stylin

Why is that, because someone can fall on you?

OMG, if you havent tried this out with sound on, try it, the first one sounds wicked. Someone said if the "wind was screaming", then at the end he says "yahoo". Guess he was having fun. I would have said "shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttt". So a spin is when youre spinning around the parachute, not "twirling" around like I was thinking, and twirling would be line twists without going into a spin which you can get out of. I think its a little more clear now.

Thats what I have in mind, but 5500 is a little high isnt it? Dont forget, youre supposed to be having fun so you want enough freefall time. They tell us its going to be at 4000. At the amaller DZ, they were dropping us at 3000 for static lines. I think some people get more into parachuting than diving, that would be fine for that. To me its just there to break the fall and get you on the ground in one piece, not real interested in that part of it as far as doing 360s or whatever. I already made the decision to get an audible altimeter and use it with a wrist altimeter, but Id still want to be pretty conservative about opening high enough because of what you just said.

stability. you wont have it in that position. youd probablly be at least slightly head down and accelerating. also its concievable that a hard opening could cause you to pull the handles accidentally (possibly in the wrong sequence) rotfcmeo...yeah sure, your canopy really cares what you think & say about it..(hell in your case its only student gear, so your just its latest trick) btw arent you ignoring your instructors advice right now?? Okay, bad idea. Yea, the latest trick. Im kidding, but I really did say that. "btw arent you ignoring your instructors advice right now??[/" Yea, I am. When I get to AFF this weekend, I need get through the issues, and Im going to do that any way I can, and then get on with it.. This is the thing that has been plaguing me since starting out, and I never got clear awnsers to it. No way im going through every jump thinking, oh shit, hope the parachute opens this time. I dont want to even have to worry about it. If it happens, Im going to reach the point where Im not going to worry about it, its either going to be, simple line twists, no problem, or "nope, I dont like this, off you go". I cant appreciate freefalling as much if I have to be worrying about that. You have to savor every second because when that chute blows open its gone. The first time, I appreciated when it blew open because I absolutely didnt like that shit, and you talk about scared, I couldnt wait till it was over.

First off, don't take too much offence because compared to me, you ARE a kid and it ain't slander if it's the truth. Further, the truth is that if you are new to skydiving, you -don't- know what you're talking about. Again, that's not slander -- that's just fact. You can pretty much ask me any question and I'll give you my answer to it. However, if my answer doesn't match up with the one you wanted to hear, don't complain -- you asked first. Those ground rules intact -- fire away. Guess that makes me a 43 year old kid, thanks for the complement. Yea youre right, new enough, but you know Im not totally dense either. Give me some credit. I never said that I know everything there is to know about it, and I never said I know more than you about it, so youre reading things in that arent there. What I am saying is that I know a few things, so like I said, give me SOME credit. Im not just totally dumbfounded you know, like I was when I first walked in the place. You need to understand, that when you feel threatned, then the first reaction to that is to try to eliminate the dark areas. So I did some pretty fast eliminating from the first week of involvment with it. Think about it. The first time I went up, I found myself sittiing in a Cessna with people wearing skydiving equipment, and I was totally scared shitless. Guess Im just not as brave as some of the heros around here. Then when they popped the door open, I was so terrified I thought I was having a waking nightmare. Wouldnt you be pretty motivated to learn as much as you can by the next time if you had been that terrified? I dont have any problem admitting it, yea I was chicken shit, because its the plain and simple truth, I just didnt show it. Even the young chicks there that day were braver than I was, they took it like it was nothing. Im big enough to know I can knock the living shit out of someone and now I get to go through life knowing that I acted like a complete coward. Surely you can see that after I came on here acting like a chicken shit because I had a static line incident. All this talk doesnt phase me because Ive been there. Enough said.

That makes sense. I think long before Id start blacking out from G-forces Im going to be waving off the main. But thats pretty descriptive. Can I add one thing to this? Why in the hell not just always have a hand on the cutaway and the other on the reserve every time the chute opens? Isnt the biggest problem with violent spins with G-force, you panic, cant find the cutaway, problem escalates....ect. Why wait until it starts happening? And then you let go of them when everythings stable. First static line, I had my hand on the cutaway because the chute was taking a long time to open, got nervous, gave it a few more seconds, then everything fine. I had my hands on both saying, nuh uh, dont even fuck with me or your ass is gone. Yea I know your fucking ass BETTER open....you know you threaten it a couple of times and you get results.

You know, this issue I bought up is a pretty sensitive, and I think you can agree, life threatening, I recognized that early in the game. I think you, Hookanswoop, Billvon with me asking questions did an outstanding job in nailing down the issue and finding some pretty good awnsers, and I think thats great. I really gave me something to go on that Ive been looking for for awhile now, hope it does the same for someone else. Im going to put together the converstion when I have time and print it out, and I really appreciate yours and the other twos attention to the matter and taking the time out for it. On your note here, I wasnt saying that it was a gamble, I was just challenging you to bring out a few details in the matter, just my way of getting questions awnsered. I wasnt giving advice, just looking for awnsers. If you want to take part in the ongoing slandering and you want to insult me with things like "its pretty easy to see that the kid doesnt really know what he's talking about", well thats fine, go ahead if thats what you want to do. I dont have any reason to want to insult you, and I really do appreciate the advice and input, so thanks again. After a static line mishap at a smaller DZ I was extremely paranoid about going through AFF training, but info like this really helps, so Im gonna be going in there with a lot more confidence. If you dont mind, Id like to keep talking to you if thats okay with you. I know youre a lot better than those who are just here to cause trouble. Thanks, Chris.

Dont know what a step-through is, please explain. Quade, Billvon - thanks for the input, I think youve both awnsered quite a few questions. Have to get back to work, but Ill go over the info later and probably print it out. Thanks again.

So youre saying that it is a gamble? The question is, is there a sure way to tell the difference between what is a simple line twist and the beginning of a fatal violent spin, within say 1-2 seconds? The awnser to that wont determine whether I should quit skydiving, it will determine on how quick I am to pull the cutaway. You cant cutaway on every little thing that happens, I think after a while somebodys going to get the impression youre doing that just because you want to. Its something Im going hammer the issue on this weekend with instructors. I guess they better clarify things if they dont like rooting around the desert for mains. I know line twists are pretty common. "Oh, one more thing . . . you can do everything RIGHT and still die." I know that, and thats a good point, but finish the sentence. You can do everything right and stil die, its all about MINIMIZING the chances of that happening. See, you ALWAYS, and I say ALWAYS, have the chance to minimize the probablility of that happening, and you always have more than one way to do that. I wont ramble on about it, but an AAD can MINIMIZE, pulling in a stable position can MINIMIZE, jumping on a non-windy day can MINIMIZE, the list goes on and on. Just depends on how careful you plan on being. Same thing with driving a car if you think about it. How many times are we all more concerned with getting there a little faster than we are about not having a collision?

I want to bear down on what you just said here, which has been on my mind since the beginning. "an almost sure fatal if not corrected within seconds" Thats what worries me. You have "seconds" to figure out whether or not it is just a simple line twist that can be corrected. And, in SECONDS, if youre wrong, an "almost sure fatal"? I wouldnt have this problem with something like a bag lock, real easy to make a decision on that. As far as simple, correctable line twists vs the beginning of a violent spin, it almost looks to me like you just have to throw the dice and hope you made the right decision.

Hi. Could you please go to the subject "Cutaway" and tell me what you think. Watch both videos first. Also, I cant make out what is wrong with the picture on that page.

I found this video on a website, someone with a camera was filming his own cutaways. Looks like the chute had line twist and hung slider, but the line twist didnt seem all that bad. To me, it "looks" like you could spin back out of it without too much trouble. But ofcourse Im wrong since he cutaway, and noone does that just for the hell of it. Second point, it looks like he became unstable after pulling the cutaway, or that is just his head camera moving around. Anyone wanting to know what a cutaway looks like, here it is: http://www.witched.de/VIDEO/Cutaway/cutaway.html click on a link at bottom on that page to run the video. Looking for input here, whats wrong with his chute???

