FallingILweenie

I skydive. That makes me luckier than almost everyone else in the world (except for the thousands in our sport who get to do it too). And i am not ashamed. I dont really get affected by these things because it's, in my opinion, a way for people to feel bad about their status. The way i figure it, you're not a bad person for having been born into a family with money. it makes you lucky. now, the real crime is if you are given every opportunity to succeed in whatever makes you happy in life and you throw it away. blue skies Tomas

Hey Guys I did a couple of jumps in Rantoul in the fall, and the guys running it said they were trying to get it there. The DZ used to be (it closed, from what i know) on an old airforce base so as far as the actual dz, it's huge. But there are residential areas all around it so any bad spots..... One other thing that i thought of was that there is a commercial airport in Champaign maybe 20 miles away, so i dont know how that would work as far as air traffic. hell, i for one wouldlove it to be in rantoul....i could stay in champaign and party with friends and then drive out to the dz!!!! blue skies Tomas

good bye superman!

Anne.....you are on your C??? Damn guess i better do that water training....... that or i will make it to 300 with an A only.... blue skies Tomas

Reason 92....funny.

I was entertained by it, but it was not as good as the hype....not even close. blue skies Tomas

you guys forgot the old skydiving adage: no one will be scared on their first jumps, and will be able to talk in freefall (4 or 5 minutes worth of it). also, you will know what to do in any emergency. if you are in a burning plane just jump out and catch the parachute that flew out 5 minutes prior.

Gladiator was a Braveheart rip-off that in no way should have won best picture. It was just the academy loving Russel Crow and them liking some "epic" that had some neat visuals. blue skies Tomas

A few weeks ago I was in a 3 way out of a cessna where i was in the v diving, and one of the other guys was poised. the cool part of it was the 3rd guy was hanging off the wheel strut so i was essentially looking down right at him from the diving position on the v. the way he did it was to when you climb out onto the step, you kneel down then you put your hands on the step and lower yourself down. it was a pretty cool exit. i imagine its gotta be way cooler to do it with other people to look at than by yourself though so jump with someone else when you do it! blue skies Tomas

First jump JM was Jack Churchhill at Archway...i have the still from the jump framed....wow i was scared out of my freakin mind. blue skies Tomas

Hey, I live in the Chicago suburbs, so while i can't make it this weekend to jump with ya, just yell whenever you are heading to a dz around here. At the moment i frequent skydive Illinois in Morris (really easy to find, good folks...at the moment they are flying a king-air but they usually have a super otter) but when their season starts i'll probably go to CHicagoland Skydiving in Hinckley, and i also wanna see Skydive Chicago before i head out to the west coast, whenever that is. My guess is that for safety day i'll either go to Hinckley or to Archway (which is downstate, but my home dz). blue skies Tomas

That's cool that you guys can post that. If at the club at Illinois any pics like that were posted, there would be hell to pay. (granted, all of the current members of the club are underage so any pics with alcohol would be incriminating). blue skies Tomas

you are all an elf uncontrollably, i think.

So two guys are hanging out at the water cooler on a Monday morning after a weekend, and both notice that the other has a black eye. The first guy says to the second, "what happened?" so the other guy explains "well, remember how i had to go on that trip over the weekend to pittsburgh? well, something came up and i had to change the flight to a later time so i go up to the counter. the girl working there had some really nice breasts, so instead of saying 'id like to change my ticket to pittsburgh' i had a slip of the tongue and said 'id like to change my picket to tittsburgh', so she punched me in the face." the other guy says "funny, something similar happened to me. i was having dinner with the wife, and i meant to say 'could you please pass the salt' but accidentally said 'i hate you you stupid bitch you fucked up my life'' blue skies Tomas

WHile i think the popularity of the sport has something to do with whether it could ever be in the olympics, i dont think its as important as it was in the x-games. i mean, if it was all about popularity with audiences, how the hell is curling in the olympcis, or ballroom dancing in the summer games? i for one would like to see skydiving in the olympics for the exposure, and because seeing freeflying or 4 way or swooping on prime-time TV would be freakin cool. Other than that it will be the same as the other skydiving comps with airspeed or the golden knights winning rw, and rook and olav or the flyboyz winning freefly like it always is. One thing i like about this sport that other sports dont have is the fact that any of us can get coaching (yeah, you gotta pay for it) from the best in the sport. I mean, think about being able to get basketball lessons from Micheal Jordan or playing catch with Derek Jeter. blue skies Tomas

How did helen keller's parents punish her? they rearranged the furniture.

