Newbie

Yeah, and you have to miss out on the overweight women in the spandex shorts and bedroom slippers shuffling along and yelling at their children too! yeah i remember absently wondering into the cereals and candy aisles and praying to the gods that i would make it out alive and with my sanity intact! Not a pretty sight "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

well we have somewhat Walmart-ish like equivalents, but no way near as big or as cheap. Walmart actually bought out a bunch of huge stores here a year or so back, but they are still yet to convert them to the full Walmart experience. I do miss getting lost in Walmarts though and finding things i didn't even know existed and then finding out they cost 99 cents or something equally ridiculous. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

thanks guys, i dont know why i wasnt looking at regualr bags - i guess i immediately assumed a gear back would offer better protection. Unfortunately we don't have Walmart in the UK, but i'll be checking some type of equivalent store. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Hi all - i know this might be best suited in the gear section, but im not sure if a bag is actually a piece of gear as such so i'm posting it here. I need to pick up a gear bag asap, but im not sure what to go for - can you guys tell me what you like about your gear bags, and what you think are good features to have on them so i can make my mind up? Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

hi i need to get my new rig assembled from scratch. Can any one tell me roughly how long this can take as i have no idea at all. Also i would be quite interested to watch the whole process, especially the packing of the reserve. Can anyone see any reason why this might not be possible? (the only thing i could think of is the whole process could take a while and the rigger might not appreciate someone standing over them watching their every move) Thanks PS does the assembly also include a gear inspection. This is all brand new kit, but it would be nice to know that the rigger will run his/her eyes over my stuff before i use it. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

