Zennie

I think I made 9 or 10 jumps out there last year. I agree that Bridge Day is as much, if not more, a social event as a jumping event. And quite frankly I like it that way. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Why, I'm referring to the God of BASE! "May your 52, inflate for you, so that in your burble it will not stay..." That full clip should be on one of my DVDs when I come out to Bridge Day. It's a classic. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

And he said "Let there be BASE!" And there was BASE. And it was good. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

The bridge runs over the Snake River, so Russell performed intentional water landings. We had two boats ready to fish him out, and he was able to tread water without problems during the brief period it took us to get to him. We're all brainstorming ways of allowing him to land on dry groud so we can get him Paraplegic BASE #1. Ideas anyone?

Thought folks might be interested in this. Russel Metlitsky is (we believe) the first paraplegic to make a solo BASE jump. He made two out at the Potato Bridge this past memorial day weekend. One of the pics is here. The pic is of Russell making his second jump. Johnny Utah is holding his pilot chute and I'm to the left assisting. Congrats Russell! Tom Aiello deserves a huge amount of credit for planning and coordinating the jumps. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

LOL. The irony of it all is that I REALLY like the low shit. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Like Dexter said... terminal is terminal. I've taken my Ace out with a mesh slider on skydives to terminal. Opened just the same as on my tower jumps. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I still think rodeo is nuts... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Gone but not forgotten. Fly free Carl... - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

A little forward surge? I'll take the stall over an object strike any day. Learning how to control your canopy in a stall is a very important skill to have. In a controlled stall you can back your canopy away from the object and/or get turned around with a stall turn. Marta managed to avoid getting severely broken when she had a 180 and sank her canopy straight down. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Just a brief commentary based on a few threads I've been reading here.... It bothers me a bit when I read or hear new jumpers deciding not to listen to their mentor on safety issues. I'm not saying that you should be a mindless robot, but at the same time, if a person with several hundred jumps says that it may not be a good idea to jump in certain wind conditions, or take corrective action in a certain way, chances are they probably have a pretty darn good reason for saying it. Yes we make our own choices in this sport, but if you want to stay in one piece for as long as possible, it's a good idea to make an informed decision. Sometimes that means swallowing some pride, listening to the advice of those more experienced than yourself and accepting that you may not yet have the experience to make a fully informed decision. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Ahhh the great toggles vs. risers debate. I agree with Johnny... and I've had 180s. They're not fun... especially when you throw in a couple of line twists. My personal opinion is that you can get on the risers much quicker, and thus take corrective action quicker, by grabbing the risers rather than the toggles. Plus, if you go for toggles, you'll get forward surge when you unstow... this can be a bad thing if you're very close to the object. I also have video of someone who had a 180 with line twists, unstowed too early and wound up making the problem worse when his steering lines also got caught in the twist. You can get at risers without really thinking. Your canopy should be near the stall point (and thus will not have much forward drive) and you can either do a riser turn or stall turn if you need to. Just my $0.02. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

We talked about this a bit after that little spate of injuries. I think it was jump fever combined with a bit of "lemmings effect". More experienced jumpers could go off and land without major problems (or less experienced jumpers could just get lucky) and other folks see them and think "Hey, they're landing OK, so it must be fine." I personally chose to stand down Saturday and most of Sunday. Yeah I might have missed a window or two, but I had just as much fun hanging out, talking BASE, sharing videos and working on the platform for Russell. It's all good. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Heh. I see postings about skydiving NIGHT JUMPS!!! And I think, crap, I get excited about DAY jumps. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

If you have your existing flap your friendly neighborhood rigger should be able to replace the velcro or make you a new flap. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Just got back from a 10 day trip to TF and Moab. At TF Douggie got his "S", and at the frozen pizza, both Douggie & Brit got their "E"s to complete the BASE acronym. Congratulations and welcome to the BASE brother/sister-hood! - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Yep, about the only thing I do differently between terminal and non-terminal jumps is how I handle the outer 3 cells. If it's a slider down or short delay slider up jump, I leave the outer 3 exposed. If it's a terminal jump I'll fold them over twice. Openings are brisk, but not terrible. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

My standard answer is... "You die". - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Congrats on finally being free. I have roughtly a $200/month payment that I seem to be enslaved to, but it's for my damn credit card. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I'm still trying to figure out whether this discussion has morphed into a "what do you do with the tail & center cell" discussion or not. I do something sort of odd with the tail. All of the folds up to the final steering line attachment are rolled up with my other folds (I take all three folds and roll them up as a group). The remaining two folds on the tail are wrapped around the packjob... though there's not much to wrap. I also wrap the center cell of the nose around the packjob. My theory behind doing both of these things is that it helps maintain packjob control and stage the opening. The center cell of the nose is exposed to the relative wind first, and the tail is exposed when the folds unroll. I've had very good heading performance, both slider-up and down, doing this. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I did my first gainer at the Perrine at least years' boogie. HOWEVER, I spent the month prior pool training with that goal in mind. I did countless practice dives from a one-meter platform, one meter springboard and 3 meter springboard. This included throwing in practice "pulls" when my body was in the proper orientation. When it came to to do it, I just focused on technique. I'm not saying the Perrine is appropriate to just go and bust something new out. But I think it is a safe place to try something new IF you have pre-trained properly. I have access to extremely tall towers and felt much more comfortable trying it off the bridge first. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I didn't notice anything personally. But maybe that has to do with the fact that my brain was fried long ago. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

Heh. Everything's big in Texas... Gatorade. Lots of Gatorade... Nah I didn't take it as an attack. I could tell you were just wondering. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

I personally don't bring them on climbs but a couple folks I know do. Pretty much for the reasons you give... I like to take in the environment and sort of just be with my thoughts, the sounds and the sights. It's kind of meditative. But I don't really knock the ones who do bring them. A fair number of our climbs are 900-1200 feet. So having a little music might help you forget that you're totally exhausted with 500 feet left to climb. Plus I could see it also getting you into a climbing rhythm. Good point on the memory getting wiped if you got too close to a transmitter. We jumped a 2000-footer just the other day with big arbors that you walk out on (in, actually, they're huge) and jump off of. They have enormous transmitters on the end. So it sort of looks like this big candelabra on top of the tower. I didn't notice anything but douggie said his fillings started tingling. My guess is an MP3 player in that environment wouldn't be such a hot idea. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

No she's for real. She has some clips on Jimmy Halliday's "Standard Issue". She even has her own web page. Don't know how many jumps she has. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon