which I actually already knew in theory, but had never truly been tested by it. I've chalked this up to being uncurrent, but I can certainly see how being complacent can cause the same sort of problems. That's one good thing about jumping with Pam, we kind of have an unwritten pact that if the other gets too "Cocky" then the smart one gets to kick the other in the head & knock some sense back into him... or her! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Hey guys...Merrick said it very well. Just keep in mind, also, that we are a young couple with two kids and have to buy our skydiving gear a piece at a time. Even if we got a D-box, we don't have a helmet to put it on! I, personally, am not even anxious to fly without my full-face at this point until I get more consistent on my landings (and my flying for that matter). If I really were that foolish to strap that puppy on a helmet this soon, I assure you, I could've done it by now, with or without a D-box. Having one won't kill my brain cells, I promise. And after watching a friend get hurt last night, I certainly am being ultra-conservative. I think Merrick just gets too bored at work ... lol. Thank you guys for caring though. I certainly appreciate it. Pam (whoops! I'm still in as Merrick! hehe) (Oh, and I have been talking to people at our regular DZ who of course feel the same as those here, they are very safe, knowledgable people. I will not jump (pardon the pun) into this without full knowledge of what is possible, probable and how to handle it.

Just like Prost said, it's never too early to start seeking out information.... I also don't think it's too early to start looking at gear either. I started looking for a rig on about my 5th jump (IAD progression), but I didn't jump it for over a month after I received it. We DO have good heads on our shoulders, and even with the 'toys' sitting right in front of me I am NOT the kind of person to give in to temptation, especially if it's something that can kill me. The thing is that I've put several "gear wanted" ads on both the enclave & here at dz.com and it takes FOREVER to get any responses unless you're looking for a sabre 170 or something. I put the ads out anticipating this. We did not buy this camera specifically for skydiving, we have two kids, who are now in Tae Kwon Do, and we've been missing a lot of key moments in their life... THAT'S why we got the camera. Yes, I did make sure that we got something that could be integrated in to our skydiving... BUT, not until we're ready! I appreciate your concern & all, but believe me, it didn't take you guys or anybody to "talk us out of it" We were way ahead of ya on that one. LOL "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Hmmm... let's see, Donna brought up the term "Slider Rebound," yet your comment wasn't aimed at her? Interesting there "Winston!" (Whatever the f**k that means) Anyways, Slider Rebound, or more appropriately "Slider Stop Line Rebound," is a theory conjured up by Dave Brownell (dbTech on dz.com) on the occasional hard opening. It results in the slider prematurely moving down the lines a bit, thus allowing the canopy to be ahead of the slider in it's opening sequence..... Causing the occasional SLAM! Dave believes that he's developed a method that greatly reduces this problem (by like 75%). Some people think the entire theory is bullshit, some people think it really makes sense. I guess I'll form my own opinions if I ever get slammed! That's basically it, if you'd like to know more, contact dbtech or simply do a little research, I'm sure you can find something. I know I remember seeing a small article on it in Parachutist a couple months ago. "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Then the owner of said manufacturing company called our DZO to "tell" on us... Pam left both her home & work #'s with the owner & she never heard from him... not an apology, an excuse, or even a simple "f**k you!" Truth is, he had no reason to be upset, Pam posted the simple facts & stated why she was displeased.... He was mad about the bad publicity he received, but bad publicity generally stems from bad service or personal vendettas... there were no personal attacks in the post from Pam.. you figure it out! Sorry, Ugh... I've already said too much! LOL I'll quit now, this whole subject just gets us both fired up! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

You may have already seen this, but I thought you guys might get a kick out of it. I saw it about a year ago, and just ran accross it again... Keep up the good work HH! "Sangiro's Synergy" Looks like he's changed all his skydiving links & email addy to point to dz.com. "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

DAMN KRIS!!! Sounds like a pretty evil Mal, I'm glad that everything turned out OK. Don't want to go back to the DZ & hear a bunch of "you hear what happened to Kris?" stories! Way to keep your head man! We may be in Cushing this weekend, at least for a little while, don't know if we'll have time to stay & make some jumps, but we'll definitely stop by. Peace Brudda! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Hey MM... Pam & I are sort of in the same boat that you two are in.... having to buy two of everything! Here are a few ideas on NEW freefly pants & suits that are about half the price of normal suits! "Check out these Unisex UFO pants...." Pam & I both got a pair of these, we've only jumped with them a few times & they seem to work excellent, I don't know how well they'll hold up compared to regular FF pants, but they're very sturdy and they have ankle & waist draw-strings. As for an entire freefly suit, you might consider ordering something from someone outside the US. Pam just ordered me a custom freefly suit for my birthday from "Tad's Sportswear" (an Australian based suit manufacturer) for about $150. The Australian dollar is worth about .52 right now, so you can get a $250 - $300 suit brand new for about half the price! Hope this helps! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Whahaahaaa!! The first boogie close to Pam & I that we should have been able to AND WE STILL CAN'T MAKE IT! We were both looking forward to going but prior commitments got rescheduled for this weekend... ALL WEEKEND! Whaahaaaa!! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

