ZoneRat

The ads that are getting on my nerves are the ones that use all these poorly written Sing-Song rhyming crap ala "Cat in the Hat"... The one for burger king seems to annoy me the most. The sing songy thing was cute exactly once. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I such at this game. My Post Loading is a paltry 0.237:1. (Ok. I admit it. I only chimed in 'cause I sorta like the phrase "Post Loading"... oh, and now I'm loaded at .239:1... for what it's worth...)

About 20 years ago I had a job approving or declining credit cards apps. Back then what you'd look at was: 1. If they maxed out all their cards would they be able to make the payments? and 2: It looks better for a person to have run up a balence and paid it off in time than a person who had credit, but never used it. So, by putting your AFF on credit and then paying it off over time it will actually improve your credit rating (or, at least it would've 20 years ago...). You'll be doing yourself A FAVOR! So if you need a rationalization for the purchase... there ya go! and happy B! (If you're brave enough, this could be the birthday you decided to change your entire life... or not.) “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Remember how nervous you were for your first jump? But you did it. And what did that get ya? Joy. You were strong enough to do AFF. You're strong enough for this too. Beating the fear is part of the fun. And when you push through it and do the solo... what'll that get ya? Hey... Stand tall. You're good for it. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Nice job! Very clean. Cool logo too. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Oh, great. My captain's an obsessive freak with a dinner plate for an avatar... (What the hell have I signed onto here...) Naw. I'd like to add my thanks to Anton's for all the advice provided for this our first serious attempt at 4-way. (And reinforce the fact that Antone does indeed owe you all a lot of beer. ) “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

So you like the hit n chug Bond thang. Cool! Now... about the jump itself... One of the coolest group exits I've done is a "Safe Sex Orgie". You know a "Safe Sex" exit, right? Gal sits on your lap carefully holding your harness as you hang backwards out the door... Yall launch together and go tumbling out like mad. Well a SS Orgy is the same but you line up multiple couples on the door. We had 3 guys hangin on the bar and a gal on each lap. It was very tight fit. (Gotta be careful to protect your handles). The gals cross linked the grips across groups somehow. It launched great, the whole big wad of people doing 5 or 6 backflips on the hill before it finally broke apart. Then we formed a round and keyed a Horny Gorilla (which of course failed miserably ). Here's a few safety thoughts about all this: If ya haven't done a Safe Sex yet, get some advice and practice at the mock up. You have to sit sorta low in the door so your gal doesn't whack her head or container on the bar on exit. It's pretty easy to do right though. If you do the Orgie, make sure there's a contingency plan when it all goes to shit. What to do if someone can't get down to the forming round or up to it... high break-off alt... that kinda thing. Also, if you dress in something other than your regular atire, make sure the material doesn't flap up over and cover your hackey in freefall. If you're thinking of doing a 2-way... a Safe Sex to a Rodeo dive is always lots a fun... In any case dude, have fun and congrats on your 100! “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Tortured to death would be pretty... umm traumatizing, I'd guess... as opposed to, say being downed and eaten by a specially designed pack of attack weasals... The flunky burst into the room. He is sweating profusely. Flunkies get killed for reporting news like this..."The prisoners have escaped sir". "Have they now?," the mad millionaire replied, running a hand through his unruly white hair... "RELEASE THE WEASALS!" “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Doors. Liquor in the front? or Poker in the rear? “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Those are perfect perfect examples. It's amazing how easy it is to inadvertantly boobytrap yourself or a friend with improperly couched language. One of the most beneficial things you can do is to learn how to pull the wool over your own eyes. Rather than saying to yourself over and over "Don't reach for grips"... better to repeat.. "Level. Proximity. Grips... Level. Proximity. Grips". It's easy to do. I still inavertantly mis-seed my friends: A common beginner climbout involves swinging their container through the center of the door. A preferred method is to grab the bar, twist 180°, then sorta back out into position. (Less congestion in the door when multiple folk are setting up). Recently I not only TOLD a guy how NOT to swing his container through the center of the mock up door... I SHOWED him how not to do it... twice. Right in front of the ST&A. Thankfully, I didn't think to show the greenie how to NOT scrape his cuttaway pillow off on the door during the climbout... lol. Hey! Well done on recognising and overcoming the seeded target fixation thang. Regardless of how the rest of that jump might've gone, that's a victory you can claim. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Instead of bringing a case of beer, bring a case of champagne. Sunset load. Get all your friends to jump with you. Everyone (or, at least you) dresses in formal attire. (James Bond style). Upon landing, champagne for all in the peas. You can use glasses, or just pass the bottle. Kinda a hit 'n chug with class. Then everyone helps polish off the rest of the champagne. Some don't care for champagne, and a good case might get pricey. So get one good bottle for the hit 'n chug, then the make the rest into mimosa's... everybody likes mimosas...

I had a hundred-ish jumps. So did my friends. They were going to do a "Dig Me" video. One of the tricks was to "Face each other and both barrel roll". Right before the jump they were telling me about it over lunch. "Oh, No", I said. "Don't face each other and barrel roll. You might hit each other. People tend to legs out on those and drive forward!". "Thanks for the tip, but we'll be be fine." they assured. Sure enough, they careened towards each other like missiles. The video guy recorded it back in slo-mo. Made for great video in a "Jesus that was close", kinda way... . Had they actually conked heads it woulda been ... well, pretty effin' hard. But they didn't. And that was cool. When they showed me the video, I felt so... vindicated. They did just exactly as I said they would. A more experienced jumper clued me in: They might not have "Careened towards each other like missiles" had I not planted the seed about the legs out just prior to the jump. Oh?!? ... oh. hmm... Did this happen to you? Did your greenie crosswind a plf after an aborted 180° because of your conversation on ride to altitude? Hell. Who knows. Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not... maybe your advice saved his femur... but ... When you're talkin' to a greenie, consider talking about perfect landing patterns, not evil low turns and crosswind plf's. Sure. They gotta know that stuff. But maybe not right before a jump. Someone clued me in to that idea of "Only talk about what you WANT them to do, not what you DON'T want them to do" right after my friends near miss. I'm not trying to condemn your concerns or actions. I think you did a good hearted thing. Just tryin to pay that positive seed idea forward. As far as the 1.15/1 wingloading goes. If his instructors thinks it's ok, I guess I do too. Surely at 9 jumps he asked SOMEBODY about the gear he was jumping. Hopefully it was his instructors. Wouldn't hurt to mention the windloading thing to them... just to make sure they are aware of it... Just my CWO

