tfelber

Hey Darren I haven't heard from you in some time. Glad you are OK. Sounds pretty life altering. I'll PM you. I still have the video from the baloon if you want it. Tony

I was standing right in front of her when you two came over my head with the bombs. I didn't get a drop on me... Must be karma or something??? Krisanne, thanks for the inclusion in your skydiving history book. I'm sure it's a jump you won't soon forget! As hard as you may try.

I'll be there! Updated List: ----------------------- BBarnhouse Bikerbabe Cajones Diablopilot Dgskydive Feeblemind Flyangel Frenchy genoyamamoto ltdiver JGarcia Jmp2liv LaDonna Lewmonst mcneill79 Nanook NWFlyer Quade skybytch Skyyhi tbrown tfelber Vanillaskygirl Yahoolv Hotamally (in) Saturday only Tunnel List Bikerbabe (RW coaching) Diablopilot (Freefly coaching) Dgskydive (RW coaching) Feeblemind (tumbling and out of control in the tunnel) Frenchy (freefly) LaDonna McGowan mcneill79 orchid Vanillaskygirl

I don't have a very good relationship with Johnny Law so I can give you a whole lot of things 1. Cop: (after pulling me over for 88 in a 45 with my girlfriend on the back) "Do you know what it's like to fall at 88 mph?" Me: "I know what it's like to fall at 135 mph! Do you?" 2. Cop: "You'd have handcuffs on if you were guilty." Me: "Having handcuffs on doesn't mean I'm guilty either!" 3. Me: (After cop pushed me against the wall and put cuffs on me) "Oh yeah, what do you think of this!" (As I pull my hands out of the handcuffs.) Cop: "I'll show you what I think of that!" 4. Cop: "How come you're passing a cop going so fast?" Me: "I didn't know you were a cop." 5. Cop: "You keep that up and we'll take you to Madison!" Me: "Don't try to scare me with your F!@#ing threats!" (I spent that night in Madison Street Jail) 6. Cop: "If you don't hangup that phone I'm going to throw you back in the tank." Me: "I'm not a F@#$ing prisoner here. I'm just waiting for a ride." (That didn't stop him from throwing me in the tank though.) All true events. Some I got arrested for, some I didn't. I'm not sure I've learned anything from these encounters. Other than me and the law don't usually get along very well.

Zennie's comments are very similar to my thoughts or better yet justifications. As fine and visible as the line is in BASE, there is still room to be closer or further away than others. I feel many of the people on the list were pushing limits that I'm currently not interested in pushing. I also believe that most people who have been hurt or killed BASE jumping know they were pushing beyond where they had gone before. I could rationally explain this with numerous examples, but that may just be me trying to convince myself of something. It's human nature to only hear what you want and to look for justification into why your thoughts are correct. With BASE I feel very close to the edge. I don't have enough experience to fully trust my gear and how I packed it. I feel like I can deal with most situations correctly, but there are many events in BASE jumping that I haven't experienced or want to for that matter. I do consider that this could be the one and think about the people in my life and where it might leave them. And if I'm not comfortable with those thoughts I don't jump. That's what made me walk down twice a month or so ago. I don't think I'll die BASE jumping, but I realize it can happen. As for "the odds" when my feet leave the exit point I plan 100% on surviving the jump.

The odds of winning the Power Ball are 1 in 120,526,770. That's a .000000008927 chance of winning with one ticket. So even if you make a lot of money say $50,000 per MONTH and you skipped paying taxes and bought all the tickets you could purchase, 50,000. Your odds would still be .0004148 if every ticket you bought was different. I don't know exactly how the random number generator for the quick picks work, but I bet the randomness is nowhere near the ratio of winning. Which means you would have to fill out all 50,000 by hand. Now if you're really quick and can do 6 cards per minute. It would take you 139 hours to fill out the cards. If you reduced your sleep to 5 hours per day and only stopped working 1 hour per day to eat, $hit, drink, etc. It would still take you almost 8 days to fillout the entries. And to top it all off, only because the large amount currently accumulated ($155Million) your payback would only be 3100 times what you risked where your odds of winning are 1 in 2411. Which is only now slighty better than betting black or red on a roulette wheel.

It's the same movie. I got it on DVD when it was released.

That' funny!!!

I've done several skydives with the Flik and experienced the same thing. I felt very confident with the backwards movement and it seemed to have quite a bit of speed going backwards. I have stalled other skydiving canopies and when you look up the canopy is sort of collapsing above you. That is what I relate to as a stall. However the Flik was moving backwards while retaining its' shape (from beneath anyway) and the braked turns seemed very tight and responsive. I have not jumped any BASE canopies except the Fox and the Flik both vented so I can't comment on the BJ.

The physics of a jump, where will I be when and what wil be the forces acting on or against me, is interesting information to a physicist or the curious. But this knowledge doesn't yield that much useful information; just a better understanding if you have the capacity to comprehend it. For most activities, the use of successive improvements will yield much better results. This goes back to something Tom mentioned earlier regarding gradually increasing your capabilities. This is the most useful and predictable way of improving performance, especially when the major source of information is the seat of your pants. To relate this to something you seem familiar with let's look at superbike racing. I'm sure you've heard of Keith Code. He has written several books and has or had a racing school. In his school the first session out you are allowed to use one gear and no brakes to get around the track. This limits many of the variables you encounter entering a corner and lapping a track. You go around the track successively improving your speed. Next you use two gears and minimal brakes and so on until you progress to full use of all control inputs. This is also in practice in most skydiving and BASE jumping progression. Tom's course specifically, you start by jumping out of a tree. (It's really more complex than that) This gives you some insight into the apprehension you wil face. Next you progress to PCA, next to HH, etc. Being able to calculate the number of seconds to freefall if I want to be open by x feet AGL is informational, but it isn't all that useful. Gradually increasing your delay until you reach that point is safer and the jumps you make getting to that delay yeields much more useful information than the calculations or the knowledge needed to comprehend the calculations.

Hey Tom, I was looking over that chart, which I had looked at previously with little relatedness, and it seems rather scewed compared to most of the jumping I see/hear about. For instance, it recommends handheld to over 500 feet, yet I don't see this being practiced much, 250-300 seems like the more used cutoff altitude between HH and Stowed. Does the chart follow your thoughts? Do you think it follows the current thoughts of the masses?

Your day job must really not be working out... T says hi, he recognized you even with the goggles. How were your jumps Sunday?

Hey B, Are you still at the same company? I don't think I would have liked that job. What woulod you rather do? What if you get stationed somewhere ShrekMan can't handle, like the UK? or AZ? Hope you two are doing well. I haven't seen LG on any of the championship tables yet, is he starting to slow down?

That has nothing to do with my recommendation. I even have a few friends at ASC, but I spent three days at The Farm and had one of the best times ever and we got weathered out Sunday! If your looking for a place to jump, jump, jump and then go home then any big DZ will do. But if you want to go and spend a day at a new DZ and not feel like the new dude that everyone ignores then The Farm's the place. Hans and Lee and the rest of the gang over there will welcome you in like you're one of the crew. I can't say that for many other DZ's.

The Farm's most definitely the place to go! Unless you are a complete introvert and don't like partying with a bunch of gorgeous girls and some great guys. I've only been there once, but it was certainly one I'm glad I didn't miss!

I've been wondering about this issue. Any "for instances" without being overly specific? For the most part, I don't see BASE being more damaging than hiking or especially climbing.

That's great, congratulations! I was talking to my wife the other day thinking what a different perspective our kids must have compared to non-jumpers. The other day when I said I was going jumping my son, who's three, said "From a plane?" I said "No, BASE jumping." He said "From what?" I said "From a cliff or antenna." He said "Antennas are tall!" A month ago he didn't know what an antenna was.

