NoShitThereIWas

Since I've been in the sport, I have thought that skydivers have a more relaxed layback mentality, most are super cool with very interesting backgrounds and/or jobs, most are very smart and keen in their own way and we sure know how to have a good time. Yes we do. YEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAA! Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

12.2288% - Geekish Tendencies I guess that would be right Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Poor Vinnie ... Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

When I've known I've had enough vert. separation I have dumped in the past. Otherwise, I will continue tracking and vere either to the left or right to clear the airspace below me. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Lederhosen for dogs. That is cool. I think red is his color Edited to add: That dog is in love Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

I've bought Mom a few tandems ... I keep trying to convince Dad to come out and make an AFF jump, still working on that one. As for Dakota, she already likes to creep and dirt dive with my 4 way team. She will join us occasionally and asks when can she go skydiving. I think she will probably want to be like her mama and papa. Whatever she becomes in life, I think she will also be a skydiver and a pilot. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Just GO! I went last year and hung out with my now BF and met some of the Quantum Leap crew. When they all took off early I still had a few days left to go. I was feeling a little weird at first being there alone ... heck I didn't even have much with me but my gear and one of the QL guys set me up with their tent and sleeping bag ... they really hooked me up. I ended up running into 3 old good friends who I hung out with in Cali all the time, and I made about 10 more friends there from all over the country. I had so much fun, I think Rantoul last year was the highlight of my year. Granted, my year pretty well sucked last year but Rantoul was the bomb!!! Don't hold back, Go, you'll be glad you went! Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

I went to my course with just over 6 hours and about 375 jumps. I was very current, had done a bit of coaching and trained hard for the course with some very experienced AFF instructors. I was younger than most experience wise and the course was very challenging to me. I learned a heck of a lot and I continue to learn more about this discipline every day. You will learn everything you need to know for the course in the course and depending on how it is run, I recommend the pre-course. Any exposure you can get is valuable. The best preparation is to practice with evaluators or highly experienced instructors, be ready, willing and able to fly your slot, don't panic, be on your toes, and be able to anticipate what can come next. AFF is a very aggressive discipline. Something that helped me understand mentally how I needed to fly and be aggressive was when my evaluators explained how the student is in "our" airspace; they describe the "box". The student is just borrowing our airspace to learn and it is ultimately up to you to be in control of any given situation. You will be evaluated on your ability to teach on the ground during ground preps for Level 3 (Cat C) and Level 4 (Cat D) and you will also be evaluated on your in air skills. The major in air skills relate to controlling the exit, flying your slot, not over controlling the student, your ability to recall the skydive, your ability to correct what is wrong, ability to stop a turn, flip over a student who is on their back and deploy their parachute for them at the correct altitude. Somewhere there are tapes floating around with the USPA Level 3 & 4 Instructional videos. Those may help. Good luck, its a blast! Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Ok but how come I can't get into the Pub? I went there and it said I had an erroneous screenname or something. Alright, I got it. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Somebody's imagination came up with all that. That to me is very scary. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Quote 1. Whats your name? Jennifer 2. How old are you? 30 3. Why did you decide to start jumping out of airplanes? Because it looked fun. I was mainly inspired by the Flying Elvis team. 4. Are you single or taken? Married? Taken. 5. Do you have kids? Dakota (3 years) 6. What do you drive? Honda CRV 7. Have you ever done a kisspass? Hell Yeah, what's up with all you people who have never done a kiss pass? Where I grew up skydiving, it was like part of the sport! 8. Where do you live? Missouri 9. Do you have any pets? 2 very spoiled cats who currently live in California, wanting to get a dog in a year or two. 10. How many jumps do you have? 775 ish 11. What color eyes do you have? brown 12. What is your nationality? I'm an All American girl with a lot of German in me. 13. Have you ever dated someone you met off the internet? nope. 14. Favorite Movie? Couldn't name just one ... Firestarter, Hope Floats, Top Gun, My Girl. I really enjoy watching the Star Wars movies and other movies about famous wars. 15. What do you do when you arent skydiving? Here in Missouri I am still exploring all of that since this is my first summer here. I used to SCUBA dive a lot and go to the beach and surf but there aren't any beaches here. So for now I think I am getting back to basics and getting back into biking, fishing, working out and exploring this new part of the US. 16. Have you ever BASE jumped? Nope. 17. If not... do you want to? Yep. 18. Do you have siblings? No. 19. Where do you want to travel to the most? Australia, New Zealand, Belize 20. What's your favorite color? I like blues, greens and purples the most. 21. Where was the last place you flew to ( not skydiving ) California Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

