CKSCUBA

wow what a great day got to meet Jay mo Ian shared words of wisdom and advice with me and my son. A huge honor to meet Jay and a great honor to speak with Ian and thanks Ian for sharing and speaking with us. Keith Macbeth thanks I appreciate you so much. thanks for your help and your advice. Its an honor to know you. I don't think i have ever met anyone in the sport like Keith who can like do everything exceptional. Keith is one of those guys he is incredible flyer, swooper, photographer. I want to line up some payed coaching for my son some time soon. But me I am old ( 40) Maybe after 10 more hours in the tunnel, more coaching and a gallon of rogaine, I will be good at maybe one thing. Great watching my first swoop competition and watching all the guys you read about swoop in person. everyone was super cool you could walk up to anyone and they would chat with you and give you their view or answer questions. I know my 18 year old son went around and spoke with everyone for him it was a rock concert. Lucky kid started jumping at 16. The pros were incredible and the cpc guys well at times i couldn't tell who wasn't a pro. Everyone did so well. I was so impressed with the technical flying and the speed but done so smoothly and safely. Hopefully either this year or GOD willing next year Ill be able to participate in the CPC. I know my son will but Ill be in the lead for last place. ha ha. Thanks again guys and girl for all your time and drinking beer and sharing your knowledge, what great bunch of people. I have never seen a competition where highly skilled competitors were pulling for each other and cheering each other on and celebrating each other oh yeah giving away prizes like 25% off a Neptune, Keith is the man. Its like the other team celebrating when their rivals got a touchdown. What sportsman ship and what skill, if you have never watched a swoop competition your missing out. Watching the videos on youtube doesn't do it justice. It was incredible and my son and I and a few friends from skydive Tampa and Lake wales learned a lot. Thanks guys for an incredible day and being so damn good at what you do. Again thank you Ian, your words of wisdom were instructing and inspiring. You truly breath it, love it and live it. Like Jay-Mo you guys are huge ambassadors for our sport. It was an honor to talk to you all, cheer for you, watch you and share a plane ride with you. It was a Father and Son day I will never forget, our first swoop competition to watch. hopefully soon we will join in and participate as Father and Son. I know my skydive friends watching will also join in soon. Be so cool to grow the sport and to be part of it. Thanks to all of you!!! Oh and holly crap are you guys so damn good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chris Roden Skydive Tampa - on a Xaos-27 Erik Roden - on a Xaos-27 Skdive Tampa

i own 4 hc40's none work at all. touch screen firmware issues ect. I also own one hc 42 that the touch screen works sometimes and not others. of course sony sucks ass about support for their products does anyone know where i can down load a firmware to reinstall the the hc40 software. sony will do it for $250 - thats nice of them. can anyone help me out with some direction? anyone repair these things on their own?? thanks again chris

i have a new Canon xti with the 10-22 canon lens. I also have an hc40 with the royal diamond .3 lens. what setting should i have the camera on like fast aport setting or some other setting and also what number should i set the lens to match the.3 lens like 14mm? any help or advice would be appreciated. thank you chris

what lens specs would be best with shooting tandems for a rebel? how wide and what type of lens and whats the costs? thank you chris

Hi, a video i did for some folks is grainy on a wide screen or large tv. I shot it with a hc 40 and edited in Premiere Pro 2. 720 x 480 pixels video with a bit rate of 1024 kbps. on my 32 inch tv it looks great. Is there a way they can set their big tv to view it better or is there something i can do to the video to make it better for them. i assume their wide screen is hd tv like an lcd or something. any help i would love to hear thank you chris

Aggie dave flying the biggest canopy parachute in the cpc video!!! that was a funny quote or when the announcer said ok he has got the weight. Aggie Dave you did awesome at the CPC man. you got skills. i like to see you on the team extreme jvx. Just tell jim to call you Mclovin. Really Dave good job at the cpc. That video was great!!! thanks who ever put it up. nice job video everyone also. its super great study material!!!!!!!!! My son and I thank you. where can we send a tip??? chris

