JSE

I think most people would agree, however, its not financially viable for many people to build/buy a top of the line computer that probably has to be left at the dz solely for doing tandem videos. At least with a laptop you can take it home and use it for other things. Does it really take that much time to render a simple 6-8 minute video and burn to dvd? What about prerendering some of the fluff/lead in material? I'll be watching this thread as I'd love to ditch the editing board eventually.

Thanks for sharing the link. Its nice to see some coverage of the sport beyond "lets send a young reporter to do a tandem" or "granny makes a tandem for her 80th birthday." Its good for us when people see what it's like to be a real skydiver.

I'm not a TI but what about something similar to a boxing helmet? Provides quite a bit of protection from impact and its soft and would actually be preferable if the student's head struck yours.

I'm pulling my hair out trying to get my cookie flatlock w/ adapter mounted to my new cookie MVX. It comes with these nuts that screw on at an angle. I can't for the life of my get them on. Does anyone have any advice or tips? I know some of you must have had this problem too. There doesn't seem to be very much of the screw (1/4") sticking through after it passes through the the flatlock, the adapter, and the helmet. Help.

In the latest video: "He hired not one, but two instructors" "This dropzone is huge, and I figured what could possibly go wrong" LOL. Plus they add in a bunch of random screams to the video. What a moron.

I would also recommend Collin or Rob.

Beginning of what? Whats the point of doing this other than saying that you can? not trying to be a jerk but I don't get it. am I missing something?

As far as competition you might be right. Don't think I have enough data to say beyond that. There are definitely more fliers that could have been on the HD record this year that just didn't have the resources to go to Chicago. And from what I hear lift capacity was a limiting factor this past summer. I'm curious as to why you (SimonBones) thinks this "downward trend" is happening? We can encourage people to compete to keep the discipline from being dropped, but that will only postpone the inevitable. That is unless the underlying problem gets addressed. Look at skysurfing. It hung on a little while longer than it probably should have because people like Sean McCormick would enter at the last minute to keep the number of competitors above the threshold. While they should be commended for their efforts, in the end it didn't really help. A lot more people still freefly than ever skysurfed, that lets me to believe its not a totally lost cause.

As someone who has competed in freeflying I hate seeing this trend. Freeflying has a much higher barrier to entry than RW so you automatically have a smaller pool of potential competitors. On the artistic side, I know there has been a lot of dissatisfaction with how subjective the judging is. Others complained that (especially on the international level) it was turning into 2-way freestyle. Although I never felt that way myself. VFS was supposed to be the great equalizer. I’m not sure why there are so few VFS teams. I think that it is still a new discipline and its going to take a few more years for it to really come into its own. The proliferation of wind tunnels will help, but again it takes quite a while to get proficient enough to even attempt vertical 4-ways. I would be curious how many of the 57 FS 4-way teams were pickup or only a few weekends of training. That being said, freeflying is most certainly not dead. Recently at my own dropzone we held a freefly skills camp and the turn out was so overwhelming we had to call in additional organizers and coaches. Things go in cycles. I recall some seasons were everyone was freeflying and others where I had the choice of putting on my belly suit or doing a solo. The economic times aren’t helping matters either as freeflyers are often, but not always, a younger group more susceptible to things like swings in employment.

Topdocker, would I be wasting my time going to Justine Hermine Plaza? I wasn't clear if you ment all the jumpers would be landing at crissy field or just some.

hmm. I might have to go check it out. only a few blocks away. They should have invited me to join them. I love doing demos and always wanted to do one in my own city.

While I don’t disagree with the importance of backflying, around here they seem to train hd by having people do headstands on the net. I’d be curious how other people learned as that is where I’m at in my progression right now.

Didn't open hard, just not what I would consider super slow. The aerodyne rep expressed having a similar experience with the same canopy. Also, I'm use to ridiculously slow openings.

Also, I absolutely recommend jumping this canopy if you can. I know it is going to make some of you very happy.

I had the opportunity to put just a couple jumps on a Sensei at the American Boogie and thought I would share my experience. For reference I jump a Velo 79 which I love. Packing/material – One of the most impressive things to me was the new ZPX fabric. Packs up much smaller. The 81 seemed to pack a whole canopy size smaller than my 79. The canopy had only a handful of jumps on it and was still a little slippery but of course packing was easy. It will be interesting to see how this new material holds up over time. Openings – Faster than the velo. It opened up quickly with little snivel, but not hard. As a camera flyer I think would prefer it to open slightly slower. Flight Characteristics - One of the most outstanding parts of the canopy is its response to harness input. Just a little shift in the harness can produce long diving turns. Front riser pressure seemed fine while rear riser pressure was slightly greater than the velo. I always felt like the velocity is a little mushy on rears though. I think that the rear riser performance of this canopy has A LOT of potential. Landing – I had some difficulty swooping this canopy coming from a velocity. It does dive well, but not as much as the velocity. My biggest frustration is with the recovery arch – its fast. I kept coming out high even though I started my turn much, much lower. The toggle sweat spot was slightly deeper than PD canopies although it is possible that the brakes were not properly adjusted for me. Overall I think this canopy is much more comparable to a Xaos than a Velo. A good friend who is an outstanding Xaos pilot really liked the canopy and swooped it well. To me it flew more like a 27 cell canopy than the velo. It also seemed to fly a little bigger and may need to be weighted up slightly more than the velo/what I’m loading it. The sensei definitely requires a different flying style. I wish I could have done more jumps on it but I didn’t want to hog the canopy. I think given time I could make it perform well. That being said, I was really happy to hook my velo back up. Even if I were in the market for a new canopy right now I still would choose that over the Sensei, but that’s just my personal choice at the moment. Pros: material, harness turns, rear risers. Cons: openings, dive/recover arch P.S. I guess I owe beer because the aerodyne rep told me I was there first person in the US to demo a sensei. Anyone want to dispute that and save me the cost of a case?

Oh, I have absolutely no doubt it will be beautiful.

My parents want to take the family on an Alaska cruise. They don't have the best track record of picking places that we, their adult children, will also enjoy. So do you think that that my sister and I (ages 23 and 26) will enjoy it? I don't need to party hard or anything, but I don't want to spend 7-10 days sitting around playing bingo with a bunch of octogenarians. Also, what cruise lines do people recommend? I think that they were looking at Princes and Royal Caribbean. PS I did look at the other thread on this topic too.

Take a look at 29 CFR § 785.27 (you can google it) The DLSE (California agency that enforces labor laws) follows federal law on this. The key word here is voluntary. Attendance is not voluntary if the employee is led to believe that present working conditions or the continuation of employment would be adversely affected by nonattendance. Also, the employer must pay overtime for time worked in excess of 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. That may include mandatory training. *this should not be construed as legal advice or the formation of an attorney-client relationship*

Not necessarily. Evidence rules often restrict the introduction of subsequent remedial measures to prove negligence, fault, or defect. See Federal Rules of Evidence 407. I have no idea where this case is pending or what rules apply, however.

You might want to take a look at the anti cybersquating consumer protection act before you do anything that might be illegal.

Skydive Tahoe sometimes drops experienced jumpers over lake tahoe. I've had at least one small adventure getting back from an isolated beach.

I can tell you that for some people MSG is really bad news. I have tried very hard to avoid it for the last 10 years. MSG is probably one of the biggest triggers for Migraine headaches. This is certainly true for me as well as many of the people I've talked to. That is not to say that it is evil and that because it causes problems for some that it is bad for everyone. Lots of foods cause negative reactions for different people. But the insanely high levels of MSG in many common foods are a little disturbing. Also, for some reason that I'm not exactly sure of, free glutamic acid or naturally occurring glutamate does not have quite the same negative effect as MSG. Chinese food is not the only place it’s found. It’s in everything from Doritos to TV dinners to processed or tenderized meat. Also, I find the notion that it’s just a placebo effect a little insulting. For some people it is a real food allergy. I just wish that product label requirements were stricter so that people like me don't have to play this guessing game about when something has MSG in it. Sometimes it will say, but often it just says, spices or hydrolyzed vegetable protein. As you stated, glutamate in its natural form is present in the body and a required amino acid for protein synthesis, but glutamate is also the most prevalent excitatory neurotransmitter. Without getting into to much technical detail dumping mass amounts of excitatory neurotransmitters into the body isn't always the best idea. Especially for people who are sensitive to it. I have several theories about the exact mechanism that trigger migraines in certain people and the “Chinese food effect” that is felt by many others. I think it would be really interesting to compare the genes for calcium channels and/or glutamate receptors in different populations that have historically eaten different amounts of MSG or free glutamate. I bet you find some major difference. Oh, and I’m not a scientist anymore but I do have a degree in molecular neuroscience.

You could try roughing up the finish on the carbon fiber before you apply the adhesive. Thats just an idea, haven't tried it myself so try it at your own risk

haha. Thought you could sneek that one in there?

Whats the project? Just curious.