NWFlyer

A pretty cool team! "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Well, Professor, time to update the site again. I'm excited to say that the team I was on, "What's the Next Point?", won this year's Godfrog! After spending the week packing next to a rowdy group from Skydive New England, monkycndo and I jumped at the chance to join them for 10-way when they were looking for more folks to round out their team (the count was six from SNE, two from Skydive Carolina, one from Skydive Twin Cities, and the two of us from SkyDance). Our primary goal was to have an absolute blast, and we definitely achieved that one - I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in a day of jumping! As a bonus, the skydives themselves weren't too bad for a pickup team; we actually got 3 completions in

I've always thought that the National Anthem is a pretty good indicator of how talented / trained / disciplined a singer actually is. It's not an easy tune to sing, and it seems lots of popular artists would struggle with handling it faithfully as written, so the "solution" seems to be to try to "make it their own" to cover up the fact that their vocal chops really aren't all that. Or, if their chops really are "all that," they take it to an extreme and feel the need to belt it out in an overly-showy manner. It's rare (and nice) to hear a well-sung, straightforward version of it. This is taking nothing away from anyone who's brave enough to perform it (respectfully) in public; it's far more than I'd ever be able to handle with my "should really only sing in the shower" voice. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Pretty impressive - I loved the "jukebox" at Nationals, and having a way for friends & family to follow along at home rocked. Nice to finally meet you in person, JT! "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I tend to think about them the way I think about seatbelts. Yes, you can find examples of people who were killed because their seatbelt somehow pinned them into their vehicle in an accident. But you can find exponentially more examples of people who survived an accident because they were wearing a seatbelt. I'm going to play the odds on this one. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

The distinction between Maid and Matron depends on marital status. Since Skymama is currently living in sin she is correct that she is a Maid. Congrats Alix and Andrea. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Sucked at pretty much everything except altitude awareness, heading control (I wasn't a spinner) and perseverance. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

BTW, here are the links to follow along at home: www.uspanationals.com http://omniskore.com/comp/2012/usnats/default.html "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Important point, and a really good set of booties can give you a LOT of range. I'm a fast faller and I actually get as much (if not more) range out of my Flite Suit with comp booties than I do out of another suit that is much baggier with a heavy fabric. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Good luck Krissanne have fun

Something Shiny, 4-way intermediate. I even got monkycndo out of his prom dress to compete. Maybe pick up 8- and 10-way, but nothing planned on that yet. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Yes. Either time would be appropriate (check the guidelines for the specific course that you sign up for - some will want you to have a license, but most will allow you to take it as soon as you're self-supervised). The other thing to keep in mind is this: don't think of "taking a canopy course" as a "one and done" thing. I know many skydivers (myself included) who take them every couple of years as a refresher, and as a way to set aside a day to focus on the most important life- and limb-saving skill we have.

Keep your eye on "Something Shiny" in 4-way intermediate. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3802261 See if you can get a copy of the video referenced in this thread. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Don't obsess about the numbers because, as someone once said, "If you torture numbers long enough they'll confess to anything." The longer I am in this sport, the more hyper-aware I become of all the ways I could die (or become seriously injured) doing it. In many many ways that's made me a better skydiver, and it's made me a skydiver who makes different choices (often more conservative ones). It means I'm more likely to land farther away from the packing area if it means I have more open space to land in. It means that I am likely to say "no" to a jump if I look at the size/skill level on the jump and think "This is likely to be a shit show." It means I'm likely to sit down when winds start to get wonky. Those are just some examples, but you get the idea. I don't know about others, but I constantly reassess the risk/reward equation. For now, it still pencils out for me. At some point, it might not pencil out, either because of an increase (either real or perceived) in the risk, or a decrease in the reward. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

But as you know, when they go bad, they can go very bad. Here is a recent example, on a canopy that is generally known to be a soft opening canopy (To the OP: if you were trying to mitigate the risk of hard openings, the Spectre would likely be one of the canopies recommended to you). Yet it spanked someone hard enough to paralyze him. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4332212 "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Get the booties. They are an important part of the belly-fly toolkit. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

And here I was going to go with "nepotism," but I like your response better. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

We had a group of 12 doing AFF together this weekend; they had done ground school earlier in the week and were trying to get through their AFFs in the two weekend days. Several of them succeeded; others were close but either needed to repeat jumps, or got hit by mother nature (we had fog on Saturday morning that delayed the start, and high winds this afternoon as a front moved in). It was pretty awesome to feel that much new jumper energy on the dropzone at once (having that big a group going through in a concentrated fashion is very unusual for us). Not to mention the fridge was nice and full tonight. Congrats to your wife on her progress. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

You've asked "Why not?" but I'd ask the question "Why?" If you want to jump a lightly-loaded docile square seven cell, there are three good choices that are purpose-built for skydiving (that I can think of off the top of my head): Spectre, Triathlon and Storm. If cost is a factor, the used market for the first two is quite a bit bigger solely because they have been on the market much longer. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I think you have a reasonable defense on that one! Especially since you're in the Seattle Center. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Sober Rob may not think so but Drunk Rob has some pretty mad skillz. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

And yet he gave the rest of us a gift? Nice! "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

In addition to Sacramento, you might also check out Skydance in Davis, CA. Camping, showers, on-site cafe, not too far (though you will need a car) from Davis itself. They'll take good care of you. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

We were talking about that at the DZ yesterday as we watched Felix. Not to diminish the size of Felix's, but we all agreed that given the available technology of the day, Joe's were definitely bigger. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke