Beachbum

why do you think I put it out here in the first place?? ... KNEW he'd be intrigued ... As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

"These sheep are, in effect, pumping iron without lifting weights" Randy Jirtle, Duke University radiation oncologist, on the effect of a newly discovered gene that gives sheep muscular rear ends. hmmm ... are they feeling a bit lonely after that Brit got caught ... trying to tone up to be more attractive ... what?? ... LOL As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

I totally agree ... and had planned to make a few jumps on a friend's 190 first ... but he didn't make it to the dz that day, and my stuff was in ... and as I said ... the JM's talked to me about it VERY thoroughly and told me to go ahead ... with extremely specific instuctions (and light wind). I have only had that one bad landing, and it wouldn't have been bad except I got a bit tilted by a small gust and didn't correct fast enough, right in the middle of my flare ... kinda let it yank me over sideways. I've had that happen a couple of more times since, and have made the correction ok (that old "fly it 'til it stops" bit is true!!). Thanks for the link ... downloading the .pdf right now! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

I'm lightweight for a guy my height (6'2", only 145 lbs) .. and got REAL tired of lack of drive, etc. on the 215 student rig (smallest at the dz where I went thru AFF). SO ... I wanted to get my own canopy ASAP when I was ready for it. I talked with a LOT of folks about it, but particularly to the JM's who had worked with me. One thing they stressed is that the same size canopy in one type may be much more forgiving of small errors than another type. Safety was a main concern for me, being 45 when I started into this, I have figured out that my body IS breakable. I ended up opting for a 160 triathlon (puts me dead on 1:1) because it is small enough to be a lot fun for me, but is (according to everyone I know who should know such things) a very forgiving canopy. I have to admit, going from a 215 to the 160 was scary before I did it, but I decided that if the JM's thought I could handle it .. I probably could. The first landing on it wasn't too pretty, but after that .. I found it much easier to get good landings on than the 215. I guess my main advice on this would be to do some serious consulting with those who best know your abilities. Tell them what your thoughts are as to how you expect to be flying it, and what you will expect it to be able to do ... and see what they think. As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

eeyyyyeeewwww ... ROFL ... bet he doesn't cut THAT decision close again As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

haven't heard of but one instance of that ... wet britches ... but saw a hilarious video of a barf in freefall ... not a student ... just a severe hangover ... LOL As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

cool ... will try to catch it ... have a good time ... and be safe!! ... hear that stadium is a bit squirrely wind-wise (at least from a football viewpoint .. sure it's the same for jumping into) As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

congrats!! I haven't tried anything over a 4-way yet ... hard to find that many people who can fall slow enough for me to keep up with .. LOL. While at Lost Prairie, did a 4-way and even tho exiting first, ended up high coming off the hill ... had to try my non-second dive down to the group ... overshot and went about 15 feet low ... a TOTALLY new feeling!! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Had planned to hit AOT boogie friday ... waterpump went out and took the serpentine with it thursday evening... fixed by friday afternoon, but that ate up funds I had earmarked for the boogie ... did some yardwork yesterday and planned to hit Waller today (previously purchased tickets) ... now it's cloudy, thundering, etc. ... As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

AFF out of a twotter ... first thing I remember is waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting ... weather or wind nailed me 4 weekends in a row after ground school ... gave me LOTS of time to think about it!! Weather finally good ... show up, and none of the JM's I'm familiar with are around ... 2 strangers that were standing in for the regular staff. I wanted to do it REALLY bad, but also knew I'm a bit afraid of heights ... so told the JM's if I didn't go to just toss me out. Ride up, I was a bit nervous, but not nearly as much as I had expected .. went out right on count (thanks to good ground school, I think ... I had confidence that the equipment would work, and that I'd do what I needed to in order to get down in one piece). Did the dive flow correctly (as I was later told) ... went to pull ... took a long time (noted by JM) .. I remembered that I got 2 chances (and that I had to pay for it if I dropped it), then had to hit the reserve, so did NOT want to only have one parachute to rely on .. so grabbed the pvc ... then regripped it to be SURE I had it before pulling ... LOL. Had the same experience as at least one other noted ... during debrief, JM's ask me to describe it ... a lot was just a blur except for remembering grins on my "check left, check right's" before the prcp's, an arch signal, and that altimeter saying 5500. As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

unless you're like me ... tall & thin (or some other strange body shape .. lol) and have to order to fit, you ought to be able to find used gear in that price range without too much trouble ... any clue what you want yet? As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

goggles ... RIGHT away ... those "be sure to wipe the snot off them" comments from the JM's had an effect ... LOL ... rig, etc. ... a little before I thought I'd get done with AFF and have enough jumps to handle a smaller canopy .. was ordering, so wanted it to be there when I was ready ... and I was TIRED of backing up on the smallest student rig (a 215, and I only weigh 145) ... tho, landing while backing up WAS getting to be 2nd nature ... almost ran the last one out ... LOL. Altimeter was last, cause the dz allowed me to use one of theirs until I could afford that (rigs aren't cheap!). As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

pushpoint blowgun darts can take care of 45 minutes or so ... if you have the metal ones around still ... the plastic ones are really too light, and they shatter on impact sometimes ... LOL As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

"sometimes" ???? ... ROFL ... probably more like seldom! ... As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

I agree with FF ... LOL ... even when I get the experience to get on something like that ... leave me on the outside so I can track my skinny butt off (did ground support for the Texas record attempt and saw how close some of those openings were)!! Can't wait to see pics of it ... gonna look cool ... best of luck!

I have to agree with Sebazz overall ... ground work is the key ... especially if a dz change is involved. If someone can't pick it up from thorough discussion on the ground, maybe they ought to take up a different sport? As for the legs out ... where I went thru AFF ... they made sure to do it sideways instead of up and down just to help prevent that peace sign bit. They used the alti tap for an alt. check, which makes a lot of sense to me ... and the finger point (stressed in class that ANY direction) was pull. As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

not one I'd like to be forced into ... but did notice one thing (at least the way you worded it) ... doesn't say the 10 WON'T die even if you do shoot one ... I like the "no rules" answer ... if they're dumb enough to give a hostage a gun ... shoot THEM ... As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Got the repack done (nothing against Todd ... but that IS a long assed drive up there!!) ... so am ready ... see ya'll friday, weather permitting! Gonna haul that harp along? As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

if I remember my emails correctly, they extended the early registration until the 9th ... get on it!! Dave ... will see ya up there, if not before - repack situation not TOTALLY resolved, but folks were a whole lot of help (thanks again ya'll .!!) .. now gotta get offline and make some calls As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

well ... back from Lost Prairie and Alaska finally ... and need a repack .. the rigger I've learned to trust has moved .. I'm still pretty new at all this, so I asked around .. got recommendations for 2 (both at Waller) ... but they are both so stacked up it would be a minimum of 2 weeks before they could get to it ... SOOO ... can anyone recommend a Houston area rigger for me that might could get to it sooner? If you don't want to put names on here, please PM me, or email me at Beachbum@coastalfishing.org ... please give me some clue as to how to contact them also .. THANKS!!

sky blue protec ... still need to mount my protrak on it tho ... As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

I think it's just the mind's way of letting you know it isn't so sure IT wants to do what you're gonna subject it to ... LOL. Since I only get to do one a week (ear problem) .. I go thru that in a minor way nearly every jump still. I agree with some of the other advice ... deep breaths, distract yourself with dive plan, bs with others, etc. and it disappears. For me, it's usually mainly right after takeoff ... higher I get, the closer I know I am to going out the door, so mine gets better as we climb. As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

man ... I'm jealous ... we're driving up ... too much gear to take a plane, since we're headed to Alaska from there to fish. We ought to get there sometime sunday ... look us up! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

I'll be interested to see if you get it diagnosed. I have had a problem with my right ear getting a fluid buildup after every jump since jump # 1. The docs told me that if I jumped with the fluid in there, I'd really do some serious damage, so have to wait 7 - 10 days between jumps ... . I tried all the otc stuff, and a couple of prescription things, let them do a ct scan of my sinuses ... even stuck little tiny video cams up my nose ... can't figure out what's causing it. When I have the $$$ saved up, gonna just get one of those tubes put in my eardrum instead of spending more trying to get the problem pinpointed. As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Heck yeah!! Been hearing about all the work Todd's gotten done up there, but the couple of times I was gonna head up we've been weathered out .. . Still gotta check you out on that harp! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?