Reaching your BOC

[upndownshop 0]

Thought I would share this. It may almost sound silly to some but it was taught to me many years ago so hear it is.
As a previous rep for Sun Path for almost four years and my experience in the sport I have encountered folks saying they cant reach the BOC. Two tried till their AAD fired and landed safely (which created other conversations). I usually found this to be the case with older jumpers especially those with older rigs who finally purchased a new one. As we know rigs have gotten much shorter over the years but unless one has some sort of injury, I believe there are very few that truly cant reach it.
Its mostly about how you reach IMO. I find that we tend to try and reach with just the wrist or just the elbow, if that makes sense. And there might be a "mind set" as well from many previous attempts. I had to teach many how to relearn their reach. I will try to explain it here.
Here is what I would do to get people to be able to reach. Place the palm of your hand on the center of your chest, then slide it over towards your armpit, and try to get the top side of your hand in the pit. From there slide down the side of your body while doing so push your hand towards the center of your back. By the time you get to the center almost everyone is way above and deeper "in" than where the boc would ever be. I found that once they realized that they can reach much further than actually required the "mind set" was gone. Then we would practice getting to that same spot except from the box position (reversing it basically). Sometimes we even took it to the floor in an arch, or if necessary with a rig.
Almost all of us can reach our armpits or scratch the center of our backs, if we can do that, we should be able to reach any boc. There are many other factors of course that may cause the rig to shift out of reach but that usually is not because its too short or high on our backs.
I realize we all are different with joint problems, age previous injuries etc, but so far everyone I have discussed this with has went on with no problems.
Just sharing what has worked with others, not directed towards the incident or judging anyones abilities or disabilities. Hope this helps someone else as well.
And of course, if this doesnt help and one still cant reach it and nothing else can, then A - get a longer container, or B- take up another sport that you can fulfill the physical requirements.

[lauraliscious 0]

Hear hear.

I think if you can wipe your own butt you should be able to reach your BOC, it's just a matter of bending your elbow. I am baffled by people who claim they can't reach it. Was anyone else taught the method that if you can't find your PC hackey to put your hand on your butt (you should know where that is!) and just slide your hand upwards until you find the BOC? 2 tries for the hackey and then to the reserve.

Enemiga Rodriguez, PMS #369, OrFun #25, Team Dirty Sanchez #116, Pelt Head #29, Muff #4091

[upndownshop 0]

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Hear hear.

I think if you can wipe your own butt you should be able to reach your BOC, it's just a matter of bending your elbow. I am baffled by people who claim they can't reach it. Was anyone else taught the method that if you can't find your PC hackey to put your hand on your butt (you should know where that is!) and just slide your hand upwards until you find the BOC? 2 tries for the hackey and then to the reserve.

Id prefer to just slap her ass in freefall!!
Yeah the two that the AAD fired ended up with the 2 try then silver speech, pretty scary stuff. Never thought about teaching them to wipe their ass, DOOH!

[pilot-one 0]

I am baffled by people who claim they can't reach it.

Hmmm. Well I could not reach mine. When I started skydiving I was a competing bodybuilder. Because of the size of my lats and my arms there was NO way I could get there unless the bottom of the container was riding extra low. Contrary to popular belief most bodybuilders are extreemely flexible just as I am. I had to use a special rig instead of the student rigs to continue my training.
Also I found that reaching the BOC while standing or sitting is completly different then reaching it while falling belly to earth. As you reach back in freefall your (or at least mine) trap muscle flexes against the harness which in turn limits the reach "range". Maybe regular size people don't have this problem but it is on my mind every single jump.

[Zarkon 0]

I've never really had this happen to me, and obviously pretty inexperienced, but isn't it as simple as if you reach and don't grab just to follow the container to the corner? Not saying I put my hand on it immediately every time, occasionally I have to feel for a second but it's never seemed to be an issue.

There was a student in my AFF class that had a hard time locating their hacky on their first jump, and one of our instructors put them on the creeper and lifted up their rig to help show them how it can be displaced in freefall. Is this a common demonstration?

[fmmobley 0]

this could be a good excuse for not working out !

... Marion

[pilot-one 0]

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this could be a good excuse for not working out !

I'm not sure if it is a good excuse but it for sure is my excuse.

[Orange1 0]

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There was a student in my AFF class that had a hard time locating their hacky on their first jump, and one of our instructors put them on the creeper and lifted up their rig to help show them how it can be displaced in freefall. Is this a common demonstration?

