lurch

Sad, ain't it? Imagine being stuck down there FULL time. (horrors) Then they see the canopies playing around overhead..."And we show them, the human spirit is still alive..." I think it is a great honor and privilege to BE one of those gyrating neon skygrins. The freedom just annihilates the irrelevant. "Hitting bottom: The ability to let that which does not matter, truly slide." An important lesson Tyler Durden left out though: right before hitting bottom, FLARE! Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Jumping puts everything in its proper perspective. Trivial, most of it. I work 3rd shift and like to dash out to the dz, a 5-mile detour, not bad, on my way to work and catch the sunset load before doing this horrible 12-hour shift fixing things. The coworkers who give a shit can tell how many jumps I got in by how big the grin is. Its a lot harder to get pissed off at those stubborn broken connectoids when 4 hours ago I was hauling ass through a real vanilla sky face lit up like a flare tracking into the sun dodging clouds and canopies. Now tell me office politics matter. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

What about Pepperell? If you're from Boston you're practically on top of it. Its a great place, cool people, an otter, a cessna, a big green landing area with loads of outs, a fire out back and top notch instruction. I been meaning to hit up Lebanon for awhile now, But I can get to Pepperell in 15 minutes so simple jump greed and familiar people keep me coming back rather than deal with an hour+ drive. I hear its a bit more laid back than Pepperell, a party place....Pepperell used to be a party place, or so it felt like to me, but seems like all the party people left, scattered south and west. Now Chad here has me wondering again. How IS Lebanon anyway? Layout? Easy outs or cramped? Is it a zone of its own like Pepperell or more improvised-looking, dz in a can tacked on to an existing airport in one building like Jumptown? (also a kickass place with more winter jumps available) How are the people? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

The last reply you ever expected to get from me: You know you're right. I stand corrected. The original news article pissed me off and I reverted to my own stereotypes of the people involved. I do not know what "lies" you refer to....if it is lack of tolerance for racism, well, _I_ have none nor does anyone I associate with to my knowledge. I know it exists up here as well as elsewhere, however I regard people like that as irrelevant. At least publicly, reintroducing segregation here would be cause for an outraged media noise like you wouldn't believe. Honestly? I aim to hit up dz's nationwide with time including several down south, where I've never been, because I have friends who've moved down there. I eat my words. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

"We spend our lives working jobs we hate, to buy shit we don't need." "Its only after we've lost everything....that we're free to do anything." "You just had a near-life experience!" -Tyler Durden Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Agreed. Living in the philippines at school once there was this asshole name of Tino. 100% filipino and totally racist against anything NOT filipino he somehow got the idea that he was a neo-nazi, ran around wearing a swastika. (LMAO) Watching TV in the dorm one day, a couple black dancers on the screen, this guy starts going "fucking niggers on tv what the fuck" I said what the hell is up with that? He replied "shut the fuck up, fucking white boy." (This took balls) In a room full of filipinos I said "shut the fuck up with the racist shit, FUCKING BROWN BOY." Turned it right around and hit him with it. He came up out of his chair like shot from a cannon and started for me. I jumped to my feet, got ready to fuck him up. (wanna physically attack me for refusing to accept that shit? bring it, asshole.) The rest of the filipinos in the room grabbed him and slammed him back in his chair before he got 4 feet away. Apparently I wasnt the only one sick of his bullshit. There IS hope for the species. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

