fedykin

Just finished my tunnel time(5+ hours total) great tunnel, the ammenities are a bit spartan(bring food+ drink) and they only take cash the airflow is great, super fast, too fast when they crank it it is in the middle of nowhere, make sure your cab driver knows where they're going and leave lots of time for 'navigational embarasment'. very cheap, tony the tunnel rat was a really nice guy, very helpfull. cheers guys

It is interesting to note that when the dive is subdivided into a number of category's - Difficulty, Camera, Technical, Presentation for judging it doesnt seem to be the case where the actual judging criteria is actually being applied. If everyone feels that a different criteria should be applied, then great, change the criteria, however to leave the state of affairs as it stands just breeds apathy and less and less team competing due to an unwritten judging code. In looking at the difficulty table it does seem somewhat freestyle orientated- ie... Ideal body position etc... and wordings such as 'looks good' and so on and so forth. Looking at the dives historically, it is apparent that there has been a significant dip in terms of amount of content in the artistic routine and compulsary routine, the days of 22+ point rounds is long past, why.... This unwritten criteria of 'clean points' and clean routines. In terms of compulsaries, which got Alchemy a couple busts, this is again a missreading of the FAI code, a point is a point, if the criteria is met, then 1 point, however people have been getting busts in high speed routines. When put into perspective that all of this started to happen when 1 or 2 freestylists got onto the FAI council and then progressively the routines became slower, less points of compuls' things do seem a bit as if by design than by chance. When you look at the routines in realtion to the scoring then look at the FAI guide,it doesnt add up ie... Guano! Point- there are less teams competing now than in the past and routines in many senses have become slower. Its very much relative freestyle. In terms of technicality, not much been shown by the 'obvious team' hasnt been done before, its just being presented in a slightly better manner. Benelovance- In this i mean, organising events free of charge. Babylon- 0 points. Im pretty sure every record attempt in the US was knocked up by Alchemy and Project Horizon by the NorCAl crew, with no financial gain in mind. And they have added to the talent pool much much more than Babylon. To say that by selling alot of Tshirts and DVDs they'r doing a great job promoting the sport is a bit hollow. Self intrest that ends up with a 0 sum gain. how many events bar 1 2 years ago have the organised, and on that event i feel it was nothing more than self promotion that they were paid to do! Good track record!

To air a discussion we've had personally 100 times. there is a distinct difference between relative freestyle and freefly. Everyone here feels(yourself included) that the distortion of the FAI judging criteria has crosses all boundaries. One sentance of 'minimal control surfaces' has become a convient by roads by which judges who are ex-freestylists themselves, who dont entirely understand current freefly, judge events has dissilousoned alot of flyers, and doesnt in a proportional display what i would call prudent judging bu their own criteria. Lets me frank, some people too have taken advantage of the state of affairs by making a long term project of the situation by getting on the FAI council and rewritting rules to suit themselves. Im not going to start a VRW vs 3 way argument but state a couple of plain truths. 3 way is not olympic gymnastics, we're talking about a aeronautic pursuit here. Some people who couldnt keep up with the status quo have literally re-written the rules in their favour and it has totally disillusioned many a team. TBC. Im off to bed. You better pick me up tommow at teeside.

Has anyone hit the tunnel there yet? Experiences, impressions? Cost? cheers

i love it when people give me ammunition like this... lets be frank, the only catering you guys are capable of doing for me would be at the next summerball in the officers mess handing out drinks and tidbits. im not the only one who thinks its irresponsible in the extreeme what you guys are doing tell you what ill keep my focus and self respect and you guys hold on to your positive vibes on top of that, i wasnt aware we were on a first name basis, so please dont address me by my first name.

Hi Betsy Im bringing my team to eloy in april and am obviously concerned about the swooping limitations(everyone is as we all fly velo's) are we allowed to do 270's outside of the mainlanding areas, or what? this may affect whether or not we choose to come cheers p

Cloud 9 www.c9freefly.com

yeah andy , cheers for that... i was thinking of doing some tunnel coaching with those guys too, but then my gray matter kicked in ladies and gentlemen, andy newell, king of sarcasm

I afraid I don't agree with you concerning your statement that the BPA enable the UK population to jump(ie... no BPA no jumping). It more of a case where they have leveraged themeselves into a position where they are a middleman between the CAA and jumpers. They have effectively made themselves nessessary throughout the past as a means of furthering influence and individual interest. I would imagine pride has something to do with it as well(British standards must be superior to all others, of course, and of course other qualifications should not be recoginised in the UK). There was a great deal of jumping before the BPA, and non BPA DZ's were pushed out of operation by a fairly aggressive legal campaign by the BPA, even grandfather rights were eventually shifted. The US model does seem to operate with much less waste. If an organisation is forced to be relevant, then it tends to be. Neccessity etc... I really have become cynical...

There does appear to be a fairly interesting tripod of interests involved here, ill pinpoint a couple 1) The two significant claims mentioned. One of which is involved in a fairly heavy duty PR campaign with the ---Kix scheme to smooth things over. The individual in my opinion(watch the video floating around) was totally at fault, and has almost totaly on thier own pushed up the premiums for the whole of the organisation. 2)As with other organisations where the representatives have a comercial interest in the decisions made, the 'Self Governing' approach becomes a personal self interest protecting approach. Do you honestly think any of the council members will make decisions that directly get in the way of their pesonal interests? If a vote was taken over whether or not to accept the new premium and the innevitable NO came, it would effectively put a freeze on their wages. 3) The 'Local Pub, Local DZ culture in the UK', by and large the UK population tends to take a fairly fatalistic view of price increases, aka Rip off GB, and simply moan about the state of affairs and dig into their wallets, which simply encourages the governing body to act as it chooses knowing that corrective actions outside voting with their feet will not take place. I vote with my feet and only do the wind tunnel in the UK and jump in Europe and the US, the level, attitude and prices are all better. It would be nice to be able to jump every weekend without hitting EasyJet, but as they say, every artist should suffer for their art.

Do you know what would be an equally significant achievement IF OLAV WOULD SEND OFF AD CERTIFICATES TO ALL THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE PAID FOR THEM. Not alot of tasks take 3+ years to achieve, the staff work and planning for the second world war, the korean conflict, the falklands and Tellic 1 didnt take as long as Olav sending off 100 certifigates. Interesting... nice on Giancarlo though!

Right, close to Rome, there's Nettuno which isnt too far at all away, maybe 30-40 minutes south. Places to go that are likely to be busy are also Marche, home of the Atmonauti, check it out on www.skydivemarche or www.atmonauti.com. Fano is Ok, nice view, high winds, nice people, very well thought out facilities. Failing that Bologna isnt too bad as far as ive heard, used to jump in Arezzo, which has gone downhill a bit, but Arezzo the town has its pluses, as its only 5 minutes away. Sardinia has things going on from time to time too. Hope that helps Probably not...

i believe the technical term is 'drafting' not that ive ever watched 'days of thunder'

its funny how things go about, the british claiming to have a decent grip of sarcasm as it trully has its home in the USA. i really believe the british are pretty oblivious to subtlety and wit...things you can only really learn in the US, why dont u drop by mine sometime and ill give you a lesson.. on the book debate, as previously mentioned, there arent any what i would call good guides to freefly, olav has a MASSIVE and highly technical document that even his instructors rarely get a peek at and nothing else is trully what i would call a 'technical document'. the skydive u DVDs are as good as it gets in the industry as far as im concerned, in terms of related matierial check out 'Mental training for skydiving and life', though anything on modern sports training and conditioning properly adapted is worth its weight in gold

better change the name of this thread to C9 ELOY TRIP at least its following a predictable pattern, andy post fecal matter online, i react and it shifts to another subject. hey JP are the obvious japanesse dive bombers(tora tora) on for march(trying to fill up the tunnel time!!). id ask but they've threatened me with death...

yeah, cheers for that, i guess ill go down to the tait and buy tracey emins next works becuause she clearly loves art(in reference to her i use the term very loosely), not because it has any inherent value or she has any technical ability. this is a completely new way of thinking for all consumers. IF THE MANUFACTURER CLEARLY LOVES WHAT THEY'RE DOING YOU MUST BUY IT gotta get my dolphin container and time out dytters on order 'cause they're so passionate about what they do, they put alotta thought into the products- irrespective of the fact that relative to other products they are inferior and on the point of having real nuggets, 'just feel it', yeah ill pass that one on to my next student, really usefull technical information that empowers others to further thier skill set... thanks kidwicked you brightened up my day!

cheers, look in the electronic battlebox for the words 'OPSEC'. OPSEC andy, screw the nut. i think u know my feelings on the matter. Watch out for the psycho chics, i think the obvious one is off her meds right now...then again who am i to talk

hey trig, lost your email, send us it as a private message, about to order the kit...see ya p

I believe the correct term that should be used for the unamed individual is 'Clown Shoes'.

there arent any to be honest, one of the issues with the sport, a body of qualitative data hasnt really been complied and circulated-olav has written some stuff but not for general consumption. the skydive U dvd's that ive seen are very good though! the organisation does seem to be very good at structuring and compiling information in a format that is readily usable and intersesting

dont get it, i used it as a door stop for a year till it came apart a couple of years ago. not worth the paper its written on

In Apr 03 I passed my AD A. Olavs house in Pahokee was ransacked about 2 or so years ago and they dont have a laserwriter to print them out. I have a couple of mates about 50 AD tests back who havent got theirs either, so i dont know about 100 but 50 ADers for sure I still think the AD system is a good one, but not very happy about having to wait 3 years to get the cert(its a bit petty having a piece of paper but i did pay around 100 bones for it) Stuff like this is probably why not many people bother doing the test anymore, max sympathy for having you house broken into but it doesnt take 3 years to buy a new printer. Pretty bad!

well to put things simply, theres alot of people that have passed the AD A or achieved a higher standard than a AD A before having 600 jumps(i had maybe 500 jumps when i passed my A), so jump numbers alone tell only a fraction of the story. for example, theres a whole new 'tunnel generation' that can outfly most of us who have less than 100 jumps or what about mike mullins kids, unreal flyers, passed the AD at very low jump numers... under the proper precautions one can limit the danger involved with objects like skyballs so i wouldnt mount the high horse yet im pretty sure you associate with someone who's jumped once or twice with a ball and who's even dropped one near the ranch... ask him about it sometime

ive heard that he's got 3 arms and can cure cancer bad ass african shamen witch doctor he cured my blindness

giancarlo triminarche used to spend alot of time there, though he's now got his own place in venezuala. theres about 3 AD B licences that have come out of Kolomna in the last 12 months so the likelyhood is there of a pretty good level. Giancarlo says theres a couple of guys there of a pretty good level. I've heard the weather isnt too bad, regional weather statistics back this up, apart from a bit of rain. Pretty vauge huh?