Addie dave flying the biggest canopy parachute in the cpc video!!! that was a funny quote or when the announcer said ok he has got the weight. Aggie Dave you did awesome at the CPC man. you got skills. i like to see you on the team extreme jvx. Just tell jim to call you Mclovin. Really Dave good job at the cpc. Taht video was great!!!

who is the mc for the swooper video??? who is that person announcing?? thanks chris

ok thank you chris

dude it keeps freezing when i play the video, at the 13:36 time it freezes every time. any other formats or down load sites? i also am using a superfast internet on a dual athlon fast system tahnks chris

thanks so much chris

i guess the pd reserve would be good for him. a katana and a stileto are different canopies but at that size shouldnt make much of a difference. how much does he way, how current and how many jumps a year, how many jumps total, and all that. is he thinking of getting in swooping??? and why isnt he asking, is it you??? ha ha what really are you asking friend?? is the micron folks and ask them how it fits in that size. besides that i dont know. i jump a xaos 27 118 and my reserve is a 170 tempo. i wanted a big reserve to make it back from a long spot and give me all the time to follow my main canopy and free bag and deal with anything i can. so i like big reserves. a 143 isnt unreasonable but again what is your friends jumps and time in the sport. chris

I have one of those keneco lens . 5 multi crapp lens. it fogs up terrible and is dark image. i changed to a cheap .5 sony lens and the lens is much clearer is still get a bit of fog but only when i open my parachute and then it stays fogged but the free fall is clear. i have to fly exactly 2 ft back when i fly with my sony. th kenco lens i could grap the tandems hand and all that and get a great picture. the .5 sony i cant do that and i have to fly 2 ft back then when i fly with the kenco lens. did you say the diamond lens was best the .5??? my question is if i get the royal lens which size do i get to be comparable to my kenco flying distance is there a way to calculate this?? i fly a sony hc 40 thank you very much chris

no not selling the 118 still paying it off. its a great canopy

i have a xaos 27 118 and it packs big. it fits a container made for a 165. it packs big. is someone selling a xaos 27 98 and how much??? chris

Sorry IAN I sent the thread off with the question of the JVX and how it flys. My relevance to it was about the flight and the way it has to be flown. My question was if he is off the team could anyone then join in his place by anyone i mean Pro Swoopers. If someone was on a Velocity could they jump right in there. So when i asked the question i was setting up for my next question about finding a replacement canopy pilot. Would it be hard to find someone for the team. Lastly what is Kevin going to do now and the reverse of my questions coming from a JVX what Canopy team would he be best suited for? Velo, VX or Xaos27. Please don't bash my question, it may be a stupid question to some who know but I am asking it to learn and know myself. I am under the impression you can ask anything you want just keep it with the thread. Thanks to everyone Chris IanMDrennan: Cleaned up post to help keep future replies on track. PS: Chuck i would love to go 300ft someday, what would that cost me in coaching from you?

i think of the 3 pilot, sabre 2 and the safire the sabre 2 may be the over all best as aggiedave says. the nitro is in the next class up canopies. Much more dangerous so dont load out to much, avoid that temptation. if you do stay with the Nitro's you can down size gradually down the line and resell yours. As you progress get the coaching and have people watch and video your landings. right now work on a perfect flare and accuracy. When i was at your numbers i was doing very easy slow carving turns into landing to get a bit of speed. Just take your time and get coaching, many people fly canopies and just decide to start whip it in and riser in thinking the know the canopy and what to do but then things happen fast and things happen that they would never expect and they flare late or early and you know they get hurt. One guy on here wrote that swooping is like martial arts with the belt system and you would be say a white belt. Well find a coach and safely get into it if that is your goal. i know lots of swoopers very few have been hurt. Everyone i know who was ever hurt when they were learning to swoop didnt have coaching and was trying to do way to much to fast and really had no idea what they were doing. Trying to do it on their own. I have never crashed and never have been hurt, in my learning. So just take your time, i is not a race. One time a friend of mine said hey lets open high and do some crew stuff. I was like, " Dude you dont know shit about crew and neither do i. there is so much to it and we dont have the jump number or experience or training. " He said, " Ok fly straight and i will come by and dock with you." I said, " no way your going to have to catch me first." My friend crashed a few times and broke a vertabra in his back, now he doesn't jump anymore. It is that mentality and that type of rush to do something cool with the lack of knowledge, training, and experience that gets good people hurt. I think the nirto is a great canopy whether you want to swoop or not. what ever you decide. Chris

The Diablo is a Triathlon with the rear end carved out of it. it is high performance and it turns very fast for spinning. Your right it has a steep angle and it has good speed but you have to be good because it doesn't have a lot of flare or bottom end. i dont thinks it is a good choice the nitro is a clear better canopy. It is hard to find something that spins fast and flat glide. The stiletto has a very flat glide and spins fast, openings can be hard and all over the place. the pilot and sabre 2 are great canopies for glide and the safire inst that bad. the katana is an advanced canopy until you have around 500 jumps its not one to be on. I am a fan of the Crossfire2 its has a nice glide, great forward speed, super nice openings and great flare. It is not as radical as the Katana but some would argue you need 500 to fly it and thats what the manufacturer says. I think nitro is a great canopy. but what are your goals where do you want to be at the 500 jump mark are you wanting to get into swooping? i think the nitro can do almost anything. i also love the cobalt its turns fast and has good speed and glide and flare. just down size very slowly take your time, dont rush, even if you have to force yourself. It is not a race but a personal journey in your progression. canopy coaching isnt that expensive either and its great you will learn things so much faster and clearer and safer. just thought i share a few things. chris

Serious question here. On writing a normal resume for a normal job, i want to put my 4 years of flying video. i want to add it. does anyone have an occupational Job Code for skydive video/ photographer? what a about a resume job description for vidiots?? how can i add skydive photography on my resume and word it to me advantage or in language that the general public could relate and more importantly would have an employer see me as an accent? what about swooping anyway to add that or to make it apply to the normal job world?? i know its a strange question but i am updating my resume and i am having problems thank you chris

i understand with the jvx you have to end the turn low and use the solid sail strength to rear out of it and it makes like a sling shot effect. is that true do you have to fly the jvx so much different then other canopies. i know a velo doesnt need to flown like that right Chris

I dont know crap but my impressions from a non-expert. It dove harder then the Crossfire2 and more then the katana. it had some over-steer and it was reactive. I think its desinged for someone with a higher skill level. i thought it would be an entry canopy into crossbraced but i was wrong. i loaded it 1.8. the xaos 21 is much more easier to fly. the xaos 27 the same easy to fly when compared to the neos. i felt it was a notch up in skill level then a fx, xaos 21 or 27. the velo and the vx and especially the jvx are all super advanced in my opinion. i think the Neos is right under those in skill level requeired to fly. i dont know how it performese compared to the others. i couldnt make the neos do too much just hopin and popin on it a few times. just felt to much for me. opening were like a crossfire though nice and ahhhh. please if you work for the Neos people or not please post your impressions of its flight characteristics chris

hi. a crossfire 2 loaded 1.6 is great. you will learn a lot from there. do you jump year round?? if your jumping a crossfire 1 the 2 will be faster. from there you can start to squeze the speed out of it ad become a active swoop pilot and not a canopy passenger. get some coaching from nice guys who are cool and know and fly the crossbraced stuff. hell take the next 200 jumps on that and then you will be over 1000 jumps. i also understand that the vx or the xaos 27 is a nice next step from a crossfire 2. another thing is you can downsize when your ready and you can fly crossfires down to 1.8-2.0 no problem. no rush to crossbraced. you can go across the bond on a crossfire 2 just fine. Chris

I understand that Pd is working on the Velocity. Are they working on a new line trim? new lines? or modifications on the canopy? Or are they comming out with a Velocity 2.0? or something else?? Anyone know anything. I also heard that Strong is comming out with High performance canopies also. I guess thats in the works or something. Thanks Chris

that i would make a video with real swoops in it. a little joke. chris

Brian thank you so much for your book it is a great buy. transending fear is a wonderful read and it helped me alot. thanks again chris