GrumpySmurf

Got it like 45 minutes ago. And of course the first *Virtua-Beer!* pics are of the rig.

Yeah and you get the fat southern guy next to you going, "I can't git it over my head!"

Maybe those who do it extensively, as a source of income - do not have access to work or school computers and connectivity? Nor can afford it (since if you skydive alot, one could assume that you spend almost all your money on skydiving, thus have no money for other hobbies, such as a PC)? Don't see alot of hardcore smack junkies online these days either?

Depends if she has passed out or not?

Came from a family of pilots (father and uncle both are private pilots, grand uncle was a pilot for the RAF, grandmother was an instructor, and grandfather was an aicraft engineer and instructor) - so once I tried it, it was a given that I was going to take to it.

As long as you bring good beer (like that Maximum Ice stuff), I am sure the party will follow you *heh* Otherwise, I'm guessing you will showing up when the weather still frigid in PQ, if so I guess Florida, AZ, or Calif. are the places to look - like SD Seb, SD America, SD Arizona, or Perris would be good places to start. They're all listed here in the dropzone listings. All the larger DZ's have large crowds with lots of loads and really friendly people (well, small DZ's have really friendly people as well) - since we are one large happy (if not disfunctional) family. And don't worry - the rudest Yanks you will meet are at the border. I think it's a hiring requirement for INS.

A problem witnessed long ago by paintball players, before the dawn of thermal lens - I've seen everything from spitting on the lenses and rubbing it in (yuk), to using Windex (ouch), to No-Tears shampoo (no ouch, but still gooey), to anti-fog spray (ideal solution): Here: http://www.iisports.com/iisports/product.asp?dept_id=3803&pf_id=UX9812A Shipping and handling from these guys is a beast for something this small - but there may be vendors in your area that are within driving distance.

My understanding is that a license from any FAI affliate organization is to be respected throughout all FAI affliates - USPA, CSPA, etc. I *THINK* you are allowed to jump in an affliate country at member DZ's for like up to 45 days or so before having to buy some sort of membership? I think the location of the issued license only comes into play for teaching and competition (as a Canuck - you need more to worry about than having a USPA 'D' to compete at Nationals, you need a Green Card as well now - unless you want to be a 'Guest'). What I am curious about then is what appears to be the new CSPA rules about the 1:1 RW limitations for 'A's - there are no such requirements for USPA 'A's since they pretty much have to demonstrate 1:1 RW now for the 'A' (exits, fall rate control, docking, tracking, etc - I know I had to). Would a CSPA DZ let a USPA 'A' go up on a 4-way? Note, I didn't reseach any of these regs or rules, these are what I can recall off the top of my head.

And watch out with flowers, I've know alot of guys who got dumped after buying flowers for thier chica. I agree - the more useless and expensive the gift, the more they like it.

"Blindfold him drive him around town and pull back up to your house". And hope he isn't prone to car sickness. Naked under the tree wearing nothing but a rig, no - wait a second, that would be Christmas. Chicks like it when the guy puts alot of thought into a gift or occassion - guys on the otherhand - just want sex - we are very simple to please - everything we want involves food, sex, or war/competiton of some sort. And with football season over, we something to fill the time till NASCAR season starts up later this month - man, do I ever feel like a redneck now? If it somehow leads to sex, the guy is gonna like it - plain and simple - he'll like it even more if it involves sex with his g/f and her twin sister. *heh*

Maybe the next step in the evolution of the sport will be the merger of the two as an accepted discipline - rather than hybrids being a funky thing freeflier and flats do together for fun, they transform into a serious aspect of competition - where it would require a 4-way group to turn 3-D points - like the USPA 3D/Millenium award requires? Who knows.

Yeah, my friends seemed to tolerate me better when I stopped licking them...oh wait a second, you said liking, never mind.

Skydive Chicago won't let you get your 'A' licence until you've demonstrated a sit." Umm, not quite - they teach a sit as the exit for like 3 of the higher level jumps for intentionally unstable exit. Trust me, you don't need to nail it to graduate and get the 'A' - else I might still be doing AFP. "There's people with 50 jumps working on head down." And we stay VERY far away from them in freefall - Me, I waited till my 70th to try it, once I got it, I went, "Wow that was freaky" and went back to flat and sit. I demonstrated to one of my friends my version of the vRW Stable for starting a sit - if you are on your back (which you will be when starting out) - keep your arms out, get your knees to your chest and your feet to your butt. You should roll upright fairly easily. Then slowly lower the legs into a sit position, don't force it - feel it. The wind does the work, you don't - you simply are altering your presentation to that wind to encourage it to work in a different manner. Easier said than done. Freeflying seems to be remarkably like the softer martial arts like tai-chi and aikido, where fluidity and the ability to blend are the keys to accomplishing the desired end. I am finding stand to be tricky - like trying to stand on a really deep waterbed, squishy and never quite stable. Practice, practice, practice they say. If you are looking to try freeflying, there seems to be a growing concensus with AndyMan's statement -> work on the belly skills - you will need them. Just a suggestion - but why not set Saturday as freeflying day and Sunday as belly flying day, or something like that. *shrug* Note: I suck at it *heh* See a qualified coach or instructor if you have questions - just remember, keep an eye on the altimeter.

"The Black Horse runs by here..." There were a few morn where it felt like the bloody horse ran me over then backed up to do it again. As I tell my friends here in Wi - "Newfoundland, where the beer is cheap and the women are cheaper."

I guess I was pretty much setting up a Pandoras Box with that, huh? Opps. By refering to it as disturbing, I guess everyone has to go look. *heh* Human nature is quite interesting. If you drop back to the directory level, there is a collection of .jpg's of Giger's work there - it also seems he has some of his prints applied to snow and skate boards (for EU mailing addresses only, I think). Really trippy stuff. If it's mainstream - I'm not interested.

Sounds like a newfie's dream come true *heh* Except I would guess it would involve that..umm..what do you call that..that..umm..'work' thing, yeah 'work', that's it. Not very good at dealing with that 'work' thing.

www.molson.com - so do you have to over 19 (18 in PQ, Manitoba, and Alberta) and drunk to work on it? *heh* That would kick ass. Then again you would have to be drunk to understand it then, maybe self defeating - since one would want sober people to go to the site to entice them to try your beer. Oh well. I think my whuffo friends know more about this sport than most AFP 1's do *heh* Hopefully they will give it a try. At least then they can't call me stupid for doing it. I feel that when I am out with skydiving friends, I want to talk about all the other stuff in thier lives (some skydiving stuff is good too, especially if it's a funny story) - to see them as complete people - not just skydivers - the sport brings us together - but it does not define completely who we are, nor does the lack of skydiving in a whuffo define who they are. *shrug* just my $0.02 worth.

Culture, where? Nah - Salvador Dali is like a 2nd hand acid trip -without the talking pink elephants. Though I am more inclined towards Hans R. Giger's work - had this print titled 'Safari' hung in the office - they actually asked me to take it home - it scared our receptionist. Ahh here we go, found a .jpg of it: (warning, it might be disturbing to the squeemish, it certainly scared our receptionist, Debra) http://smurffi.dna.fi/pics/Giger/Safari.jpg

"Let's say you're a computer geek. " I always get a kick out my 'computer literate friends' who's skill set involved piecing together a simple Linux Box and getting a subscription to 'Wired' who try to talk 'shop' in a bar - a guarenteed way to get laid, I tell ya *heh* I dunno about other folk who work with the beasts, but the last thing I bloody wanna do in a bar on a Friday after banging out embedded code all day for 5 days straight is talk about what new '18x - DDRSDSCIIDE 256/512 Mb RAM V2.34 ... whatever' module they got at Comp Usa for thier Linux box. *shrug* Just curious to see if I am alone in this?

Nah, ya gotta stick to a geographic region. Like I said, rival DZ's where you know b/f at one of them isn't gonna show up at one of the other ones - then you can have a different guy each Saturday night and if one causes trouble, ditch him - it's not like you don't have a few replacements. All this while still having an independant DZ where none of them go so you can jump there in peace.

Yeah, it's like of those PBS specials on the Saregeti Plains with some British accented narrator, "And the female lions of the Sarengetti stalk thier prey with great cunning..." (the lions starts looking around like it's thinking, "Where the hell is that voice coming from, I'm gonna eat his ass, British accent and all.") - anyways, it's like of those shows where you see the lion go after some poor herbivore and chow down on it. You feel sorry for the animal but at the same thime thrilled to see something get killed and eaten - kind of like watching the drama at the DZ - you feel sorry for them, but you can't stop watching for fear ya might miss something.

Do you have a brother who can retire by the age of 40? ;) "I've decided I need a jumper who goes to a different dropzone." Me thinks you opened a good can of worms with that comment. Hell, why limit yourself one b/f at a different DZ - get a b/f at each of a group of rival DZ's.

By age 40? Wow, that's ambitious. *heh* If you find a guy who can retire by 40, his family gotta have cash - let me know if he has a cute sister and she is willing to get married in Calif (pre-nups in Calif cannot rule out reasonable alimony *heh* - at least that is my understanding). As my papa always said, "A-L-I-M-O-N-Y - spells trouble for me." Time to be some trouble. *heh*

"breaking up with someone at your own dz would probably push one person away from that dz" And it's a 50/50 chance that person pushed away is you. Yeah that would suck - especially with a bad breakup and if either of the parties rebounded quickly (or had a particular mean streak) and started dating someone else at the DZ right away - talk about ugly. Of course taking advantage of a one-timer tandem student who had a few too many to drink the night afterwards around the campfire - that's a completely different story. *heh* But I'm a good boy would never think to do that.

I have a feeling you just might be responding with sarcasm - my appolgizes in advance, if so :) Dunno if I would go that far, because now you are basically doing to them what you don't want them to do to you: "Do what I say or else". It's a matter of compromise, she should accept you for who you are and support you in whatever endevor you choose, and you - likewise. If she is unable to meet in the middle, then that is a sign of problems to come - since almost everything in a relationship is about compromise. Then again, it's just personal opinion - and I ain't no marriage counsellor, I can tell ya that. ** I use the terms 'she' and 'you' as not applying to any one particular individual or couple. ** Actually I'm of the opposite opinion about jumper g/fs - I made it a personal rule not to date at the DZ - since I don't want to become part of the next episode of 'As the prop turns'. *heh*