Part of my AFF training (ripcord rig) was on a creeper to help me find the ripcord from the "right" position (ie arched belly to earth position), and we did the same thing again after AFF, with a hackey rig during my conversion to BoC briefing. It would seem to me this is pretty much common sense, and I am quite surprised to see it does not seem to be par for the course in student training...

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[jwilkinson 0]

Im in the same situation. I weight train 5 days a week, pretty flexible but I have 3 missed handle in 11 jumps.The first time I went unstable and pulled. The next 2 times I went back to boxman, got stable and pulled with no problems. I am aware that pulling takes priority over stable and I WILL go for silver if a 2nd miss occurs. I think it is a mental issue now more than a physical one.

[billvon 2,991]

A few comments on this:

I've never not been able to reach my BOC. However, I've had trouble a few times.

The first set of times was on an Icon that didn't fit me. The rig would "float" up towards my head and swing around a bit. On video, I could see it bumping around 6 inches or so in both directions. Occasionally I'd reach for the BOC and not be able to reach it because the rig was on the "other" side. This led to a few instances of reaching back with _both_ hands - one to push the rig back, the other to grab the BOC.

Needless to say I don't jump that rig any more.

The next time was when I started wingsuiting. Once I got my Skyflyer 3, I had a few instances where I could reach the PC but not easily extract it. I traced that down to my fingers getting tired after flying with the extensions in my hands for two minutes. I made it a habit to drop the extensions and shake my hands out five seconds before pull and the problem went away.

[in2jumping 0]

I had a terminal reserve ride because of not being able to reach my BOC. At the time I was jumping a small rig a Javelin J2, I am 6'1" 215 lbs.. I slightly injured my shoulder the previous week and did not think anything of it when I went out jumping the following weekend. Went to pull at 2500' spent 2 or 3 seconds trying to get the hackey then gave it one more try at 2000' before going for silver at around 1700'. I can say that terminal reserve openings suck!

[upndownshop 0]

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A few comments on this:

I've never not been able to reach my BOC. However, I've had trouble a few times.

The first set of times was on an Icon that didn't fit me. The rig would "float" up towards my head and swing around a bit. On video, I could see it bumping around 6 inches or so in both directions. Occasionally I'd reach for the BOC and not be able to reach it because the rig was on the "other" side. This led to a few instances of reaching back with _both_ hands - one to push the rig back, the other to grab the BOC.

Needless to say I don't jump that rig any more.

The next time was when I started wingsuiting. Once I got my Skyflyer 3, I had a few instances where I could reach the PC but not easily extract it. I traced that down to my fingers getting tired after flying with the extensions in my hands for two minutes. I made it a habit to drop the extensions and shake my hands out five seconds before pull and the problem went away.

I had a guy once borrow my new rig and he went to reach for it and couldnt, he got smart reach up with left hand grab the lateral and pulled the rig down and grab it. I dont think I would have thought of that. Yes he was a very experienced jumper.

Your floating rig, man thats a real issue as you know. Sort of what I was saying in my first post, its not that the rigs are too short, its more when they shift or lift that it becomes a different issue than just being able to reach well enough to grab it.

The only real problem I have had was with a brand new pair of gloves, darn things were to slippery, yes i went three times for it and was low, but I knew I was there and knew what the problem was. I had just paid 20.00 for the gloves 10 minutes before the jump. I landed and walked around saying jumped once gloves for sale 5.00!! I ended up giving the gloves to a whuffo female friend of mine.

[dfairleigh11 0]

I had a terminal reserve ride as well on the 8th jump on my new Mirage G4, which I transitioned to from a ripcorded Infinity. When I ordered it I didn't recognize that different containers were different lengths, and standing up I had no problems reaching it, so after a couple of close calls in the first 7 jumps, I went for the hacky after a 2-way, couldn't get more than fingertips on it, and went silver (actually, it's a smiley face pillow handle) when I had tried twice while less than stable and my audible hard deck alarm went off passing through 2200'.

NOT A FUN OPENING. That jump cost me almost $400, after losing the freebag & pc and the nice new smiley pillow handle from the opening shock.

But I still am jumping it, started doing yoga and lots of practice pulls laying on the ground, and changed my pulling motion from out to the side to straight forward/down to my hip/butt and right up to the hacky. I've also noticed that it's significantly harder to get my arm back after cupping hard for a whole jump, which I frequently have to do since I'm a big guy and most of the people I jump with are not. I'm finally back to a semi-comfortable point jumping again, but I sure could have skipped the 25 or so jumps that all I could really think about was "am I going to be able to reach my handle at pull time?"

