courage

Good to hear. But now, there is a storm/hurricane over Denmark. I think it is called "Gudrun". Winds at 35-45 m/s. All flights in and out are cancelled. Electricity is failing, and so far 3 people have been killed by falling trees and roofs torn off. We where heading out for dinner but decided to stay inside. Everyone is adviced to stay indoors due to the high winds.

That's good to hear! Just made me wonder since I've been to the US several times, and when I thought about it, I have never seen men push strollers. Not that I have been looking for them either. Anyway, while we're on the subject of idiots. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1417209;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view Come on! PS. I guess I'm not the only guy to browse thru this forum every once in a while

Hi. I've read and heard several times over the years that some americans refer to liberals as something negative. Why is that? What is negative about being liberal. This is what I found in a dictionary: (SOCIETY) respecting and allowing many different types of beliefs or behaviour: (POLITICS) (of a political party or a country) believing in or allowing more personal freedom and a development towards a fairer sharing of wealth and power within society 1 ACCEPT accepting beliefs and behaviour that are new or different from your own 2 POLITICS Liberal political ideas emphasize the need to make new laws as society changes and the need for government to provide social services. Anyone care to enlighten a foreigner...

6-month birthday. As in she was born 6-month ago. We've celebrated all her monthly birthdays, and will do so until she is a year old. The more celebrations, the better. But that was not the issue of the post above

Today, when I was down in the lobby after breakfast, walking with Meija, my 6-month old daughter (celebrated her birthday yesterday), I was approached by an american couple (turned out they are from Montana). They asked me very politely if they could take a picture, because, as it turned out, a man walking a child in a stroller was something they had never seen. I found it funny, thoughtprovoking and rather weird. Poor people. Poor men. At least, that was my first thought. That they have to live in a so unmanly society where you're not even allowed to do something so natural and wonderful as to walk your own child. Or perhaps, this is a Montana phenomenon? By the way, I'm a norwegian living in Sweden, currently at a hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1120_021120_GeoRoperSurvey.html

Of course you can. I used an Excalibur 150 for my 1st basejump in '89, but I can't see why you'd wanna use non-base equipment for basejumping nowadays? The sport has come a long way in the last decade.

Some international records: http://www.hangout.no/blots.htm

Nothing wrong in having a couple of meets (or more) in the US next year, part of the world cup, or not...

I saw something on the telly about this a while back. It is called Gynecomastia and according to http://www.gynecomastia.org/content/general/gynart.shtml: "The condition is relatively common in adolescent boys, and 90% of the time symptoms disappear in a matter of months, or, as adolescence wanes, a few years later. But the remaining 10% are burdened with a social handicap that causes a deep and complex shame, and puts one's relationship with one's body at risk.

next year world cup would most likely have the same layout - 4 meets over the course of 4 month. may to august. so far we have these candidates - US, UK, Sweden, Morocco. the last one is questionable, could be replaced with France maybe. But the official ISSA decision about where and when and how many competitions will be taken in due time, and will be posted when official. Hopefully no later than December 31. Nothing has been officially decided yet, and there might just aswell be more than 4 competitions next year - Australia is a hot venue, too! One thing that is likely, is that the meets will take place the last weekend of each month. Ken

Great canopy. Made my first 400-500 jumps on it, broke my back with it when learning to hook-turn. Forgiving canopy. After that I went on to Excalibur 150, Sabre 120, Stiletto 135, and Velocity 96. Bought a relatively unused Pegasus (120 jumps) in '91 and had Martha E reinforce it. She put a tail pocket on it, too. For some reason, it was stored and remained unused :)

Congratulations! And welcome in the +100 National Record Club ;) I put a note on the record on http://www.headdown.net/default.cgi?id=609, just to spread the "luv" a little bit more.

