camerone

The nearly ubiquitous Drager Dolphin SCR...my first foray into long bottom times. Around 90 minutes under water is pushing how long I can stay warm, so the three to four hour scrubber limitation doesn't really bother me. I'd like to get another 100 or so dives on it (basically, finish the year), and then it's a toss up for me to either take it through a CCR conversion or sell it and move up to an Inspiration (aka Yellow Box of Death). I definitely covet the new YBODs on display every time I walk into my LDS...

Holy cow, I thought skydiving was expensive if you wanted nice stuff... but then I bought a rebreather, new drysuit, and all the assorted goodies to go with it. I'm out easily more than twice as much as I was for all my skydiving gear... On the other hand, I'm totally in love with the cold, unforgiving Pacific NW waters...octopi and wolf eels everywhere, and those Canadians sink some really cool ships up in BC for us to play on. I'm looking forward to the Boeing 737 they're sinking next spring! Winter's the best time of year out here for diving - viz is great in the Sound. It's also the worst time for jumping, with rain and low ceilings. The two mesh perfectly and keep my weekends tied up year round...

I jumped a Pro 170 last night (loaded about 1.0) as a favor for a friend who just bought a used one for $500, including container, I believe. My usual main is a Stilettto 135. The canopy was a dog, even when l think back and compare it to Sabres, Triathlons, and even plain PDs that l've recently jumped in the 170 size range. Hanging on the front risers didn't even help much...on the other hand, it was so docile, a low time jumper would really have to try hard to screw up a landing on it...easy flare, dead on spot landing (tapped the button with my heel...), and nothing I could do would make the canopy misbehave at all. I'd never buy one, but I'd recommend them to newer jumpers nervous about canopies...this one was just _too_ well behaved. I'd call it boring, but different strokes for different folks.