CanuckInUSA

I would love to see the Stones in concert. To date the best show I've seen was Pink Floyd back in '95 at an outdoor venue. But $400+ is too steep for my blood. I'd much rather spend that sort of money on jumps. But that's just me. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Where do you want Rita to make land fall? Obviously none of us want Rita to land anywhere, but it's got to go somewhere. So am I twisted in wanting Rita to hit New Orleans instead of Galveston/Houston/Corpus Cristi? My logic being that New Orleans has already been wasted and most of the population is no longer there. It's bad enough that Katrina wasted New Orleans, but do we really want a major city like Houston to be wasted as well? Do we really want the Texas Oil refineries to be destroyed? Mother Nature can be a bitch at times. But it's times like this that I must remind myself of my DZ.COM signature line. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Hey Shimel kicked ass, as did Scott and Jay (and I seem to recall John Judy getting about 650 feet except that he verted by a foot or so). They all rocked. Very impressive ... to most of us at least who aren't too worried about landing on our asses. Congrats to all ... my ass is still numb and sore from my rear riser stall crash. I guess I'll be wingsuiting it this weekend since I stand a much better chance of standing up my landings under my Spectre (my wingsuit canopy) versus swooping the pond with my Velo(s). But I really want to be swooping the pond as my days are numbered here. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Is it us (skydivers) or has Corporate America turned into a bunch of SOBs when it comes to their expectations of what makes a good employee? I know, a good employee is willing to sacrific their physical and mental health for the good of the company who will not think twice about shitting on their work force and letting them go when it looks good to their bottom line. Good luck Cora ... you're not the only one in this boat. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Don't forget Ground Launching. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Skydiving has been a blessing and a curse to this camper. But I'm grateful for all the jumps I've done and all the friends I may have made along the way. I am about to embark on an unknown future a little less than one month from now when I leave Colorado and move back to my native Canada (where I have yet to jump). So time will tell as to what sort of future in the jumping world up there. But I'm hoping that it's not all that different from what I know right now. Oh and I'm thinking that I will need to create a new sceen name soon as I won't be that "Canuck" who's "in the USA". Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Remember what may look high enough to jump from a whuffos point of view is not high enough in reality. If you really are serious about this, seek some training (including learning how to fly a canopy), get the proper gear and have a static line setup ready. Then again, the chances of you actually needing to bail from an office tower are highly unlikely. So ignore everything I just said. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

If there is a demand for it in a region, I think having a traditional 9 cell class is a great idea. Since the CPC is the minor league system for the Pro Swoop Tour, this can be the minor league system for the CPC. The bottom line is that if someone wants to be a competitive swooper, they need to learn how to run the gates and personally I think people need to be running gates in the lower stress realms of practice before they run them in competition to avoid the dangers of object fixation. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

At about 4 or 5 PM. I'm glad at least one of you knows where I'm coming from. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I feel your pain. I'm in the same boat right now looking for work. Last week I did the initial interview over the phone for a job I was well qualified to do. I'm guessing that I lost the opportunity when the people asked me what I'm looking for in a new job. I told them that I had no problems putting in extra hours Monday through Thursday but that I would like to have weekends to myself. There is a trend these days in corporate America to get the workers to work 60+ hours and only pay them for 40 and this includes working weekends. Corporate America does not care about their people, they only care about the almighty dollar. Hopefully the right job for you and I will come around one day. But I'm not holding my breath at the moment. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

And an AAD may have resulted in a funeral as well. But this appears to have been because the swooper had decided to go big on a regular load. Swooping Rocks!!! But there is a time and a place to go big. And regular loads is not the time nor the place. A lot of people made fun of me this summer for doing all the hop n' pops that I did. A lot of newbies think I can't freefall (despite the fact that my first 700 jumps were all freefall jumps). I did all those hop n' pops because I had my swooping goals and I thought that mixing swooping with a regular jump would be counter productive to my swooping goals and potentially dangerous to myself all the other people on the load. AADs have their purpose, but they shouldn't be relied upon to save ones life except in the rare cases where the jumper is rendered inoperable due to some sort of collision once they leave the plane. Too many jumpers use the AAD as a crutch for jumping and I fear some DZs aren't looking at the big picture by requiring everyone to have one. Ultimately it is the jumper who's responsible for saving their own life. Since when did this ever change? AADs are just a great insurance policy for freefall collisions. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

