stylin

Where's the non-political one? I wanna go there! Eloy!

Anything for you Bets. Hope your leg gets better soon! I feel your pain.....OW! man, that hurts!

Yea, that drop kind of gets everything else out of your system doesnt it? Stress releiver. I was pretty stessed out last week from this job, but after that I felt much better, load off my mind. The things I have to do to relieve stress, now they got me falling out of airplanes! Whats next.

It has nothing to do with me respecting women in skydiving and it has nothing to do with skydiving experience, read the post. Im making the observation that in other sports I dont see any respect for women, especially surfing, and to me it looks like skydivers get along remarkably well compared to other sports. Thats just what I see, I dont know, Im new to it so maybe Im wrong. Maybe youd like to fill me in on that. That doesnt have anything to do with what I think.

I don't think you know who you're talking to! I wasnt saying that from the standpoint of what I think, I dont have any problem with women. What Im saying is that I know others who do, and theyre pretty radical about it.

Im not trying to knock or disagree with what youre saying, but from what I can see, skydivers get along remarkably well compared to other sports, and I say remarkably well. So there are a few things youre mentioning here. Compare that to what I mention, you drop in on a local's wave, he stalks you on the next one and runs over you, fins in the face and all. The locals see you take a wave and fall on what they consider a perfectly fine wave, they meet up with you in the parking lot and there's a fight. Lets get down to some areas, you didnt put your surfboard on top of your car with the fins facing forward, some locals see that and take it out on you in the ocean. If some kook drops in on me, I get pretty pissed, not enough to start a fight, but pissed enough to shout a few unpleasant things. I see youre a girl, theres a lot, and I mean a lot of prejudice in that sport against women participating. You dont see that at the DZ, so dont get too spoiled!!! Believe me when I say you have it much better in skydiving than you would in another sport.

Youre not in control of your system when youre on drugs, but as far as drug testing, I want to follow up with this input. Drug testing usually involves things like marijuana, cocaine, street drugs in other words. As far as being concerned with these types of drugs, you may be missing a more importand issue. Its any kind of drugs, period, that you have to look out for. This includes perscription drugs, and especially perscription drugs. Let me cite an example. A year ago, I had borderline high blood pressure. The doctor pushed this perscription on me and I took it for a few weeks. It caused massive dizzy spells, to the point where I would nearly fall down, these were caused by moving from a horizontal to vertical position. The doctor said it wouldnt cause any kind of dizzy spells. Can you see where this might affect skydiving? Flying an airplane? For anybody in ANY extreme sport, you need to choose one thing or the other. If someone cant make a few sacrifices to be in an extreme sport, then why do it at all? I dont think drug testing is in any way too harsh, it makes a clear statement, choose one thing or the other. Either get serious about it, or get out. I dont think having to submit to a drug test is too big of a sacrifice, youre already doing that with your life. What do they say in skydiving, its an unforgiving sport, you can do everything right and still get killed? Dont worry about being tested for drugs, worry about that. Thats plenty to worry about.

Hey, youre "The Bets" and you can do anything! I freaked out, just didnt show it. Heart rate was way up there and breathing real shallow and fast until the chute finally opened. He said I did a good job, I said "Yea, thanks, see ya, dont want to be ya..."

I was in the Army but never jumped. But totally agree with you, the military is pretty badass, no doubt about it. Not to mention getting shot at while youre parachuting down.... As long as Im on this it kind of reminds me of something. During that first jump course at Marana, I kept getting the feeling I was back in the Army. He would go on for an hour, then take a 10 min smoke brake outside, then go back in the classroom, thats exactly what they used to do in the Army! And this guy was in the Army like 14 years ago. Felt like I was a "trainee" all over again. "Drop you fucking maggot! Push!!!" Ha ha. Dont miss it.

I think Ill tell the instructors after six jumps, you can start calling me "GroundRush". I think Id end up flooring a few people with that. Thats got to take more guts than jumping out of an airplane your first time.

You had me on the floor laughing with this one...thats halarious

You got it. The best instructors get into the student's head, figure out how they learn -- what's their passion -- and puts skydiving in terms they'll understand. Some instructors are really good at the psychological part (that's my strength so far), some are really good at the technical part, and the very best have chops at both. At Eloy, you probably have tons of instructors in the last category (thumbs up to TM Greg Foster -- I'd let my 70 yr old mom jump with him. Say hi to him if he hasn't already left for the summer). As you get more jumps under your belt, you learn to make the translation yourself, and teachers become mentors, then jump buddies. But their technical expertise is always a bonus. Just don't be too bummed if it crops up every once in a while. When I was a student, I got freaked out enough to ask if I could please go back a level, before I ever failed a jump, because I was getting too far ahead of my comfort zone (As a student, you're always asked to attemptsomething just beyond your current reach or you wouldn't learn, right?). I wanted to devote one jump to relaxation. It worked. Keep 'em coming... You're not kidding. I've been meaning to get there since I started jumping. I was thinking the Xmas boogie, but my DZ is doing a Mexico thing right about then... But wait! Eloy is on the way to Mexico. ROAD TRIP! I'm glad you're making progress. Anytime you have questions, let me know. I won't get technical with you, but I'm here for moral support. OK, here's some more... Youre to coolest, youre #1, youre the greatest, you are a skygoddess, I worship the ground you walk on!!! Bets, YOU DOMINATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are the Bets, you are #1!!! Now the sooner you want me to throw myself at your feet, the sooner you have to get out here, its a little hard to do that from a forum you know! PLANE TRIP!!! I guess you can probably tell Im freakish about women who are skydiving instructors. I didnt know that until now. So much for surfer girls.

