skybytch

I5 north from the airport. Exit Road 102 (about 8 miles). Turn left. Stay on Road 102 til you get to Road 29 (about 8 miles). Turn right. Stay on Road 29 til you see the sign for the airport (about 7 miles). Turn left. Skydance is the first set of buildings on the right. Traffic should only be an issue on I5, but watch out for slow farm equipment and packs of bicyclists on 102 or 29.

I pays my money and takes my chances, but that doesn't mean I have to take every possible chance. What it does mean is that it's my job to keep me safe. Skydiving is a risk management sport. One way for me to manage the risks is to choose not to skydive with people who scare me. If they scare me in freefall or at break off, I can choose not to be on the same jump with them. If they scare me under canopy I can choose not to be on the same airplane as they are. To me, avoiding being on the plane with certain people is kinda like choosing not to jump in 25 mph winds - yeah, everything would probably work out fine but I'd rather not up the number of risk factors for one skydive. There'll always be another load... and as long as I'm alive and unhurt, I can get on that one instead. It's nuthin' personal. I'll happily share a beer and conversation with people that I'd prefer not to share the sky with. I'm not trying to save anybody else from themselves - I'm trying to save me. I'm pretty important to me.

LMFAO! Don't forget your umbrella.

I have a pair of slip on sleeves for RW that add drag on the forearm; I know of at least one freeflier who has the same thing for his freefly suit. They are available through Flite Suit and other jumpsuit manufacturers - but they really aren't all that hard to cut or make; the only tough part might be the cuffs at the top and bottom. Don't see a reason why the same concept couldn't be applied to the lower legs of any suit, but it might take some trial and error to come up with something that will stay put. Big advantage to slip ons over permanent additions would be removability - you end up with the equivalent of two suits for way less money.

You can easily and safely put a 135 in a J2. To determine if a Javelin harness will fit you, you need to know your height and your inseam measurement (crotch to floor, no shoes, have someone else measure it). Take your height in inches, subtract your inseam in inches and then subtract 20. The result is an estimate of what MLW length will fit you. For example, I'm 5'8" with a 33" inseam. 68" - 33" - 20 = 15. So a 15" MLW should fit me - and it does. This only works for the MLW sizing though. If the person it was built for is stocky and you're skinny or vice versa, the laterals and legstraps may not fit you. That's where knowing the height/weight of the seller comes in handy.

:1:0 Practiced slow fall while lurking a Cat C. Sometimes those AFF instructors really earn their money.

After spending the day at the dz I'll either be doing or watching the demo into the city's 4th of July celebration. Then we'll all hang out at the park, pack, drink beer and watch the fireworks. It won't be any fun at all.

So that's what happened to my little bag of anthrax. Phew. I was worried that a dog had picked it up. You'd think an evil genius like myself could keep better track of my biological agents.

Video? He's a cutie! btw, was great to see you over the weekend.

In California anyway, sales tax isn't charged for "labor" or for a "service." A ride to altitude can be considered a service, therefore no sales tax needs to be charged. But I'm far from an expert on sales tax so the likelihood of me being wrong on this subject is pretty high.

Yeah, he is. So whatcha gonna do about it? /me sits back and enjoys the popcorn...

Wrong rack. The one I'm thinking of is shaped more like a cross than like those wonderful mountains of love.

Who let you off the rack?

Was it the cover shot? If not, why does the cover matter?

Bigway organizers don't pop from the womb with their current skill level. They started out just like the rest of us - putting together jumps for jumpers of all skill levels at their home dz's. Because they've chosen to focus their current organizing efforts on more complex skydives doesn't mean they've forgotten how to organize less complex skydives. I agree with the Prof - it'd be a total waste of someone like Roger Ponce's skills to have him organizing a bunch of people with 100 jumps.

How many boogies have you been to? My experience with boogie organizing has been much different than yours. If a boogie has one L.O. for a discipline I'd expect them to take on all comers (excepting those who don't have the basics of the discipline down yet - for example, I suck at head down and sitflying, so there's no way I would expect to get on an organized freefly jump). If there are multiple organizers I'd expect one to be putting together stuff for more skilled folks and another to be taking all comers. What I think are the "best" boogies have multiple organizers for both RW and freefly so that every jumper that wants to do organized stuff can, regardless of their skill levels. The best organizers, regardless of discipline, take the skill levels of the people on the jump into account when they design the skydive. For example, it's kind of silly to plan 6 points with back-ins and piece turning on an RW jump at a boogie if even one or two people on the skydive have limited RW experience - that skydive isn't likely to complete. Far better to plan 3 or 4 points with everybody facing in and no big moves - that's a skydive that is likely to complete assuming that everyone has the basics down. Freefly organizing doesn't have to be VRW. The best freefly organizers will throw a tracking dive, hoop dive or other "fun" skydive into the mix so that those with lesser freefly skills can play too. Quality organizing isn't money for nothing and your jumps for free. Good L.O.'s work hard for their jumps. I don't see anything wrong with them wanting at least some of those jumps to be ones that offer a challenge for them too. But then again, I don't go to boogies expecting to do quality skydives...

Geez. There you all go again, pointing out the facts. Y'know, there's really no need to do that; he'll figure out he's getting screwed by his boss eventually, just like we did.

Discovered the importance of this on my last trip. We decided to take one water filter for three people. When one of us went off to get water the first night she discovered that the filter part had been removed from the unit, making it useless. But I always carry iodine tablets and we had two stoves with plenty of fuel, so what could have been an issue wasn't. That was the first lesson. The second lesson was to always take each piece of gear out of it's stuff sack and check it thoroughly before packing up for a trip. And that's one reason I like backpacking so much - I learn at least one new thing every trip.

Late 1995. Still under 20 tandem jumps with "live" students. I managed to put us into a side spin a couple seconds out the door. I was pretty sure we were dead, but I did what Ted Strong and Bill Morrison said to do and got us out of it. Two people on bonus time from one jump, but only one of us was aware of just how lucky we were... I met Bill a couple years later and, yes, I thanked him profusely.

I wasn't first. And it is about the coolest thing ever for those of us who don't need to prove how handy we are when all we want to do is heat some damn water.

I'm with ya on the JetBoil, but I won't pay what they want for a Mountain House meal. Which is why my next backpacking gear purchase is gonna be a food dehydrator - it's way cheaper to make your own meals. Check out Freezer Bag Cooking for some ideas. Don't know the brand name, but there's some "dried" tortellini at Trader Joes that is the bomb for backpacking. Add a little olive oil and some parmesan - yum!

Hmm... that explains why my nose itches when I take a Norco or a Lortab too.

What strange side effects do you get/have you gotten from prescription medications? Vicodin makes my nose itch. Every time. And I can't figure out why. Ritalin makes my head tingle like it did when I used to do speed. Kinda makes sense though, since Ritalin is speed...

Come play Scrabble. For free, even.

I carry part of a commercial first aid kit with a few additional meds (like anti-diarhea meds and a few vicodin). Key here is to keep the quantities of each item small; one or two of each size bandaid, etc. Two very important things to have in your pack - moleskin and Second Skin. The minute you start to feel a "hot spot" on your feet - stop and treat it! Apply the Second Skin first, then cover with a piece of moleskin. Blisters suck... with careful attention you can avoid them. Are you going to be cooking or are you taking all cold food?