Guide Dogs for the Blind/Deaf

[AntonKC 0]

Hi,

I'm a recently qualified skydiver and work for Specsavers in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. For those outside the UK, this is a leading optical firm. We also own a company called Hearcare, which is the leading dispenser of hearing aids in the UK.

One of our main charities that we sopport is the Guide Dogs for the Blind, and I think the Guide Dogs for the Deaf.

My idea would be to be sponsored by the whole of the company (about 500 people) to do a jump dressed as a dog.

I have a couple of questions...

1.) Would this be tasteful or not? I don't want to offend anyone.

2.) Also, has anyone done anything similar and could I get some tips as to what to wear, are there fancy dress places you could reccomend? Obviously a long tail and flappy ears would be a no I would think.

If you have any ideas please let me know.

Blue skies,

Anton.

I may be drunk Miss, but in the morning I will be sober - whereas you will still be ugly

[mx757 4]

get Mike Forythe at RWS and he'll jump with Clara his search and rescue dog

[Guest 1010]

don't know about the first (kinda NSFW),

but is that Clara in the second one?

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

[AntonKC 0]

I'm not quite sure if this is helpful or not, but thanks.

Who is Mike Forythe and what is the RWS?

I may be drunk Miss, but in the morning I will be sober - whereas you will still be ugly

[mx757 4]

Mike Foythe has many jumps with his gog RWS is "The Uninisured Relative workshop the makers of the Vector and Microm and 3 rings Mike works for them

[AntonKC 0]

Do you have his contact details? Also, where is he based?

The poor dog. I'm not sure if that's cruel or cool.

Thanks.

I may be drunk Miss, but in the morning I will be sober - whereas you will still be ugly

[wmw999 2,456]

He is MikeForsythe here on dropzone.com; you can PM him by going to the "Messages" clicky that's right below the "forums" one. He's on here quite regularly, and will likely answer.

He's in Florida, and his dog actually loves jumping; she's a search-and-rescue dog who is trained. He has a special harness set up, and goggles for her. She jumps with him quite regularly for training.

Good luck to you.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[AntonKC 0]

Thank you for this,

However, this is going away a little from what I want to do. I just wanted advice as to what the best way to dress as a dog to do a jump and get it filmed. Has anyone done anything similar?

Mike seems like a great guy as does his dog. I live in the Channel Islands between France and England, so getting his way would be a little difficult.

Thank you anyway.

I may be drunk Miss, but in the morning I will be sober - whereas you will still be ugly

[wmw999 2,456]

You're absolutely right.
That said, I'd have to say that I wouldn't wear a dog-head in freefall. You might have a malfunction. But the people on the ground wouldn't know you didn't have it on in freefall, would they?
It would be easy to get some sort of all-in-one dog costume. Just make sure the fur isn't so long that it covers your handles, and tuck the tail securely under your rig until after deployment.

You can certainly keep a dog-head under your jumpsuit, and put it on after you deploy your canopy, start steering, and know that things are OK.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Guest 1010]

(I'm a newb - I have no actual knowledge, just some thoughts on it.)


> Would this be tasteful or not? I don't want to offend anyone.

It wouldn't offend me in the least, but then I don't get offended easily. This question I suspect would be better asked of your financial contributors.

>Also, has anyone done anything similar

most certainly...

(Google for "Masturbating bear" on the Conan O'Brien I don't know the whole story but I saw the demo jump video, and that didn't offend me either. )


Talk to your safety officer (or your version of what we call the S&TA here) about it. If not available, then seek out someone competent with as much experience as possible. Also a rigger to gear-check you for hazards.

First things first - would you be jumping at your DZ, some other DZ, or someplace else that isn't a DZ? (Ie, demo jump on top of the rest?)

Is it pictures in freefall in a dog suit what is desired? Would it be okay to wear a dog suit under an RW suit then peel off the RW suit after you land? (yeah sounds lame but worth asking.)

If 500 people are contributing, is the money great enough that you could hire a professional demo jumper to do the jump, and you could be ground crew and organize / inrease fund raising activities? Then a pro demo jumper may be able to land in the parking lot where you work and the contributors could see the jump in person? This of course would need buy-in from management etc who might not want their folks standing around outside. But maybe could be done on a Saturday or non-work day, who knows.

If you do jump in a non-skydiving suit, maybe do a hop-n-pop (ie don't take it to terminal velocity and expose the suit to 120+ mph air), and probably pull significantly higher than normal so you have extra time to deal with mals?

I'd be concerned with being able to tell the difference between the dog suit fabric and my handles (cutaway pud) so would consider the decision to wear gloves or not carefully. I'm certain I wouldn't want to be wearing costume gloves over the things that I need to keep me alive (my hands).

And, this would be better off posted in the General Skydiving area, you'll likely get much better questions and maybe some answers there.

Like I said, I am a newbie, you need to talk it over (in person) with an experienced person.

Cheers & good luck

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

[moodyskydiver 0]

If, like others have mentioned, the dog head part of the costume is a safety concern, then you might consider just finding a good face painter/airbrusher and have everyone paint their faces like a dog...nose, whiskers etc.One less safety concern and one less thing to blow off in freefall.Just a suggestion

"...just an earthbound misfit, I."

[darrenspooner 0]

Totally okay in my book. Pudsie did a tandem in the UK (a full size teddy bear mascot for children in need). Go the dog man. We also had a chap in superman pants at my dz a while back

[Guest 1010]

Hey Anton,

anything ever come of this idea? Been wondering about a dog suit in 120+ air for a bit now ....

If not that's okay too. Any breaks in the weather there to get some jumps in?

Cheers

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.