fedykin

by the way, im in rag, minging---

if anyone here has the chance to do a dive with jon, do it no matte the cost he makes everything soooo simle- and mcuh much more than that -- he is a really good human being--! in the minority sensi na rei good man(phenominal teacher---!!!!!!!- one of the few!!)

everyones discussed babylon more than once and this is my take. compared to the US coaches, i find that on the whole the standing of 'coaching' is much higher in the states and the coaches take the business of coaching a bit more seriously. i also find that the standard of the flying of the coaches also significantly higher in the US, not doubt directly linked to lower jumo ticket prices and the higher per person GDP. in europe i think there is a bit more imagination with the whole concept of freeflying. whereas some US flyers ive encountered see freeflying in a fairly black and white sense(headup/down, tracking) guys like the babylonians see it in shades of grey, the whole spectrum with all the subtleties. you can attribute this to tastes or economics--- to get really got at 1 competition dive takes alot of cash, or you can just use you imagination and get ok at a totally unique dive or type of flying ie...atmonauti. do what you like, ive got nothing but the highest respect for babylon and all of the US coaches ive jumped with(flyboyz, alaska jon). have fun

im jumping a stiletto 135 now and in about a year im going to downsize/ change canopies. either a 120 stiletto or a vengence of one size or another. what has anyone noticed about the real handling differences between stilettos and vengences ie.. recov arcs, flare, openiing. is it worth the extra hassle ie..packing volume, opennings and all the palava associated with a really high performance canopy cheers

who in the US is still doing tests - mike swanson etc..

thanks alot! im going to spain(empuria) and will be jumping with Ippo Fabi, if i get an AD test with Ippo video'd and get it to him, can i get my AD licence. or failing that what's up with the training they're gonna do in spain ie... ad tests at castellon i really wana do my ad test and can do it with Ippo, but ippo doesnt give out licences(he said he hasent doneit for about 2 years). Thanks alot!!! Also can you find out how to book for the space games, i contacted stephania on the website but no reply thanks again piers arghkill@hotmail.com

has he done this before? who in the US does tests now?

whats up with the space games in spain this year? all i can get is some old info on olavs site stefania doesnt reply to email requests for info whats up? are they gonna do ad tests there? who else does now days? ippo in empuria says he doesn't who does in europe? who does in the US? whats up with olav now that skydive america went under?

whats up, ill be in empuria from 26th of july till 30th august, wana do 250 + jumps, AD training with ippo, mass destruction and violence... wana do some training, my training partner and i are gonna do 10/day. have fun, dont get caught piers

trig, can you book the apartments for maurici from the 26th of july till the 30th of august for 6 people and forward the details to andy so he can put a deposit down, thanks dude p

any individual can claim to be attempting to positivelly affect events but i think that there is a pretty clear difference between willpower and the lack there of. stalling for time(inspectors more time, more time etc..), so called franco-german allainces to attempt to undermine the US, cosy relatioships with Iraq are all not what i would call a reasonable attempt to affect outcomes. what happened to woodreau wilsons leaque of nations, attempts to pacify dictators etc... i think worldwide everyone agrees the world would be a better place without saddam but the difference comes from the means to do so, not the end, as that is agreed, a democratic iraq. The prefered means in europe seems to be total innaction and apathy, the status quo. In the west(i include UK)the course is infinatelly more pro-active, the same course of action which has saved europe more than once.

sorry, but the 'neibhors declaring war on iraq' is totally implausable. what happened to iraq when it invaded kuwait?--- syria and kuwait have both been exceeding thier opec quotas for the last 2 years, no wars declared yet.

I ve done alot over the 2 years(60 or so) ive been jumping, though when i did 15 in 3 days with Alaska Jon, that made the biggest difference. Heres some things ive noticed you should know when doing coaching 1- The student coach relationship is vital-find someone you really get along with 2- Be honest with how you feel- dont try to do more coach dives when doing normal dives to practice what your being taught will do it. Dont do coaching when your brain locked or tired 3- Drill your coach for as much info as possible 4- Take time to consolidate the info, back to back coaching for a week is great, but better value for money i think lies in some coaching, some practice, some coaching etc.. on the whole coaching will massively accelerate your learning curve! Do as much as you can afford.

a democratic iraq, operating independantly from OPEC would be a very positive force given the current economic slowdown, the whole price/supply defence agrument that OPEC has used in the past will become more or less irrelevant. And a democratic Iraq would be infinately more benign than Opec or Iraq in its current form. Im more concerned(European Leaders wise) about the very conveniently short memories that France and Germany have in terms of the degree to which they are indebted to the west(US UK and all of the Commonwealth nations). Europe, as far as im concerned is reacting very poorly to the turn of the century. When you've had the worlds attention for the last 500 or so years, and events are now primarily being dealt with by another Power you have two options, one being curl up into a ball in a fit of melancholic envy or you can try to positively affect events. Germany and France do the first option. It's kind of like in Lord of the Rings 2-Return of the King when the hobbits said to the treeants 'You are a part of the world too'. As soon as Europe realizes this, and drops the pretense and anti-american sentiment, the better.

im afraid assasinating him is not as simple as it seems. he has half a dozen people surgically altered to look like him, and randomlly apears in public. if it was about oil, it would be alot simpler to open up Iraq to the markets again, the US companies could much easier get acess to it than a very costly conflict. it has been said that you can always count on America to do the right thing, when all other options have been expended. and this is a good example of this. he needs to go, and his regime as well, a democratic republic would be a great example and a catalist for the middle east. Unfortunatelly some European leaders have made some very short sighted decisions ie.. Schroder sold the whole world to get re-elected, Chirac is again snubbing the US because of its 4million or so Muslims and comfy relationship with Iraq. These are two nations that have a blood debt to the Western world that I personally feel they are ignoring.

