skybytch

There's one in Denmark too? Dammit, you black sock and Teva wearing jumpers are getting too good at this shit. We should never have let you have that tunnel technology.

Buy the organizers drinks. Lots and lots of drinks. Don't insist on talking to them (or being anywhere near them for that matter) while they are drinking, just be sure that they know who's buying. Be generous with your stash. The candyman is always welcome at a big way. Offer to take an organizer to Hawaii (or other warm and sunny place) for a well deserved vacation. This one will probably work best on that well known organizer who lives in Belgium, and needs to be done soon, before the sun comes out in Europe.

6) Windlimits. Do you stop jumping if the winds are to much to jump a round, but still okay for a square? 7) Spotting. It's way more important when you have a round in your rig, and very few people know how to do it anymore.

Ever hear some old fart say "a round will get you down but a square will get you there"?

Give her a break. She hasn't met him yet.

Check it out. Well done.

Good questions. Some people work crappy jobs that wreck their bodies and pay ridiculously low money for years and years on end because they a) have responsibilities (ie kids to house and feed) and/or b) have bills to pay (ie they got themselves into debt because they "had to have" whatever the advertisements told them to buy), and they can't figure out a way to get the education needed to get a better job or come up with enough to open their own business while still keeping food on the table, roof over kid's heads and creditors off their backs. Yes, it is a waste of life. It's also a waste of talent, ability, and "potential." They don't have time to actually live life. Try coming home from work so tired that all you want to do is sleep, for a measly $500 a week (or less.... way less....), but instead of going to sleep you get to cook dinner, make sure the kid(s) eat it, do some laundry, clean up after dinner, help the kid(s) with homework, etc...

Monday 5-9 pm. Tues - Thurs 3-8 pm. Weather over the pass permitting, we'll be checking out the exhibit hall Monday evening.

Climb back up that slippery slope, Bill. There's a BIG difference between having to pull for a student - on any jump - and the student not stopping a turn within the required number of degrees on a Cat C or not getting to the backloop in time on a Cat E. If the student I was talking about hadn't pulled, she'd have failed. And I would have used the word "fail" if that were the case, mainly to emphasize to her just how important pulling is. But she did pull, on time and stable. She landed fine. She was smiling. She had a good time for her $200. She came back. Telling her she failed because she didn't nail stability on the first skydive she'd been relaxed enough to actually enjoy would have needlessly taken away from that enjoyment and led her to assume that skydiving isn't for her. Not telling her she failed while still emphasizing the things that she needs to work on for her next jump let her go home with positive memories and a burning desire to come back.

Yep

33.53057% - Total Geek. Do you know what a THAC0 is?

What does feeling like a loser after being told you failed have to do with thinking fast and acting decisively? Not a damn thing. An example - It was her third attempt at Cat C. I'd watched the videos of the first two. After several hours of ground prep that did little other than wind her up, the second one was really really bad - backsliding spin that was so close to flipping over. So I emphasized relaxing and smiling in the (short!) ground prep for the third one and up we went. The skydive was sooooo much better than the two before. She was relaxed and smiling and having fun. But she still had a turn issue, therefore we couldn't call it a "pass". Her first question when she landed was "did I fail?" Why? Because everybody on the dz was going to ask if she "passed" or not. My answer was "You didn't fail anything. You were relaxed, smiling and having fun; that skydive was soooo much better than the last two. But you didn't complete the TLO's for the category so we need to see one more jump with two instructors." She recently did her first solo. She's gonna be a good skydiver. She told me later that skydive was the one that made her think she could really do this shit - she was strongly considering giving up on skydiving if she "failed" that jump. We're "walking on eggs" if we refuse to use a word that has negative connotations? I disagree. I have an issue with calling someone a weenie when they keep coming back even though they don't immediately perform up to standards. Weenies don't come back. Semantics can mean the difference between a marginal student coming back or not - is the goal to make skydivers or to stroke our own egos?

Why can't you do it? Is it not your job?

Today marks nineteen years. Wow. I'm old.

Sorry, the nice sharp cheddars are reserved for our high dollar customers. We do keep a small stock of Kraft Singles in the back for those of your obviously limited resources though. I've been told it goes well with store brand white bread.

What kind of cheese would you like?

Damn you. Do you know how hard it is to type when you're laying on the floor, waving your arms and legs and yelling "I'm an ant, I'm an ant, I'm a dirty dead ant"? I also know Flight to Berlin as Lancaster Bomber. I've been told I narrate it quite well. I missed what turned out to be my only shot at Cardinal Puff when Al went in.

We probably have, but from the reading of history that I've done in the past few years it seems that in the days prior to the Agricultural Revolution, and in the few hunter/gatherer societies that survived after civilization took hold, "mine" appears to have been more connected to the family/tribe instead of to individuals. Bob may have "owned" his stone axehead, but the fruits of his labors were shared with others of his kin group or tribe, not tucked away where only he had access to them. It was when we started to become settled farmers instead of hunter/gatherer nomads that the concept of private property became vitally important. Prior to the first civilizations (Mesopotamia, China, the Indus Valley, the Olmecs, etc), there is no evidence that money or powerful states existed, nor is there evidence that the societies that did exist were anywhere near as socially stratified or as strictly hierarchical as were (and are) those that followed. Without written records it is impossible to know or prove, but is it not possible that in more egalitarian societies the concept of power was unknown? Perhaps those "natural leaders" had no special status other than what was needed to deal with a particular situation and those "natural followers" were not looked down upon or considered to be lacking anything as they are today.

Is it? Consider that humans appear to have lived without the concept of a "state" (politics, nationalism), without money, without private property, and without worldwide domination by a few organized religions for thousands of years prior to the Agricultural Revolution and the advent of "civilization." Could it not be that "human nature" is really to be more concerned with the well-being of those we care about (family, kinship ties) than with the accumulation of wealth and power?

He's already gone farther in this sport than you're likely to. Yeah, those damn AFF-I's that insist on standing for safety. WTF are they thinking? And they're always so damn old. They really should hang up the gear and go sit on the rocking chair; the fact that they've survived years in the sport and seen countless hundred jump wonders find other things to do after fucking themselves up under canopies that are too fast for their experience level surely doesn't mean they actually know something about what they are talking about... unlike you. Your 100 jumps and way cool attitude totally trumps all that.

Drunk skydivers are no different than any other drunks. Unless you've seen many reports of drunk people getting hurt with darts at the local county fair carnival, I don't see an issue.

If you were in the SF Bay Area, I know of a jumper who will be starting a yoga/meditation for skydivers class next month...

+1. As for entertainment - I think it'd be cool to set up a carnival midway. A bounce house, inflatable water slide, dunk tank, and silly games with skydiving themed prizes (coin toss or darts at balloons with prizes like pull up cords, goggles, jump tickets, closing loops, etc). That'd be way more fun than yet another raffle, and the proceeds could benefit whatever charitable cause the organizers want to support. I'm also a big fan of costume parties, Lancaster Bomber reenactments and rousing games of Deceased Female Relatives. Beer and a bonfire are great, but I can get those at my local dz on pretty much any Saturday. Gimme a GOOD reason to make the drive and pay the money.

This implies that you think those who disagree with you don't have values and convictions. You'd be wrong if that's what you really think. Because my values and convictions might not mesh or agree with yours doesn't mean I don't have them. How did you determine that most skydivers don't believe in god? Do you mean the Christian "God"? Or do you mean "some higher power"? Study some history, some sociology and maybe even a bit of cultural anthropology. The "rules" you refer to were in existence in many societies long before the advent of monotheism. Every society has rules pertaining to the sexual behavior of it's members. From an ethnocentric viewpoint, many societies rules appear to be immoral or wrong simply because they do not agree with the rules that you've chosen to follow. From a non-ethnocentric viewpoint, the rules of other societies may work very well - for that society in that time and place. It is the insistence that "my way is the only way and all who don't agree with me are wrong" (that'd be the basic definition of ethnocentrism) that has led to pretty much every war, genocide and even social injustice that mankind has experienced. The domestication of animals is also a direct cause of disease running rampant. Had Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Africans not domesticated and then lived in close contact with animals, they wouldn't have contracted animal diseases (such as smallpox and the plague, both of which came directly from animals just as the bird flu of today does). Does that make the domestication of animals wrong or immoral? Perhaps a class or two in Philosophy (specifically ones that teach logic and reasoning) would help as well...

Another indication of how skydiving changed your life. And you didn't mention it in your article. I wonder why not?