jfields

Jasmin, No debate on some 17 year olds being more ready to jump and some 23 year olds. But that is sort of moot. Nobody can know for certain how a particular student will react in the air on their first jump. Some will be fine. Some will be dangerous nightmares. Since you can't tell ahead of time, it makes sense for the DZ to make sure that the ones who freak out are all legally responsible for themselves. And as we know, you can do everything right and still die. While the "clued-in" young jumper might not have sued, their parents might if they are the legal age of responsibility. The DZ simply must protect itself.

Nathan, Next, he'll be giving you detailed directions from Mapquest. You are lucky to have such a... danged swell guy... stalking you.

Nathan, You are heartless. Muenkel dressed up and wore a tux with a red flower on it, and made it his profile picture, JUST FOR YOU! And don't tell me it wouldn't be easy for the two of you hotel managers to get a room.

We should start a betting pool on the outcome. Of course, all scoring submissions must have video to be valid.

I love snow landings! You can slid along on your tennis shoes, leaving huge parallel tracks in the snow.

He probably crashed because he figured out that she was trying to show the sign to somebody else.

I have a scuba certification. I also used to mountain bike, hike and other stuff. Now most of my free outdoors time goes to skydiving... and house maintenance. I don't get out nearly as much as I did, but such is the life of a busy family man with a job. Oh, to be a carefree teenager again....

Steve, I'd actually advise against doing what some people have mentioned and taking out loans and maxing credit cards. Bad moves. It sets you up with a bad habit. And with this sport, the expenses NEVER STOP, so you might as well get used to dealing with them in a responsible way from the beginning. Do it the hard way. Slowly, surely, and paid with cash. If you can't afford to jump more than a few times a month, then don't. The sky will be there. For example, if you charge a $50 jump (including gear rental), by the time you've paid it off, it may have cost you $70, or more. If you go all out and charge AFF, gear, etc., all of a sudden you'll be thousands of dollars in debt. Then you'll have the choice of paying your bills and not jumping, or ruining your credit, which will haunt you later. I know it is hard to see people jumping like crazy and have to limit yourself. But you'll thank yourself later, when you are still jumping and they have burned out and/or gone broke.

Chris, I wouldn't go so far as to say that finances are not at all an issue, but they fall way behind available time as the challenge to my jumping.

Jessica, I don't remember his stuff specifically, but they are still online. I just loved the sarcastic, cynical take on events. They also had people go on some of the funniest rants. And the cartoons were hilarious. I miss it.

Hey folks. What is your favorite defunct .com website? Either they got bought out and scrapped, or they went bust, or they got sued out of existence, or whatever. Mine was suck.com, which was a humor site. The site itself is still up, but there hasn't been any new content since 6/8/2001. They ran out of money, but I guess their bandwidth/server contract was pre-paid. Either that or a former employee migrated the archive as a labor of love.

So we should just expect the normal brainless Clay for awhile, since he expended 10,000 posts worth of accumulated mental energy just now. It is kind of like the world's slowest recharging flash. It will be a long time before that bulb goes off again.

I have it. It is great!

Luminous, I'm sure some people do get married and stop jumping, despite loud exclamations that they'll continue the hobby. Others quietly manage the situation and keep jumping. It depends on the person.

That is a good idea, Clay. Hell must be freezing over as I type.

If you had enough cash that you could afford a $20M joyride and have plenty left over, you still wouldn't do it?

If I had that kind of cash lying around, sure, I'd do it. I'd also use some of my spare cash to get rid of NSync once and for all.

So? Toy stores still sell finger paints, right?

Amen, brother Clay! Can I hear an "amen" from the congregation?

I'll actually respond to this one seriously... I'm married, and a skydiver. It can be rough. I was a paratrooper in the Army before I got married, and I told my wife on our first date that I wanted to skydive again. Fast-forward 2 years, and we are married. I surprised her with a trip to the DZ. I did my AFF 1, and she did a tandem. She said she liked it (especially the canopy time), but has no desire to go through AFF. So she isn't a total whuffo. It gets difficult when I want to go to the DZ and she wants me to do other things. So we compromise. That seems to be something most skydivers have trouble with. I don't get to jump as much as I want, but she is gradually growing in her acceptance that this is just something I do. I've also educated her on all the safety issues. She still gets nervous, but she understands that I do everything I can to be a safe jumper in an admittedly dangerous sport. Now, I let her know about jump trips way in advance, so she can plan something to do without me. When I go to the DZ, it is often a day trip. When I go overnight, I'm not big into the party scene. I won't be hooking up with random people. I don't want to get so hungover that my next jump day is crap. I go to jump, and I on my precious jump trips, I don't want anything to interfere with that. I agree with what someone else said, that skydiving doesn't make or break a relationship. It definitely adds stress, but if the relationship is healthy, it can handle it. The whole "healthy relationship" thing is the hard part. If jumping quickly breaks a marriage, then it was really broken before. Just my $.02.

Hmm... Velvet Underground Gomez Grateful Dead Danny Gatton ... and tons more...

Nope, never done a tandem. Static line in the Army, and went through AFF as a civilian.

I've averaged .0990 jumps per day.

I love pulling high and doing spirals until I get screwy in the head. Of course, some people say I'm always like that.

For me, learning when to flare was mostly a matter of experience, with a little advice. Rather than flaring too late, my original problem was flaring to early, then crunching in. One comment someone made to me that really helped was, "When you could kick a spectator in the head, flare." After a certain point, I just sort of "got it", and it has been much better ever since. When to flare will depend on the type of canopy you use, loading, etc. Like other have said, video may help. I'd add the suggestion to have an instructor/experienced jumper watch you land a few times and debrief you. Good luck.