DSE

Sorry....Tonysuits refuses to sell me suits any longer, so what TS suits I have are from last year.

haven't heard a word from anyone regarding what demo suits they'd like to see, and I'm pretty well packed. so...I'll be bringing what I'm bringing (which isn't a lot)

At the end of the day, how do you think emergency landings for buildings, trees, or powerlines should be different for a wingsuit vs a non-wingsuit skydiver? To me...the water part is quite obvious. The rest of it isn't. Looking forward to your input.

here's the thing... Even tho the cameras have been publically displayed, I'm under information embargo/NDA for a while still. I'm not permitted to comment on any products. But the TD10 is something very indicative of where several of the manufacturers are heading.

as mentioned before, there are several wingsuit BASE in trees. What I'd like one of them to tell us is how a wingsuit tree landing differs from a regular tree landing. One guy that has a couple of them tells me it's the same, for the most part. His rig has an LQRS on it, however, so that may make a big difference.

*ANY* time you want to compare taking stands, I'd be happy to oblige you toe to toe, bro. It's incredibly easy to "take the high road" of morals when there is no toll paid to get on the road. You don't jump, ergo you pay nothing. Moral arrogance is refusing to acknowledge that for some controversial moral issues there may be a morally acceptable solution beyond the one that you favor. It's easy to ignore the consequencesfor the people you're boycotting, and failing to weigh their significantly greater good vs the puny benefit Sride gets because of a pullup cord or a magazine subscription shows a "stand" of moral arrogance vs thinking about what's best for the sport. I'd much rather have BSM on my coffee table than see them go away because they gave away a subscription or some stickers that benefitted fun jumpers to help promote the sport I love. I suspect any rational, intelligent skydiver would.

Somewhere I've missed something... "Hey everybody! Cancel your BSM subscription because they are advertising their business at a place I don't like." That's not punishment? Perhaps I'm not coherent.

Congrats, James. Looking forward to seeing you in the sky in a few days. Thanks for the good times this weekend. Man...that suit looked sweet on ya!

I get your hatred for S-ride. BTW, everytime you use their name, you promote their sites in search engines, so take a look in the mirror... Turtle, you and 'bamaSkydiver could go to the boogie. Any stickers, Tshirts, pullup cords, chapstick, whatever the heck else you find there; PUNISH those bastards that support funjumpers. Damn, they should be pummelled out of business. Pettiness knows no bounds.

Start here. I'd imagine that 90% of the companies in that list "support" S-ride through gear sales, maintenance, training or other in some form or fashion. Don't forget to add Cessna, Beechcraft, DeHavilland, or PAC to that list. While you're at it, you probably need to add Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Canon, to the list too. I'd imagine you'd have a hard time not adding Ford, Chev, Dodge to the list... Boycotting a company that sells product to S-ride DZ's is simply silly. You might try boycotting the Internet too, because that's what ENTIRELY supports the S-ride brands. Does that mean we won't see you here anymore?

Is it April 1st? I think that: -A wingsuiter going into trees is something we can't accurately test without harming the test "dummy" or spending significant resources on actual test dummies. I don't believe it will be tremendously different than a non-wingsuit tree landing due to the already-established protocols and the ability to hug a trunk and protect the face while wearing a wingsuit. If anything, a fully presented tail might affect the ability to wrap a leg around a tree. There are several BASE landings in trees with wingsuits. Perhaps those guys have input. -Wingsuits into powerlines on a skydive? I don't think it'll happen. Maybe. Not likely. If it does, I dont' believe it's -significantly- different than a regular skydive, even fully zipped in. That said, I could be entirely wrong about the above. Until the water tests we did, the prevailing wisdom was entirely anecdotal and diametrically opposed to best practices. Either way, it's all a good dialog, because it leads to discussions that may make educate and at the least provides food for thought.

How many skydive wingsuiters have found themselves in an emergency situation and had to land in a tree fully zipped or partially zipped? How many skydive wingsuiters have had to land in a powerline partially or fully zipped? None that I'm -aware- of. However, there are at least four unintentional water landings, at least one of which was a fully zipped entry. You are entirely invited to fly a wingsuit into a tree and write about it. You're even more enthusiastically invited to fly your wingsuit into a powerline and write about it. Please get video. Just sayin..

Do you really think this? It seems very extreme. I'm pretty disgusted about how one dropzone out there supports unsafe behavior, and I refuse to jump there. But... their aircraft are provided by someone I deeply respect, and whose aircraft/pilots are terrific. While I won't jump at the aforementioned dropzone, I'm very happy to jump their aircraft at other locations, and don't feel a whit for it. This sport is too small to get too deep into isolationism, I think. I have no problem directly not supporting something, but indirectly...we're all too much kissing cousins to draw such a hard line.

There is at least one... He won't let any pix go up on the web for fear ICE will find him.

The interesting thing is that one of the reported UFO sightings actually went to the media, police, fire from residents. The other one...media, police, fire never heard about. There have been other instances in other cities where skydivers at night have been mistaken for UFO's. This isn't the first, won't be the last. People in Chicago, Deland, El Paso, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Houston...they all must be as unintelligent as the rest of us here in Elsinore.

The dropzone statement is: ""We do not know, and we have no official Company Statement at this time". " As someone involved; I can confirm it was skydivers, no military nor military demo team, no close encounters of the third kind, etc. One reporter I spoke with insisted that he knew it was illegal to jump @ night because "H remembers a first jump course from like...15 years ago where he was told you can't jump if you can't see the ground." I showed him the SIM and D license requirements.

Today was filled with phone calls, media, blah blah blah.... "The Golden Knights were there" "Military is planning night infiltrations" UFO's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d42O1DnRqrs Cyalume sticks so bright you can see em' for 5 miles? Someone was smoking somethin..

It looks to me that other retailers have more integrity. C'mon...that's being petty and isolationist. A-PD isn't sponsoring this event. B-Even if they were...these companies manufacture skydiving equipment. Imagine the silliness if jumpers said "I don't believe in BASE, military operations, tandems, aerial delivery into mountainous regions to poor people, aerial delivery to ships taken over by pirates... Whose gear would you buy?

http://paranormalutopia.com/2011/01/ufo-sighting-near-lake-elsinore-jan-6-2011-011/ Hmmm...Aliens in my back yard?

From my perspective, trying to push through more than three jumps in a day is a mistake. It's a lot of info to take in, and time spent on the ground working on muscle memory and reviewing the next jump (via video, text on paper, instructor time) is a more effective use of time. Getting through the program might be faster, but less thorough.

That's already possible now.

I entirely agree with you, Mark. I won't go to the boogie, therefore I'm making my political statement with my dollars. But...UPT sells rigs to those guys, PD sells canopies to them, L&B sells em' altimeters, yadayadayada... Vendors are in business to sell. I can't say to any of my sponsors or favorite manufacturers "Don't sell to a Skyride DZ because I can't support a company that helps them be in business." I truly respect what BSM brings to the sport. I don't like a lot of what they print (a recent stroke piece for XXXXXXXX bugged me a lot because it helps promote his personal agendas that are professionally bad for the XXXXX) but on the whole, the balance, in the grand scheme (insert euphimism here) the sport is much better for their presence. They're the alternative, underground, rebel, radical voice that can represent us well. Kudos for that, and I can't find fault with them for doing what they have to do in keeping the presses warm.

I dislike what Skyride and their ilk do. That said, BSM has demonstrated there are no boundaries in their love for the sport, and I think that's worthy of respect. If BSM is advertising or promoting an event for fun jumpers, they're providing a service to the sport without politics. The knife cuts both ways. Can't have em' independent and then expect them to toe a line. It's a boogie. Not a tandem sale.

Nah...This is the "BIG BLOCK" V8, with 6 wings, 8 limbs, and special exhaust and inlet system (Depending on whether you're the upper or lower wing).

You're right. On the other hand (unlike you), instructors have accepted personal responsibility that they've been qualified by an Examiner to undertake. And a juror would pay attention to "a USPA-qualified instructor told me to..."