friday afternoon, time to reflect a little. Hope you guys enjoy these and they make you think a little............ "A person desperately searching for love is like a fish desperately searching for water." - Deepak Chopra "We need the tonic of wilderness... we can never have enough of nature." - Henry David Thoreau "The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind." - Albert Einstein "To open the individual path inward is the most exalted of human endeavors..." - James Perkins "Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of the genius." - Gibbon "Great souls are they who see that spiritual is stronger than material force, that thoughts rule the world." - Emerson "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of the light." - Plato "I love a broad margin to my life." - Henry David Thoreau "You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection." - Buddha "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Gandhi "Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." - Mother Teresa "How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world." - William Shakespeare "I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong." - Leo Rosten "Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace." - Albert Schweitzer "The best way to know God is to love many things." - Vincent van Gogh "Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment." - Rumi "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle, and the other is as if everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein "When we have seen Reality, there is not a grain of dust which has not a sublime meaning." - Vanderleeuw "The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust "The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet." - James Oppenheim "I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." - Albert Schweitzer "...that best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love." - William Wordsworth "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." - Mohandas Gandhi "It is not so much our friend's help that helps us, as the confidence of their help." - Epicurus "Intense love does not measure; it just gives." - Mother Teresa "If you want to know the past, look at your present life. If you want to know the future, look at your present." - Buddha "The words 'I am...' are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you're claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you." - A.L. Kitselman "We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them." - Kahlil Gibran "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt "You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough." - Frank Crane "When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." - Charles Beard "If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide." - Mohandas Gandhi "Remember: happiness is a way of travel, not a destination." - Roy Goodman "There are two ways of spreading light - to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." - Edith Wharton "The important thing is to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could be." - Charles DuBois "Give the world the best you have and the best will come back to you." - Madeline Bridges "When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion." - Abraham Lincoln "An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind." - Mohandas Gandhi "I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend." - Abraham Lincoln "Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love." - Mohandas Gandhi "A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities, and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties." - Harry Truman "We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are." - Talmud "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character." - Albert Einstein "It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen." - Claude M. Bristol "As you believe, so you become. As you become, so you believe." - Unknown "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." - Goethe Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. - Ralph Waldo Emerson "If you find yourself in a hole the first thing to do is stop diggin'." - Unknown Cowboy "Where fear is present, wisdom cannot be." - Lactantius "When we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - Marianne Williamson "Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are." - John Wooden "When we live our life contrary to the inner guidance of our Soul, our actions often have a disharmonious effect upon ourselves, others and the Earth. This is why the evolution of individual human consciousness is intimately linked with the future of this planet. In light of this, the crisis of all physical illness, emotional imbalance and planetary upheaval has but one ultimate purpose: to provide an opportunity that will motivate us to realign our body, mind and emotions with the infinite love, wisdom and healing of our Soul. Therefore, whenever we gather the courage to do whatever it takes to end the war within, we contribute directly and immediately to our own healing and transformation as well as to the peace that our world cries out for." - John-Michael "You must be the change you want to see in the world." - Mohandas Gandhi "Time has a very elastic quality. It depends upon the will and desire of the individual as to what he or she can accomplish within the time allotted." - Jesse Holmes "You can't lose anything because you never had it. The only thing you've ever really had is yourself." - Deepak Chopra "Many have not been told that birth into a physical world is a death in the spiritual worlds from which they came. Hence most are never aware that death in the physical world is merely a birth into other dimensions of life." - Jesse Holmes "Few people will dispute that in the world of nature everything reacts to an exact law; and physical as these laws seem in their outworking, they all originate from the spiritual universe. There can be no haphazard methods, for nature is very drastic with delinquents. This also happens in the spiritual spheres where the smallest action calls forth an exact reaction. This means that man's thoughts become his creations, that they become like angels of good and evil to him; so that when he views his life from some higher plane of existence, he well realizes the disastrous nature of those mental creations of his - of gloom, depression and selfishness - which were and are his mental children. ___"This has affected me deeply since my arrival here, for I was wont to create such characters, scenes and word-pictures. Mine was a vivid imagination; and, while I gave forth many a picture of joy, homeliness and beauty, my pen also depicted scenes of crudity, ugliness, crime and horror. While recognizing that such pictures may by their very contrast teach their lesson, on the other hand creations of ugliness and terror are apt to live on in men's minds, and fill them with violent and unhealthy vibrations. Now I gaze down into the lives of men and women who have been considerably influenced by me for either good or ill. This I tell you only to illustrate the lesson. ___"Some day every man will attain either the joy or the terror of seeing the effect of his creations, beautiful or the reverse; no matter whether they are merely fictitious characters or actual conditions of life resulting from actions of his which have considerably influenced the lives of others. He will then see his own personal contribution, be it positive or negative, to the collective whole." - Arthur Conan Doyle, from the "after-death" state, as channeled by a medium "Don't feel sorry for yourself if you have chosen the wrong road - turn around!" - Edgar Cayce "One should count each day a separate life." - Seneca "Any pain that comes is to make you understand the nature of joy more deeply and bring you into joy." - Mother Meera "When you know that you are eternal you can play your true role in time. When you know you are divine you can become completely human. When you know you are one with God you are free to become absolutely yourself..." - Mother Meera "One common mistake is to think that one reality is *the* reality. You must always be prepared to leave one reality for a greater one." - Mother Meera "For the mind to flower it has to go beyond what it knows." - Mother Meera "The true experience of bliss is without words." - Mother Meera "In silence one can receive more because all one's activities become concentrated at one point. There is only one real rhythm; in silence you hear it. When you live to the rhythm of this silence, you become it, slowly; everything you do, you do to it." - Mother Meera "Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that is profound repose, vision in obscurity, and, beyond all desire, a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity." - Thomas Merton "Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity, and love." - Thomas Merton "At the root of all war is fear; not so much the fear men have of one another as the fear they have of everything." - Thomas Merton "We have to have a deep, patient compassion for the fears of men and irrational mania of those who hate or condemn us... We have to consider the fact that in its provocative aspect, non-violence may tend to harden the opposition and to confirm people in their righteous blindness." - Thomas Merton "If you who are seeking love and truth cannot rise above the illusion of turmoil, how can those who are locked in it be helped? It is you who are empowered through the strength of your love, your commitment to truth, who will bring about the elevation of consciousness of those who are wracked in such fear that they would destroy the world rather than acknowledge their own terror." - Emmanuel "There is never any justification for violence, for hatred, for murder. Those who indulge in violence for whatever reason are themselves changed, and the purity of their purpose adulterated." - Seth "With a sense of humor, hate is all too funny and therefore it loses its power. Love, on the other hand, even with a sense of humor, becomes highly precious and large enough so that it can contain old hatreds quite nicely." - Seth "When you look into yourself, the very effort involved extends the limitations of your consciousness, expands it, and allows the egotistical self to use its abilities that it often does not realize it possesses." - Seth "If you want to know what you think of yourself, then ask yourself what you think of others and you will find the answer." - Seth "Say to yourself 'That is in the past. Now in this new moment, this new present, I am already beginning to change for the better.'" - Seth "In spontaneity there is a discipline that utterly escapes you, and an order beyond any that you know. Spontaneity knows its own order." - Seth "The people that you can help now and the particular good that you can do, can never again be done in precisely the same way." - Seth "For the more unlimited your thinking becomes, the more unlimited your life shall become - wherever you are. The greater the heaven you create here, within your own kingdom of thought and emotion, the greater the heaven you will experience when you leave this plane. Those whose thoughts are steeped in guilt, judgment of self and others, and bitterness and hatred toward their brothers, will leave this plane only to continue to experience those attitudes until they learn from them - until they have had their gut full of them and realize that there are grander ways to be and greater heavens to experience." - Ramtha "The less you think of yourself, the less you become. The less you give credit to yourself for having intelligence, the more of an imbecile you become. The less beautiful you think you are, the more ugly you become. The more impoverished you think you are, the more wretched you become - because YOU have ordained it to be so." - Ramtha "If you will simply allow yourself to be, and listen to the urgings within your being, the feelings within you, you will always be experiencing what you are most needing in order to expand your wondrous self into greater wisdom and perpetual joy." - Ramtha "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

