Trent 0 #1 October 7, 2002 Just wanted to give a huge THANK YOU to each and every freeflyer who came out this weekend and participated in our bigway event! We had people from Waller, Dallas, Moss Point, San Marcos, and The Ranch in NY, and I have to say that without even one of these groups the event would have been impossible. Thanks also to Max and Patrick who went above and beyond their responsibilities as organizers and coaches. The weekend started off with an 8:30 briefing on Saturday that gave the jumpers the whole plan for the day. We split into 3 groups so that we could slowly build our bigway to the goal of 12. After several changes in the base (Thanks Jon and Brandon!), we had a solid 8 and worked up to the 12. Although we had the 12 way built twice, it was not held long enough to qualify as an "official" record. The idea of getting the record seemed to fall to the backburner as everyone was working extremely hard and concentrating on becoming better group flyers. While it would have been an additional bonus to have the "official" record, I think that everyone involved felt that the event was a huge success. I know I couldn't have asked to learn any more than I did. I hope everyone had a great time. We hope to see you all soon!Oh, hello again! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zennie 0 #2 October 7, 2002 Yep I had a great time! Thanks to everyone, particularly the Spaceland staff, Max & Patrick, for putting on a really good event. Even though I wasn't in on the big-way itself, we did a bunch of drill dives with Patrick that were great! Look forward to the next record weekend, wherever it may be. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rachill 0 #3 October 8, 2002 The weekend was a big success for every one out there. Freefying was awesome this weekend. I saw some badass flying goin on! Congrats to everyone on the big ways. Thanks to Max for the cool coach jumps! Our JFTC raffle and party was awesome too! We raised well over our goal! And if you ever see video from the party, you will know we had a great time! BooYa#1 GR#50 You might be a skydiver if... Your having sex and she whispers in your ear "I've never done this before" and you yell out "Case of Beer" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Levin 0 #4 October 8, 2002 definetly one kick ass weekend. thanks to trent, jed, stevie and eric for hosting this event. thanks to max for organizing the bigways and thanks to josh for taking the day off to video them. i had a great time and definetly left as a better flyer. here's some pics from the event. can't wait till next time. levin vSCR#17, vSCS#3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nacmacfeegle 0 #5 October 8, 2002 Rawking snaps Levin, it looks like Ann will be kept busy for a while editing all that cool video..cya Dave -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
deaffreeflyer 0 #6 October 8, 2002 Cool pix! A guy in your pix quite familiar to me - this guy in red/yellow suit with red/yellow racer rig. Is this David Armstrong, deaf dude from Texas? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zennie 0 #7 October 8, 2002 Quotethis guy in red/yellow suit with red/yellow racer rig. Is this David Armstrong, deaf dude from Texas? Nope. That's Levin. Haven't seen David since the big ways. - Z "Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
deaffreeflyer 0 #8 October 8, 2002 Levin's suit and rig looks exactly the same as David's. Check this pic out:- http://freespace.virgin.net/deaf.fish/14-waydwr.jpg That's what made me asking. Is he in a FF team with Levin? Anyway, this took place last year Sept for Deaf World Record - 14way - unofficial. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pippy 0 #9 October 8, 2002 Your right Trent.... this weekend was great. We are all really proud of you guys. I hope the next event will be a longer duration!!! I got to do a coach jump with Max.... wow he is so bad ass!!! Our JFTC event went really well also. Thank you to all the people that hung out for the party and made donations. We have raised over $2000.00 Peace, Pippy BooYa #1 SAFE IS COOL Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brits17 0 #10 October 8, 2002 QuoteLevin's suit and rig looks exactly the same as David's. Check this pic out:- http://freespace.virgin.net/deaf.fish/14-waydwr.jpg That's what made me asking. Is he in a FF team with Levin? Anyway, this took place last year Sept for Deaf World Record - 14way - unofficial. i know they used to be... but levin could probably answer that question better than me :) _______________________ aerialkinetics.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jdhill 0 #11 October 9, 2002 Pics from the attempts are now posted on my web site... http://www.aerialfusion.com/freeflygallery.html JoshAll that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Levin 0 #12 October 9, 2002 QuoteLevin's suit and rig looks exactly the same as David's. Check this pic out:- http://freespace.virgin.net/deaf.fish/14-waydwr.jpg That's what made me asking. Is he in a FF team with Levin? Anyway, this took place last year Sept for Deaf World Record - 14way - unofficial. i use to jump with david at the east texas skydiving club in gladewater, tx from 1997 to 2000. it's a small dz with 2 sometimes 3 C182s. david, kyle anderson and i were pretty much the only freeflyers that jumped there on regular every weekend basis. so most of our jumps we made together. during that time david was a much better freeflyer than i so he coached me and kyle the best he could with the limited knowledge we had. we were re-inventing the wheel with only