The Triax people videotaped virtually every jump, but they're off doing some sort of special video of the event and we'll just need to be patient to see what they come up with (hopefully it won't be too long before they're done). But it is kind of disappointing that with all the other video cameras which were running, so far the only person who has choosen to share some of their video was Travis (he did use Brady's view of Moledski's jump). I know of at least one other really cool view of Jay Moledski's distance record jump taken from the entry gates, but I fear that it will be kept private and not shared. Come on folks, I know a lot of cameras were running out there. Why do some people choose not to share their work with the people who couldn't be there. This was an awesome event to both participate in and to be a spectator for, but the lack of video surfacing is disappointing. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

As far as I know Corrine (sp?) posted the updated results on the trailer adjacent to the pond. But no detailed results were ever posted online. But Jim told me that he would do this on the canopypiloting.com website once he gets home. So we'll need to bug Jim in a day or two. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Any reaction from Airtec concerning the AAD being fired during a high performance landing? I like my Cypres for the protection from freefall collisions and I believe you guys have built a great product for this purpose. But what are we swoopers to do if the unit fires during a high performance turn? Respectfully ... Steve Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I don't know the internal workings of the AADs but yes I would like to see something change. I jump with my AADs turned off when I'm doing hop n' pops and swooping the pond (I don't need an AAD on these jumps) but it's the other jumps where I may need the protection of the AAD for freefall collisions. The AAD may save me for that rare freefall collision but turn around and it MAY kill me when I start my turn? Doesn't sound like a very safe device right now. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Well the bottom line Travis is that Derek is not impressed with us swoopers. He obviously doesn't think we're very skilled despite the fact that he wasn't there and is only basing his opinion of your (most awesome) video. Some of us were there and I was very impressed with the skill level of the amateurs and professionals even though some of us could have done better not abusing our bodies. We are humans after all and are capable of making mistakes. Sure would be nice to be perfect (I know I'd be in less pain if I was), but I'm not. So in the end, who cares if only one person wasn't impressed. The event was a success, the amateurs for the most part flew well, the pros showed us what they can do and Jay Moledski shattered his world record and upped the bar for the swooping world. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Yes we've already talked about this. 10 points were deducted from the competitors zone accuracy score if they failed to stand up the landing and the freestyle event had a similar rule. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Actually numerous (mainly minor) injures occured to both amateur and professional swoopers during the CPC Championships and GoFast Challenge. Two amateur competitors (myself being one of them) had to pull themselves from the competition prior to it's completion due to injuries. But just because someone is a little banged up doesn't mean that we weren't having fun and flying our canopies well (once again there is so much more to swooping than the very tail end of when when we touch down on the planet). Swooping is evolving very very rapidly and it's getting to the point where people are willing to put up with a little punishment in order to push the performance envelope. Yes once in a while someone was seen digging out of the corner, but there were no really serious injuries and the skill level of the amateurs at this meet was outstanding. Records are made to be broken and Jay Moledski's distance run of 678 feet was magical. I am happy that I was a part of this historic week. This distance record will not stand forever, but did we ever think a swooper could swoop this far this time last year? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

The Moab boogie isn't for another two weeks. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Not every dropzone has the luxury of a golf course green like landing area where the canopy pilot surfs their landing suspending their weight by continuing to fly their canopy until the last possible split second when lift is lost and they finish the run out. If you try this techinique at most DZs (or the current landing area of Mile-Hi's new pond) you risk face planting. So the preferred technique is to butt slide it when your ground speed is too fast (and the pros told me how to properly do this and I can't wait to get some practice at it once I'm healed up). Prior to this summer I always prided myself with my stand up landings after my swoops. So what changed? Well I bought Grant's old 103 from him with his ultra long brake settings and my survival technique while training here at altitude all summer long was to butt slide my landing. Did it beat me and add wear to my gear? Yes ... and in retrospective I probably was pushing certain aspects of my swoop instead of concentrating on others. My 103 will need a reline soon and you better believe that the brake settings will be shorter than what they are right now. But I enjoyed the performance I was getting from Grant's canopy, so I continued to jump it as is. Like I said, I knew going into the CPC Championships that I wouldn't be one of the big distance guys. So I concentrated on making the gates, scored my personal best competition distance result and finished 12th pretty much where I expected to be if I ran clean. Going into zone accuracy my goal was to hit the gates, drag my feet through the water for bonus points, avoid no mans land and land in a positive scoring zone. Standups were a bonus, but were only 10% of my total score. So should I have neglected the remaining 90% only to stand up my landing? Hell no. I finish 5th in zone accuracy and I'm really proud of myself for my performance on this event (I kind of view zone acc as my current specialty and I can't wait to try the carving zone accuracy course the pros do ... it looks fun). Where I fucked myself in this CPC competition was in the speed event. We had difficult downwind conditions to negotiate and my mistake was thinking that this is a speed course and that I needed to run it fast. I got behind the power curve, confused ground speed with airspeed, thought I could negotiate the course on my rears, rear riser stalled the canopy (which is very violent under a cross-braced canopy) and hurt my back (fortunately not seriously) and had to pull myself from the competition before it had even completed. Had I just run the carving speed course making a nice controlled turn and dealt with the downwind ground speed, I likely would have run clean, had respectable runs, finished in the top 10 overall and would now be training for the pro qualifier. But I fucked up and you better believe that this was a lesson I will learn from (I love lessons you can hobble away from) plus I learned that while I am a good amateur high performance canopy pilot, I am not ready yet to be competiting against the pros. Why do I say all of this ... because competitive swooping is so much more than just the actual touch down portion of the landing. The competitive swooper must read the weather, fly themselves to their setup, initiate their turn, dive their canopy, align themselves with the entry gates, choose the right time to get off of the risers, make the gates, negotiate the course doing whatever it is they are supposed to do in the course and then land their canopy to score points (yes standups are preferred but walking away to make the next load is better). There is a whole lot of skill going on there, not just worrying about the landing. If I can walk away from my swoop and make the next load, then I am a happy swooper. But sometimes swoopers do get hurt. It's a physical sport. What we need to do is get people to stop being in the corner (I can't remember the last time I was in the corner, but that doesn't mean I couldn't find myself there on my next jump). I would like to see the aspiring swoopers (not the ones already competiting at the Pro and/or top CPC level) not worry about being the fastest and farthest swooper on the block, but instead learn how to dive their canopy, get off of the risers and let the canopy recover by itself. But to do this, the wannabe swooper must know how to find the performance envelope of their canopy by dedicated jumps to learning it up high before they ever induce speed low to the ground. I will say one thing though (for all the wannabe swoopers out there), listen to the experienced swoopers around you and seek qualified coaching when possible. The experienced people really do know what they are talking about when they want people to slow down. I did listen to them when I was a wannabe ... but the right messages never did always get through. I made hundreds and hundreds of jumps living in the corner (not the dangerous side of the corner, but the corner nonetheless). If I had only known then what I know now, I can only imagine how further ahead of the game I could have been. Let's be smart out there folks. Swooping rocks but it is very unforgiving of the errors that we make. If you want to be a swooper, put your pride aside, listen to others more experienced than you and dedicate jumps to canopy control. Swooping will be there for us tomorrow if we're smart today. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

In order to safely swoop, the canopy pilot needs to spend time in practice pulling high and learning the performance envelope of the canopy before they ever try to induce speed low to the ground. I'm sure the real bad asses of the world wouldn't take that long to figure it out, but I would need to go back to square one and spend time figuring out how to find the performance envelope of a Sabre2 170 (shit taking off my weights on my velo messes me up at times). It would be cool to see a swoop comp where it really came down to the canopy pilot and not have the gear influence the results. But this is not something that can be easily achieved. But it would be fun to see and participate in. At the CPC Championships I knew I didn't have a hope in hell in placing as one of the top distance competitors because most of them had more experience than I did but also because some of them had more high tech gear than what I had. But that didn't stop me from hitting the gates on all three of my runs and scoring respectable distance runs for my experience level and gear used. People need to get out of the mindset of I can only compete if I go big or have the latest gear. The new high tech gear helps the advanced canopy pilot, but these guys already know how to consistently hit the gates. Until you can consitently hit the entry gates in the lower stress realms of practice people shouldn't be worried about doing it in the high stress situation of competition. Learn to run the entry gates, then worry about going fast and going far and worry about how you can max out your performance with high tech gear. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

The key to winning swoop comps is making the entry gates run after run. The guys willing to push the fine line on these gates by going big are the ones who often vert and get a big fat donut. During our zone accuracy event at the CPC Championships, they penalized us 10 points for not standing up the landing (plus the freesyle events have a similar rule). But to say that someone needs to standup a landing on distance or speed is just holding the sport back. Education can and always has been the key for the wannabe swooper. I am very happy that I received some canopy control instruction from you when I had 150+ jumps. And I didn't stop learning. I've received some form of canopy control coaching from Jim Slaton three times now and am hoping to get some from Jay Moledski this week. Instead of worrying about corrupting the wannabe swooper with butt slide landings, we need to emphasize to the junior swooper that they shouldn't be worrying about generating too much speed and distance with their wing and worry more about learning how to dive your canopy, get off of the risers at the right time and let the canopy plane out by itself (I've already been talking about this to several wannabe CPCers). For the guys who choose not to listen, well I only hope not too many people are around when they crater. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I've gone well over 400 feet in practice. But to date my personal best (which I set this week) is only 365 feet. The reason why I can only claim 365 feet is that it must be done in competition where the appropriate judges are in place to ensure that I make the entry gates, stay within the course and follow the preset rules. Anyone can claim that they can do this or that when no one else is looking. But until it's done in competition, it doesn't count. I'm only kidding when I saw this (or am I), but Jay Moledski is my hero (actually all the Pro and Amateur swoopers I networked with this week are my heros). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Mine will come out as well if this is the case. The risk of free fall collision is always there but you often don't see it happen. But I'm performing high performance landings on virtually every skydive that I make. BSBD Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Come on Derek ... let's be real here. You're judging things you weren't even around for. First off you have no idea as to the state of the landing area and whether or not it's smooth and easy to surf on (it's not, it's easy to get your feet caught in the pea gravel and face plant if you're not careful). Secondly, it's not uncommon for us to downwind a landing. Do you really expect people to run out strong downwinders? I got hurt (suffering a hairline fracture) in my leg running out a downwind landing last year and I vowed for this never to be repeated. In fact Travis showed plenty of stand ups (he could have shown many many more butt slides). I know you're a talented canopy pilot but I also learned this week that there is no place for egos in competitive swooping. Instead of criticizing and judging us, why don't you break out that VX 60 of yours (I know you sold it, in fact it was in town competing against us this week and it sure was NOT a very effective wing). So come out and compete against us? Until I see you running the gates, making them, staying in the course doing what you're supposed to do in the various courses and consistently placing well, then it really is all talk (once again egos have no place in competitive swooping). The swooping talent has gotten better and it only will get better with time. My time as a competitive swooper will be short due to my age, but like it or not (well we know you're not going to like it), some very good young swooping talent is poised to come out of Colorado in the years to come. Something truly magical happened in Colorado this week. The Mile Hi haters ... and there are plenty of them, need to step back and think of the future instead of what's happened in the past. The CPC Championships/Go-Fast Challenge were a total success (even though big crowds were not present). The bar for swooping has been raised. It's going to be fun not only participating but seeing where the sport goes in the years to come. Criticize and judge us all you want, but we had tons of fun this week and Jay Moledski showed us what can be done at altitude. My God pond swooping rocks. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over