Spizzzarko

Calm down there dudette... Looking for advise online is sort of like asking if oyu should keep breathing. Some people are going to say yes, and some people are going to say to quit wasting all the air that the rest of us breathe because you are going to die some day anyways. You are going to probably go with the advise that you want to hear and do what ever it is that you want to do anyways. So go out there and do it, but please spend the money and get competent coaching. The competent coaches charge the most and you have to travel because they are the best. This swooping stuff is really easy. 1. Do whatever it takes to not fly into the earth or other objects at a high rate of speed and you will probably be O.K. 2. Do not put yourself into a situation that you need to pull skills out of your ass that you may not have and you will probably be O.K. 3. Do not fuck up and you will probably be O.K. Follow those three rules listed above and you will probably be O.K. I'm not going to make any garantee's on this matter, but I would say rule three is the most important.

Allright there Bill. You need to ask yourself if you actually wanted to read my response to teh editor as being negative or not. If you had any thoughts that my response was going to be insulting or threatening before you read the thing then I'm sure you could have construed what I wrote to be so. What i wrote was very simple and to the point, and not meant to be insulting threatening, or any of that other jibberish. This post is not insulting threatening either, so don't look at it as such. Would you suggest I use more smileys from now on?

To whom it may concern, I am writing you to inform you that your article on the death of Marianne Kramer is grossly mis-informative. You have several facts of the matter blatantly wrong. The main parachute was deployed and malfunctioned. The reserve parachute was subsequently deployed and there was a malfunction of it causing her death. Please get your facts straight before speculating on issues such as this. //Signed// Grant S. Adams Above is what I sent the editor. I do not think this is nasty threatening or insulting.

All of you should provide feedback to the editor of the article telling him or her to get their facts straight before printing dis-information such as this.

Dudes and various Dudettes, As far as risers go I use the Sunpath risers 24". If I could have anything I would use the RWS capped cable housing style inserts, the Sunpath Front dive loops, the VSE toggles but I would have them made of some thicker material like the crew dudes do so that there is some girth to them. In Colorado it has a tendancy to get a little chilly so I jump with some thicker gloves in the winter time. Toggle girth is good.

Not as fat either...

I put one jump on full sail jvx 96. It had a lot of glide! You should not have to much of a problem getting back from a long spot with one. I actually ordered a jvx full sail 89, but it hasn't come in yet. Don't get me wrong I like the 96 velocity, and I feel it is an amazing canopy and that most people have not flown it to it's fullest, but I'm trying the JVX out just to try something new. I am interested to see how the sail material performs. The blue lines and RDS really make a velocity zing don't they? Mel has really good customer service too, and that is harder and harder to find in this day and age.

I have heard that teh JVX is really liking the higher loadings. There are some guys out there saying the canopy really begins to shine above 2.5. Nick Batch says that the hybrid with sail top skin is the heat, but I don't know why just sail top skin would be any better than a full sail canopy.

It sounds like you and I are loading about the same. I had a 103 last season, and competed with it without weight and loaded like you do. I got 400'+ on a couple of occasions in competition on my 103. That is up here in Colorado for what that is worth. I currently fly a 96 loaded at 2.3. I really like that loading and I feel that I can get some more speed out of it than my 103, but I have noticed that there is a little less shut down on the 96. I am still able to get some good distances on it though. I have the blue lines and rds. Call Mel at Skyworks rigging and tell him Grant sent you!!! I have put a few jumps on a 90 velocity loaded at 2.5. At that loading it really fell out of the sky, and I felt my options were limited on a bad spot or whatnot. It really cheweed up the altitude durring the turn and it felt like it sank out quite a bit before driving forward after planning out. My 96 dives and when I want it to plane out it starts to drive forward at that time. The 90 just really felt like a different canopy to me at 2.5. It was really twitchy, and lost a lot of altitude. I guess I just feel more comfortable on the 96 at this altitude (5,500' - 6,500' msl). I'm not saying the 90 is a bad canopy, but that it just felt different to me and I liked the 96 better. Your results may vary. Be carefull out there.

I think many people who have problems with canopy flight are stuck thinking two dimensionally. They think like they are driving a car. Forward (fast or slow), right and left. With a canoppy you have that up and down aspect to start to think about. Most people get in trouble on their canopy because they do not think one or two steps ahead of where they are at that actuall moment in time and space. I found out that my canopy performance got astronomically better when I started to plan my decents out just like a dirt dive. The I became a proactive pilot instead of a reactive pilot. Sure each flight was a little different and things change (wind strength and direction, amount of traffic, landing patterns and what not), but the more that I planned things out and flew the same pattern the better I became. I think it was because I was eliminating as many variables as possible by doing the same thing time after time. Yea it sounds borring, but I rather enjoyed being able to be at the relatively same place over the ground at the same altitude time after time after time. This allowed my to focus on the aspects of my turn and what the wind was doing to my turn. I'm not saying that you need to bust out 450's and that this technique is only for swooping because it isn't. It doesn't matter what turn you are doing or if you are swooping or doing classic accuracy (if you really want a challenge then try classic acc... It looks gay, but it is actually really freaking fun and challenging. Style and free flying is still gay though) doing the same pattern every time will make you more consistant and accurate. Accuracy is very important in this sport. If you are swooping or aspire to swoop then you need to learn accuracy. It is one third of the Pro Swooping Tour Make up, and you have to hit gates every time or your run doesn't count. If you want to jump into stadiums later on in life then accuracy is very important to you. If you are still having problems then get some qualified canopy coaching. Listen to your instructors, and don't let your canopy fly you.

It get's rid of all of that wasted time (freefall) between exit and deployment.

I don't know if you can tell but I went to the Mark Shimmel school of speling. hahahaha That stuff may be a little advanced for someone off of AFF but the concepts are there for them to start comprehending now. I havn't thought about submitting it as I don't want to come accross as a canopy know it all type. I would have to clean it up a little (speling) too. Thanks though, and I hope it helps people out.

