grimmie

A Boston Bruins game...silly... What else is there to do there???

Harness all of the "hot air" in Speakers Corner. That will get a balloon up fast!

We have 45+ acres of LZ on the North side of the runway. The former DZ at Oceanside did AFF there also. The nice thing we have going for us is a steady 5-10kt breeze coming off of the sea each day.

Thursday-Sunday at first.

Thanks guys. And if we need help at the council meeting I'll let you guys know. Showers and shoes will be mandatory.

We won't start jumping until Saturday, the 12th.

Many of the regulars here already know of my plans to open a DZ at Oceanside Municipal Airport, in California. I had hoped for a November opening. This article hit the NC Times this morning and some of you have called or sent e-mails, thanks for the kind words. http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/oceanside/article_e90584b6-aa87-5f87-aa9b-d24fcd670538.html I am meeting individually with each city council member and the mayor. This airport has been a hot item of discontent with certain NIMBY residents. As of now it appears I will have the majority vote at the December 8th city council meeting and have approval of the city to land on their property next to the runway. We were supposed to be on the October 20th agenda and start jumping in November. There were some minor changes made to the land use agreement by city staff. We got pushed back on the schedule. You can't fight city hall I plan on tandems and C/D license holders at first. This was a requirement agreed upon by me and the company that runs the airport for the city. In the future we will look into AFF training. Skyride has two domain names, skydiveoceanside and oceansideskydiving. I have offered to buy them to no avail and have discussed legal action to get the domains. As of now we will be called Tsunami Skydivers, Oceanside. More on that as it develops. Many of you have been discussing the USPA recently. I can only tell you that Randy Ottinger has been helping out above and beyond the call of duty. I'll keep everyone posted on our progress. It's going to be a pretty awesome DZ soon. (And no, you don't get to jump at 30,000ft, reporters, geez)

Why didn't I think of that (grimmie shakes head and sulks)???? I could have been a billionaire!

Sorry kids, We're sold out for the boogie. But if you really want to join us call me and we'll try to figure something out. www.skydivebelize.com Bruno Brokken is bringing a European group for a second event called "Skyfari Belize" www.skyfaribelize.com I have some rooms available for that event. Thanks everyone, see you in freefall over the Blue Hole!

I showed up, I made a jump with some hotties, the end.

Those two kids will be superstars soon!

The Pens outplayed them, but didn't outscore them! I'm so glad hockey season has started! And nice game Avs!

We did a bandit birthday jump once in Oz. A guy took his base rig out, no slider, from 200ft. Damn I wish I had that opening on video. We took it to 8,000

Flyers/Penguins Tonight! On Versus. Drop the puck!

Make every licensed skydiver in the world take an advanced canopy/landing course. Ever go to a boogie and watch the "experienced" jumpers fly?

I think dirt diving the openings, pattern and landings in the loading area as a group can mitigate a little of the hazards. What are the group sizes?Who's is flying what and where are they opening? What is the jump run, ground winds etc. What is the pattern? It helps a bit, especially at boogies.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7192553/ For all of the beer league players out there!

I will bring my clubs to LP next summer. Bring yours. I'll buy the beer.

Do we really have a "learning curve, lack of training" issue? Or do we have a "heads up our asses under canopy" issue? Take a look at all of our canopy collisions that happened in the past few years. Was it newer skydivers or older, over 1,000 jump skydivers involved? How many of us have asked a jumper to slow down under canopy? How many of us have seen that same jumper injure or kill themselves in the manner we predicted to them? This is a much bigger problem than USPA only can fix. It has to start with each jumper, and each DZO. I'm all for canopy courses for newer jumpers. But what are we going to do with the hundreds of older jumpers under newer canopies? A lot of them are a danger also. We have to educate the masses and change the current mainstream mindset. We have to have more training than "here is a photo of the DZ, it's always a left hand pattern, and land here". We dirt dive the freefall but never dirt dive the canopy ride. We have many different size canopies all aiming for the same LZ. We have to train jumpers how to handle the various landing scenarios. I agree though, if we start training them early on canopy skills and pattern safety, we will create a safer future skydiving environment.

+ one trillion.

Nope. Not "Too hard". When you have a system, it has to have a practical application. I think a solo buddy/tracking system will work. But to require everyone in a group to check in is ridiculous and redundant, IMHO. I take safety very seriously in this sport. Probably more than anyone you will ever meet. But having groups of people that are jumping together check in is overkill. Think about a US Nationals, everyone checking in after every jump. Chics rock was a madhouse yesterday. The manifest line was 10 deep at times. We need a practical solution to a practical issue. I am all for accounting systems. Account for your group. Solos, we need a system, I agree.

Check out some of the steel mills in Western PA that were bought by the union members. I love how "unions" are the bad guys when the economy goes bad. Those damn prison guards here in California bankrupted the state.

The planets are almost aligned, let the season begin!!!

It was a madhouse there today! Lots of jumpers and lots of smiles. Lots of DZ.commers too.

In Belize we all keep track of each other and have a buddy system for solos. One year we had a couple that went missing. No one had seen them for two days. We went to their room and their gear, wallets, toothbrushes and clothes were there. I was really worried. We called the cops, the Belize military and the US embassy to look out for them. At least we knew they were not missing from a leap! It turned out they took a day trip to the mainland, loved it and stayed a couple of days. They bought some toothpaste at the hotel in the jungle they were at! When they showed back up on the island I was really relieved...and wanted to strangle them both! I hope this Russian jumper ordeal turns out the same.