OzoneJunkie

To be honest, I hate having to qualify tips/ideas/etc. with the obvious safety considerations. As far as what height you're at - use an audible or 2, learn to build internal timing, and don't close your eyes thru pull time :P . The point is, be safe. I've done plenty of whole dives with my eyes closed, until 5K or so. THink about it - when you're head down - are you looking at the ground seeing "where you are"? EDIT: besides, there's nothing wrong with opening your eyes during the exercise - it's not "cheating". The point is to do certain things with your eyes closed - be that for 40 seconds, or 2 seconds.

I think it's advantageous to learn flying on your back, with your feet and arms up in the air (sometimes called the "dead dog"). You can keep the speed up, and don't drift (back/forward slide). Additionally, you can rotate it, and get a good 360 view of the situation. Balling up, while keeping the speed up, allows less movement.

Ok, to salvage this somewhat meaningless post, and still stay on topic :P Do more solo jumps. I often see people looking to get on group freefly jumps, that don't spend near enough time on solos. Solo jumps are where you should work on new tricks/moves. When you are comfortable with a new move, then try it in proximity of another person. And do this on a 2way, not an Nway. Also, besides the importance of doing solos (which I simply can't stress enough) - do some solo jumps with your eyes closed. Taking away one frame of reference (visual) will enhance your other frames. In this case, the strongest most likely being the relative wind. As an addition to this, you can try doing single moves with your eyes closed. Get a visual frame of ref. - a spot on the ground/horizon. Close your eyes. Do the move. Open your eyes and check your ref. Stayed on heading? Really, you can learn a lot from solos. Having another person as frame of reference is not as critical as you might think.

I guess we're just a bit sick in the head. Also, watch out for: defiler, intruder, and ape-raper (that last one my gf thought up)

It's like learning anything. You do it in stages. Singles, doubles, triples, docked singles, doubles, triples. You learn to put the pieces together. btw, don't know if you saw any of the other tricks on our site - there's the one where we both do a single docked cartwheel at the same time. We've actually, once, hit a double at the same time. And (this one looks really nice), we've hit a move (called "the blind-eel meal") where we both do double docked cartwheels, but they're offset. Adam starts his double, when he's thru his first cartwheel, I start my double. So he finishes his double, and I have one cartwheel left in my double. Looks really cool :) We're still after the elusive "blind-eel meal with flies" - offset docked triples

I guess I need to read a bit better. Missed the part about your hands. No, we don't bring them in, in fact we keep them out, much like a layout (front/back loop, but legs straight). Difference, of course, is that we're tucked at the legs. For headdown backflips, as we're coming out of them, we open up at the legs, and momentarily put our arms more to the front (not completely in front, but probably 45 from the shoulder). And bend at the waist momentarily, to bring the legs forward. This works well for stopping the rotation quickly, and not over rotating and ending up on your back again. Again, as soon as you're feeling singles, go for those doubles :) With the singles, you miss the intricacies of the rotation position that allows you to continue rotating. The goal is to be able to do as many consecutive rotations as you like. No need to stop at triple, if you're feeling it :)

Sure, there is such thing as overanaly... yeah, what you said ;) But, say, you know that when you're going for a one-hand dock while headdown, that you end up turning/carving, it's nice to know why that's happening and fix it. But once something is intuitive, then yes, you don't think about that aspect anymore. I still like the analogy of a child learning to walk, but I think we're at a potential advantage if we can do both - those jumps where you "let it happen" and those where you do inject your brain into the equation. Look at RW teams. A lot of thinking goes into their training and jumps. Freeflying is no different.

Thanks :) I strongly suggest, once you're feeling comfy with single cartwheels, go for a double and see how you do. Once you can hit a double or triple, your technique should be pretty clean, and you'll have no problems with singles :)

The way my teammate and I do them is as follows: To start, instead of just torquing the lower body thru, we actually put one hand above our heads, and tilt the body slightly to one side, then push off the air slightly, and rotate in the opposite direction. While going thru, we remain tucked, but the legs are at a 90 to the body, and lower legs tucked in pretty well under the upper legs. Tucking the upper legs too far into your stomach will put you on your back. As we go thru, 1/2 way thru (while we're headup), we do what we call the "rear spank". The same hand that we pushed off with to start, we put out to the side, and slightly behind. THis keeps you upright, and keeps the rotation smooth (non-torque based). The thing that makes this work well is when doing double or triple carthwheels - this is where good technique separates. Bad technique will get you thru a single. But doubles and triples require your body position to be good, and to not be torque based (use the wind instead). Check out our docked triple cartwheels here (quicktime required) - click on the video button: http://www.ozonejunkies.com/tricks/colonrobber/colon_htm/trick_colonrobber.htm www.ozonejunkies.com PS. lest you think these are easy, well, they may look it, but they're not. We spent a season on cartwheels. Yes, a season.

