yoink

Relax. Smile. Try not to have unrealistic expectations of yourself... It'll come. This is supposed to be fun.

I'm going to go out on a wild guess here and say that you think you want to get into BASE? Do more jumps, find someone to you know, TEACH you stuff, and don't think you can run before you can walk.

Seriously? The guys sticks his head out of a moving bus window and you guys want to blame the bus driver, the bus company or the parents??.... I'm all for parents taking responsibility for their kids, but this guy was 16....

Bad idea. I'm certain you don't give exactly the same briefing to every student in exactly the same way each time. You probably vary how you deliver sections of the briefing and lengths of time for each based upon how you perceive the student is taking it in... Are they glazing over for the exit bit? You'll repeat it to make sure they have it, or you'll change your tone to emphasise certain points you want them to get. Sometimes people just need things explaining in a different way to get it... All of the above aside - imagine you were a whuffo turning up for your first skydive. You've been excited about it for days and posting about it on facebook. You arrive at the DZ and are told 'read this waiver and sign it, then watch this video...' I'd feel a bit cheated out of my big day - wouldn't you?

I had professors who went the other way - they made books that they'd authored required literature for their course and it had to be the current version... updated versions every year, of course. Just to gouge the students...

*Disclaimer - I'm not a tandem instructor and know zero about tandems... If I started to get linetwists on my sport canopy I would have both hands on the risers at least trying to do something about it - either pulling the risers closer together at the bottom, or spreading them at the top to try and mitigate the extent of the twists. Filming the deployment with a handcam seems to prevent any action being taken other than to sit there and watch it spin up as one hand is busy... Is it impossible to do anything about tandem linetwists as they're forming? Other than that - could you describe the mal on the reserve? It looked kinda like the slider got hung up on something? Still - jumped. Landed. Good job!

I've seen this with a low time jumper in a real AC emergency.... The guys behind him did NOT wait for him to get his shit together.

It's a stupid idea for about a dozen reasons. If you really want to make a bandit balloon jump, get friendly with the pilots at a local club the same way you would do at a dz. Show up at weekends, ask if you can help them with anything, do the grunt work, buy beers and eventually let slip that you're a skydiver and would love to make a jump one day. Put the time into actually getting to know the people and procedures... lots of weekends is my point, not just being an asshole tourist who wants whatever they can get. Don't be pissed off of 99% say no. Do your research on how a balloon should be flying to drop off sky and show that you're considerate of the risks the pilot will be taking. Make DAMN sure that you've walked the area you're intending to land in. Not just 'I've seen that hill from the road' familiar. If you fuck up the landing or hit an obstacle the pilot is going to be in the shit and it'll be YOUR fault. Make sure you can spot and DO NOT get out if you're not in the right spot. Make sure you have the experience and gear that is appropriate to the conditions and landing area. etc etc. Just getting in a balloon and then sneakily trying to bail out of it is being a massive asshole and endangering other people. From some of your other posts I'm guessing you have about 30 jumps and are looking for something 'more exciting' and don't have the licence requirements to make a legitimate balloon jump? Improvising a balloon jump isn't for you.

With what features? smartphone friendly ability to embedded media new content feature Content is written by the users... Feel free to write something! Embedded media and smartphone friendly are oxymoronic. ;)

Return of the Red Hot Fork

Try giving one a bath. You'll see it move then...

all together now 'awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww' https://new.livestream.com/FosterKittenCam/TheScientistKittens/

........................................................................... Like I said: on some DZs, the outside videographers have a very strong union. Please don't try an insinuate that I'm part of some union. I'm not a vidiot and never have been. For me it's purely a matter of the quality of the product that I've seen as a result of both types. When handycam footage looks as good as outside footage, I'll amend my opinion and my personal recommendations.

This fucking sucks. British skydiving is too small for these guys to dissapear... Come on Brits - where are these guys? What's the story?

I've never liked Handcam footage. There's no sense of perspective relative to the world at large, it's wobbly, usually uncentered and has a limited viewpoint - attached as it is to the instructors hand. I will always recommend my mates to get a proper vidiot to film them. One who can get a great shot of the exit. One who can place the tandem pair in a great shot, with fluffy clouds in the background to frame them and one who can be there as they land. If they want footage of the canopy portion, fair enough - edit that in, but I wouldn't recommend paying a similar amount for it.

Congratulations. You're involved in a hobby that consists of 'useless fucks' who refuse to take responsibility for controlling their own behaviour around government regulated activities and as a result need to be treated like children by the powers that be... sucks huh? The stupid thing is that until the FAA actually slap a law on us that has a direct effect on day-to-day skydivers, you'll always have morons like samdi above saying stuff along the lines of 'it's just more bullshit' or 'it'll never happen', and so we'll keep ineffectually ruling ourselves until it's too late to show that we're actually capable of it.

I really like the tutorial videos!

Congrats! Now the real learning starts!

This makes me sad.

Is that something parents insist you do, or something the state insists or just an idea you came up with? It seems overkill to me. Not only that, but we need to ingest foreign flora and fauna as we're growing up to develop our immune systems. Our bodies have to get used to attacking bad stuff otherwise it overreacts on normal things like pollen... It's a bit of a bug bear of mine - I HATE all the adverts for kitchen cleaners that suggest that you should be spritzing your house daily to kill every bacteria and mite around and living in a hermetically sealed bubble. It's not good for people...

Disinfected??? Not just washed? jesus.... and people wonder why more and more folks have allergies!

I've got a Dyson, and have just this evening tried out a Kirby vacuum. I'm kind of a clean freak, and I'm honestly horrified at the amount of crud it pulled out of the carpet straight after doing a run with the Dyson. I can post some pics if you want... Having said that, they're seriously expensive bits of kit. They're $3500 new which is OTT for me. I think they're worth about $1500 - it looks like they do that much of a good job. They offered me a fantastic deal at $1400, although I couldn't take them up on it - you might be able to get them down to that. Maybe ask them for a trial for your carpet? I'm now really not impressed by my Dyson. Don't spend silly money on one of those. I think a regular vacuum will do pretty much a similar job to be honest.

Any time you insist on carrying your rig with you onto a public flight you're massively increasing the risk of getting stopped and or hassled - no matter what the policy of the airline, or your personal beliefs on what is right or fair. Buy a small hard suitcase and put in a note on top in case it gets opened saying 'This is lifesaving Parachute equipment. Untrained persons handling or tampering with it may result in death to the user. PLEASE page me if you want to inspect it.' and give your name and flight details, then check it. Easy.

10 years skydiving and never so much as got a scrape. Mixed doubles badminton with some mid-40's ladies and I break my ankle in 3 places. EXTREME badminton.

What a lot of new students don't realise when they start is that currency (Both Frequency of jumping AND money ) plays a MASSIVE part in learning to skydive. Expect to be able to get to the DZ at LEAST every other weekend until you're qualified, preferably making a couple of jumps each time. It's expensive, but not as expensive as having to retake levels. If you can't make this sort of commitment, save up until you can. Take some vacation, save up some cash, whatever, but really think about being current - it's much more important than you realise.