jerry81

Well, I wore my new thermal undercap for no reason at all this weekend. The ground temperature was a little above 0°C, but I'd say it was around 10°C or more at 9000'. It was a beautiful sunny day and my (gloved) fingers almost froze on the ride down. Obviously, the air kept getting colder till 3000' and then gradually warmer again. Looking back, I think the toughest part would be packing out in the open. Good thing I didn't have to

Oh man! Anything but that, please!!! Dogs in tutus/sweaters/parkas/tuxedos... are ridiculous. Just imagine, those things used to be wolves! And anyway, cats are so much cooler!

I don't know the numbers and this may not hold for America, but over here, skydiving is mostly a male sport. Sure, there are some women, but not all (and I hope I'm not offending anyone) would fit in the 'hot chicks' category. IMO, skydiving is not one of those hobbys you take up to meet new sexual partners. Of course since the majority of skydivers are men, you would expect some of them to be gay, but compared to us finding hot chicks, you'll probably have a harder time finding gay skydivers. Sorry. As for open mindedness, I personally wouldn't mind if a gay person/couple was jumping with me.

>What do you gain from whatever your beliefs are? The ability to cope with the world/universe and the way it keeps changing. >Do you believe others should believe as you do? As a matter of fact, I do. I'd never try to 'convert' someone who was happy with what they believe in, unless their belief had a negative influence on my life (or if they started with the converting. I once almost made two Jehova's witnesses cry). But I do believe the world would be a better place if people would realize that life's most difficult questions do not have simple answers and that these answers can not be learned from a particular book or in a church- they must be your own conclusions based on all the knowledge you soak up in your life- and as such, always subject to change. >If you do, is there a best way to help them believe as you do? Yes, by posting my views on an internet board read exclusively by people considered by a majority to be 'a little weird'. But seriously, no. As someone already said, each person should walk their own path. If the wide paved road suits you best, take it. I'm over here stumbling over rocks and through bushes and having a great time.

Niiiiiice! Have you done the silk scarf test yet?

I don't own a Kurupee suit, but if you intend to freefly with it, I'd say go for the tight one with less drag (especially if you're a slow faller) and learn to fly with your body, rather than relying on your ultra-baggy, ultra-draggy suit. I started to learn head-up flying with just a baggy sweater and shorts, have since tried on some different freefly suits (my own is currently in the making, yay!

I'm right there with you. I don't smoke cigarettes (even though I'm familiar with the pleasure smoking can offer) because they taste like shit to me, not because I fear for my health. And if I drink, I usually don't get piss-drunk, not because I have any concerns about my liver or brain cells, but because that standing-up-falling-down-barfing-all-over-the-place state of being is just no fun to me. As for loving life, I think it's more about trying to enjoy every day of it, rather than trying to make it last as long as possible. (I remember a pro-smoking argument I read once; "So if you smoke, remember that each cigarette shortens your life by about four minutes. So if you smoke a pack per day your whole life, you'll lose about four years of quality time you could otherwise spend in a nursing home.")

So how do you use this fine product? Do you sit on it, wear it in your underpants or just stuff it up your...? And since a healthy person 'toots' 13 times per day in average, you'd have to replace the filter every month or so. But of course if you're a skydiver (and especially if you're a low-time student), all bets are off.

Try walking into a propeller of a jump plane. Or throw yourself off a cliff and pretend it's BASE, but without a parachute. No, seriously, get someone to talk to. If you're considering suicide and asking for advice about it, it means you haven't given up completely just yet. Hold onto life, pointless as it may seem sometimes. And btw, interesting profile. Any good dropzones on the Pacific Islands?

Woohoo, I only got two wrong! I guess I'm an Ass-Master, or something...

I pay around 400$ per year- it includes mandatory insurance, car registration renewal and a small amount for using the roads (insurance is the most expensive part). But my car is in the cheapest insurance class according to engine size/power, so I imagine some people are paying three times as much every year. Oh, and just yesterday I made a 'donation' to the people who take care of parking problems in our city- you know, the guys with the f%&#ing tow trucks...

I hope to set a new personal record this weekend. If we're lucky, it'll be above or just around 0°C (32°F) on the ground, so it should be around -20°C (-4°F) upstairs. If we get a replay of the last weekend, it'll be -10°C on the ground and -30 up in the air (14/-22°F). In any case, I don't really care, as long as I'm jumping

I doubt that. In fact, I suspect women to be responsible for some of the worst smells that have hit my nose while riding in jump planes- after all, you probably have a lifetime of training in the field of 'silent killers' behind you. Also, you have the habit of not announcing your contributions to the air we breathe. Which also means you would never get up, open the door and stick your behind out for the actual deed. (An act of pure altruism, which I have seen performed by guys at my club many times. But of course, you also have those who take every wisp of foul air as a personal attack and always strike back.) Anyway, in my opinion a fart detector in a jump plane would be just as useful as a Geiger counter in a nuclear reactor.

As a matter of fact, yes. I once got to the plane last and thought I would just have to hang on the wing strut on the ride up. Then I somehow got in all over everyone else, and the pilot started asking about a guy who was also on the load list, but didn't show up. That's when everyone started yelling at him, so he just closed the door and took us up. Needless to say, I was first one out.

