mdrejhon

Yeah, me last out on a trail 100 way (slot B21 of a 100-way), someone clumsy trips, the otter seat falls back down, and I'm saying, go, go, go... Very long 8 second delay after the floaters for me once, and I still made my slot. Eight seconds, but I'm a fast deep diver now.

Aren't we talking about exiting a plane? It's safer to pull main at 1500feet from level flight THAN 2000feet at terminal, for most mains. Different ballgame. Also, though not recommended, the AAD won't activate even at a 1000ft exit, or 1200ft, or 800ft (even after ascending above AAD activation altitude then descending) because successful pulls after exiting level flight don't accelerate you fast enough to pop your reserve. By the time you discover anything wrong, for most mals, the cutaway handle is being pulled before you're falling fast enough for the AAD. The delay for AAD activation after a very low level-plane exit is rather long.

Yours does, don't they ;-) Some dropzones use three lights: Red (2min call), Yellow (open door), Green (go!). Maybe we need additional lights too: An orange light (hop-n-pop jumprun) blue light (beer), and a purple light (skymama's turn to jump). When all six lights are on, then we're on the jump run for the gay way world recotd.

900hp? I know where that is :-) I need to visit that modernizing dropzone again soon. New Supervan engine upgrade, new swoop pond, expanding facilities. I had Donald Gravelle to go there to host PST's first big way camp, and he's going back there for their second big way camp.

Thanks! I appreciate that! I sure had a blast! I bet you'll be getting more invites to 10-ways and bigways now that you've jumped in the Gay Way World Record. I know I did, after my first 9-way on jump #100 in September 2005 at Skydive Gananoque. You're already ahead of me RW-skills-wise back when I only had 100 jumps. During one of the jumps that funnelled (a funjump that didn't involve those strong double-gripped funnel-proof stars), you were the first jumper to dock on the rebuilt base! Mind you, half of my lifetime jumps (250+) have now all been in the last 16 months, as my jumping pace has increased dramatically since I'm hoping to be on The World Team... Among 2 other RainbowSkydivers I go to bigway camps with, and one RainbowSkydiver I personally know jumped in the 400-way World Record as one of the few sub-1000 jumpers there (and another RainbowSkydiver who did video for that 400-way, from what I heard).

All my gear is about 15 years old, except the Cypres2 AAD, (sabre 170, PD143R, Vector2). When I got it, the gear was a 200-jump closet queen with a Raven Micro 150 reserve. I gradually decided to replace the reserve with a PD143R that was slightly older than the Raven Micro (1994 versus 1996), because, simply, the PD143R is much safer at a wingload of 1.3 than Raven Micro. I personally rather jump a 22-year old recertified PD143R in 2016 rather than a 20-year old brand new Raven Micro (near zero repacks that is), if I still keep this as my second rig as I likely will, when I get a new rig in the next 12 months or so... (Probably new Pilot 140, second old PD143R, and some undecided container.)

[shameless plug] (For new readers to this thread, and others too.) I am hoping for a 20-way Gay Way World Record next year. We'll organize 2010 much better. Multiple organizers for other kinds of jumps, as well as tourbus to Atlantic City/Philadelphia for all the spouses as well as a rain-date alternate plan (better planning for bad-weather). We unamiously agreed to come back next year, so we have done an unprecedented pre-announcement of Rainbow Boogie 2010 for August 2010 in all magazine articles we submitted already, and we now have a mailing list of 75 experienced GLBT skydivers to draw from. We had 5 countries visit during Rainbow Boogie 2006, but only 2 countries during 2009 (even though 2009 was vastly better than 2006, with a massively larger number of straights joining in Rainbow Boogie 2009 -- including almost 50 gay rainbow "I can't think straight" T-Shirts sold to straights!!!!). The better economy and the long-range preannouncement should help make a big difference... That said, we want to also be welcoming to all skydivers, as long as it's a positive environment. So, we have the tagline "100% Hetero-Friendly" (pun of gay-friendly, you know) -- who knows, we might actually become a major boogie within a few years that way, we wouldn't object to that, given the silly fun that happened at Cross Keys... 4-way and 8-way teams with gay members are welcome to train at Rainbow Boogie 2010; no need to participate in boogie activities except during the evenings -- if that is the only way to bring these busy jumpers to the dropzone. Great prices for teams when including organizer slot -- provided even to teams as small as 4-ways plus video (5 jumpers). Plan your competition training at Rainbow Boogie 2010, frequent loads. No problem! We constantly run into people who never knew about us, the GLBT skydivers worldwide are very highly fragmented and don't know about each other, but I now estimate are at least 200 gay experienced skydivers worldwide (licensed, and whom have jumped within the last 5 years) of which about 75 have now joined our Rainbow Skydivers Facebook group, which I will broadcast updates about about our upcoming Rainbow Boogie 2010 for August 2010 at Skydive Cross Keys. I'm Chief Cat Herder for the gay skydiving community, doing all the web design, Facebook page operation, mailing list maintenance, etc. We have a website at www.RainbowSkydive.com that links to both our Facebook and Twitter feeds, and we also have a We have almost 100 Rainbow Boogie photos in this Rainbow Boogie 2009 Facebook Photo Album. Not all of the 1,000 photos we took (air and ground), some exclusives have also been submitted to the magazines in full resolution, including a semi-NSFW one to Blue Skies Magazine. (Hint: Photograph involves straight girls who have given permission for the photo to be published.) Go subscribe if you want to see it. Keep an eye out for the September issue of Blue Skies, and the October issue of Parachutist. [/shameless plug]