I climbed up a piece of earth this morning bright and early with an experienced jumper I met, we'll calm him Dude, on the net, get to the top and the winds are about 5-6mph straight over the top. Dude and I sit at the exit point watching the sun come up waiting for the wind to drop off or speed up. I wasn't sure I cared which. Finally, the temperature stabilized and the winds go calm and Dude says "Let's air it out". We throw our gear on give each other a gear check and we're ready to go. Dude climbs to the edge, "3-2-1 Cya" and he's off. Other than seeing his PC and hearing his canopy crack open, I'm pretty much oblivious to his jump. I'm in my head dealing with myself. After a couple of seconds I see him line up to land and and start climbing climbing down to the exit point. Once I reach the exit point I look down and Dude's sitting on the ground near his canopy and yell's up that everything's cool. I put my hands out, take a few deep breaths, look around, and get ready to go. I go through my gear check in my head and notice a person in the neighborhood below walking his dog, looking up. I think "This will be good." Next thing I know, I'm back in my head. I'm thinking about my wife. I'm thinking about unfinished things at work. I'm thinking about all the stuff I need to do to get moved. And, I'm still standing on the edge. I try and try to clear my head. I talk to myself a little. I realize it's just a step away. I start thinking about my conversation with my mom last night. We were talking about all the stuff I'm juggling right now and my indecision about how I'm going to make everything work and her words come to mind "It could be worse". YEAH, TWO BROKEN LEGS WOULD BE WORSE! I notice a car has stopped near the guy walking his dog and the driver has stepped out to watch. Dude yells up "Is everything alright?" He's gathering his gear and I realize he hurt his ankle. I let him know I'm fine. But, I'm still just standing there, doing nothing. After several more minutes of trying to convince myself to jump, PC in hand I turn around and start the climb back up. I get to the top, stuff my PC down my shirt and, with my rig still on my back I dejectedly start hiking down. I feel like such a puss! I start beating myself up for buying new gear, starting BASE jumping in the first place, not jumping when everything seemed so right...blah, blah, blah. I get to Dude, who's now sitting with his boot off and his leg elevated on his gear, and he asks me if I think it's broke. We pull his sock down and I tell him it looks OK. Not very much swelling and nothing seems out of place. He asks me if that 180 he had freaked me out. I let him know I didn't even see it. From my viewpoint his jump looked great. Of course I really couldn't see his opening and wasn't looking anyway. I always thought it would be hard for me to climb down because "I climbed up to jump", but today I learned the hardest part of climbing down is facing myself and my unfulfilled expectations of who I think I am. I really didn't think I would have this issue. I imagined my issues would be wanting to jump when others were saying no. I was actually quite angry with myself at the time. I couldn't figure out what was stopping me and thinking about getting back to the hotel to see my wife and son seemed very appealing. In retrospect, I think I understand the basis of my concerns. I bought a new PC prior to this trip that I haven't jumped. Also, I've been packed for about 4 weeks trying to get a jump in and I couldn't remember the details of my last pack job, something I try to go through prior to leaving the exit point. I even opened my pack job as part of my gear check since it had been packed so long. AND I really didn't want to hear my mom telling me "I told you so!"

ha ha

When I was there in March, two other jumpers and I packed in the conference room at the Shilo. And I had two rigs with me so I was there a while... Nobody seemed to mind.

So you are the two Frenchy mentioned last night. Happy birthday to both of you.

I got a steroid shot a couple of years ago and allergies were gone for over a year. I'm dying right now though so I think I'll go back to the doctor.

This is quite off-topic from this thread, but if universities are subsidizing skydiving clubs, it seems they are just a liable as if it was part of their curriculum.

Careful about your assumptions there. There is a BASE course at a TF campus and while it doesn't involve jumping that's not beyond possibility.

I've lived in PHX 12 years, although I'm currently in SoCal, and would like some info on some sites I've been scoping out. Please PM...