2009-07-19 Hot and Sticky! Jumps 90-94

It was a hot and sticky day for sure. The temperature must have been over 100°f, and even hotter in the backdraft from the propellers while waiting to board. But that didn't stop Cindy, Matt and I from jumping the whole day.

Jump 90
I met up with two guys on the way to the plane and we decided to try a  3-way head down then to belly and 2 360's.  We managed it which was cool. I had a great landing within 5' of the target.

Jump 91
I got to lurk as Matt and Cindy did a linked tracking jump. In the middle they did a  flip, together, and it worked very well. We reversed direction and tracked again. They waved off, tracked and went in for the landing. Again, I had a really great landing within 5' from the target.

Jump 92
 3-way hybrid attempt with Matt and Cindy. Matt was supposed to come in, dock and grab chest straps and go into a sit. He was too slow in docking, so we never got to have him go into a sit. Good landing, 10' from target.

Jump 93
3-way belly with Cindy and Troy. We were just going to do 360's and docks. We actually got three 360's and two docks before the clock ran out. Good landing, 10' from target.

Jump 94
5-way  sit train attempt. Heyka and I stayed linked because I forgot to let go of her harness. I enjoyed the spin we got into. I don't think she did though. We were falling faster than the rest, so I was able to see one other group of 2 still in the sit train above us. Heyka and I got into a belly and waited to see if anyone else would join us. The landing was a bit long at around 30'.

2009-07-04 Emily's Tandem jump and other fun. (Jumps 85-89)

I had decided to go mountain biking at Hollenbeck Canyon with some friends on Friday because I knew I was going to be taking my friend Emily to do a tandem jump on the morning of the 4th. I packed up my tent and my air mattress and all the trappings of home, along with my bike and headed to Jamul. After a beautiful late afternoon ride with Bryan F an, and dinner with Gardner, I headed back to Skydive San Diego to set up my tent and go to sleep. As I was laying out my tent, Max came out of his room, and I offered to share a bottle of vodka with him if he helped me set up the tent. In short order, the tent was erected, the air mattress was inflated and everything was laid out for a good night's sleep. The bottle of Belvedere was opened, and the conversation was flowing. After about 8 shots, I was ready to lay down, so I bid a good night and headed to the tent. I awoke early, as usual, took down the tent and packed everything back into the car. I then headed off to Eastlake to get some coffee before Emily and Blaze would arrive. They got there just before 9am, and I sent Emily off to fill out the waiver while I performed the financial side of the bargain. Blaze was the nervous one. Emily told me that Blaze had come into her room to wake her up and was crying and gave her a little speech about how if she something happened to her that she was loved. While I was waiting for my CC to be processed, Blaze was mentioned how charged everyone seemed to be. I looked around, but really, the only one who was charged was her--it was kind of funny.

Jump 85
For this jump, I just played by myself. Flips and turns and the like. Got to wave to Emily before jumping. Great landing.

Jump 86
2-way with Dave. Linked exit. Belly 360 L, Dock, 360 R, Dock, Side-body, Track. Bumpy air. Soft landing. First jump on new suit.
Jump 87
2-way head down w/ Ausie Matt - 231mph!

Jump 88
Solo sit practice.

Jump 89

Solo sit practice.

2009-06-27 Formation Skydiving (Relative Work) Camp

The Formation Skydiving (or Relative Work) camp at Skydive San Diego was planned to get off to an early start. I arrived at the wee hour of 7:30am after a minimal amount of sleep, but it wasn't until around 8am that people started arriving. There were only 5 of us in the camp, three with several hundred jumps, myself with 79 at that point and Franz with 45 over the course of 2+ years. The camp was put on by Padu and Kai Wolf, both of whom have significant competitive experience in 4-way skydiving.

Kai started out giving us his history and telling us a little about 4-way, with Padu chiming in here and there. We were then separated into groups based on experience, with Franz and I paired together and the other three in the second group. Franz and I were to jump with Padu, so we got together to plan our first jump. We planned to go out the door linked, with Franz being point and I was at the tail. We practiced in the doorway and dirt-dived our maneuvers. We were going to go from a star to an acordion to a side-body and repeat.

