JesseP

This is one of the stupidest threads I have ever read. A mildly dyslexic baboon would almost certainly be able to identify the fallacy in the original (and subsequent) posts. Fact: The rate of gun murder IS DECLINING IN AUSTRALIA. The fact that there was a decline prior to 1996 is irrelevant. That decline could have ended at any point, or begun to increase. The only thing we know for a fact now, is that the increased restrictions have allowed this decline to continue for over a decade. The argument that the restrictions (not ban Mr JohnRich, restrictions) had no effect because a decline existed before is utterly spurious. One cannot say that the decline prior to 1996 would have continued. What one can say is that the decline has continued since the increased restrictions. Hooray. So I guess the main point of your argument is that the answer to our problem (i.e. our lack of gun murder) needs to be addressed by having more guns. Brilliant. Please don't ever come to Australia.

I believe there was also an ironing board gainer done from said E.

Well at least you didn't take me too seriously... In regards to the words “Refreshing” and “perennial” being oxymoronic, that may have been the case if my post had not been dripping in sarcasm. Good job listing my previous posts though. That was important... Jesse.

Ah Mr Begic, How refreshing it always is to read the perennial cry of a retired jumper pining for the halcyon days and at the same time disparaging 'modern jumpers' and blowing their own horn. I think it requires significant literary skill to be able to achieve that difficult task. Sarcasm aside, I wonder what basis you are using to make your rather auspicious claims about the ostensible scourge of ‘modern jumpers’. Your post contains many assumptions, the most notable being that modern jumpers don’t understand the risks of BASE. The obvious implication here is that only you and your cronies do. Rather a bold statement. It may be true of some, but those people have a habit of dying or smashing themselves rather quickly so I don’t think it fair to tar everyone with the same brush. Anyway, the times they are a changing but people will continue to push the limits. You will say they are being silly and uniformed while telling stories of your bold feats (but of course that was different) at the same time. It’s all one big circle I guess. Jesse.

Pity you're not a BASE jumper though...

Use the leg pouch I reckon...

Has anyone got any experience jumping (or climbing for that matter) in NW Canada...in particular a certain "sphere of difficult to climb" mountains. Certainly looks like adventure country. Access/issues/problems etc...? PM me if appropriate.

I remember being very scared on exit and opening and then very bored and cold for the following 15 minutes.

Just so there is no confusion, I am prepared to go on record as stating that this year's video is the best one yet. Here's what some of the critics are saying, "Wow, Simon might have red hair, but boy can he edit" "I can't believe the quality of those Aussie sites. I'm buying a large Fox and a ticket to Sydney" "That guy who kicks off the wall in France did an awesome job" There you go. Buy a copy from the Plumbob.

Instead of priming the pins so much, use spectra closing loops for very low freefalls. Otherwise half-way in the closing loop is pretty much fine for slider down I reckon.

If your avatar is anything to go by, looking at him for more than two seconds should have the desired effect...

38 vented for an 8 second delay would be my choice. I use that for pretty much anything sub-terminal slider-up. However you would probably find that more often than not, a smaller pilot chute would work as well in some capacity. I know of someone who took a 30" skydiving pilot chute on a 4 second delay from 700ft and got away with it. Another example is a 500ft cliff we have here. Most use a 42, but it often gets jumped with a 38. For terminal a lot of people use an F111 36 instead of ZP 32. It fits in the BOC better. In regards to mesh size, BR (Apex or whatever they are now) construct their terminal pilot chutes (F111 36) with small hole mesh. I'm no scientist but I'm pretty sure it has to do with the higher deployment speed. Perhaps they can give you the specific answers you want.

Tape works great. 3 or 4 wraps through the top eye of the bridal and you're good to go.

I think brake settings were a big issue in Slim's cliff strike. I thought the same thing when I watched the Mexico video, that is a great landing area. I also wondered if that guy that hit wall at the end even set his brakes. It looked atrocious.

Objective reporting is far from an oxymoron. The problem seems to be that people don't like the bad things about their issue/ story being brought out, which is a by-product of objectivity. If a report only focused on the positives and ignored the deaths, 'illegality' etc then that would be biased.

Yes. I think people should be introduced to the LRM, encouraged to use it for their initial jumps and be made aware of its limitations and potential problems. Then they can make their own decision.

It's probably more a matter of opinion and priorities than experience. The main problem with the LRM is changing it over when doing slider up/down jumps. This is an unnecessary complication that if done wrong or forgotten about can be disastrous. Yes, it shouldn't be done wrong in the first place but we all know it can happen. This is the main problem I see, and for me is far from moot. Another is dropped toggles. I may see this as a bigger problem than you because I would find it very undesirable to have to rear-riser into some of the landing areas I frequent if I drop a toggle when blowing the brakes for some reason. Another is the increased hassle of using it. I don't particularly like the flight characteristics (but you are right, this would be easily overcome if I used it more). I like having the brakes routed the same on every jump. I hate messing around with tangled brake lines during packing. Brake settings have little to do with it. I don't use LRM and have three settings. Because of this, I see the use of the LRM as illogical. If you put any serious work into trying to track down slider down, tailgated line-overs that were cleared by the LRM you will not find more than a few (if any). That is within a sample range of however many tens of thousand jumps on this configuration have been done. Thus, the minute risk is justified due to the fact that I am also eliminating the problems I mentioned above. Most people still see it as essential. I don't get it. I always use a tailgate and have a hook knife. Edited to add: Some people could argue that by essentially saying that you will always use a tailgate to control the fact that you may not always re-route your brakes, you are merely "swapping the witch for the bitch". This has some merit, but I believe my basis is still sound. Jumping slider-down without a tailgate will NOT AUTOMATICALLY result in a line-over. Jumping slider-up without the brake lines routed through the slider and keeper rings will DEFINITELY be bad. We all make our choices.

It should diminish the use of LRM. It is largely outdated, unneccessary and contains a plethora of inherent problems. You will find that there are very, very few cases of a tailgated line over that did not self clear (or that was successfully cleared and landed via LRM), however almost everyone will call you silly for choosing not to use the line mod when using a tailgate. Go figure.

Hey guys make sure you play 'spot the fucking seppo'. It really isn't hard.

No Chris you are wrong. There was one death in Australia last year.

My my, you could really be the poster-boy for silly arguments. Every post I have read by people referencing the word 'crusade' to a holy war have been cafeful to point out that Bush almost certainly wasn't trying to make reference to holy war against Islam. Nevertheless, it was understandably interpreted by some muslims as a direct reference to this. Your attempts to assert that interpreting the word 'crusade' in this capacity is "ludicrous" and "archaic" is difficult to fathom. Your own sited source (dictionary.com) states quite clearly the literal meaning of the word. And you accuse others of being full of bluster.

Why should people who don't want to support the troops support them? Because you're a marine who feels passionately and finds it distasteful that others don't? I'm sure the marines are big boys and can deal with some people not supporting them, they don't need constant adulation. On another note, isn't the reason for this war (at least the most recent reason) about promoting an American vision of freedom? You obviously feel very strongly about this ideal or you wouldn't be a marine. I thought at least part of this was a love for a country that allows all kinds of opinions. Hell, you're over in Iraq dying for this cause...seems you should be encouraging your fellow country-men to take advantage of the freedom they have and smile as they slag off whatever they want.

Very interesting. As a gun control advocate, that would be precisely the 'spin' I would put on it.

It wasn't an accidental front flip either.

Don't be so sure. Pole cat is a legitimate Aussie jumper. He might fly off the deep end a bit but I tend to agree with him. The level of skill shown on the "Australian story" by self-proclaimed world champs was shocking to say the least. Here here pole cat!