MarkM

"I should have just kept my mouth shut and kept lurking." No way babe. I hadn't seen you post in the month or so I'd been back here, I thought you ditched the scene or something.

Don't buy a rig until you're off student status like everyone else says. I didn't wait and I've been the not-so-proud owner of an EOS + Swift 175 + Triatholon 160 that's been sitting around for almost 2 years now. When I start back up I'll be relining the main, buying a new container and may even need a new reserve(the swift was made in 1992). I would've saved a lot of money if I had waited until I knew more about gear before buying my rig.

1> Talk to the DZO first. 2> If he doesn't correct the behavior or already knows about it, find a new DZ and report the old one.

First jump 29, will be 31 in March. I guess I'm at the age where birthdays are no longer something to celebrate.

29?

Yeah, but bag a lock probably = packing error. Not saying that shit doesn't just happen sometimes, but I think 95% of the time when something goes wrong there was a human error in the chain of events.

I'd agree with Clay, get some goggles, helmet, altimeter, and jumpsuit. Having the above is nice because you'll be more comfortable in your own gear. Later when you get some jumps and really know more you can get a rig and buy more fancy gear. www.para-gear.com is where I got all my stuff. A good cheap jumpsuit is a Slipstream 2. They have generic sizes that fit pretty well(small, medium, large, etc) and Para Gear will exchange for a different size if the one you order doesn't fit well(they did for me). I'd also only buy 1 year of membership in the USPA for now.

Anyone got the link to the skydiving fatalities page? That's the best resource for this. IMHO, your risks depend on your skill level. As a new student your biggest risks will be not doing anything in an emergency, delaying your decision making in an emergency, or trying to turn too low to the ground(to face the wind or avoid an obstacle) when you haven't trained to do this. As you get more skilled, say 100 or 200 jumps(if you stay current), your risks from the above will lessen, but the risks from low turns will increase because you'll be more prone to try hook turns or you might downsize to a smaller canopy. Your confidence will be up, so you may also be more prone to be lax on certain safeties. You also may start pulling a little lower, may start playing with flying a camera, skysurfing, larger formations, etc. All of those things increase risk, which isn't a problem unless you approach them with a 200 jumper "I already know how to do this" attitude. Seriously though, read the skydiving fatalities page. If no one else posts the link, I'll hunt it up later.

Anyone seen Worthless Eye Candy? Heard it was pretty good.

Naw, we need a calander. The Girls of DZ.com We already know who'll be April.

MAL!!! MAL!!!!!

Geez Jessica, trolling deleted posts looking for boobies? Is there something we should know about you?

Dude, you're just weird.

Maybe you could find someone at the DZ that would trade?

"Exactly! And at the dz, I tend to not have to pay for my beers in the process!" Wow, and here I thought they didn't have anyone smart over at Purdue

You gotta use your imagination... I'm seeing a german guy on some talk show type thing showing a vid of 4 or 5 divers in a formation with a guy's wanker flapping all over the place and he's making fun of it.

Only practice the one method if you're comfortable with that to begin with. As you gain more confidence of your ability to respond to an emergency expand your "response plans" to include other solutions that give you better odds.

Now that's a good one.

This is bullshit. Half the people that drive or ride horses haven't had a friend that has died in the activity. Skydiving isn't as dangerous as a lot of people think, but it isn't as safe as a lot of skydivers like to say it is. God I totally agree. My favorite is "I've always wanted to do that". Well then DO IT. But most don't really want to IMHO. I used to watch people skydive and tell myself there was no way I'd ever do that. I don't know when that changed, but it was a totally internal change and not something I did because other people convinced me to do it. I totally respect anyone who wants to jump even if they haven't yet, but I don't feel the need to try to make any converts.

Way too much time on your hands dude.

Doesn't mild hypoxia start at around 5-8k or so, then gets worse as you go up? Bad night vision first, then coord, judgement, etc? If you do 12-15k regularly, do you use O2 on the way up? I'm curious because I've only jumped from small cesnas that hardly ever went above 9k. It just seems to me that if you were out drinking the night before, a 12k jump without O2 on the way up might mean being at less than peek performance. This is one area I don't know much about. You hear about mal this, canopy that, reserve this, but nada on hypoxia.

"tried that ...darn links won't work" It's the spaces in the url. I'd be going medieval on anyone that made me admin that stuff. "Standards? What internet standards?" (Mark takes a baseball bat to the designer's PC) Whaaaack!

I think the sound effect is actually supposed to be a rip on sportbikes. They sound exactly like that.

Last jumped in Indiana, moved down here a year and a half ago so I could jump more regularly but the move and some IRS difficulties strapped me for cash until now. Will finish up my A this March, but haven't decided on a local DZ yet. Only been out to Skydive America so far, but Homestead and Clewiston are two that are near enough that I want to check out.

OMG, the shotglass one is hilarious.