OK, my turn for tastlessness... what was helen keller's favorite color? cordoroy. blue skies Tomas

A glimpse of what the olympics would be like with skydiving.... they just said that the snowboarders didn't appear on the Today SHow this morning cuz they were hungover. (the wording they used was "they have been on a liquid diet since the medal ceremony and lets just say they werent camera ready this morning", or something like that) i thought it was funny. blue skies Tomas

I wasnt gonna really respond cuz i dont like political discussions but somebody mentioned Chile and being Chilean and having my parents live through the whole CIA-Allende-Pinochet thing, I will put in my 2 cents. While the issue seems to be whether or not the US should get involved, sometimes it does help to look at what was happening at the time in the country and what has happened since to get a different perspective. I don't know enough about the situation to be pro or anti-Pinochet but most of my extended family back in Chile is still pro-Pinochet. At the time of the coup, the country was on its way to becoming another Cuba. The country was insanely poor, and people had curfews dictated by the government. Soldiers would march down the streets and people would swear at them for not standing up to Allende. People would have to wait in lines for things like sugar and flour. The country was in piss poor shape. To many people the coup was the best thing that could have happened. Usually, the only side that is heard is from the people that ran in exile that make a ton of noise. Granted, persecution and murder is never justified, and i dont think all of what people say Pinochet did was necessary or "good" (for lack of a better term). Still, its my thinking that a revolution doesnt happen without bloodshed (glorious revolution aside). Since that time Chile has rebuilt itself to become, in my somewhat biased opinion, a model country in south america. While other countries wallow in economic misery and change their currency every 4 days and have warlords tearing the country apart, Chile is doing well and progressing nicely. The point to all this (and there is one), is that people here debate whether or not the US should get involved in certain affairs of other countries. THis is a valid argument, for there are times where the US had no business being where it was, whereas other times are, i think, justified. I just think that someone, at some point, should ask the people that are directly affected to get a true first-hand opinion. now, um...boobies? blue skies Tomas

the 69 one would work for freeflyers......readable no matter the body position....

The DVD is definitely worth it, in my opinion. More Stuff (the supplemental material) is an hour long. It has the plane to plane stuff, the creation of the couch segment, camera flying stuff, the IMAX thing he did with Troy Hartman and some other commercials and stuff. Also, while the directors commentary isn't spectacular it does add to the video in a lot of places. blue skies Tomas

Its a photo trick...if you zoom in on something from really far away, it makes the background seem to be really close to the subject. If you listen to the directors commentary on the DVD, Joe Jennings mentions it. I think the camera is on another plane or a helicopter. A really cool trick to do (having nothing to do with the dvd) is to zoom out on someone while walking towards them...it makes the background seem to jump away. Personally I think that camera angle is used a bit too much in Good Stuff...It makes it look like the people are hauling ass but i think it's cooler from closer up. By the way, how'd ya like the extra stuff on the DVD? I loved the plane to plane stuff. blue skies Tomas

At the end of high school a friend and I were planning on joining the skydiving club when we got to college. WHen i finally got there he bailed on me and i went alone. He eventually came and made it through most of the static line progression before chickening out. A few other non-skydiving friends tried it but most of them couldn't/wouldn't afford it so they all quit after at most 15 jumps. Their loss. blue skies Tomas

Hey kids, Congrats for #100!!!! BBBBBBEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR

I saw it too....the russian vomit comit that the guy got to ride in as a prize was freakin sweet too.