blazingcannon

HAHA! ya, I was just at the end of my underwater track-glide and didn't know that the pool cleaning guy had come in just as i stopped. I surfaced and saw him staring at me. He said" Oh sorry sir, I just thought you were dead!" Frickin Puffos. (pool-whuffos as in "whuffo you track in that pool?" ) haha "Spread your legs and fly"

You could practise headdown even longer if you had scubagear and stayed on the bottom of the pool : ) that's not realistic for everyone though, I don't think. I think the other guy in the hotel pool thought I was a ski-jumper or something. haha "Spread your legs and fly"

Could be that dude hadn't been checking his reserve pin? I know that a couple times I jumped assuming my reserve pin was ok, and when I went to check it, the pin had moved up. Leaving that unchecked too long could have it pop out at any time, I would think. Or maybe he was on a "contact-skydiving" jump and bumped into someone, dislodging the pin a bit. "Spread your legs and fly"

Went swimming yesterday and found out the coolest thing. - you can practise breakoff-tracking in a pool! ( I was in a small, shallow pool) Just push off the side of the pool real hard with your legs, and get into a nice stiff track position while exhaling all the way (so you don't bob up to the surface) I found I could glide farther across the pool underwater if my body track position was good. - Hopefully I'll see an improvement in my track this weekend!. Also, you can practise doing headdown pirouhettes just by pushing of the side and gettin those hands in front and behind you all propeller-like. The effect doesnt last very long, (neither does a jump) but with a little imagination, you can "feel the wind" for free. I guess you could say the swimming pool is the "Canadian Windtunnel" since we have none up here. But you can't really practise tracking in a windtunnel- Ouch - Cheers, "Spread your legs and fly"

hold hands and bicycle pedalling flips....(otter, cessna..) if it's a guy/girl 2 way, try some kamasutra exits...be creative. ie. have her fly a cockspock on you out the door, then pussyflip her! (one hand on cheststrap, one hand on pussy) muah ah ah "Spread your legs and fly"

For the first time, I watched a friend biff in very hard. Explained in incidents forum re: SkydiveBurnaby. I learned that just over the horizon of "yahoo!" lurks a world of pain. Safety first! Yahoo second! "Spread your legs and fly"

Yup, I agree. This works great. kind of uncomfortable and distracting cause of the blood rushing to your head, but very good at teaching you your centre of balance while giving you the inverted visuals that may be part of the source of people's off-balancedness when they start. Things to practice doing this: Get yer legs out. Spreaddem! Find your balance. Make it so you're pretty much just balancing on your head, with just little corrections from your arms and legs. (this kinda equates to going down the tube in headdown) Test your balance. Wave yer legs back and forth in the straddle position. With practise you should be able to wag your legs in front and behind you without losing your balance. (this would equate to moving around in headdown once you've "found the tube") Cheers, "Spread your legs and fly"

Here's some helpful sites : ) Head up flying. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. http://www.zct.co.uk/skydivemag/pages/articles/aug00/headupflying.htm http://www.zct.co.uk/skydivemag/pages/articles/oct00/headupflying2.htm http://www.zct.co.uk/skydivemag/pages/articles/dec00/headup3.htm Headdown. http://www.zct.co.uk/skydivemag/pages/articles/apr98/headdown.htm Enjoy, "Spread your legs and fly"

Here's some great articles. Head up flying. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. http://www.zct.co.uk/skydivemag/pages/articles/aug00/headupflying.htm http://www.zct.co.uk/skydivemag/pages/articles/oct00/headupflying2.htm http://www.zct.co.uk/skydivemag/pages/articles/dec00/headup3.htm Headdown. http://www.zct.co.uk/skydivemag/pages/articles/apr98/headdown.htm "Spread your legs and fly"

i have a heatwave 135- has only opened soft subterminal. Without a helmet, it sounds great too....wfffhhhhhhhApP! Cheers, "Spread your legs and fly"

I chopped mine off- I"ve seen some people keep theirs on and attach the free end to the back of their helmet. "Spread your legs and fly"

http://www.skydivegan.com/ngspc/images/Fotter014.JPG what I meant to say but didn't post somehow in that last one was- "like this?" : ) my sit has gotten better since this pic : )ha ha Cheers, "Spread your legs and fly"

"Spread your legs and fly"

"Spread your legs and fly"

