Zennie

Yep. I just absorb the oxygen through my skin. On the other points... It's kinda funny. My wife still thinks I'm half-whacked for wanting to jump out of an airplane, but doesn't think twice about SCUBA diving with me. I tell her SCUBA is statistically more dangerous and she say I'm rationalizing. Go figure. On the expense. Yep. It's expensive alright. The equipment is every bit as pricey as skydiving equipment (high-performance BCs, regulators, dive computers, etc.). Don't even start with underwater photography equipment! Then to make it worse, ya gotta fly to places like Cozumel to see anything besides catfish in 3-foot visibility water. But it's still fun. Just can't do it as much. At least skydiving is convenient. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I don't know if you were referring to me or not. I personally haven't jumped one so I have no frame of reference. I'm just relaying what I was told. If someone at our DZ has a 149 I might jump one just to see what all the fuss is about. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

This is has come up from time to time on other threads but I thought I'd start one dedicated to the question. I did SCUBA before skydiving, and still enjoy it immensely. I've just decided I like jumping off things. I'd like to hear who does SCUBA, where they like to go and what dive operators they like to go with. I've been to Grand Cayman and loved it. We went with Treasure Island Divers and they were great. Recommended dives: Trinity Caves, the Oro Verde wreck (esp. as a night dive) & Stingray City. Haven't been to Coz yet. That's next on my list. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Well, you mentioned Texas, but I'm trying to think of a major Texas city that doesn't have a DZ within reasonable driving distance. Houston has 3 Super Twin Otter DZs (we're gonna have to have an Otter race one of these days to end the "fastest Otter" debate once & for all). San Antonio & Austin have Skydive San Marcos (and Austin has it's own DZ as well). Dallas has at least 2, prolly more. So I think Tejas is covered (maybe Corpus, but I think they have one as well). Arizona has Eloy (dunno how far this is from Tucson). Florida has a gazillion DZs, as does California. I would say Las Vegas, because there was a need for a while, but the Flyaway folks just opened a regular-jumper-friendly DZ called the Gravity Zone. Am I missing anyplace? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I've seen him in Fly Like A Pro and read a few of his articles. Is he an engineer by training? Very articulate. BTW. There are some other articles by JLB here. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Yeah, I've heard the same thing. When I was shopping for a main one person, who shall remain nameless, told me in no uncertain terms to stay away from them until they had the "bugs" worked out. My guess is that he was referring to the flare. When I get around to looking at canopy #2 in the next 150 jumps or so I'll prolly look at a light elliptical. I'd get a Spectre, but I do a fair amount of RW and pulling a snivelly canopy at 3K doesn't sound particularly appealing to me. So my guess is it'll prolly be either the new Sabre or a (hopefully by then "debugged") Safire. BTW. Has anybody seen or heard anything new about the new Sabre? It's June and I thought they were gonna be unveiling it in the summer. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hehehe.... I resemble that remark! I have this thing for wolves. Amazing animals. Very complex social structure. Moody. Hmmm...... You could put a manatee in your swimming pool. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

It kind of depends on the dog. Robin Wilcox's dog Pud seemed downright mellow in all the pics I've seen of him. Now if only students could relax like that.... Here's a pic of Robin & Pud. Pick up that baton and run with it Ann!

LOL @ cyber! Always the man with the practical solution! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

No, but with a lot our DZs being out in the sticks, the thought has at least crossed my mind. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I had a thought as I've been digesting all this (**BURP**). As with almost everything else in skydiving, wouldn't it be a good idea to "ease in" to camera flying? Seems like agood approach, especially if you're a low timer like me (61 jumps), would be to learn how to fly like a camera flier before ever strapping on a camera helmet. I have a little group of about 6-7 low-medium timers that do RW. We don't have a camera guy. I'd eventually like to do camera. So the thought occurred to me... couldn't I get on the camera platform and shadow, without a camera, like a camera flier? Seems this might be good from a couple of perspectives. First, it would allow me to practice camera flying (positioning, fallrates, etc) without having to worry about the camera helmet and it's issues. By the time I got around to actually strapping one on, the flight mechanics would be second nature. Second, our group always laments that we don't have feedback on exits, backsliding, etc. If I'm flying a camera slot and observing, I might be able to provide some feedback on the ground. Any thoughts on this? Is even doing something like this too early? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

