Dolph

That's exactly why you should go into law. Fight those buggers on equal terms. Unfortunately I cannot offer anything except my best wishes for success for you guys . Sounds like you're dedicated enough to pull it off on a dime and a shoe string, much respect for that. Good luck in your endeavour!

How about adding a beer charge, given special conditions? I'm thinking about that. If the other jumper unintentionally tries to kill me on his/her HD attempts/transitions/whathaveyou, he or she will have to buy one beer for each attempt. The offender will also have to hand wash my underwear. I think it's only fair.

My freefall pal had one of them 'guaranteed freefly friendly' velcro rigs. We were out there having fun when I for a brief second thought I saw something flapping. Milliseconds later his canopy deployed. He was a bit lucky though. Didn't get a horseshoe. Instead the PC war ripped out and wrapped around the canopy before the slider had come down at all. Which was probably pretty good because we were going pretty fast. He cut away and deployed reserve. Last jump on that rig right there - now he has a Mirage G4.

Heh, our freefly team has a female camera flyer

Have you tried Flex Z Mini Goggles? If you can get those fuckers to lift off, you're doing something I can't. The flashy goggles like Peerser and whatnot will lift off if you just look through them. Flex Z Minis are just about bulletproof.

Hope you make it dude.

Pride in oneself, aye. There's being proud of one's capabilities. One's personality. One's appearance. And, I suppose, the attire we wear. The argument is not new to me: it goes along the line: everything I do, I do for me so I feel better - not to alter or affect the perception others may have of me or their attitudes. It is an argument that holds water to some extent. It is somewhat amusing that the things that make people feel better are extremely influenced by popular culture and the current trends or tendencies. Don't see too many 70s haircuts around. The clothes of that era once thought to be the epitome of beauty has fallen on hard times. Make up style has changed drastically. What makes people feel better has changed. I cannot attribute this change to a change in the human psyche or biology - we don't evolve that fast. The change is a cultural one. WHat can one deduct from that? If one reasons that it is done purely for oneself with no attention to what others may think, one could ask the question: why do I feel better with some make up, some decent clothes that at least somewhat match the norm, some new Oakleys and a Mercedes? It is my opinion that the positive feeling can be attributed to an implicit or explicit knowledge of belonging, of making a certain statement, of presenting oneself as one wishes to be seen. I mean people keep talking about making a good first impression. Or should I say a good first correct impression. If people get you wrong from the get go, it can have serious consequences, be it at work, socially or in threatening situations. There's absolutely not a thing wrong with it. We don't live in some vacuum after all. I just think it's important to be honest towards ourselves and at least consider that possibility that, yes, others perceptions matter and perhaps a little more than we'd like to admit.

So to conclude: 90% of us don't really care how others perceive us, with the exception being close friends and family. Yet we'll spend large amounts of money on getting the latest clothes. Some new Oakleys. Jumpsuits. Shine ourselves up some. The use of makeup. Visits to beauty places. 'Make ourselves look good' by various means before going to parties and celebrations or just to work. Just scraping the surface here. All in a large extent to affect others perception of us, primarily through visual means or inference. C'mon guys. Be honest. There's a huge distinction between "not giving a shit" about how othes perceive you and "not being that sensitive" to it. I suspect a lot of us fall into the latter category because it's pretty hard to function well in social situations when you truly don't care how your persona and behaviour will affect future relations. Now this post probably makes me appear as some kind of hater - which is OK because that's what I am now and then .

Hey Ron, is that 99 bucks per jump? That's quite cheap and with AFF being a major income-bringer, how do you see the overall economic effects of this to a commercial DZ? Takes a lot of relative low-profit fun-jumps to pick up the cost. I sure hiope it is financially viable. Clubs are also good for minimising cost of AFF. At the one I am a member of, prices are as follows: AFF 1-3: Own lift price + 2 * instructor lift price = $57 AFF 4-7: Own lift price + 1 * instructor lift price = $37 This in a country (Denmark) where the cost of living is quite high and tax pressure extremely so. The club charges for FJC ($295) and tandems ($257) and use the profit to subsidize jumps for students off FJC and members. Any work (instructing, TMing etc.) is not paid - or rather, goes directly to the club. Works pretty good, except there's a heavy load on our poor AFF instructors and tandem masters. Which leads me to believe that while big commercial DZs are extremely important for the furtherance and development of the sport, the contributions of numerous small club based DZs should not be discounted.

Can you have Jewish friends and still be a good Muslim, Darius? At least as things stand now, it could be argued that it is your religious duty to fight them. Unless you want to be a Kufr. [60:1] O you who believe, you shall not befriend My enemies and your enemies, extending love and friendship to them, even though they have disbelieved in the truth that has come to you. They persecute the messenger, and you, just because you believe in GOD, your Lord. If you mobilize to struggle in My cause, seeking My blessings, how can you secretly love them? I am fully aware of everything you conceal, and everything you declare. Those among you who do this have indeed strayed off the right path. [al-Mumtahanah 60:1] More importantly: [60:9] GOD enjoins you only from befriending those who fight you because of religion, evict you from your homes, and band together with others to banish you. You shall not befriend them. Those who befriend them are the transgressors. Or [Surat Al-Maidah 5:51]. There'll be resistance from Jews, secularists and others. To most non-Muslims, it is unacceptable to live under Muslim Shari'a law or Muslim dominance. Most will not agree to live under Muslim rule in their own countries and will similarily reject to pay Jizyah. I for one will fight for my freedoms - and such a struggle will be deemed "against the religion of Islam" by Muslim religious authorities. To which you're compelled by Islam to respond. “Fight against those who (1) believe not in Allaah, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allaah and His Messenger (Muhammad), (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” [al-Tawbah 9:29]. Which contradicts [Surat Al-Kafirun 109:6] and Surat [Al-Baqarah 2:256]. Pick and choose, perhaps? Which is the essence of my tirade (needed the background info) - can you truly befriend the Jews as a Muslim - or any unbeliever and still be a good Muslim? Many Muslims say "yes" and pick passages from the Qu'ran that argues the point. Others reject it fully, and support it with other passages. And this is the struggle within Islam that has little to do with the Western world. Who wins this fight will have great importance as to how the future will unfold.

Hah Ras, as if you weren't falling fast enough to begin with I hope you had the decency to try some of the guns they got hanging from the Gun-trees over there. That's one thing I'll be sure to try out when I go

Your question is legitimate enough, although your comparison of swooping to low pulls is off the mark. I think you're right insofar as stating that swooping adds a good deal of danger to any skydive. I think you're wrong when you equate it to an intentional low pull. Swooping requires patience to learn and for the swooper to build a set of skills. These skills and the experience that comes from many swoops helps the swooper to stay alive. Of course one could argue that the push to always "go bigger" negates this safety margin. An intentional low pull requires little skill - a newly certified skydiver has what is needed to pull it off. Stable deployment, good PC throw. The rest is mostly luck. The question at hand is a matter of risk tolerance - or perhaps it is better called risk acceptance. You feel that swooping is as irresponsible and dangerous as pulling low and that 'innocents' are endangered by it. As a result, you want it to go the way of low pulls - i.e. banned for being an unsafe, unwise activity within an already dangerous sport. Fair enough. I see it more as an added calculated risk to a jump - similar to jumping at very busy dropzones with lots of traffic, freeflying, jumping in big formations, flying small HP canopies. In other words, risks we elect to take or not to take. Somewhere there's a line that divides what is acceptable and what is not. It's easy to go way too far to either side. I don't know where that line lies, so I've just given you my perspective on things. Whuffos often say the same thing about our sport. Substitute "hookturning" with "skydiving" and you get an argument I've heard before.

Aye, this is the view of any objective observer. While Israelis don't specifically target civilians, if a few are killed along with some militants it appears to be OK. Hamas aim for civilians when possible since they're soft targets. Hizbollah will engage the IDF when the tactical situation is advantageous but likes to inflict casulaties on the Israeli civilian population. As I am sure you've understood, my question was a bit rethorical.

Woyld you call the members of the military wing of Hamas for 'fucking baby killers' as well or do you hold the opinion that these terrorists/freedom figthers take more measures to avoid unnecessary civilian casualties than the Israeli forces do? Honest question. A straight-from-the-heart answer would be appreciated.

An acquaintance said this about heroin addiction in another forum I frequent: While not directly applicable to skydiving, there for sure are similarities. Put in another way, I'd be a much better and bigger geek if I wasn't skydiving and spent my weekends and spare time messing around with technology for fun like my colleagues. But work and the average middle class life of my colleagues seems alien, uncomfortable, and undesirable. One good thing skydiving has given though is an added capacity to handle stress. And the ability to say "fuck it, it just ain't that important" because of a greater perspective the dark side of the sport teaches. But overall, skydiving hasn't made me blend or fit into 'the normal life' better. Quite the opposite. I think Tonto nailed it.