So basically, you just do any crazy thing you'd like for a week, preferably with no clothes on? Kind of like in your room, only out in the open and with thousands of people around. Sounds like a load of fun! Curse the Atlantic ocean for getting in my way.

hehe, knowing George, I'd say the food part is optional.

I saw this "life-saving" technique before- it's a nice read for whuffos, but any of us will probably notice the flaws; you'd have to pull way above everyone else to take such action in the event of a total malfunction, your friend would have a very hard time steering with just one hand and if the canopy is anything below 200sq.ft., it would mean it's probably loaded at more than 2:1, which would make for one hell of a crash landing with the flaring done with only one hand. (Perhaps an experienced swooper would see a challenge in this?) Nah, this can be done for fun, but I wouldn't place it among the frefall emergency procedures.

Well, in a Pilatus Porter, your head actually does touch the ceiling. Especially when your sitting on somebody's knees and leaning on someone else's back. The only thing I really want to believe about the single-mass procedure is that it might increase chances of survival in an airplane that's not equipped with seatbelts. And btw, thanks for the very graphical feedback, Diverdriver. Even though I've already decided to wear a belt next time I go up.

First of all, I am not kidding. This is the actual emergency procedure I had to memorize before jumping. I also think that physics-wise, it kind of makes sense and Bill already pointed out that a single point of attachment could do more damage than good in the case of a sudden stop (crash). [edit]Thanks for the values on crash forces- it does make sense to wear a seat belt if you look at it this way, even though 2000 pounds applied on the small surface a seat belt covers sounds quite unpleasant, too. [/edit] And Flyangel- even though you might get some annoyed looks from me and my fellow jumpers, I'd never not want to be in a plane with someone just because they are (over)concerned with safety. The only people I really don't like on my load are the, uh, well, constant and unapologetic stinky windbreakers . (I know this guy who would be, if it were put to vote, kicked out on most every load as soon as the altitude was safe). Oh, and I mostly jump all over our small, 13-year-old republic of Slovenia. Commercial skydiving is a relatively new thing here- old rules haven't been revised yet and even so they are not enforced very strictly. [edit]Yes, everyone has to more or less play by their own rules of safety- a seatbelt, as I have said, has just become one of mine. [/edit] Jerry

The only time I wore a seatbelt on a jump plane was the 'informative' flight before my first jump. We always make the passengers who occasionally fly with us wear seat belts (usually with comments like "if you're not wearing it, you'll have to exit with us when we get to altitude"), but I don't think I've seen a skydiver use it more than five times. I am not saying I'm completely against seat belts, I'd just like to point out some things that may be incogruent with what everyone else was saying; unless the plane takes off and immediately falls down again, you have time to prepare for a crash landing, and the procedure I have been taught for this situation is to get as close to each other as possible, with every diver holding the person behind him/her tightly to him or herself. This way everyone functions as one big object as opposed to everyone being a small object capable of flying into others. To do this, seat belts have to be unfastened, otherwise there are gaps between people. Any comments on this procedure are more than welcome. And another situation where seat belts might or might not be useful is if a plane makes a sudden change in either speed or direction; if it's a small change, a seat belt doesn't make much of a difference and if it's a big one, it could mean everyone will have to get out in the very near future- and in this case fastened seat belts would just mean more time wasted and more panic. Well, as I was saying; I'm not against seat belts and will probably reconsider using them at least on take-offs on loads that are not completely filled (in such cases as was our record-breaking 12 skydivers + 2 pilots in a Pilatus Porter, everyone is already so close to each other that the mechanics of a single large body apply) So what do you think of all this?

If you're looking for the article by Relative Workshop, it's right on dz.com, under Gear/Gear Articles.

Four lines of spontaneous denial would have been ridiculous. The two I wrote were intended to be just mildly amusing. And for your information, I prefer to think of myself as straight with a twist- but not enough of a twist to be looking at pds lustfully (no offense there, I hope)

Nice pics (damn mujie, you HOT!), but is that a nipple ring on you, pds? (I wouldn't be looking at your nipples were it not for the almost complete lack of other nipples- you know, the good kind) Aren't those things dangerous to wear on nekkid dives?

And if that doesn't work, then maybe it's time for a repack.

The first picture looks really nasty! I wanted to ask how you managed to survive that, but then I watched the video and saw the canopy was still opening. btw; did you just cut the command line or something else, too? If this had happened on a skydive at 3000', would you still cut the line or would you chop? Since Petur is (presumably) writing for skydivers, differences between skydiving and BASE emergency procedures should probably be pointed out if this picture is used- especially the fact that we always have the option of cutting away and deploying reserve while BASE jumpers have to make do with whatever mess may come out of the container. On a related subject- is there a list of BASE emergency procedures? I'm not ready to try BASE yet, but I think some of those procedures would probably be useful for reserve malfunctions- I've noticed this subject is too often dismissed with the words "The reserve always works!", which means that in the unlikely event of a reserve mal, you have to think about the solution to the problem instead of knowing it beforehand.