livendive

It would depend on the situation (whether or not I believed them), but I'd get my affairs in order and then move my "acceptable risk" line quite a bit farther into the red zone than it currently is. My insurance pays a hell of a lot more money to my heirs if I die in an accident than if I die from an illness. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Skydive. Take your problems in the plane with you. Resolve to think about them in freefall. Do a solo jump on your belly & just watch the ground come up. Try to thing about those silly little things you thought were problems before you found yourself in freefall. The triviality of them should become immediately obvious. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

It varies based on what kind it is (but I haven't thought about it enough to know whether gloss matters), but basically a little is ok for a nice little kiss here & there, and I'd rather they be bare for a full on making out session so we don't both end up with clown faces. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

My first jump was a static line. The DZ offered tandems, but that just didn't appeal to me. I was only going to jump once and I wanted to be by myself. My first tandem was when I was getting my TI rating. Andy Farrington was in the back. I knew he had way more jumps that me, but having a 19 year old in charge still scared the hell out of me. I've since done a few more tandems on the front side, and a couple in back too. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Probably 40-50%. My default is to slide, but I'll go ahead stand up with a light passenger or a little breeze, unless they're substantially taller than me. The past two weekends I've been acclimating to unfamiliar canopies & elevations so I slid most of them in, but that'll change as I grow accustomed to the changes. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

With low turns being the leading cause of fatalities these days, I've been trying to teach all my my students about the slo-mo button. The basic idea is to drill them from day one that the proper response to things going south while close to the ground is to flare first. From that position they are set up to do a braked turn, and if time doesn't allow such a turn, at least they'll be travelling slower when they hit whatever it is that has spooked them. One of my oft used phrases about skydiving is that there is no pause button. With that in mind, I refer to this "flare first" approach as a slo-mo button. It'll slow things down, give you a little more time to decide what to do, and put you in an advantageous position for taking action once you decide on a path forward. I've also tried to drill the same thing into my head. I've done the panic turn thing once (luckily without dramatic injury) and have been wondering whether repeating this enough times would ingrain it in my head so that the slo-mo button becomes instinctual. I screwed up somehow this weekend and found out that I do now flare first. We were doing a 3-way birdman jump and thus landing well after everyone else. I was a little high on a guy in front of me and wanted to front riser in. It looked like he was going kind of long so there shouldn't be any issues. A little right toggle stab followed by a left front riser put me into a moderate dive and I came around about 120 degrees. I realize at about 60 or 70 feet, while arc-ing out, that the guy in front of me is lower and coming up shorter than I expected. Although not in the corner, I instantly went to half-brakes and aborted. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't done that I'd have "docked" on him during my surf. Instead, things slowed down. I didn't panic turn away from him, I let up a little and just watched him very closely with quarter to half brakes on. "He's coming down, I'm going level to maybe a little up but not so much that I have to worry about his burble. I can still brake turn away if need be, here comes the ground, edge a little right, finish flare." I landed maybe 3-4 feet behind him at almost exactly the same time. It was close to being ugly and I'm pretty sure it was completely my fault. I don't know how he got there (and he didn't either when we talked about it). The point of this? Well, I think it's important to acknowledge our mistakes. It's easy in skydiving to get into the "not my fault" routine and I'd rather just come out & publicly say "I screwed up". Even IF he did something wierd to put himself there (which I doubt...I think I just misjudged it), it's still my responsibility to ensure I don't pose a hazard to others. In this case, I did, without him even knowing it. Approaching from behind and below, there's no way he could be expected to see me coming and avoid me. We can also learn from our mistakes. I was low enough that a panic avoidance turn likely would have seriously injured me. The good news is that I didn't do that, and, well, the slo-mo button worked. I have yet to think of a scenario in which flaring first when things get sketchy close to the ground will worsen the situation. As best I can tell, it will almost always improve things. If you agree, maybe you should try to adopt it as one of your own "EPs". Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

What she said. That's definitely the best "whuffo" article I've read, and I can't think of an article in Parachutist or Skydiving that was as engrossing. Kudo's to your co-worker, nice job. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

:13:0 11 tandems 1 AFF 1 three-way birdman Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Florida sports fan sentenced to death Posted: Friday August 5, 2005 12:55AM; Updated: Friday August 5, 2005 12:55AM PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) -- A man who got angry with his wife because she wanted to cuddle after sex when what he really wanted to do was watch sports on television was sentenced to death for killing her with a claw hammer. Christopher Offord, 30, was sentenced Wednesday by Circuit Judge Dedee Costello, who said the brutality of the crime outweighed any mental problems Offord may have had. "The defendant struck his wife approximately 70 individual blows after spending a happy interlude with her," the judge said. "Her desire to cuddle after sex does not justify the extremely violent, brutal response of the defendant." Offord pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2004 slaying of Dana Noser, 40, at his apartment. He confessed to a bartender at a sports bar before his arrest. He told investigators that his wife had been nagging him to come back to bed. Offord did not speak in court but said in a jailhouse interview in June: "I figured I killed her so I deserve to die." Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Hola Mary Jo! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Mine ain't nearly as entertaining, but I still remember it. In '98 I left home on a 10 day skydiving trip by myself. I left with a whopping 150 jumps under my belt and finished the trip with 188, including a couple thirty ways, a bandit ballon jump, and a 5 way that included Lew. After the Labor Day boogie at Perris had wound down, I stuck around for one more day of jumping. Mid-week jumping that it was, there wasn't much going on, but some of the SOS guys were gearing up at Perris for jumps that weekend at Elsinore. I saw the embroidery on Lew's mudflap and begged to make a jump with them. He convinced the others to let me. During the climb to altitude I noticed my altimeter was broken. I pointed it out and tried to keep my tough face on like it was no big deal. Lew quietly pointed out that I might want to remove it and put it in my jumpsuit so I didn't look down and react to an incorrect reading. Made sense, especially since all of them had chest mounted altimeters. I remember the skydive clearly. One guy ended up low going to the second point and another lost track of the dive flow. That guy started to chew me out on the ground as if it was my fault. Lew shushed him and told me not to mind him, that I'd flown my slot just fine and that the other guy had no room to talk. Made ME feel better.

I don't know how many of you have visited rec.skydiving, but there's a guy there named Kevin O'Connell who has quite a way with words. Wendy Faulkner has been kind enough to archive all of the stories of his that I was able to dig up. You can find them here if you feel so inclined. Thanks Wendy (and Kevin of course)! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'm sure there is enough whipped cream for both of us That's the spirit! If you're going down, you might as well drag him with you. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

That depends. Why do you ask? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Four plates that had a TOTAL of one can of whipped cream on them! It wasn't so much a pieing as it was a whipped cream, umm, accentuation. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Get him good. What we did can only be considered a warm-up at best. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

And the rule is proven once again. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Is that your nickname??? No, that's his technique. The worst thing about getting older is losing my memory. God I wish I could remember showing you my technique! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

12 Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

And how likely is it that a bot's first and only post ever is notifying rec.skydiving of it's impending demise? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Nope... the beer is warm, the skydives suck and there are too many damn Canadians... oh yeah and noone gets laid Wow...sounds just like Prairie! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Shocker! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Awww... and it looks just like you.

What happens at Praire stays at Prairie I've never been to Praire. Is it nice there? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Got any peroxide for my cheek? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)