CanuckInUSA

Nope ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

If you've made tons of jumps and are used to the muscle memory of going for your main but at the same time do jump with an AAD and for whatever reason you've gone low (for whatever reason), please try to remember to go for you reserve handle instead of your main. Expect a spanker, but a spanker is better than a reserve/main entanglement. That's all ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Never say never ... but depth perception is important so you may have an excuse for not being a hard core swooper. But that doesn't mean you can't take things slowly and learn to build a little speed with your canopy. I'm not 50 yet (I'm only a young pup of 42) but I am a swooper and while it may be hard on the old body, it sure is fun and I sure hope I can be beating the young'uns when I approach my 50th birthday. By the way ... welcome to the joys of canopy flight. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I'm hoping for some jumpable weather this coming weekend (today is very nice compared to the last couple of days) and if so I plan visiting Pittt Meadows this weekend. Are you guys open Fridays this time of year? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Wrong sport. The beer rule does not apply to BASE. Of course BASE jumpers always want to drink you beer, so they won't say anything if you do buy it. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Yah the US (as far as the INS is concerned) doesn't like us while they turn their eye on the huge illegal immigration problem from latin America. But don't piss us 'Nucks off as we're poised to overtake Saudi Arabia as the number one producer of oil in the world. There is a huge oil reserve in Alberta for those who are too ignorant to educate themselves in what's going on outside of the USA ... not that I'm labelling you eeneR as one of those ignorant peeps. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I'll see you at a BC DZ sometime soon. I'm still in the process of trying to land on my feet here in BC. Today's projects are to visit the bank (convert some of that uncolored money into colored money), attempt to get a new cell phone without being forced into some sort of bullshit multi-year contract which seems to be the norm up here for virtually everything and to inquire about getting registered with BC health ... but I've been told there is a multi-month waiting period before I'm eligible. Oh and there is a province wide teachers strike going on right now (all public schools are closed) and every labor union around also seems to be wanting to go on strike to support the teachers. I went through a culture shoke when I first moved to Colorado and now I'm going through another culture shock here in BC. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

1) I'm under the impression that in order to be reasonably successful working full time in the industry, you need to be at one of the large southern US DZs. But I am not allowed to work (legally) in the US in the skydiving industry. So how the heck could I possible jump for a living in Canada? Besides the CSPA doesn't recognize my USPA coach rating just as the USPA doesn't recognize CSPA instructional ratings. So I need to start all over again if I want to work as a coach/instructor here in Canada. 2) I've been warned against making skydiving a full-time career and wouldn't want to turn into one of those "work only" jumpers. I like swooping (especially competitive swooping) too much to be a tandem only jockey. Besides this thread isn't about me. It's about advising newer jumpers to enjoy skydiving, but to be careful not to get too obsessed too early with the sport. Skydiving has been a blessing and a curse in my life. / PS: I can't believe how expensive things are here in Vancouver. Last night at dinner I ordered one appetizer, one marg and one beer and the whole bill (food, drinks, tax and tip) cost me $30 CDN and I've been told that the local lift tickets at the DZ are $35 CDN to full altitude. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

The wingloading (without added weight) will be about 2.1 but I had a reasonably long conversation with Jim about what would be the right size for this new JVX. Who knows what the WSA has planned for competitive swooping next year, but as long as we're allowed to wear some extra weight I can always increase my wingloading and still have the benefits of the bigger wing. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Make sure you find balance in your life. Otherwise you'll turn out like me. Someone who had a good paying job and was career oriented, got obsessed with jumping, made a shit load of jumps (spent tons of money on jumping) and is now unemployed and not having the easiest of times trying to convince potential employers that I can do the work (you know all that crap about dedicating ones life to the company like all companies want to hear). Jumping rocks!!! But you need to have balance in your life. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

It may not be close to you, but don't forget that: "Every day is Bridge Day in Twin Falls Idaho". Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

It's true, I saw it on the DayStar TV channel last week. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

1:0:0 No jumping for this camper on his first weekend in Vancouver BC, Canada (I moved from Colorado this week). Plus I doubt I would have been able to jump anyway as it rained all day today and yesterday was kind of overcast (plus I was busy unloading my stuff from the moving van into storage). Hopefully I can get airborne next weekend. But I did play in a hockey game today for the first time in a couple of years. I need to get into better shape, but it looks like I played well enough for them to offer me a spot on the team and it's a pretty competitive hockey league. We lost and my brother got kicked out of the game for slashing someone (LOL), but we had fun and I noticed there is way more oxygen to breath here at sea level while playing the game compared to my time playing hockey in Colorado. I think our next game will be this coming Thursday night and I should note that I am the old-timer on the team. My brother was the oldest on the team before I came along (he's 36 and I'm 42) and most of the people in the league are in their 20s. So yes you can call me grandpa. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

BSBD to the deceased. PM sent. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Ouch!!! Hope she's feeling better soon. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

as well as your technique for inducing extra speed. Of course make sure you practice up high before you bring it low to the ground. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I hope to visit some of the WA State DZs very soon as well.

