CanuckInUSA

Just thought I'd let you guys in on something. I'm part of P.E.T.A. People Eating Tasty Animals. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Well I once had a close encounter with a Black bear while mountain biking in British Columbia. But fortunately it was more scared than I was. But had Yogi been a Grizzly bear, that outcome would likely have been different. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Well instead of asking "how do you want to die", I'll approach this from a "how I'm likely to die" view: 1) Heart Disease - likely some short term pain, but it should be quick? 2) Cancer - long drawn out grizzly death, the type I don't want, the type my father is currently going through. 3) Car accident - possibly quick and painless, possibly long and drawn out and painful. 4) BASE jumping - likely quick and painless, then again maybe not. 5) Plane crash - likely quick and painless (believe it or not, this is my preferred way to go). 6) Skydiving - likely quick and painless, then again maybe not. 7) Murder victim - possibly quick and painless, possibly long and drawn out and painful. 8) Suicide - likely quick and painless, but in my current mindset, I don't believe in this method. 9) Natural causes - this one always gets me. What's really death by natural causes? Believe it or not, I don't want to be one of those 80-90 years olds with no mind or a body which doesn't work. So in most cases, my ultimate demise could very be quick and painless and of all these methods, the one I least want to experience is death by cancer followed by heart disease. I do hope NOT to die either BASE jumping or skydiving as I know y'all would be flaming me for going this way. But in most cases, we don't choose how we die. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I'm thinking that a plane crash will take me one day. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

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

In the 24 months that I have been skydiving (and 2 months of BASE jumping), I have hurt myself more playing hockey and volleyball than I have jumping. The problem with jumping injuries is that they can be pretty catastrophic (of course so can a nasty hockey injury when your body meets the boards at high speeds). Oh ... LOL ... I have suffered a BASE jumping injury. A few weeks back I sprained my left thumb when it got caught up with a riser on opening. You can bet that I haven't reached for my risers + mud flaps after pitching my PC on the 10 jumps I've made since then. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Bellas? Who are they? Oh ya I remember now. If you can believe it, I'll be hanging around locally this weekend. I've been travelling a lot since Memorial Day what with four trips to Twin Falls and a long weekend in Wildwood. I need a break. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Wasn't it FUCK the MUFF BROTHERS? Or was that just a Rodriquez Brothers thingy? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

There is no harm in jumping a rig with a long bridle even if you aren't doing a wingsuit jump. The only downside is that cocking the longer bridle can be a pain in the rear end. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Yes the openings can be unpredictable. But it's still not as squirelly as the openings on my Crossfire2. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I'm a former owner of two Sabre2 canopies. You'll enjoy it. My only beef was the short recovery arc when swooping. But it's still a great canopy. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Absolutely!!! I know I'm going to set myself up for some flaming and abuse by some what with I'm about to say. But the bottom line is that I have certain current short, medium and long term goals (the exact time of when these goals are to be achieved are unknown at this time). Goal #1 Try my best not to mess myself up or mess up someone I jump with. Goal #2 To be good enough at freeflying to be invited on some big-way freefly jumps. Goal #3 Build up enough wingsuit and BASE experience, knowledge and skills to be able to huck myself off of some big walls doing wingsuit BASE jumps. Goal #4 To qualify for the PST. I tell myself that I'll be happy to be in the "Advanced" class but who knows. Maybe if I ever do qualify for the PST, then I will try to get into the "Pro" class. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Doh!!! How could you forget such a thing? I know that there are a few people who have jumped more than me, but I have been hit pretty hard (and I haven't even cutaway ... yet). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

In terms of what I did, well I didn't jump because my 1st skybirthday occurred on a Monday and last year the DZ was closed on Mondays. Today is my 2nd skybirthday and in case you didn't see the post, I was planning on trying to get a hop n' pop in this morning. But there was low clouds in morning when I woke up. But by 8:30 am (Mountain Time) the clouds started to burn off, so I went to the DZ anyway to try and get my jump in. But I was told by manifest that the first load wouldn't be going up until after 12ish (when the tandems were scheduled to arrive), so I'm back at work and won't do anything skydiving related (but reminisce) on my 2nd skybirthday. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Today is my 2nd SkyBirthday and I went so far as to tell people at work that I would be late this morning as I was planning on venturing out to the DZ to get a hop n' pop in to commemorate the occasion. But as I look out the window this morning, what do I see? Nothing but a sub 2000 foot cloud layer (and this after the weatherman said it would be sunny this morning). Oh well. I guess I won't have to worry about hurting myself today and trying to explain it to the boss. Hi-ho ... hi-ho ... it's off to work I go. With a shovel and pail and hand grenade ... it's off to work I go. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Also watch out for those fire hydrants which are covered up by the tall grass. They like to eat these golf carts and the people riding the cards late at night. This same rule should also apply to Chuck. But then Jari and Chuck are likely to be hanging out together. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Will you be around? If you're in the state then of course I'd make some jumps with you. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Sunshine will need some sort of homing device as she seems to typically find herself out at the RV Park and doesn't know how to get back to her tent. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Swooping, freeflying, some birdman jumps and yes some BASE jumps. I did Rantoul last year and had a good time. But I don't need to do it again. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Probably not as I'd still rather be a participate than a spectator. But that's why recordable VCRs were invented right? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

This is precisely why it is a good idea to try to take advantage of flying one of those demo reserve canopies when they come to the DZs. I can't say that I'm an expert with a grand total of 5 jumps on the demo PD143s that I've made. But I have made 5 jumps on the very same reserve canopies which are in both of my rigs. So I do have an idea of how to fly them and thus am not as worried about landing out on them (assuming once again that I'm not above a sketchy area such as the area which surrounds Sebastian or the town of Rantoul and/or Wildwood - other areas which I have jumped). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Historically I've always been interested in the Olympics. But something is just not there for me this year. I guess I will watch a little "Oly" action on Mondays and Tuesday evenings (nights that I'm usually free). But with my volleyball on teams playing on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, plus jumping on Friday evening, Saturdays and Sundays, I'd rather be out participating in a sport than be at home watch the boob-tube. It will probably never happen, but wouldn't it be cool if the PST was to compete in the Olympics. I think swooping would do well in such a venue. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

This link http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum works for me. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I wonder if Hooknswoop (if he ever gets back into skydiving) would try to catch a main again? In case you haven't seen it or weren't aware of it, he caught Jim's Crossfire2 canopy between his legs. Peter was jumping it and chopped it after a violent opening on the sunset cross-country load during the Eloy Holiday boogie and the video can be seen either on my Bellas II preview video or on Duece's Holiday boogie video. And ironically this is the very same canopy which I now own and love to fly (I bought it off of Jim a few months ago). I also wonder what DaGimp is thinking right now as well as he attempted to catch Jim's main on several passes before Hooknswoop took over the task. You've got to assume that Nate Gilbert was a better canopy pilot than most of us, and if he can die trying to catch the main, then the rest of us are at an even higher risk. As long as I'm not at risk of landing in a sketchy area with trees, buildings and powerlines (not really the case where we jump in most cases right?), for sure I will be following both my main and my freebag down (based on my cutaway experience last December, the two won't be that far away from each other) and I will try to fly close to the gear non-contact CReW style. But after what happened to Nate, you can rest assured it will be non-contact with the gear. It sucks that Nate lost his life, but this is for sure a lesson that many of us can learn from. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Some people log their jumps and some people don't. But just because you see someone here claim that they have 1000+ jumps doesn't automatically mean that they're not logging their jumps. They may just choose not to update their DZ.COM profile. But for sure there are many people out there who's log books are not up-to-date. I fall into the "logging" category and when I actually log my jumps really depends on what I'm doing during my jumping day and how much free time I may have (sometimes I'll log the jumps during the day and sometimes I'll get to it within a couple of days of the jump). But I do find it easier to log the jumps on a fairly frequent basis as it's easier to keep track of what I did and who I did it with. But obviously not everyone feels this is necessary. Some people only have their jumps logged on their ProTracks, but I am leary of relying on that method as I have had one ProTrack die on me and recently lost the replacement ProTrack (lost it on the ground somewhere so I'm totally at fault here). So all of the data for my first 700+ jumps have been lost. But once again I do log my jumps on paper, so I have certain details. As far as what I log, well in some respects I keep detailed info on each jump and in some respects I keep very basic info. I log: 1) The jump number. 2) When I jumped. 3) Where I jumped. 4) What airplane I jumped from. 5) What sort of jump it was. 6) Who I jumped with. 7) Whether or not I stood up the landing (vast majority of my landings are standups). 8) What canopy I used and # of jumps on it (very useful as I fly more than one canopy). And lately (after my latest lost ProTrack incident) for the last jump of the day, I will write down my total freefall time from the ProTrack in my logbook so that I have an idea as to how much freefall time I've built up (a totally unnecessary detail ... I know) Now I stopped getting signatures once I hit 500 skydives. But I guess if/when I visit Perris Valley I will need to make sure that my last skydive in my log book was signed as I believe Perris does not honor the ProTrack logs and actually requires signatures. Oh and if something special happened on that jump, then I may choose to write more about the event. But in most cases I'm just mentioning what sort of jump it was, who I jumped with and my landings. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over