mr_woosh

thanks for you replies people! I am reading a couple of books now to try and actually play instead of just throwing money in when I feel like it :D and I do fold a lot trying to be extra careful as my budget is very limited at this point (and I already figured out that free games are no good as people do whatever as they are not risking anything). play mostly at pokerstars. started at .02/.04 :D now trying myself at .5/1.. made an expensive mistake of trying a 3/6 about 10 days ago.. definitely not ready yet :D but yeah I was always amazed at people always talking about probabilities up to a .1% precision and was always wondering if there are any shortcuts for calculation or do you just have to memorize stuff. so I really appreciate the two rules in the previous post! if there are any more tricks like this they'd be greatly appreciated :D see you guys at the turney tomorrow! oh, btw how long does it take for an average guy to get decent at poker? and how do people make their living playing this game as in all these three weeks I barely saw anyone at pokerstars making any significant money (relative to the stakes of course). looks like people fluctuate around the original buy in a lot with rare exceptions

ok, so tell me guys r u seriously managing to calculate all those probabilities with .1% precision in those few seconds before you have to act? if so is there a trick to calculate it fast? or do you just remember them or do you just reflect on it after the game trying to figure out what the exact probabilities were? pardon my ignorance but I've been playing poker for just over 3 weeks and I barely have time to guess what i should do, not to mention trying to figure out exact numbers

mind if I ask you where do you get those prepaid visa cards? never had the need for one and never saw one I think

sounds good to me, now who do I discuss free beer with? that's the weirdest (and I guess the saddest) thing that I've heard... well, I am glad there's always Mesquite! ...damn now I cannot get the idea of going for a boogie out of my mind... I have a feeling these three weekdays will drag forever now...

Thanks for the tip guys, free beer and $16 jumps sounds about right (although provided it's gonna be my first jump there it most probably will be me who's going to provide the beer ). my only concern would probably be my limited experience and and being new to the DZ and getting into a huge boogie crowd right away.. but then again you have to start somewhere and pardon my ignorance but I am not sure I know who Mark Z is or why would I want to meet him (still new to the sport so bear with me here). and as for other DZs not allowing fun jumps, does it mean that they only do tandems and teach aff but once you are off student status you have to go somewhere else? or am I completely off here?

Hi there! we are going to Las Vegas this weekend and I was wondering which drop zones are open around LV. dropzone locator shows three, but skydive las vegas's site gave me an impression they just do tandems. One of them I think claimed that they are the only place to jump in 300 miles and I also found some old threads discussing how you can jump only at jean (although they were a couple of years old :). so the question is whether boulder city, jean and mesquite are the only drop zones around, whether they are all open and will be happy to see a couple of A license holders with 30 something jumps under their belt and if so which one do you think is the best (understanding that they are all great) if you just have time to check out one of them. Thank you! Blue skies!

not an experienced jumper here, but a noob with his own rig, so I figured I'd share my experience. I am a zero budget jumper and I knew I'd want my own rig as soon as possible as I'd suffer over the rental fees every time I jump. knowing that with

If you haven't jumped a 190 in the past, do yourself a favor and do your first jump or two back on whatever canopy it was that you did your last jump on. Yes, even if that means you'll have to rent a rig. There are many people out there who can explain from personal experience why the above is a good idea. +1, I got my rig on new year's eve but I got it with main 170, so that it's 1:1 wingload for me, so had to wait 7 weeks before I actually downsized to it and was confident about my landings on all the previous ones). 230->210 and 210->190 transitions seemed much more drastic to me though than 190->170, go figure.. stay safe and have fun! jumping your own pack job is a lot of fun and it helps to build confidence and understanding of the rig tremendously! was packing ever since AFF graduation. blue skies!

well, the best part of it is that I've met them for the first time just a few minutes before the jump and now I feel like they are best friends that I've known forever... ...damn, now I am hungry for a jump again I should read the forums only on Friday night, provided I have the money to jump on Saturday morning... oh well, I guess I can try to drown my sorrow in BASE videos, or watch Cutaway for a 100th time...

there are pics, there's video, there were girls I was the only one naked though. People here in California have a lot of misconceptions about what cold weather is, everyone was putting on several layers when I was undressing I am still contemplating though whether all the documentation should be made available to the public ...and the funny thing is I feel more embarrassed to show my flying skills (or rather the absence of it) than to show my bare ass no arch, legs too wide, unable to fall fast enough to keep up with the girls (and I mean, this was as tight as a jumpsuit can get ) and I guess I was the major contribution to the fact that a planned skydive became a tumbling orgy ... oh boy, I don't know how did they let me graduate... Edited to add: but I still have to admit I loved every second of it and I somehow have a strong feeling that I had much more fun with this one than I'd have if everything went as planned I mean, that WAS my first jump after getting my A AND disregarding the coach jumps it was my first RW jump AND the only unstable tumbling I had before was my AFF6, which was tons of fun and was one of my favorite jumps (and still is). So all in all I could have had a more professionally looking video I guess, but I have a feeling it'd come at the expense of fun part of it

thank you all for replying. we had tons of fun saturday night especially after 5 people from Air Trash showed up... man they are funny. such a wonderful celebration of our first license. Now I cannot even imagine that some people don't observe beer rules.. they are totally missing out :D Blue skies!

I am extremely grateful to all of you guys replying here and especially to those special people at Perris: Luke, Brook and Naomi (sorry if misspelled), who made it such a blast. Thank you so much! This was the most wonderful birthday in my life. And I guess that was the best jump to appreciate all the freedom an A license gives you.

well, from what I've read having bad beer karma leads to very dire consequences, so I don't see how discussing such an important part of BSR can belong to a bonfire but point well taken, I think I might have made a mistake by posting here

are you suggesting taking everything off before boarding the plane? after some reading I was under impression that you take it off in the plane... I don't really care as much I guess but I certainly don't want to insult anyone, being new to the sport it's hard to judge what's people's attitude towards these things.. and a standing landing within student circle is on top of the priorities list also, not to hijack my own thread, but just curious, FastPhil, what's a BASCR? is it one of SCR awards, I don't think I've seen that abbreviation there though..

ok, Birthday's coming up this Sunday and I am seriously considering going nekkid, unless there's a sudden change of plans. Read a few threads on the topic, sounds totally like fun to me. so the question is whether it's ok with people at Perris (from previous threads I got an impression that it is, correct me if I am wrong) what to wear, when do you take it all off and how do you walk around the dz after the jump (I think I've read somewhere that the only option is wrap yourself in canopy, but I am not sure if I like that one :) anyone would be willing to do a video? would be totally fun to go with someone on this one, but I guess that'd depend on whether I get my A on Saturday. anyone interested, let me know :) although I am a total noob with very little RW experience. any other pointers on the subject matter are appreciated I will be there on Saturday and will talk about it with Perris people but any ideas/advises are much appreciated! Thanks!

ok beer people, beer's on its way. I already owe a case for jumping my own rig and (god willing and weather permitting) I might owe another one for my A license this Saturday. so... cast your vote on the type of beer you'd like to see. I know that Corona and New Castle will be appreciated by some, any other preferences? also being new to the traditions, what's the best time/place to drop off beer? Do I just set it on the table at bomb shelter at the beginning of the day and let anyone help him/her-self or what? it might be a busy day for me as I'll try to fit 2 coach jumps, hop'n'pop and a test that day, so I want to clear the beer question right now :) looking forward for some pointers :) thanks!

just an afterthought, does camera body really matter? I got a digi rebel xt at the moment (yet to buy a good lens though). also any reason to set ISO to 200? is it just to make the pic less grainy (sorry don't know much about photography yet)?

Thanks for the inputs guys! really appreciate it. I was just thinking of taking pics(or possibly videos) of my skydiving buddies and them taking pics/videos of me. I am on a tight budget, so 200 jumps suggested to jump with a camera would probably take me a year to complete, so I was looking for some alternatives meanwhile. good to know it can be done from the ground. I checked the first link posted in the replies here and it looks like bodies still look more like small dots rather then actual human bodies, I am yet to check out the rest of the links, but I hope it's possible to get pics that are more than "oh, that tiny black dot is me".. but even if not, I'd be still glad to be able to take one of those :D again, thanks to everyone who contributed!

ok, I understand I am probably asking too much but I was wondering if it's at all possible to shoot a skydive (if not the whole thing at least the low altitude part of it) from the ground and if so what kind of equipment would be necessary. tried to do search but did not come up with any answers. Thanks! and no I am not an idiot, just a curious noob looking trying to get the most out of his new passion

Um... you seemed to ask whether or not you should have released the toggles before kicking out of the twists (at least that's the way I and some others interpreted part of your question)... imo knowing the answer to that is part of knowing what to do with line twists... ok ok, I got the point, I'll be super extra careful describing the sequence of events next time. didn't realize you have to be very precise in the your description to get answers for what you are actually asking about. so I guess this is another lesson I got from this thread :) once again, second question was once you cleared line twists but still spinning due to closed cells on one side (not getting any more line twists) do you go for the toggles right away trying to inflate the cells or do you grab one of the risers to stop the spin first and then go for risers to inflate the cells.

stayhigh, once I am up to 150+ jumps I'd probably have the same question, at my level for ME it was significant enough. Orange1, I did do AFF and I did know what to do with line twists, the questions were about the time after I am out of line twists. as for spinning, it felt like I am pretty much horizontal. not sure what a diving spinner is, but I prefer to be mostly under the canopy not next to it, at least for now, at least on opening. spin was not overwhelming but definitely something one would notice :) brianfry713, that's actually something I've heard of but that never jumped into my mind, thanks for pointing it out! bch7773, good points. there still was a bit of time before the hard deck to think and get concerned, so I did :) and I guess I'll have to be more careful with my vocabulary as far as problems/malfunctions go. Thank you all for your inputs!

pulling the risers apart and bicycle kick to get out of line twists

well my way is kinda different (might be the aftereffect of staying with academia for too long ) FJC was a total info overload and I was too stressed out :) now that I have more knowledge, experience, understanding and structure to the process I am craving information. I like to hear different opinions and figure out what makes sense to me, rather than having one simplest option that was given to me just not to overload me too much the first time. I do my sorting of ideas on the ground, but it makes me feel good if I know what's out there and can actually make a more educated choice on how to act. FJC is definitely more than enough for the first jump, but again, at least in my case, later on the more information I have the more confident I feel. point well taken and I guess I should have put more info in my profile (will do once I am done with this post). I just moved to Spectre190, I am 140 so exit weight about 165-170, which makes it about .88:1 I guess I understand that you don't apply general advises blindly, again for me it's just some extra food for thoughts, so I really appreciate your taking time spelling these general ideas for me! that's exactly the type of info I like, ideas on different scenarios and setups :) if anything it at least made me feel better knowing that at least it is not a set issue that you are going to spin like crazy I believe keeping it simple is different from being uninformed, so I sort it out and simplify on the ground. And just wanted to thank you again. your reply clarified a lot for me and eased my concerns quite a bit! Blue skies!

Thanks Itdiver! I guess I was not too clear with the original post. I will ask instructors next time I am at DZ, but I believe getting several opinions from people at different DZs might be beneficial. as far as FJC, there was a lot of info put into my head that day and as much as I wanted to remember everything, I am pretty sure there are parts that did not dig into my brain as well as others. anyway the questions still stand 1) is it better to pull risers away as soon as you notice line twists forming or wait a few sec hoping the twists will get lower along the lines which will make gaining initial momentum in the opposite direction by pulling easier. At least in my mind there are pros and cons to both options 2) at the time I pulled the toggle I've already cleared the line twists but was spinning, so the question is whether to try to stabilize first pulling one riser wasting a few sec but potentially gaining time to fix the cause of spin or to pull the toggles right away not wasting any time but staying in a spin which in case the problem doesn't clear right away can cost you altitude. Again I can see cons and pros to both scenarios and was wondering what in your opinion is a better option. 3) cutting away while spinning question, I understand you have to cut away no matter what if main is not landable but I am just wondering if there are some easy tricks (except for arching) that a noob can be unaware of that can help you stabilize. ADD: this was my first spinning malfunction and although I knew I'd cut away if not stable and with landable main by 2500' thinking of getting line twist on reserve due to the fact that I am spinning while cutting away made me a bit uneasy, hence the last question. If the only solution is to cut away and arch like crazy so be it, I just want to make sure I am not missing anything. Thank you!

got a question for you guys, a week ago my friend and me we diving and he had a line twist and started pulling risers right away. his story made me think whether it's a good idea to start pulling right away as soon as you notice line twists as it might just make line twists form higher and harder to undo, yesterday I had line twists myself and I could feel it forming right away, so my first reaction was to grab the risers and pull apart without thinking twice. I stopped line twists from forming after the first one and now I feel like it's still good to pull apart as soon as possible. Any expert opinions are appreciated another question regarding my yesterday's experience, the above mentioned line twists, as I realized after clearing it, were initiated by noninflated cell on one side which sent me spinning. My first reaction was to grab the right rear riser to stabilize myself and only then trying to fix the problem. So two questions here 1) was it a right thing bothering with stabilizing first or would it better to just go ahead trying to inflate the cell (which inflated right after pulling the toggles). 2) if you cutaway while spinning wouldn't you get line twists on you reserve as I'd expect you'll continue to spin after cutaway. If so what are the remedies that might alleviate the problem? I apologize if these questions are overestimating the dangers, but as a noob it's hard to tell what exactly will determine your lifespan.