MarkM

Here's a list of about 1000 or so: http://www.allaboutsex.org/mastsynonyms1.html It even has some for the gals: Buffing the box Diddling miss daisy fluffin the muffin Twirling the pearl etc

1. I think she's just copying and pasting text, which explains why it was posted multiple times. 2. It does an excellent job detailing the speeds involved. ie/ don't fuck around under a 85 square foot canvas no matter how many jumps you have. 3. PLF has never struck me as the type of person who would sensationalize an incident, so I judged her postings accordingly.

Hehe. You can talk them down all you want but they have to listen. Talk to one of the guys that radios down students sometime for some good stories on the stupid things people do. And in all fairness it's hard not to get stupid(confused), when your brain is still reeling from jumping out of a plane and you're doing something completely new: flying a canopy. Saw one student do everything perfectly, followed the radio just fine until he came in for the final leg of the landing. He saw that ground rushing up to him and just blanked out and didn't flare when commanded to. Even worse he didn't bend in his knees so he hit full on with his legs locked straight. Dislocated his right leg.

Youch. Sorry to hear this. And I've seen my fair share of first jump students wigging out on the landing approach. Usually it just ends up in minor injuries or a little embarrassment, but it sounds like this guy did the wrong things and got a little unlucky. Although there's nothing in the world like making your first jump solo, stories like this make me pro AFP for a student program(your first 3 jumps are tandem, then it's AFF).

Yeah. I don't even fully trust my visual alt. On the ride up I try to get a good eyeball view of what 4k looks like.

The truth is that horny adrenaline whacked skydivers are horrible philosophers.

Grrr... that sunny site crashed my Linux Netscape browser. I'm an admin/coder, do php, perl, build the webservers, create farms and it is a BITCH teaching html editor junkies web standards. The worst is when you have to integrate php into something a designer whipped up and it's impossible to hand edit without breaking the whole page(like when an editor uses spans to format content instead of tables).

Hey rodeochic, I used to live in Fort Wayne IN... and Michigan City IN and Bloomington IN and Griffith/Highland IN, etc. And I got one thing to say to ya, move to Florida!

Would also have to side with Bill on the gear issue. Everything on your own gear will fit better and you're more likely to know when something is off by the "feel". I saw an instructor in a bad wrap with a student because he wasn't familiar with the gear he was jumping. The student cut away just after his and the instructor's main got entangled. The instructor never got out of the student's main(he was enveloped by it) and barely managed to get his (thankfully a round) reserve out at around 900 AGL. That was caused by a loose BOC pouch, which wasn't a problem for the origional owner of the rig because he had adjusted his packing habits to deal with the issue.

Heh, funny you should mention that... My protocol is: Left arm screwed up: first attempt to deploy main via my BOC, two attempts, then go silver. Right arm screwed up: Go directly for silver. Both arms screwed up: Say "alright guys you were right, I should've bought a Cypres" over and over until impact.

Use other arm. Pull silver handle.

Hey wing, my EOS was made in '92 and it sounds like it has the same riser configuration. "Hey dude, your risers are showing" - quote I hear all the time.

Just a little counter perspective from Hellian's. I trained SL for my first 17 jumps and lived only a half hour from the dropzone. So, on any given day I could just look outside and if it was nice out I could drive up to the DZ and sign onto a load. It was only 50 bucks a hop, I didn't have to call ahead, and since I was leaving the plane solo they could squeeze me into almost any load and just have a jump master spot me and grade my jump. That was at a casual and FUN dropzone and if I stilled lived in that area I'd continue training there in a heartbeat.

Whether you learn via AFF, AFP, or SL is far less important than the people training you and your comfort at the dropzone. Shop the instructors and friendliness of the dropzone, not the teaching method. Both SL and AFF will eventually teach you how to skydive. But only if the instructors and the dropzone create the environment you want to return to.

Actually Mike, I live in Florida and helmets aren't required for riding a motorcycle. But I see a solid number of riders down here wearing helmets(and I'll be one of them). I just wish they'd wear a little more body and leg protection, but then that's their call. Because they cost about a K and I'd be better off putting that money elsewhere. I jump solo and wear a helmet to protect against head injury on leaving the plane. If I did a lot more in close work with other jumpers I'd want a Cypres, but then I'd want a container with better main riser protection too. It's not so much compromise as risk assessment. High risk sports aren't about slapping on all the safety gear you can find and calling it a day. They're about understanding what risks are involved in the behavior you're engaging in and using the appropriate equipment to mimimize those risks. Do I check my blind spot before I do a lane change on the freeway? Yes, although I'd bet 98% of the drivers out there never bother to look over their shoulder when changing lanes. Will I be wearing a helmet, Vanson leather jacket reinforced with CE certified armor, kevlar reinforced jeans and leather gloves and jeans when I ride my motorcycle? Yes, the way I ride and push my bike there's a solid chance of me crashing. Do I feel the need for a Cypres to go out and do solo jumps or hop and pops? Not especially. That kind of safety gear just isn't likely to come into use with my jumping habits.

Uh, right. Since the gear is so good today skydivers are just jumping around with unmantained gear for that extra "rush". Not to mention all those low pull contests that have been cropping up at the DZs.... I suppose if the gear gets any better we'll all start tossing it out of the plane and jumping after it? Don't think so.

Oh God, don't mention St Patricks day. I remember heading out to Las Olas, slamming down some red bull + vodkas(and everyone around me screaming me on) then waking up sick as a dog the next day.

Saw this once with my instructor jumping a borrowed rig. The BOC pouch was a little loose and when he went to track away from a student he deployed. Got in a nasty wrap with a student, but both made it out okay.

Well, I have an older('92) EOS container that doesn't have external main riser covers that tends to raise eyebrows, but the rig is perfectly safe. Now I've personally jumped Old Baldie at one dropzone which was an old Manta main with a round reserve in a racer container using an FXC for an AAD. While there was nothing technically wrong with the rig it just had some sort of bad mojo surrounding it. If anything ever went wrong on the DZ with the rental gear, odds were that Old Baldie was being worn when the student/renter screwed up. And then there was the time my instructor at another DZ jumped a borrowed rig. What he didn't know was that the BOC pouch was loose and the pilot chute ended up in the airstream over a deploying student when he went to track away. That wrap just about cost him his life.

You call reading some marketing blurb from a manufacturer's website "proper research"? I'll stick to the "ill informed hearsay"; skydivers actually field testing this crap with thier lives.

Think so? I don't. Get a Cypres or jump without an AAD.

Get your D license first and make sure you can do on heading openings all the time and never have problems with line twists. You don't want to jump off of a cliff and deploy heading back into the rock face or end up sitting under a bunch of line twists with no heading control.

No, that sounds right. I've seen it done, I've just never been interested enough in doing it to learn the specifics.

From my limited understanding a hook turn is the use of riser input to cause a dramatic turn of your canopy. Many skydivers use this at a very low altitude to radically change their landing direction and "swoop" into a landing. And if done right I think you can use the technique to "surf", plane out your downward movement into horizontal and skim across the ground before touching down. It's dangerous because "swoopers" are turning a high verticle speed and making it horizontal before hitting the ground. If you screw up, you'll hit the ground at a fairly decent verticle speed, which is a killer. Most dropzones allow hook turns because they can be a lot of fun and for many people the heart of skydiving is having fun in spite of the risks associated with the sport.

David Hasselhoff. Saw him once on a daytime talk show, acting all "I'm Mr. Stud Rock Star", but just about everyone in the audience was like: "Aren't you the guy from Knight Rider?" "Did that car from Knight Rider really talk?" "Did you still own that car from Knight Rider?" Pissed him off royally, was a good laugh.