BikerBabe

Jump number 9, 2 canopies out. Was using a student rig with a ripcord, and had a hard pull. Pulled the reserve, and when the reserve opened, the main came out and opened as well. The two canopies immediately separated into a fast downplane, so the decision to cutaway was an easy one ;) What happened was the plastic ripcord had a slit in it, which caught on the main closing loop. The release of the pressure on the main container when i deployed my reserve knocked the caught ripcord out of the main loop, allowing the main to open. I can't remember if i stood it up. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

what's your frame of reference? lol, just kidding. You have more danger of your contacts coming out due to winds causing your eyes to water, etc than from rotational forces popping them out. the rotational forces would probably have to be high enough to actually pop your EYES out (eew)...but that won't happen because at that point your eyelids will be closed because you will have GLOCed. I jump with contacts, wearing an oxygn A3 helmet. Make sure your contacts are fitted correctly! this is the most important factor for keeping them in your eyes, My helmt lets in some wind, but it doesn't worry me, since i have well-fitted lenses that stay in. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/dammed.asp snopes knows! in this case...it's true! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

it sounds simple, but TRAINING for it actually helps a ton. Schedule some training days where you intentionally have long calls, or when you stay out late the night before, etc. Our final camp is going to be longer calls, slower pace, just to prepare for nationals. When you've been doing back-to-backs, 12 jumps a day for the whole season, slowing down can be tough, which is why we'll be doing it BEFORE we get to the meet ;) Once you know what happens to you (and each other team member) when you ARE fatigued, sitting around, etc etc, it's a LOT easier to combat it. Different people need different things. Sometimes, just having a bite to eat helps. A Go Fast or a shot of sugar might be your thing. As for focus, have a plan to get up, walk the jump every 15 minutes or so, make a personal plan to spend 2 minutes every 20 just visualizing, etc.

If i can figure out how to post it, i will. We had a great day saturday. Over 6 rounds, Perris Moxie finished with an 68 points and an 11.3 average (woohoo!) Perris Ubersmack (our boys open team) finished with 58 points (9.6 avg) we are happy to be averaging in double digits, and we look forward to seeing how the 8-way open class shapes up at Nationals ;) Edited to add the draw: 1. P-11-M-3 2. E-6-K-B 3. 4-19-G 4. 16-O-1 5. 8-18-J 6. N-5-A-F Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Read the book...it's MUCH better :) Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

It's on the last saturday in july(28th?)...i think it's going to be six rounds with 2 classes, but i could be wrong. There will be at least 2 teams in each class...but we'd love to have other teams to play with than just the fury 8 ways! I'll get one of the fury folks to post in here soon about it. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Just engineer the skydives the night before. Maybe creep round 1. Go in reverse order. By this i mean start with round 6, just put it together, walk it a few times, then move on to round 5, etc. Finish up with round one. Walk it, then creep it the way you would before the real jump. Then go home and sleep. But before you sleep, spend 10-15 minutes visualizing round one. on meet day, keep your jump prep the same as you would on any normal training day. Also, when the jump is over, do NOT do a nit-picky, technical debrief. it doesn't matter. Watch it once looking for GOOD things that you can carry onto the next jump. How calm were you, how was the exit, etc. Then forget it and move on. Save the technical debrief for after the jumping is done for the day. One other thing you may want to discuss with your team beforehand is if they want to look at scores throughout the day or not. Some people prefer to not know until the end of the day, others prefer to look at the scoresheet for every round. This can become a point of contention if the "lookers" spill the beans to the "non-lookers"...so figure this out before hand. As for the round one jitters? everyone has them...don't let them lie to ya... The more experience you have just means you know how to hide it better. Just try to relax, and take things like a normal jump, and you'll be fine. and of course, once round one is in the can, it'll be smooth sailing =P If you haven't really trained otter exits...i would suggest picking ONE random exit and using that the whole time. A sidebody is a good one. then just transition to the first point as soon as you feel comfortable. of course, the biggest tip: HAVE FUN! meets are a blast! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Awesome! Come down to perris for our 8-way meet in july! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Oh dear. Military spending posts. I get angry at the numbers, but for entirely different reasons, having spent 6 years intimately involved in the defense acquisition process. There's a reason these numbers are so big, and it isn't what you think. Yes, there's pork, and politics. But what it really comes down to is the absolutely disgusting coddling that goes on of our defense industry via the complex system of contract regulations that the government is required to follow. The Federal Acquisition Regulation is a multi-thousand page tome that gets added to every year as more companies press agendas down the government's throat. I'd love to see a breakdown of that number into how much was actually spent on overhead, oversight, and legal issues involved with contracting with the defense department. You want to know why a hammer costs $300? because in order to even buy the hammer, the government had to spend millions to go through a complex source selection process, allowing every hardware store and hammer company in the country who is interested to bid on the contract. Don't forget security, safety, and compliance requirements (just for the source selection here...i'm not even talking about the hammer yet!) After 6 months (that's a lot of salary to pay), Hammer maker A comes back as the winner...and then the government spends six more months dealing with protests from hammer makers B-Z who think they should have won... I can see where it started...interests of competition and the free market and all that. but the lawyers and corporate fat cats have managed to push the government to such extremes here that all common sense has been lost. If you only knew how fucked up it really is...you'd be a lot more pissed and also, more understanding of the costs at the same time. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

oh god...isle of man. scary but intriguing at the same time. too far. I'm happy with spending 4 days of my summer slumming around the Laguna Seca pits during the MotoGP weekend there ;) Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

indeed. I don't want to predict scores for fear of bringing down some sort of bad karma or "jinx" type thing, but we are all very excited... And may i mention the two intermediate class teams. Look for Josh Hall's team (Activ8, i think) to be on the podium...and Uli's team not far behind. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Oh please. MotoGP takes this prize hands down. Don't leave out the 2-wheel racing. I agree, a lot of these sports need some diversity...and it surprises me that the teams and race organizations don't push harder for it...i mean, look at the press and interest Danica Patrick has generated for IndyCar, an admittedly struggling race series. From a pure marketing perspective, a little "controversy" (if diversity could be called that) is ratings gold. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

There's two open-class teams this year from Perris. Chris Farina's team (not sure if they really are going to call themselves "Ubersmack" ) and Christy Frikken's team. Christy's team is Moxie, all female. We have 5 returning members from last year, and picked up 2 former Elsinore Select members and one Perris KII member. Just finished a camp and while we haven't done too much counting, let's just say that we are kicking ass. We're kicking BOY ass. LOL At the end of july we're having a little 8-way meet, we'll let you know then. All are invited to that, by the way. If you have an 8-way team, come join us for a fun meet before nationals! If you don't, but want to play, contact Fury and they will be trying to hook people up for that. I'm sure Christy will post details on that here soon. Andi Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

equals eight. I'm wondering who is training 8-way this year (besides the Fury 8 project at Perris, of course). Open? Intermediate? anyone? -Andi Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

You know what's really scary? Just read some of the comments on that video... Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

I put in motorsports, because it was the closest thing i could find....It seems like a LOT of skydivers own motorcycles, ride motorcycles, and are generally interested in motorcycling. I also second the pilot forum idea! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Fuck. No. Oh, JP, you will be missed. Blue Skies, my friend. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

eh, just call it Jaws. whatever they call it, i can't wait to do 8-way out of it in a couple weeks! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Heh, i see a very obvious "opinion line" here from folks who have been/are in the military (or worked with them in any capacity) and those who have not. Just re-read LouDiamond's post. he is exactly right on the money. If you ever used a DoD computer in your entire life, you would know that this reg is nothing new, nor is it "censoring" the troops..at least any more than is already done. OPSEC is drilled into you over and over. Even stuff that isn't classified can be pieced together by the enemy to outline very detailed information. There's no issue here. Well, there's one. it's that the article is blatantly trying to stir up anti-military (or anti-war, whichever) feelings over something completely non-newsworthy. I personally don't agree with being over there, but this one is just stupid. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

forget it, quade. i have this same discussion with my husband ;) Basically, it seems that any activity that doesn't "produce" something is a waste of time. Good thing most folks don't share that view, since then great books would never be read, movies would never be watched, skydives would never be made, etc. To me, playing an MMO is like watching TV or a movie. What do i "produce"? Enjoyment? entertainment? Anyone can get "addicted" to anything...MMOs are no different. Dorbie...do you read fiction books, by any chance? just wondering. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

I do. But i still play WoW...and now Lord of the Rings online, too. There is a guild on Whisperwind, alliance side, founded by and always welcoming of skydivers. If you PM me, i will tell you my toon name(s) and the guild name, so if you decide to start wow at this late hour, you can have somewhere to call home. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

I'm playing both WoW and LoTRO. Guild Wars...yeah...it sucks. Sucks. That being said...i'm not a big PvPer, sometimes i do it in wow for fun, but i doubt i'd ever get into a game where it's the focus. It's why i like wow and lotro...you can spend all your time doing quests and following the stories and never have to worry about being ganked by another player. It's why Guild Wars to me is "meh". I would rather be able to spend all my time questing than being forced to pvp to get any rewards. LOTRO also has a free trial, like WoW. By the way...an MMO is just like any other hobby. so you don't like it? don't play them. I hate being judged or told that I'm wasting my time playing video games. How do you feel when someone tells you you're wasting your time skydiving? Exactly. I am a gamer and a skydiver. gaming is a hobby. when someone tells me that video games are a waste of time....grrr. makes me angry. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

nice picture glad i have a strong stomach... Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

yup...careful there. She said that because she's either cheating or has cheated in the past. I BET she's feeling guilty for it and subconsciously wants you to find out...which is why she said something in the first place. Either that or she feels no guilt and wants a free way out (you dumping her). Sorry to sound harsh. Hope that isn't it, but if it is, i'm sorry =/ Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!