blazingcannon

For our last jump of the record attempts, we decided to huck the entire formation as one piece off the side of the jungle and into the cave of swallows. picture included. It was a short jump, but definitely worth it. Great job, everyone! Glen (haha)

Thanks to Dave Brown and all the record participants for making this happen once again. Thanks also goes to Steve Curtis, whose excellent head down skills camp helped make it possible to include some new talent into the record formation. The flyers on the 12 way were: Base: Simon Chambers Mike Smith Dave Brown Mike Fenton First Stingers: Marcel Thimot Philippe Thibodeau Glen Cannon Pauly Farrell Second Stingers: Mario Richard Goran Lazarovski Dan Labelle Brent Henderson Video and Stills: Brian Buckland Outside Video: Bill Ackford I have included a picture of the formation that appeared in an article in Skydive Burnaby's regional newspaper. It seems the reporter wanted to try out every alliteration he could come up with, as well as creative spellings of the dropzone's name.. ie. Skydrive Burnaby and Skydive Burnady. He also took creative licence with cobbling together out-of-context quotes in the interview parts of the article. Anyway, it was good to get some publicity, however cheesy. Here's to bigger and better next year. Glen.

Let it be known that I have unfortunately spelled Goran's last name incorrectly : he tells me it's Lazarovski with an "i" at the end. I'm unable to edit the original post so I thought I'd put this here. Sorry Goran-dude! Btw, for those of you who don't know, Goran's been doing some wickid organizing at Skydive Burnaby as of late, including a tracking race (Simon Chambers was the winner) and a freefly scrambles, which was really fun. Cya, G. "Spread your legs and fly"

I don't but Burnaby will have it. 1-800-693-JUMP Cheers, Glen. "Spread your legs and fly"

After 16 attempts at a 10way, we finally completed an official 8way freefly record formation yesterday, holding it for 7.43 seconds. This broke last year's unofficial 6way record by 2. The record head down formation had a rock solid 4-way base with 4 stingers and a talented video flyer catching the action. A whopping heap of thanks goes to Dave Brown! His group coaching showcased our strengths, while teaching us what we all had to do as individuals to work well together as a team. His encouragement and positive attitude helped us stick it through to a successful conclusion. It was cool to find out that when he said " We WILL set a record today", he meant it! A special thanks to Mike and Tara Pitt of Skydive Burnaby for their support, to Peter Dedonatis for his generosity in helping to fill the loads, and of course to our amazing pilots who got us 14grand on almost every load, sometimes even bending the rules to do so!! Congratulations to all flyers who participated in the record camp. We all learned a ton from Dave Brown, and most importantly, we all survived the "growing pains" jumps to be able to put our new-found knowledge to use! We're getting bigger and better every year - next year let's nail that 10 way! The record-holding flyers are: VIDEO: AD-A310 Alain Nadeau BASE: AD-C12 David Brown AD-A157 Goran Lazarovsky AD-A324 Glen Cannon AD-A293 Paul Rademacher STINGERS: AD-A309 Dan Labelle AD-A235 Paul Farrell AD-A326 John Zuliani AD-A342 Philippe Thibodeau {edited to add some praise for Monsieur Davide LeBrun haha} "Spread your legs and fly"

Lately I've had so many people asking me for copies of my "gettin down the tube for beginners" doc that's recently been dredged from a post from long ago, that I've decided to post this new revised, edited-down version as a new thread. It's less colloquial and "feel-good" as the last version, but I think it describes the head down neutral position's parts better than the last doc. Unfortunately there's only one pic in this version. Anyway, feedback is, of course, welcome. http://webhome.idirect.com/~blazingcannon/headdown/headdown030908revised.doc Sorry, I dunno how to make it clicky. Cheers, Glen. edited to add: I'll keep the dock on my server for as long as I can. Feel free to pass it around. "Spread your legs and fly"

just look at the top of this page...it's there as an attachment without pics. Cheers! G. "Spread your legs and fly"

siiickkkk! Cya soon Dave! Glen "Spread your legs and fly"

Actually, just to clarify, I got it on jump 310. John Z got it around jump 250. Not that it really matters. Anyway, speaking of tests, I recently did a mock B test with Dave Brown and didn't do too badly. That test really underlines the need for balanced overall training on your left and right sides. He said that to train for the B test, you should basically be able to do 12 transitions with grips in between. *whew!... busy dive!* Cheers! G. p.s. Hi freeflyanvil. thx fer the fun jumps up there in good ol' GBSPC! "Spread your legs and fly"

In my opinion, yes. Balance training of any sort will improve your body's coordination and your unconscious awareness of body position and the proper placement of your center of gravity. (In other words, practicing balance will make you get better at any physical sport, including freeflying, without even having to try) Doing head stands using good, symmetrical, straight head down body position has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages: -- proper head down visuals -- once you get used to it, and as long as you're not using your arms forcefully to tripod your body into the position, the balancing principle is exactly the same as in the air: your center of gravity balanced over your head. Disadvantages: -- uncomfortable blood head rush -- actually being upside down on the ground will mess with your inner ear's sense of balance; as far as the actual sensation of being head down, standing up feels closer to the real thing then doing head stands. Hope this helps, Glen. "Spread your legs and fly"

What I meant about the coach and a mirror trick is: Check out zennie's post above -- he talks about using a mirror to get your body straight and learn muscle memory of a straight body position on the ground. I highly recommend this idea. The coach part of it is simply working with the coach, which is an obviously helpful thing to do. Cheers, Glen. "Spread your legs and fly"

I highly recommend the mirror and coach trick. (edited to add: .."the mirror and coach trick zennie talks about above") Along with that, try this: Go slowly toward the pressure. If you feel pressure on your back, you are going forwards. If you feel pressure on your chest and face, you are moving backward. For a few dives, SLOWLY move your head and shoulders forward and back until you can feel pressure going from your back to your front. Again, -- -- slowly -- -- is the key. This will feel very fish-floppy but you need to do this to learn where the walls of the tube are. (I call this "tuning" - like tuning a guitar, only with your body) Then concentrate on keeping your pelvis rolled forward in the air for a few dives to get rid of any arch. Next, do the pelvis thing along with the head and shoulders moving thing. Somewhere in the middle of the two pressures there will be a place where you feel no pressure. That's the tube, or somewhere very close to it. E-mail me and let me know how it works. glen@niagaraskydive.com Cheers, and good luck! Glen. "Spread your legs and fly"

have fun and remember to practise facing 90degrees from jumprun! cheers, Glen. "Spread your legs and fly"

Widen your legs all the way to the sides like straddling a big horse, with legs still at 90degrees. Push legs down gradually to a wide-legged stand to go even faster. Think feetflying instead of assflying Feet have less surface area than ass. With less ass grabbing air, fallrate should increase. Like Brian Germain says: "sitflying should look like headdown, only it's upright. Hope this helps. Cheers, Glen. "Spread your legs and fly"

Here are some I came up with for working with headdown beginners aware enough to handle freefall signals: hand to chin: " tuck your chin in a bit" flat hands motioning up and down along sides of head: "head straight on shoulders" fingers pointing forward beside head " head forward a bit." hands on shoulders" relax your shoulders, don't arch" hands motioning around waist: "tuck in your pelvis " Probably too specific for someone still at the "zooming all around" stage, but they may be useful as reminders for people refining upper body symmetry to get down the tube. "Spread your legs and fly"