sagan

Not that I know anything -- just a thought. Just because you hook up the 3 ring correctly does not mean the rest of the canopy is hooked up correctly... i.e. if you hooked up your right riser on the left side and left on the right. Then there's also the possibility that one or both of the riser was twisted before it was hooked up properly so now the a's and b's are crossing the c's, d's, and suspension lines somewhere. So for the comment about "yea I'd jump that" did you mean "yea I'd jump that" with the assumption that the rest was ok and wasn't twisted or risers hooked up in reverse? Thoughts? I'm sure there'll be comments (And for the record the reason why I thought about this twisting or mismatching right away was because I demoed a canopy for the first time a few weeks back and thus had these issues among others hooking the main back up -- who knew it was a bad idea to just disconnect your main and then just stuff it in a duffle bag for hookup later expecting it not to be tangled with step throughs and all kinds of good stuff later ) -Patrick

Hey wonder if that works for skydiving "Saw you under canopy as i was turning to final. Your color coordinated jumpsuit, main, and container immediately drew my attention, but then, oh my the sparkling stainless steel articulation! I went into half brakes, then you did and I noticed your loosened chest strap which really lets out the true beauty of your massive.... ... ... canopy. Maybe if we meet up again we could have a 4-way?" So who is gonna go post it now? -Patrick

Rental Car -- they aren't as expensive as you may think, try budget or thrifty (same co) We can usually get rates

That's like asking "has anyone ever had a skydiving related problem?" The sport is varied and has several disciplines just like skydiving. That said, I know you were more looking from a general health perspective -- The only thing I can think of (assuming your health is pretty normal/average) is if you tend to have issues with pressure in your ears/nose, in which case that could be a pretty big problem with scuba diving. The reason for that is as you know, with diving there's a concept of "equalizing" your air spaces as these get compressed or expand depending what your doing. If you had issues with pressure (and clearing such pressure) on land those will most likely be magnified under water. Knowing how to swim is good too :) (don't laugh some really poor swimmers are scuba divers, mui included to some extent) *Was just re-reading your post and I think maybe your thinking of it in regards to emergency procedure and how things happen REALLY fast in skydiving -- that's not necessarily the case in scuba where slow & steady is the name of the game. -Patrick

Sorry this is what I was alluding to. Not all astigmatism can apparently corrected (in non-custom contacts) and so the lens may not fit as well. That at least is the case for me as it was explained to me. -Patrick

Same reason they do with other things: dryness, not seating properly initially, blinking them out, etc, etc. If you have astigmatism (spelling?) then it's more likely to happen as the contacts are shaped in a particular way. If you say lay down with your head on the side (packing?) then they can move out of place enough to make them susceptible to popping out. This past weekend for example on 3 consecutive jumps my right contact popped out on opening, it was old and when I put in a fresh one and there was no more issue. -Patrick

Consider this with contacts: if you lost one or both for whatever reason during a jump could you still be safe? Could you track away from people, pull, deal, with a mal, land, etc? If you can't or wouldn't feel comfortable doing that I wouldn't wear contacts. I personally wear contacts and I generally have one pop out every now and again (on openings generally). I haven't had an issue landing or dealing with canopy issues without out them so I feel confident wearing them. If that wasn't the case I'd probably stick an old pair of glasses into the jump suit ;) -Patrick

When I was in AFF a rigger told us a story about a jumper that had a premature deployment on their reserve at 11K. The reserve ended up being a total malfunction. Jumper's solution: Grab all the risers together and go chop chop. The jumper then deployed their main without incident. -Patrick

Jet jump from normal altitude was quite fun but again it's mostly for the saying "I left a commercial airliner" and all the snickering that goes on during the 5 minute flight to altitude. Bonus if you actually see someone else in freefall if you leave with a delay. Having one of the prime time dz vidiographers get you on a cover of Skydiving Magazine during the jump didn't hurt the experience either. Now the entire community can see my poor diving form (upside down facing backwards in pic -- i thought the plane looked kinda funny). -Patrick

Found 'em! (at the dz) They've been outside for two weeks but it's a freaking desert so no biggie. -Patrick

