JGarcia

Different course directors have different policies and rates. Also, the number of participants going through the course has a lot to do with costs. The more participants, the lower the costs you pay for the director per day. However, you get to a point of diminishing returns because more candidates can also mean more days to get through everything. I personally don't think it's necessary to do a bunch of work up jumps, especially if someones charging $$$ for an AFF pre-course . BUT that's just my opinion, and I know that a lot of these instructor evaluators make some serious cash holding these pre-courses. If you have solid flying skills, and have any teaching/coaching experience you should be fine. When I went through it, our course director explicitly told us what he expected from us, and told exactly what to expect from him. If you stay aware and have quick judgement/reflexes in your daily skydiving, the AFF course shouldn't be out of your reach. Don't get me wrong, it is a difficult, sometimes exasperating process, but definately doable and worth it. Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

DAMN! I don't think I spent that much $$$ for my complete skydiving carreer to my AFF rating(jumps 1 through 492

However, one cannot afford to sacrifice warmth for dexterity in this sport! I use the Neuman(like) NSL gloves for all my winter jumps (but then again, I jump in FL). If I had to wear I may not have the proper dexterity to perform emergency procedures. I'd rather live to jump another day than risk that situation. Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I currently jump a Xaos-21 108 and love it for jumping the camera. Always soft openings and the 3 times I've had line twists (2 while jumping my Bird-Man suit) it's flown straight and stable. Coming back from long spots are cake--with rear risers I can out run most other canopies on my load. I cringe when I have to jump ANY other canopy while filming. Cheers, --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I was just at PD about a month ago to take a tour with the UF skydiving club and asked Aubrey (sp?) why PD didn't have a 27 cell to compete with the VX and Xaos-27. He basically said that they didn't need to (refering to Shannon Pilcher's record breaking 400+ ft swoop). He said that they had no plans on putting out a 27-cell. HOWEVER, he said they are currently researching/testing a canopy that is so High Performance, that there are only a handful of pilots that are qualified to safely jump it. According to him, the problem with the canopy is that it is so efficient and fast, that they're having problems shutting it down at the end of the swoop. The problem is slowing it down! He said that the technology (nothing seen before...ie. not crossbracing) was still a couple of years away from hitting the market. Now, black canopies out of black helicopters at night? That would be too funny! Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I too have a Bonehead Bat-Rack which has been very good to me...about 400 jumps on it, with both cameras top-mounted. But like someone else said, I'd go for the flat top pro if I were getting another new one, or one of the custom jobs from Rim World (think Rickster Powell's camera helme). They start at something like $1100, but are nearly beautifully designed. Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Hey Katie, we didn't get to do it in Eloy, but there's still a chance to get that 2-way Bird-man rodeo with Chuck and I! We'll have a CASA all weekend, free food and beer at the Collegiate Boogie in Williston (about 1.5 hours North of Z-hills). PM me if you think you guys may be interested in stopping by. Cheers, --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Damn, just read this one last night. Sounded like a pretty hairy situation. Cool nerves and your SOPs saved your ass! It was good to meet you at Eloy, unfortunately I had to leave on Sunday (29th) to go Snowboarding up north. We'll have to get some flights in soon! Say hello to Katie for me! ...ordering some riser inserts today. Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I was popping Cold-EEEze Zinc Lozenges left and right while I was there because I saw everyone was sick and didn't want to be down for the boogie and the snowboarding that followed after I left on the 29th. So somehow I managed to avoid getting sick. The older guy (Gary) that was with me just got was sick as a dog this weekend...wonder if the sickness was incubating since Eloy. By the way, Mandy, you're freakin' HOT!! Maybe one day we'll do that Bird-Man Rodeo we talked about. I know you had Gary hot and bothered everytime you walked by! Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

LEROY!! Sorry we couldn't get a flight in at Eloy, things were always hectic. I remember you talking about the spin after your jump...when I did my first rodeo, my passenger and I were quite unstable for a good 5 seconds. I think it's all about where they're hanging on. That first one was out of a King Air, and with the narrow door, it's very hard to get lined up towards the relative wind. Maybe the best thing for a side exit is to do a front loop out of the plane before spreading clean wings. During this time, the passenger can adjust their position slightly. Don't know, however, cuz haven't tried it personally...maybe this weekend. I ended up doing a 2-way rodeo with Mark (not a DZ.comer), Jill as his passenger, Christina (cmnorris) as my passenger, and Christian (DZ.comer) doing video, out of the Skyvan and it ROCKED. Felt a little unstable during turns, but overal very stable since we backed out of the van, into the wind. Christian was unable to keep up with us, finally say him filming from way below while tracking on his back. My Pro-Track read the avg speed as 107 mph. Let me know how the next rodeo goes. --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Unfortunately, the picture had to be taken down per request from 300-way.com webmaster/organizer. --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Damn, that's a harsh opinion. I'm not sure if I'd go as far as calling it another odd design, it's just a different way to skin the proverbial cat: increasing performance/efficiency/consistency of your wing. --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Hey, smart ass... if you would've read on in the thread, you would have read: ...by the way, cmnorris is my gf and was the passenger on said rodeo dive. --Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Huh, I'll have to try it with her sitting behind my rig...on our jump she was pretty much stradling my rig. Seems like it would be easier to hang on the way you're describing. Thanks John! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