I started at 18, - 2 IAD's in the fall of my first year at university. I just had no money to keep doing it. Going back, I would have hung out at the DZ more often. Great people there : ) "Spread your legs and fly"

http://webhome.idirect.com/~blazingcannon/pics/skydive/airporn/legsspread.JPG Muah ah ah, "Spread your legs and fly"

Door opens- SO far down! Arch one thousand two one thousand... Sweet Dropping Sensation Disorientation Open Canopy. WOOO hooo! (probly heard me on the ground) Now..hmm.. let's see how far I can see my spit travel down... --------------------- the other thing I remember was watching people swoop- colours carving out of the sky; my current DZ (then sporting a mullet) turfsurfing on his knees.. happy frickin fall! "Spread your legs and fly"

Not just maybe,...absolutely. Just last weekend I did some "practice coach jumps" with a guy learning headdown- I learned about the strengths and weaknesses in my coaching style, about how to fly even more aggressively while still "getting the shot" so they can get even more feedback in the air, even though they're flying all over the sky, about how to talk about the positive things before giving constructive criticism.. It's a challenge too. it's like...rover..go get it! rowff! and you go and you try and stay with them. That's totally a flying workout for anyone. cheers and free beers, "Spread your legs and fly"

Try practising on the ground before you go up- Get your back straight, Arms out to the sides or a little back, legs WIDE out to the sides and bent at 90 degrees. - feet under the knees. (watch videos of the big boys in sit, and you'll see that it's actually more "head-up flying" than it is a real sit position) Backslides will be caused by leaning forward, and having feet under the knees, so practise not leaning forward, and getting your legs bent 90degrees. An easy (though not that comfy) way to practise is to straddle something so your feet are off the ground. Try to balance with your arms out to the side.- See how when you lean forward, you have to scrunch your legs to keep balance- kind of like what you're describing that's happening in the air. Now see what happens when you lean back. your legs have to extend down and forward to keep balance. It's pretty much all about finding your centre of balance. I found that practising balance on the ground helped me loads in the air. Hope this helps! "Spread your legs and fly"

haha... ya, or instead of a windtunnel you could pay 7 bucks to run through one of those automatic car washes with the jet-blast dryers at the end of it and stand there *snooty brit accent*: "tuning the efficiency quotient of the leading edge of your body wing" (as the quick spray-wax dries on your gear, making it waterproof...) muah ah ah

rara said it was 8 hrs.. ooh!... slogging through the muck...leeches in the shoes.. hey, we're comin to STI this weekend... cya there! "Spread your legs and fly"

yup, that was my Sarie... : ) i'm prouda her! haha "Spread your legs and fly"

hey trip..thx! have you seen the pics of you in the SKydiving Talkback forum under "ohmigad what a fun boogie?" cool schtuff! Cheers, mon. "Spread your legs and fly"

*deep breath for longwinded response...* re:--I certainly don't feel that it's a good idea to tell a newbie that he HAS to learn one or the other first.-- You'll notice that my post is pretty much relating my experience having been there and what has worked best for me.- I don't think there's any danger for newbies there -We ultimately have to choose what information will work for us and which won't : ) re:--Uuummm...maybe I'm just stupid but I think the GOAL is to learn to fly by using ALL positions when the need arises. It IS Freeflying right? -- I dunno, that kind of dips into Olav's unique concept of what he thinks FreeflyingTM should be, doesn't it? Does Freeflying mean the same thing to everyone? Think about how many Freeflyers you know that shun doing a flat dive.. I can think of SO many! And, does it really matter as long as you're having fun? : ) Also, it may be cool to try to fly all positions (there's nothing wrong with being adventurous...isn't this how new stuff gets invented?), but some positions are going to be more stable than others, others more comfortable, others will be more compact. ie. Try to fly a really wide daffy with legs sticking out front and back, and then hand-dock on someone right in front of you - very comfy position, but not really useful for docking cause you're leg's in the way- can't reach! : ) So it's not about restricting body positions, it's about learning the positions that will give you more choices once you can fly them. (like Trent says too ) Re:--Getting someone to relax and be comfortable seems to be the biggest hurdle in the begining.-- I think the biggest hurdle starting off headdown is getting over the disappointments and frustration of learning through trial and error - things that cause tension! Cheers, "Spread your legs and fly"

nope, I took off my RSL at about 100 jumps- During this cutaway, it was really nice to see my lineovered main flying clear from me. I pulled at about 4000' on this jump. (lucky me. : ) ) Cheers! "Spread your legs and fly"