2009-07-27 Camera decision made.

I made the decision to buy a Sony HDR-CX100 video camera for skydiving. The thing is fucking tiny. I'll be expecting it on Wednesday. I'm starting a new adventure.

2009-07-26 Jumps 101-104 Helicopter Jump

I was so amped from yesterday's jumping that I decided to go again, and it was an incredible day.

I got to the DZ around 1:30pm after doing a bike ride in the morning and making a few stops on the way. There was still a lot of time left to jump, so I went about making it happen. I downsized to a 199 today, and it worked well for me. No hard landing. The next time I rent it, I need to remember to visually check the brake lines to see how bowed out they are so I can get an idea of how long the brake lines are so I can hopefully use that as a reference in the future.

Jump 101
3-way head down hastily arranged and not very well executed. Shane and I asked this other guy if he wanted, while on the way to altitude. We broke apart and this guy was doing a back-fly spin above us while we waited for him to come down. I was concerned for a second that something wasn't right.

Jump 102
2-way head down with Shane. We weren't as stable and I think that the difference of me in my suit and him in t-shirt and shorts gave us problems.

Jump 103
Solo jump, but the ride was worth it. My first helicopter jump, and Shane M. was piloting. The ride was absolutely incredible as we skimmed along the ground and just over the tops of trees. A bit of aerobatics worked into the ride too. Very very very cool! For the jump, I climbed out on the skid, waved good bye, and fell backwards. I was holding my camera the whole time and the video was pretty cool. I'm working on editing it now down into a fun show rather than just a documentary.

Jump 104
I lurked on Brian F's and Kathy Lynn's docking attempts. I flew above them the whole time. I started to see myself in the position of a camera flyer which was pretty cool.

2009-07-25 Jumps 95-100

Today was destined to be the day I hit 100. I was talking it up with a bunch of people, but when everything came together, I thought about doing a helicopter jump for the 100th. That would have made it really special in a selfish way because I would have been with a small number of people. Instead, Yoyo went through the effort to organize an ambitious 17-way snowflake. In the mean time, I had 5 jumps to do before the 100th, so I was jumping like a mad man.

Jump 95
This jump started off with the intention that I was going to lurk, but I ended up solo. I did some back and sit practice and got into a straight down delta. The head down position was really cool because I could tell my lower body was in the slipstream of my upper body. It got really quite too which was really cool. A good landing at 10'.

Jump 96
I decided to try the head down position again and again got into that slipstream. It felt very cool. 206mph. A good landing at 10'.

Jump 97
A tracking jump with Travis and Shane. It was fun, and we were able to keep together and on the same level. I felt pretty good about my track stability. Long landing at 30'

Jump 98
Another solo head down. It would be nice to see what I'm doing. A good landing at 15'.

Jump 99
2-way back flip exit with Heyka. We did several flips then to belly. Tried to do a propeller, but couldn't get it to work. Long landing at 20'.

Jump 100
Yeay, the big #100. Now I can feel like a hotshot. :) Yoyo organized a 17-way snowflake. I was in the base, so there wasn't much for me to do to make this happen other than not screw up the exit. Well, I didn't screw up the exit, but still only 12 people were able to get grips. I guess one problem was that we were fairly dearched in the base, so it was flying really slowly. Tracking was kind of crazy with so many people in the sky. A good landing at 15'.

I got to watch the video that Donald and one other guy made of the jump on the big-screen. It was way cool.

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.