I think I lost my skydiving sneakers! They had the big wide flat bottoms, must have left 'em at Perris 2 weeks ago :( grrr... That's the one thing that drives me nuts, losing something due to my own stupidity. P.S. I break my share of stuff too but that's ok... If I lose something it's compounded because I don't even have the chance to break it myself. -Patrick

Hey Tom, thanks for answering my PM's and emails. I figured this might be a good general interest suggestion. Would it make sense to take a video at Strong of a rig that came in that doesn't launch correctly and then another video of the rig opening with the modification and then post it here? I know I for one would appreciate this, and I bet others would too. P.S. For the record I've had 3 repacks (no cutaways) plus the 1 from this time before sending it back, all with closed risers, closed main container and the only one not to fully clear was this last one. The others cleared but the launch was medium (2 to 3 feet or so at best). And yes riggers that were repacking it saw me launch those and didn't think much of it. I actually asked last time (ironically enough earlier this month) and was told that since it cleared the burble and didn't hang up time wise (it fired and hit the floor 2-3 feet behind me really quickly), that it was ok. -Patrick

Yep, got my advanced open water actually before I had my skydiving A. I only have about 15 dives though. Haven't gone in over a year and a half now... anyone in the LA area wanna do a skydive/scuba weekend (yes in that order ;) ) -Patrick

I saw that on some news tickers a few times now today. Some say it is an "old famous swiss watch maker" What I gather is this is a new company trying to make a splash. -Patrick

It always seems like it's one extreme or another for marathon Monday. Good Luck! Just think, you get to run by Wellesley College (among others) and have a horde of college girls cheer you on. Hell, when I was going to school at a school to remain unnamed there'd be people that qualified for this run just so they could strut onto Wellesley that coming weekend and be recognized. I stayed away from such shenanigans naturally. -Patrick

Oooh, hop n pop the canyon, only half kidding -Patrick

Yep, sorry I stand corrected, why am I thinking Deland? Hey at least I was in the right state ;) -Patrick

eh no it's not... lest I be mistaken the stunt junkies stunt was through a straight hanger in deland (i forget who did it but I think i saw luigi in the show). This jump was made years before stunt junkies ever existed. P.S. Tim's one of the nicest and creative guys you'll ever meet. -Patrick

Currently I believe the President of Iran is extending an offer to anyone to come visit (no not a joke, it was a real press release a few months ago, google it). I'm not sure if they were willing to subsidize the flight or what not but they would probably offer tours and other state sponsored/guided events. When I was a student, I had a chance to go to Cuba and we had the same opportunity. Yes the stuff you may be exposed by the government may be slanted but who is to say what we see isn't slanted either. It gave us the opportunity to come up with our own conclusions, plus it was a neat experience. -Patrick

I was scared shitless after opening on a full otter load only to find 60 other canopies in the air during my first boogie landing every which way. It would seem that boogies with a lot of landing areas with defined rules about those areas would be a simple first step? Also how many boogies require the same orientation of the grounds and the specific DZ procedures that you get when you normally visit a new DZ? I know I was never asked to do an orientation on several occasions. I realize a lot of this comes down to personal prudence, but I think many would agree that you can really get caught up in the excitement when you get to a boogie and wanna get on a plane right away. -Patrick

yes skydiving has definitely caused my wallet traumatic stress -Patrick

Don't forget there's also the tunnel as an option, that is if you live near one. Tunnel time is also a good way to find out if your really do like skydiving enough to take it up IMHO. -Patrick

Fill out this equation: Boob Job = X Amount of Jumps + Y Amount of Tunnel Time I know what decision I'd make (yea in a skydiving forum when your talking boobs and jumps this kind of remark does leave the entire thing quite open ended but trust me when I say I picked the skydiving side of the equation at least 7 times out of 10) -Patrick

You could get her involved by showing her how to pack :) Then you'll have a free personal packer all day. (And yes my ex WAS willing to do just that but I made the executive decision that when she go bored she'd probably get the idea in her head to pack a mal to stop the jumping for the day and so decided against teaching her to pack) -Patrick

Quick reminder.. was the gun also submerged on that episode or was it fired from air into water? -Patrick