dgskydive

I have time to do plenty of things with you. You just aren't around that much anymore Dom

NIce new Avatar. Who is that big guy with ya? Dom

It may have been a bit of all of the above. That was after about the 15th or so jump, was starting to get a bit sore and tired at that point. Dom

Paul Quade took the pics. Look at the 10th photo. I am at about 4 o'clock on as an anchor to a 4 way line. Look for the neon yellow stripes on my mid flap. Royal Blue helmet. That is me in the first picture gettin on the plane. Letting everyone know just what is on my mind. Dom

France did the 421 on a practice jump. So it is unoffical. Majik's 41 wasn't in a national or FAI event. That makes them unoffical. Dom

What a great weekend out at Perris. 4 days, 4 World Class Organizers, 20 jumps, many hours in the Wind Tunnel and about 80 people willing to fling themsleves out of an airplane in order to make a big ol formation in the sky! Kate Cooper, Tony Domenico, Dan B.C. and Larry Henderson (on of my new good friends), ran a superb Big Way camp from the 13th to the 16th of May. I got to be Kate's designated stunt double and filled in for her on the dives since she hurt her shoulder in Thailand and won't sit still long enough for it to completly heal yet. Thanks Kate! Your energy and enthusiasm was very contagious! Next time you can have your slot back! Larry is a new face to the camps (although not to big ways) and brings a different style of coaching then the other three and really rounds out the team. He was there scouting potential new participants for his upcoming Texas State Record Attempts as well. The night before the camp most of the jumpers had already shown up and where getting used to the Perris air by doing some fun jumps with Larry, or participating in pre camp wind tunnel sessions with Dan B.C and Tony Domenico. In the tunnel portion of the camp they did a lot of fall rate drills and the campers spent a lot of time with B.C and Tony pushing them all over the tunnel and getting them to fly "STRONG". Showing them new and different tecniques for getting big and coming back up to your slot with out washing around under the formation. There was a big focus on flying your slot and not letting others take you out of the skydive. All the campers agreeded that they learned a lot in the tunnel and are now more confident of what to do when there neighbor suddenly decides to land on there back right or gets under them and tries to steal their air. If you haven't been to one of these camps yet, let me explain a bit of what they are all about. They are not about completions. They are not about getting sat down if you mess up. Not once did I hear or see an organizer or participant point a finger at a fellow jumper and ream them for a mistake (even if they made the same mistake 3 times in a row). The purpose of these camps is to learn in a no fault environment. To safely learn the skills neccessary to take part in larger formations (100 ways and up). There are minimum requirements to attend a camp and you should really be able to meet them before you come to the camp. If you don't it will be very obvious when you show up. By the end of the camp they try to have rotated you through as many different slots as possible. If you spend the first day in the base, chances are the next day you where moved out to a zipper slot or into one of the 4 way lines or even out to a wacker slot way on the outside. They really try the first few days to push you out of your "box". They put you in slots that you have never flown before and on the first few dives it really showed. Some of the bases had little 105 lbs ladies in the base helping to set fall rate, and guys on the outside that had never been in a trail plane let alone diving and docking 34th on a 35 way. The first day rolled around to beautiful blue skies no winds and warm temperatures. This was going to be a good weekend! Day one started off with 2 groups of 20 and one of 35. Out of the Box Day! First few dives where a bit rough as people got used to slots they had never seen before. As people got a bit of coaching and gained confidence the dives got much better and a few of them completed or had the last person docking as one was just turning to track away. The video told the story. If you watched the first dives of the day, you saw a bunch of people trying to get to there slot as fast as they could with not much displine and not much awarness of the big picture. By the 5th jump of day one, you saw what looked like real skydivers finding thier quadrants and then finding there radials and coming in to find there slot. Still not a lot of stopping before taking grips but better from the 1st jump. TIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When they say STOP they mean STOP! When you come in to dock on a big way you better not be moving! You fly into your slot....... take a breath and count to 1.... then take your grip. Take your grip lightly don't hang on the formation. Become a part of the base and fly with it. Day 2 saw more of the same. Different slots and different pictures. The learning curve was even greater then Day 1. Most people by now where much more confident about flying different slots. Still not many completions but really good flying by almost everyone in every group. One of the things they do during these camps is key in the different waves of people to dock. It helps to keep people flying slowly and not just come screaming into the base. It also helps you to start ot learn the disipline needed to doak on a big way. Sit and wait until the base is nice and flying well, then take that grip only when it seems to be begging you to take it, and it will if you are flying right. This also slows down the flow of the jump and even if you are doing everything right you may not touch someone on every jump. Day three. Once again new slots and different pictures for everybody. The dives once again got better jump by jump. Less people going low and more people trackin flat tracking away formt he formations. Remember when you attend one of these things. They are camps not attempts at any certain size of formation. Just becasue there are 70+ people in the camp doens't mean you will be doing 70+ ways. You must be able to perform all tasks safely. This includes tracking and pulling at the right altitudes. Not just tracking but a really good flat track. Day 4. High Altitude jumps. 16.5 with oxygen. More new things to deal with. Two groups (one a 36 way and the other a 38 way). You could tell the mood had changed by day 4. People wanted to go big, but would they be allowed to? After the first two jumps the organizers got together and made some big decisions. Do we attempt go as big as possible or do we stay with what we have? The good of the many was put above the feelings of the few, and the decision was made (and a painful one at that) to send a few people on tracking dives and let the remaining 69 go up and try a four plane load from 16.5. The 69 ways didn't complete but came very close and and most came away with a ton of learning and confidence. That is what this is all about. Learn, get better and have fun at the same time. People left with smiles on there faces and a ton of new experiances and friends to go with. Hope to see you there for the next camp! Pics here http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/album.jsp?aid=768a5498ce868382b759 Dom

