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I did another 3 jumps on Friday taking my total to 12 as a paraplegic and 50 skydives overall. Ill put the videos up on YT today and put another post here. D Get busy living or get busy dying!

How about you do this, 1)Pick up the phone. 2)Dial the drop zone's number 3)Book a jump 4)PAY FOR THE JUMP 5)Go do the jump 6)Get back on here and post a photo or vid Dont even think about what it might be like, you will be wrong in any event. Just do it and cut out the guess work. Easy. .......oh and have fun, that is what life is for. Get busy living or get busy dying!

Marios, there are some things in life that are a certainty. That is one of them. I owe you some beers for carrying me down the stairs and grabbing my jacket too! Rock on brother! I'd like to jump in Cyprus with as well one day! The D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Im not offended Steve, not at all. Rock on! Get busy living or get busy dying!

People become quads everyday and it does not mean that their life is over. I did not get any warning that I was about to become a paraplegic and I have lived a more fulfilling life now then before. What is the actual point of this poll? Is it to make people consider what skydiving means to them? There is a better question that could be asked in this regard rather than implying that quads have a shit life and therefore using that as some form of benchmark to measure things from. This would be a better question to have asked: If you knew you would end up a selfish prick with no regard for anybody or anything on this planet because of skydiving, would you take one final farewell jump? I’m not implying that anyone is, I’m just making a point about this poll, is it to rate how many think it would crap to be a quad or is it to make people think about what this awesome sport means to them. hmmmmm......... Get busy living or get busy dying!

I like that idea RR, anything that reduced the chance of injury gets my attention. Ill look into that.... If your after a bit of a laugh, this is something else i do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNmK2fM4_F4 I am writing some new material about dropzones and skydiving and plan on doing a tour called "Hook it in!" to various dropzone to raise money for their social clubs. If I come to the US, would this interest anyone? lol Rock on! D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Holy crap! That is the luckiest dude in the world! Stupid.........YES! That canopy was fine. Geeeeeeeez. Get busy living or get busy dying!

Thanks for your comments guys. I am still buzzing like a bee! Here are a couple of pics. Didnt get any in freefall. Next jump i will. Re harness and my legs, I am trying to keep it as simple as possible at the moment. A harness that pulls my legs back would be very hard to operate in the door of aircraft as i need to shuffle across the floor and sit on the edge. I cant do this with my ankles around my ears! As you can see in freefall, my legs are pointing down quite a lot. This is because I have been sitting in a wheelchair for 6 years and my ligaments have shortened and are set in that position now. I will need to do lots of stretching if i am to fix this. But i can work with it, its just a matter of trial and error. I wear some carbon fiber knee braces that i made in order to keep my knees at 90 degrees. (see attached pic) I had to put my legs in plaster BEFORE I jumped in order to make a cast for these braces. Quite a strange sequence of events really! My canopy control needs to be very good or I could easily put my a$$ through my head. If i damage my legs or butt it will take me months to heal as I don't get the blood circulation through my lower body that I used to. It would be really bad actually.....and if the landing didnt kill me my wife would! It has been a great journey to do this. When I first started thinking about jumping again even I was very skeptical. There were just so many things to consider. None of the training manuals really applied to what i needed to do so it was all new to everyone involved. I must thank Peter Hewitt in Sth Africa. He was the first paraplegic (L1 complete) in the world to do solo freefall. I was the first in Australia and second in the world and Peter's long chats to me over skype were great. Remember,If you think you can or think you can't your probably right. Rock on! D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hi All, Yesterday I was released in freefall to be on my own again. For the first time since breaking my back in a motorcycle accident in 2002 i was solo in freefall. I am a T10 complete paraplegic and cant feel or move anything from my belly button down. I cant arch at all and I lift my legs up and hook them with straps to my chest strap to land. I have a lot of padding in my butt to give me a soft landing. I had 37 jumps and 500hrs flying jump planes before i broke my back. I wanted to get back solo jumping again and it has been a very tough exercise but I did it! YEEEEE HARRRRRRR! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdZo3363XFs It was my 9th jump as a paraplegic and my other jumps can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/user/daleeIIiott No stopping me now! Head down next! (as u can see at my deployment!lol) Dale Get busy living or get busy dying!

WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO! SOLO IN FREEFALL !!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdZo3363XFs I DID IT ! YAY! Get busy living or get busy dying!

Packing went great. Easier than I thought. Having strong hands is such a bonus. Weather is still poo, might not get to jump this weekend Get busy living or get busy dying!

Wow Minna! This must have taken you ages to write! Thank you for your effort! As you can see, I have my laptop here on the floor with me in the packing room. Weather is horrible so a good day to pack! I let you know how i go! Cheers D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Ok , here are some videos from my last 3 jumps Jump #5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEQkFXKu_MU Jump #6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl8TtXSm7LE Jump #7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhPctPUF4yA Working out how to pack a rig tomorrow by crawling around on the floor! Any pointers? Cheers D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hi All, I did my 5th AFF yesterday and it went really well. I have sorted out the rocking problem and i am now needing to work on my position during deployment as im going a litle bit head down and turning to the right as i reach to grab my pilot chute. I jumped a Sabre 230 yesterday which is the smallest canopy Ive jumped so far. Much faster then the 290 i was on! The flare in the landing was v nice and i landed on my butt with my legs up without issue. I jumped from 12000 and waved off at 6000. Im really getting my canopy ride sorted and can get my legs hooked up very quickly to my chest strap and then i enjoy the ride down. I am doing another jump today, maybe 2! I'll upload the video when i get home. Blue skies! Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hey Peter, I have done 4 jumps as a para and will have my A licence in the next month so if you want some up to date info email me dale@daleelliott.com or contact me on skype, username 'daleelliott' TO JUMP SOLO AS A PARAPLEGIC Three points, you will need 90 degree leg braces, a pair of custom made pants which have heaps of padding in the butt and a system to pull up and connect your legs to the chest strap for landing. WITHOUT THESE 3 THINGS YOU WILL KILL YOURSELF! (eventually! lol) It is of course, far more complicated then normal so i advise you do heaps of research, you will need to convince your AFF instructors to jump with you and to do this you need info. Cheers D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hi All, I did a sunset load last night (Friday 24th Jan) for my 4th jump as a paraplegic. Overall I was very happy with the jump. Only had one JM for most of fall and he was close to letting me go but i started rocking again. I think I have worked out why I am rocking and its to do with my arms. If i hold them up high above my shoulders it stops the rocking and when i looked at my alti and changed my arm position it started again. Canopy ride and landing were fantastic. I had 10kts of wind which allowed me to caress the ground with less force then whats needed to crush a coke can! I will be posting the video very soon, im editing it at the moment. Cheers D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Well my next jump just got cancelled due to no pilot avbl . Here is a vid of my last jump ,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrOlCja8RsY you can see the rocking that i had. I have modified my pants to have more porus webbing in between my legs as I think the air was getting caught which lifted me up and then the air spills out and then starts again. Get busy living or get busy dying!

Thanks Vanilla, I enjoy jumping a great deal and if you want something bad enough nothing can stop you i guess. I have another jump scheduled for Sunday. All going well I will be let go in FF, that will be a very special moment for me. I will post the vid of this jump asap. Blue skies D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hey Cowgirl, get a Care Zone set up for her on www.imthinkingofyou.com it is a website made exactly for this kind of thing. Email updates can easily be sent out and it has heaps of features to help manage a trauma or accident. It is awesome and free! Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hi guys, I havent jumped again for a few weeks but hopefully will again in the next 2. Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hi HF, I did a 3rd jump yesterday and it went very well. I jumped from 10000ft out of a C206 with two instructors(Curtis and Digga) and a cameraman(Troy). The exit weas great & as soon as we levelled out i did a practice pull. The instuctor on my left -Curtis, let me go and came around to the front while Digga held my right leg strap. I started to rock forward and back so i need to make my crotch panel on my pants more porus. I landed in a sandy patch in the student landing area and i was very happy with the jump. I made some good progress. I hope to do 2 more jumps this weekend and aim to have my A licence by 1st Jan 2009. Thanks to Curtis, Digga, Troy and Pilot and DZ owner Greg Smith. Without your accepting attitudes I would not be able to attempt these jumps. D Get busy living or get busy dying!

yea my off DZ landing was my first out of 40 jumps so i was a bit pissed about that. Pilot did a bad jump run and we got out 3 miles past DZ. We were upwind but I only made it 1.5miles back before landing in a field with my two JM's. My actual landing was perfect. Came in , flared and plop, on the ground. Very smooth and i was very happy. My second landing was just as smooth when impacting the ground. If i pick the conditions and only jump when its safe i will be fine with my current set up. Pulling my legs up and connecting to my chest strap was simple and took me 20 secs to do so i am v happy with that also. Cheers for your support guys , especially you Minna. I cant imagine the committment you have shown to get into jumping from scratch without any previous jump. Outstanding and bloody well done! Cheers D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Here is a story of my first jump on Friday 24th Oct 2008 http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=l6-rtjh7t2M and my 2nd http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=EmGBFVpBFB8 Get busy living or get busy dying!

Thanks HF, The jump plane taxied into the landing area far too close so i had to take evasive action. You can hear the engine come in on the vid. Jump Pilots should hold short of the landing areas until all tandems and students are down. I have seen people nearly get their canopies wrapped around the prop because pilots get too close. One of my pet hates, that and prop wash blowing dirt into the hanger! Grrrrrr. D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hi All, here is a video of my second jump. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v330/DazzaD/?action=view¤t=Produce_1.flv To say that this has been a FANTASTIC experience would not do it justice. It has been totally awesome! I seemed pretty stable but need to do some streching of my hips as years of sitting in a chair has caused some shortening of my ligaments which keeps my knees down a bit in free fall. I held the pull position for a while and i was fine. I bit of a left turn but i can sort that out. All good! And i am going up again in a week or so! 'A' licence by Christmas! Thanks for your support guys, the skydiving family is alive and well! D Get busy living or get busy dying!