I'll do that. Unfortunately this guy is also a whuffo, but a good one. He sees it as something incredible he'd never ever dare do and die of a heart attack if he tried. Can't believe he works with someone who DOES that. Loves the idea but you know whuffos...he sees it as impossible dream kinda thing, fear of heights. I tell him just come on out, give it a try, you might become an addict like me.... He's cool people. maybe someday..... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Aha a return to savagery. Next up: how bout segregated bathrooms? Lynch a few of them "uppity" colored people? A good old fashioned cross-burning? How disgusting. Shit like that makes me embarrassed to be a white man. I have friends in all colors including the skin tone range "black". I've had a running joke with a mechanic at work, black man, teases me about skydiving being a crazy white man's sport. (he's never seen a black man skydive) I tell him nope, they do, got it on video, black men CAN jump. Come on out and jump with us someday. I'm trying to imagine partying with this guy somewhere and being told "he can't come in here". Would that be an occasion for justifiable homicide? Who the fuck are the small minded self righteous little nazis responsible for this? Probably a bunch of overreligious pasty white superconservative southerners who look like they just escaped an episode of "leave it to beaver" and think black folks should "know their place" like god intended. This is why I'm glad I live in the northeast u.s... up here anyway there's no tolerance for a mindset like that. None. Grrrrr God that shit pisses me off. Who the fuck do they think they are? God's chosen? Fucking appalling. Mental note: avoid Georgia. I have long hair. I suppose to them that makes me a long hair hippy should be run out of town cause "we don't need your kind here" huh? please excuse the rant, in this case I feel it is entirely justified. Anyone else agree? end rant Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Jesus, I'd have to dig it up, get some decent video cap gear and feed it to my pc. It IS a wild video we got shots of my old friend chris getting dumped off the front of the boat cause the owner reversed the throttle....Chris came up with melted cigarette in one hand, waterlogged beer still in the other hand....gotta have priorities. We sat around and watched the video repeatedly with this attitude like "Dude we gotta show this to your mom, she'll freak." When you ride the tube it looks all stable and shit, but when you lose it theres no warning....just mounting g's and then BAM! Tube dumps you and you skip.... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

sabre 190 another weird opening work on my pack job Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

upside down in sky planet stuck above my head shorter freefall time Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

pc is too tight now I can not pull the pin missing freebag sucks Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Just kick him in the squishy and have done with it. Everything belongs to a cat. The car is the cat's property unless otherwise specified by, say, closing the window? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Another bird is born congrats...believe it or not, about 100 jumps from now you'll be relaxed and laughing as you go out the door headfirst. Keith is right. It's the end of the world as you know it. You feel fine? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Try stepping off of a speedboat at 100 mph. And, that is without any vertical speed. You'll kill yourself I don't mean to be a dick here, but... Incorrect. I know. I've done it repeatedly and have it on video. A friend had this 150 horse jet-boat does about 55-60 mph tops on open water. Add a 200-foot rope to the back, a big rubber ring innertube with handles and some idiot (me and a friend) willing to ride the sucker. A jetboat has no prop and no rudder and can corner at top speed almost on a dime. Whip the boat into a tight u-turn at top speed and guess what happens to the rider at the far end of the rope at the outer radius of the turn? Think slingshot. Radically accelerated till g-forces tear you right off the tube. Done right the tube outruns the boat real fast. You can fly for several seconds superman style 3 feet off the water. If you hit with a small enough vertical speed component and high enough horizontal speed you don't break the water at all, just skip and tumble like a flicked insect throwing spray every time some hard part of you like shoe soles elbows or face digs in a bit.... Feels like bouncing along on a liquid rubber cushion...but here's where the concrete part comes in. You must curl up in midair and ride it out. I tried to break the water once during midfling. As soon as the water has a hold of you, you get slammed brutally. I hit so hard once it tore my Ironman watch right off. Its still at the bottom of the lake, and I was nauseated for an hour afterwards. Incidentally water can give you road rash. I recommend body armor for this sort of thing. edit: If I'd hit flying forward facedown headfirst in a birdsuit flight posture I'd have broken my neck instantly, no doubt in my mind. Going off that tube you go backwards, faceup and curled. Or else it hurts. further edit: I take back the superman style part. Fly horizontally and hit water, yes. But only ass-first human ball projectile skip action. It was when I tried to control it and uncurl that it hurt. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

We got lotsa females jumping at my home dz. Packers, jumpers, instructors...Without them the place would be a lot less scenic and way too butch. Most of em can totally outfly my newbie ass and they all rock. My .02$ Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Exaggeration of jump numbers/ability is dangerous. I don't ever want to create a situation where someone is expecting me to deliver knowledge or skills I don't possess. Lives may depend on someone thinking I know what to do when (blank) happens. Mostly right now that amounts to get the hell out there track far clear and dump before 2500. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Just remember you heard it here first I'm sitting here chewing snorting and choking on my potatoes trying not to blow pureed vegetable starch into my sinuses this is getting funny. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Let me get this straight. Your ambition is to start pimping for another SPECIES and retire on it? Whoa. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

: Lurch, It's inspiring that you have overcome so much through skydiving. steve, I sincerely appreciate the sentiment.... I never thought of it in those terms. I have a sense of perspective. I'm just some factory worker jackass who went and learned how to skydive and changed for the better, a fairly trivial matter from any perspective but mine. "overcome so much through skydiving. " Put in those terms makes it sound like I'm some kind of whuffo hero in a Readers Digest Drama in Real life writeup. yuck.