Lot of em there...thanks.

OK, so come out here! Ill meet you down there, show you around AZ if you want. Like mountain climbing too? Good workout dude, you cant beat it!

I posted these mpegs elsewhere on another subject. http://www.witched.de/VIDEO/Cutaway/cutaway.html Want to get these and how ever many more I can find like it on a writable CD. If anyone knows where more of these are on the web, please post here on this subject. Dont want to use a full CD just for two short mpegs.

They pretty much have to stretch the truth, if they dont put sex in a movie they wont get as much of a turnout. I read the credits on Cutaway and it was pretty interesting, turns out the director is a world champion skydiver, started out by losing his job and going at it full time. The movie, as it was saying, was sort of an advertisement for what he does, film skydiving shots in other movies, ect. He made quite a bit of money going into skydiving full time, was also responsible for the scenes in Point Break and a few others. He and his wife also acted as doubles in his own movie. This guy really lives a pretty amazing life, but he's all self made. Goes to show you what you can do if you really put your mind into something. Good luck with the skydiving....get out there and kick ass! Id like to hear how it goes.

They are all grey. But hey maybe they just look white to you. Whatever color they are, they keep you from freezing your ass off.

You know, if I actually threatned to do what I just said, they would probably take me seriously? The day I started working here they thought I was a little weird I could tell, I do things like come in at 12:00 or 1:00 every day and nobody says anything, then I used to run off to the beach in California without saying anything or taking vacation time. They finally caught me for that telling me "you can just take off anytime you want and go surfing". So I asked them why not? The more irresponsible you act at work, the less responsibility you end up getting stuck with. Some people around here still havent figured that out.

They have red grips, but theyre white. At least they look white to me, or maybe beige. The ones that say "Skydive Arizona" on the front pocket? I have a better idea, maybe we can get them to fly everyone over Phoenix so we can come crashing down through the roof of the office bldg. Then you can all tell them, look dude, when he says he doesnt want to work the weekend, he aint bullshittin'.

Bets! Hows it going? Still trying to get back with you after the hard drive crash. Yep youre right, dont need them anymore! Bets, youre an instructor, is it my imagination, or do skydiving instructors have this uncanny ability to figure someone out long before they have themselves figured out? Seems like a lot of them dont say much to you because they dont need to, they already know what youre going to do so there's no point in talking. Theyre pretty amazing. On the anxiety thing, youre right on target, same thing happened mountain climbing in terms of acrophobia, now I balance on top of rocks at the very top just for relaxation. Hoping to see the last of it next jump, I have a strong feeling its on its way out. Bets, your cool, when are you comming to Eloy??? No excuses, gotta get over here. Need to get back to work, time crunch today, talk to you soon. Stay in touch!!!

I really like those white jumpsuits at Eloy, real cool looking. Telling me to work this weekend cut out some skydiving time, so Im thinking of getting one of those cool Skydive Arizona jumpsuits and wearing it to work, complete with gloves, altimeter and goggles. Maybe theyll let me borrow one of their parachutes and we can make things real interesting. Think theyll get the message??? I found a pretty cool long sleeve sweatshirt today that says on the front "Skydiving kicks ass", we'll start off with that on Monday. Thatll be a warning for whats comming next.

Agreed, but employers have the right to know if their employess have issues with substances that have been listed as illegal. A local desktop publishing software maker here in Denver was going to implement a drug testing policy. They determined that there would lose more than half of the development staff and thus did not implement the policy. Keep in mind that none of these people has other people's lives entrusted to them. If you did a drug test around here everybody would be fired. Ive even caught people openly admitting, at work, that they smoke dope all the time. There are no rules at this company, except working on weekends and meeting deadlines ofcourse.

Yea, well, some people just dont want you to have a life, they cant get along with you unless youre as much as a burnout as they are. Anybody who is your friend can respect the sport youre involved with. The problem with a lot of people, and especially around here, is theyre too lazy to do anything like that, and they are jealous of you because youre not. Thats what it is, and thats why they dont approve. Youre doing something they cant do, and thats a "problem" with them. Like I said, screw em all!

Ha ha ha, youre too funny! I can relate!!! I need a cushy job I dont have to spend too much time and frustration with. Wonder if IBM is still hiring.... To my wife: 'If you ask me to stop skydiving, you are asking me to move out!' Thats how I feel about having a girlfriend who doesnt approve...goodbye! I was going to date a chick at work until she made a face at me when I mentioned skydiving. Her and anyone else who doesnt "approve", screw all of them. Same goes with these assholes I have to work with, who think playing ping pong and golf is some kind of big deal. Im living in my own world around here.

No, not a bad idea at all, and will do if they would stop screwing me by making me work on the weekends. Maybe I can have some more skydiving dreams!!! Good ones, that is. Sure hate to get into having a bad one. I know what the response is going to be to this. Watch "Cutaway" again and learn from it? Dont tempt me.