packerboy

If you are logging in that book... go by the book... if you really want something more accurate "which I did", then buy a pro-track or a skytronic... -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Their customer service is incredible... The suits are built well... I would definately recommend them to anyone... -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

That's just fucking nuts (pardon my language). What about these Mullins kids? -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

So when did the Nelson kids start jumping? -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

My DZ charges a little less if you pay cash. Not directly because of the CC charges, probably indirectly. We get our Av-gas cheaper if we pay cash for it, not sure if that is because of the same reason, but probably. So getting the gas cheaper is our incentive to get cash from people... -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I found sometimes they are right on the ball with the e-mails sometimes not. But you can rest assured that they are building your stuff as you read this... maybe he is too busy making suits to reply -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Kurupee Suits... 3 weeks anywhere in the world.. good quality, excellent prices, even better customer service... email blasi_velocity@kurupee.com and tell him you are in a rush.. he'll do something for you. check it out at kurupee.com -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Send a PM to Kurupeeblas on this site. I have had superb customer service from these guys... In fact, when I mentioned some sizing issues with my first suit, they offered to send me a new one for free.. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I'm a bit anal about the stabilizers being over top of the lines... after I've got the tail wrapped around, and after I've shoved the nose into thepackjob (depending on type and size of canopy), right before I roll up the tail and place the packjob on the floor, I will lift up the tail, grab the stabilizers and throw them around over top of the lines again. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Steal the gear and send it to me, I only have 200 jumps, but I'm way smaller and my accuracy is decent and I am getting coaching. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Thank you for the tip, I just talked to T at Unfeathered and she is g oing to be very helpful in getting me what I need. Coming from the service industry myself, being a bartender and waiter, the level of customer service in this industry never ceases to amaze me. I just had an excellent customer service interaction at Kurupee Suits as well. Those are some cool dudes over there in Paraguay. Blue Skies, Trev -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I have to send a defective Skytronic to Italy from Canada, should I push the company to let me send it COD since it's not my fault it doesn't work? -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I jumped last weekend with a really sore neck, I was injured in the unfortunate phenomenom known as "Stupid things skydivers do in the hangar when it is raining". I wasn't expecting a hard opening b/c I haven't had one in a long time but I got one. It sucked. It sucked BIGTIME! I'm sure you wouldn't expect to get a bad spot or a wind gust that lands you hard on a road or even worse.. in a tree, but shit happens. In hindsight, I shouldn't have jumped. But it was my pre-second Otter weekend at my small Cessna DZ, and I couldn't pass up a chance to be on an 18 way. Don't make the same mistake. Oh yeah... and water jugs make great creeper bowling pins, but watch out for the full ones! BTW, it sucked sure, but it was worth it.... 8+ ways don't come around our DZ a whole lot. But I can't in good concsience tell you to go ahead with it... which is pointless anyway, because I guess you are talking about last weekend... blah.. my dumbass needs to hit the orthepedic pillow. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I saw a tunnel promo video last summer that was set to the song Elevation by U2. Has anyone else seen this video or know where to see it? It's pretty incredible, I think the video was from Skyventure. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

How many people actually get to the point where their reserve is repacked to the point that it is not airworthy anymore, even at 120 days? Lots? I really don't know... Even then, geez... get another one. Obviously you either jump enough that you have already accepted the financial lifestyle of skydiving and can scrape together the cash for one... you probably have gone through 2 or 3 mains in the meantime. Or maybe you hardly jump at all and have been around long enough to be unsafely uncurrent and should be genuinely concerned about having a fresh reserve. Either way... lobby for what you want, but in the meantime give your pilots and your life the respect they deserve and get your reserve repacked and don't support riggers who pencil pack anyone's reserve (but their own). What other things do they do that's not "by the book"? Not sure if I should have said (but their own), but whatever, ultimately they are responsible for themselves as well. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Mainly I was thinking of a place to get stuff like helmets, altimeters, ditters, rigging supplies, DVD's and maybe just maybe.. convince a canopy manufacturer or 2 to do some Canadian demos. Oh yeah... and used gear... definately inspected by a respectable master rigger. I know a few -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I personally don't like that we have to travel far or order gear across the border, pay in American dollars, and wait. I want to know if there are enough people out there in Southern Ontario and Quebec who would travel 2-3 hrs to a central location in order to buy: An altimeter or helmet??? A used complete system??? Rigging supplies??? New gear at the same cost without the hassle of currency exchange??? Demo a canopy??? RW Suit or Freefly Suit??? Sell their used gear??? -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The Otter is back!!! Our May 24 weekend crapped out.... but no fear, the Super Otter is back this weekend, with better spots -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

'bout the spare rubber band thing? Use tube stows.. and change them when they are close to breaking. You will never have the "Oh crap, I broke the elastic on the first grommet, someone please toss me an elastic, and by the way, I am completely helpless so feel free to fire elastics at me at your will with out fear of repercussion for at least 3 minutes." situation again. Practice, practice, practice.... and if you are not a paid packer, then by the time you get really good at packing a brand new zero p canopy, it won't be so new any more and will be easier to pack, and your troubles are over. By the way.... I'll give you a lifetime of free packjobs for a ticket to NZ and 3 meals a day. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