Robin “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I got some false confidence at about 15 jumps. I started getting nervous again after about 50. Had 3 close calls, each about a month apart from one another and considered dropping the sport. Decided to wait and see if they were anomolies. Seems that they were... I still amp when trying the unfamiliar. Night jumps get to me. New DZ's always rattle me for a jump or two. Anytime I can't quite lock in the dirt dive, I get over amped. The time I forgot to wear my altimeter I got nervy. CReW jumps felt like my first skydive all over again. Here's a tip for younger jumpers: I am really really glad I resisted the urge to buy a fully elliptical canopy early on. Someone wanted to sell me a stilleto at about 100 jumps, but I just didn't feel right about it. I spent a lot more money on a new, medium performance 9-cell instead. Very glad I did. It's a very comforting feeling knowing that when I'm on a short call, I can pack fast, with half my stow- bands looking about to break and even if there are line twists or whatever, I'll likely have a nice, slowly opening, fully inflated canopy up there giving me time to solve problems. One less thing to get nervy about. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Timing is unknown Let the beer-light be our guide As it always has “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Tonight is not right! Saturday shall we convene Then we run amok Free jump tickets they shall give To bait us to play My costume is lame “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Not exactly sure of the date of my first post, but I registered on Sept 6th, 2002, about a week after my A licence. I had about 25 jumps at the time. I do remember lurking for a couple months before I had the nerve to post. Because I am a dork, I keep this running list of my skydiving accomplishments which I have attached. My short term goals: > Complete coach cert by middle of next month > Not finish last place in an RW team event > Learn Video/ Camera work in prep for next season > Develop a safe, sub ten minute pack > Participate in, or ground-crew for, the Texas State Record in Spaceland > Find/ create a better DZ.com avatar Medium term goals: > AFF certification > Learn more about CReW > Big-Ways Long Term Goals: > Don't die > Don't femur > Don't forget what the sport is truly about “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

A couple things. Typically when a young jumper is first jumping with more experienced jumpers, the jump centers around tasks, not specific skills. Make the slot, don't go low, first we make this formation, then we do the meeker, then the bundy etc. Maybe there's a little creepr work first, a walk through of the dive, then, after the jump, a bit of advice and encouragement is given as everyone watches the video. Then it's onto the next jump. This is different from a good coached jump. A good coached jump usually centers on skill sets. HOW to dock. HOW to match target fall rate. HOW to decrese and increase fallrate. HOW to center point turn. A good coach will employ proven teaching methods using a variety of kinnesthetic and isometric ground work exercises to prepare the student for the jump, moving the student through a progression from a cognitive understanding of what's entailed to an autonomic understanding. Then there are ways to debrief that are better than others. Plus you help the student get a handle on relaxation techniques and other useful stuff as well. A coached jump is just a different animal than a mentored jump. (Both have their uses I think). Also, mentors can sometimes unknowingly provide false information. A rated coach can too, I suppose, but owing their additional training, I think it's less likely. Do I support a mentor program? Hell yeah. Everything that can possibly aid a new jumper is a good thing. But will a mentored 2-way provide as much value to a student as a coached jump? Nope. No way. Not even close. Just my .02 “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Whoa... Sounds like you stumbled into a David Lynch movie! Those fires are insane. Stay safe, man. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Spiderman would make a good choice, I'd think, owing the recent movie release and all. Tight suit so there's no material obscuring your handles in freefall. No cape. Wolverine might work as well. Both are infinintly less faggy than Peter Pan. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Of all the cool-ass things you can do on this planet...It's the MOST fun... btw, what'd YOU do this weekend, eh? Another personal favorite: Because Life tastes better with bigger bites. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Haven't heard of any 10-way teams training for nationals, but I expect to be a member of a last minute zoo team. As such, I've bought a couple sets of thin soccer shin-guards.. one set that I might use on my forearms... Do you think a roller hockey helmet, replete with face cage is overkill? or just good sense? Yep... this is gonna be stoopid fun!

I got it on my 22nd jump. My A license card was stamped by a pretty, blue eyed instructress wearing a grass skirt and a coconut brazier! (It was during our annual Labor Day (Hawaiian style) Luau... lol) In addition to her coconut's, I still remember what she cautioned: "So as of this moment you have your "A" license... it is not "A license" to get yourself hurt..." “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Here's a few ideas: Pick a heading and assume the deployment position. Hold it for several seconds... See if you can hold that position without effecting a change in your heading. If you can, you will greatly reduce the probability of line twists on deployment. And that's a good thing.

Anyone know of any real-life human interest stories for Nationals? You know the story type... "Skydiver overcomes cancer (or some other personal obtacle) to realize dream of competing at Nationals" or "93 year old skydiver, still goin' strong!" Anything. Gotta be a real story though. Don't troll me. I've been asked to see if I can find some for a friend of a friend... Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to post here or email me direct. Thanks in Advance, Robin “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”