The111

Do what every other formation discipline does ... take docks! In 5 years of flying wingsuits I've seen many docked 4-way diamonds attempted, and none even close to completion. Go do it, I will be first in line to applaud you. One thing we learned on creepers at Z-Flock is that the tail guy would have his head up the butt of the front guy, since we don't extend our arms all the way out sideways. Try it on the ground, with your wingsuits on. That is just ONE reason it doesn't work... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Jarno's "figment" makes that even more obvious. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Excellent advice Andreea. I am definitely interested in improvements to the process. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Jarno, I have very mixed feelings about the grid. I agree that it is ridiculous that something like the "figment" you posted could be taken seriously as a record. At the same time... I don't have a better alternative to offer. I seem to remember you having a good idea once but I can't fully remember it. I think there are parts of the grid concept which fall very short, but compared to what we had before (absolutely nothing)... I can only consider it a step forward. If you think about it, one could draw a 400-way RW record that looks like crap but still has all the grips (a 400-way upside down funnel, for example), and I guess technically it would qualify since it has all the grips... but it would never happen in reality. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I'm pretty sure it's in the first post of this thread. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

The idea is to fly the jumpers in the grid, not to distort the grid to where the jumpers end up. Now, if AHEAD of time you said you were going to use a different grid and gave it to the judges, that would be different and maybe should be allowed, IMHO. I'm in partial agreement with that, but the other interesting thing is that this group, even during dirt dives, kept creating diamonds and thinking they were square. When I would stand outside as they laid on the ground, I could see they were not square and instruct them where to move. But the take-home information here is that they were flying a diamond (rather than a square) not because of poor flying skills, but because of inability to estimate an angle with their eyes. And it seems to me that records should be more about flying skills. But, on the other hand... we are obviously already judging people on their ability to recognize distances (spacing) with their eyes, so by that logic I guess it might not be unreasonable to expect them to measure angles with their eyes too. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Full gallery up. http://www.matthoover.com/gallery/skydiving-photos/2009-10/ www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Taya, can I get some comments from the grid-gods on the two pics I posted here? I think the square one technically qualifies... right? But I think if the diamond one could qualify (no right angles) it would be the better choice. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I'll put some photos on my site soon. For now, here are two interpretations of "the grid." I'm not sure why 90 degrees is a requirement... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I believe the count is 47 by my estimation. He barely beat Scott Bland who got 2nd place with 44 appearances. Paperback edition is available now. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yes. Before I built my first helmet I literally saved every single picture from that thread to my desktop and looked at each on in detail. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Did a jump today 30 minutes before sunset and the video was grainier than a true sunset jump with my HC5. I knew this was going to happen... the sensor on the CX100 is significantly smaller, and I don't think there's any way around that. But, in case there is something I am missing... any way to improve it? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Think VHS vs DVD.

Most of the "junk" that comes installed on a computer is not from MS or part of Windows. It's usually from the PC builder. You can't blame Vista for that. Laptops are the worst. I just got my first laptop and the first thing I did was format it completely to get rid of all the bloatware and then installed the OS myself. Phree is right, you want to do a clean install, no matter what OS you are coming from. You can backup your data ahead of time, in a number of ways. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I am one of the apparent few who never had an issue with Vista. Of course, I didn't start using it until SP1 was out, mainly because of all the bitching I heard at release. I've been using Win7 for months, from the Beta through the RC, and now the final version which I got for free a few weeks ago from Houseparty.com. I have used multiple versions of Vegas, Photoshop, and InDesign (to design my book ) and they all work great... but they also worked great for me in Vista. I'm also a gamer and have run a lot of Source engine FPS games on both Vista and Win7 fine. I have a very few minor complaints about 7, but none are related to application or hardware compatibility. There really aren't any major improvements over Vista either as far as I'm concerned. It's a bit more visually pleasing, and some of the aero snap stuff is cool. I don't like the new taskbar and the lack of quicklaunch, but there is a way to get it back. Even on my less powerful laptop I haven't really noticed a difference between Vista and 7 in terms of resource or power consumption. But supposedly 7 works better on low end machines. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Good choice... I have almost 700 wingsuit jumps and I've jumped probably more than a dozen models... and the first few jumps I've put on my new Phantom 2 are some of the best jumps I've ever had. For the size of the suit, it can go incredibly slow (I clocked 35mph at one point on my first jump on it), and it flies on its back incredibly well and also transitions to backfly smoother than any suit I've ever flown. Love at first flight. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I am sorry to whine, but there is a very serious problem with this video, that I must complain about. The problem is that the video really, really, really makes me want to BASE jump. Years ago I "knew" I would get into BASE wingsuit jumping one day. But, living in boring flat USA, there isn't much access to awesome legal cliffs, and I have no interest in jumping off of antennas and whatever else is available around here. So, somehow, I've managed to forget about my longheld desire to fly off of earth. Your slideshow has reminded me. I have a very short attention span. It's rare I will watch a skydive video from beginning to end. I started yours up with the intention of skimming through it, but after a few seconds I paused it, got up and turned off all the lights, sat down, and watched it from beginning to end in full screen. You managed to make a slideshow more thrilling than most videos. My favorite moments were 1:25 and 2:55. The music was great, and the voice samples at beginning and end (part of the song?) went great with the footage. Keep up the great work!

Yup. I had a Raynox 5050 and gave up very shortly after a humid weekend in FL kept causing fog between the elements. I replaced it with a Century .55x and have had no problems with fog since, though I do miss having full zoom for ground shots. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Ding ding. Finally somebody gets is. When I am lining up a shot in my ringsight, the absolute last thing on my mind is energy drinks and womanizing. I don't know your name, I don't know what you do on the ground... none of that has anything to do with the photo. The ironic thing is the people that whine the most about Mike never seem to realize that they are giving him exactly what he wants. Think about it, the world's first wingsuit photo book just came out, and the majority of the discussion is about him. That's exactly what he wants. It's funny on so many levels. Thanks so much to everybody for the positive feedback and generally overwhelming response. I guess I don't have a choice but to start picking and choosing shots for Volume 2 in 2012. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

At a glance: - cloud porn - pretty island beach jumps - flocks - sunsets More info: http://www.matthoover.com/books/ Enjoy.

I submit that there is no better example of irony than using an internet forum to complain about how you don't want a profile on an internet forum. If you don't want to use it, walk away from the keyboard and don't come back... otherwise you have zero credibility. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Find me a thread with 274 posts in 13 days, where people are bitching because the "amenities at nationals aren't good enough." I didn't think so. (edit: I mean any one of the OTHER nationals events, obviously) www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yeh, I did notice a crazy camera on one of the riders. So where exactly do I go spend my 40 cents to get these glasses? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I don't have any 3D glasses. :-( In that situation I think I'd rather just wear no helmet... big potential for a massive burble crash with a double rodeo going for docks, and I'd rather not crash into everybody with a bunch of cameras... not just for my cameras but for them too. But your choice. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

For starters, the image you posted is 2944x1964, or about 6MP. That is excessive. All the images on my site are 600px max dimension, saved in Photoshop with the web tool and a 60% jpeg quality. They average about 40kb in size. If you make your image super large and then super low quality to meet an filesize requirement, it will look like... low quality. Nice shot otherwise, and nice flying! Brian, do you have two cameras on your head for this jump, and if so why? www.WingsuitPhotos.com