porterhouse

I am a business professional and an avid skydiver, and I think your idea is excellent. I would definately suggest the use of an awesome video, right off the bat, to ensure thier attention is locked. There are plenty of videos out there that will leave a non-jumper mesmerized with thier jaws on the ground. Good luck!!

Does anyone know where I can obtain a slider stow for my Mirage or how I can build one? My slider won't stay down below my head, unless I tilt my head almost all the way back. Obviously, this isn't a viable option for the long term. Any advice would be greatly appreciated? Thanks.

The ultimate way to insult any woman: "YOU'RE FAT!!" Or....why don't you do us all a favor, stop waisting oxygen and kill yourself....

masterrig, based on the valuable input you provided on whether or not it is ok to fart in a public restroom, coupled by your obvious intellect in this forum, I now have no choice but to consider you one of the wisest men I have ever encountered!

Go to Vegas....but don't spend your money on gambling....

Whoa!!.....Yeahhh....OK....You're pretty smart. On a serious note, Thank You! The thing I like most about this sport is that I always learn something new. You're post just taught me something that could potentially save my life. And that's just a post! Thanks Brian! It's good to know that after everything you've accomplished, your still sticking to the basics of using your knowldege to make the sport safer and more enjoyable for all those involved. After reading this, I'm thinking I would be an idiot if I don't buy your book, read it, and memorize it cover to cover. What's the link where I can order "The parachute and its pilot?"

Obsessive is good...in a stalker sort of way.

My disorder is that I have no personality!

As a follow up to the deeply philosophical and incredibly informative post "Is it OK to fart in public restrooms?", a question has been proposed? Who's farts are worse? Men's or Womens? Examples must be accompanied by back up documentation. Explain if it was a male or female. Then explain why it was so bad (e.g. the hamster died from stink, it was so bad the driver got into an accident...etc.) Let's shed light on this deeply important question once and for all!

I bet if we put up a post asking who's farts are worse, guys or girls, the men would win in a landslide! Come to think of it....I'm gonna do just that!

------------------------------------------------------ WAIT!!?!?!?! Does that mean that girls fart too!!!?!?!?! NO WAY!!!! When did they start doing that?!?!?!?

GENUIS!! You're right! I never thought about the acoustic end of it. I guess that does make it OK then! THANKS! I can't believe how much I've learned today!!!

50% Pure. I HAVE GOT TO START WORKING ON GETTING THAT NUMBER DOWN!!!

What's even more fun (although the reaction is shorter), is to crop dust the snotty little girls who are always on the ab machines. You know, the one's who come to the gym with a well planned out matching outfit, who have thier hair done, and did thier makeup before they came...who think they're the greatest thing on the planet. Walk by them and just drop one right on thier head! Thier reactoins are much shorter in duration, but their facial expressions more than make up for it!!

You should try crop dusting in the gym. It's so much more fun to walk by someone on a cardio machine, because they are in the middle of a workout and they can't just walk away!!! You can actually see thier faces when they get hit. And you can see the thoughts going through their heads. They can't stand the smell, but they can't walk away because they're in the middle of thier workout. And they know that if they get off the machine, they'll lose it! It's so evil, but it's soooo much fun! Give it a try, and let me know if you agree!!! Who say's working out can't be more fun!!!?!?!

Rather than focusing on the tragedy of this incident, shouldn't we instead be focusing on what we can learn from it, so that we can reduce the chances of it happening to another jumper in the future? Can you provide more details? What was the weight loading on the wall? What kind of wall attacked the un-named jumper? Was it plaster, wood, or wall-board. Each has different fighting characteristics, and each will respond differently when puched. How experienced was the jumper at fighting walls? Was he trying to fight a wall that was too agressive for his skill level? Were there any other circumstances that might have helped avoid this situation? (please, do not take me seriously....no one else does.)

I agree that sometimes the stink when you walk in can be pretty bad. But I really don't have any right to complain about the stink others create when I walk into the John, because I think I may have actually caused brain damage to a few people with my farts on the way up to altitude (but again, I knew them and they were my friends... )

LOL!!! It's not that I mind so much when a guy farts around me....as long as I know him and he's my friend. Why else would we fart on each other on the way to altitude? It's nice way of saying "Hi." The problem is, I don't even know this schmo. And he just let's on rip so hard is shakes the floor. I think it's perfectly acceptable (and expected) for guys to fart around each other, buy I don't walk around the street and just fart on strangers in public (not regularly anyway). And I definately don't do it at work (I make sure I'm more productive when I'm at the office by spending my time on DZ.com instead).

That's kind of what I was thinking. I think it may be more a question of the jet blast, rather than just plain farting.

I was just in the bathroom and this guy just RIPPED a nasty loud fart 2 urinals away from me! I was wondering if this is "acceptable" behavior. I mean, it IS in a bathroom. And I totally expect that someone will let one go if they're on the throne working on a #2. But what about when you're standing and doing a #1? I was just wondering, are there any "accepted" guidelines or rules for this sort of thing? I.E. Is it OK to fart when your standing up doing a # 1, but only if you make an attempt to mute it? Or does there have to be at least 1 urinal between you, for this to be OK? Etc. Any thoughts?

Try setting up your final approach so that there is nothing below you once you get under 1000 feet (no trees, hangers, runways, swoop ponds, etc.). A general rule an instructor told me was to assume any object can produce turbulace up to 10 times its height. So if those trees are 100 feet, assume they can produce turbulance up to 1000 feet. Also, be even more careful where the terrain changes (i.e. over the swoop pond, and where the runway/tarmack meets the landing area). The runway reflects heat more than the ground (that's why you can't walk barefoot on a hot runway in the summer, but you can walk barefoot on the grass with no problem). Because the runway reflects more heat than the ground, it obviously becomes hotter. This creates a bubble of hot air that sits above the runway. Every once and a while this hot air bubble gets disturbed by something (a plane, a car driving by, whatever) and it releases upwards (hot air rises). As the bubble of hot air rises, it displaces the other air around it (kind of like a bubble moving upwards in a lava lamp). As the hot air bubble moves upwards and the other air is displaced, it can cause nasty turbulance and even create enough downward pressure to deflate a canopy.......(I'm such a f*ckin' pathetic geek!!!...why do I think that this is interesting!!?!?! ...there is something sooo F*ckin' wrong with me! AAGGHHH!)

You are overlooking one very important and positive thing: At a very low number of jumps, you can be 100% certain of your ability to handle multiple types of malfunctions. Some people have 1,000 jumps and have never had to chop...they might be a very good jumper, but they can't say with 100% confidence that they will be able to perform correctly when it's all on the line. You can. Now, I have to appologize in advance for the remainder of this long winded response (and sorry to be a buzz kill by getting serious on what was a very funny post so far). I had a very similar experience/feeling when I started jumping (Line over/chop/line twists/hard openings/getting caught in a flat spin on my back without being able to recover, step throughs, etc....all before 50 jumps). I felt like everything that could go wrong did. The biggest thing that kept me going was making sure I learned from every single incident. Everytime something went wrong, I took a step back and made sure I learned what caused the problem. More importantly, I made sure I learned what I had to do to make sure it never happened again before I did another jump. Making mistakes is perfectly OK, as long as you learn from them and you don't make them twice. Ask questions. If you're experiencing the same problems over and over again, try slowing down a bit. Relax. The sky isn't going anywhere. Take a step back and breath. Remember, you can't jump when your injured. Find someone with experience who you trust. Figure out what keeps going wrong, and figure out what you have to do to fix it. After the jumping is done for the day, grab an instructor, offer them a beer, and tell them you need help. (It's amazing what beer will do!) I'm going to be a bit direct here, so please don't take offense: Learn to pack! "If I packed my own it would take an hour"....again, please don't take offense....but that's a cop out. I don't know anyone who liked packing and found packing easy at first. (Come to think of it, I don't know any experienced jumpers who like to pack either.) It takes almost everyone a long time to packat first, and it's frustrating. You just have to keep at it. Packing will get you familiar with the gear your jumping. And that will make your jumps safer. You can't learn how to skydive by reading a book...you learn by doing it. The same goes for packing. Start packing your own canopy. Again, slow down. Take your time. And find someone you trust to help you if you need it. Be humble. Asking for help will make you safer will earn you respect. It's better to learn from 3 safe jumps in a day with no problems, than to do 7 jumps in a day with 5 problems and no learning involved. As for whether or not you should keep jumping. That decision has to be 100% up to you. With what is at stake, you should only be up there if you really want to be. You can't be up there for someone else. Good luck.

HEALTH INSURANCE: If there is any way you can obtain it, you should DEFINATELY get health insurance if you are looking to get into jumping. The least expensive way to obtain coverage is through an employer. If you can't get health insurance through your employer, it will cost you a few hundred dollars per month. That may seem like a lot, but I had a friend who decided he was going to "save" himself some money by not signing up for health insurance....a few months later he slipped and broke his elbow. His surgery costs him over $38,000, which he had to pay out of pocket (hello home equity loan!)....great way to "save" huh? LIFE INSURANCE: As for life insurance, if you don't have any significant others (I.E. you're not married, you don't have any kids, or anyone else who relies on you), then you don't need life insurance. If you do, there's basically two kinds of life insurance. Standard life insurance is in case you die of natural causes (say, for example, you die of cancer). Then there's accidental death insurance, which is paid if you died in an accident (i.e. skydiving). I recently had a friend who works in financial planning and insurance look into this for me. And from what he found, the only way to obtain any kind of life insurance that will cover a skydiver (whether standard or accidental death) is if you get it through a group plan administered by an employer. (BTW If anyone out there knows of any reputable insurance companies that will cover a skydiver at a reasonable cost, please PM me). Hope this helps! Good luck!

I had the exact same problem when I started sitting. I naturally fall fast anyway. I was trying to slow down by making sure my legs were spread wide and my arms were parallel. But I found out that spreading my legs wide actually made me go FASTER. What helped me slow down the most was making sure I had my legs at a 90 degree angle IN FRONT of my body (not wide and spread out to the side). Contrary to what I thought, it isn't just about surface area....it's about the burble your legs create. When I spread my legs wide, it created a burble above them. Even though my arms were parallel to maximize surface area, they were in a partial burble created above my legs. So they weren't grabbing as much air. As soon as I tried putting my legs in front of my body, I immediatly noticed a lot more air resistance on my arms. And doing so slowed my sit down by about 20 MPH. If you think about it, when you'reQuote in a sit, picture yourself looking up at your body from underneath. If your legs are at a 90 degree angle, you have the exact same surface area regardless of whether or not they're out at your side or in front of your body. But by having your legs out wide, your partially block the air resistance on your arms. Bringing your legs in front of you will give you the same surface area, but your arms will be completely exposed to the full air resistance. That should slow you down significantly. Hope this helps!

Awesome. Thanks!