what do you mean he doesnt have too much time left? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

on a jump the other week, i opened as normal at 3500 but got into some twists (nothing serious, but i had about 6 or 7 rotations in there). Anyway i was kicking out of them watching my alti a lot, and realised that even though my canopy was fully inflated, i was getting close to decision altitude (about 1800-2000ft) pretty quickly. Anyway i kicked out of the final twist and unstowed brakes right on about 2000. What i was wondering is, on a non elliptical pretty large canopy (190) loaded at about 1:1, what should the correct procedure be if you pass into decision altitude with line twists? Is it just a case of assessing how many twists you have i.e. if its 1 or 2, then obviously you wont cut away, but if its still pretty twisted up, should you cutaway? I never really thought about this too much until what happened on that jump i just described above, and then i thought well, even though im on a far from high performance canopy, line twists COULD develop into a cutaway situation at some point, and not just be the "nuisance" that we are schooled on during training. I guess what im saying is is there a concrete "something" you should assess at your decision altitude and if so what is it? Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

anyone know? Wasnt it meant to be early hours PST time yesterday (17th?) "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

and could help me bring back some gear please? I'd really appreciate it. Does anyone know the best way to get round import duty if i have to send it through customs? Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

does anyone try to live a Zen like existence? If so post up! Im not religious but i guess i am pretty spiritual. I like how Zen is focused on the idea that "enlightenment" or "nirvana" or whatever you want to call it, is only brought about through working on your own mind and bettering yourself as a person for everything and everyone else around you, and not through praying to something. I'm trying to practice the whole non-attachment thing, but its damn hard at times, espeically when you get a real emotional bond going on with a particular person. Anyway anyone else out there on the Zen, or spiritual tip? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

as in physically? My melon is goddarned 25" circumference and i wanted to get a new Mindwarp but the damn sizing guide only goes up to 24.5". Anyway if anyone has a head that size, and is using an XXL mindwarp can you let me know please, as i dont want to order one in unless i know it will fit ok. Thank all "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

actually a cracker is those things you pull at Xmas time....not sure if you guys get them in the US, but here is some useful info on them if you should ever need it http://www.absolutelycrackers.com/historynew.html "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

thanks for the link and advice all - i just searched and found this has been discussed before, sorry i should have done that first. Thanks anyway for the useful advice!

i was just wondering - below 1000ft and aircraft emergency = ride it down on the plane, braced. So does that mean between 1000-2000ft and an aircraft emergency = go out on your reserve? Whats the decision altitude to go out on reserve instead of main? I would have thought anything below 1500ft = reserve ride. Is that being overly cautious? I guess im worried about having to exit low, deploy a main which snivels, then you run into a malfunction and dont have enough time to get a reserve out. Also, in an emergency ABOVE a certain altitude would an aircraft emergency exit still be a hop n pop? What i mean is, say you're at 9000 or something and everyone has to bail. Is everyone meant to be hopping and popping mains at 9000? i know thats what we are taught - hop n pop for emergencies, but whats the deal with doing that say above 4 or 5000? Im just asking because i would imagine that rather than everyone exit literally one after the next and deploy straight away, would it not make more sense to exit and get some sort of separation from that height, then deploy? Thanks all "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

something that fires at low altitude say 750ft if it detects a fast (say 60mph) horizontal speed and a relatively slow vertical speed (say 50 mph). "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

all jokes aside, why not? Im talking about something that could be strapped round an arm/leg/chest that goes under your clothes against the skin, and then, like the vibrating device in a cell phone, just send out different levels of vibration depending on what altitude you are at. You wouldnt have to look or listen for anythinig-you would just feel it Let the flaming begin! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

