SurfFlite

Geoff My slider was collapsed but not behind my head. My chest strap was not loosened but not that tight either. I was FF'ing so it was somewhat loose. Kerry Vail Surf Flite-Skysurfing Equipment http://www.surfflite.com

Just thought I would post a problem that I experienced last Saturday at Eloy. I'm posting this because I had never heard, seen or thought this could happen. I was coming in for a landing and at ~1500ft I realized I was going a little long. So I decided to make a 360 turn to bleed off some altitude. About 270 degrees into the turn my main twisted up on me. (Safire 149 loaded at 1:3 to 1) It spun up about 4-5 twist and bunched up my slider. I figured I was at around 1000ft when this happened and all I could do was watch it twist and hope it stopped soon. I never looked down, just up at the mess. I kicked out of the twists (from witnesses at around 400 feet) and made an uneventful landing. What happened? Well my turn was a toggle turn (no riser) I had done this quite a few times with no problem. I'll NEVER do it again. I was jumping with Omar on that jump and he sat me down and lectured me about why you cannot use toggles only to turn. He said that he had only seen this happen 1 other time in his skydiving career. I feel very lucky to be able to post this. Had the twist collapsed one end of my canopy I would proabaly not be here today. I have studied so many skydiving videos and attended lots of senminars and talked to so many great skydivers but not once have I heard that line twists can occur "after" you are under a good canopy. Hopefully this post will enlighten others so it won't happen to you. Blue skies, Kerry Vail Surf Flite-Skysurfing Equipment http://www.surfflite.com Edited by SurfFlite on 5/30/01 09:58 AM.

Only 1 cutaway for me. The 1 time I borrowed a rig. Jump #101. As I look back on it, it probably wasn't neccessary but my mind said cutaway. The rig was from a guy who is quite a bit shorter than me and I felt kinda hunched over in it. It was a heatwave 135. Upon opening it started a hard left spiral, after 7-8 rotations I chopped. I never even unstowed the toggles. In hindsite I think I was just shifted in the saddle due to the shorter rig. Kerry Kerry Vail Surf Flite-Skysurfing Equipment http://www.surfflite.com

Nothing beats professional instruction!! I'm not sure who is closest to you in Ohio but we will be offering beginner and intermediate training in Quincy this year. It is highly recommended you get at least a couple of hours of ground training before strapping a board on your feet. You should also have ~150 jumps. Check our main webpage, at the bottom in red there is a link to a document you can print out that will give you a better idea of what you should know before attempting to skysurf. Kerry