JSE

I don’t even know where to begin. I considered Cliff my best friend in skydiving and one of my best in general. From the moment that he found out I was planning on going to law school too we because instant friends. We went through the LSAT, the admissions process, the first year, summer job searching all at the same time. We both wanted to specialize in the same area of law. We hung out almost every weekend, first in Hollister and then in Davis. When we were too busy to jump we still talked almost every week. We exchanged stories and had deep conversations about school, law, skydiving, politics, religion and life. I use to crash at his house in Davis so I could jump more then next day. I remember sitting on the grass packing at skydance planning this whole trip out. We were going to drive down separately and meet up in eloy and share a hotel room. Cliff was late getting to Eloy because he stayed an extra day in San Jose with Jen. I spent most of Cliff’s last few days hanging out with him. The two of us drove around on Thursday when it was raining and made it back to the dz just in time to make the only load of the day. That night we went with Tom and Chris from Hollister out to dinner and both of us had fajitas and margaritas. Fri. night we rode out on the fire engine to the bonfire. After the hotdog roast (Cliff burned the hell out of his dogs but he seemed to like them that way) Cliff and I stood around talking to whoever was around. We had a very frank discussion about safety and fatalities. I mentioned that I felt lucky I had never witnessed a fatality or even known anyone who died skydiving. I don’t remember if it was Cliff or Jon King who replied “I hope you never have to see one.” As skydivers these types of conversations take place on occasion, but boy what terrible timing. We stayed at the bonfire late. Most of the people had gone, but there was a whole keg left and despite it getting pretty cold out Cliff wasn’t ready to leave yet. We stayed out there for hours standing around a small fire until the only ones left were Cliff, Ty, myself and two random jumpers. Cliff and I walked back to the dz in the dark. He told me that he was going to go back to the hotel. I told him I would see him there later and went into the bar for one last drink and to say goodnight to some people. When I got back to the hotel Cliff was already asleep, but he had left out a small gift for me. I didn’t even really notice it until the next day. Cliff was up early on Sat. and by the time I got to the dz he had already done his first jump of the day. We got a group of jumpers together and started jumping. I was a little frustrated that our skydives weren’t all building as planned but Cliff said that he didn’t care and that he was really having a great time. It was getting later in the afternoon and the only thing I had eaten all day was an orange that Cliff had retrieved from his car for me. I told the organizer that I wanted to skip a load to have some lunch. When I got back from eating they were still on a ten minute call so I packed really fast and jumped on the load. On the tram Cliff and I were joking around about how both of us never missed a load because the organizer thought that I wasn’t going to make it. What happened next is posted in the incidents forum. I want to thank everyone who was on the scene and tried their very best to help Cliff. I was totally in shock and to a certain extent I still am. I did my best to help make sure that the right people got notified and that arrangements were made for all the stuff Cliff had in az. I also want to thank the Byron folks who took the car. Going back to the hotel room and packing up all his stuff was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I know this post was kinda long but I feel really lucky to have been a part of Cliff’s last few days and I wanted to share that with all of you. What happened is a tragedy but I want everyone to know and take at least some solace in the fact that he was in a good place, having a great day, and doing what he loved. My heart goes out to his family, to Jen, and everyone else who knew him and called him friend. Blue Skies Cliff. We miss you already. -Jeff E. P.S. – Marco, so that’s why he was always talking about Durian

Does anyone know anything about Mexican skydiving regulations? Specifically some friends and I are thinking about flying down to Mexico in a private plane for vacation and will be staying with someone who has a large piece of empty land away from any major cities. We already have permission from the owners of the airstrip, and the land (where we are going to land) to do some jumps there. My only concern is I don’t want any federales shooting at us under canopy.

I just saw a rig for sale on ebay with a vector 2, swift 175 and a saber 170. Seemed like a fine rig, but also included is an Icarus extreme 104. Why did this guy throw that canopy in? Firstly would it even fit properly in that container? Second, most of the people looking to purchase something like a saber 170 have no business on a canopy of that size and design. Normally I am the one being warned about smaller canopies as I just downsized to a 120, and I am the farthest thing from a canopy nazi. But this just seems a little questionable to me. Maybe I am just over reacting. I can think of a few cases where someone who wants a small high-performance canopy like this might also want a larger square canopy for something like wingsuits. I think someone should email this guy find out his reason for doing this. If you want to check out the auction I am sure you can find it on ebay.

I love watching freefly videos. I've download almost everthing from skydivingmovies.com. Here is some footage of me! (shameless attempt to show off) Not to bad for someone with less than 200 jumps huh? Anyone else learning to freefly want to share your videos? http://people.ucsc.edu/~jse/jsefreefly.wmv -jeff

Actually I bought my last pair of pants and a jumpsuit on ebay and i will never do it again. Both items fell apart almost right away. Most of the items made for ebay are not anywhere near the quality of a real jumpsuit company. Occasionally there is a jumpsuit from one of the big manufactures on there but i would rather get something I know is going to fit because it was made for me. -jeff

Well, the pants that I have been jumping in ripped again. I am finally going to break down and buy somthing else. I know there have been many post about what kinds of suits people like, but my question is what suit manufactures can get me somthing quick. I am a skinny guy so i need somthing that does not have a ton of drag. Just looking for somthing that is somewhat stylish, won't totaly break the bank, and can be at my door asap. I really wanted a firefly suit but waiting 10 weeks or whatever it is now means i won't have anyhting to wear for the whole summer.

I have a cypress that was manufactured in '96 and the only sticker on it says last battery change in 99. i am assuming it has never had a 4 year or 8 year inspection. I want to get it in date but only if it is cost affective. Are they going to charge me for two inspections or just one? -jeff

I've set up basically the same thing at my university, UCSC. We advertise around campus and bring in people to do tandems at a discounted price in return for a few free jumps. It really isn't much of a club but I think everyone wins so I am cool with that for now. Plus, when I tried to go through all the official paper work the university wanted a lot on my part for almost nothing in return. But maybe your school is not a bureaucratic as the University of California. loudawg- tell me more about this $600 thing. They never offered that to me in sc. And BTW our ski and snowboard club jumps every spring and this year about 20 people from that club jump with us

I spent 15 min. in the tunnel and was just starting to sit at the end. the first 2 min. where on my belly then about 5 on my back and then starting to sit. At the end i could get in the right position for a sit but had a lot of trouble moving around. Get a good coach! I was in there with Alaska Jon and he helped out a lot. It would have been much harder to just get in there and flale around

Yea, i met his girlfriend. I thing i actually spent more time talking with her than i did with him. She seemed very interested in everything i had to say :) really cool girl.

Last weekend I went down to Perris for the first time. I went primarily to get some freefly coaching, but ended up spending some time in the new wind tunnel as well. I got there kinda late in the evening on fri and everything was closed. I knocked on the door of the IHOP, which is like a bunkhouse style place on the dz that I was planning on staying at. Everyone there was very friendly and they invited me to have dinner with them. I was a little nervous being a pretty new jumper who did not know anyone there, especially because it is such a large dz but everyone tried to make me feel welcome. Sat. it was cloudy all day and so I couldn’t make the jumps with Fritz from the flyboyz that I was planning on. I went through the wavier process and it was relatively easy. I didn’t experience any of the problems that I read about it the perris hoop course thread. I made one hop and pop below the clouds, but nothing went to altitude that day. I was really board so I started talking to all the freeflyers in the bigway camp that was going on, and I met Alaska Jon and Eli and Fritz from the flyboyz. I was really itching to do something other than sit around and Alaska Jon said that I could do some tunnel time with him and some of the other freeflyers that evening and they he would coach me. I said sign me up. The tunnel was a lot of fun. It was quite different from the tunnel in Las Vegas which I had been to twice before. It was also quite a bit different from real freefall. I got a good briefing Jon and he told me that I would have to do a progression from belly to back and then to sit. I spent a total of about 15 minutes in the tunnel (took 2 hours because you have to take turns and it would have been to tiring without the breaks) with Jon and at the end I was sitflying although not that well. The only way I can describe the tunnel is that it is the exact same as freefall but the opposite. I know that doesn’t make much sense but if you spend some time in there you will know. You really have to grab air when you are in there instead of trying to cut through it. I think that the tunnel could be a great tool for training but is not substitute for making real jumps. This is especially true for freeflying. I saw people their first time in the tunnel fly around on their bellies just fine but even good freefliers seemed to need to get use to it a bit more. I saw some amazing flying in there from some of the 4- way teams and some good freeflying from the tunnel instructors. The next day it looked a little cloudy but the clouds dissipated quickly. Both the flyboyz and alchemy were busy with the camp that was going on so it didn’t get to jump with them. At first I was very disappointed in that, but I got hooked up with another coach named Mico from brazil and he was really good. We did four jumps and I really felt like I learned more on those jumps than I had on just about any other since getting my license. I could really see a difference on the video as each jump I got better and better. If I didn’t cost so damn much, I would be back out there next weekend to do more. So over all my impressions of the dz are good. It is really amazing to me to see such a large dz with so many planes and jumpers. The only cons I saw were that it would be easy to get lost in the crowd there. This is true especially for people just going down to make fun jumps. Most of the jumpers that I met there this weekend either worked there or were there for some type of camp. They were doing 4 way camp, freefly bigway camp, and 60+ way formation camp of some sort. I would like to say thank you to everyone that I meet there that made me feel welcome and to anyone thinking about going to Perris or getting some freefly coaching from a really good flyer you should defiantly do it. -Jeff

single here but always looking for a cute young skychick in norcal.

Whats your high score? mine is 672. -jeff

What do you do if you see another much more experienced skydiver being unsafe or putting you or others at risk. I ask because i have seen a jumper consistently cut people off during landing. He is not performing a high performance landing simply not watching were the other canopies are at at all. He has been told repeatedly by other jumpers and dz staff but nothing changes. Ever since he cut me off (i had to turn at 50 ft and land out) i have made sure he was nowhere around me, but i am concerned that someone just off student status and not as aware of him as i was might get really hurt. What do I do?

Dunno if you are packing yet but i just bought a sabre 150 and it was slamming me for a few jumps before i figured out how to pack it. I just roll the nose on each side and stuff it in the center cell, then just roll the @#$% out of the tail. Opens great after that.

today was my first real tracking dive experience aswell. it was great. i felt like i was really flying. made the whole day worth while.

wow thanks, that just what i needed to know. I can't wait to try it out this weekend. -Jeff

Come on guys. I know there has to be somone on this site that knows how this thing works.

Does anyone have a link to instructions for an altitron altimeter. Got one with my new rig but I can't figure out how the darn thing works. -Jeff

I know there a lot of post like this so sorry. I am a new skydiver with only about 30 jumps. I am looking into buy a rig because at my home DZ the rental equipment is really not that great and I hate paying an extra 20 bucks per jump. Plus it’s not safe for any type of freeflying and I would like to try it out. I found a guy on the internet selling a javelin contain, sabre 150, cypress, pd143 reserve and a bunch of extras: 2 altimeters, an audible, two helmets, two jumpsuits, gear bag etc. All with < 100 jumps for $2500. Is this a good deal? It seems to be, but I don’t really know that much about the pricing. Also I have heard some not so great things about the sabre 1. Will I be sorry if I get a sabre. All the rigs with specters or sabre2s seem much more expensive. Unfortunately up until this point all I have been able to jump is the rental/student gear that are mostly old pd190s. Since I weigh just over 130 lbs I have been looking at mains that are 150. Does this seem reasonable? One of my AFF instructors (who is also the S&TA) thought it seemed fine when I asked him a while back. Also is there anything I should know about buying a used rig. I have already talked to the local rigger about getting it inspected. -Jeff

This weekend I completed my A-License card on jump# 24 and I wanted to thank all the people that helped me get there. For me this was a big accomplishment and a goal that I have been looking forward to achieving for some time. So thank you to all the jumpers at Skydive Monterey Bay for making it a fun place to jump. Thanks to Jess the DZO, all the instructors, Sunset for teaching me to pack and doing my check dive, and Raff for taking the time to be a voice of sanity and going over a bunch of things with me yesterday. I really couldn’t have done it with out all your help. See you at the DZ. -Jeff