It may not be the optimal wingloading for an xfire2, but there's nothing wrong with loading it a 1.4:1 ... the canopy is still going to be fun and fast. I'm no expert, but my first xFire2 a 139 was loaded at about 1.4:1 and I had a lot of fun and success with it. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I've been part of the real dark side (BASE) for over a year now. I will and thanks to something that Ryan told me about his coaching from Jay is only going to help getting that JVX going even faster (faster being a relative term now that I'm at sea level instead of being at altitude with the rest of you peeps). But at least for now, I also plzn on keeping your old 103 around for ZA jumps and maybe normal freefly jumps. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I've never jumped a Katana and I've got about 400 jumps on a Crossfire2. I was really happy with the Crossfire2, but it's my understanding that the Katana will dive more. So depending upon where you want to take your canopy flying (do you want to jump a cross-braced canopy in the future), the Katana may be the better option as it's newer technology. But if a good deal exists on a Crossfire2, don't ignore it. It is a great canopy to jump. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I'm in Vancouver now. Crossing the border wasn't the hassle I worried it might be. But my move isn't quite over yet. Hopefully tomorrow after the stuff is unloaded from the van, I'm then hoping the US Customs people will let me re-enter the US in order to return the moving van in Bellingham WA after which time I return to Canada and get on with things. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

After some discussion with Jim about what would be the right size, I ordered a JVX 96 in custom colors which is supposed to be ready in approximately 5 weeks from now. I believe Stew S and Nick B also ordered ones. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Come on guys ... this is the internet which is just like the Special Olympics. Even when you win your argument, you're still retarded. Some of us are real, we've seen each other jump and competed against each other. At least one of you is on this bad ass wing that I was so impressed with I recently ordered my own (and yes the bad ass wing was piloted by someone who knew what they were doing). Some are wannabees and hopefully they are smart wannabees. Some of us were aggresive with our canopy progression and ... knock on wood ... have been lucky so far. Some haven't been so lucky. Swooping is fun, but the ground doesn't care if you've got 1000s of jumps on a lightly loaded canopy or are on a VX 89 loaded at 2.4 ... if you fuck up it's not going to be nice. Kudos for sgt_ludy for sharing his story with us. Hopefully he learned his lesson (a swoop should always be aborted when traffic is in the way or the setup goes wrong). I recently hurt myself during the CPC Championships and even though I'm still back in the air, my ass is still sore. My lesson learned was not to confuse ground speed with air speed. I love lessons that we can ... sort of ... walk away from and learn from. But remember to be smart out there folks. All it takes is one moment of lapse judgemen to end it all. PS: Grant I can't believe you don't know what a wanker is. And because of that, I'm going to call you "WANKER" ... even though you're not really one in real life. You just play one on TV ... or was that that I stayed at a Best Western last night where the fire alarm went off this morning before I was supposed to be awake and because of this ... and the fact that there was no fire ... here I am wasting mine and your time on DZ.COM. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Murphys Law or what? The fire alarm at the motel I'm staying at went off before 6 am this morning and it was ####in loud. Now I can't sleep any more ... oh well I better shower up soon and hit the road. I still have several hours left of driving. I wasn't ready to get up yet. I did a lot of jumps in a short time period. But I'm not the only one who's done this sort of thing. There's an AFF instructor (who rarely posts) out at Mile Hi who's been in the sport about 1 week longer than myself and he's got about 600+ jumps more than me an tons and tons of tunnel time. DZ.COM is global so there was no doubt that I couldn't continue to participate. The question has been should I keep the screen name. And as someone else who already pointed this out, RkyMtnHigh kept her name even though she's in FL. So I will at the very least keep mine around until next summer when I figure out if I'm more of a long term 'Nuck or if I return to Colorado to swoop the pond for the summer. Oh and I know you and I have had our differences in Speakers Corner in the past concerning one specific touchy topic. But I honestly do hope that your health improves to the point where you can join us in the skies very very soon. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Well I'm sitting in a motel in Prosser WA with my laptop and a wireless connection. It's been an interesting and tiring trip (lots of driving) and it's not over yet. Tomorrow is the big day when I attempt to cross the border with all of my stuff in the moving van. I can see it. Canada won't let me in with my shit and the US doesn't want me anymore. Now how's that for a less that optimistic attitude? I guess I can always drive down to Mexico huh? Things didn't go as planned, but I am here poised to cross the border tomorrow. I came close to getting into an accident yesterday just west of Laramie WY. I was in the right hand lane not going all that fast (I'm driving a moving van and towing a car carrier with my jeep on the carrier) and this hick wanted to merge onto the highway. I couldn't take the left lane due to the faster traffic and this guy, no this redneck cut me off merging first onto the shoulder and then onto the highway and force me to brake hard to avoid the potential accident. I hear some tires scretch but I didn't know if they were mine or his and my moving van is working fine from that point on. Well wouldn't you know it, two hours later when I pull off of the highway for fuel, the left rear tire on the car carrier trailer is total shredded (it's a good thing they use two tires per side on these trailers). Fortunately I pulled off at a place that can fix it (Little America is the name of the town) but it takes several hours for this to happen. So I stay at a motel there last night instead of the intended location of somewhere around Ogden UT or Twin Falls ID. Well the tire is fixed and all, but I arrived at Twin kind of late in the afternoon and I'm using winds as an excuse for not jumping from the bridge. I could have jumped (the winds were blowing hard, but it was jumpable for the crazy people), but I decided to not stop because I wanted to get as much day light driving as possible. And I glad, as I got to see I-84 through eastern Oregon in daylight for the first time. I had been on this same stretch of road three years ago, but it was night time when I first pass through. The scenery was cool and there appears to be tons of ground launchable hills in eastern Oregon not far from Boise ID. I hope to be there. There's no guarantee that I will be in CO next summer. A lot will depend on what happens in the next few months. Shit I've been gone for less than 48 hours and the bonfire has 1500 unread posts. You people on DZ.COM need to get off of your 'puters. Well that's all for now. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over