The Nutter's back! lol I still have your ripped main & first three video jumps on my harddrive at work... classic! MSN IM - skycat99@hotmail.com Yahoo IM - mlove001 "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Oh man April... I'm so sorry to hear that. Your dad seems like an incredible man, I really enjoyed meeting him & the rest of your family. I hope everything works out OK, I'll keep you, your dad, & the rest of your family in my prayers! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

ROFL - Pam just sent me this, I thought it was hilarious (and very appropriate). You may have already seen it.... Hell, it may have already been posted here. If so, it's definitely worth a second look!

"Life is like a box of chocolates (when Merrick meets little Willy & offers to pack his main), ya never know what you're gonna get!" Thanks man... I actually got the job, but then apparently got screwed out of it. Not sure I'd want to work for a company that handled things the way they did anyway.... Oh well! Not sure when I'll be back up.... I thought it would be real soon until tonight. We just got back from my best friends wedding, where I was the best man. I had promised I wouldn't wear that big-ass boot thing, so tonight was the first night that I've put on a shoe in about a month & 1/2... Needless to say, what I thought would be cake ended up hurting like hell after a few hours. [discouraged face]So, long story short, I thought I'd be back in the air in about a week or so, it may end up being a little longer [/discouraged face] Carl - it was definitely good meeting you as well, it was really cool that you came out of your way a bit to hang out. Like Pam said, the sweet smell of that reserve didn't help the already burning itch to skydive that's been building over the last month. LOL Ahhh well, what can you do.. good to see that you guys made it home OK.... Hopefully we'll be moving out to your end of the world soon, so maybe we can make a few jumps together! Peace guys, & blue skies! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Hey Randy... well, I think you know the particular sabre I'm talkiing about. Now, I don't know if it's the fact that it had several hundred jumps on it when I bought it from you or what, but I've always had sweet openings with it. I've even left the nose completely out & only rolled the tail.... in fact, the only hard opening I've ever had on it (& other Sabre's I've jumped) is the one time I was dumb enough to open in a partial track! LOL I'm sure this is because the canopy is a lot more "broke in," or more porous than a new one, but I haven't had any complaints yet. I've heard of people putting a pocket on the slider... in fact Kris used to jump a Sabre 210 that he had to psycho pack & had a pocket put on the slider to slow his openings. He was really happy with it, I'm glad you found a solution as well. "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

ROFL - I didn't even catch the middle finger thing, that's pretty funny. Here's the other freaky pic I was talking about...

Yeah, I noticed a couple yesterday when I was looking at the washington post (or something)... I meant to show Pam, but forgot. It's definitely kinda weird! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Ahhh.... Thank you darlin, you're so good to me! It may not be the macho thing to let everyone know how much you love your wife, but I'll tell ya.. if she ever burned in, if it weren't for the kids, I'd follow her right in. This woman is my world, and yes Slappie I know how amazing she is, I truly hope you can find one just like her.

ROFL - Well, to each his own... remember, not everyone is like you! LOL "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Now I'm not being the "agreeable spouse" here, but I have to agree too. After not smiling much at all in the past 24 hours, this was the first thing to actually make me laugh. No, I'm not some insensitive sick prick, I just thought it was a very witty picture... especially after thinking that if it were me in this horrible situation how I'd hoped it would have been show-n-tell day at work that day... You know what I would have taken with me! This is a very very tragic situation, my heart & my prayers go out to the victims and their families... the weight of such an evil devastating attack could never be avenged in the hearts of those directly involved, or even in the average American. I don't think that Macaulay or anyone meant any disrespect or to even make fun of the those thousands of people who have lost their lives so senselessly. True, his timing & tact probably wasn't completely thought out, but he was just trying to lighten an otherwise very gloomy atmosphere.... Thanks for the smile Steve. I love you too sweetie... Tensions have been high with everyone lately, not just you.... you were forgiven well before now (not saying that you didn't make some good points either LOL). "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Well, while I really appreciate the support, I wouldn't say that just yet. True, we were (are) very pissed off about the service we received, but from everyone we've talked to it's definitely not the norm. I wouldn't completely swear them off just because of our one situation.... in fact, I'm torn, I'm pissed but at the same time, Mirage makes a damn nice rig, so I'm not sure what I'll end up getting next. Probably a vector or wings, but I still don't like either as well as the Mirage! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

*Caugh*Caugh*....Sorry, choking something back down in the back of my throat. "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Hey, no problem Kris... anytime you need it & it's not on my back you're welcome to it! I asked Mike to put on some dive loops for me when he gets the reserve re-packed... I obviously won't need it for a couple weeks, but am looking damn forward to getting back in the air, and hopefully once I make a few recurrency jumps I can get that 170 I've had my eye on. As far as the caravan goes.... to quote Pam... hehehe.... No seriously, I'm glad you all got in a few non-work related jumps, you guys work your ass off & deserved it!!! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