Don't forget the standing ovation you got when you landed the reserve. BTW I love that whistle! Dom

There may be a lot more coming out on ESPN about that record. Alaska John was (or is) about to do an indepth interview with ESPN about the record. Dom

Good question. Trinidad was an incredible fighter, but do you think he could have stepped up and beat John Ruiz? I don't think so. Tito is to small and doesn't have the type of power or endurance to stay in the ring with a Heavy Weight like Roy did. He made Ruiz look stupid the entire night. He also took a few really good shots from Ruiz that woud have leveled Trinadad. I have seen some very stellar outings from Trinadad, but nothing to make me think he could ever make that type of jump. That alone puts Roy above him in my book. It also make Roy the best pound for pound and them some! Dom

JR. is one of my favorite all time boxers. IMHO the most talented guy to come along in a long, long time. Best pound for pound in the world. As far as him losing this fight. Hey, we all have a bad day. This may be the wake up Roy needs to step it up to the next level(not that he isn't at the top already). I honestly think he has been bored for a long time. I bet he comes back and knocks Tarver out in a rematch. Sad day in Mudville when he lost. He will redeem himself! Dom

4 days, 20 jumps (4 from 16.5), 35 minutes in the tunnel. Life is good! Dom

Then why are they called a coach? Shouldn't they be called evaluators then? Jay and Glenn aren't the only ones that give out coaches ratings, and even if they where they can't just fail you because they don't like you. The requirments are written down. If you go and pass the course you get the rating. What can they do if you pass and they still think you aren't ready for it? They have to give you the rating if you passed the course. Think pink jumpsuit with Black Rubber on the front. Then think she tried to ruin me with B.C. because I told her that she needed to wear weights and was giving her hand signals during a 2 way. She couldn't even dock on me and now she has a rating and is going to be teaching coaching people. Dom

