vdschoor

Say hi to Steve, Junior, Jim, Donna and Rex from the Byron water boys

More people = higher probability of cameras. Blues, Dave Anyone who brings a camera out to the numbers, knows that the camera stays at the numbers.. in really small pieces.. Iwan

What about the numbers? NAKED NUMBERS NAKED NUMBERS NAKED NUMBERS! Can we do it?

What about the numbers?

There's going to be a party? Um.. no.. I don't think so.. you guys were coming there to skydive right? POP!!!! I think I just screwed it up..now we have to have a party too..

And the problem with that is? That's when the party starts, cause we'll be jumping until 8 or so since we're changing the clocks next week...

Yeah.. YOU EVIL PEOPLE!! ha ha.. I got to it too late.. It was good to hear you were at least having a good party out there

COME PARTY WITH US!!!!! You'll find it.. if not, call us and we'll talk you through it.. it's very easy to find..

Just leave them crazy goggles in SoCal It will be nice to meet you dude! specially after your drunk dial session from Saturday..

Rhys, You're obviously at a busier dropzone than I am, and probably doing this fulltime. Regarding the camera brands.. I got into this a little over 2 years ago, and had some very experienced camera people as my mentors, and this is the story they told me, and I had very good experiences sticking to that.. So that's what I passed on to the topic starter. I know some people make a decent living out of flying video, I also know some very well known camera fliers that struggle to make ends meet living just off of skydiving... and that's where my comments come from. If I could MAKE 50K a year skydiving, I'd retire from my dayjob right now... Did you take all the wear and tear on your equipment into account? 2nd rigs, repacks all that...

I'm not coming then.. Ok.. maybe I will..

You should wear your glasses more often

That's what I meant.. If I compare what I spent on equipment, maintenance of the equipment, wear and tear on your OWN gear all that together, it helps pay for some of your skydiving, but for me certainly not for all of it... Iwan

Ok, so we've been talking about this a lot at home, how specific do you get when you say "I want to go in peace" for example. Personally, I do not want to live "like a vegetable" where I need all sorts of machines just to keep me alive... How do you define "when I get like this, turn them off.. " cause sometimes there is hope, people have come out of comas after being on machines for years.. Any suggestions?

Hmm.. you know.. I don't really want to add up what it costs.. ha ha.. cause that would be a really harsh reality check for myself too.. You can go the used route, most of my stuff was new when I bought it, but I have bought some backup cameras used off of eBay, you just have to be careful who you buy from. For me, this is roughly the equipment that I use for freefall stuff, you can find the prices on the internet and add them up for yourself Bonehead Flat Top Pro Canon Digital Rebel Canon Elan 7E Canon EF 28mm F2.8 Sigma EX 15mm F2.8 Sony TRV17 Cam Eye Brent Finley's cross sight I have a bunch more that I use for ground stuff, or special jumps but I think this is the minimum setup that I needed to get into the tandem video rotation (we had to have a film and a digital still capability last year, we have now switched to digital only) Iwan

hmm.. you want to have skydiving pay for itself? Get a tandem rating, cause flying video will not pay for your skydiving my friend Anyways.. what to buy, where to buy it... that's a really broad question, it all depends on what you want. I would start off deciding how serious you want to get, that determines what kind of setup you are going to buy.... Do you want to go all out, get yourself a Flat Top Pro, if you just want to be able to do stills and video and nothing fancy.. look around for another camera helmet, read these forums and make up your mind as to what helmet you like, and what will work for you. Where to buy it? There's a whole bunch of really good gear stores that will get you setup with the camera helmet, cam-eye, ringsights and all that.. In the camera department, go with a Sony video camera at least.. don't go with other brands.. why? Read these forums to find out.. sony is THE brand that people use in skydiving.. For stills.. make up your mind on which system you want to invest in, Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Kodak, Sigma,.. etc.. I am a Canon guy, but there's enough people that jump Nikon and other systems.. Most important after that is to be really current on your jumping before you strap anything on your head, and be really familiar with your gear.. It wouldn't hurt to use your camera on the ground for a month or so so you know the ins and outs of your gear.. Just walk out to the swoop pond or landing area and film your friends landing, try different things on the camera make sure you know where all the buttons are, BEFORE you strap it on your head.. The same thing goes for the still camera.. know your gear before you jump it!! Where to get your camera gear? I am a loyal B&H Photo customer (www.bhphotovideo.com) but there are a lot of good camera stores around too.. I started off jumping cameras when I had my Triathlon 190, a great canopy overall but I got rid of it after it slammed the #$^#$% out of me once and I had a sore neck for two weeks.. Overall a 7 cell canopy like the Triathlon (or the Spectre) is a great camera flyer canopy... Again... be safe, get really current and most importantly.. be a proficient flyer in the discipline you are going to be filming.. If your bellyflying is only so so... get some more belly jumps in before filming RW formations.. If your freeflying is only so so.. get some more freefly jumps in before starting to film freefly jumps.. Be safe! Iwan

I am wearing sunglasses so people can't see my eyes.. If they did they could see that I was really scared shitless instead of pretending to be all cool about jumping out of an airplane.. yeah that's it.. I think.. yeah!

0:7:1 6 freefly jumps and 1 belly jump with MadJohn, turning some crazy points..

I don't know.. packing will do some wear to it too of course, but I would just jump it every time after you packed it It will make the packjobs more rewarding.. I just bought a brand new canopy too.... it takes me a bit longer to get into the bag right now, but it's soo worth it when it opens up and you get to fly it again.. Iwan

Get your lazy ass to the DZ and make some jumps tomorrow too while you're at it.. haha I got a snake man! Um.. and we need to know this why?

Get your lazy ass to the DZ and make some jumps tomorrow too while you're at it.. haha

It works for some people and it doesn't for others.. Stick to what your instructors taught you, just make sure that you have the canopy in your control and nothing slips out.. and you'll be fine.. The best cure to make a new canopy easy to pack.. is to jump it a lot Just show it who's the boss and pack it like you are taught..

No but really.. the weight is very well balanced.. Yeah.. I'm not easily scared by big camera setups, but this is just.. well.. SCARY.. Iwan

Good one.. tell him that.. Other than that.. give pointers.. it's more fun to make it work together than have one of the two be unsatisfied with the fun..

Sweet dreams hotness....