Here is a diatribe that I have written on here before about landings. Take it for what it is worth. I have PM'd it to the dudes who have asked the questions also. I want you to go and look at the horizon tomorrow morning. Look at it while standing flat on your feet, then look at it on your tiptoes. Notice how your sight picture changes. Now keep the sight picture of the horizon on flat feet in your mind. Your next jump should be a hop and pop fro the top. Now practice flares, and only flare as much as you need to keep the sight picture the same as when standing with flat feet. If this is too much to wrap your head around, try to feel what it is like in your harness while not giving any inputs. This is a one G (the force that gravity exerts on your body). Now feel what it is like in your harness when you are flaring. If you feel a lot of pull in your leg straps (more than one G) then you are probably climbing, and flaring too much. Your flare should induce not much more than one G on your wing loading. Another thing that I see people do wrong a lot is not flaring all the way. Go out and take a camel back full of margarita, and just watch people land all day long. I know, it is like watching golf on TV, but it can be exciting, and you can actually learn a lot. Not only should you observe what inputs they are giving to their canopies but look and see what the canopy is actually doing. You will soon learn that you can tell more of what they are doing wrong by looking at the canopy itself, and less at the person. A canopy should be flown into the wind symmetrically, and smoothly. If one part is lower than the other, it is an uneven flare. If there is a lot of flare all at once, then they were probably in corner. Learn to observe the recovery arc on the canopies. You will notice that most people are still in a dive from a front riser input when they give toggle, or rear riser input to dig themselves out. Now when you sober up from the camel Toe (I mean Camel Back) of Margarita, then go, do another hop, and pop from the top. Do a turn (it does not really matter what type you do), and LISTEN to your canopy. Actually close your eyes and listen. You will notice that your canopy will take quite awhile to recover on its own from this input. I believe the Scott Miller Course says it takes close to 10 seconds for a canopy to recover back to its own full flight from an input. Another thing you will notice will be that people do not truly fly their canopies on final approach. They tend to point it in the general direction that they want to land, and expect that the canopy will take them there. If you are not continuously flying your canopy then you are wrong. Fly that thing until you get back into the hangar and pack it. If you let the canopy do its own things it will put you into a bad situation that you may, or may not have the flying skills to get out of. Do not let yourself get into a situation that you have to pull some skills out of your ass that you may not have... Been there and done that, it is not cool. Take my word on that one. Also please be careful on whom you take advise from. There are many self-proclaimed canopy experts out there, but that does not mean they are right. Seek professional help if you are still having problems. Sometimes on DZ.com it is the blind leading the blind, so you have to learn from who ever makes you feel the most comfortable. I hope this helps you out in some sort of way, but the biggest thing is for you to go out and keep trying. DO NOT get frustrated and quit. It will come to you some day, and then it will be as natural as breathing. Until then good luck and be careful. Here is a post I made about two stage flares: "I think when people are talking about staged flares they are just passing on bad information! Think of it this way. In its simplest form there are three areas to a landing. 1. Approach 2. Plane out 3. Stopping To transition from your approach to plane out, you need to give input to the canopy whether it is toggles or rears. Now do you stop from there? NO. You have to give more input to the canopy to transition from plane out to stopping, correct? Now I'm going to introduce a little bit more of a radical concept here, so everyone take a second and catch your breath... Let's first of all get rid of this concept of a two or three staged flare. You don't come in flare halfway, stop, and then flare the rest of the way do you? If so you are doing it wrong. Does that method work? Yes, sometimes, but we are a little more advanced than that, aren't we? I believe this concept was brought about by the old timers who were transitioning from F-111 to ZP canopies. They used this when their canopies would balloon up when they flared all the way like they were used to with their F-111's. Let us take the three areas that I spoke of earlier and make them into just one. 1. Landing You need to start thinking this way because, when you are transitioning to smaller faster canopy's, landing doesn't just happen when your altitude reaches zero. Many of the high speed low drag dudes here will probably agree with me that landing for them starts just after they get everything stowed away after opening. Watch them, and talk to them, and you will soon see that every maneuver they make is to set up for landing. There is really no more "Playing Around" when you get to small canopies. Now let us get back to Landing. Your approach flare and stopping should all be one smooth movement. Only flare as much as you need to maintain the altitude above the ground that you want. Try looking at the horizon during this part of you landing. I want you to standup right now and look at a far doorknob or something out your window on the horizon. Now stand on your toes, and then back on your flat feet. Do you see the difference in your sight picture? Now how much have you actually moved? 3 to 4 inches if that. Now that you have that mastered, think about continuing your flare only as much as you need to, so that your sight picture does not change! I told you it was going to get radical! Now that we are flying flat and level over the ground we eventually need to stop. Well just keep flaring, and maintaining your sight picture. Eventually you will have flared so much that your canopy will no longer be able to produce the amount of lift required to hold your body in the air. This is usually when you put your feet down on the ground. I can't tell you how many people I see that don't fly their canopy to it's fullest potential, and then complain that their canopy doesn't have enough flare to support their fat ass's, and that they need to get a Velocity because it has a more powerful flare Learn to flare your canopy all of the way. You should not have to run out your landings very much if you are flaring it correctly, even on low wind to no wind days. If you change your thought process, and learn to fly your canopy to its fullest then you will be unstoppable!" Here is some more specific advice. Try to keep two steps ahead of your canopy. When I say that, I mean that you should be a proactive pilot instead of a reactive pilot. Being proactive is planning ahead where you want to be over the ground at a certain altitude. It also means seeing bad situations and avoiding them. This can be as simple as watching your friends land before you and seeing their canopy's collapse because of some weird turbulence, and then not landing where they were landing. Being a reactive pilot would be seeing your friends canopy collapse and then land right were they landed and trying to deal with the turbulence. There is a certain amount of reactivity that you need to have, but thinking ahead will almost always keep you out of trouble. If you can find a friend who is jumping a similar canopy with a similar loading, then I suggest you both do some hop and pops from the top. Practice flying in formation. Have your friend lead, and signal his or her turn direction with his legs, and just fly in formation. Just like a freefall you need to dirt dive it, and plan it out. Most importantly stick to the plan. When you get down you will realize how much you actually had to fly the canopy to stay in formation even if you were just going straight. This is what I mean by continuously flying the canopy until you are packing it. While you are flying in this formation practice using all of your control inputs, and seeing what each one does. Have your friend fly around in full flight instead of brakes, as you both will be very tired when you get down. The more you practice this, the closer you can get to each other and this will require much more precision flying. Get with an AFF instructor and review what to do in a wrap just in case, but the best way to not get into a wrap is to communicate and fly smoothly. Smooth control inputs are imperative, and I want you to focus on only making smooth inputs from now on. If you are yanking and banking on your inputs, then you were flying reactively, and not thinking ahead of the canopy. Do you see how it all comes around full circle? Let me know if any of this stuff is too nebulous for you. I hope this helps out, and please do not be afraid to ask questions. Good luck, and let me know how all of this works out for you. Grant

You are absolutley correct, but there is also no rule in place preventing you from changing canopies for every event either. What is to keep someone from putting on a paraglider with a slider for distance? A 75 Velocity for speed and a 135 Sabre 2 for accuracy? Jim Slaton has recomended that you use different canopies for the different events. Most of us do not have the luxury of having event specific canopies so we suffice with one. I think that if a competition limited competitors to one canopy throughout the entire event it would be a better indicator of competitor skill, but that's just me.

I don't think this is becoming a PD V Daudelous thread (unless you want to make it one and piss off the moderator). I think it is a good discussion of current situation with modified canopies. We all know that the Velocity is a bad ass canopy. The jvx seems to be doing pretty well and is showing a lot of promise. Maybe PD will start to offer the velocity in sail material if they find that the thicker material gives a performance advantage or if JVX's start winning a lot more.

"he did not cheat nor break a rule, and all other competitiors had the exact same parameters." True that! He didn't cheat and far be it for me to call the dude a cheater, but I feel he took advatage of the situation and it is giving him lasting glory. I bet Nick will crush the record soon, but I don't think with the weight restrictions that we will see the huge leaps in distance like we were seeing in the past. As far as the modded canopies go, I think we are not hearing that much flack about it because the of the weight restrictions leveling the playing field. I think the weight restrictions did a lot more to check the distances of swoops than people realize. Now if people make huge changes in their canopy that is not readily available to the market then we may see some enforcment of new rules, but I don't see that happening for a little while. I know Jim mentioned something like that on his sight when they were talking about instituting a weight restriction rule. Maybe we will never see this come to a head. PD may feel that their pilots have maxed the velocity out, so they may be releasing their canopy. I do not have the insider information on cool things such as that. News about stuff get's here to Colorado about one year after it happens. Hell we just made the change from rounds to squares a year and a half ago! hahaha The Special Dirtbag

I think it all comes down to the "Sprirt of Competition". There is a good discussion about this in the swooping forum if yall are interested called "Nick Batch swoops 600'". Seperate classes would be a good start, or just hold collegiates in conjunction with regular nationals would be good too. Some of the Academy teams compete in regular us nationals too.

"NO no no my friend, Spizzarko is an all new special kind of dirt bag, and don't you forget it. psst, I got ur back Grant" Dan, I alway knew I could count on you for any thing! Thanks brotha!

"It's already been done. Someone just needs to jump one in a comp. With a 6 to 1 GR" You see... This is what I mean. Doing stuff like this because the rules don't say that you can't makes having the world record like earning your SCR or SCS award. Hell, people just getting their a licenses are getting these awards. No one with a skydiving canopy would be able to come anywhere near the distance that a paraglider could go. It just de-values the importance of a world record.

"no i was not there when he broke the record but his amazing feet of distance was much more a feat of skill and additional weight than a canopy. this i know. to sit back and comment about how it was all gear belittles his amazing accomplishment. lots of guys again had all of the exact same options open to them whether it be HMA lines, or your other little things. i doubt no birdal attachment point got Jay M and extra 300 feet. to be truthful that whole team is at a disadvantage with the aspect ratio of the canopy to begin with. do they argue that?" Nobody here is discounting the fact that Jay Moledski is tallented, and I'm sure that the bridle attchment point maybe gave him a foot or four more. I'm not going to delve into the aspect ratio argument, because the other side of the coin is the argument of the seven cell vs nine cell planform debate and the drag reduction from less lines. We can discus that in a different thread if you like. "of course it is ethical. it is so far past ethical it is ingenious. you should always be looking for competitive advantages within the rules to be an elite athlete." This is where I dissagree with you. Taking advantage of loopholes in the rules doesn't mean it is right. There had to be an instance where people did something that gave them what most of the other competitors felt to be an unfair advantage for rules to be made to curb that practice. Just look at teh weight regulations this season. Appearantly people were thinking that some competitors were taking advantage of this loophole in the rules a little to liberally. You say it yourself "more a feat of skill and additional weight than a canopy". Yes, people can and will take full advantage of loopholes and try to bend the rules to make it fit their needs or interpretations, but it goes against the whole spirit of the competition. In the end you have to ask yourself "Did I win because I was the best, or did I win because I was able to bend the rules in my favor?" "i don't care. i was making a point that to take the opposite opinion of the most successful canopy manufacturer ever is sort if silly." Point taken, but if I were the king of PD, I personally would not be releasing the rumored new canopy, and that is all it is just a rumor. Let's not get all huffy and puffy about whethor you are right and I am silly, let's just continue discussing the ethics of swooping. signed Grant Your special dirtbag

"Hell, I'd love to see a sport class that used Sabre2s, Safire2s, etc. Completely stock with full deployment systems, etc." Now that is what I'm talking about. That get's down to the purest level of competition. This way people are measured on their skill instead of what kind of wing they can afford. Paul even said that his performance increased by leaps and bounds by just changing wings. I think a class of competition like this would do more to sell canopies to the average skydiver than seeing velocities going close to 700'.

"HMA was really the only difference in the stock velocity to the one the factory pilots were using" You honestly believe that? Were you there when Jay broke the record? Did you ask him if you could go and measure his lines? I'm sure if you did that he said "Sure, go right ahead dude." Those guys keep their gear fairly tight, and don't let people snoop around it very much. "so you have all the power to do what you will to make your canopy fly better." Yea you do, but is it ethical? Does it go against the spirit of the competition? I say it goes against the spirit of the competition, and in the future should be regulated somehow. "that said most of my comments were about marketing and how to sit in your arm chair and think you know the marketing of a canopy manufacturer and when is the right time to release a new canopy is silly." What the fuck does it matter whether or not I speculate about PD's marketing strategy. All I was saying is that it doesn't make good business sense to me.

Paul is spot on with his argument here. Canopy technology is leaping ahead of those who can fly it by leaps and bounds. So if some one breaks 1,000' by just the canopy then this is not a testament to their skill. Hell what is to keep some one from putting a slider on a paraglider wing, exiting an aircraft and swooping that in a distance competition? I'm sure the paraglider canopy would fly pretty damn far.

"no offense but it always amazes me when some average dude questions a companies marketing strategy when they well and truly have no clue." And what clue do you have about PD's marketing? I was just applying common business logic to the situation and speculating out loud. "how do you think they can justify the tremendous cash outlay for the factory team? it is simple, because swooping is the most visible coolest thing in the sport and it drives parachute sales." Sure it is an advertising expense and I'm sure it has paid off for them very well, but it also makes you wonder if there is any funds from PD's price increase going to support these dudes and their exploits? Again I am just speculating out loud. Some people have a tendency to get defensive about their canopy manufacturer. "i would also want to know how why you feel that if they have their competition pilots using them in competition how it constitutes an unfair advantage?" If you asked PD nicely to sell you a canopy just like Jay Moledski's that he used to break the world record, I'm sure they would send you a stock 103. Now the question is: Do you think that canopy was stock? I personally do not. "Rumor" has it that there were several modifications done to that canopy to include: 1. No bridal attachment point. 2. Line attachment point excess binding tape sewn into the canopy. 3. HMA lines (at the time PD did not offer HMA on their velocities) 4. Multiple layered bottom skin (I have heard this but do not know if it is factual. I can see where it would be benefitial though.) So this discussion boils down to the fact of fairness. The average Joe off the street swooper has no option to buy these modifications from PD. Sure he can do a few of these mods himself like cutting the bridle attachment point off, and getting aftermarket HMA lines, but other than that there is really not much more he could do to that canopy (use of an RDS is given). You go on to compare this to motorbikes (I think). I fell that swooping should be compared to stock car racing. There is only so much you can modify on those cars to still be legal. If a racer wins a race then they tear his car appart to see if it was modified beyond the specified rules. If so then the racer is deemed to have an unfair advantage. Also in Jay Moledski's record swoop he was wearing a sizable amount of weight to load that 103 up to a higher loading. We all know that the bigger the wing you have the farther you can go given that you are able to achieve the speed. Well now th erules are limiting the amount of weight to even out the playing field. If it continued to go the way that it was then it would be an ironman contest to see who can jump with the most weight. Eventually it would get so rediculous, that people would be jumping with a 120 velocity in a tandem rig so they could strap all the weight on, if they old ways were left unchecked. In my opinion, canopies used for world records in competition should be limited to what the manufacturer will sell to the general public. Now if they want to have a Gee-Wizz class of super modified canopies that will swopp 2,000', fine that's cool in my book, but I feel that the competition record should be the one that counts.

This puzzles me as to why PD may be releasing their z braced canopy. Is the JVX giving them so much comeptition that they feel the need to trump their own excellent canopy? PD is still winning a lot of the comps, and there are more and more velocities out there. I bet I can safely say that there is probably less than 100 people in the world jumping JVX's currently. I know they are gaining popularity, but is that any reason for PD to release their Z brace? I'm also sure they have to know that daudelus is probably reday to release their z brace as soon as PD does, so it offers no clear edge to any high performance canopy manufacturer. PD states that the velocity costs the most to manufacture and that it makes up the smallest amount of sales of their product line. For them to release it would be like them releasing the reserve canopy of the thinner material. Their reserves (in my opinion) are the best on the market, and if they released teh thinner material the only person they would be competing with would be themselves. The same goes for daudelous if they release the JSX. They would only do harm to themselves. I don't think the current competition pilots have fully utilized the canopies on the market. Just look at it, with Nick going so far at sea level. He's a very talented flyer, and will give the PD folks a good run for their money, but are they that scarred of Nick that they have to release a Zbraced canopy? I'm sorry but I just don't see the business sense in releasing the Z-braced canopies to the public, and if the factory dudes are flying them in competition without releasing them to the public then it is an unfair advantage in competition. If they do that then they should compete in the unlimited class, and any world records broken should be noted as having an unfair advantage. I feel that experimental canopies not released to the public should not be able to compete for records. Now if the canopy is a stock canopy that the pilot has modified some how or another then that is fine because everyone would have the ability to make those mods, but using a specifically made canopy for the purpose of a record that no one else will ever be able to achieve in the course of natural competition is fraudulent if you ask me.