"stylin" account has bogus information on it and is no longer being used by me. Ive deleted all the information I was uncomfortable with, so you can go ahead and remove the account now and make the nick available for someone else if they want to use it.

I hate to tell you where I thought that came from. Im going to stop posting on this forum before I get in trouble with someone. Requested that "stylin" be deleted from the forum, please dont post any more messages in reply to that account or to "GroundRush1"

We can go on and on with this. Do you know how many posts are on this subject? Its funny how everyone suddenly came over, and I dont think its because Im popular. Just wanted to bitch at someone about having to sleep over the DZ Friday night. Its the subject "Sleeping Over". Didnt mean to imply anything by it, but you know what it sounds like, right? I mistakenly got everyones attention with that subject line. To awnser your question, yea I know how dangerous it is, Im aware of it I think a lot moreso than you are imagining. I wasnt exactly calm when I jumped the first time, its like I never really wanted to do that. Thats why Im a major question asker, because I like knowing things in extreme detail. You can take that for what its worth, I havent been at it long so what do I know, right? As far as knowing what to to in extreme detail, surviving a bad situation is all about knowing what to do and when to do it, thats what I concern myself with. Not finding it out when it happens and giving a reason to panic. Lets jump to surfing for a moment. You get curled under, held down, panic, try to fight it, run out of oxygen, breath in water, and drown. Now youre skydiving. You open the main, you go into a spin, you wonder if you should cut away, or if its a few line twists, no need to cutaway. You look up, start spinning faster, you panic. What do you do? Youre spinning much faster, you cant find the cutaway, youre reaching for it but not finding it. Youre going to die!!! Your heartbeat races, youre panicing, you dont know what to do, the spin goes even faster and you lose conciousness.... Are you so sure about that? My attitude makes me want to pester the shit out of an instructor until I know what to do. If youre so smart, then why dont you tell me what to do in the above situaton. I dont want to hear from anyone else so send a private message. Do you cut away immediately? Maybe its just a few line twists, why take the chance? Or maybe its a line over. Maybe you dont have enough time to figure it out before you spin out of control. If thats my attitude, Id take it over yours any day. I happen to think that youre in a lot worse danger than Ill ever be, but thats your business. My hands are sweating furiously and Im going home. Its been real. Later.

www.skydivingfatalities.com Description: After a normal opening well upwind of the dropzone, this jumper flew her canopy way too far downwind to make it back to the grass landing area. As she continued to fly crosswind over open desert, she may have become confused with the wind direction and at about 50ft she made a radical turn downwind. She impacted the ground horizontal and still in the turn. She impacted at the same time as her canopy. She weighed no more than 125 pounds w/ gear and was jumping a sabre 150. Although she may have thought she had to avoid a fence, it was to far away to be a factor. She had made perhaps 45 jumps at this DZ in the last week. She died later at hospital. Lessons: Inexperience may have played a big part in this incident. This DZ is particularly open, with few obstacles. However, the winds can be quite gusty and strong. Landing in a hard turn is simply not a viable option. In the short, short time Ive been involved with skydiving, I could have told you that. You dont make a radical turn 50 feet off the ground under any circumstance, or the chute will dive. Ive known that, like they say, not a viable option. Gusty winds are going to screw you up no matter what, especially dust devils. That means, you dont jump when the wind is gusty unless you really, really know what youre doing. I saw them do that last weekend, but you wouldnt catch me doing it, I dont care how many jumps I have. Not worth it.

I know, I know, thats just Hollywood, its all just entertainment. I think it was less than a thousand feet, and they both miraculously survived!!! Isnt it great what these actors can do? Maybe they shoud be teaching skydiving. Keaunu Reeves is a great surfer too, he picked it all up in the movie in about, what was it, one day??? Boy could this guy surf after just one day, wish I could do that. Dont forget, you dont really need a parachute to jump out of an airplane, if its too inconvenient for you to wear one, just jump out and catch up with someone who is wearing one. I would have never figured that out on my own. I wouldnt complain about it too much if I were you, ever seen that movie "Cutaway"?

