craichead

Thanks for the warm welcome, everybody! I gots warm fuzzies now.

Unfortunately, I've not been to Ireland...yet. I do have a fondness for Irish culture, though. I first learned about the word "craic" when I was drinking with three Irishmen at a huge Oktoberfest (?!) party. By the end of the night we were standing on our chairs and singing very loudly. It wasn't pretty, but it was great fun! Ol, ceol agus craic! -P __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Yup, that was probably me! The DZOs were teasing me and my friend Heather for hanging around the dropzone when we were both injured (she had a sprained ankle and was on crutches) -- bad advertising! The skydive.com clothing + sling did impress my whuffo friends, though. Dunno why TD gave me the yellow A-license card -- I guess he figured that I could fill out SOME of it. Next season! -P __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Hiya everybody! Newbie here -- I finally mustered up enough courage to come out of lurk mode. At first I had no idea what to say, and then I was further deterred by the fact that my boyfriend is quite eager to create some kind of mischief around my posts in these forums! The introduction -- I'm in Chicago, jump at Chicagoland Skydiving, and I'm still on student status. I've got nine jumps (3 tandem, 6 solo) and everything was going well until I dislocated my shoulder on my Level 3. Totally weird because it was a great skydive, and I had good canopy control. It's just that when I finished my flare, my right arm decided that it wasn't happy in its socket. That happened at the end of September, and I haven't jumped since...looking forward to wind tunnel training in February, though! Anyway, nice to meet all of you -- definitely a fun bunch to watch. Hopefully I'll be participating more instead of just reading...no promises, though. Cheers! -P

The cartoon is quite good -- it's three pages long. I dunno what Mitch Decoteau looks like, but the guy in the cartoon bears a strong resemblance to Sylvester Stallone, namely his Rocky role. The Macho Mitch character says "Yo!" and "Aaayy!" quite a bit... Will get a scan sometime this week or next week...promise. Email me. -P __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

I'm working on it. Actually, my GF is. Gimme a few days. Playboy, Ferris Bueller, AndyMan. All in Chicago. _Am So, this is AndyMan's GF making her first post (hi everybody, nice to meetcha). Lucky for him that I work at the Chicago Historical Society, which houses in its collections some 30 yrs of assorted Playboy stuff. I found the skydiving article: "Part Three: The Sky Dive" in the April 1978 (page 108) issue. It's part three of a five-article series called "Pushed to the Edge," in which writer Craig Vetter "puts his ass on the line for Playboy and faces his fear of fear" and lives to tell about it all. The other articles are "Part One: The Ice Climb" (2/78), "Part Two: Jump!" (free-style ski jump, 3/78), "Part Four: The Wing Walk" (5/78) and "Part Five: The Cliff Dive" (6/78). Anywho, upon quickly skimming the skydiving article, I see no mention of Mitch Decoteau. I've made a photocopy of it, but unfortunately I am not allowed to post a copy of the article here. I'd be breaking several copyright laws and probably a few CHS rules. Could Mitch Decoteau be mentioned in another article from another month/year? Oh, I also found the Little Annie Fanny cartoon in the May 1980 issue (page 289). Again, can't post it here, but if I end up getting a scan of it...well, I'll see what I can do! Cheers, -P __ "Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

Hey, I just did my first tandem jump, and it was the best mind-blowing experience of my life. The staff and crew at Chicagoland Skydiving are the friendliest bunch of people I have ever met - passionate, and they work extremely well together. I was always greeted by a smile, and they were more than happy to answer all questions and calm all fears. On top of that, they are just hilarious - I really appreciated the humor to break up the tension of my first jump. Highly recommended!