From the typing fingers of a girl who grew up in Southern Cali for 22 years, moved to central/northern cali for 5 years, lived in Hawaii after that for 2-3 years and now lives in Missouri .... my opinion is Yes, there are a lot of hot skydiving chicks in California but I have met a lot of hot skydiving chicks at just about every DZ I go to. Although I agree with the person who said most skydivers are hot just because of attitude and mental outlook alone. But there are a shitload of skydivers in Cali period so probably more of a smorgasboard from a male perspective. As far as them all being taken ... well that just reminds me of this bumper sticker that used to be on the "beer" fridge at my old California home DZ. It said: You never break up with your skydiving girlfriend, you just lose your turn. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Billvon, You have some redeeming points here but I have to disagree with those points in this instance and in the instance of my ex. Again, I will not speculate as to the reasons why Ally did this, I did not know him and I did not know his history. I did however, know my husband and his history and his reasons and I do not consider them good enough to make a decision like he did. Either way, in my opinion, when you have a child who is dependent on you, you just don't do that. Period, no questions asked and if you do, you are selfish. I am not talking about the person who goes off to war to serve his/her country and gets shot down. I am not talking about euthanasia or people who would otherwise die a tragic or painful death. I am talking about the final and ultimate solution to the temporary problems in life we all face. Many of us have been there a time or two in life when we were so scared or tired or hurt or whatetever that we thought about getting off the roller coaster. And you know what? We all managed to pull ourselves out of the rut, get our asses in gear and go on. If you happen to be all alone in life without underage children who rely on you and no one gives a crap about you anyway and you want to end your life, okay. But when you choose to bring a child into the world you chose to take on the responsibility of caring for that child as a priority to your own self. Leaving them behind in that way is completely unacceptable in my book. So on that point we can just agree to disagree and that is okay. Why should an innocent child have their life torn apart or destroyed because of someone else's decision to end their life? Is the pain that those children will have to endure the rest of their lives worth it? How about if a parent is murdered? There is recourse for that in court to a person who takes someone else's life. Although the issue may be redundant after the fact, it is no coincidence that suicide is illegal. Edited to add: To skydive and to ride motorcycles is to live. Unless you are careless, reckless or have a death wish while engaging in those things, it may be selfish because they pose a greater risk, but not even close to someone who commits suicide. Sometimes I have thought I am selfish for skydiving when I am the last parent my daughter has. Trust me, I have really put myself through the ringer on that one. I also love to ride motorcycles. Having a child makes me much more careful and deliberate about my actions. Because I have her to consider, I am more cautious. I don't stop living or give up who I am, that would make me unhappy. But I do give her the respect and consideration of doing all I can to stay safe and come home to her at the end of every day. That is way different than intentionally taking myself away from her forever. Life is for the living, death is not. Peace and blue skies. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Sometimes being a lawyer can be a dangerous job. I have heard of a couple occasions when family law attorneys have either been shot in court or threatened or injured. When you think about it, attorneys are responsible for people's money, home, children, family, etc. These are the cores of people's existence. Depending on how the threats were made, I would definitely report it to the authorities although they are not likely to do much about it or take it too seriously. If you can own a gun I always believe in that and if anything continues, I would seek a restraining order and have them served to not contact or come within a certain proximity to you or your family. There are too many crazies out there. I would be prepared to protect my family. Good luck! Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