To tell you the truth, I was not going to put A-license jumpers in the 12-way, but I specifically designed the formation with the possibility (4-way star with zippers, a highly recommended easy and flexible formation for turning a zoo 12-way load into a minority-record-breaker jump). We test-jumped the highly-current frequent-jumping lowtimers in smallways including 4-ways that were FAR more challenging than this 12-way, and he performed certain point transitions that were better than mine during my 100th jump. I changed my mind and assigned him to the base. I had the opportunity to track next to his radial to make sure he was tracking and clearing his air properly, and he was doing no worse, and even better, than some of the steeper-tracking base flyers I've seen in the Perris 100-way camp, looking up, waving, and then pulling. Okay, he's in the 12-way I thought, and others agreed to include him. The double-gripped funnel-proof 4-way star consisting of 2 lowtimer and 2 strong jumpers (me and either Tim/Joseph), was all we needed to make the record easy to achieve in just 2 jumps of official record attempts after unofficial funjumping the day prior. (We only did two official record attempts, and one rehearsal attempt the day prior) Actually, we did match the Gay Way World Record with a 3-point 10-way the day prior (Friday), before two additional jumpers arrived for Saturday. That even involved the 2 lowtimers too. We would have had lots more if the disaster (Harry BSBD) at Skydive West Point did not happen. They all had to stay. Jason the president of the parachute club there, among a few other West Point regulars, would have been Gay Way Record members, as well as a few economy-challenged men who had to cancel due to working during the weekend, or not affording the flight. We could have already done 17-way record attempts, otherwise, with the "Yes" RSVP's that changed to cancelled RSVP's. Next year, 20-way record attempts, is realistic, and we might have to go multiple-plane within 5 years if we are able to grow this boogie into something more major -- who knows.

I agree with that assessment. I was surprised at the welcome we got, they literally organized most of the ground activities well before I arrived, from the T-Shirts, the beer swoop-and-chug, the hangar party, and generous organizer slots for Tim and myself, as well as put up way more rainbow posters (that they created themselves) than we did. That was a good slot-reassignment call we made (Tim and I simultaneously came to that conclusion in our heads before we talked to each other). Congratulations

That comment is just so gay. And since it comes from me, that makes it okay. Back on topic, I'll say there is very funny picture coming in Blue Skies magazine from the Rainbow Boogie, one that is beyond Parachutist's editorial guidelines, but within Blue Skies's guidelines. Go subscribe if you want to find out.

Bev suits are also very good too. I have two Bev suits, two for serious bigway use (A fast faller and a slow faller). One of my two jumpsuits is weathered by 400 jumps and 10 hours tunnel time, and the only thing that needs regular maintenance is the booties, of which I sent the jumpsuit back to factory for, and I also got inside leg grips added (I originally didn't order them) and an additional zipper. I think they'll easily last over 1000 jumps each and many dozens of hours of tunnel with occasional shipment back to factory for bootie maintenance.