We had a guy this past weekend who has about 175 jumps land his first successful pack job. Last year on his first ever pack job he had a function... needless to say he was pretty nervous about packing. But he fought through the nerves and the frustration of not being able to stuff the D-bag and got the job done. It's a good feeling and will make you a better and more knowledgable jumper... Congrats dude! -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I don't believe at all that it cheapens the purity of the sport one bit. How exactly is a sport pure anyway? It's a sport, it's fun, it's an addiction to many. But I think you are looking at it way too philosophically. I will probably get blasted for that comment but I don't care. Tandems introduce alot of people to our sport. Sure alot of people don't go any further than one tandem but who cares really? If it weren't for tandems than a very great percentage of people who have done a skydive wouldn't have. Skydiving is an addiction to me. I thinks its really damn fun and I want as many people to have as much fun as possible. Carnival ride? FUN! Who the hell doesn't like the carnival? What's bad about it? Back to the original question, Yes. Tandems are the safest way to do a first jump. You don't know how people are going to react in the air the first time, there is no magical way of telling. Even after a tandem, you don't know how they are going to react. But it does raise the level of safety some. Is anyone actually arguing that? Even raising that bar a little bit may just save a life. If we can make things safer than why aren't we? Just read that forum about the two girls in Calgary, they didn't want to become skydivers, they just wanted to do a first jump (second for one), but yeah, they just wanted to do a carnival ride. Perhaps if they had done tandems, one of them would still be alive and the other wouldn't have been severely FUBAR'd. I would like to take sort of an unofficial little poll here. How many of the people opposed to making a tandem mandatory for FJ have done a tandem for their FJ? And vice versa. Are we all just arguing that our own way was better? If that's what, underneath, we are really arguing about, than it's all a moot point. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I'm going to feel the wrath here any moment now.... Don't pay to jump with a coach for this, just go do a fun jump with an experienced jumper and ask them to keep an eye on you during your track. What is it? 5-10 sec. If you are going to pay a coach... do a full on tracking dive. I suggest to just keep trying on your own.. if you try tracking on every jump, and adjust a little here and there eventually you will start to feel it work.. I think... but I'm not the greatest tracker either. Try it on your back.... -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I don't believe that you are relying any less on someone else to save your life when you are doing an AFF than when you are doing a tandem. Taking the malfunction situation aside, you just have different attachment points... TI's hands on your rig instead of clips that can hold 5'000lbs of force. He (or she) is there to make sure you open your parachute. Maybe you can, maybe you can't... you won't know untill you try it. But you are still relying on your TI to open your parachute if you can't handle the situation. So what... some dropzones allow tandem passenger to pull the drogue release. But at least if you can't pull the drogue release, the instructor is strapped to you securely and WILL open the parachute no matter what. There have been recent threads about "busy" AFF dives in the incidents forum. Read them, this could be you. You or the instructor doesn't have a clue how you will accept the sensory overload. Wether or not you want to "have control of your own life" tandem is just plain safer for everyone involved, cut and dry, black and white, 1 and 0. Your AFF instructor is risking his (or her) life much more to take you on a AFF FJ than a tandem. Unnecessarily in my opinion. What if you know that this is something that you want to do many times and for a long time? Well, than you will quickly find out that $250 or $200 or whatever you pay for a tandem... ain't exactly a whole lot of money in the skydiving world.. sure once you are experienced, it is 10 or 15 jumps instead of one, but who cares when you have 5,645 jumps instead of 5,630. Borrow an altimeter untill you can convince someone to give you one for a birthday or Christmas to make up for the "huge" amount of money you "wasted". Sorry about my rant, but I am very convinced that tandem is the safest way available to make a first skydive. And since we have the technology and resources to make things safer for everyone, then why should we not implement them? For those who started AFF instead of tandem. I felt the same way, was forced to do a tandem, didn't give a shit because I wanted to skydive, and had a fucking blast and got an awesome video. Get a video of your first AFF and you just look goofy with some other guys taking up most of the frame, holding your hand and showing you what to do like you are in line at kindergarten on your first day of school. Then you have the question of FJ mals. Baglock? PC in tow? Horeshoe? Line over? Never seen a good canopy above your head before..... I'm not even going to go there. But the dropzones shouldn't force you to make more than 1. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Hey.. everyone's human. People make mistakes. Even the company that manufactures your reserve canopy.... Eeewwwhhhwwwwhhh (shiver shiver) Seriously though. Look at the bright side... your not the one who actually needs to have their reserve canopy relined.... now that's a scary thought! -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I am the opposite.. 170'ish skydives, probably 130 FF (mostly poor attempts) and the rest RW. I think that my RW skills have been improving even while I have not flying on my belly. My last RW jump was WAY better than my previous one with about 30-40 FF jumps in between them (12 points versus 2 or 3). I don't think it works the other way though. Last weekend I went on a sit jump with someone who just got their 1000'th tandem (1000's of RW jumps) and... well I flew alot better in a sit than they did for sure. Just food for thought.... -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson