NeedToJump

The biggest thing to remember is no matter what happens, keep having FUN! It's really easy to get caught up in the fact that it's a competition and then get disappointed if things don't go well. Some things I'd suggest along this line are: if a jump doesn't go well, don't blame anyone. If an exit is funneled, don't blame anyone. Just remember to smile, laugh and enjoy the whole experience! Oh yeah, and talk shit on the plane Have fun!

To elaborate on this just a little: try to swoop over the water the same that you would over land - don't aim for the water since you don't aim for the ground; you aim to plane out above the ground. Once you have successfully planed out above the water (and only if this has occurred) then gently extend your leg to press your foot against the water. I practiced pond swooping by swooping next to the pond, then over the pond without even trying to make any contact. Just trying to get used to all the differences. Once I felt comfortable swooping over the pond, only then did I start trying to touch the water. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I don't know about defamation laws in Canada, but could this be considered libel since it is a false statement that could hurt the repuation of the business? It sucks that the guy got hurt, but it doesn't sound like anything was done incorrectly. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Happy Birthday!

I've definitely found skydiving to be mostly psychological. There is a fantastic book called Mental Training for Skydiving and Life by John Derosalia (Dr. John) that I HIGHLY recommend to everyone, skydiver or not. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Congratulations!! Just keep bringing him out to the dropzone and we'll get him to jump one of these days Wishing you guys both the best

Yeah, but on our heads

There's nothing mystical about it, but in order to get the PD label on its side a canopy has to go through tons and tons of R&D and testing. By the time a canopy goes from an idea to getting the PD label on the side you can be pretty confident that it's going to be a safe and reliable, almost mystical canopy . Whether it's what you personally are looking for is obviously up to you. I agree with ZZM, I love PD canopies and love the way they land. I've demoed a lot of canopies but have only ever owned PD. To the OP - Safire2, Sabre2 and Pilot are all good canopies. Demo them all and see which you prefer.

Your best bet is going to be to work on these things with a coach and get some tunnel time. AAC is in Waynesville, N.C. Paraclete XP is opening soon in Raeford, NC. Those are probably the two closest tunnels to you. If you get to Florida let me know and I can help you out at SkyVenture Orlando I don't understand what you're asking about the flat track. If you're trying to get to a formation to dock on it, typically you're going to dive down to it, not flat track. You would use a flat track at the end of a dive to get away from everyone. The way the I flat track away from a formation is: I de-arch as I turn out from the formation, I extend my legs completely (I actually press them down a little bit beyond being completely flat) and bring my arms to my sides. I turn my shoulders in to cup air as well. Think of making your body shape look like an otter wing. I'd recommend starting in a delta and gradually de-arching, extending your legs and bringing your arms in to your sides so you keep stability and heading. Fall rate: 90% controlled with the hips. To fall faster push your hips down or better yet, breathe and relax and let the wind pushing against you arch for you. Arching is a LOT easier than most people think because you really can just let the wind do it for you by simply relaxing and breathing. To fall slower, de-arch by trying to make your body from your knees to chest look like the letter C. Picture a string connected to the small of your back being pulled upward. It also looks kind of like a dog when it's humping someone's leg. Both of the above are done using your hips. Once you get your hips working, then add in the arms and legs to find your extremes. For faster fall rate bring the arms and legs in. For slower fall rate extend your arms and legs straight out so your legs are doing a forward motion and your arms are doing a backward motion so you stay in place. This is MUCH more effective than "hugging the beach ball." These are both in addition to using your hips. Again, 90% of your fall rate is controlled with your hips so focus on that. Getting in the tunnel is (IMO) the best way to work on your fall rate. Track steeper: there are a number of ways to do this depending on what you are trying to accomplish. Jump with a coach so you can see the difference. To dive down to a big way as a late diver I will get in a flat track-style body position and push my head and upper body down to create a steeper angle. I aim to stop about 10 feet above the formation and a decent distance back (depending on the size of the formation) because you want to be moving slowly and predictably when you get close to a large formation. To keep the same descent rate but decrease your forward speed you can bend your knees in or bend your arms at the elbows. Talk to a coach about all of this and jump with a coach so you have a reference to see what's happening. That and get in a tunnel

There are a few possible issues I see with this. At busy dropzones with multiple planes you can have the first people from one load who want to swoop while the last people from the previous load are landing. Sometimes these two groups may conflict and then the swoopers should not swoop. However, sometimes the people from the last load will be on their final leg just about to land and, while they are still technically flying the pattern, there is no possible way that the swoopers' pattern would interfere. Another case, which I think is extremely common, is that many of the guys who do tandem video are swoopers. These guys get out after all the fun jumpers and very often have clear airspace and can swoop safely even though standard-pattern jumpers have entered the airspace (and landed.) I think that all the proposals I have read so far (other than your third proposal) would never allow the video people to swoop. They don't get to choose their landing area since they have to land with the tandem, and they have to get out after all the other jumpers. Very often, at least from what I see, they do have clear airspace to swoop and are not causing any pattern conflicts. Obviously if there are other people still in the air flying standard patterns below then the video people should not swoop. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Huh? What's not as easy to land? Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

The proposed BSR would have done nothing to fix my close call either. (Canuck, none of this is directed at you or anyone else for that matter) He was a low jump number, visiting jumper landing in the experienced landing area. Does any of that really matter? Not until we're both on the ground safely. Was there anyway to talk to this jumper before getting on the plane? Nope, he was on a different plane and didn't intend on landing there, he got confused. Shit happens, we both got lucky. I consider myself to be in the wrong since he was low man. I fully agree that low man always has right of way. Once you both get to ground you can sort out what happened if the low man was in the wrong place, but when you are both in the air, none of that matters. Land safely and jump again. chrismgts: I disagree with you. There are times when two jumpers cannot see each other even though both are looking around. What do you mean by "watching traffic correctly"? If you mean "being alert, keeping your head on a swivel, looking all around you and trying to find every other jumper who was on your load" then I stick to disagreeing with you. If you mean something else then please let me know. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I like it. This and what Chuck posted above make the most sense to me. No rule is going to prevent any incidents if the rule is not inforced. No rule is going to prevent the "shit happens" situations either. I've been to DZs where I found out after landing from the first jump that I had broken a rule that was never told to me. I think dropzones need to individually come up with a policy that work for them, explain it to the locals, explain it to EVERY visiting jumper, explain it to students and enforce it. Everyone needs to be educated about canopy flight and understand why a certain pattern is flown and understand the possible consequences of what happens when a conflicting pattern is flown. The biggest problem seems to be (IMO) people who already know it all and the big egos. There are a lot of people who think "it will never happen to me" or "I know what I'm doing" until they are proven wrong. No BSR is going to stop people like this until they are grounded or killed. Unfortunately, they are rarely grounded even though everyone knows they should be. We all see these people do scary shit in the landing area, whether it's a wannabe swooper cutting through traffic and stabbing out just before pounding in or a massive canopy doing S-turns and sinking it in taking up as much space as possible. The problem is that we already know who these people are and very few times are they actually spoken to even though they are already breaking rules. So what happens if we add a new BSR? Great, now these people are breaking yet another rule and still nothing is happening. Education, higher standards from instructors, enforcement of the existing rules. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Because it's happened to me when I've been swooping. I thought my airspace was completely clear and that there was no one else below when I was setting up for my 270. I had my head on a swivel and always do. I always try to be extremely aware and safety conscious. I started my turn as I got about 180 through it, all of a sudden I saw another canopy almost right in front of me. I bailed and we both landed straight in without any further problems. I went over and apologized on the ground. The other jumper didn't have any idea of what happened. He was last out on a different plane and pulled high. I was doing 4-way with my team so we got out on a low pass. He wasn't expecting anyone above him, I wasn't expecting anyone below me. I know I was looking around and still didn't see him. I've spoken to other swoopers and have heard many stories of them looking around, not seeing anyone, starting to swopp and then seeing a person appear out of nowhere. Both people looking around doesn't guarantee that both people will see each other. Have you ever tried to see a gray canopy on a cloudy day? Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

http://www.bodyflight.co.uk/shop/index.html?fa=v_i&id=23 Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I know three very experienced skydivers who were jumping with each other and each had decided to rely on the others for when to break off and pull. They all had Cypres fires and are lucky to still be alive. Please do NOT rely on someone else for when you need to save your own life. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

There is no way that the large loss of altitude was due to you being a vertical dive. At least there's no way that you went 2500 feet in 5-7 seconds. 2500 feet in 5 seconds means you were averaging 340mi/h or 544km/h. According to speedskydiving.com, the world speed skydiving record is 502km/h. To go through 2500 feet in 10 seconds means you would be averaging 170mi/h or 272km/h which is still extremely unlikely. In order to have your average vertical speed anywhere near these speeds, you would have reach a maximum speed much higher since you are starting on your belly around 120ish. It is much more likely that you lost altitude awareness or were in the track for longer than you thought. My guess would be that you started tracking lower than 4000 feet and tracked for around 10-15 seconds. As Hooknswoop said, sit down and talk with your instructors.

I also agree with this completely. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I'm with you on that. I used to be able to write just as well with both hands, but haven't written with my right hand for years now. I'm pretty ambidextrous with most things. Besides, only lefies are in our right minds Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I'm sure she'll only freefly when you're not looking Is Aeon going to be competing? I'd be really interested to see the progress. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

OMG that is too cool! Those girls look amazing in there!!! Congratulations Emma, you guys did a great job with them

As everyone else said, that's not a problem. My question for you is: if you were concerned about this, then why didn't you ask an instructor at the dropzone immediately after landing? Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I was just going by the picture, I saw the canopy underneath the person and thought that's what he meant. My bad. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Yes it is possible to do. There's a post about how to do it here: http://www.dropzone.com/forum/Skydiving_Disciplines_C3/Swooping_and_Canopy_Control_F4/Canopy_Aerobatics_P112305/ Video 1 Video 2 Video 3 (ouch) Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Once again I had a phenomenal time at Tunnel for the Cause; it was an absolute blast meeting and flying with new people and raising so much money for such a good cause. First off I need to say thank you to Paige for all of your hard work. You put so much of your time, energy and effort into this event for so long. It is amazing everything that you had to do to put this event together. Even with all the last minute things that kept happening, you still managed to host a wonderful event that raised a lot of money and showed everyone a great time. You deserve a tremendous amount of credit for all you did. Plus, I’m sure you’re the first person to carve head down in any tunnel wearing lingerie Damn did you look good! For the second year in a row now, the girls took over SVO and made it pink. They also took it over with their uplifting energy. It was great to see all the enthusiastic flying again and the girls having so much fun doing it. You could tell they were having a great time and everyone was enjoying watching them fly as well. We had more tourists this year decide to fly in the wind tunnel because they saw how much fun the girls were having. All of the girls did a great job flying, learning and having fun. Congratulations on the new inductees into the Tunnel Pink Mafia. Later in the afternoon, the guys got a chance to fly and try out some formations. We decided to go with a bit less structure than the girls and I’m sure it showed Everyone flew well, had fun and improved their flying skills. I’m sure that for some of the guys, it was their first 3, 4 and 5 way in the tunnel. Thank you Pete, Jake, Ramsey and Steve for participating and for being open to trying new things in the tunnel. You all did a great job and I had so much fun meeting and flying with all of you. An extra thanks to Ramsey for helping out during the girls lingerie flights and all your help with the guys’ flying. We definitely would not have been able to pull off all the formations without your help. As Paige said, it was great to have an instructor donate and pay for tunnel time. It was great having you at the event. Tunnel for the Cause was, yet again, a tremendously fun event that raised a lot of money and awareness for breast cancer. Thank you to all the participants for flying, the coaches for donating your time, Shane and Bryan for video and pictures, the students, sponsors and donors for your support, SVO and the staff for hosting the event and thank you Paige for organizing and pouring your heart into it. I am so proud to have been a part of this event