I was watching him fly it last night at PErris. Jeb was flying his wingsuit relative with Luigi under canopy. The visual of the smoke trailing behind the canopy and the wingsuit was awesome. They almost docked on the last jump yesterday. The where close enough that Luigi was sticking his foot out daring Jeb to dock on his foot! After he cutaway from it on the second to last jump of the day, it was funny to watch this little rag spin around and get lift and actually climb higher after cut away. It took almost 15 minutes for the canopy to come down. I didn't get to seehim jump it this morning abut rest assured that Luigi landed it with out any problems. The reports I have so far say it didn't swoop for shit but he was able to run it out a bit and stand it up! F---ing Luigi ROCKS! To give you an idea of how small the canopy is, I held it up and could almost reach both ends with both hands. It was maybe an inch or two longer then my arms from tip to tip. I really do have a kite that is bigger then this canopy! As far as wingloading goes. With all the weight the little guy was wearing. Luigi probably weights about 130 pound soaking wet. Add about 20 pounds of gear and 20 pounds of weight. That would but him at, at least a 4.3. I am estimating on the low side so it may be much closer to 5.0 Dom

My point wasn't who should get it. It is that it is so easy to get it is almost a pointless rating. The requirements should be much harder. Agreed! But is it really an LO's job to coach? I do when I lo because I want the jumps to be succesfull, but no where does it say I have to coach anybody on anything. An Lo is just that , an Organizer. Not a coach. A static line jumpmaster was not an instructor. We didn't teach unless we had a S/L instructor rating. Different requirements and different jobs. A Static line Jumpmaster did just that Jumpmaster. Of course he could sign a student off for their next level of progression, but that was based on his observations of how the student performed on that jump. Sure some did coaching as well, but it wasn't part of their job. If a student needed remedial trainingg they where sent to an instructor for coaching. Plus the requirments as far as class room training was much more in depth then the present coaches course (or at east the one I took) My point is that most people with 100 jumps still can't figure out what they are doing wrong let alone what someone else is doing wrong. Even at 200 jumps a lot of folks won't be ready to "coach"anyone. Just because they sat in a class room and did two jumps doesn't mean that they are competent enough to really be a coach. Come on JP you no exactly who I am talking about. You are going to tell me that that person should be coaching anyone? Dom

That is the problem. It is a "simple" rating to get. The requirements aren't that hard at all. I have seen one person in particular get one recently that plain and simple SUCKS in the air. They couldn't even dock on me in a two way without help. Now they are going to be a coach? Dom

Pretty rigs! Love it! Dom

Just go to your rigger and have him or her sew a few tabs on the leg straps. Dom

TOOT-TOOT!! Dom

The hot tub is gone now. That thing was a collecting pool for chlorine after a while. They never cleaned it and somebody just kept pouring more and more chlorine into it until you couldn't even get your face close to it without it burning. Dom

I just wanna see your entire Avatar. Dom

Some Country rdio personality came out for a Tandem years ago. He was all miked up for the jump and was ready to go. No worries in the plane and no worries in freefall. Then came the canopy ride. We where all sitting next to the bad spot truck listening to him under canopy as they came down. One of his coworkers on the air asked him exactlyhow he felt. He tried to say he "I FEEL GREAT! But just about the time he got the G out of his mouth he proceded to puke on himself, his mic and the Tandem Master. We laughed and laughed for hours abou that one. The real funny thing was that for the next few weeks they played the audio over and over on the radio. "I FEEL G..... G.... GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! " Dom

I just saw that one last night again. Actually it is two solo jumpers and the Tandem hung up in trees. THey are arguing over who should call for help. None of them want to because it is before 7:00 pm (better rates). When they say the Tandem passenger should call, he says "What? Do I look stupid?" The tandem master then disconnects him and lets him fall to the ground. Pretty funny when you see it. Dom

NOw even Betsy is laughin at me! Dom

Can you picture some who is ? Dom

I have actually called both my home at one point. The Bunk house gives you all the sheets and blankets also. The only bad thigs about the bunk house really are the thin walls and the lack of windows (there are none). It is bad enough to have to wake up to your neighbors doing the nasty let alone not even know what timeit is when they wake you up. But you can't beat the price. Dom