I am not sure I agree it is elitism - to me it is an example of a natural, healthy general form of human social interaction. There just is no comparison between a one time jumper who has basically no idea about what the sport is about, the full reality of the physical and emotional risks and the dedication and sacrifices necessary to be good at skydiving and someone who has a lot of years and jumps. I would not call someone fresh out of driving school a 'F1 race driver". Sure, the person could probably with a little instruction drive an F1 car around a track. He or she would not have the experience, the skill, the dedication of a Schumacher though. Nor would he or she appreciate to the same degree the true dangers of the sport or have lived through and learned from dumb mistakes. I believe it is proper to attribute to someone what he or she is due. Similarily, it'd be wrong to attribute to someone something he or she is not due. Even if it is un-PC and may sound elitist. Respect is earned, not given. Once this AFF1 or S/L student has proven to be worthy of more respect than a one-jump-bragging-rights jump gives, he or she will have earned it. I'm talking respect with regards to the sport, not personal respect, just to clarify. Maybe I'm just old school but to me a typical newbie and a typical old timer are not equals wrt. respect earned. And I'm a relative n00b myself.

I think my views on this could be extracted from how I treat people on the dropzone. And there's definitely a difference between the respect (as skydivers) I give to the one-jump-get-bragging-rights SL and tandem people and the regulars who're there nearly every weekend. In almost every sport, respect regarding the sport is related to how hard ya work at it, how good you are at it, how dedicated you are and how much you contribute to it. Skydiving is not different from what I've seen in my short time in the sport. I'm not alone in thinking this way, I've observed the same pattern of thought in many of the regulars at my home DZ. Tandem pax and one jump thrillseekers aren't treated as equals in the sport - and for good reasons. How can one equate a tandem pax to someone who's been in the sport for 15+ years, made thousands of jumps, been busted up making mistakes, seen friends go in - and still have kept jumping? That seems to me to be a ridiculous proposition. Quite frankly, I cannot see the need for a mainstreaming of the sport. I don't see a need for big sponsor money and big interest from the media. As long as the financial basis (i.e the one jump people) come in large enough quantities to support small Cessna DZs, the sport ain't going away. Having only Cessna DZs would obviously not be good for the further development of the sport - which is pushed on by the really active participants and more or less requires turbine aircraft. But the current decline is just a natural result of the increase in prices and the general economic situation IMHO.

0:18:1. Need new lines on the Katana. After 500 jumps, the openings are starting to get interesting. Should be getting new ones in the coming week. Loaded up with lead and then did downwind landings all saturday. My yellow pants now have a decidedly green aspect to 'em. Excellent weekend.

No one can get Java to run properly

You're right about this. It's another part of the skydiving equation though - with skydivers occupying someone else's territory and behaving poorly. My comment was more minded to situation where for instance we're packing in our hangar, on our ground. Pal will have made about 10 knots on my PC bridle and tied it together with someone elses. Now, if a curious tandem passenger has sneaked into the hangar to watch what's going on, he or she will hear some adult language. The socialising that takes place on the DZ between jumpers should not be neutered because outsiders might take offense. If it gets too bad, an old timer will step in at any rate; it's kind of self regulating that way. It's more or less a meritocracy. A DZ that's a business might be a different thing. It's much more of a employee to customer relationship which may warrant a different set of standards.

The tandem pax come for their one time amusement park bragging-rights giving jump. This is true for the majority at least. They come into a playground that is run, used, maintained and kept vibrant by a bunch of people who dedicate a lot of time and money to their passion. That the atmosphere and culture is dictated by the personalities of the individuals involved should come as no surprise. While I agree that it's idiotic to provoke visitors for the sake of provoking them, I also feel it's wrong to censor the natural climate. Quite frankly, I don't give a rats arse if me calling a friend a "fuckin' asshole" upsets them because they position themselves so that they overhear it. If that scares them away - good. If a few bad words upset them so much, I don't want to think about their reaction to having a good friend burn in. People going skydiving ought to think about what they're about to do. A few foul words is nothing compared to what can happen in the sport.

Well fuck you very much you mocking asshole. I have a knife. Let me illustrate the concept. Drop your pants, please.

They don't already? Only when my groinless latex pants lose their luster.

It's sort of similar to this: And this: And so on and so forth. Spelling and grammar has improved over the iterations but little else. This particular little piece of loveliness goes back some months. Ignore it and it will probably not go away, but at least you'll be less annoyed

Just remember the first rule of spam fighting: "What the spam filter cannot stop, a baseball bat can". Opt out methods put the financial burden on the customer. Imagine if you had to pay postage for all the crap in your normal mailbox. Life has taught me that a baseballl bat is a multi tool.