"We'll start the ass kissing with you"

[upndownshop 0]

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I had a terminal reserve ride as well on the 8th jump on my new Mirage G4, which I transitioned to from a ripcorded Infinity. When I ordered it I didn't recognize that different containers were different lengths, and standing up I had no problems reaching it, so after a couple of close calls in the first 7 jumps, I went for the hacky after a 2-way, couldn't get more than fingertips on it, and went silver (actually, it's a smiley face pillow handle) when I had tried twice while less than stable and my audible hard deck alarm went off passing through 2200'.

NOT A FUN OPENING. That jump cost me almost $400, after losing the freebag & pc and the nice new smiley pillow handle from the opening shock.

But I still am jumping it, started doing yoga and lots of practice pulls laying on the ground, and changed my pulling motion from out to the side to straight forward/down to my hip/butt and right up to the hacky. I've also noticed that it's significantly harder to get my arm back after cupping hard for a whole jump, which I frequently have to do since I'm a big guy and most of the people I jump with are not. I'm finally back to a semi-comfortable point jumping again, but I sure could have skipped the 25 or so jumps that all I could really think about was "am I going to be able to reach my handle at pull time?"

Glad you are getting more comfortable with it. Just a side note, if you are always cupping as you say, you may try a larger jumpsuit, I am sure someone has mentioned that to you. But FYI when you are on the "edge" of your range you lose the ability to control other things. Just passing this along as well.

Be well
J

[idlewild70 0]

This is why i am still grounded. I had shoulder surgery in october and don't feel comfortable with the motion i have to reach my pilot chute. Still working to get the strength and flexability back. I dont want to re-learn my reach for deployment. I'd rather wait a couple of more weeks then go to silver AGAIN because i cant reach my handle.

-Fish


Blue skies, Soft landings

[dfairleigh11 0]

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Just a side note, if you are always cupping as you say

Thanks for that - I only have to cup a ton for the people around my skill level, and I did get a pretty baggy suit, plus we're all learning quite a bit in the process about speeding up and slowing down while staying in control - but I very much understand what it feels like to almost get back up to somebody (or have them get down to me) and then I slip off the bubble. Sucks .

"We'll start the ass kissing with you"

[upndownshop 0]

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Just a side note, if you are always cupping as you say

Thanks for that - I only have to cup a ton for the people around my skill level, and I did get a pretty baggy suit, plus we're all learning quite a bit in the process about speeding up and slowing down while staying in control - but I very much understand what it feels like to almost get back up to somebody (or have them get down to me) and then I slip off the bubble. Sucks .

Another hint when de-arching bring your fingertips together and push down. You will be pleasently suprised. By bringing the arms closer together your creat more drag between the arms especially with a large jumpsuit. Give it a shot bet it works.

[upndownshop 0]

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This is why i am still grounded. I had shoulder surgery in october and don't feel comfortable with the motion i have to reach my pilot chute. Still working to get the strength and flexability back. I dont want to re-learn my reach for deployment. I'd rather wait a couple of more weeks then go to silver AGAIN because i cant reach my handle.

Try what i mentioned in the first post, and I would suggest doing it with the rig on and on the floor arching after some standing attempts. Let me know how you do... Got to keep them youngens safe. LOL Be well

[Rdutch 0]

I have a different situation. I dont know what size, but I borrowed my friends Javelin for a weekend of 4way video (40 jumps). It was a very small Javelin made (I think 84 main, 106 reserve). I ended up doing serious damage to my shoulder due to the angle I had to put my arm in, to reach and pull the hackey. Originally I couldnt figure out what caused the injury, until a few months later I put the rig on and did a hackey check, the pain imediately returned. The boc was very high on my back. It put my arm at a weird twist to reach it, add the throw and it put my arm at an unnatural angle. This isnt a problem with a longer or bigger rig. Im sure this isnt a Javelin problem, more of a tiny short rig problem. If your taller, and/or have longer arms I would suggest a bigger rig.
Ray

Ray
Small and fast what every girl dreams of!

[davelepka 4]

Here's the problem everyone is having - the rigs are all built wrong. That's right, I said it.

Not too long ago (maybe 10 or 12 years), tiny rigs hit the market, and the race to jump a small rig was on. The problem was that all the manufacturers took all size off the bottom of the container. The length of the yoke, and top of the rig remained up by the shoulders, but the bottom kept creeping up higher and higher.

When I ordered my Infinity, I had them add a few inches to the yoke, and it makes all the difference in the world. My rig sits noticeably lower on my bacj than others, and in addition to making the hackey very easy to reach, it's extra comfortable to lean against in the plane.