I also feel that therapy and medication play a vital role in helping many. Oh hell yeah. For the rest of my siblings for example, I'd consider both mandatory. I don't recommend my own approach (except the final solution that won the war for me....skydiving!) to anyone unless they have a real hate-on against themselves and the world. If I'd spoken to the right people at the right time when I was a kid I could have saved myself 12 years of living hell. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

General help in a machine shop in Bicutan, Philippines... Boxing stuff at a junk mail factory... Washed dishes in an italian restaurant.... Worked gofer at a place that sold woodstoves... More boxing at a magazine refinery... Baker at Red Lobster Roadie with a carnival touring New England states, a rolling party city if I've ever seen one... Machine operator at a sheet metal plant... Machine op/qc tech at a plastics plant making coke bottles.... Freelance landscaper/painter/cable jockey running wiring in new custom housing in Sacramento, California Welding/grinding at a sheet metal plant in a prototype production line for a Megabuck Lucent Industries contract that fell apart when the tech boom crashed...incredibly dangerous job. 14 illiterate mexicans with no english and 5-kilowatt-class powertools in a confined area with lots of iron filings and industrial abrasives. I was the only one on the original crew to escape the job without being slashed badly by a large angle grinder or burned by a runaway thermite reaction caused by poor housekeeping. This frequently required extreme evasive maneuvers. (climbing nearby walls, jump and stick to ceiling, hurl self backwards violently, etc...) Worked a punch op position running/tooling/debugging the programming on an Amada CNC sheet metal punch cell turret...fun job. Now working operator/troubleshooter/mechanic on the assorted automation at another bottling plant. Future jobs include: Tandem instructor Packer/Rigger and perhaps Videographer. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

At the end of the class, I had a choice between a cool-looking certificate and a logbook. I took the logbook. LMAO.... You took the Red pill. I wonder how you deal with it if you're one of those who took the Blue pill? Didn't finish jump school? Walked away? (horror) Settle for ordinary reality? Never! Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

(quote) But, with skydiving, I've seen people, who were on the verge of breakdown, come back with such vigor, such renewed vitality... it's incredible. I'll be scoping out this and other sports... car racing, skateboarding, etc... to see if these lifestyles are effectively helping people to regain their lives. Without drugs... or supervised discussion groups. I am TIRED of hearing that the only way to heal is with hours spent with a psychiatrist or with a drug cocktail that Hunter S Thompson would be impressed by. I know that hobbies and religion are touted as being supplemental healing tools, but what if, by some chance, we are actually healing a bit more every time we jump? (Or drive fast or zoom down a hill on a funky shaped board that has our feet attached to it?) That's the gap I want to fill. The questions I want to answer. Something between science and personal experience... that shoots from the hip and shows a few more options geared towards living a fulfilling, happy life. Too many people are breathing, but not living. You know what I mean? -Um, I USED to be depressed. Permanently. Spent about 12 years on the ragged edge, dead man walking, slowly losing the war...half my siblings have attempted suicide. I never did but out of sheer angry stubbornness. When you have nothing left, anger and rage can keep you going for years. No medication, no therapy for me, just iron will and bitter pride. Now, no more rage, huge grin all the time for the past year since I started jumping, very happy man, for the first 6 months I was scared I'd "get over it" or get used to it and find myself back in the terrible dark. It ain't happening. Renewed vitality? ABSOLUTELY! I'm lighting up a little brighter with every jump and I'm still getting used to being this stranger to myself who laughs a lot is quick to grin and has a life whuffos can only wonder at. Feeling bluish? If I can't jump right now I go sniff my rig. Smells like ozone-crackly canopies and the drop zone. aaah, much better. Big grin again. Best antidepressant ever devised: massive overdoses of clear blue skies puffy clouds and forced high-speed learning. I expect to be doing this for the rest of my life, and look forward to it. I win.

Three cheers for Aunt Jemima....reigning champion in the ghetto domestic violence arena.... I grew up in an envioronment like that but the violence was a lot more serious and it was the parents vs their own kids not two (adults?) going at it...that video looked like two kids playing. Both of them were still standing. In my childhood home it wasn't over till the kid couldn't get up struggle or scream anymore. (shakes head sadly...) There's no stopping THAT cycle.... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.