i know the basics - only track back and forth at 90 degrees to the jump run. However, as a newbie without the essential awareness to tell if im full 90 degrees and staying that way, should i - if i want to practice my track - ask to go out last? Also whats a good way to practice? Hold for 10 secs, turn 180, hold for 10secs etc? I dump at 3500. The main thing that worries me is that i could track slightly off the 90 and open under someone else still in freefall. The only times i've really practiced tracking hard so far has been when i've been last out. Other than that i more or less will hold it for 5+ secs as i dont want to make an error in my heading and end up where i shouldnt be "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

this has been brought up before - and yes it has happened, check the link for the story and pics (about half way down the page) http://www.skyxtreme.com/archive/july2000/safety.html "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

my main interest outside of jumping is scratch dj'ing, which has now reached levels of technicality where it can be likened to playing a musical instrument. I wouldnt say im that accomplished, but some of what the worlds best can do is just incredible. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

sorry man i thought you were asking a rhetorical question as in i should be asking myself that. Yeah i do. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

no worries - yeah its been on a few times before but so far i haven't seen it, and seeing as its on terrestrial and not satellite i thought i would mention it as everyone can watch it. Heres a transcript of an online chat he had with some people when it was shown previously http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/talkwales/extremelivestranscript.shtml Enjoy! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

ok i just split up with my girl yesterday, or rather she split up with me. Without bogging you folks down with all the gory details, she wasnt a jumper, and i have only been jumping a few months, but am addicted wholeheartedly. Anyway when i got together with her, i made it clear that while i cared about her very much, i had certain goals i wanted to accomplish at this stage of my life, and taking some time out of work to skydive a lot at a dz in a country with decent weather was one of my main priorities, much to her frustration (she was much more on the "i want to settle down and get a place" tip). This upset her - she often said that i put skydiving and my other main interest of dj'ing ahead of her, which was not entirely true, but i did say that, like me, she should follow her dreams in life and make sure she achieves her individual goals and not worry about foresaking the relationship as i didnt want her to put her life on hold, or be unhappy just to be with me. Well, she came to the dz with me a few months back and we had a great day - she would never jump, totally against the idea, and thinks we are all crazy, BUT she was open minded enough to come up to the dz, and enjoyed just being in the countryside and the outdoors aspect of it all. What then happened was something of a turnaround - i went to the dz a few weeks back without her (she was busy), had a GREAT time, but i sort of missed her not being there, for me to share my experience with her, as even though she had no interest in jumping, she was interested to hear what it was like and what i got up to, and it was a nice feeling to stroll back from the peas and see her there waving and wanting to know how it had been. So i get back home and tell her i want to reprioritise -i dont want to save all my money to go jumping in Eloy now, and i would rather we have a joint vacation somewhere where we can travel for a while and then i could get some jumps in along the route - you know trying to put some balance in there for the sake of the relationship. But by this time some personal stuff has happened to her family thats made her rethink about lifes priorities, what she wants out of life, and what is important for her. Anyway to cut a long story short, we split for a number of reasons, but she did say she felt like for the most part of the relationship (apart from the turnaround towards the end) that she was playing second fiddle to my new found love of jumping. So what i want to know from you guys who have been jumping for years and managing relationships side by side is how best to do it. How do you manage to balance the time and expenditure of jumping with keeping a non jumping partner sweet - is that even possible? Is it a better idea to try and find a partner who jumps, and therefore the interests and understanding is there and is mutual (this is what im now thinking, although there is something to be said for explaining to a whuffo partner the joys of the sport, and seeing their eyes light up as you tell them what you do and did on a jump, even though you know they would never in a million years do it themselves) I love this sport very much, its something i have wanted to do most of my life, and the desire to do it is not going to go away in a hurry at all - in fact most likely the opposite. Once my rig arrives, i can see myself spending way more time and money at the dz than i have been now. So is this to be expected with non jumping partners? Am i now doomed to a life of balancing my time, energy, finances and love of this sport with every girl im going to be with? There is no way im giving up jumping anytime soon for anyone or anything, so its not an option to get out the sport. I guess im just wondering if you guys have any advice/stories/morals that could be useful if i find myself in this situation the next time. I love this and am not going to give it up - i guess i want to know how it can work side by side a personal life without destorying it though. Any advice is much appreciated y'all, thanks. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

in case you didnt see the post on uk.rec.skydiving, Adrian Nicholas will be tonights host "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Do you need a qualification of some kind? How many pack jobs did you all have under your belts before you started packing other peoples chutes? Will a DZO or CCI want to see something before he/she will employ me to pack, and what experience will they want to see? Thanks all "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts