zonie

LOL J Very funny. It get worse, Im sitting there trying to explain "uh, well, this is a guy from dz.com and uh...", and he's like "dz what?" I swear Im such a dork.

What makes you think that everyone else can afford it? You might be surprised at the sacrifices some of us make to skydive. How do you know? You haven't made a single jump yet so I'm going to suggest that you really don't know what you want. Bigger gear stores should have a decent selection of mains and containers too. You might put 1 jump on the V3 and decide you don't care for it at all. Demo, demo, demo, is the name of the game when it comes to gear in this sport. Be sure and let us know how that works out, I could use some spare change myself. - Jim I dont know WHAT I want, story of my life. Whatever the case, Im going to put in a few AFF jumps and then go from there, one day at a time. Demo is a great idea, Ill start there and see what goes on. Good deal! How many people in this world can afford anything they do?

Shit, I need to worry about money is what I need to be worrying about. This is going to take a while, a long while, unless there is some way to get a loan, so it looks like around 4000. That could be a long time or never at the rate Im going. I knew skydiving was expensive but thats a killer. If I cant afford it then I must not be making enough money because I see a lot of other people doing it. As far as the risk, there is a certain amout of it I am pretty comfortable with, it gets to the point where youre going to die of something someday, but there is like you said a lot of ways to control it, so the reason I like the skyhook. From the way things look right now, if I go through AFF, get through it, then after that Im screwed because I cant afford my own equipment. Now that really sucks, but I can say I learned skydiving. Maybe you can rent a rig for the day but I wont be jumping what I want in equipment. Now Im thinking I need to put it off till I save up enough to go the whole distance. I dont like that either, but what can you do? Feel like I want to just go rob a bank or something.

Are you serious? Thats not hard thing to do, but if you get tangled up in the reserve, well that reserve is your last hope. The thing I was worried about are spins and high speed mals, where you can go temporarily unstable or flip over. I dont know whether to be concerned with it with student parachute openings, what worries me is the high speed mals, horseshoe mals, pilot hesitation, not throwing it out right, unstable position, ect. Im not really too too nervous about AFF-1, two instructors holding on to you, and Ive already got pretty stable body position, so not too much to worry about. The real worries are how far I can go after that. You know, when I think about it, I feel like Im actually going to be less nervous jumping with my own chute than on tandem, I dont know why. Maybe it is because the first time was tandem from a Cessna and that scared the crap out of me. I dont know man, Im weird. I mean, really. Thx for the support! Ill PM you.

Nope, the list price of a NEW Vector III container with Skyhook is $1720. (no stainless, no rings, basic colors, etc). Canopies and cypress are separate. BTW you shouldn't pay list price. How do you keep from paying list price? Deland told me to go to the Square 2 shop at Eloy to order one, would they be asking list price I wonder? Im anxious to find out about that. If the entire process is going to be several months, they should be able to take a deposit.

Hope you get to feeling better. Youre probably better off at home, you can get some sleep without all these people calling you! It felt kind of dorky calling and saying "hows sunshine doing?", the guy that awnsered didnt know who "sunshine" was. Didnt know your real name, so...

If a small ring can fall out of a pocket, then the pocket should be loose enough for the credit card and id to fall out, but maybe not the cash. A credit card can slip out a lot easier than a ring. Ask yourself if the ring was really in the same pocket, or maybe if you mistakenly took it off somewhere else, ie your car. Also, you would have to be upsidedown for something to fall out, so I wouldnt make that assumption right away.

That all sounds like pretty sound advice, the only problem with it is that Im not a "sound" individual. Im afraid of flying in commercial aircraft because of what few accidents there are, same with skydiving. I wanted to give it up because of the paranoia and risk involved, just didnt think I could handle it over the long haul. The thing that makes me feel a lot more secure about skydiving is my own equipment, and the skyhook which makes RSL a lot less risky. To put it in short, I was thinking skydiving is just too risky for me. BUT, when I take a look at the possiblility of myh own equipment, safety feature, docile parachutes, skyhook RSL, I look at that and feel a surge of confidence about it, to the point where I want to do it without having to push myself to doing it. I havent even started AFF yet, but I can go to AFF-1 without any problem (other than the usual "door opening" paranoia). Ive been through the training class at another smaller DZ, and thought it was inadequate for handling emergencies. They didnt even address what happens when a cutaway becomes unstable. The attitude was, well, skydving is dangerous and you can get killed. But Im not ready to get killed, so everything Im saying here is about me being extremely defensive about it, yet really, really wanting to continue skydiving. The fact is, I love this shit, but I am not prepared to take certain risks. Now you had some great advice, dont get me wrong, but this is where Im comming from. Im not going to be much good at skydiving unless I gain more confidence. But this is what does it. Insert the word "used" and I start getting paranoid again. This is all a very big mind game, and Im not in control of my mind. By the way, when you say $1500, are you talking about just a container? I thought that was the container, reserve and main, ect. The AFFs are going to cost, I was thinking of starting the first ones even though I may have to take a long break in between jumps, time and money factor, so Im disputing with myself whether to start or wait until I can get through it without any long breaks. What do you think?

That's surprising!!! My DZ must have at least 1/2 dozen regular tandem videographers with several more trying to break into the business (not counting all us crazy freefliers who jump camera as well). I'm still 2 years away and 270 jumps away from being able to fly tandems, but that's something I could see myself doing down the road (as well as being a videographer). I understand the need to become a rigger, but I'm not sure I'm the right sort of person to do such a job. But I am detailed oriented with my software development career (which I'm ignoring at the moment). So maybe I could become a rigger? I don't need the money made from packing in order to jump. But lately I have been thinking that maybe I should become a part-time packer as it could always come in handy if I was to find myself cutaway from my whuffo computer career and living on a DZ. And like riggerrob, I am also a licensed pilot and could pursue that aspect of the business if I was to become commercially rated. If only I had my three years in the sport and 500+ jumps, then I'd be tempted to cutaway now. There is no point in cutting away, you have all the opportunity to compromise your job with life at the dropzone. When the compromise stops working, then you give them the ol' flip off and spend more time at the DZ while youre casually looking for something else. See, the difference between you, and the career oriented dumbass (COD) is that you have a life well beyond work, the COD doesnt, so he always has to take shit and suck up to keep his life. But as for you, well, either way, you win.

Ha ha, yep I have, about 10 times now, and itll get you 10-20. Or you can just pull your cutaway handle without worrying about the reserve. Its debatable why "Redline" pulled the cutaway and committed suicide, but I think as a careful watcher, he did it in the interests of the team. With "Redline" dead, there are no charges to be filed and no implication to the team that just won the gold medal, so the team goes on. "Redline" was beaten in the speed star race in the end, so he wanted the other guy to take over since he was the fastest. What I dont like about it is that it tries to give a "feel" for what skydiving is, and nobody can get the feel for what skydiving is unless they jump. Then and only then do you know what skydiving feels like. To me, it feels pretty fucking radical, and extremely serious. This isnt one of those sports that give you the opportunity to bullshit until youre safe on the ground.

Whats astonishing here is the delivery time, for the Vector-3 youre talking about 3 months? Wow. The base price is better than I expected. Thanks for the info, so I can see this is a pretty major undertaking which is going to require some time, so I guess I can plan around it. I dont want to continue on with training unless Im jumping my own equipment, to me that is the only way to go. Using someone elses used equipment must be like buying someone elses' used car, you never know what youre going to get. Still pretty hyped up about it though and want to go for it, got a real good feeling about it.

Yea, I just talked to someone at Deland and thats what they told me, told me a Vector-3 was pretty reliable and had a lot of safety features, sounded pretty good. I saw an advertisement on it in the Breakaway video from Deland, FL. Forgot to ask them a price range. Im thinking maybe take a riggers course before committing to anything, cause I dont know shit.

I want to buy a rig in July with docile parachutes, with a skyhook, planning on getting it from Deland, FL & talking to a salesman right now. Other than this I dont know what I want, brand, ect., but Im focusing on reliablility. Any advice?

Guess thats something else I better not get cause I aint going back in no hospital again after that last episode. Still have the scar 20 years later.

These guys got me back in the plane when I had freaked out over one of those situations and couldnt deal with going up anymore. I saw there were other people who were once as paranoid as I was, so it wasnt just me. Im new to the sport, skydiving is a pretty tough barrier to start out in, no doubt about it. This shit aint easy at all for a first timer, especially someone who is afraid of flying in the first place. Funny thing, Ive already talked to two girls who had bungie jumped before, who said skydiving is way too scary and they would never do it. Id never bungie jump....too scary, dont know if I could deal with that "falling" rush.

I called to tell her I hope she was okay, a guy awnsered the phone and said she was peeing. Said they "pulled everything out" and she has 22 staples, sounds pretty major, whatever it was they "pulled out". Poor girl, hope shes okay. They aint pulling nothing out of me, screw that! Id rather go BASE jumping with an umbrella for a parachute.

Being overwieght/ high blood pressure/ high cholesterol is more of a killer than skydiving will ever be. Killed my dad, but it aint gonna kill me.

As someone who has lived in this area years ago, I want to reaffirm what she just said, this is a nice area if you have to live in Houston, much less conjested and "out of the way of things", very quiet. I would suggest checking this out above all.

I used to live in Houston over 3 years ago, on going back to visit last Christmas, there was road construction everywhere and impossible to get around. I used to live on Westheimer and Gessner in Quadrangle Townhome apartements, its a pretty convienient area and away from the slummy areas, and I dont think the price there should be too bad, you might want to check it out. Dont go on Westhiemer for a place, these are usually questionable areas.

(!Programming) ? Packing : Skydiving; } Lets try: while( programming ) { if( ! Packing() ) Skydiving(); else Packing(); ) if( ! programming && out_of_work ) __asm int 3;

http://www.pre-dating.com/index.html I went to one of these events to try it out, had seen it on TV news years ago and it looked like something thats pretty reasonable. They are boasting of a 70% sucess rate at being able to line people up for dates. I was pretty damn optimistic about it, no need to think up one liners, you just sit with women looking for dates and talk. I didnt really expect to find a date the first time through, the first time was just to get accustomed to it. So heres what happened. I met 5 older women that were really beautiful that I liked, and they were giving me the impression through expressions, tone of interest, body language, that they were interested. So I thought, "great!", looks like Im going to end up with multiple dates the first time through. I thought everything went super smooth, approached the women I like with confidence, and undoubtedly noticed a lot of interest. I came to work this morning, optimistically looked at the email. I figured, well, I better cancel skydiving this weekend because dates are expensive and cant do both. I had, not one single match, at all. Much to my surprise!!! I had to think about that. I know I come accross as someone who is not into chasing the next dollar, your job is your life, ect. Im more down to earth and would not even tell someone about my job or what I make unless they asked, to me its not something to brag about. Well, the pre-dating meeting was listed for "single professionals", which I think is a dead giveaway for "women who are looking for sugar daddy to spend some money on them". I dont come accross as the type, I went there in blue jeans, a Rip Curl shirt, and I had a very laid back attitude. Overhearing some of the other guys, I heard one talking all about what he does for a living, how sucessful he is, how much money hes got, and Ill just bet you this guy, even though he was acting like a complete jerk, ended up with multiple dates. Okay, my opinion. If women out there are just looking for a guy to spend money on them, then count me the fuck out, cause I dont care how prissy you are or what kind of hair dye you use, the fact is you aint worth a shit. So find someone else who aint worth a shit. Women dont appreciate someone who is real, they just want that superficial asshole so they can get some easy money.

Thank you. Seems like most of legal authority in this country is geared towards petty actions, which the cops scrutinize with unusual persistance, but when it comes to major offenses or having to go into a dangerous environment, you can expect them to take hours to get there. Chasing down people for minor offenses is big money in the cities and towns and is used solely to raise more revenue for the city. Also, people who look "safe" who commit minor offenses are a "safer catch" than a hardened, violent criminal who is likely to retaliate to being stopped. Seems to me the police are there to serve the city government they work for, but do absolutely nothing to serve the public. As a matter of fact, since I was a kid, I have seen the police as public enemy number one, because they always do things to upset people who really arent doing anything wrong and do very little for stopping criminal activity. That is what I have seen, time and time again. Around here if you call the cops about an incident, you usually have to call them over and over again reporting the same incident for 3 hours before they finally get there. This is what you can expect in an emergency situation, ie if your house is being robbed by someone who is armed. And they want to take away everyone's private firearms??? It has been shown time and time again that gun control has only led to a radical increase in the crime rate, NEVER a decrease. Gun control and confiscation takes away firearms from everyone EXCEPT for the criminals, leaving guns in the hands of criminals in the midst of an unarmed public.

This goes way beyond what everyone is making it out to be. Note how this bill is stated: Public Health and Safety Act of 1993 Health and safety determines what is "safe" enough and "healthy" enough for the average citizen, in that the aspects of how you live your life should be regulated by the federal government. So, firearms are deemed to not be "safe" and "healthy" for the average citizen, so they should be removed. What about skydiving? Is that safe and healthy enough for the average citizen? It may start with firearms, but it wont stop there as the government continues to try to manage every aspect of your personal life. To those who arent concerned about gun control, I can say you are going to feel real funny when the government determines that skydiving isnt safe and healthy enough for you to be involved with it any longer. gun control = people control, that is what the REAL issue is here, and it isnt just about guns.

Nah, I've hated C for years. People used to write unmaintainable junk in Assembler. That is why easy to read/write higher level languages were invented. Sure Assembler is fast, but the cost of producing correct code was ridiculous. Then, someone gives away a free compiler and everyone thinks it's cool. Then, they write some good network stuff with it. Back to the beginning. Bit-bending languages like Assembler and C are only good for network applications. Business applications are done with complete numbers and character strings, not bits. The proper tool for the job. Yea, but its fun! Dont get into business application programming, even though Im a programmer on the software team for ACT!, its still purely technical. We get to leave the business part to PM. Ive been on this software team for almost two years now, and Im still not sure what this application does! Any ACT! users out there want to clue me in???

This one had me on the floor laughing...this came from rec.skydiving, "the KING himself", kind of like the "Elvis" of skydiving... "Not only is your information most likely correct, the rest of the story (also suppressed by federal law enforcement agencies) may turn out to be even more spectacular. A live passenger was recovered from the wreckage and my source tells me that while positive identification is lacking (or at least not released for the general public) that passenger is none other than the KING, himself."