My passenger just rolled off and watched me fly off...she said she was really surprised at how quickly I slowed down...said I was 100 ft above her in a matter of seconds. Must've been a cool view. --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I have a very limited number of Bird-Man jumps (20), however, I feel very comfortable flying my Skyflyer. I've gotten it unstable/recovered to check out the scary limits before this jump. We tried exiting as Vesatoro states, but the small door on King Air made things rather unstable for the first 2 seconds of the exit. However, with an Otter you should have no problems exiting squarely into the relative wind. Definately fun...but you should've seen the smile on my passenger's face when we landed. Definately a fun dive. Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Deuce, you da man! Video of a rodeo would be sweet! Just did my first rodeo/first bird-man rodeo Sunday, and posted on the Wing-Suit flyer's Forum. And you're right about video guys/gals never having video/pics of themselves. I'm supposed to write a profile of myself for the NSL website (I won a new PD Velocity 90 for $999 from the NSL), and it's taken me 2 weeks to hunt down pictures of myself to send along. Anyway, thanks fo rthe offer, I just might take you up on it! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Yo! More than likely all my video jumps will be of the DZ.commer madness...however, my jumps won't be limited to just video jumps. I'm taking my Skyflyer Bird-Man suit to do some flocking down there. Should be a blast! Hey, did you guys check out the RAWA helmets thread? Those are sweet! 7 more days for me... Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

HAHAHA, I nearly fell off my chair when I read this. I was like "damn, she knows about that??" Then I realized it was you, Lisa...one of my ass biting victims. Although, I bit you a bit harder than most, because you need it rough. Oh, and... Mikkif, I coouldn't agree with you more! But you're not a bite geek, you're a bite connosseur! Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I fly a Bat-Rack and have a PC-100 AND a Nikon N70 top mounted. I would mount the box further front, so IF you ever have line snagging, you could at least use your peripheral vision to help you visualize what's going on. With crap happening behind your head, there's very little you can do but hack away with a hook knife for the rest of your life, or jettison the camera helmet system. Having said this, I must admit that this post is rather disturbing . You would rather have a set up that greatly increases your chance of a line snag partly for the sake of achieveing "the freefly look"???? (I really hope you were kidding) But, you've already had riser strikes???? I know that no helmet is snag proof, but if you're already jumping one that allows for better mounting options, why not consider the safety benefits, if not the practical ones. Additionally, check out Chronicles III and other freefly vids that show some of the world's top freeflyers with mounted cameras on say, an optik, or even Gaths. I freefly, I flat fly, I fly wing suits, I swoop. Having a top mounted camera allows me to have a safe, versatile setup that I can use effectively on any type of jump. Like someone posted earlier on another thread, it's not IF you get your side mounted camera torn off by a riser strike, it's WHEN. Good luck with your camera flying. --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I couldn't agree with you more, Lewis. It's ridiculous to expect normal college students to be able to afford all this. I know skydiving is an expensive sport, but they're taking expense to a whole new level with this ridiculously high registration fee. This was the main reason why the Collegiate Boogie was first organized 5 years ago...more partying and better jumps at the boogie too! Cmnorris (Christina) and I were originally going to Eloy for the Collegiates, but once we found out about the costs, we decided to just go for their Holiday Boogie. Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Just did my first wingsuit rodeo yesterday (yeah, I know...BEER!). Exit was all messed up because the girl riding me couldn't fit behind me in the door of the King Air as I was trying to exit facing the relative wind. She held on, we got stable, I popped wings and averaged ~105 mph according to the ProTrack. I'm sure I could get this sub 100mph because I caught myself getting lazy with my arms a couple of time...but I'm curious as to what kind of speeds you guys are getting on rodeos. Cheers! --Jairo ...only 9 more days 'til Eloy! Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Here are my numbers: 3 (gotta use any means necessary to keep warm, right?):9 (3 video, 2 Tandems, 2 Freefly, 1 RW, 1 Bird-Man):1 (first Rodeo whilst flying my Skyflyer Bird-Man suit) ...wow, come to think of it, that's my first rodeo jump ever...in almost 1000 jumps. Well, I gess it's not as bad as one guy I know with 1600+ jumps who had never done a front loop until last month when he overheard me telling a student that I find them easier than back loops. ...and yes, it was definately a chilly weekend here in Florida...highs of 55! Cold for us used to the warm weather. --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Actually, that would work. But you better have something damn interesting to say after that. Ahhh, but I have interesting conversation to follow up the introduction...that's the beauty of the aproach. It's usually the case that the girl will bore me with her conversation long before she's lost interest. If a girl is intelligent AND has a sense of humor, then I'm surprised. --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

This has failed me: Walk up to her (them) and say, "Hi, my name is _______, I want to meet you." as you shake hands. Ok, it usually helps if you keep eye contact, as you're doing this. Honest, to the point. Cheers!! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!