I don't think anybody has called you crazy... err.. I mean Luigi. Listen, I know how you feel man, when everyone gave me shit over downsizing I damn near lost it. I mean, who the hell are all these people, these perfect strangers, that have never even seen me jump at all telling me that I'm gonna kill myself at a 1.3 wing (just up from a 1.15 - Oooh, big jump there)?!!? It gets frustrating & annoying feeling like you have to defend yourself, the only people you have to answer to is you (well, & maybe Laura), if you & your JM's think it'd be good for you.... go for it! I guess my entire point, summed up, was that a 1.36 is a balsy wingloading for someone with 100 jumps, much less a newbie. Just like Cloud9 said, a 175 (or whatever) at 1.2 isn't as aggressive as a 120 at 1.2. You're, in my opinion, on the apex of more "High performance." There's no doubt in my mind that you can handle the 169, just like I have no doubt that I could jump & land Pam's 135 (1.63:1 wingloading) without any problems... am I gonna' do that.. Hell NO! LOL Just be careful, & be aware that what you're getting won't be as forgiving in the instance that you do fuck up. Hell, sounds to me like you got a pretty nice set-up, I've heard the saphire's are a lot of fun to fly & relatively easy to fly once us loyal PD followers figure out the flare... & the wings, they look & sound pretty cool, but still haven't gotten a chance to see one or try one on.. let me know what you think! Remember the three most important things, have fun, pull & flare! "Pammi's Hemp/Skydiving Jewelry"

Cool, I thought you said you only got to jump it twice... the weather must have been really F**ked up that weekend to give such a wide range of conditions. I'm not going to preach at anyone about overloading their canopy, there is already about 3 threads going on about that... what I will say is that I do believe that a person's wingloading should be based on their own feelings & education, their instructor's opinions, and several several demos. As someone said in another thread, you can kill yourself just as dead under a Manta 288 as you can under a vx46.. however, as far as small mistakes go where injuries result, would you rather have a broken femur or a broken fibula (or even toe). The faster your canopy, the more likely the injury will be more severe! Good Brandon, you sound a lot like me at that point, I have just about twice as many jumps as you do (I know, still not very experienced either), does that mean that we will never botch a landing again? I know it feels like that, but hell... even a good landing can result in a broken leg! I jumped a Skymaster 260 loaded at .85:1 for almost all of my first 16 jumps, then went straight to my Sabre 190 loaded at about 1.16:1. Not too smart, but I had faith in myself & so did my instructors. I didn't have any troubles at all landing or doing much of anything under my sabre - that is until I got my brand new RW suit about 20 jumps later, first 2 landings in that suit ended up on my knees (no injuries tho).. it's just new suit carma, it hasn't touched the ground since. I've put roughly 50 easy jumps on that canopy, but the last one landed me in the hospital. It only takes one big planet to get in your way... a rock, tree sprout, Hell.. even a soybean root!!! That landing was actually pretty damn cool, right up until that evil soy bean reached up & grabbed my toes, hell.. I would have even stood that landing up if my leg hadn't been broke (just sort of fell over cuz it couldn't hold me up). lol I really have no business discussing this topic, I defended my decision to soon downsize to a 1.3:1 wingloading for about a week on these forums. Yeah, when I was at about 30 jumps I felt like I was ready for a 170 maybe even a 150, but decided to wait cuz even tho I felt I was good enough to handle it, I knew that I didn't have the experience to make that decision. Now, more than twice that many jumps later, I KNOW that I wasn't ready, even tho all my instructors, my DZO, and myself said that it wouldn't be a problem..... There are so many variables to total canopy control that I simply did not have enought time under my canopy, or any canopy, to explore.... especially not ever having deployed higher than 4500ft. NO, I haven't had some revelation by the wingloading gods that be, I'm not scared now that I broke my leg, in fact... once I get back in the air & get a few more recurrency jumps on my 190 I'd still like to go to a 170. Brandon, I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on you, cuz ultimately this is your decision & it's already been made. This is just my opinion, especially not having seen you jump, but a 1.36 wing for a newbie is borderline insane.... then again, we do jump out of airplanes! lol Just be very very careful, never get too confident or lax... cuz it can bite ya, even if you DON'T screw up (trust me). I'm sure that you'll go unscathed your entire jumping career, but in my opinion it is variables like these that point to the not "if but when you get hurt" factoid. Peace brudda, and be safe. "If words were wisdom, I'd be talkin' even more.."

lol - I'll second that "about time" quote Phree.... with all the 'A' licenses being given out they're about 4 months behind! lol That's OK, still kinda cool to see your name in a mag.... guess we need to turn in our forms for our 'B' as well. "If words were wisdom, I'd be talkin' even more.."