I think there's a time to do jumps where you don't think about what you're doing. But, to leave your brain out of the equation all of the time is ridiculous. A baby learns to walk without a bunch of overanalysis. So, certainly trying something new to yourself, like putting a single hand out in front (in prep for a dock), and allowing your body to intuitively "learn" and counter the air pressures is beneficial. However, being on the ground, and analyzing your jumps on video DOES teach you something about what you're doing. And taking that knowledge in the air with you on the next jump is extremely beneficial. When my teammate and I were working on headdown cartwheels, we did huge amounts of analysis on our techniques. Our ultimate goal (achieved) was to be able to do docked triple cartweels. I haven't seen anyone else do these. Without that analysis, I don't think we would have gotten as far as we did. If you have a desire to see a docked triple cartwheel: Click on the Video button on this page (quicktime required): http://www.ozonejunkies.com/tricks/colonrobber/colon_htm/trick_colonrobber.htm www.ozonejunkies.com

You may want to mention/get into the details of what to do after the flat turn. If you are low, you may not have sufficient altitude to allow the canopy to return to full flight before flaring, as your canopy can move forward (in relation to your body). In this case, it may be safer to continue to your flare point in 1/2 brakes, and make the flare from there.

hehehe, i lost my virginity (a looooooong time ago) in one of those very tunnels

http://www.crazybrowser.com/ Been using this for a while - has tabbed window, and blocks popups. Not perfect, but better than IE in many respects.

Ok, ok!!! I admit it!!! I printed out 325 copies, and bit each one... no, I ate each one, ok!!! They were great, ok??!!

Hmm, well, it was only a picture of your @$$, but perhaps I created some kinda voodoo picture... did you actually feel it??

Yeah! I printed a hardcopy, then took a nibble out of it...

Hmm, NSFH - not safe for home - you're going to get me in trouble

I'm gonna link in my previous response to learning headdown. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=675314;#675314 And I'll ask - how many of you out there that are having difficulty learning headdown have tried this exercise? It only takes but a day (8 jumps) - and it is very helpful. Perhaps giving you some background (ok, trying not to brag...): Jump #37 I was on my head for the whole dive. I have coach jumps on video with Mike Vail of me flying on my head (yes, straight down and stable) at 70 jumps - practicing putting a single or both hands out in front. Jump 120 taking headdown docks. Just trying to add a little support to my claims on the exercise. They really, really help - and are easy to do...

I didn't know one could fall in love with an ass. I was wrong

Heh, had to go to my temp internet file cache to retrieve that jpg, since the avatar pic is gone/changed ;) 17735-user_icon[1].jpg

Dyslexics of the world UNTIE!

When I say "seems" to be slower, what I mean is that, to me, it feels like if you tense up, you cut through the air easier, and then fall faster. Now, I can't back it with any proof (science or otherwise) - so I'll just leave it at "seems"...

While more fabric will slow you down, there's also a point where it will make you fall faster. Namely, when the amount of fabric prohibits you from "opening up". You want to be wide - present a lot of surface area. With very baggy clothing, you'll find it harder to do this. Also, relaxing seems to be "slower" than fighting/pushing against the air to slow down.

When I'm rolling, I don't push downward with the roll (I don't apply pressure to the unrolled portion) - almost like doing the roll in the air, but not quite. Keeps the slider, etc, in place. Also, leave a good 4 to 6 inches of canopy fabric past the grommets, when folding, before the roll. This helps, when you make the initial folds, as it keeps some extra fabric around the grommets, etc. EDIT: also, I push most of the air out before i lay the canopy down. I turn the canopy 180, then hold stuff in place (at the center of the canopy, opposite the lines) with one hand, and push the air out, etc with the other hand. Then lay it down.

http://server-admin.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/motas/mystery/testgame.htm