Jump 79
3-way linked exit with Franz and Padu. Franz lost it, so Padu and I waited for him to redock. He never made it. Good landing, w/in 25 feet.

Jump 80
4-way with Katie C, Franz and Padu. I screwed up on the second point and broke the formation. I got back, but Franz couldn't redock. Good landing. 20 feet from target.

Jump 81
Katie C and Jan showed up, and we were also introduced to Mark Hewitt who had been a USA 4-way and 8-way champion some years back. Mark took over organizing and we planned to do a 5-way. Franz broke away again and couldn't get back while the rest of us waited, not doing anything but falling. Great landing, w/in 15 feet.

Jump 82
3-way with Mark and Franz. We got to the second point and then Franz lost it. I fell with Mark, waiting for Franz to redock which he never did. Incredible landing, 5 feet from target center.

Jump 83
3-way with Mark and Franz. I did a diving exit, but lost control and couldn't dock with them. Good landing within 25 feet from target.

Jump 84
3-way with Franz and Mark. Another diving exit, but thanks to Mark's coaching, I was able to maintain control and stability by steering my exit. I was able to dock. I was supposed to do a 360 and then redock, but I took my eyes off of Mark, and lost proximity and couldn't get back to the slot. Very long landing, about 50 feet from target.

All in all, it was a nice day of jumping and I truly enjoyed myself. I learned a lot of stuff that I'll be practicing every chance I get.

2009-06-06 - 2009-06-07 Water Training, B-License, camping and jumps 74-78

2009-06-06

Water training apparently doesn't happen with as much regularity as is needed, so when I saw that Nick Roti was putting on the class I jumped at the opportunity. It was one of the only things I needed for my B-License, so it made sense to take the class.

The B-License is a bit of a strange certification. It doesn't really change anything except for allowing me to jump at night. To be honest, I don't really have any desire or need to jump at night. There's something about being able to see the ground on the final approach for landing that makes jumping in the dark seem crazy. Maybe after I've got several hundred jumps it will be more interesting, but until then, I'll stick to daylight jumps.

The only useful part of the B-License, as far as I can tell, is that once I have 100 jumps I can take a Coach course and become a skydiving coach. That effectively makes skydiving a job, and as such, I can include it in the services I offer through my business, Zen Monkey Adventure Services. Having skydiving as a ZMAS offering means that I can deduct my business expenses (milage, gear, training costs, etc.) on my taxes, thereby reducing my taxible income.

The water training course was intended to start at 4pm, but things being what they are, we didn't get started until around 5. After a brief stint in the classroom learning about different water related issues, we got into our cars and drove to the "College area" where Donald H. has an appartment complex with a swimming pool. Jake rode with me, and we had some interesting conversations about socialization, politics and other stuff on the way.

I was selected to be the first to jump into the pool. The best part about that was that I didn't have to put on a cold, wet rig. Once I was in the pool, they threw the canopy over me and I had to first surface, pushing up with my fist to create an air space. The second part was I needed to submerge again and extract myself from under the canopy. It was fairly easy in the pool, but I could see how it would be easy to get tangled in all the lines in moving water. Yeay, I finished the last requirement for my B-License!

After everyone was finished with their time in the pool, pizza and beer were served. Unfortunately for me, no one thought to order a pizza without all sorts of dead animals on it, or beer that wasn't fizzy and yellow. So I just drank some of the beer I brought with me.

After a bit of socializing, Jake and I headed back to SDSD. It was getting dark, so I was really appreciative of Jake's assistance in setting up my tent. After it was up, I bid him farewell and went about getting my air mattress inflated and the other comforts of home into the tent. The night was beautiful, with the sounds of frogs and birds and a full moon overhead. I enjoyed some fine potato vodka and laid on the air mattress looking out the window at the moon and the few clouds. Somewhere around 1am I finally fell asleep.

The sun came up early, waking me around 5:15am. I certainly wasn't ready to wake up, but there's no way to hide from the sun in a tent. Still, I tried to hide, covering my head with my sleeping bag--prefering to suffer from over-heating than suffer from a lack of sleep. I dozed in and out of sleep until around 7:30. After getting dressed and grabbing some breakfast from the cooler, I broke down the camping gear and packed it away in the car.