It has been seven months since my recently divorced husband and father of my two year old daughter (at the time) committed suicide. I feel deeply sad for the family, especially the children, wife and mother of the suicider. There are some things I would like to pass on from my experience of suicide: First, suicide is truly a selfish act. Those who know the family of the deceased, please reach out to them. It still amazes me to this day that the people who made the biggest difference to me during my plight, were two women here on DZ.com who were complete strangers and reached out to me in a way that really made a huge difference. The thing that angered me most, was people who posted about the incident who knew nothing about what they were talking about. "Friends" who I had never heard of popping up out of nowhere who were posting inaccurate info and all of the sudden "knowing" every detail of his life. Really people, you can speculate all you want, but sometimes that hurts the people who were close to that individual at a very intense emotional time. It is my belief that the suicide of a loved one is one of the most painful things to ever have to face. My heartfelt sympathies go out to the family of the suicider. If any of you are reading this, some very decent advice was given to me: If you sit and wonder and try to answer the question of why the person you loved would do such a thing, Don't. You will only make yourself crazy. Please make sure to talk to somebody: a counselor, psychologist, or friend as often and as frequently as you feel you need. This type of pain is too heavy for someone to carry on their own. Expect to go from opposite extremes emotionally, from anger to sadness to emptiness and don't expect your feelings to be rational. Suicide is not a rational thing and to expect your reaction to it to be rational is expecting too much. Try not to lay blame on anyone including yourself. It may be a natural reaction but there is truly nothing you or anyone else could have done. To think we can control the actions of another is as silly as thinking we can control someone else's thoughts. I feel especially sad for the children. It is most unfair to them how someone so close to them (a parent) can practically destroy and leave them behind like that. I will never understand intentionally leaving a child behind but like I said, don't try to understand, it will only make you crazy. The pain will lessen over time and your life will go back to "normal" eventually but don't "expect" to ever completely get over it. I don't expect it and I try not to have huge expectations of myself when dealing with it. Love each other and take good care of yourselves. Peace and love to the family of Ally. Stay strong. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Just wondering from those who have flown both what they think of the flight characteristics of the Katana to the Stiletto. I've heard some nice things about the Katana and am going to test drive one here soon but was wondering what others think. I've heard the Katana provides a more rigid wing than the Stiletto in turbulence. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks and blue skies. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

I think you are right on and should not question yourself. If it were my DZ and I was renting the gear ir selling it, a person with 90 jumps gets a wingloading of 1:1, no questions asked. Personally, I think our statistics of fatalities under perfectly good functioning canopies would dwindle if there actually was a BSR which controlled for wingloadings just like with licenses. If you don't own an A license, technically you cannot jump in winds stronger than 14 mph. I think with 90 jumps, you should not be able to rent or buy gear which is more heavily wingloaded than 1:1 and that wingloading is a range, say less than 1:1 to 1.2:1 which allows for some freedom of choice or a little flexibility with wind consideration. I know some people will disagree with me but I think people should be weaned into an elliptical canopy using the manufacturer's guidelines as a "guide" and downsizing should be a gradual process based on skill and experience. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Goat-fuck-stupid, Vinnie? I stopped reading this thread after your post to respond ... I liked that, that was a good one. Yeah, I'm with Vinnie!!! Give him a time out. (It works on my 3 year old) Seriously, if this guy is a hazard to himself, it's one thing. Definitely the responsibility of, if no one else, the DZO to do "something" if for no other reason than to protect his/her own ass from the bad publicity he/she would have to deal with from the press when the guy does do something to screw the pooch. A hazard to other people, that is a whole other story altogether. I know that the people at my DZ would not tolerate any Yahoo coming in and endangering the lives of others regardless of their jump numbers. We like to Keep our DZ Safe, thank you. I can almost guarantee that if we saw someone doing stupid human tricks to risk themselves, they would most likely be jumping "solo" if they are that lucky. Granted we all make some mistakes and not one of us is perfect, but imperfection vs. arrogance combined with ignorance are completely different. I can say on my own behalf that if someone does something which intentionally endangers me, I will handle the problem myself and that person had better protect his handles. I have had people nearly take me out due to their own arrogance and negligence. Luckily, it has only happened twice. One was a "timing miscalculation" of a solo head downer who followed our 2 way sit fly out of the plane without enough separation. He nearly plowed through my canopy after I was already open and was so close that I could hear him coming and could see the look on his face as he passed me. We had a "discussion" on the ground following the jump. The other guy decided to hook turn right in front of me when I was on final and his shoes carved right in front of my face. All I could think of at that moment was this is it, I am dead. He bailed from the DZ before anyone could find him. Yep, I take endangering my life and other's seriously. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Well F***in said. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Oh yeah, Earth, Wind and Fire; they are playing in concert here in STL with Heart this summer. I like the picture you posted Deuce, that is a cute one. Even my homie Iwan is in there lookin marvelous . Tell me it isn't so ... someone on this thread was dissin the Bee Gees!!! The Bee Gees Ruled!!!! And thanks Mr. Freeze for the age compliment but I know all those bands and most of the songs they sang. I am a true product of the 70s. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

