Starx

Thanks for the info. I think I'm sold on them :)

Does anyone have Majik booties on their Bev suit that they could post a picture of? The text description I got of what they are isn't quite enough for me to picture it in my head. Also, do you like your majik booties? What effect do they have vs. the cordura booties? I'm looking to replace my current Bev suit which has cordura booties and this is the only option I haven't made up my mind about yet.

What levels are yall fused at? My injury is to C2, so if I don't get the hardware out I can't turn my head more than 10ish degrees in either direction. I figured only looking straight ahead while under canopy sounds like a bad idea...

Long story short, I broke my neck during a hard opening. I was extremely lucky in that there was no spinal cord damage and I landed safely. I will soon be having the second surgery to take hardware out of my neck. There will no doubt be a fairly long period of physical therapy and letting the bone strengthen, but after all that is said and done I am left to decide whether I return to skydiving or not. Obviously I'd like to, but of course I'm worried that my neck will not be strong enough to withstand an opening that's not perfect, or my neck is fine and I have another hard opening as bad as this one. And maybe this time it kills me, or worse. On the other hand I've finally found something that not only do I love, but I also seem to be reasonably talented at. If I don't go back to jumping will I just be bitter/regretful about it? I think hearing what others have done in their circumstances can often help you process your own, so I'm wondering if yall have stories, personal or otherwise, of people who did or didn't come back to skydiving after a serious injury. I am particularly interested in any stories where the injury was a neck injury, or was due to a hard opening, but that set of circumstances might be too specific, so feel free to share anything you think might be relevant. Best case scenario I'm probably still out all next season, so I've got plenty of time to mull this over and and advice yall have I'd be interested in hearing.

At least not yet...

Make the drive up to Perris Valley and jump with the Perris organizers. They are extremely welcoming to new jumpers, they make sure you learn something in addition to having people to jump with, and they are super fun. I finished my A at Skydive San Diego and at about 40 jumps went up to Perris as a last hurrah before leaving California. I instantly regretted the fact that I hadn't started jumping at Perris the day I got my A.

I'll give those a try, thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I have an app that will translate METAR and there's an AWOS that I can call but both of those give real time weather, not forecasts. For forcasts the only thing I have is weather underground. Unfortunately telling me it's 60% overcast doesn't help much because I don't know if that overcast is going to be at 5000 ft (boo) or 15000 ft (yay!). It's a 2 hour drive for me so it extra sucks to sit on weather hold. Can anyone suggest some better resources for me to make my go/no go decision in the mornings?

The link above doesn't work for me but this one does: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=518_1440595069. Also, the killer posted a video of his view: https://vid.me/ZQBE Obviously all of that is NSFW.

In about a month I'll be roadtriping from the west coast to the east. I'd like to stop somewhere in the middle for a day of jumping, any suggestions where? It'll probably be middle of the week, so I'd like a place big enough that there will still be folks to jump with. At the moment I'm thinking skydive chicago but I want to be sure I haven't overlooked any other gems. My only location qualifications are that on the east-west scale it's middle-ish to break up the driving and on the north-south scale it's middle to north (too far south is out of my way, so no spaceland for me).

80 mph through a neighborhood! Absurd! What if a kid ran out in front of them!

Say you're giving an xmas wishlist to someone, or say you want to get a present for a skydiving buddy, what are some good choices? The constraint here is that it should be of reasonable cost. We all have our eye on some shiny new altimeter or jumpsuit but those are very expensive. What I want are your ideas for casual presents. My ideas: * Earplugs * Magazine subscription (but aren't we all getting parachutist anyway?) * Skydiving themed t-shirt * Book (Canopy & it's pilot or something like that) * Jump tickets (though I think this one is lame, it's like giving money) * Camera accessories (I'm thinking new gopro mount or something like that)

Squats (barbell squats, none of that smith machine crap). They work your legs, they work your core, they work your calves. All good things to have in shape while landing. Also make sure you stretch, the key to not getting injured is strength and flexibility (that is, physically speaking that's the key, not doing dumb shit also prevents injuries).