I only have 500 or 600 jumps on the rig, so I have no plans to replace it anytime soon, but I know that when I do, I won't buy anything without an extended yoke.

For the record, I think Wings makes a 'tall' size rig with a longer container and a standard yoke, also a good choice.

[upndownshop 0]

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Here's the problem everyone is having - the rigs are all built wrong. That's right, I said it.

Not too long ago (maybe 10 or 12 years), tiny rigs hit the market, and the race to jump a small rig was on. The problem was that all the manufacturers took all size off the bottom of the container. The length of the yoke, and top of the rig remained up by the shoulders, but the bottom kept creeping up higher and higher.

When I ordered my Infinity, I had them add a few inches to the yoke, and it makes all the difference in the world. My rig sits noticeably lower on my bacj than others, and in addition to making the hackey very easy to reach, it's extra comfortable to lean against in the plane.

I only have 500 or 600 jumps on the rig, so I have no plans to replace it anytime soon, but I know that when I do, I won't buy anything without an extended yoke.

For the record, I think Wings makes a 'tall' size rig with a longer container and a standard yoke, also a good choice.

With a Javelin one thing that can be done is changing the location of where the lats attach on the MLW in relation to the Rings. They can do a "split" which could raise or lower the rig on your back.

They do make a S or L short or long version on most sizes as well. Which I believe most mfrs do these days.

You know we could do what ole Mike Michigan does, has a reverse ripcord on his racer. The housing runs along the bottom rather than the top thus requireing the ripcord to be pulled up. Of course that requires a spring loaded PC.

[riggerrob 643]

Yup!
Another problem created by stupid, fat, white men jumping rigs originally designed for tiny (100 pound) Japanese girls.

[airtwardo 7]

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A few comments on this:

I've never not been able to reach my BOC. However, I've had trouble a few times.

The first set of times was on an Icon that didn't fit me. The rig would "float" up towards my head and swing around a bit. On video, I could see it bumping around 6 inches or so in both directions. Occasionally I'd reach for the BOC and not be able to reach it because the rig was on the "other" side. This led to a few instances of reaching back with _both_ hands - one to push the rig back, the other to grab the BOC.

Needless to say I don't jump that rig any more.

The next time was when I started wingsuiting. Once I got my Skyflyer 3, I had a few instances where I could reach the PC but not easily extract it. I traced that down to my fingers getting tired after flying with the extensions in my hands for two minutes. I made it a habit to drop the extensions and shake my hands out five seconds before pull and the problem went away.

I had a guy once borrow my new rig and he went to reach for it and couldnt, he got smart reach up with left hand grab the lateral and pulled the rig down and grab it. I dont think I would have thought of that. Yes he was a very experienced jumper.

Your floating rig, man thats a real issue as you know. Sort of what I was saying in my first post, its not that the rigs are too short, its more when they shift or lift that it becomes a different issue than just being able to reach well enough to grab it.

The only real problem I have had was with a brand new pair of gloves, darn things were to slippery, yes i went three times for it and was low, but I knew I was there and knew what the problem was. I had just paid 20.00 for the gloves 10 minutes before the jump. I landed and walked around saying jumped once gloves for sale 5.00!! I ended up giving the gloves to a whuffo female friend of mine.

You make some good points here...

As you know, the team I jump with has 15-20 different rigs in inventory and they all fit different.

A habit I've gotten into doing demos is to hook my left thumb under the left MLW below the reserve handle and push out...seems to anchor the rig to my back and put all the main deployment handles in an easy position to grab.

We have a guy on the team that went silver 2X's last year at shows because he couldn't reach the handle...on one instance I was above and watching him struggle.

I think it was a case of muscle memory conflict, because his hand kept going to exactly where his personal sport rig hacky sits...something to consider if jumping different or 'new' to you gear.

I also have to wonder why it was we all went to the hacky handle as opposed to the PVC handle...was it a safety thing or purely aesthetics?

Two of my personal rigs have the old PVC handle and when the PC is packed carefully the handle sits flat against the mouth of the spandex pocket and never moves...my latest rig has a hacky, because of the weight & wind it does seem to have a little play to move around.

Never had any problems with it...just and observation.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[Orange1 0]

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I also have to wonder why it was we all went to the hacky handle as opposed to the PVC handle...was it a safety thing or purely aesthetics?

If by PVC you mean those tubes... I've got my fingers caught in one once, round about my 20th jump or so. Not fun.

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[skydiverek 63]

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If by PVC you mean those tubes... I've got my fingers caught in one once, round about my 20th jump or so. Not fun.

Put a wine cork in it, or a piece of foam sprayed with a hair spray.