Levin

I started jumping in 6/97 at the east texas skydiving club. it's a cessna dz in gladewater, tx. i learned the basics of freeflying from their cessnas but a couple or 3 yrs later steve decided to sell the place and relocated to houston. when the new owners took over i didn't like some of the changes so i started going to houston to jump and have ever since. a few of the people i started jumping with are still there but mostly it's now a different crowd. but i still go there occasionally to jump and say hi. some of my favorite jumps and skydiving memories happened there. levin vSCR#17

hy derek, i also recommend max cohn if you decide to write in a candidate. he makes a 1000+ jumps year, is an excellent freeflyer and down to earth dude. levin vSCS#3

Ramon and I held a flour bom drop contest labor day at skydive houston. for the flour bombs i used white paper lunch sacks with a pound of flour each. with the flour in the sack i cut the paper bag a few inches above the flour. the open part of the bag i folded over a few times smaking a small flap and taped it down on the bag so that the bag looked like a brick. this way there would be no fins or flaps that might steer the bag away from the target (like it really made a difference). i'll also say it was very unnerving driving to the dz with a box of 30 small white bricks in my trunk (didn't think of that one before i made them). for the contest jumpers would do a hop n pop with the flour tucked in their suit or pants. below 1000' we had a set flight path. contestants dropped the flour bomb from 500' over the pea pit in the main landing area then flew a right hand pattern until landing. the judge stood out next to the peas. you could see the white flour bags fall so well that there really wasn't any worries about being hit. but still most people stayed back by the edge of the landing area. 500' seems like the best altitude to drop the bomb. below 500' it gets much easier to hit the target. the danger from dropping too high is that you can miss by a greater margin the higher up you drop it. i wouldn't recommend putting a really strict emphasis on the 500' rule. if you do some people may worry too much about not being at the exact altitude instead of being set up properly. 400'-600' it's all the same. and if someone gets too low usually there will be a group shouting too low! too low! or heads up!! if they dropped from to high. levin vSCR#17

HEY!! i might make it to the dz tomorrow. do you still belly jump only on fridays?? levin vSCS#3

my fridge usually has all the different shades of ketchup. purple taste the most like red. if i had a least favorite it would be the green. it's a little sweeter than the others. but sometimes for the sake of appearance the green is a necessity for certain foods such as meat loaf. and having all the different colors is fun for foods such as french fries and corn dogs. levin vSCS#3

it's kinda toss up between fish and liver but liver could be my all time favorite food. i've tried beef, deer and elk liver and all are great!! and there's nothing like the aroma when it's being cooked in the kitchen. definetly good stuff!! but it has to be with out the onions. you should try it sometime with purple ketchup. makes a good blend. levin vSCS#3

i haven't bee to a waffle house in a few years. but the last time i was there it was in mississippi somewhere right off I20 and the waitress only had one of her front teeth levin vSCR#17

my all time favorite has to be seafood or fresh water catfish. but if there's a Luby's around, you can't beat liver w/ no onions, macaroni, new potatoes, dinner roll and strawberry cheesecake and ice tea or a diet coke. if i go to a different restaurant it's usually for the colored frozen magaritas with swirls and not the food. levin vSCS#3

interesting. i've been skydiving for almost 6 yrs and i can probably count the number of times i drempt about it on less than two hands. levin vSCR#17

no, but it's a good rule of thumb. your sit is your safety position in case you ever loose balance and feel like your gonna cork. even though sitflying is the harder of the two positions to learn to fly it is the easiest one to learn the basics of. hd is much more efficient and easier to fly once you get it down but it is much harder of the two to learn the basics of simply beacuse you are upside down and it initially feels akward. it takes a certain level of awareness in the air to successfully learn hd. the key to that level of awareness is jump numbers. the more jumps you make in a shortest amount of time possible, the quicker you'll get there. i see alot of people with around 100 jumps trying to learn hd. i think they would be better off spending that next 100 jumps working on their sit and then trying to learn hd. so in answer to your question, no it's not a rule to learn to sit first but it is a good idea. levin vSCS#3

1. frozen magarita 2. bahamajoemama (joe's crab shack) 3. redbull & vodka 4. jack & coke 5. budlight 6. shiner 7. crown & coke

wouldn't that be a "span jumper" levin vSCS#3

for my second jump i packed the right side under supervision. does that count? levin vSCS#3

the texas lottery rocked when it first came out. everybody won. you could actually make money off of it. my cousins dad won $10,000 on the mockingbird ticket which was their second game ticket. i won $500 on a $10 ticket a couple of years ago. now the lottery sucks. it doesn't pay as much so you never win. i haven't bought a lottery ticket in forever except for 2 i got in w. virginia during bridge day and a halloween ticket i got today. and of course it lost. i ocassionally play the big lotto with the numbers. i figure the odds are now about the same. levin vSCS#3

i'll be at aggieland around 2 or 2:30 tomorrow. doing some coach jumps with dave and todd. then skydive houston saturday and sunday. levin vSCR#17

If I were you I would spend my time skydiving. If it's this is exactly what i was thinking when i quit but a few years later i realized trust funds don't last forever and if i wanted to continue to skydive til my old age then i'd better get a career to support it. levin vSCS#3

i dropped out of school days after my second jump. for the next five years i worked a pointless job and skydived all the time. lots of fun. last year i decided that my wonderful, carefree lifestyle was getting me nowhere. i went back to school. only this time my head's screwed on right and my grades are great. only 1 1/2 yrs to go

pretty much any gear store carries them for $19.95. considering what you get from watching the video, that's pretty cheap. i perfer the skydive university101 video. but since they're not meant to entertain, they're pretty much the same. levin vSCR#17

...and all this time i was guessing team smoodie levin vSCS#3

i doubt i will ever know. i was just using my situation as an example to reinforce what you were saying earlier maybe one day but i'm in no hurry since that stunt has already been performed levin vSCS#3

i think more skydives helps with both but the extra awareness i think is more critical. levin vSCS#3

i have 900 jumps on ellipticals and currently fly fx74. i'm certain i could have swooped that landing area at bridge day. instead i came within inches of putting my raven in a tree. levin vSCR#17

i'm sure some people would. i've heard of at least one person base jumping before they skydived. i just don't think the average person with less than 200 jumps is ready for base. i'm very glad i waited til i had a 1000 jumps to start. levin vSCS#3

uspa once defended base but supposedly the base jumpers embarresed the uspa somehow. had soemthing to do with el cap. from there on uspa does not acknowledge base in any form or fassion and anybody still working on their a,b,c or d requirements has no business base jumping anyway. levin vSCS#3

you got my vote. thanks again for organizing the bigways last month. lots of fun levin vSCR#17, vSCS#3