On the second thought, let them at it. Pass the popcorn - I don't mind this thread being a defacto sticky from all the posts flying. As long as it helps the sport Then again - steer this thread in a new direction so it doesn't get locked.

I usually get the Monday morning slowness after an intense skydiving trip (like my 50-jump skydiving vacations at double-weekend Perris bigway and 100-way camps).

I'm in a similiar situaiton of having a Sabre 170 to eventually moving to a 150/140 size canopy (most likely Pilot). After almost 200 conservative double-front landings and small carves (10 to 45 degrees), I finally did my first 90 degree swoop on my Sabre 170 (Wingload 1.1) at Skydive Cross Keys, after doing almos 150 jumps of double fronts and a few dozen jumps of carving turns and 10 degree, 30 degrees and 45 degrees. Although that one planed out too high and I stopped turning, so I had to keep double fronts to dive it down and land double-fronts. During the same weekend, I had the opportunity to demo an Aerodyne Pilot 150, and it has a snappy recovery arc. I only did double fronts on it, and one 10-degree swoop on it, and observed the differences. It's clearly not safe to learn the same swooping techniques on two different canopies, but after Aerodyne attended Rainbow Boogie 2009 with their demo booth, I'm seriously considering going Pilot instead of Sabre2, but I'm wondering if I need to jump some higher-performance 9-cells that Aerodyne sells. For the meantime, I'm going to do a few of 90 degree swoops even at just wingload 1.15 -- it requires lower altitude initiations than the smaller canopies, so am aware of that risk. I'm not sure I ever plan to do 180 degrees or 270 degrees. That said, I'd like a brand new 140 or 150 canopy within the next few months, and it's a tough decision, since I want something that feels easy (at approx 1.3 or 1.35), very easy to gradually expand to 90 degree swoops under, and something I can jump for about 500 jumps like I will have my Sabre 170 by the time I get it.

Recruit them for me please then - it'd be cool to spread the word! Or just toss the September issue of Blue Skies around, or the October issue of Parachutist - we submitted to both, plus a few others, including some mainstream gay magazines. This time around, we're doing the magazine article blitz. One person in the closet were glad to have showed up, and I have used a nickname out of his request. Rainbow Boogie 2010 ... August 2010 ... Cross Keys again!

I understand that it's the World Team 500way in 2011. Same people - I have gone to several recent Perris P3 bigways where jen@square1 help organize them. I've applied for it already - see http://www.theworldteam.com ... The 500 way is also up on www.bigways.com

Then again, I have to admit the straights at Cross Keys did roll out the red carpet for that weekend and welcome the gay crowd like kings. Literally. It wasn't a disadvantage in this case. Personally I haven't felt being gay as being a disadvantage, as I'm one of the first of the the 'newer generation' (mid 30's and younger) who hasn't been exposed to much homophobia, or just ignore and confidently wade through the small islands of homophobia that exists for them. I even danced with my first boyfriend at a high school party back in the early 90's, and it wasn't a disadvantage in my case. Then again, I did see locker grafitti (the six-letter fag word) of one of the others, but it was already traiiling off by the time I came out. It didn't scare me at the time, and if anyone has a problem with it, I'm one to just fall back to respect. (That one weekend at Cross Keys was ours, but I still made sure to remove all the pride flags when we left!) I often show up at bigway events, and I don't announce that I'm gay, except for possibly a sticker on my helmet Anyway, for me, being deaf is definitely the bigger disadvantage.

Minority record organizing that might require some lowtimers in the formation: 1. Always launch 4way base, NOT 5way or 6way. Too many lowtimers in the base just don't work at all. In extenuating circumstances, a 6-way make sure each lowtimer is surrounded on both sides by a strong jumper. That means max 3 lowtimers in a 6-way base. 2. Always doublegripped linked star (arms holding each other's grip). It's strength is magical compared to most other bases. 3. For a 4-way base, maximum 2 lowtimers in the base, opposite each other. 4. For a 4-way base, 2 strongtimers to flip them back up. We funneled 50% of the time but we had 100% successful recovery with NO broken grips for 4-way doublegripped linked stars containing sub-100 jump people. We did an AFF-strength flip of the lowtimers whenever they were upsidedown, by swinging them jump-rope style by the two strong jumpers (myself included). 5. Skyvan strongly preferred, since it's easier to launch a doublegripped star from 6. Ultra-crystal-clear exit count. 7. Floater the rest of the more experienced low timers and tutor them on having them jump just after "set" but before "go" 8. Middle diver the rest. 9. Deep diver the good deep divers and world team members. 10. Use formations that have little red zone problems. Our 12-way had clear radials for all the 8 outers. 11. Before welcoming lowtimers into the record, split the groups at first. Do test jumps with the lowtimers only, and test their limits. Test jump the planned base. 12. Use bigway camp document knowledge to tutor them on tracking and canopy. 12 canopies in the sky is a bit intense for some 50 jump lowtimers, encourage them to land a bit further out. 13. Organizer should watch their tracking skills so they do the proper things - midair collisions are dangerous 14. Tell them if formation breaks up, fall faster DOWN to the lowest guy (or me - who will speed up the fallrate anyway to match the lowest reachable base guy), but wait out of the way 90 degrees, don't try to fly back if you think you're too far and unrecoverably low yourself and breakoff at your breakoff altitude. (And don't look up or you fall faster and get even lower, look to the side instead, so that's why you turn 90 degrees). Lowtimers can zoom past formations dangerously trying to get back, so better to tell them to just do their best to become a stationary spectator on the outside until breakoff, if they're unrecoverably low, and breakoff normally. 15. Once your formation can't fit into one plane, zoo-like loads are too dangerous, and experience levels must be far more stringent. I recommend the Perris P3 Big Way Camp for training in multiple-plane big ways, or similiar, prior to letting lowtimers in. 16. Lowtimers have a neat boast that allows them to get more easily invited into 4-ways and 8-ways back at home, to keep improving their skills more rapidly, and get into big ways more easily in the future. THE WELL DESIGNED DOUBLE-GRIPPED STAR LAUNCH -- A NICHE BIGWAY BEST FRIEND Doublegrip as in all arms grabbing each other's arm grips. If there are so many lowtimers that are under 100 jumps, and you are fortunate enough to have a Skyvan or CASA, and at least 3 extremely strong AFF-instructor-league jumpers who also have plenty of RW and 4-way experience, put the 3 lowtimers and 3 good jumpers in alternating fashion in the 6-way double-gripped star (double gripped is very important for the strength of the star), with each of the 3 lowtimers surrounded between. The whole star can be chunked out, 2 lowtimers facing inwards, and 1 diving-capable lowtimer facing out - completely surrounded in between by highly experienced bigway skydivers who also have good student recovery capabilities. 6-way doublegripped stars designed carefully this way MAY work successfully without funnel, depending on which lowtimers are assigned into the base. Do not use stars with two low-timers holding each other grips; my experience is showing that those never work well at any niche event (I've been to Deaf World Record 2005, and I've organized two Rainbow Boogies, with myself becoming one of the Load Organizer of the 2009 version). Lowtimer bases might succeed now and then, but outer jumpers can get annoyed when the stars keep funnelling (As almost all 6-way stars did during Deaf World Record 2005). Niche records often are assigned only 1 or 2 days to get completed, so you want nearly funnel-proof stars. We designed one. We were nearly funnel proof despite two A license jumpers in the base (50-jump/75-jump). Our niche of a record attempt used only 4-way doublegripped stars for precisely this reason that 4-way doublegripped stars only need a reasonably good and highly current jumpers with good funnel-recovery abilities. When we did 4-way doublegripped star launches, we recovered every single funnel (including 180 degree up-side-down members of the star) without releasing any grips, simply by the two adjacent strong jumpers forcefully flipping the jumper back right-side up as quickly as possible, so that the star can be ready as quickly as possible. It's actually usually better to put the 3rd lowtimer (the best-performing lowtimer of the 3) as a floater to dock on a 4-way star, THAN to even dare try a 6-way doublegripped star for a less-than-20-way attempt. He/she may be slow at docking, but it's still faster than a funneled 6-way star that needs to rebuild from scratch. I stress, not one single grip lost in a 4-way doublegripped star funnel -- these stars flipped right back up or levelled back very quickly -- these special strong stars are your best friend when your bigway needs to include 2 lowtimers just to merely be able to break a record. No matter how tangled the lowtimers were, we were able to flip them right back up (often me and one other high-jumper) This is how you organize a specialty minority skydive where to break a record, sometimes it's necessary to include lowtimers in order to break a record, and you need to creatively slot the jumpers so you can turn a normally-zoo load into a successful quick record attempt. For example, a small state's POPS 15-way state record is 1 person short, and the only 2 people available are A-license jumpers. Uh oh. Now you need this HOWTO bad.

Trust me, even Perris doesn't have 12 "out" and simultaneously active gay skydivers (who specifically live in the Los Angeles-San Diego basin) that consider it their home DZ, but I know some. I have collected the largest database of the world's gay skydivers from the 2006 web registrations. Many are in the military, or don't want to come out, and are afraid to show up. Don't forget our friends and our spouses, we had most of the 37 registered attendees show, plus many supporting straights not in the registration list who joined in! Rainbow Boogie is international, gays from FIVE countries showed up in 2006. (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and USA) We had more domestic attendance for 2009 but it was even better. Granted, I'd be able to recruit the local population better at Perris, but I lose some of the European and heavy gay density in the Northeast (my database of registrations from 2006, and the Facebook RainbowSkydivers group, show a clear concentration between Northeast USA/Southeast Canada, all the way south to Florida). Cross Keys was cheap to drive to, and we only advertised on Facebook (no paid magazine ads, and very basic website this year). For economic reasons, 2009 was started on low budget but ended up becoming far better organized and better sponsored than 2006, despite similiar gay experienceds attendance (and I had paid magazine ads in Skydiving Magazine and Parachutist in 2006, I didn't bother this time). Now that we preannounced August 2010, we have massive time to recruit - and easily bring seven or eight countries together, beating the five countries from 2006. Local population is a bonus, and we will tie in with the Philly Pride for the gay tandems, and try to incubate a bigger population of new licensed gay skydivers that way. We had placards for the gay tandems to encourage them to take up the hobby, and add themselves to the RainbowSkydivers Facebook group. There are probably at least 100 more gay skydivers who don't even know about me or us - but the first-ever Rainbow Boogie articles in Parachutist and Blue Skies will blanket North America's awareness, and probably surge our RainbowSkydiver membership I hope - We aim to more than double the gay experienced attendance and more than double/triple the straight experienced attendance next year. We are even going to plan rainy backup plans: Tour bus for the Atlantic City or Philly for the spouses (if the spouses are bored) and as skydiver raindate plan if weather is terrible. Keep tuned. :-)

Double devil's advocate: One might argue that at some times in history, it has been more difficult being gay than being deaf. Agreed, though it is nolonger the case for the majority of the leading Western World countries, especially Canada and most of USA (especially Northeast/California, plus big cities, etc). I escaped most of the homophobic era, as I'm relatively young at 35, so my deafness is a bigger barrier for me personally. Some of our Rainbow Skydiver group members come from countries that are not quite so progressive, although they weren't at this specific Rainbow Boogie.

We did TWO points.

(Skip to bottom, if you just want the boogie photos!) I am happy to announce that we achieved a new Gay Way World Record, a 12-way 2-point formation at Skydive Cross Keys, on August 8th, 2009! This beats the record set on July 30th, 2006 during Rainbow Boogie 2006 a NouvelAir! It was the first time I had official load organizer slots at any skydiving dropzone (beer!). I also created formation printout diagrams as well. Early small practice jumps with two A license low-timers to make sure they flew/tracked/canopy piloted okay, with good awareness. (They are highly current, all with jumps this year), and they qualified through increasingly bigger ways leading up to the 12-way Gay Way World Record on the Saturday! I was the load organizer of the specific jumps, and utilized all the learning experience I had at Perris P3. Joseph Wood as well as Tim G also helped me with the ideas, and they agreed with the formation design to maximize success for a diverse range of jumpers from a 50-jump A-license jumper all the way up to World Team members. For other jumps, I had Tim G do the load organizing. Even straight dropzone employee facebooked many of the boogie photos! (Including, um, a few NSFW ones.) Those who have seen Dana's or Victoria's facebook profile will know what crazy fun the boogie was among the straight girls and straight men who attended! The boogie is a 100% hetero-friendly gay boogie, and we got amazing support by all the straight employees and regular skydivers at Cross Keys! We want to thank everyone at Skydive Cross Keys for their amazing support, and also to Square 3 and Aerodyne (who attended with a booth), and especially to Liz who pratically begged us to host the 2009 boogie at Cross Keys. All the key people are pratically begging us to come back, so we'll do Rainbow Boogie 2010. All 87 "I Can't Think Straight!" T-Shirts were sold out; with more than 50 to straight jumpers and straight dropzone employees. Definitely phenomenal support by the straights!. Don't worry -- for the other groups visiting -- the dropzone has now been cleaned up and personally sanitized of the rainbow flags and memorabilia -- and it's safe again, if you hate rainbows, that is. -- after all, it is a dropzone that welcomes all kinds of jumpers, whether it be Rainbow Boogie, or Egyptian military jumpers, or Christian skydivers. Respect the facilities for the other groups' other weekends. We will be back in August 2010 -- for Rainbow Boogie 2010 -- at Skydive Cross Keys again. Exact dates to be announced later. Watch for us in a photo article in an upcoming issue Parachutist AND Blue Skies magazine. 5 different magazines/papers, including ALL major skydiving magazines, have contacted us already! Just a few of the hundreds of boogie photographs taken: http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=52708009938&view=all

My biggest embarassment in skydiving.... Earlier in the year, in my first time sitting in a Twin Otter cargo compartment (Skydive Chicago puts two jumpers in the cargo department of the Twin Otter, behind the jump door), my reserve cover accidentally snagged on something and the pin got pushed out. Pop. I was surprised to see a pilot chute whose bridle led to my rig. The reserve apparently stayed in the container. Door was closed as it was just before jump run. I simply went to the pilot's seat and essentially contained the pilot chute, while the rest of the load emptied with their existing jump plan, except for myself who I had to ride down. That said, the copilot's seat is a considerable distance away from the jumpdoor, I was safely sitting containing the pilot chute and the copilot seat contained my opened reserve container with the still-folded reserve sitting in it. I'm still a bit mad at myself for letting that happen. Lesson learned, and I'm far more aware of snag hazards in unfamiliar seats. Nothing like such that stuff to deflate any leftover "100 jump wonder ego" in you. Went back in the air on the next load, rigger repacked reserve before the subsequent load, and the day was back to usual, with just a bruised ego. That said, I'm not sure if a Cessna is big enough to let the rest of the load be dropped while leaving the last jumper to ride down. I'd probably end up preferring to land with the plane if the jump door is within a bridle length's or less away from the farthest seat.

I screamed at my instructor (back in 2005) on my first jump after my canopy brakes got relined -- there was 7 inches of slack line in my Sabre 170 rig, when beforehand, it was already causing tail deflection at the loops. It may have been to factory specifications, but the rest of the canopy lines were still old, which means they were shrunken relative to the new in-spec brake lines, and thus, I had now-unexpected flare behaviour. I did not hurt myself on landings, but they were "dicey". Still standups, a tumble or two. The moral of the story I learned was: (1) Find the start of your flare hand posiiton Preposition your hands at the start of taut brake lines. Raise your arms, then pull down until brake lines feel taut, and beginning to deflect your tail. That's where you should hold at while landing to begin your flare. Loose brake line is useless, don't raise your arms as high as possible; it can be dangerous when there's extra brake lines. (2) Find the end of your flare position Needs to be tested during flare test after opening, if your airspace is clear. At high altitude, it's a good idea to do a stall position test. I do this on almost every new canopy I try out or demo (Safire2 149, Pilot 150, Sabre 150, Sabre2 150, PD143 Optmium, etc). This determines the bottom end of my flare. Flaring isnt really "start at the brake stops at the top and flare to full arm extension" -- but "start where the brake line feels taut, and flare dynamically based on how I'm planing out to the ground, then one second before it looks like I'm about to touchdown, do a final punch down of brakes to finish the flare." Since then, I've safely landed canopies even with 8 inches of excess brake lines, and I very rarely tumble (Even on downwind landings). Flaring now feels exactly the same regardless of whether there's excess brake line. It's important to unlearn the bad habit of raising arms as high as possible to begin a flare -- However, there are times when the excess lines begin to significantly reduce the flare band (by putting the end of the flare out of your arm's full reach), so it's best to shorten brake lines if there's too much loose brake line with no tail deflection.

That said, even if it is 100% your fault, there IS gear that's more forgiving to a half flare mistake. Just don't jump the Falcon 265 again at your weight and physique. There are more forgiving gear.