LongWayToFall

That is some bad news. Half of those jobs deal with computers, the other half deal with helping people who are screwed up. Do I see a similarity? :)

hahahaha!!!! those bastards are getting more clever everyday

A splendid addition to any weapon. I can see it now, "hey bob, lets see who can open the other's beer first!!" I am still in favor of the beer filled camelback.

Are you serious with this? Isn't it human nature to want to make the world a better place, to be fully aware that 'death happens' and it is normal, but try to prevent completely senseless and unnecessary situations like the accident described from happening? After seeing a double fatality (skydiving), the first thing I wanted to do after helping my friends get through it was to try to keep that kind of preventable event from happening again. It's part of why I became an AFF instructor... to make this sport a safer place, and try to keep jumpers from killing each other. It all depends on what you see as an acceptable risk, for the poster describing the accident, not wearing a helmet is an unacceptable risk. I disagree, and so did the person who died on the hood of his car. Every single skydiving death is preventable, all you have to do is convince everyone who participates to no longer do it. The double fatality you saw, it must have been because of a lack of awareness, or lack of ep currency, or something. The people who died deemed the jump they made to be within the realm of acceptable risk, which you and most people disagree with, for good reason. I would agree with you that it is unnecessary, but do not agree that it was senseless. To the people involved, the jump and risks made sense. So, the problem is with the jumper's interpretation of the riskiness of the jump, and the strength of the skills and education that the jumper needed to deal with the risk. I'm glad that you became an AFFI, I'm sure you will be resolute in your mission to teach students the information they will need. But when you do so, make sure that they are the ones who ultimately prevent their own death, rather then you preventing it for them.

*quote And sometimes people get uncomfortable reminders of the likely impact of their demise, and don't like that. Most of us won't be around after we're dead, so it's OK with us what happens. But it's probably not a bad idea to think of the consequences to people we care about, and those who care about us. Not that it controls what we do, but it's just as real as anything. Wendy W. *quote Hahaha, very true. Only when we admit to ourselves that we are being careless, should we feel ashamed for the sake of the ones who love us. To die while doing something you love, or something that is noble, is a great death. From the perspective of the loving bystander, nothing should be better at easing pain. *Edited to insert quote

The reason you were affected was because of your inability to deal with gory situations. NOT because some guy spilled his brains in front of you. DEATH HAPPENS. If we were living thousands of years ago, you would see dead bodies and guts all the time. You would come to terms with this. Although you would not enjoy seeing it, it would make you a stronger and more capable individual. Example: You are driving, and see a dead body on the side of the road. Most people in this day and age would panic and freak out, turn away, and then plow right into the cop who is standing in front of you trying to direct traffic. If a doctor got shaken up every time someone died in front of him, then he would have a higher probability of messing up on the next guy. I would suggest you come to terms with the accident you were involved with, rather than try to prevent them from happening. That 57 year old man might have been a recovering drug user, and riding his motorcycle without a helmet and feeling the wind in his hair was the only thing that kept him going, and made him enjoy his life. Who are you to tell him he cannot do this anymore? And to the person who said injuries from no helmets means high insurance, this may be true. But how about we mandate that all cars must have front, side, rear, overhead, and underhead airbags. Along with 5 point racing harnesses. Everyone must buy new vehicles now, if they want to drive a car, because everything else is so unsafe. Granted, the cost of a helmet is not much compared to the cost of buying a new car that is outfitted with every possible safety feature, but once you start the ball rolling in that direction, do you see where it will go??? +1 Bubblewrap society

I'm on the peninsula, didn't feel it. Sure felt that one a couple months ago though!

If you like the shiny look and light weight, but don't want to polish it all the time, you could buff it up real nice and lay down a clear coat, no more oxidize!

How about, if people show up and work for a couple hours they get a free jump? That way if people show up not knowing what is happening, they can still jump, and its still worth it for the workers?

Convert the SV to gsxr front forks and shocks, and throw in some race tech gold valves and good tires. Then, spend the rest of the money on track days. You will be owning people in no time.

Go with State Farm. It is always the cheapest, FWIW. Also, why do you want an almost brand new 600? kinda retarded, unless all you care about is being stunna. There are lots of great bikes that are a bit older, and I can promise that you will never need the advancements of a brand new bike. Also, light weight fairings and parts mean they break that much easier, and parts are EXPENSIVE on bikes nowadays. So I hope you have lots of money to spend when you drop your bike, even if you aren't moving and just set it down, its gunna be almost a $1000 of damage. Whatever you end up riding, keep it safe and rubber side down!!

One guy hit the tire pretty hard, is that his chute open right after? Wonder if it was a premi?

I agree, open that sucker up and take a look at the wires and board. I bought a ps2 not long ago, because gran turismo 3 and grant theft auto 3 make it worth it.

What about this bad boy. you needed to add some weight for your swoops anyways, right? http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-7/767317/DESCOSN332FRNT020.JPG

It would be fun to have an accuracy contest, and the farther you land out the more beer you buy. hum.......

Damn

How does cutting his rig=saving him?

The real question: Will it handle it if the owner decides to 'throw some Ds on that bitch?'

I think the question is flawed to begin with. If you said no, I can prove you wrong, your signature on the bottom of the release on your first day proves it. The risks are: death or injury. Just like getting into a car. Now, surely you cannot know where the risks are coming from, and as you learn more you see that you need to pay attention in areas you might never have expected, but you DID know the possible outcome.

I second that notion. If it becomes illegal and they take your gear after every jump, its time to buy old military gear in bulk, and some wholesale lots on weather balloons+helium. Some things will just never happen, like the banning of sport motorcycles. It would be like prohibition in Ireland

I like your idea, but as others have posted I think it is a bit much to invite someone to sleep at your house without meeting them. I do believe though, that we should have DZ/area specific threads that might list: local bars, hotels, things to do, etc. so when traveling to an area, you have a rough plan of whats going down. Someone coming to your area might post, and you could let them know about special events and things to do

The cost of an airplane is always covering development. Cost of development/number of planes ordered +materials and labor. The osprey is getting expensive, for sure

Did you swoop the cheer leading squad?

What a cool aircraft. I'm a little worried in that second picture though, be careful about what you use as a hand hold!

I marked trained, but not certified. I took an EMT class, but did not get the cert because I was unable to complete a portion of the class. Some EMT classes are all classroom, such as fire tech ones, mine happened to have a required hospital and ambulance shift, very worthwhile but I couldn't make the ambulance rotation. As others have said, most of the time you do as little as possible, if they are broken, you do not want to make things worse by moving or touching them. If you know how, you can help the paramedics with small things such as pointing out damaged areas that might not be readily visible, how they impacted, observing respiratory rates, etc. The good Samaritan act is mostly there to protect people who had to make a choice when there is no clear answer, such as a car crash where there is leaking gas, do you get them out and risk death or leave them and risk death? Skydiving accidents mostly would not have these situations, so please don't interfere if possible. I would encourage anyone to take an EMT class, you never know when it might come in handy.