Decided to throw one in aswell :-) http://home.online.no/~courage/kenlesja.jpg

People are different, and driven by different things. Some will always be offended by somethings, and this will differ from time to time, and people to people. Some like to play in the underground, and are happy with that, some are pioneers, and some are able to make a living from being in the public. Good or bad? Right or wrong? I don't know, but as long as we feel good about ourselves, and most people are happy, then it should be ok. I remember seeing Christoph flying his ram-air at Eloy in '93. Nice! I remember meeting Patrick when he'd just startet wingflying. Nice! I remember the first time I met Jari. Nice! They all had the same glow in their eyes. People on a mission. I've seen that same thing in so many people in skydiving. This could make for a very long list, and I'm sure Felix is fueled by a similar fire, though I've never had the pleasure of meeting him, yet. Until then, I do not have enough information to judge him.

No. We use two Pro-Tracks on each contestant and compete for the fastest average measured over 1 vertical kilometer. After the jump, the two Pro-Tracks are downloaded into the Jump-Track software and the result from the two are extracted by the software. If the variation between the two PT's are larger than 30 kph (~18 mph) the result is invalidated, because of instability during the dive. The software checks this aswell. I have found that my fastest jumps also are clean, straight down the tube, without any instabillity (the variation between the two PT's - on my best dives - has been as little as 1 kph). Incidentally, on my worst jumps (slowest and with lots of instabillity issues) my maximum reading has been freakishly high. So obviously, we should work together and by the same rules and standards in competitions. One important aspect of my involvelment on this thread is the media interest. Media is hungry for information on Speed Skydiving and they will print information, even if it is wrong. All it takes is one uninformed skydiver who focus on his maximum speed reading and wrongfully claims a world record. Once this is done, it will be difficult to get attention on what is right, and what really is the greater achievement done by focused athletes.

You're right. Insane speeds has been registered before and these are several of the reasons why Speed Skydiving as a discipline has evolved into what we have today - a discipline that honour good performance and invalidates unbelivable freak speeds like a +620mph as a maximum reading on a speed skydive, or +250 mph on a freefly jump where you did several transitions.

hey all! here's some links for those interested in Speed Skydiving: NEWS www.speedskydiving.com RECORDS www.hangout.no/speed FORUM speedskydiving.proboards19.com One point to be made is that in Speed Skydiving, we never pay any attention to the maximum speedreading on the Pro-Tracks. The reason is that when travelling at freeflying/Speed Skydiving speeds, any transition, wobble, whatever, will cause the airflow around your body to affect the reading on the Pro-Track, and especially the maximumreading. To make it a fair discipline, we use the average between two hip-mounted Pro-Tracks. And if these Pro-Tracks show a difference of more than 30 kph (~19 mph) the jump is invalid, because you've been unstable at some point during the skydive. To win a competition where you're looking at the maximum reading is easy - just do a quick transition or two of any kind - but it doesn't mean you really went as fast as the Pro-Track says ;-)

Does anyone have any info on these kind of jumps/records in European Countries?

My impression is that people had a great time and liked the organisers a lot. At least, I'd like to believe that K

Yes. Gareth, Markku and I was the organizers.

Hi. Just finished the Big Way Camp at Gryttjom in Sweden. Sunny all week. Made 38 jumps. Two Airplanes (AN-28 & Super Otter). Several 30+ dives. Multiple points. Largest formation was a 41-way but we also did a 25-way diamond and a 25-way jewel. Then we had a little discussion about other diamonds and jewels. What has been done out there? Of course, I know of the 144-diamond on August 8, 1988 and the Arizona Challenge jumps, but what has been done in other countries? Anyone?

What would be a reasonable price for a used Skyflyer? Well, it's not that used. It has done 30 jumps since 2001 and is in pretty good condition. Any inputs? Suggestions?

Hey. Just read the article on the upcoming Belgian record attempt. Good luck with breaking the European National 100-way barrier. And congratulations on the Brits, French and the Swiss (I missed info on that one?). However, the largest National Records in Europe are the Swedish with 107 organized by Sven Mörtberg at Karlsborg on August 8, 1998. (Excactly 10 years after the 144-way diamond & world record). And the largest national record in Europe still is held by Norway with a 108-way organized by Pål Bergan at Rygge on July 28, 1999. http://www.hangout.no/blots.htm Please send me some info on the Swiss record and I'll update the site.

videos and stills. that's Hazy B's master plan.