What's yours? Some of you may be too young, but I grew up in the late 70s and early 80s and sometimes I miss hearing the music I grew up with. Some don't appreciate the music of the "disco era" in the late 70s but I still do. I still love listening to the Bee Gees, ELO, Donna Summer, Fleetwood Mac and Styx. What were your favorite tunes? Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Mine bought me a fat diamond for our engagement. It was a 1.78 carat and I think he got it for around $8,500. The ring setting itself was inexpensive, gold with a solitaire setting (a couple hundred bucks). His friend was a jeweler so I think he got a good deal on it. It would have probably sold for twice that in a jewelry store. Our wedding bands were simple solid gold; his was thick, mine was thin. Those were only a couple hundred bucks. In retrospect, I definitely agree with the "it doesn't matter what you spend". As long as she is comfortable wearing it and you love her, I am sure she will be flattered and love anything you get her. I certainly didn't need anything that extravagant and I used to just stare at it with amazement that anyone would buy me something so beautiful. Now, looking back though, I don't think it really meant that much to him so beautiful or not, it is what is in your heart that really matters. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

After watching the President's first two jumps on video, I don't know how he would earn a solo jump, I guess it helps to be the President ... This should be interesting Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Rosa, I didn't mean to downplay your injury at all. I have never broken or sprained anything and all I know is it would have to suck. I was merely trying to impart some "it can always be worse" wisdom and "look at what could have been" to help you keep things in perspective in that things can always get or be worse. When things suck for me in my life, I try to remind myself of that and it makes me feel a little better even if it is hard to feel better. In fact, sometimes when I think of people who are less fortunate than me and how things can always be worse, it is the only thing that makes me feel better so I was just trying to help. Also, about jumping with the cast. Probably not a good idea, but I can say that my BF after breaking his leg, had a cast on and not only remodeled his house but continued to jump out of airplanes. He'd hobble to the plane with crutches, his friends would lift him into the plane and I think he slid in for landing. Not that I am suggesting you do the same, he is one bad ass (and a bit on the nutty side), but maybe at the very least his actions after a serious injury will inspire you? Take care Rosa and heal soon!!! Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."

Vibes to Rosa for a quick and healthy recovery! We're all pullin for you VSG! Big Hugs to you and get well soon! And always remember, it can always be much worse. We have seen and heard of our friends going through much worse trauma. Try and keep it is perspectice Rosa and the time will pass. Roy Bacon: "Elvises, light your fires." Sting: "Be yourself no matter what they say."