deronde

I only recently purchased a merit (190, 4yr old, ~250 jumps). I did 5 jumps with it before I bought it, and didn't have a single hard opening! The main thing with it is that you can't just pack the thing any old way. I talked to 3 people who either own or have owned a Merit, and they all gave the same tip as in the manual about rolling the 4 left & right inlets evenly and tucking them into the center cell. When it comes to flying it, well compared to the PD & Sabre I jumped with, there wasn't a doubt in my mind that the Merit was the canopy for me. Talking to others though this is a very personal thing, and the Merit is definately something of an odd choice some have said. For those of you who don't like having to fuss too much during packing, forget Merit, for those who don't mind, go out there and try one out! --- 250 jumps later --- I no longer roll the nose, instead I role the back of the canopy tight, works just as well and you don't get the rocking motion if the nose opens unevenly... if you're not an experienced packer then be careful as it's easy to role a line into the back which can cause mals... I still prefer this canopy over many others in the 190 range (have 5+ jumps on Silhouette, Sabre, PD-9 & Spectre). Yes the openings are quick (100m at a WL of 0,88) but I've not got a bruise on my body, bad neck, broken ribs or anything like that during all the jumps. I've had a couple of hard openings that took the wind of me but mainly because of bad body position in opening and a dodgy packjob here and there... This baby will take you home from the longest of spots... open that chest strap, deep brakes and this thing flies for miles! (over 2.5km from 1300m and 5m/s winds is my personal best, OK some lift from hot runways was helping me along but still...).

If an american rigger tells me that he loves working on an Atom then it's gotta be good. Mine was not costum made for me, but it fits me like a glove, at first I thought that the original owner was build exactly like me, but he was 20pounds heavier and 3" shorter... I've made a couple of crapy and/or stupid landings causing my rig to turn into a piece of essential body protection, but it more or less looks like it came from the shop yesterday. There just isn't anything sticking out of this rigg, nothing to snag on, nothing that the air can start plucking at when either in RW, track, sit or headdown. The only thing I had modded was a butt strap, which is needed on this rig (I think because of the hip rings which make it more articulate).

Frifallskolan did offer a season pass last year, but not sure they did this year. Most clubs have season discount plans (but you usually have to be a member of the DZ which I'm sure can be arranged if you're around all season...). Check out http://www.skydive.se/. This is one of the bigger DZs in the Stockholm area. Seasons over now though, getting to frigging cold up there...

The song is "Never let me down again" by Depeche Mode.

Movie shown at the Stockholm Skydive Film festival 2002, which I know show to all my whoofo friends to show how skydiving can be realy chilled out as well. it's mainly the lyrics in the song that do the trick... Ride (10mb, mov) from: headdown.net

To draw a nice parallel (anyone is welcome to shoot this one down... this is simply my 2ct): Up until a couple of years ago the FDA used the "regulate-to-death" principal of ensuring that only safe drugs reached the US market. Over the past few years this has started to change into a risk assesment based approach. Without going into a lot of unnessary detail, this approach means that the FDA has become much more a teaching body, showing industry why certain checks are critical to the safety of a drug and much less a police-force who tells industry what to do. Result: same (and in lot's of cases improved) level of safety to the american public, less red-tape, better and most of all more open relationship with the industry. I agree totally with the content and (what I assume to be) the reason for the letter, but instead of regulating skydivers let's try and teach newby/unexperienced jumpers risk management. This so they understand what the dangers are, why it's important to take lessons in canopy control, and to assess for themselves if they are ready to handle an HP canopy.

No need, just imagine it's the kid holding the camera...

Aaargh, another overcast day, another in a long long line of overcast days. I've not seen the sun in 12 days now.. , as a matter of fact this area only had 22 hours of direct sunlight during the whole of november!!!! During most of which I was working. AAAAAAAHHHHH, someone please send me some sunbeams! I'm going nuts & pale here...

I wear a pair of windblocker with some thin thermal gloves underneath. Together not much thicker then 2-3mm, very comfy, and plenty of flexibility to get hold of handles etc.

Dude, you gotta tell me where to find one of those!

Taking this senario your hero doesn't have to repack at all! He (She?) lands in the water, cuts away the main chute (making sure he hasn't got an RSL which would automatically open the reserve) swims to shore, climbs up to where ever the badies chase him and uses the above mentioned method to deploy the reserve...

Ever heard of Absolut vodka? They once did a Mars-bar flavoured version... jummy!

Just got of the phone with mine and it's been 9 months since well, you now, my first . However after 9 months I'm proud to say she weighs just under 20 pounds is 190sqft. and she's the sweetest thing you've ever seen

Totally!

Had one of these days at work where you run around like a headless chicken trying to get everything done. In my case this literally involves running between buildings a good bit apart from eachother. Walking back to my office I found my heart rate being a fair bit higher then my walking speed warrented... My mind managed to wander from work for a short while, and I found myself mentally going through a jump. All the way from putting on the gear, through the flight, exit, followed by a relaxed delta-track all the way down to 700m, gentle flight down to the ground, nice landing... at the end of this I found I was walking in a somewhat more normal pace, and my heart rate had dropped considerably. So, no matter what anyone else says, skydiving is relaxing. I for one am going to make a habbit of this mentaly going through a jump during my working day... Point to this post? None really, just thought I'd share a relaxing moment with y'all.