gimpboogie

So I applied-not thinking there was a hope on earth, or the skies for me to be able to go-after all they only took 12 participants to the camp... and I have the least experience (I'm assuming-and am almost certain that it has to be true) of anyone who'd be applying to go. I told them my progression, what has been done (of course also limitations issues with health etc.) and thought, 'no harm in sending off an email THE REPLY CAME BACK-YES :D :D Now the 'fun' starts-how to get this gimp ass to Montreal, where to stay, how to get from there to the tunnel, and on and on my mind wonders. I KNEW I WOULD DO ANYTHING to get there, be there and get back. Somehow a fellow member here said his father might be able to help me out= they were looking into a monastery where i might be able to stay.... sure I could sleep on the bus station floor or what ever is needed to fly in the tunnel for those 40 coached minutes. So off I was trying to remember what ever I could of the holy trinity in case i was lucky enough to get to sleep a a monastery and what ever else I might be necessary information for my future guest house- then, still remained the 'how to get there' part.... hhmmm, that wasn't so easy. BUT it seems that I was born stubborn as any Aries can be, ramming my head in the direction of getting my gimp ass to Montreal, and back now that I had this opportunity of a lifetime! It wasn't until this week, just yesterday-less then a week before the camp that suddenly a message comes from a lady in Ottawa who asked if I wanted to share a hotel room 5 minutes from the tunnel, OOH YAH! no matter how interesting the monastery sounded-i still hadn't figured out the holy trinity thing and a hotel room with anyone sounded awesome-still getting there was an issue. So we talked=or text'ted or what ever it is that we do in written format these days to communicate. She was offering to give me a ride from Ottawa as long as I made it there somehow. OK now this was getting do-able. Off I went to VIA rail website- pulled out the credit card and tossed a ticket my way, as I cringed at the $$$, flying by before my eyes-knowing i will be paying for this 'little trip' for a few months. But $549 for 40 coached minutes in the tunnel seemed like a deal I CANT PASS UP even if i have to collect beer bottles to pay for it Now it's all set-the hotel room keeps getting fuller by the day-now we have 3 women staying in the same room-i don't care if i have to bring my winter weight sleeping bag and opt for the balcony if the room is filled-but the more we have in there, the less its costing each of us. The trip to Ottawa costs half the price of the tunnel camp(damn VIA-if anyone wants to go visit Ottawa-next weekend is your chance for a free trip I have this 'handy' disability travel card and a companion traveler is free-too bad its not half price if i go alone Hhhmmm.. i got all the bases covered-have transportation, a roof over my head, know what I'm going to wear (knee braces of course but what else was my question to them-didn't want any surprises at the tunnel once i got there ) We have it all covered=or shall I say I will be all covered.... head to toe and clamped, damped, and even a lot less verbose the I ever was before -perhaps to every Else's gratitude. ( i cannot speak anymore-so on the ground when not flying i use a Dynavox V communication device) SO what exactly will I be learning I wondered? the reply came back and I wondered-how can I do all that? Well, i am not going to worry about it=they know what Ive done to date=what I haven't and they chose me to go so I trust that either I'm going to learn some of this stuff, or if not no one is going to sink their teeth into me for it. here is the agenda=of what I should be coming back-having at least tried and given it my best shot to learn the following: Apparently I will be assigned a coach. (nice-sounds like PFF again-hope they are as much fun as Fuzzy and Angus were ) And then I will do 2 sessions of 10 minutes with a coach 1 on 1 working on all the basics movements -which to me to date have been unstable exits, stable exits, flying on my belly and not on my back, or in a built in turn with that right leg brace loose swinging a little... and trying not to potato chip when I docked with Angus [heck just trying now to potato chip while i fly alone at first-it's just the last couple of dives that i do not potato chip anymore]-they knew that also... BUT their idea of "basic movements are: * levels, turns, forward and backwards, side-sliding. side-sliding? hell i still need to stop that slight back slide Eric said I have from when he flew with me. I don't think I have trouble with backsliding but side sliding=ok.... sure... yah hhmm.... that sounds like a whole camp for me all ready. then I'm going to be working on basic RW skills -which to me so far has been to get up to the coach, and gently dock-and try not to potato chip when I let go. But at the camp it is going to be* (eye contact, priximity, simple docks, etc. OK I HATE EYE CONTACT -i wonder if we can skip that part? and I think I am going to be good at the etc. part. proximity-well I think I WAS pretty close to Eric in that one jump since he had to use a defensive move to get my fist out of his face on exit. - maybe I should gift my coach with a foot ball players mouth guard before we start? OOh but it only gets better! (or worse depending on if your me or the coach The second part of the camp is Relative Work. DAMN and I thought i got rid of those relatives when I moved here to the DZ, they cant possibly mean.... or did they forget the C in front of the RW? Apparently I will be assigned a partner (oohh great-this sounds like an arranged marriage-I allready had one of those -it didnt go so well) of a similar flying ability (good luck for them on finding one of those! and will do 1 session of 10 minutes working as a 2-way under our coach's supervision. (ok this is getting interesting=were going to have an audience for our fck ups-or shall i say my fck ups) The third part of the camp is 3-way: me with the same partner + our coach -AWESOME I've done a 3 way with Gareth and Angus so I think I can handle that. but were supposed to be working on basic RW skills as a 3-way: proximity, levels, staying in your quadrant, etc. 'quadrant'? this turns into a space camp suddenly on the 3rd part-interesting, hope Captain Picard will be there! he's epic! The last part of the camp is a bonus round:(ok that sounds like something Mickey -our lottery expert at the DZ-plays when he knows his numbers are coming up) apparently they will be grouping people in groups of 3 + our coach and doing 6 minutes of 4-way. -now that I've never done -i hope I'm NOT on the bottom-i hope I don't sink, i hope i don't crash into the walls... oohh I hope so much! Also we will be doing a group video-debriefing with our coaches after each session of flying (or crashing into walls and taking out people!) - At the end of the day on Sunday, we will have a general debriefing summarizing goals of everyone, etc. ok-I think by then my goal will be to find a warm bath, and a bed without any ways going on. The video is included in the price-so fellow friends and foes,'for some good laughs come and watch Gimps in the tunnel next time you happen to feel like stopping in at the Ramp-way Inn at PST To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

yah! I'm applying right now :) thanks To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

great=lets do some 'renegade' jumps, who else can say they jump with gimps. we should have a skyvan next yr or maybe the same caravan-fastest in the world dispatching skydivers 900hp sitting in my front yard come on over-got a couch waiting for visitors

My mind was all ready on the next parachutes I would like to get my hands on and jump: the Cruisair, which I think was manufactured in 1978, which was soon replaced by the Cruiselite. Those ones perhaps for most would be boring to jump-but I do have to stay away from the real interesting ones such as the Paracommander's etc. because after all being paralyzed and the whole butt slide landing thing wont work so well with a lot of the other parachutes that I would love to try otherwise -but honestly-just as important is the fact that I PROMISED ANGUS I WONT JUMP A PARACOMMANSER -i rarely say "i wont" to anyone (BUT IF ANGUS ASKS ME NOT TO-I WONT-I OWE HIM THAT) I would also like to jump these: The military MT-1 had a civilian counterpart the Sport which was also produced in 1978, but soon to be replaced by the XL Cloud. Then of course I'd like to wear those old jumpsuits Pioneer Parachute Company made-with the double zippers and those boots they used to call 'frenchies' apparently those boots were air cushioned so if you stepped on a nail you'd be walking listing like a sailor at sea. now if I could go back in time, it would be Glen Martin who I wold like to meet. AT the age of 6, (and I would be 6 also-and my twin brother would be alive and we would play with Glen's box style kites-because every kid laughed at him for making them-until they saw that these kites worked-we would of been friends with Glen) As i had read he began making kites at age 6 and used sails on everything from skates, wagons and even on his bicycle-he of course went on to manufacture parachutes!

yesterday wasnt too bad-i jumed with -10C on the ground and -17c (plus wind chill) at altitude but last weekends jump I went higher and it was cold. it was -16C on the ground and -26C st altitude. add the wind chill and ANY EXPOSED SKIN FREEZES IMMEDIATELY. thats why were Canadians= we got genetics for this sh*t.. and me-i got an advantage im a FINN so having grown up above the acrtic circle in Finland, where these temps we got here are the warmer days and we go out to play (as kids if it was only -26coutside we'd be kicked outside to spend the day playing kus it was 'warm' I am a SAAMI, (laplander the english call us), I was raised above the artic circle-we lived a semi nomadic lifestyle. in the summers we had a wooden hut for a home but in the winter we followed out reindeer herds, (reindeer herding has been in our generations for hundreds of yrs) so we lived in tents made from reindeer skins-dug outs in the snow, ]loved off sucking on salted fish tails by the end of the season if it was a rough one. i was 7 before i saw my 1st flush toilet and car- (i will always remember the day i was looking at the car and wondered where do you hook up the reindeer). but back to Canadian winters,, this-where i live now-this is mild-its SOUTHERN ONTARIO for g*ds sake-this is not cold or ;'wintery' at all in comparison to Thunder Bay where I lived prior, there I was in the coldest temps on the ground I've ever experienced in Canada -46C!!!!!!!!!!! To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

it was an awesome day jumping yesterday. last weekend got great video that will be put up in youtube under my friends name Freeflychild. who jumped with me and took the video. winter jumping for 'gimps' is very different then walkers. i am jumping with complete winter survival gear, ready for survival in cold incase i land off. so im bulky as heck with a ton of gear under my clothing. which were discussed in my thread earlier detailing the important items necessary. now to date we havent had others with disabilities coming by and jumping here in the cold weather=where the elements will freeze your knuties off if you freefall in -26C temps for 35+secs then end up a few miles off sitting there in -16C temps till they find you=learning survival is CRITICAL anyways, this weekend i finally got into the old vintage gear. i started another thread for my vintage gear jumps-hoping to see how many i can fly-before i have to stop jumping. now i use a Dynavox communication device to speak with. for a while id loose my voice when i was very ill but this week tuesday within 4 hours i went to NOTHING not a sound. GLAD I SAW MY KIDS BEFORE IT HAPPENED so i could talk to the a little. photos here-did a bit of 'proximity' flying with my friend and a 'coach' To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

A new love, old school canopies. starting it off with a stratocloud 7 cell canopy. this time i just flew the canopy-but one day i want to go completely old school-belly mount reserve etc. I need to lengthen the brake lines, but the flare is still powerful. i like this canopy as much-if not more then my vented BlackJack heres a few photos and yes here in canada even gimps jump in the winter correction: Peter reminded me to stay in the current situation. the Stratocloud is NOT a military reserve as I initially wrote. It is an accuracy canopy for civilian use (manufactured in the"mid 70's .... though it was produced long after its popularity faded, into the 80's" To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

I'm retty excited about this. I applied for and got accepted at a tunnel camp (they only too 12 participants-a camp for women only). I will be going to montreal for the end of the month. I have no idea where i will stay, but i know i have to take the greyhound or the train. i have an expedition quality tent, maybe they will let me pitch it at their parking lot... now that would be a sight-out from the snow covered round hut crawls the gimp and drags herself in a sled (i use a sled and push with cross country ski poles cut short-dragging my wheehciar behind me-on really wintry days to get to the DZ from my house).... regardless i dont care if i have to sleep in the corner of the office floor-oohh if theyd onlyy be so generous as to let me! i AM GOING TO THE TUNNEL CAMP! To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

glad to get this freaken packing spring loaded clamp off my stomach 2nd night now no sleep-it is a bit 'tender' shall I say ;) thans for your support, and Granny, I've made my plans, I will be at twin by memorial day-come watch me jump off the bridge? yah I will be there earlier-I expect, so no worries. remind me to PM you my cel #-no calling only text pls cant afford the calls lol so we can connect. :) To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

for sure-i will post before I go,'and i am going to go the only thing that would keep me from going is a cold blue body flat lined for way too long for reflexes to kick in and start working again, having said that... i need to go to the hospital tomorrow nothing horrid-just got to put my stomach back together againm but if things dont go so well with the blood tests their going to take out that kidney that is not a happy camper and has decided to prematurely call it quits... its like an office temp with a bad attitude this kidney ever since my december hspital days when i had sepsis it decided to throw in the towel or perhaps i had hoped put up a sign "work sucks ive gone skydiving i quit: but there was no skydiving for me in december,' i did manage to dive a few ride the slide cartwheels out from 7.5 in Now. then this stupid stomach decided to start giving me trouble my inisides been coming out of the hole in my stomach for the last 24 plus hours so i rigged up a bit of a system to slow down the proces with some clamps, short wooden stickand cotton swabs thats keeping me intact till i go to the hospital tomorrow AM there will be a small surgery and if the kidney decided to come back and start at least working on half work load then were going to keep her otherwise its getting yanked out and tossed in the nearest incinerator To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

photos are my 'new to me' bashed up used carbon fiber full face helmet gift-awesome people give me things kus my $ source is now down to $89 after rent now that my room mate's gone *that grabbed $500.month from my income having to pay for the house alone- 4 the month LOL! (paid the shipping grabbed 1/4 of my months income-that sure seems insane when I look at in writing)... but I am not leaving this house living at PST DZ - here I will stay till I die which sure contributes to the choices in what kind of jumping I can do when not here. Here, I can work for my jumps-like the fixing of the jumpsuits in the winters and other chores in the summers-it all adds up in my account, or else i can exchange it for my DZO chopping up boxes of kindling for my wood stove-no $ for hydro-that stuff costs like gold! so I lug piles of wood in daily-its good physio therapy me-which I need-kus honestly for me the most dangerous activity at the DZ would be swinging an axe! Had I gone to FL, it would of been to a DZ I know someone who works there but that doesn't change the rules we all need to follow I had wanted to go there this winter,'but with all the 'regulations' with a solo I dont know if any DZ will let me skydive anywhere else except here at home.....regardless if my friend works there -but he's Not the DZO This is one reason I'm SO grateful for my DZO kus he lets me do work here to be able to jump! he's truly . it would of been a great place to learn more, keep current @much better then staying here @ home reading riggers course manuals, sewing collars on jumpsuits,'making static lines for A jumps and looking for those 'warm' winter days to jum-with my lower limb circulation issues, FF in -26C temps plus wind chill will turn these gimp legs into frozen shatter like icicles on landing disadvantages (some things I just cant figure out how to 'overcome).... so FL would of been an awesome place to go (even though locals feel its cold-but for us Canadians we got hot packs to put in our shoes and gloves even FL cold spells are tolerable), but things being as they are, regulations etc. I'd end up touring the beaches, getting stuck in the sand while only wishing I'd have something to jump out of from top floor-That i cant tolerate! (the tourist thingy) I got an invite to go to idaho, got a place to set up house-tent and as they told me "locals enjoy riggin up black death contraptions to fling anyone with physical challenges off the bridge multiple times" no jump tickets to buy-leaves $ to give offerings to these fellows -with offers to set up house- for me my wheelchair, feeding pumps etc. . If it was possible to be jumping in FL I was hoping to stay 3 weeks but to Idaho I was thinking of going until I get so wrinkled from the water landings that i wont match my passport photo anymore then I will have to come back home. To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

my rigger and I share a deep interest in 'old school skydiving'-and vintage canopies (should I say mine is an obsession I will reserve him the right to define his interest in that collection on his own ) a vintage or in other words "old school" skydiving canopy. stratocloud 240. the 270 wont fit in my container. and NO its NOT the plasma cloud that most people think of=when they hear the word (which is the interaction of the solar winds with Venus)... now I did try to tell my DZO if he's so concerned about my butt slide landings, on an old military reserve -it hasn't been jumped in .... let's say "a while" :) but my riggers kept it in his collection because he's just more interested in jumping some of the more 'interesting' vintage canopies... I told him what my rigger said jokingly-"we could rig up a system like they landed on Mars that rover-under a round parachute, with the rover surrounded by airbag balloons so it could bounce around until it stopped I asked my DZO if he'd like me to try that? :-) "Actually some modern paragliding harnesses have a self inflating airbag under the seat. Sort of an airlock idea - air from the front fills the airbag but if one has a bad landing the air doesn't go out either too fast or slow through the inlet valve. No good in freefall, but if one built one that could be foolproof in staying shut or being opened, that could protect your spine on landing. On the other hand, something like that would actually interfere more with a good sliding landing"... and NO im not high writing this-my brain just wanders to these things on its own-CLEARLY I DON'T NEED DRUGS This to me is as exciting as a 14 sec canopy ride-which clearly was the most exciting time anyone could have in their life.... no butt slide landings there... and maybe a good place to try out the balloon system but my serious body armor helps as much as i could get for myself (including a NYPD bullet proof vest-which I figured would be useful just incase there's a broken rib that pierces the heart (yes a remote chance-but things more bizarre have happened to people=it just would be a 'shitty way to go in' ). after this diversion break-back to the sport this forum is for this jump, with the vintage canopy is seriously one of the most interesting jumps I'm EVER going to do in skydiving-unless I get to jump other vintage canopies-but for those of you who are familiar with them-i cant think of any other one which is 'gimp friendly' for landings-we do need some flare as it's been said more often then not- including by myself just today in another thread- we must not femur or go in for others sake... thus the options for me to try such a canopy is ONLY in the winters or perhaps the spring-into some soft muddy sh*t-I'll take the winters ANY DAY before the muddy option . because our planes are not frozen to the ground... actually i saw Peter Chapman going up there yesterday...Gosh he's not grumpily hibernating! it was a balmy -16C on the ground and -26C at top floor... hey what else do you call a 35 sec FF from top floor on a day like that -except 'refreshing' ? To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

As Dale says "Landings need to be excellent everytime or you will break something and do skin damage that will put you out of action for a long time. It will also make it difficult for other paras who want to get into jumping. If there are any horror stories that start to circulate because paras hook it in and explode on landing it will be very difficult to find instructors and DZs that will allow us to jump. " THIS IS CRITICAL none of us (paralyzed)HAS THE RIGHT to take chances on landings,'because we will fck it up for every ontehr 1 coming after us To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

these photos focus on leg strap positioning and the different methods-and in Dale's case the difference minor modifications make(and a link to Pookies video-since it details his leg straps well but we do not have photos yet) We each have different methods, yet the basic principles are the same. we must do something with the legs so they do not flop around uncontrollably. Also you will notice that even within each person, we modify things as we progress in our ideas-there really is no set way of 'this is how its done'. As Dale discovered by experimenting, -the 1st photo shows how his first settings were and the second photo shows how he modified them to give him more stability. The 3rd photo shows how they were positioned for my 1st AFF.-which was ok at the time but the goal was to get them away from the lateral webbing-making sure there is nothing near the cut away handles. M current set up is that i sewed pockets with elastics at the top (like pockets in swoop pants) where I hide the leg straps completely and there is no possibility of any interference with cut away and reserve handles because the straps do not come out of the pockets until after i have done my canopy control check and oriented my canopy flying in an appropriate direction according to the winds and the DZ location. I was able to get my hands on an old used freefl one piece suit-which is not here yet-but when it arives i will sew the same pockets on,as well as add the straps so then i will show a photo of the final product the video to Pookies leg strapping can be found on TK;s site here: http://gallery.me.com/davidtkhayes#100350 POOKIES LANDING ODY POSITION IS ALSO FOUND ON THAT SITE. I have also a photo in the landing style post a different method-similar to my 2nd set u for the leg sraps but that individual does not have the strap taped to him but rather it is attached o the chest strap and to the legs (it is the photo with the skydiver with a yellow/orange strap as he is approaching landing) To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works