VanillaSkyGirl

Why does that not surprise me?

We had a great time with you, Jeremy! The only bad part was that the next morning, I discovered that someone had keyed my car really badly that night. Other than that, the night was a lot of fun.

That was great! Thanks for the laugh!

Why is this thread about Frenchy? (Frenchy's name is even in the title.) I thought that it was supposed to be a thread to congratulate Lisa Marie. Lisamarie~ Congrats on your A! Have a great week/weekend!

The note was very mean. The person, who wrote the note is horrid, angry and spineless. Please don't let someone like that get you down, and who cares if you have put on a few pounds? I'm sure that your lovely wife loves you, just the way that you are. Congratulations on the upcoming wedding!

...and you still refuse to jump with me. WTH? Nicky, you know that I'm taking a skydiving hiatus. I've NEVER refused to jump with you! Come fly with me in the tunnel this week! Go to PMs, ok?

That's very sad. I had no idea about an owl's demise in the tunnel. Also, I'm not familiar with how difficult or easy, that it might be for a bird/animal to get stuck below the fans at a wind tunnel. Are there any steps that can and/or have been taken to prevent this from happening with birds/rodents/small animals in the future? Was this simply a solitary accident, that is not likely to occur in the future?

Same here. I'm often the person with the least amount of jumps (200) on many of the skydives (and even tunnel sessions) that I've been on. I always appreciate being asked on those jumps. CCowden~ I also consider low-timers at under about 200-250 jumps or so. I know that at 200 jumps, I consider myself a low-timer when next to fellow skydivers with thousands of jumps, who have medals from competitions and so forth. My tunnel skills have made me feel ok about my flying skills, but I feel that I have so much to learn, always. I would feel silly talking about "low-timers", when I have only 200 jumps myself. That said, I have met and read about skydivers who think that they are above the curve of other newbies. Those are usually the people who need the most help with their own skills and shouldn't be "teaching" low-timers their bad habits. Thankfully, there are some great coaches, specifically in Southern California, who offer free camps for newbies at both Elsinore (ExCel camp) and Perris (2-way Camp), where newer jumpers can learn good skills in a safe environment. Hopefully, there are these kinds of camps at many other DZs across the country.

Thank you for that wonderful post. All of what you wrote is right on!

Many prayers and get-better vibes sent to Amy!

Anyone who know Arthur, knows that he is actually a very polite, extremely nice and understanding young man, which is very rare. I don't know many people who are that nice. Square One didn't owe Arthur anything that day, since they were on their way to closing the store and finishing up with their customers. However, if Arthur says that the guy was unusually rude to him about it, then (knowing Arthur), I tend to believe him. Arthur is not the kind of person to get easily upset. Then again, it's completely understandable if Square One doesn't want to measure a guy, who isn't buying through them and who came in during closing. Yet, I can't help but wonder, if a pretty female jumper would have had the same reaction from the guy (tossing the paperwork, laughing and telling her that they wouldn't have done it anyway), or if he would have rushed to get the tape measure. At least, he would have turned her down politely, I think.

Woohoo, I saw Arthur, tonight. Too bad it was so brief, but thank you for making me laugh from inside the tunnel with your glass wall sucking. Silly guy!

This whole thread is disturbing beyond belief.

Yes, Deuce is a very nice, decent man. He probably will be gone by the time that I get to the tunnel tomorrow night, though. Btw, which skygods was Deuce jumping with this time?

By the way, she has an incredible arch! Little girls are so bendy!

Thanks for writing that added part, Iwan. As you probably can tell, I wrote my post because I'm looking out for my good friend's safety. That's all. I just want to reemphasize to her that the opportunity will be there in the future. That said, if the landing situation is well within her abilities, then have fun, Ev!

Your little girl is adorable!

All of us on this thread need to start a special blue/black fan club or something. Those are my favorite colors, also!

DZ.com ~ We'll make you throw up a little.

Your parents aren't always going to approve of everything that you do in your life. It's only natural, that they disapprove or dislike something, that you love to do. Obviously, you are also capable of doing/achieving plenty of things that they are proud and happy about. Furthermore, as close as you may be to your parents, they don't have to be heavily involved in every part of your life. Just let them know that you are safety conscious, and that skydiving makes you very happy and fulfilled. After letting them know that, try to not talk too much more about skydiving, when you are with them. If they bring it up (in a bad way), you don't need to feed into it by arguing with them or anything. Try to listen to them and to their arguments, even if they are ridiculous, and thank them for their concern. When a little time has passed, and they have calmed down a little, if they are interested and are able to listen rationally, explain to them how seriously the process of learning to skydive is taken. Let them know, that you can choose to be safe and/or a "conservative" skydiver, which decreases you chance of injury or death. With your achievements/actions in other parts of your personal and professional life, let them see that you can still be a successful, rational person, who just happens to love this sport. It's very difficult to not have loved ones' support in this sport, but you should accept that they may never come around. Above all, don't let this become a barrier between yourself and your loved ones. It's not worth it because as much as you love this, it's just skydiving. Your interaction with your loved ones (such as parents, siblings, spouse/SO, old friends, etc.) should always remain important.

I'm going to do canopy coaching tomorrow and that is one of the things I'm going to work on is accuracy. And that's a good idea to talk to Jim, so I'll do that too. Evelyn, listen to Dom and Remi's advice. Remember that just four days ago (7/11th), you wrote this in a post about your last jumps: Eve, even if you have canopy coaching, you may not see drastic results in your canopy skills right away. You already know that you need to work on accuracy, and that there is no reason to rush the beach landings. I know how hard you have been working on your canopy skills, and I think that is very safety conscious of you to be getting canopy coaching every few months. Keep doing that, girl! (I also plan to concentrate on improving my canopy skills with coaching when I begin to jump again.) One can never be too safe, right? Good luck, be careful and remember that you can always do the beach jumps on another trip, when your canopy piloting skills are much stronger. Bye for now!

Why wouldn't he? That's right. You jump there.

So Dave, are you going to be visiting Elsinore where the SoCal Aussies jump?

If that's a "Boxing Helena" type of reference, I'm not into that.