videos such as chronicles2&3 to learn by and an occasional visit from goat, raymond adams, dust smith and chris fiala from skydive dallas. during the winter in 1999 at about the same time we all wanted to get new gear. kyle had put about 800 jumps on his sabre150 and wanted to downsize. david had an old nova120 that was worn out and i was one of those that wanted to downsize real fast having only put 325 jumps on my stiletto 107. but fortunately for me david is an excellent canopy pilot and he gave me canopy coaching on almost every jump i made starting at around 200 jumps. either david or kyle suggested we get team gear since we always jumped together and were like a team. in designing our gear we decided to each use our favorite color. kyle's gear was grey, red and black and kyle picked red. david's gear was yellow, black and red. david's favorite color is yellow. all my gear was black and white and my favorite color is white. but david and kyle didn't want white cuz they said it would get dirty. so in compromise i said i wanted to design the suits as long as they didn't get to expensive. i designed the suit with markers on paper and then called tony suits. tony suits didn't want to build them telling me that the stock patterns they had were they only ones they would make. i then called firefly and shelly said mail them the drawing and they would make it. she really likes making totally custom stuff. we all ordered alpha84's since at the time that was one of the most popular swoop canopies. the fx had been out for a year and the vx had just been released. both of those canopies had not been on the market long enough to get all the bugs worked out. as soon as we decided to do the team thing and ordered our gear we started going to skydive houston once a month for the extra altitude from the otter and to jump with other freeflyers. we found skydive houston and the orbit punks to be very hospitable. jim slaton gave us free freefly coaching and when we expressed an interest in canopy coaching he kinda took us in and gave us all the free canopy coaching we could listen too. he even invited me to come down during the week and do hop n pops with him. an offer i should have taken him up on. we had all our new gear by the beggining of july 2000. during the pro blade meet at quincy 2000 david took 12th place with only 50 jumps on his alpha and after the meet decided he wanted a vx. icarus gave him a partial sponsorship on a vx77. he ordered a white one with the crossbracing matching the color scheme of his old nova so that his wife wouldn't notice he bought a new canopy. he says she doesn't pay that close attention to his videos. some how he kept the alpha a secret. later he told his wife about the vx he ordered and she didn't care. in october 2000 kyle made an aggressive low turn in low light conditions and had a hard landing that resulted in 2 broken femurs, a busted pelvis and tailbone, a busted nose and two black eyes. it was one of the most horrible things i've ever seen. he is lucky to have survived. the doctors projected him a long road to recovery, perhaps 8 months to a year. instead he recovered very fast. he was out of the hospital in a month and back in the air after 3 months. he had a cut away on his second jump. he's about 50 yrs old. a week before his accident a jumper that travels around selling skydiving insurance sold kyle a policy. they jumper insurance company hadn't even deposited the check yet at the time of the accident nor had kyle completed all the paper work. they honored the agreement paying a substantial portion of the hospital bill and money for him while he was out of work. shortly after the accident the team thing kinda fell apart. david quit frequenting houston as much and i started going more often. in february 2001 i went to work in the pro-shop at spaceland. late last year i sold my alpha after breaking my ankle and got an fx74. it looks identical to david's except for less black on each end due to two less cells. at the time i got my fx kyle got a vx69 and put his alpha up for sale. after 3 jumps on the 69 kyle decided he had gotten in way over his head and went back to jumping his alpha. he sold the vx and got a stiletto107 for a second rig. even though we don't jump much together anymore we still have kept the same gear since it looks really cool and we are still really good friends. i really didn't mean or this story to be so long. but as i was typing it, it just kept going on and on. levin vSCR#17 vSCS#03 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Levin 0 #13 October 9, 2002 very nice pics josh. thanks again for taken the day off to video. levin vSCS#3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airann 1 #14 October 10, 2002 Hey, I know.... Lets ask Levin about his suit. He wont say anything. Quote and my favorite color is white. About how lame is that? White isnt even a color. Levin stole David's suit and he shrunk it in my dryer. If the Firefly girls read this - Levin's sit is tired. He has a blow out in the right knee and he need a new one. ~AirAnn~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
deaffreeflyer 0 #15 October 10, 2002 Whoa, I didn't expect this big. I enjoyed read your interesting history with David and Kyle. Keep it up. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brits17 0 #16 October 10, 2002 hey levin, so i want a history lesson on why your favorite color is white... _______________________ aerialkinetics.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airann 1 #17 October 10, 2002 Brit- Howzit going Squirt! ~AirAnn~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
