livendive

Some Frost I like: A Minor Bird I have wished a bird would fly away, And not sing by my house all day; Have clapped my hands at him from the door When it seemed as if I could bear no more. The fault must partly have been in me. The bird was not to blame for his key. And of course there must be something wrong In wanting to silence any song. Acceptance When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud And goes down burning into the gulf below, No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud At what has happened. Birds, at least must know It is the change to darkness in the sky. Murmuring something quiet in her breast, One bird begins to close a faded eye; Or overtaken too far from his nest, Hurrying low above the grove, some waif Swoops just in time to his remembered tree. At most he thinks or twitters softly, 'Safe! Now let the night be dark for all of me. Let the night bee too dark for me to see Into the future. Let what will be, be.' The Silken Tent She is as in a field a silken tent At midday when the sunny summer breeze Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent, So that in guys it gently sways at ease, And its supporting central cedar pole, That is its pinnacle to heavenward And signifies the sureness of the soul, Seems to owe naught to any single cord, But strictly held by none, is loosely bound By countless silken ties of love and thought To everything on earth the compass round, And only by one's going slightly taut In the capriciousness of summer air Is of the slightest bondage made aware. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'm confused by the math here, how old were you and how old was he when you two started dating ? I was surprized by the math, but not confused by it. If she dated him for 10 years and moved out at 24, she must have started dating him at age 14. If he was 12 years older than her, he was 26 when they started dating. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Yanni, master of the pan flute. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Only three? What about the "not-clean-but-not-quite-dirty-yet" piles? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I use two piles. Dark colors get cold/cold, and whites/light colors get warm/cold. Reds are wierd so I just throw them in the trash. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Lost altitude awareness and found myself sitflying through 1000 feet. Went to belly, waved off, & pulled my main. CYPRES fired as I was settling in at around 400 feet but I was able to catch my reserve bridle and prevent the reserve deployment. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I've dated one woman who was 12 years older than me (she was 30, I was 18), and one who was 10 years younger than me (31 versus 21). Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Do you feel the same way if they consistently win by such small margins? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

If your track has a higher vertical speed or a higher overall velocity than your normal belly fallrate, you really need to work on your track. Remember, a^2 + b^2 = c^2. The only odd thing about dumping out of a half-way decent track is that the opening force is distributed some differently (more on the shoulders to start with rather than evenly across leg straps, chest strap, and shoulders). Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Breaking 100 mph groundspeed is pretty easy to do, even with no suit, given the right weather conditions (smoking uppers). Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I have a couple grabs in my gallery... Here's one of me doing a dragplane (I'm on the bottom), and here's one from a tandem I did. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

It was no glancing blow...it probably would have been a knockout punch for some people. Like I said, I'm still having difficulty chewing a couple weeks later. Still, your point is valid. An AAD is a sensible device for AFF jumps. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I hope that is a joke, or I question your ability to teach this sport. Well, it was mostly a joke. Still, I don't see how the presence or lack of a device affects my ability to teach. Yeah, I understand that. It was just an odd (and very brief) moment. Stabilizing the student while wondering how the f&ck that just happened. I know I should be prepared for the unexpected, but got caught off guard. My bad. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

My thoughts exactly. Congrats on your first decade, I've got about 9 months till I hit that milestone. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I don't even teach a tongue out signal during AFF. When they get off student status and start doing RW, I teach that the tongue out means "arch harder, let's speed this thing up". During AFF (or any other student progression), if I ever find a student who can backslide so hard that I have to put my arms all the way back to keep up with them, I'm going to redock regardless. So far in my career, everyone's backslide has been sufficiently slow that I've been able to keep up with a driving "mantis" type position that allows me to still give hand signals right next to my collar bone or just outboard of my nipple. Note: spiralling after an upside down spinning "student" is an entirely different story. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

As a new AFF-I, I'm mostly relying on what I learned in the course until I have enough experience to form my own opinions. One of the things I learned in the course was that we should wear open-face helmets and clear goggles to help put our students "at ease" in the air. Since I don't own an open-face hard helmet, I've just been wearing a frap hat, but a couple weeks ago was forced to rethink this position. I was main side on a Level 2 at another DZ. Free arming, skydive was going well, till the reserve side had a little "issue"...lost the harness grip, grabbed the student's wrist, and then sank out, flipping the student onto his back underneath me. I picked up my arm grip & shook the student out onto his belly and ~1/4 second later the student decided that was enough freefall for him. With no wave-off he reached and pulled, while I was still holding both grips, making sure we were stable, and looking for the other I. Well this was a pretty good-sized (220 lbs), reasonably muscled student and he clocked me hard on the pull...and I mean HARD. He really rang my bell, and I'm still having some trouble chewing. Anyhow, it took me approximately 1 second of shaking it off to realize what had hit me, and then of course I saw his bridle wrapped under my right arm. I released with that arm and he had an otherwise normal deployment (minus that second delay) with me riding through. That gets me to the point of this post. Given how hard that hit was, I've worn a full-face on each AFF jump I've done since, and I'm curious where this practice falls in public (other AFF-I) perception. So what do you wear on AFF jumps? Other notes about that jump: 1 - I'm really glad I don't have a "glass chin" 2 - I really should buy an AAD for AFF jumps (hmmm...birdman suit...CYPRES...birdman suit...CYPRES...I need to make more money!) Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

The exception that proves the rule... Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Aawww....you poor little fucker... Look at the up side...when else do you have an excuse to do nothing but play video games and kill kittens for 16 hours a day? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

QuoteThese big burly guys talking about how macho they are doing huge gurlsQuote Hey, huge gurls (sic) are people too, and I'm sure they have great personalities. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Post the full-size version of your last avatar as proof. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

One of my students got mildly stuck on Cat.D, though I have little doubt he's now ready to pass it. In any case, this weekend he has a chance to put some time in at the tunnel at Perris. Having never been to a tunnel myself, I feel kind of ill-equipped to offer advice, other than "I've heard it's a very good learning tool." Anyone here send your students to a tunnel? If so, how much time (on average...I know students vary) is appropriate for maximum learning without information overload? Also, what do the tunnel "instructors" teach such customers...basic belly skills? heading control and turns? fall rate adjustments? He'd like me to advise him how much time to buy, and I'd like to have a better grip on what my student is going to be taught while not under my supervision. Thanks, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

$10 a head for S/L and IAD students, with no minimum. I've taught enough of them at that price and now try to only do enough to stay current. $50 for first student in AFF FJC and $25 for each additional student. Much more worth my time. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'm currently running our primary pilot of the last 6 years through AFF, and he's done a few Level 4's. This weekend he's going to be stuck in LA (he also flies a corporate King Air) and is planning on hitting the Perris tunnel on Friday afternoon/early evening. I told him I'd try to find someone to show him around, possibly offer advice on using the wind tunnel during student progression, and most importantly have some drinks with him in the Bombshelter afterwords so he's not stuck sitting in his motel room by himself. He's a really sharp guy and a hoot to hang out with. Any volunteers? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Madonna corset thing w/ lots of bracelets and ratty fishnet stockings. Big hair, fake tats, lots of jewelry, and some makeup for guys to look like the Poison or Twisted Sister types. Tight Levi 501's, multiple polo shirts with the collars turned up, and hair feathered for the preppie look. Stretch pants, scrunched stockings, and a torn up tank top type thing for the Flashdance look (big hair again). "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

fuck the yankees! "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)