CanuckInUSA

Professional sports is nuts. In 1986 I attended game #1 and game #2 of the Stanley Cup finals and paid $10 for my tickets for each game (granted they were not the best seats). In our modern world you are paying a minimum of $200 for the same "crappy seats" to the finals. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I always laugh at how people think they are above average drivers while they view everyone else on the road as a moron. Interesting how there can be so many above average drivers on the roads and yet have so many morons at the same time. Unless someone has taken the effort to enhance their driving knowledge through advanced driver training and stay current with these advanced driving techniques, people are only fooling themselves when they think they are superior above average drivers. The difference between the sexes is that the average testosterone driven male thinks they are Mario Andretti without the need to do any advanced driver training while the vast majority of women know they are not the American racing icon and thus do not try to pretend that they are while driving on the public roads. I see dumb stuff on the roads everyday being committed by both sexes. Both sexes could improve their driving if they looked further ahead than they already to do in order to anticipate things that are about to happen. Then have the knowledge of "what not to do" when it comes to controlling the vehicle. But much of the shit men find themselves in is directly related to not keeping their testosterone in check and realizing that without advanced training they are nothing more than average drivers at best. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Let's wait and see what New England does in their next game(s) before we pass final judgment on the 2011/2012 Denver squad. Heck half way through this season did anyone even think Denver would be playing in the playoffs? By the way what a crazy finish between the 49ers and the Saints. Four lead changes in the closing minutes. It was nuts ... but entertaining. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Football is a team game. You could have the best QB in the history of the game on your team and he will still look like a goat if the offensive line is not getting the job done, the receivers are not getting open and if there is no running game to take the pressure off of the passer. On top of that, the best QB in the history of the game can do nothing when the other team's offense is on the field shredding your defense play after play. Throw in the fact that Tebow is only a 2nd year QB in the league and no where near the best and nobody should be surprised that the better team (New England) won last night. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

1) I am a fan of the Denver Broncos (so I am not happy today). and 2) I think Tebow would be a better Rugby player than a NFL football quarterback. 3) I am agnostic, definitely not a fundy however ... Since when in football was the quarterback 100% responsible for the outcome of the game? I didn't know Tebow was also playing on defense. In case you missed the game while you were too busy looking for ways to show the world how much hate exists in your mind, Tom Brady and the New England offense was near perfect in the first half of last nights game. Denver did not lose the game solely because of Tim Tebow. Denver lost the game because New England was a lot better football team on both sides of the ball. It's the media that has whipped up this Tebow mania hype. Simply amazing how people allow the media to influence them. Next thing you know the masses will be thinking that some junior senator from Illinois will be the Messiah Superhero Savior of the Universe all because the media told them so. Ooops too late. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Bureaucrats Gone Wild Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Jobs come and go. At least for myself working as a software developer this is the reality I have had to deal with as I have worked at more than 20+ different organizations over the years. Sometimes I have gotten extremely lucky where I have only been 5 minutes away from work, but on average the commutes have been 45-60 minutes with 75 minutes being the worst I have had to deal with (not counting rare days when some weather event brings the commute to a stand still). Currently it takes me 30+ minutes to get to my present job in the mornings and yet it takes close to 60 minutes on the way home. Hard to explain this except that there are just more people on the roads trying to get from point A to point B in the afternoons than there are in the mornings. The shorter the commute the better. But instead of fixating on the commute I say fixate on the place you are commuting to. If it is a good job, the commute can be tolerated. But a lousy job is not worth the commute, even if the commute is only 5 minutes away. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I have heard this song on radio plenty of times. But I only recently watched the band's video for the song. Five people playing the same instrument at the same time. Talk about teamwork. Good stuff. Somebody that I used to know by the band "Walk off the Earth". Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

7:53 left in the game when LSU finally crossed mid-field and soon after LSU gives up the ball on a 4th down attempt. There is still 6:00 minutes remaining in the game, but put a fork in them. 'Bama's defense is just too much for LSU tonight. The fat lady sings for the Tide this evening. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