What's really scary is that this could have come in really handy when I was in college. Funny though! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I jump a Sabre 150 loaded at 1.23. OMG! I'll bet anything that's exactly what happened! It would sure explain why I dropped out of the sky so fast and hit the ground as hard as I did. That's a great idea. I'll do that. Thanks! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Heh. Now she's skysurfing. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Nobody else has any ideas? I'm shocked! In any event, I talked to one of my instructors on Sunday and he said two things may have (and this jibes with my fuzzy recollection) made things worse: 1. Flaring a little extra to slow down might is probably what pulled me up and then dropped me. 2. Reaching with my right foot (as I dropped) would have caused the canopy to turn. Said that happens a lot. Obviously a toggle turn at that stage of the ballgame would be a really bad idea. But I wondered a couple of things... 1. Is trying a very slight braked turn at that level likely going to get me into more trouble than otherwise? 2. If reaching the wrong way makes the problem worse, could shifting in the harness against the crosswind slightly improve things? Thoughts? Tips? Anyone? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Beer? Pie? Beer? Pie? Beer? Pie? .... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Sounds like you did the right thing to me. I can't imagine a situation where I'd opt for the low turn (I know David calls his situation a low turn, which I guess technically it is, but most people don't die from low controlled braked turns, it's the low toggle turns that are killing people). One tip that one of my instructors gave for downwinders was to just slide it out on your ass. Doesn't look pretty, but it gets the job done relatively safely. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hehehe. Congrats! #10 was kind of a cool one for me as well! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Was he doing an accuracy jump or did he just sort of wind up there? There was a lot of shake-rattle-&-rolling going on at the DZ this weekend. On Saturday I had a bad crosswind landing that banged up my knee (still taking ibuprofen for it) and I didn't even win the "Biff of the Day Award". Then on Sunday me, Alisha & Jim all three clear the treeline by no more than a hundred yards. BTW Ann, I finally met Brit on Sunday but where wuz you (and has Skeeter squished his new companion yet? )? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I guess for the same reason Hobbits give everybody else a gift on their birthdays. I think it's more a reason to celebrate (like we need an excuse), so the first-ee "hosts" it. Sort of like when a new parent gives cigars to everyone or something really great happens and you buy rounds for everyone in the bar. We just take it a little overboard. BTW. Half the fun is trying to weasel your way out of it. Just remember -- the "f-word" in skydiving is "first". ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Important safety tip. The ground is hard. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Banged my knee up pretty good when I got hit by a crosswind gust right as I flared. Sent me sideways and I slammed down pretty hard. Tumble...tumble. Lay there thinking "Anything broken?" Managed to get up and put weight on it. The guys by the hanger said it looked pretty nasty. Anyway, anybody have any tips for negotiating a crosswinder like that (other than not going crosswind -- duh)? Or is rolling it out and taking your lumps about the best you can do? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I'm going to be visiting my folks up in Indy over the July 4 weekend and I'm bringing my rig. I'm also planning on getting my Dad to do a tandem. I figure it's between Skydive First and Skydive Indiana. So for you Indy-area jumpers, where do you recommend? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Being in the computer business and all, my guess is that based on last night's events with Happy Hour, the server got overloaded and dz.com is in the process of being migrated to higher capacity server. Thus the goofiness. Just a semi-educated guess. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I think we're experiencing technical difficulties. I believe there's supposed to be a live chat (dunno for sure because I missed last week's -- DOH!). ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie