MarkM

If you were going to do low birdman pulls regularly, I wonder if you'd want to use rounds instead. Just fly your suit into a suitable landing area, then deploy the round and drift down the rest of the way. Anyway, this footage would look great in a Bond movie. Dunno if the stunt would make it past the movie studio's lawyers though...

Just got mine today. Looks great and fits well. But I know people have had customer service and quality problems with them before. I think it's... Pros: 1> The suits look great. 2> They get it to you fast. 3> The price is very good. Cons: 1> A lot of people have had quality control problems(wrong size or bad sewing). 2> Some people have had problems contacting them with issues. If they could fix those two issues, even if they had to raise their prices to do it, they'd completely kick ass.

How would the USPA issuing a WL BSR be any different than them saying I can't do a night jump because I don't have a B license, that I can't pull at 2k or that DZs can't put out an AFF student in 20mph winds? I'd think a WL BSR would help DZs, because then the DZ doesn't have to be the "bad guy" when they tell someone they can't jump a certain canopy: it's just a USPA rule, not theirs, and the USPA DZ down the road will tell them the same thing.

Ahh good, I'm not the only lazy bum around here. Hmmm, been sitting around on my arse all day in front of a computer. Think I'll order a pizza for dinner.... heheh. Does packing count as a workout???

I don't think some people understand how dangerous freeflying can be. One jump I was going to practice getting into a sit and I had a guy who really wanted to follow me out/go out with me to see what I was doing wrong. He had something like 80 jumps total and didn't understand why I thought it was a bad idea. I finally had to ge a little rude in my no's.

Girl you need to come down to SE Florida, there are LOTS of latin skydivers here, many of them women.

Personally I was thinking why this wasn't posted in the Whites Only forum.

Do a forum search on scotchguard.

I'd like a helmet that could do HUD. That way I could visually see altitude or even GPS without having to look down at my wrists.

I think the study has less to say about idiots and more about human behavior in general. It doesn't matter if you're an expert or a novice, you can easily overestimate your ability. A good rule of thumb would be to just think that your own opinion about your own skill in any given area can be biased. Finding unbiased outside judges on your abilities though can also be hard.

If you don't skydive anymore and don't plan to jump again, you used to be a skydiver. Yeah, and then they date one and find out skydivers spend all their time and money at the dropzone. Weddings, movies, walk in the park, hang at the beach... fuck that babe, it's the weekend, the winds are 10mph and the skies are blue. Cya.

That was pretty cool.

Was a whuffo. I also used to be terrified of heights. At theme parks I'd tend to stay away from the rollercoasters.

Depends. Packing wears me out so I usually like to use a packer. But if the packers are busy doing tandems or I'm not going to make a lot of jumps in a day, I'll pack for myself.

Heh, it's Friday. After a weekend of jumping people will be more mellow on Monday.

Heh, only twice. Remind me to stay away from Stacy's parties Never thrown up at a DZ and I try not to throw up off of them. I usually only throw up if I drink cheap booze, which is why I have 2 bottles of $50 tequila under my kitchen counter

There was some other site that let you do custom designed shoes, I think boarders used them or something. Anyone have a link to that one?

Count me as one of them. I think the hardest marketing part of wingsuits is the skill barrier to entry. You see tons of people doing tandems, only a small fraction of those go on to be students, maybe only half of those graduate, only a few of those that graduate will go on to become regular skydivers. Of those that go on they'll have to wait on average a year or more before they can even try birdman. A lot of people probably drop the sport before reaching 200 skydives. The BM training costs are low considering what you'll spend to get there. By the time you can even start BM you'll have spent 1200 on AFF, 4k on jump tickets and 3-5k on gear. Never mind any wind tunnel or RW/FF coaching you may have also spent money on.

1. Whats your name? Mark 2. How old are you? 33 3. Why did you decide to start jumping out of airplanes? It was something my oldest brother always wanted to do. 4. Are you single or taken? Married? Single. 5. Do you have kids? No 6. What do you drive? 1998 Dodge Neon and it has no air conditioner(see 8). 7. Have you ever done a kisspass? No 8. Where do you live? SE Florida(see 6) 9. Do you have any pets? Nope. 10. How many jumps do you have? 96 11. What color eyes do you have? Greeeeeeeen 12. What is your nationality? Mutt 13. Have you ever dated someone you met off the internet? Nope 14. Favorite Movie? No clue 15. What do you do when you arent skydiving? Work 16. Have you ever BASE jumped? Not yet 17. If not... do you want to? Once or twice 18. Do you have siblings? 1 brother, 1 sister 19. Where do you want to travel to the most? I'd like to see Cali, but road trip there across the US 20. What's your favorite color? Blue 21. Where was the last place you flew to ( not skydiving )? St Loius

Hmm, must have been cold that day.

Never been to Cali, but most of the girls in SE Florida tend to be very prima dona. My friends and I have a name for them, "Boca Girls". Basically they're chicks that would cry a river if they broke a nail, got breast implants for their sweet sixteen and wouldn't be caught dead dating a guy who didn't drive a really sweet car. Thankfully they stay far away from skydiving and the skybabes down here are all pretty cool. Most of the ones I've met are shit-hot skydivers too. And yeah, most are taken.

Is the "new group" Olav? Last I'd heard he was working to try to get something going there.

More like 99.99999999999, geesh. 8:0 for me this weekend.

The 78 is so last year, the in thing these days is the VX 39. But back to the subject. I don't see how this is unique to skydiving. Get in the Jap motorcycle scene(rice burners) and you have the same thing going on there. People buying a 750 or a 1000 bike when they should be starting out on a 500 or something like my SV650. Bad accidents don't usually happen to newbies, it's the people with 3-5k miles under their belt that get cocky and do stupid things. I just think it's natural to have this stage where you get over the scary newbie period and begin to get confident in your abilities. The problem is though is that it's very very hard to really know what your abilities are. So you get cocky, get in over your head and get owned by your own arrogance.

Cutaway. Best comedy ever.