People were starting to arrive at the DZ by this time and before I knew it, I was manifested on the first load of the day.

Jump 74
Solo jump. I practiced sitflying with limited success. There were a lot of clouds, so I deployed higher than I would have liked, above the clouds. It was really cool to be able to clearly see the jumpers below me in freefall highlighted against the white clouds. I had to come through the clouds under canopy, so I went into a right hand spiral. It was scary but really beautiful to go through them, and when I came out underneath them, it was like a opening my eyes. I had a long landing.

Jump 75
Another solo jump. It was still cloudy even after a weather hold, and I didn't realize we were so far west. Again, I opened a bit higher because I realized I was at the southwest corner of the lake. I wasn't certain if I'd be able to make it back, so I put myself into a rear riser glide and tucked into a ball and rode the winds back. I made it to the DZ, but just barely, making an arc rather than a good landing pattern. The landing was soft even though the air was really bumpy.

Jump 76
3-way hybrid attempt with Jake and Ausie Matt. Jake and I went out linked and Matt tried to dive down to us. He took too long to dock, making it to us just as we got to 6000 feet. So, we broke off and tracked. The canopy ride was pretty bumpy, but I had a good, soft landing.
Jump 77
Another solo jump, but this time bellyflying. I took a moment to just look out at the horizon instead of down at the ground. It was really beautiful to see the ocean and San Diego, Tijuana, Chula Vista and the mountains. I took it all in, in a way I've never done before. The air was still bumpy under canopy, but I had a good landing.

Jump 78
Another solo bellyflying jump. I was pretty tired so I just did some flips, turns and barrel roles. Good landing.

2009-05-24 Memorial Day Weekend 2009 Jumps 62-69 and Jumps 70-73

Sunday
My buddy Keith C from up north was down for the weekend with the specific intent of skydiving. He was doing his first tandem jump, and after a few false starts, it was finally going to happen. I popped by our buddy Keith S' house to collect him, and off we went. Since I was planning on doing 10 jumps today, we drove in separate vehicles. While I'm not normally self-conscious about driving 55, with someone behind me the whole way, I was a bit stressed that he was going through speeding withdrawals. Anyway, as we got closer to the DZ, I realized that no matter whether he had a 9am reservation, we weren't going to be jumping for a while.  The cloud cover was pretty thick and low, but reported to burn off by about 11. I called, just to make sure, and as a result got my coffee run turned into a coffee-boy run. With coffee drinks in hand, we walked into the office just a bit after 9:30. We got Keith all registered and I got my rental gear and went to manifest just as the clouds were starting to break. Sarah had put me on load 1 for a fun jump and Keith and I on load 3.


Jump 62
My first tracking jump. I was way behind everyone, able to stay at the same altitude, but couldn't catch up. Johny M was  kind enough to offer a solution for the next time I try a tracking jump. PLF'd

Jump 63
Keith was so cool, calm and collected. Everyone was commenting on how he had no fear. Of course, he was chatting up Vanessa the whole way up in the plane, so he might have been thinking with a different mind.

I did a 3-way with Brian and Ausie Matt. We tried to get a speed star. I docked with Brian but Matt came in too low and grabbed anyway causing the start to warble and break.

Jump 64
Solo sitfly practice. I got into a stand, but as soon as I tried to sit I went onto my back. Nice landing.

Jump 65
4-way head down with Brian, Ausie Matt and Andrew. After going head down we broke and went to belly.
I almost made the dock, but reached breakoff before I could take my slot. Great landing
 
Jump 66
2-way Horney Gorrilla with Ausie Matt. We were very stable and got a great spin going, flinging us across the sky. Great landing.

Jump 67
3-Way head-down. We took strong grips, left low right high, I and Ausie Matt were outside and Brian was inside. We rolled out of the plane and almost immediately went into a head down. I looked up and saw the earth. We broke and then formed a speed star. We all docked well. The landing was pretty bumpy.

Jump 68
3-way Hybrid with Andrew and a fellow from Elsinore. It was a lot of fun. We were in a slow spin, so I countered to make certain we were stable. Mr. X swooped in, took grips on our chest straps and went into a sit. He got the sit for a bit but then fell on his back. He was able to get back to the sit for a bit, but then we were at breakoff. Pulled at 4.