When you blitz you better be sure you are going to get to the QB before the QB finds the one guy who is open in man-to-man coverage. Tebow is not exactly the most accurate passer (I still say he should have played Rugby instead of Football). But Tebow's accuracy was good enough when he needed it to be good and the Broncos scored on their first play from scrimmage in OT. The refs missed a couple of calls in this game. First off that was a backwards pass ,not an incomplete pass in the 3rd quarter. But how convenient for the line judge to not only flub the call but to then blow his whistle immediately making the instant replay irrelevant. That is a rule that has to change. Secondly how could the refs not see the face mask penalty when a Steelers player grabbed Tebow's mask late in the 4th quarter? I sure hope this crew is done for the season. If it wasn't for the big fella upstairs liking Tebow more than Big Ben, the reffing crew almost was the influencing factor in this game. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

"Do you love me" - Brian Poole & The Tremeloes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH5_Z46h-o4 Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Exactly ... you have the ever changing dynamic sight picture as you dive and as you turn and then at some point in time what I refer to as "your spider senses" kick in and it tells you to complete the turn and initiate the recover phase. As a swooper you know this happens pretty quickly and the last thing you need is some device distracting you. Technology can be very helpful giving you information prior to your turn. But once you have committed to the diving turn it's all up to the swoopers eye sight and their experience to recognize the situation they have put themselves in and react accordingly. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I understand. It's easy for us to point out the mistakes from the safety of our homes and it's another matter dealing with the incident first hand. To prove I am human and have made mistakes under pressure. To date I have had three reserve rides. On malfunction #1 I threw both handles. On malfunction #2 I threw away my cutaway handle. It wasn't until malfunction #3 that I managed to hold on to both handles. But don't forget to flat turn (it doesn't hurt to practice on each jump). Flat turns could be a life saver if you find yourself looking at a tight landing area. Once again good job surviving your incident. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Good job for finally going for your reserve and not dying (of course your cypres likely would have saved you from going in with nothing open). You said you landed downwind. Were you aware of the winds before you got on the airplane? Yes the winds can change between the time of getting on the airplane and opening under canopy. But knowing the winds before you get on the airplane provides you will a little more information and less guessing under canopy. It is hard to tell from the video, but there appeared to be a small clearing to the upper right on the video once you first opened. Sometimes those paths like the one you eventually went for do have things like power lines. I have only ever jumped at Sebastian one weekend several years ago and I do remember thinking to myself when I jumped there that it was not the place you wanted to have an off. One thing you should have done that you appeared not to do was do flat turns under canopy. A flat turn to the left after you turned onto final would have put you in a better landing zone and it would have been crosswind as opposed to downwind. But it is easier to say all this from the comforts of home versus being there in the moment. Nevertheless, good job in surviving your incident. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

With the unfortunate fatal "non-swooping" accident yesterday at Z-Hills maybe we should just ban skydiving. I mean if a skydiving ban only saves one life (of course it will save more than one life), it will all be worth it right. Wait ... that would mean nobody would ever be able to jump anymore. How about we ban low cut-aways. Or better yet why don't we ban malfunctions. If we banned malfunctions we could all jump in bliss knowing nothing would ever go wrong. Except for those evil swoopers who want to destroy skydiving. They are all going to die. You even said it yourself here yesterday. With your wisdom towards skydiving, you told us if you swoop you will die. Actually if you want to be more accurate, if you live on this planet, one day you will die. Maybe we should just ban death? Swooping is not a crime ... at least not yet. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I know not everyone is going to agree with me, but you and your friends should reconsider their attitude towards swooping on regular loads in the pattern with all the other traffic. I would be a hypocrite if I told you in the past I have never swooped in traffic. But that was before I changed my whole attitude towards swooping. Now of course "What is a swoop?" 99.99% of time when I swoop it is with a 270 pulling down on the front risers. But a swoop can also be a 90 or a 180 (heck when I was current and flying my JVX I didn't even need to touch my front risers to generate tons of speed, all I needed to do was lean into the harness and I am coming in faster than people under larger canopies pulling down on their risers). Swooping in traffic is like playing Russian roulette. Most of the time it works, but when it doesn't work, people can and do die. Also don't think competition level swoopers only look at their altimeters flying to their setups. Competition level swoopers spend more time monitoring the skies than they do monitoring their altimeters. I don't turn at a specific altitude. I turn once I reach the point in the sky where I believe I can make the gates. The altimeter only tells me what kind of turn I can make once I arrive at the setup point. However it is absolutely imperative that competition swoopers provide separation between themselves and the other competitors and you can only do this by watching the skies. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I am a former competitive swooper (mostly CPC comps, but I did compete in three PST events back in 2006). In 2010 I decided to sell my JVX 87 because I was unable to stay as current as one needs to be to be flying such a high performance pocket rocket. I have not heard of anyone dying under a JVX 87 so it looks like I did find a qualified buyer. When I was current, I used to push myself hard and pushed myself to my limits all the time just as hard in practice as I did in competition. I have been in the corner, I have had my close calls. Not counting zone accuracy (which is a full contact sport), I did hit the ground fairly hard once in a competition when I made the mistake of thinking I could fly the entire way through the curved speed course on rear risers. My wing stalled and I landed on my ass rather hard. But I was not hospitalized and that "knock on wood" was the worst that has ever happened to me, I learned my lesson and vowed never to try and make it through the curved speed course again flying only my rears. I think you have misunderstood what people meant when they said "You will hit the ground". Yes sometimes people hit hard enough to kill or hospitalize themselves. But most of the time it is not as dramatic. We brush ourselves off, sometimes we skip the rest of the day to reflect upon our mistake and then we get back on the horse when we are ready. Swooping is not safe, but you really need to be a swooper (someone who is willing to give up freefall) to understand why swoopers do what they do. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

There is nothing safe about swooping. It doesn't matter if you are a wannabee trying to learn how to swoop, an accomplished beer line swooper or a competition level swooper. The best swoopers in the world have been seen digging themselves out of the corner. A momentary lapse of judgment could prove to be fatal. - No argument "wannabee" swoopers need to be real and realize swooping takes hundreds if not thousands of jumps with small baby steps taken along the way and having some sort of personal coaching mentor. Want to learn how to swoop? Seek an experienced mentor (preferably an established competition level swooper), put your freefall ambitions on hold and start dedicating jumps towards canopy control. - Beer line swoopers need to get off of regular loads. Swoopers need to be segregated by time or space (preferrably segregated by both time and space). I know some instructors, camera fliers and experienced fun jumpers will not agree with this, but swooping in traffic should NOT be tolerated no matter how skilled the person is. Want to swoop ... do a hop n' pop or pull at altitude out of the door if you jump at a DZ when pulling high is allowed. And always coordinate with others before you get on the airplane who swoops first, who will be second, so on and so forth. Always have a plan and stick to the plan. - Competition level swoopers need to be honest with themselves. Sure generating more speed (ie: bigger turns) can help them. But we have lost a few people thanks to big turn swoops and others have had close calls while attempting big turns. I am not saying competition level swoopers should not be attempting big turns, they just need to weigh the risks versus the rewards be honest with themselves concerning their talents. I always wanted to do bigger turns when I was an active competitive swooper, but I was always training for the next competition and you would think that in training I could find the time to learn to do bigger turns. But making the gates was more important than generating that added extra speed of the big turn. Sounds weird ... training was the time to learn the bigger turns, but I was also losing valuable training time if I was always missing the gates (or worse putting myself at risk). So I stuck with what I knew, made the gates and lived to tell about it. The problem with swooping is when you follow the "Go Big or Go Home" mantra, sometimes "Going Home" is a permanent home than most of us do not want to visit prematurely. Swooping rocks, but it sure is not safe. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I paid attention to the winds prior to boarding the airplane on every load which would dictate how I would fly my approach to the setup point and I also made sure that my visual digital altimeter was always zeroed prior to loading. Once at the setup point prior to initiating the dive the digital altimeter always gave me valuable information such as the type of turn, the speed of the turn and whether I could initiate with double fronts on something less aggressive. But once you are in the dive it is all eye sight and spider senses. The hardest thing to learn was when to stop the turn, get off of the risers and initiate the recovery. That is where jump frequency and currency pay off. There isn't a competitive swooper alive who has not been in the corner at some point in time and as Stu has said "If you continue to swoop, sooner or later you will hit the ground". The question is how hard will you hit. There just isn't enough time to let yourself be distracted by gadgets once you are in the dive. You need to be concentrating 100% of the time when you are diving towards the ground. Your life as well as the lives of the people on the ground who may be in your path depend on this concentration. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

As a former competitive swooper, I am a big fan of using a visual digital altimeter as a tool to tell me how well I flew to my setup and what kind of turn I can make. I tried the audible altimeter as well but went away from them because no approach is the same and to rely on a "Beep" to tell you to start your swoop is just wrong (IMHO). The digital altimeter told me what sort of turn I can do and what technique to use to get the canopy diving. And of course if you arrive at your setup point and you blew your approach or there is traffic, then you must abort the swoop, land the canopy safely, repack and try to not make the same mistake flying your setup the next time. But once you have initiated the dive, you need to rely on your eye sight and your spider senses to tell you when to initiate the recovery. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Swooping by it's very nature, is the act of pushing the envelope. Good grief swoopers are purposely trying to induce as much speed as they can (hopefully within their limits). Having inexperienced or uncurrent people die because they were pushing the envelope is NOT good. The margin for errors in swooping is slime to nil. But even the best know the risks and could fall prey to the risks if there is an ounce of complacency. As Ian says "Define Swooping" because large BASE canopies can be swooped just as small pocket rocket canopies are swooped. And of course not all swoopers are created equal. There is a big difference between the best swoopers in the world and the other swoopers who have the skill to compete against the best, but do not have what it takes to win competitions. Then of course there is a big difference between the competition level swooper and the beer line swooper and of course a big difference between the beer line swoopers and the wannabees. Most of us can agree (I thought we came to this conclusion several years ago) that swoopers must be segregated by everyone else by time or space (or better yet both time and space). But there seems to be a mentality by some to want to "Ban Swooping". You know you are a swooper (this usually applies to the competition level swooper) when all you want to do, is swoop. Non-swoopers can not understand this need swoopers have to swoop. "Define Swooping" ... I was only starting to learn how to do freestyle on the pond when I stopped being current as a swooper and thus had to hang up any ambitions I had towards competing against the best. But I always loved watching the best, skim across the pond, take their shoe off, show the shoe to the crowd, put their shoe back on and proceeded to land their canopies on the dry side of the pond. If swooping is ever banned, it will be a sad day for the evolution of skydiving. None of us gets out of here alive. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Are you old enough to remember this? You know two men wearing body armor hold up a "Bank of America" branch in North Hollywood and lead the police on a wild 45 minute shootout resulting in the deaths of both armed robbers as well as the injury of 8 police officers and 7 civilians. The police were outgunned that day. That was the day that changed the mentality of police forces far and wide concerning their armament and their procedures. If you want to start internet threads blaming the police for being armed to the teeth, don't ever forget the two men who changed the world when they decided to rob a bank back in 1997. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Swooping is NOT a crime. At least it's not one yet. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Please point out exactly where I have said in this thread (or any other thread) that humanity should not be actively seeking out different sources of fuel. I am simply pointing out that the world is not about to run out of oil anytime soon. If you want to buy yourself an electric car, knock yourself out. They make perfect sense for people who live in mild climates and who never leave their urban settings. They are less viable when you live in a cold climate and/or need to travel long distances. Of course make sure you know where your sources of electricity are coming from. Not everyone is lucky enough to live where hydro electric power is available in abundance and you could be trading one GHG producer for another. By the way here is a hybrid vehicle I am very much interested in (F1 is doing pretty much the same thing with their KERS technology). This hybrid technology is not feasible for public consumption at this time, but remember when the first mobile phones where the size of shoe boxes. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I am simply pointing out that there is enough oil in Western Canada to power the entire world for the next century, meaning the world is not about to run out of oil as some people here have claimed. But that does not mean the entire world is lining up to buy the oil in Western Canada ... at least not at this time. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over