Staso

the thing is that the discipline is so new, that nobody knows for sure what's right and what's not. i've been to three competition this year and everybody is doing his/her own thing. even now after i've been doing speed for 2 years i still really can't figure out the ideal technic. of course the idea is simple - to provide as little surface as possible and as much weight as possible. since weights are not allowed the only thing left is surface or body position. headdown provide the least amount of surface, though some competitors opt for standup position, but it's rather an exception. the key is stability. since there is no terminal velocity for speed skydving jumping from regular atlitude, the longer you keep your perfect position the more speed you will build up. the faster you go, the easier it's to lose your balance, and the slickier your suit is, the harder it is to maintain your balance. i started when i had about 200 jumps (?) and i was only doing RW at that time. i just flipped on my head and started tumbling across the sky. probalby in about 20 jumps i got pretty stable and in 50 jumps i was going about 200 mph where i stuck for a long time. hte bgi break thru for me was booties ! i think i'm the only one flying booties now, but it works for me. i slowly progressed and finally went over 290 mph. 300 mph is still to come. air is pretty violent at high speed and the dive itself feels very intense, but i wouldn't say you can injure yourself. well, people are known to dislocate shoulders in regular freefall though. one is supposed to gradually slow down after speed dive but i usually slam it as hard as i can, lots of speeders do the same. i never felt that i could dislocate or break anything. well, except my jumpsuits. i go thru 2 every eyar. and wear long sleeve t-shirt under your jumpsuit, otherwise the fabric on you triceps will beat you to dark blue death :) gear should be super-duper FF-friendly. closing loop should be extra tight. 2 audiables, open face helmets are not recommended, Gath is banned since you can't hear your audiables in it. for accurate measurements ProTrack should be placed on later webbing. in helmet it could read weired things. that's about it :) ask me more if you need any info. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

it's very addictive :) and i can't really do regular FF HD :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

> What's your exit altitude? usuall. for competition i should be higher then 13000 (or you can rejump) but not higher then 14000. > At what point are you measured? from like 8500 till 5500 ft. it's more round numbers in meters. 1 vertical km. > At what height do you start to flare out? i have my audiables set to 5000, 3500 and 1500. i flare at 5000, slow down for about 10 seconds (?) and pull almost immidiately after i hear second beeps. i opened around 2500. all my openings are pretty much at ~150 mph speed. but since i'm falt at that time it's not biggie (well, for me, canopy takes all the beating). and it opens actually slower and softer - slider stays put till i slow down to regular opening speed and at that moment i'm already vertical. > Is there a site I can go to to learn more? speedskydving.com - Ken's web site. it's gonna be updated every day starting monday. probably good place to start. http://speedskydiving.proboards19.com/index.cgi - newly organized forums. we're gonna discuss rules for next year competition pretty soon there. you're welcome to join. Stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i totally rely on my audiables :) my hearing is as much my sence as my sight and i don't see many reasons to rely on one and not on another :) but mostly i don't have any choice -it's hard to see altimiter (i don't wear actually one) during speed dives. and i also look at the ground all the time. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

And it went off after 54 jumps. So over 300 in total. Perhaps I've discovered a perpetual power source! t are you sure you don't just hear things ? -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

wow -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

that whould be true if main and reserve were completely separated, but they are part of one system. your math doesn't include main and reserve entanglement, activating reserve at lower altitude, pulling reserve after spinning under main and thus in bad body position, etc. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

even if they do, they will warn you a week prior to that. keep the spare battaries in your gear bag and replace dead once after the jump when your dytter(s) start complaining :), not in couple of days. i think that every battery is different, so chances are that 2 units would die at eactly the same time are not extremely high. again even if they do, it's not biggie. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

nicely said ... -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

even easier then that - put it on your ankle and kick as hard as you can :) i think the reading over 600 mph was registred once -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

it's basically all about the balance. weight helps but if you lose your balance for a fraction of the second, you lose all your speed. so it's much more important to be balanced then dense. same goes for latex suits - it has high potential, but it's so hard to balance in damn thing that it rendres it almost useless for lots of folks. especially since for speed skydiving speed is measured as average over 1 vertical km and it's very important to keep going and accelerating as long as possible. and as one guy said flying in latex suit is like balancing in grease on your head. plus if you get into flat spin on your back at 250+ there is nothing to grab on, suit is way to slick :) this discipline is more popular in Europe and it came from there, but interest in US is growing. there are now some issues within current organization that governs speed skydiving (ISST - speedskydiving.net) but new organization is being formed and hopefully next year competitions will go more smooth. as a representative for the new organization from states i push to get one of the rounds of next year world cup here in US so more people could get involved. all the current news are usually posted by Ken Hansen at his web site: speedskydiving.com recently forums were organized for all the speeders and speeders to be at speedskydiving.proboards19.com. everybody is welcome to join ! there are not that many people who are interested in speed skydiving as i wish there were, so i think we should stick and play together. stan. edited: i screwed up with urls :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

let them go over your shoulders after you pulled on them and they will wave in a breeze behind you. unless you fly accuracy canopy and don't have enough forward speed :) stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

nice :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

nice, Craig :) Stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

congratulation on the record ! sorry to bring it up, but just for curiosity sake - doesn't cypress fire disqualify the record ? or was it on attempts ? stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

doing speed dives with the protrack in you helmet you can get negative speed reading and negative deployment atlitude :) stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

man, you would really have problems with 0.5 m hoop. 0.5 m is less then 2 feet !!! stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

here you go: http://harrier.itc.if.ua/~chris/Skydiving/Speed/00.jpg http://harrier.itc.if.ua/~chris/Skydiving/Speed/01.jpg http://harrier.itc.if.ua/~chris/Skydiving/Speed/02.jpg Stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

yahoo ! i'm back. 4th place in belgium and number one in sweden :) must be because of the unisex sauna in sweden :) staso. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

:) if you're serious about speed skydiving you should consider moving your pro-track from your helmet to your harness. you'll be surprised with difference in speed reading. for that jump i had my max in 250-ish or 260-ish range from my harness pro-tracks readings and i got 307 mph from my helmet one :) stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

slow. in 240+ mph average. with my best result being 284 mph 240-ish looks bad. i'm going to Spa DZ. be there on thursday. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

thanks Little Sky Witch, i was pleasantly surprised when my friend found your message and told me about it. I'm a bit disappointed with my result but tonight i'm going to belgium for another round and i hope to improve it. thanks, stan :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i just found out recently how inaccurate ProTrack is for speed dives when placed inside of the helmet. i went to england for speed skydiving competition and since i was given two pro-tracks which were placed on my harness, i had to move my own from harness to my helmet just to log my jumps. with maximum speed about 260-ish on harness pro-tracks my helmet one showed 307 mph with the lowest speed (in track while slowing down) down to 23 mph :) i can also get about 200 mph in regular track if i move my head side to side :) my fastest so far with pro-track on the harnes was 291 mph. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i must be in the extreme minority here :) i got my D-ring handle for my cutaway recently and I'm gonna put in on my rig. so i'm gonna have to d-ring handles for both reserve and cutaway. my main discipline is speed skydiving and i'm usually all by myself in freefall and i'm not worried about somebody's pulling my handles accidently. so i'm going for sure grip. before i decided to change my pillow cutaway to D-ring i was thinking why originally pillow was a choice for cutaway handle ? just to have different feel for different handles ? stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i got huge black and blue bruises on my triceps doing speed dive some hot day whgen i jumped without a long sleeve t-shirt under my jumpsuit. it was due to some flapping of the suit fabric whipping my arms. since then i always wear something under my suit. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum