froggie

I CANT TAKE IT!!!! this Victoria Falls features bungee jumping. the guy on tv keeps refering to them bungee jumpers as 'freefallers' and that they love the 'freefall'. no! its not freefall, at least not to me! then this guy goes "why would you jump off of a perfectly good bridge?" ahhh. sounds like skydiving....

........this Victoria Falls?!?!! it sounds amazing! have you ever been there? whats it like? Anybody ever been there? kel

dave, welcome! glad to see that dz.com has been a help to you. and hey, no worries about the neighborhood.... i think it went downhill a long long time ago. :) hope u enjoy these threads. kelly

speedracer, glad to see that you'll be hanging around for a bit on sunday. no worries about being able to get a jump in on sunday. by 7:15 the dz is buzzing with people. First load goes up shortly after 8. See you saturday night or sunday morning! kelly

yooper, hey. good luck! hope you have an amazing summer at twin cities! dont forget about us here. Maybe drop into the library for some cheap internet connections? hehe. in any case, good luck! make lots o money and hoping that the rig gets there on time! bye! froggie

billvon, you bring up a very good point, but there are laws to protect against such things. In New Jersey (and elsewhere?) we have the Good Semaritian Law which protects people from such incidents. As long as the help that you provide is within your given capabilities, and you perform in a competent manner you can not be sued. It was created to help protect those 'good semaritians' that were too afraid to stop and help in cases of emergency. In cases that gross neglagence on the helpers part occurs then no law can protect you. This is why we discuss ways to keep the equipment that needs special training away from the untrained. Another thing that is GREATLY stressed in the EMS field is the use of the word "possible". when callling the hospital i always say 'possible this or possible that' never give a diagnosis, im not an Xray machine and i cant decipher blood tests. ya know what i mean? Ive spent a great deal of time learning what im allowed to do by law, so as long as i dont superside that knowledge then i have no worries. As far as back injuries go.. if theres a possibility you have a spinal injury then you had better not even move your eyes a fraction of a centimeter or else im gonna get on your shit something fierce. Ive done it before. ill do it again. I constantly tell my patients (who suffer trauma injuries) "dont move a single muscle. you arent here to do any work. you just lay there. were going to do everything. your job is to be as still as possible. If you move you could aggrivate a potential back injury should you have one" phrases like that can save your butt. A big part of trauma injuries is spinal immobilization techniques. I dont care if i cant do anything else but immobilize your spine. thats all ill do if its all i am capable of. Ive held stabilization for 20 + minutes before. its not hard to do unless you have a combative patient. then you gotta roll w/ em (most combatives tend to roll from side to side) but thanks for the words of advice. Everybody contribuating to this thread is somehow envolved in the medical field (just about everyone) and for those reading this thread that arent: dont touch the person. tell them to be very still. only move a person if their in serious danger of further injury. explain to them that they have to be still because they might end up hurting themselves further. Thank goodness for the good semaritian laws! kelly

Billy, so you experienced a rope rescue huh? yeah it sure is different. ive only been indoor rock climbing once and i was belayed, not the one belaying. it was easy as hell. now with all the gear on, 3 different carabiners to use, different ropes. different systems. it gets overloading. i did that rope rescue drill a few months back and it was a lot of fun but took a lot of energy. kinda hard to secure the 'parachutist' that i had to rescue. but like you said the systems are differnet. gotta expect that. about the facial fractures and suctioning.. imagine this.. we get dispached for an MVA with entrapment. While enroute we get radioed that now we have an MVA w/ entrapment and a ped MVA... turns out the drunk guy hit my friends car (didnt find out it was her until in the rig), sent her into a pole divider. he was outside of his vehical yelling "my friggin leg is broken" when his friend (also drunk) came flying down the same road. SPLAT! the broken leg guy (who caused the whole thing) gets hit by his friend and leaves a nice imprint complete with his scalp and some hair in the drivers side windshield area. not a pretty sight. but he had to be suctioned. i didnt suction but i was watching. I can only imagine how difficult that was to do. Some crazy sh*t ehh? Instead of having suction equipment (remember the training to use it?!?) how about a little blue bulb suringe? a regular (non medical) person could easily use that until something better gets there. Just gotta think "must cover my ass first, then everything else after that..." i could manage using a bulb syringe if i had to. anything is better than nothing and suction machines aint cheap! ya know? more ideas., this is great kelly

damnit! no wonder my landings suck! :) hehe. but hey, after 15 jumps i finally got a perfect accuracy landing! whoo heee! why arent there more points for landing dead center, less for landing on the edge, none for landing off? thats how it should be! a skydiver musta made this game. wonder if that person competes in accuracy landings? froggie

speedracer, hey. glad to see that your shooting up our way for a stop in. Ill be around after the wedding on saturday evening. Probably sometime after 10ish. not sure though. Plan on walking down the isle. smiling for the family. giving my brother a hug after he says "i do!" and then high tailing it out of there. i have no desire to go to this wedding let alone BE IN IT!. i hate these things. god help me if i ever want to get married.... by the way, what time are you staying till on sunday?

BFK resurecting a retired thread but here goes.... this weekend i was laying around the packing area ( I swear i was working! :) and my friend/ very experienced skydiver buddy PJ was quizzing me about procedures cause i was preparing to take my A license written test. So some more jumpers wonder around.. before i know it im getting questions fired at me left and right. sratch that~ Scenarios is a better word. one 'scenario' that i was given went like this "youre climbing to altitude. youre above 2'500 ft ( so you can bail out safely!) and suddenly the cabin fills with smoke. you and all the other jumpers realize theres a fire on the aircraft. What do you do? I answered "i will already have been keeping eye contact with my instructor every few seconds as i was trained to do in FJC so i would listen to his commands. If i was off student status I would look towards the most experienced jumper on the plane. but ultimately i would turn to the pilot if nobody answered me or there was mass confusion." Paul said something about 'thats a good answer now heres the real story...' a Jump plane was climbing to altitude. at a safe AGL a fire started in the cabin. the jumpers panicked and somebody opened the door. Seconds later everyone had bailed out. Nobody listened to the pilot. nobody even thought to turn to the pilot for directions. In the end he was left alone in a plane, trying to fly the plane and extingush a fire. Somehow he landed safely and the fire was extinguished. okay, good ending so good actions on the jumpers parts right? WRONG! they left the pilot alone, in a plane that was on fire. The truth of the matter was, if somebody had grabbed the fire extinguisher they could have easily put it out and then continued on their skydive if the pilot OKed an exit, which he would have. so the moral of this story is: listen to the skydiver in charge. if hes not directly communicating with the pilot then youve got to make a desision. should you 'band wagon' and bail like everybody else or should you listen to the pilot. ultimately, its up to you, but lets not leave our 'man in command' all alone if we dont have to/ he doesnt tell us to. kelly

pammi, pyke, lisa, and everybody else... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! its usually easy to remember somebodys birthday here on the threads but weve got so many of them this month i figured id get em all in one big shabang. so happy birthday to all of you! froggie

thanks for the links but the same thing is still happening.. I get to the homepage and click on the enter optpion. The page loads but its blank. nothing there. just pure white. my browser reads "document done" oh well. it will work sometime thanks for the links though!

Billy, hey! hows washington treating ya? thanks for the "kel youre awesome" :) just doing my job. Im not quite sure if what you mean when you said: but i think that you may be asking if its easier to get EMS trained personelle to respond while at a dropzone versus at a ski lodge. Are you asking if its easier to locate the 'volunteer help' at the dz versus the slopes? IF thats what youre asking then id have to say yeah. Even at Xkeys, which is a big dz its easy to be found. manifest just pages you. but at the slopes theres literally miles of area. cant really distinguish who anybody is "hes the guy in the goggles. with the snow suit on! you know, the one on the skis going down the hill!" get my point? But at the dz the only time its difficult to distinguish people is when their in the holding area or higher. Im glad to see that so many medical personelle jump at your dz. The fact that the closest trauma center is 30 miles away is a real cruddy thing. I hope that theres no need for the trauma runs this season! Thats a good thing stressing that anybody can make the call. I know that in the past (before EMS) i was anxious and doubtful that i needed to call an ambulance, even when i did need one. A very important point to stress is to call 911 and have vital information when you make the call. Screaming "i saw him belly to earth, parachute below him! then he went behind the building!" doesnt tell the dispatcher anything. What the person calling 911 needs to know is the CAO (conscious, alert, oriented for the non ems reading this thread) of the patient, the basic 'look' of the scene (is his leg 20 feet away?).... vital patient information. I gave a speech on what information a 911 caller must have before calling 911. Ill find my notes and post that later. by the way~ to everyone contribuating to this thread~you guys rock. THanks for all the information. kel

skymedic, i go to the web page and the first page is there but once i click on it nothing happens. i think that i get an error message. can you give me your link?

dave, yup. i was talking about seths rig. So that was you? Thanks for the help. His rig is a little tight to close, but a little grunting and groaning gets the job done :) You guys give us a lot of buisness. thanks :) Good luck w/ the training! and hey, where were my pretzels and coffee? lol kel

hey, anybody know whats going on with the sebastian web site?

skreamer, hey! a funny discovery of sorts.. go to that link of yours. click on thru all the pics. then really quickly hit the 'back' option on your keyboard. keep doing that. the entire skydive in reverse! its almost like being up there and doing it all ass backwards. lol. wierd the things we discover :) froggie

karen, ive figured it out.... Im going to get a locker at the dz. Jumpers can rent one for a six month period. SInce i dont have a rig or anything i dont really need one. But keeping my jumpkit in the manifest office is okay but i would rather have my own locker to keep it in. THis way, only a limited number of people (me, dzo, other medically trained jumpers perhaps) will have the key to the locker. Im figuring John, our DZO will give it to me no charge. kelly

ah.. enlightenment. today i got to be the "relaxer" for a first time tandem student. She was a woman, about 30 years old, and admitenly scared. She kept saying that she was terrified of heights. After i got done the 'business' part of our transaction, i took her aside. I explained to her how i hate heights, standing on the edge of a one story building would make me want to cry. Then i explained to her how safe i feel with a rig on. I told her my stories of dealing with the whole 'heights' issue. ANd you know what? me, with my measly 7 jumps calmed her down. A first time tandem looks up to anybody with even one jump. and if that person that they look up to admits to being scared of something, a mutual scared, then they feel better. She told me that, i think her exact words were "that makes me feel better. youre scared of heights but you love to jump. Its different, its got to be different, you proved that" and you know what? she had an AMAZING skydive. Her exit was good. I just told her to watch the jumpers actually jumping out of the plane so when it was her turn in the door she wasnt seeing (the person in front of her) exiting for the first time. She watched them and said that it made it easier. So should we be professional or joke around? I think we have to throw 'honesty' and 'equality' into that mix. If we (as jumpers who love it!) put ourselves on the same level as the first time jumper then their going to feel better. kelly

skymama, the whole EMS thing didnt discourage me. even after I heard the story of the girl who looked like a broken barbie doll after a Mal. The entire squad told me the horror stories of ems calls theyve taken at my dz in the past years. NOt many incidents but everybody has different stories about them. I actually like being at the dz. It makes me feel like my fellow jumpers are a little safer cause I know what to do if anybody gets hurt. Also, its getting to the point where the jumpers are coming to me with minor injuries, so i know that they trust me to fix em up right. Two weekends in a row, two jumpers in the trees. Nobody went to the hospital though, but fact of the matter is i was out there in the woods in only minutes. QUicker than any damn EMS unit could have gotten there. Makes me feel better, makes the other jumpers feel better. Hell, im doing a public service by being at the dz :) KIDDING! hehe froggie

ah hemmmm. wingnut, how the hell do you know me so well? I was passed out in a tent by 10 sat. nite. woke up around midnight and stayed up most of the evening. Guess 3 hours of (good) sleep in 40 hours had caught up to me. hell, i was ready for a nap by 12:30 in the afternoon saturday! That and the Hard lemonaids and the... okay, well, it had all caught up to me. Dont drink 5 bottles of Mike's in 1/2 hour. it gets to ya quick as hell. :) froggie

Danhole. oh man. let me apoligize right now for earlier. And thanks for the tip for packing that rig :) Im sorry i didnt conversate more, just concentrating on getting that damned rig closed! oh man, im sorry. i didnt even realize that that was you! Forgive me? So how was your day? Mine started off shitty but got better when i finally got on the packing mat. Im a bum, i know it. sorry again kel

hey anonomous, i jump at xkeys but a friend of mine worked at skydive jersey shore for 2 seasons. Ill ask him about it tomorrow and post sometime tomorrow night. froggie

oh.. almost forgot. to make matters worse im home alone. it really hurt and i started to cry like a littel baby. i couldnt help it. NO 'momy" to take care of me. so i call my back up 'moomy' (my aunt) who lives around the corner and shes not home either! so i had nobody to ttake care of me. :( froggie

okay my turn 2 bitch, bear w/ me. im typing w/ 1 hand and 1 eye im sitting here reading threads. i go 2 lite a match and the top of it sparks off and flys at my face. landed on my lower left eyelid/ lashes. so in the (pain ) reflex i slap myself in tjhe eye 2 get it off. in thwe end im now missing half the eyelashes on my lowwer lid , the skin ub=nder is burned and my eye is swollen. Not to mention that i had to take out embers from inside of my eye. they were stuck there. so yeah my day has just offfically gone bad. ive been burnt