the issue of stability on ones belly is not directly transferable to freeflying. first one works on correct body position, then maneavers(transitions, movemnt, docking). being stable on ones belly doesnt impart the ability to avoid corking on ones head or feet or back etc... in many cases spending alot of time working on your belly makes that your 'base position' so when you loose whatever position you were working on, you go back to your 'base'. it is just a case of reverting back to what is most natural to you. i did freefly coaching as soon as i finished my consolidation jumps(i was practicing sit flying on my consols too), and my natural base position is in a sit because i have been flying that for some time. docking isn't really 'advanced'. it's just a case of being able to fly your slot were you require it to be, and some independant hand movement and overall body compensation(bottle jumps help for this) tracking, im not sure what your point is. yes in sepperation i track faster then i usually do in a tracking dive, though i have done some stupidly fast tracking dives and some angled ones like atmonauti. whatever, i usually find that the biggest advocated of RW first are non freeflying RW coaches, and older skydivers who dont really understand freeflying. this isnt me on a crusade against RW, im just personally focused on progression, not in my eyes 'wasting time' on RW, and having others do the same when they arent interested in it. blabla

fair point about the square canopy comparison. you can clearly see how the past and personal bais affect ones perception, in the UK they made you do an intentional cutaway with a round canopy before you could go to a square when squares were taking off. the rational for this is unclear though you can surmise that something simular has happened with freeflying. to many older skydivers who consider it a black art(not understood), they try to have others progress through a system they understand(RW strangely enough). If one is geniunelly interested in freeflying or freestyle, then the best means of starting is immediate coaching. Not only for safetys sake, but also because it is fairly difficult to justify spending x-amount of euros/dollars/pounds on WARP or Skydive U, that u arent really interested in doing. What's the freeflying scene like in Germany, ive jumped quiet a bit with Wolf from Babylon, who's really cool, and there were alot of Germans with us in Eloy at the Xmas boogie who were really cool. What's the weather like? Back to crappy English weather, i need to go back to Canada. p

FS1 before freefly?Let me explain why the BPA implemented this sticker mad crap when freeflying was starting the STC realized there weren't many freeflying coaches in the UK(not many now, any of note anyways)so they(all flatflyers, not understanding freeflying)thought that some of the skills could best be learnt flat(ie..warp levels etc..)the situation has changed but STC's attitude hasn't i took 2 friends(starting freeflyers) to eloy to do thier coaching with AFI + alaska jon. One of them who has done 100+ RW jumps kept on going flat, when he should have gone into the ball, even when told and took a long time to establish a somewhat stable sit position, if there is any tangible benifit from doing FS first, i didn't see it. The one who had no FS experience didn't have the same problem and faster learning curve understanding that everyones learning curve isn't the same i still say that i you want to freefly, then screw FS first, just go out and get lots of quality coaching first, and take your time with it. FS doesn't increase safety or make some anymore aware, yeah, its great to have another body position you are proficient in, but overall we are just dealing with the BPA's overall policy of FS first, and another means of promoting it. Back to self medicating myself and the rubber rooms

price wise, its probably the cheapest--kept that way probably so that people will buy lots of coach tickets which is in itself much more productive than 2 coach dives, 10 practice dives, and still not getting it(whatever it is) i've done a fair few with the guys and my opinion of them is still very high, though if you go to the US and get coached over there by someone good, it'll cost more, but in some senses you get alot more as well-more attention, some better coaching techniques etc.. there are some awesome flyers at babylon, but being an awesome flyer in itself doesn't make one a good coach, something to think about another thing- Wolf is an awesome flyer but alot of people don't really know him, he's a really cool guy,but some people get put off by his 'chilled out, who cares' attitude. Another case for , the student/coach relationship is vital. Alaska Jon rocks, i just did lot of coaching with him at eloy and he is unreal, i can't believe how much ive learnt.

i just did 15 coach dives with john and i have to say that he is by far the best coach and flyer i have ever met, and most important of all, a really good guy. if anyone gets a chance to get trained by him, DO IT. i have never encountered such a depth of understanding and an ability to comunocate complex concepts simply. world class flier, universe class human being

what kind of drill dives do you do?

isn't it true that there's at least 5 flaps going into the reserve tray, isn't that a little dangerous ie.. less friction, less contact the better? i like the main flap closure and the tucks but the reserve, i dont know about the mirage

but recently there have been 'safe' spaceballs developed, the vladiball etc.. this is just one option, i dont wana get too focused on the spaceball portion of my question, but mainly on the whole subject of progression

what is everyones opinion on what is the best means of progression and what the balence should be should it be loads of drill dives- ie.. alt 360, dock, repeat or lots of ball jumps as soon as you are capable of catching the ball its a subject alot avoid, some just break into the--just chill it'll come dude bla bla. ive just noticed RW jumpers are alot more structured in terms of developing thier flying skills and are more attentive to thier development any opinions would be greatly appresiated as im off to eloy on the 28th for some hard core training with alaska john, and wana sort some stuff out before he shows up cheers

ya know im probably not the only non-american who finds it more than just a little ironic where a nation that claims to value freedom of speech and hold it as one of its principle virtues is so quick to go to the opposite ... saying 'this is not a democracy' is a really lazy way of claiming a argument/conversation is irrelevent or you don't agree with it... every heard'I may not agree with what you are saying but i will defenend to the death your right to say it'. but anyways, im sure someone will just say' ra ra ra this is not a goddam democracy'. god bless america.