Jump 69
2-way with Brian F into Horney Gorilla. We exited in a roll, legs locked. Then we tried to go to a belly, but that didn't seem to be working, so I put my legs between his and we sat back. We were stable and so I started the spin. We spun for a while and then I released and we flew across the sky. We redocked and Brian took side grips. I then went into a track which caused us to spin, but we were out of time. Broke off, pulled at 4.

Monday
I wasn't going to jump, because I was out of money. I was sitting on Facebook when my friend Rocco sent me an IM asking me if I was going to jump. I explained my situation and he offered to help. An all-day gear rental for $50 and then $22/jump. The gear rental sounded good, but I didn't want to get myself too deeply into a financial hole, so I decided to call Sarah and ask her about the free jumps for sending three people down for AFF. When she said she'd credit my account, giving me a balance of 5 jumps on the books, I decided I'd take Rocco up on the gear rental.
I didn't realize it until I got to the drop zone, but I was really beat from the 8 jumps I did yesterday. Still, I figured I'd get as many jumps in as possible. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the 4th jump, I was exhausted.

Jump 70
2-way with Andrew. We tried to do a horney gorilla, but didn't make it. Great, on target landing--5' from target

Jump 71
Solo Sitfly. I got it for a little while, but really could use some help figuring out what I'm not doing.

Jump 72
4-way tube exit with Rocco, Andrew and Mike. We were flipping nicely for a while but then got off. I tried to help correct for it, but we ended up breaking off. We tried to dock again, but Andrew and Rocco were all over the place. Each zooming past the other. By the time they docked, we were at the breakoff altitude anyway, so we waved off and tracked. 

Jump 73
2-way with Andrew. We exited with his legs wrapped around mine, went into a back laying position.  We flew it for a little while but we weren't able to get stable. We broke off around 7k and tracked to 4.  Good landing, 15' from target.

2009-05-16 Jumps 56-61

I managed to get myself to the dropzone by 11:30am even though I had been moving in that direction since around 8. This wasn't boding well for my goal of reaching 10 jumps, but I figured I could still pull it off if I hussled.

Jump 56
Horney Gorilla with Ian, a new jumper. Lots of good fun flinging and flying. Mostly out of control. Great landing, 1.5m from target!

Jump 57
Sit practice. Able to get into sit for several seconds at a time.

Jump 58
Sit practice. Not as good as the last jump.

Jump 59
4-way with Padu, Jan and Katerina.
14 points.
Side exit gripping onto Jan. We went from grips to acordion to star and back.
I thought we were done so I let go too soon.

Jump 60
Sitfly solo.

Jump 61
4-way with Katerina, Jan, Padu.

Side exit, with me gripping Jan.
Grips to Acordion to Star to 2-way for Jan and I and then Satellite off of us.

2009-May-2 and 2009-May-3 Cinco de Mayo Boogie (Jumps 48-55)

It was time for my first Boogie--the Cinco de Mayo Boogie at Skydive San Diego--and I was really bummed. The weather in Jamul was forecast to be dismal on Saturday with lots of clouds and even a chance of rain, but was supposed to clear up by late morning on Sunday.

Saturday
I checked the weather around 9am, and I checked for a Facebook post about the weather, but there were no encouraging signs. So, I started my day not really knowing what I was going to do.

By mid-afternoon, after some shopping and other assorted activities, I decided I'd make my way down to the DZ, thinking that maybe I would even stay the night. But, then I remembered that I had not brought anything to make sleeping comfortable, so I assumed I'd just go for the party and then head home.

When I got to the DZ around 3pm, the sun was shining and the winds were light, and apparently had been that way since around 11am. I decided I was going to jump, so I give Sarah my CC, picked up a rig and jumpsuit and walked toward the packing area. Franz was there, and being that he's a new diver too, I asked him if he wanted to jump with me. We agreed and we got ourselves manifested onto the next load.

Just as I was getting things together, Katerina C. asked us what we were doing, and asked us if we wanted to do a 4-way that she was trying to organize. Apparently she hasn't had much experience organizing, so there were a lot of false starts in terms of planning, but in the end we figured it out. We'd exit as a 3-way with a floater that would swoop and dock. Jan was to be the floater since he had the most experience, and the rest of us would be in the base. We would then break the base into an accordian and switch back and forth between the accordian and the star. We dirt-dived several times, but I still wasn't really certain if everyone knew what we were supposed to do. We got our 5 minute call and suited up and headed to the plane.

Jump 48
The 3-Way exit was OK, but Jan took forever to find a slot. He circled around us two or three times before he finally docked next to me. Katerina gave the nod and we started to go into the accordian. Almost immediately Franz broke off and couldn't get back to the group. At some point I broke off, I don't recall how it happened, but I tried to get back, but wasn't able. I was below Katerina and Jan, and no amount of trying to grab air seemed to slow my fallrate enough to get back to level with them. At 6K, when it was obvious redocking wasn't going to happen, I waved off, turned and tracked. I had a great landing, with very good accuracy (10ft.)

I got myself manifested on the next load and was excited about going up again, and Katerina was organizing another jump. But the clouds rolled in and it became evident that no more jumping was going to be happening, but that meant that the party was about to begin.

The party got going around 7pm when the DJ and food arrived. There weren't many people at the party, which was kind of disappointing given that it was my first Boogie. Most of the instructors took off just after eating, and I knew few of of those who remained. Regardless, I had brought several bottles of Pliny the Elder, so I enjoyed the beer while everyone else was busy hitting the keg and I enjoyed the conversations with the folks around me.

Sunday
It was bright and sunny around 9am when I arrived at the DZ. As I walked toward the office I heard Sarah announce that load 2 was on a 10 minute call. I proferred my CC, ordered up a day rental and had my jumps put on the day's tab. I grabbed a rig and wandered over to the fun-jumper's packing area. That's when I saw Jake K. We talked about jumping together, but less than a few seconds after we agreed what we were going to do, Matt Lewis asked us if we wanted to jump with him. We made a plan to do a train exit with Matt at the head, Jake in the middle and I at the back side. After a few dirt dives, we got ourselves manifested and waited around for the call.

Jump 49

3-way with Jake and Matt Lewis.
Train exit.
Got whipped around. Jake dropped and I held on to him. We whipped around for a bit and then I let go of him. Matt and I docked. Jake came in, docked on matt, but couldn't get both arms.
Jake lost it again and Matt and I did a Horney Gorrilla before finally breaking off and tracking.

Jump 50
6-Way Hybrid organized by Matt Lewis.
3 in base (Jake K, myself and Matt. )

Exit went well, we stayed together.

3 divers tried to swoop and grab ahold of our leg straps. Only two got in. After it was clear she wasn't going to make it, the other two went into their sit which dramatically sped things up.

Jump 51
12-Way Hybrid.

Jake, I, Rigo and Shad were the base. Matt L., Erika, Mu, and one other jumper docked to leg straps. 4 Stingers came in and docked to leg grips. The four on the leg straps went into a sit. The change in velocity was incredible! The stingers broke off at 5500, the sitflyers at 5000 and the base at 4500. I turned, tracked and pulled at 3500

Jump 52
Jake and I. Julien H. came along to watch.

Jake and I tried to do a propeller, and finally got it a bit, but I felt like I was having to throw him around to make it work.

After we broke, I docked with Julien briefly.

Jump 53
Julien and I. Horney Gorilla exit and fly. Then we broke and I tried a sit, but couldn't get into it.

Good landing, about 30 feet from target.

Jump 54
Allie G, David G, me.

The exit was horrible, with Allie flipping over and landing top of me, back to back. I flipped us around and tried to get us into a propeller.

We weren't turning very much in the propeller, and I was trying to make make the spin go faster. After a brief stint, I undocked and David swooped in and docked with Allie.

With Allie being significantly lighter than me, her fall rate was much slower than mine. She and David were above me by about 20 feet leaving me to wait for them to come to me while I was trying to grab as much air as possible, but we never made it. Finally, just before break-off, David swooped down to me, tapped my hand and we broke off.

Horrible, long landing.

Jump 55
Solo jump with flips and turns.

Bumpy air on landing.