mccordia

Already read about this in the Dutch skydiving magazine, but CNN also posted a small blurb http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/07/19/netherlands.skydiver/index.html Although the kid is sayd to have fun, the look on her face in the pictures I saw was more that of fear. And although I'm probably not the right person to criticize this, I must say that IMHO you should wait with children to skydive untill they are old enough to think about what they are about to do, and fully understand what they are going through. Sure she had fun...but what's next...strapping 1 month old babies to a tandemmaster? Come on...wait untill the kid decides that she wants to skydive herself (and untill she understands what's involved in doing so...not just saying 'I want to skydive') Jarno http://www.3dluvr.com/mccordia

Hey, Does anybody know of any pages or online news-sources to get some info on how the BASE championships in Kuala Lumpur (Twin Towers) are going? There where practice jumps yesterday A good friend from my DZ broke his ankle after a rough landing under messy canopy. Even though this is bad (Especialy for the guy himself..Jean Louis, hope your ankle heals up quickly!) the Dutch newspapers made a nice (but too small) report about it, not making it sound all negative, but just stating what had happened (and not using overrated terms as 'thrillseekers/deathdefying/dangerous and such.) But that's about all the news I could find. Is there an 'official site' for the whole thing? I'm real curious to how the event is going... Cya, Jarno htp://www.3dluvr.com/mccordia/

Sorry, I accidently posted this in safety and training. I'm reposting this in the normal talkback section, if one of the moderators could delete this one... Thank you..

Hey, Does anybody know of any pages or online news-sources to get some info on how the BASE championships in Kuala Lumpur (Twin Towers) are going? There where practice jumps yesterday a friend from my DZ broke his ankle after a rough landing under messy canopy, but that's about all the news I could find...is there an 'official site' for the whole thing? I'm real curious to how the event is going...

Check the gear of a first jump student, grab the back of his rig, and in disbelief say "What the?....who did this....aah..hm.....ah, wait..this 'might' work...never mind...." Let the tandem in on the fact that you didn't know the pilot was allowed to fly again in this country.. Ask the tandem instructor if 'that' shouldn't be attached to him (while pointing to the back of the tandempassenger) Man I'm bored :)

After an incredible trip to Venice (Italy) on my motorcycle (together with my Girl:) and a free 10 day (WHOOHOOO) trip to Talinn (Estland/Estonia) for a filmfestival, I had a great time, but realy missed what I love (second)most....skydiving :) It had already been 4 weeks since I made my last jump.. So friday evening I called a few friends, and we headed of to the DZ at 7:00 AM the next morning. Although winds where okay on ground level, it was realy bad at anything higher than 500ft (10 m/s winds) which ment no students and/or rental gear went up. Against better judgement we all decided to wait for the winds to die down. And finaly at 16:00 I heard someone shout my name through the hangar. The winds had died down just enough. I was hoping for a ride to 6 or 9.000 , but due to passing traffic we could only go to 4.000. So all geared up, and up into the old C206. Takeoff was wonderfull, smiling all the way up, looking at other guys and girls with one of those 'MAN THIS IS GREAT' smiles on my face, and getting one of those 'YEA, WE KNOW...THIS IS INCREDIBLE' looks in return :) One thing that's great about not jumping for a long time is that everything feels kinda 'new' again, and the butterflies start flying through my stomache again, just when I thought I had tammed them :) I was the first one out the door, just checking my altimeter before exiting it pointed 4.200 ft...wow 200 ft extra free of charge :) Looking down, sun on my face, and the JM gives a tap on my shoulder and gently askes me 'ready?' So I say "YEAAA" and jump on out. 100% joy is what I experienced the next few seconds in what always seem like minutes... Nothing fancy, just falling and looking at and enjoying the surroundings. This incredible happy feeling from deep within that just makes you want to scream, but instead you just keep it inside and feel this big lump in your throat. Then came 3.200 ft, and out came the ripcord. Had a real stable deploiment and no twist, slider hangups or anything. A nice big yellow Drakkar above my head with sunlight shining through the fabric. A few hundred meters up and away I see other chutes pop open. 'Life is great' is about the only thought in my mind at that time. Then I decided that as long as I'm up here, I might as well do something, so I started doing a bunch of turns and practice flairs. Then came 1000 ft and it was time to start my final approach. I was still heavily enjoying myself, when all of a sudden I looked down. 750 ft is what my alti say, but a small shock went through me and "Hey....this aint no 750 ft, 300 Ft is more like it" is what I thought. I had to make some big adjustments to try and not end up in the wind-sock, and beause I wasn't facing into the wind properly yet I was also blown left a bit every time I steered right. The ground kept coming up faster and the binoculair stand (a 1 meter metal pole, logged into the ground) was still in front of me. I had to pull my right toggle down almost halfway to avoid hitting it. Clearing the pole with anough distance I was to far down to let my togles back up to get a decent flair, so I just brought the other one down halfway and then janked them both to 100%, but it didn't realy help. The ground came up faster then I expected and with a big THUD I went into the ground as a bag full of sh*t . I managed to do a decent roll onto the ground, and am happy to report that even today I don't have any sore limbs or anything at all, but MAN did I hit the ground hard. After dusting of I got up and walked up to my friends (who hadn't jumped yet) and they where laughing their butts off. I always land with a nice standup, and finaly I have a few friends watching and this happens :) Actualy it didn't realy bother me they where laughing, cause I was 100% okay, and think it could have ended a lot worse (broken ankles and such) After getting back to the hangar I got a lot of 'feedback' from my JM who wouln't believe my altimeter was pointing 750 ft when I was at 300. Although I didn't completely agree with everything he sayd, I did learn a good and valuable lesson today. Although I'm usualy pretty aware what 750/1000 ft looks like from above, this time I was just to pre-occupied with 'being happy'. When I realized how low I was I didn't realy panic, but everything went so incredibly fast from there, it was realy an eye-opener to stay alert during final approach, and stay focused on the surroundings...no matter how much fun I'm having... After I folded my chute I heard that winds had increased again, I I could not go up again (which is always something I realy want to do when I did a jump which I feel real bad about) and even worse..my friend didn't get to go up at all... Then came the worst part of the day. We where all called in by the DZ owner and he had just recieved a call from a DZ nearby, where two students got entangled with their parachutes during final approach. One got out, and landed with (minor?) injuries, but the other guy landed in a tree and hit it so hard he broke his back and died instantly. News like this always hits hard, especialy since Holland aint that big a country when it comes to the skydiving community. Ater this news everyone just went quiet and a most people went home, as did we. So I finaly jumped again, but instead of going home happy, I felt verry mixed up. This was also the first fatalty in holland since I started jumping oktober last year, and although I don't know the people involved, it realy got to me (way more then 'normal 'accidents in traffic and such like you read about every day) My condolances to friends and family, and I wish everyone involved a lot of strenght for the days to come. Safe jumping and blue skies forever.. Jarno

I've never been to teuge, but do know that most dropzones here in Holland will not make a big problem about having an english-speaking person in their classes. At my home-DZ (Paraclub Flevo) I've seen one or two English students getting their training alongside the normal group of students. If you where to go to Texel for AFF (also Holland), I'm sure they'd be happy to teach classes in Eglish (http://www.paracentrumtexel.nl) BenW and crew who went there last year can probably tell you more about Texel if you need any info (haven't been to any other DZ's then my own yet, just started last year) But why not just take AFF in your home country?? Greetz, JC p.s. Going up tomorrow, for the first time in almost 6 weeks...AHHHHHHHHHH

I'm thinking about going to the airpower Arena in Huckelhoven Germany (http://www.air-power-arena.de/) together with my brother to try and learn/improve our (beginner) freefall skills. We live in Holland but this german tunnel is the clossest thing to home (a 3 hour drive, which is not that bad) Has anyone been there or have any aditional info, Cause there's not that much info on their site? And although I can understand the german language pretty okay, me trying to speak or write german myself only makes people laugh (instead of them understanding what I mean:) How's the coaching (and do they speak english?) And can you go in the (indoor) tunnel with regulair RW suits or do you have to wear the big flappy ones you see occasionaly in some wind-tunnels? Any info would be appreacheated (or whatever way you would spell that:) Cya, JC

I have a nice video at home (taped from TV) from a Dutch guy who based the Eifel tower last year. He jumped from about 3/4 way up the tower (took the stairs up...shees, what a climb!). And if memory serves me well, there was a guy a few years ago who also base-jumped, but he did it from from the first floor/level, and broke both his ankles in the nice rough landing that followed. No running from the gendarmes (french cops..right?..give or take a few spelling errors) And these are just the ones I've seen on TV...there are probably plenty of illegal dives made from that old piece of junk (it was only supposed to stand there for a few months for the worldfare...but I gues they just forgot to tear it down..:)

I think it's like a 1000 piece puzzle. Sure...there is only one piece that fits into another one. And if you see a piece of a puzzle you like, but it don't fit.....smash and hit it untill it fits :) Okay...this is childish, foolish and stupid..shutting up now :) 9:04 AM, gotta work till 5:00 PM, perfect skydiving weather outside, and no chance of me doing anything about it for another 3 weeks..:( Cya, JC

DOn't know if anyone else has this, but when I'm on the highway on my motorcycle, A lot of times I SWEAR I smell the plane from our DZ. Or when I pick up my motorcycle jacket, I again SWEAR I 'smell' a rig... I gues it's just a new phase..:) I was already thinking about skydiving 24/7, but now a lot of stuff starts to 'smell' like skydiving too....whats next? Just bummed cause the weather sux this weekend.. Cya, Jarno p.s. made my 25th jump last weekend :)

Rent or buy the French movie called 'yamakasi' (produced by Luc Besson) It's a movie about a couple of rogue boys who run through the streets of Paris like samurai warriors.. They leap off buildings, jump from bridges, bassicly base-jumping without parachutes, and MAN IT'S FREAKIN' COOL! In terms of martial arts and stunts it's just like the Matrix, but story-wise and the style of filming is much more real (it's not sci-fi, it actualy looks like it 'could' be real) It vaguely resembles the French movie 'Taxi' in terms of style.. Definately one you need to see (and man do the jumps and stunts in that film get your heart pumping!) And also a film not many people have seen (due to the fact that is was barely released outside of France) RENT THIS SUCKER!!! Here is the mucho coolio trailer (7 MB) http://www.premiere.fr/ns_projection/ba3/yamakasi/mov/yamakasi_ba_vf_240.mov Cya, JC

You could yell 'door' when the plane reaches about 500 ft and get out :) But other then that...no clue, sorry Greetz, JC

Although wingsuits radicaly bring down the vertical speed, it (and correct me if I'm wrong) does increase your forward speed a lot. When someone would create a wingsuit to land with (one that could maintain almost zero vertical speed for more then a few seconds) you would probably still have to run at about 60 to 100 km/h to land safely. And imagine someone missing his landing-slope, or flairing/stalling half a second to early or late.... Two Dutch guys from my DZ are going to attempt a triple Dutch record later this year. They'll be jumping from about 49.000 ft (from a balloon) with wingsuits, and in the process will hope to break the Dutch Altitude record (highest skydive) and the record for the Highest balloon jump in Holland (almost the same as the first record, but something different according to the Guiness people), and the (Dutch??)record for the furthest distance travelled in freefall. I'm not sure excactly how far they will fly, but during a freefall with wingsuit from 49.000 you could definately cover some serious ground... Those guys will just land under their parachutes though :) Anyone know the current wingsuit/distance traveled in freefall record?? Greetz, JC p.s. Or perhaps, to land it, we could add wheels or skids to a wingsuit, a tail rudder, flaps, controls and perhaps make it from metal...:)

It might just be me, but I just don't understand all the problems some people have with with gay man/women. Just let everyone be him/herself, and just learn to except everyone for who he/she is....it's not important enough to make such a big deal out of it.. One of our tandemmasters/instructors is gay, and everyone on our club knows, and nobody makes a big deal out of it. But I gues not all the people in the US (and other countries) are as tolerant and easy as the Dutch folks...:) Greetz, JC

The young indian boy sat on a rock together with his father. "father..." the boy asked "Why is it that cousin 'Bear' is named cousin 'Bear'?" "Because" the wise father spoke "he was concieved on a bear-skin rug, so his parents gave him that name.." "Ooh" the boy replied.."And what about my niece 'Green Flower'?" "She was concieved on a bed of green flowers" his father replied "And Cousin 'Blue Moon'?" "He was concieved under a full moon...." "But why do you ask all this my son 'Torn Rubber' ?"

Baby polar bear asks his father; Daddy....are you a polar bear? Father bear answers; Yes son...I'm also a polar bear.. Next the son asks; And what about mom..is she a polar bear..? Father bear; YES..you mother is also a polar bear Baby bear; And granny and grandpa? Father bear; Yes...they're also polar bears...but WHY do you ask all this? Baby bear; Nothing....It's just that....I'm so damn cold...

I would like to apologize for the signature below my previous post in this tread. It's something I had fergotten about when I posted this message, and I was kind of shocked to see it below my message. If possible, could one of the moderators please remove it from my post? I feel it makes fun (in a bad way) of a subject I take real serious. Sincerely, Jarno

Although I almost never know any of the people who experience (fatal)skydiving incidents, news like this always hits me pretty hard. My condolences to all friends and family of Michelle, and my deepest respect for the cameraman who chased her down... Jarno "Why do Kamikazi Pilots wear helmets?"

Hope you get a sh*tload of jumps tomorrow.. The weather won't be a problem, that's for sure! I LOVE THIS WEATHER!!! CLEAR BLUE SKIES AND A NICE BREEZE...!! I hope to get two or three jumps this sunday, about 80 KM from where you guys are jumping, so wave when you're up there (okay..80 KM might be a bit too far to wave to each other, but it's the idea that counts :) My little brother will also be jumping this sunday. Hopefully next year we'll both have our A licence, so we can come and join the second anual Texel mini DZ.com boogie :) JUMP YOUR PANTS OFF! Jarno p.s. Two jumps removed from my 25th jump, does that mean beer?

Funny you posted this. Due to driving on my motorcycle with only sunglases (instead of the visor, het i like the wind in my face) I now have teary eyes all the time, which (according to my doctor) can be permanent. It's not too bad, and my vision is still 103% okay, but to everyone jumping (or driving a motorcycle) with something that doesn't shield your eyes correctly.....know the concequences..this is serious, and (in the long run) can seriously damage your eyes... Cya, Jarno p.s. MAN i love this...the weather outside is great, low winds, blue skies (no clouds at all)...a wallet full of money, and a weekend of jumping coming up..!!!

I know this is just plain fun, but sometimes I do kinda regret this image a lot of ppl have about Holland. Like everyone is a coke addict here. What I think is quite funny, is that while (soft)drugs are legal here, there are way less users(addicts) then in a lot of countries where (soft)drugs are illegal, like the US. I'm not sure what causes this, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that when something is not illegal anymore, a lot less people will be tempted to try it. hehehe, They should make skydiving illegal...maybe that will get 20% of the world-population jumping :) One more day till weekend..I wanna jump!! Jarno (Dutchy)

Fun thing is, there are a few insurance agencies (here in holland) that insure skydiving for only a few bucks a day. But there isn't a SINGLE one that insures bungy jumping (here in Holland that is, I checked) When I asked why they told me that Bungy-jumping IS concidered a high-risk sport and skydiving (funny anough) is not 'that high' a risk factor. I was told that skydiving certainly sounds dangerous to a lot of people, but insurance agencies base their insurances on FACTS and FIGURES, and those figurs show that skydiving is not THAT high a risk that they wouldn't dare including it in a holliday-insurance. Bungee-Jumping is supposed to have A LOT of accidents worldwide (how many more then skydiving?? I wonder??) which makes the agencies just say "NO" I do know there are quite a few people just 'starting' small bungee-companies themselves, which is probably what makes it so dangerous.. I did do a Bungee-jump once (only the other way around, catapulted up into the air, sitting in a metal sphere) which was kinda fun, but I'd still rather go skydiving if I had to choose.. Cya, Jarno

I made a small 'hidden' page on my website where I could constantly see the weather forecast (half a week in advance), and also check the current weather at the dropzone. Next to my home DZ (Paraclub Flevo) I also added Texel. Thought you guys might like it...so you could already start checking on the weather a few days before you actualy go there :) You can find it by clicking here Blue Skies (and less wind damnit!) Jarno (Dutch, but not on coke:)

Yo mamas so fat, when she makes a beach landing, Greenpeace comes in to tow her back into the ocean Yo mamas so fat, when she lands on someone, the last thing he recalls after looking up is "seeing a long dark tunnel..." Yo mamas so fat, they use her as a pillow/target for precision landings Yo mamas so fat, the only thing small anough to fit through the leg-straps of a rig are her fingers... Yo mamas so fat, a fully inflated tandemparachute gets caught in the vaccuum behind her back (in freefall) Yo mamas so fat, when she skydives, UFO reports start raining in.. Yo mamas so fat, the two skydivers reported missing on jumprun where later found under the loose flabs of skin under her arms... Yo mamas so fat, when she skydives, people hide in bombshelters... Yo mamas so fat, if she'd bounced, she'd go 5000 ft back up.. "OKAY, ANOUGH...YOU SICK LITTLE MONKEY!!" Now let's clear those skies, cause I wanna jump! Cya, Jarno