Because if you're not, it will probably kill you. I dont see how. Once you know and practice the procedures, you know the procedures. How hard can it be?

Get serious, the last one asked me if I starred in that movie. It was a great movie, but I promise you, it has nothing to do with it, nothing. I have to explain this, its not the reason why I started skydiving, the reason was becasue I got pissed off when I was supposed to go hang gliding when the instructor broke his arm, so I wanted to do something radical. It was kind of a challenge, so I wanted to do it again. Thats the story. Ive been styling Rip Curl for a long time now, always wanted to go to Australia and know about Bells, and have been planning on moving to Cal for awhile now. I know what it sounds like, but its purely coincidental, and it has nothing to do with the movie. But it was a good movie. I liked Blue Crush too, nice waves, great wipeouts. Cute blonde.

I get the same kind of attitude about that from the hang gliders and dont understand why you have to be that serious about it to be interested in it. Thats what Im getting at. Youre probably right, need to just stick with one thing and not try to get into everything, something told me that was going to be a mistake. I ahould be out of here in about a year, hopefully when the economy picks up, then move out to the west coast. Youve got to give up something to get something. And I think THATS going to be expensive. Youve got a good point there, thanks. I needed somebody to talk some sense into me because I couldnt. Later.

This can happen, I guess. The problem I hear about is, as Quade implied, just the opposite. You eardrums can implode. The ride to altitude, even in a fast climbing plane is actually quite slow when it comes to body cavity functions. Chewing, swallowing, sneezing, coughing, yawning, ect. Basically anything that move parts of your jaw will allow the pressure to equalize on the way to altitude. The sudden pressure changes in freefall are what do the most damage. Your body cannot equalize the pressure fast enough while falling. If the blockage is major, *poof*, no more eardrums. This is getting worse and worse all the time! Thanks for getting me paranoid of going up with a cold, guess that will keep something really bad from happening next time. The freefall thing makes sense, thats pretty sudden. I was actually worried about the climb to high alititude, wasnt even thinking about that.

Substitute surfing and skateboarding for skydiving. If you dont get it than go and surf. Im sure eloy isnt twisting your arm to stay there. Walk away. Be a man and do a tandem and go to the coast to do what you love. No, maybe not, but Im just a little curious, why the big rush? I just think its a little weird. Whats the rush? Why not take a year to get it? The hang school was kind of behaving the same way, you can see on their website it looks like they dont want to fly anyone who isnt just totally committed full time but just wants to do it for kicks. Thats my point. Choose one thing, whats it gonna be? Take your pic. I think Ill take your suggestion, go on the tandem, then wait till winter, then continue on. Its either that or, quit my job, win the lottery...yea right. Ive been to Vegas too many times and I never win shit, so I guess that ones' out. If I need to freeze my ass off in the winter, Id sure much rather do that skydiving instead of surfing. Make sonse? I sure wish I could do everything, but then again, I sure wish I could have a million bucks. Cant have everything. I wanted to start racing too, they have that out here. There's so much shit to do out west it can drive you up the wall at times. I wish I had more vacation time, more money, thats what I need.

Pardon my lanuguage, but holy shit! I almost didnt speak up when I was out there. I came that close to going up. The manager said its pretty much up to me, but when they advise not to do something, I cancel it right away. But I came that close to not saying anything and going up because I didnt think it was any big deal, felt like I was just whining or something. I had that headache you were talking about when I got home, and a shit load of Tylenols didnt phase it. Man I dont even want to think about this anymore.

So Im not understanding, why wont they just let me keep making the tandem-2 jumps? Im sure they do need the money, so what is the deal? Oh, I didnt mention, they said Im expected to complete the A license in 3 months. So I ask, why not 4 or 5, is that regulated? They say no, but I need to complete it in 3 and go there several times a week. What is the big rush? Do you have any idea of what the hell is up with that?

Bye.