JGarcia

Side mounting this camera for skydiving isn't a good option. Aside from riser strikes, you'll get part of your head / face in the frame unless it's mounted pretty far fwd. Is there a reason you're looking to mount it on the side, vs top-mounting? Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I mounted my GoPro to lens of my G3; however, after a couple tests in the wind tunnel, I decided to move it to the top of the helmet. I loved the idea of mounting it to the visor because it's low profile, but I wasn't happy with the amt of vibration I noticed on the video, even after several modifications to try and dampen the vibration. I also noticed a couple of minor stress cracks (even though cushioned washers were used) on visor coming from holes needed to mount it there using the low profile mount. ...Of course, your miles may vary, but that was my experience. Cheers! Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

"Turn around Bitch I got a use for you. Besides, you ain't got nothing better to do...and I'm bored! Hahaha...gotta love Axl Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

...The 1st time I saw a Wes Helmet was your Red CCM! I was a newbie with barely 50 jumps and thought, "Damn, that helmet looks FAST, all on it's own." I asked you how much it cost, and at the time, I thought it was just ridiculous. Many years and a few thousand jumps later, I was getting measured up for the same helmet. Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I have CCM #74 that Wes made for me a couple yrs ago complete with flash bracket and the works. There's a thread on here where I posted a bunch of pics of the completed helmet with mounts. I can show you next time I see you if I have the helmet with me...the mounts wouldn't be that hard to make. --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

I agree 100%...that's one of the biggest reasons I started competing. Well, that, and Ian Drennan and Angela wouldn't stop ribbing me about it one drunken New Years Eve @ Z-Hillz. And Mike, you're always #1 in my book... and sometimes, when the score sheet says "0" next to your name (and my name dring the last meet), just remember, it's chronologically even better than 1! 0....1.....2......3, etc, etc. Hey Al... did your Sushi make it through the morning? That was some good stuff! And my back didn't feel so bad after Jay Mo told me how many times he's torn/twisted/messed up his body in the name of swoop! Cheers! Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

As far as I understand it, that's the whole point of giving the Amateur pilots a handicap (10' gates, etc)...so that it's NOT like having two separate meets and so Amateur pilots can judge their performance directly against the Pros. I see what you're saying, and logistically it wouldn't be hard to do at all, but then it would, in fact, be two separate meets running concurrently...not one competition with the Pro's competing alongside, and against the Amateur Pilots. Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Flock yeah... Count me in. --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Well, arrows are better than Q-Tips... (right Eric?) The cost of a CCM has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Please re-read my post... it was in reply to you telling the original poster that: I simply said posted my helmet to show one of MANY mounting options, to show you don't need a kitchen counter on your head to mount what you will need for MOST applications. I also included a pic of a Vapor Narrow to show that it can also be done with one. Furthermore, just like I'm quite surprised you don't have an issue with riser slap (your risers must be quite a bit further apart on your rig than on mine), you'd be surprised that the set-up(s) shown are not top-heavy at all. My helmet, with EVERYTHING mounted, including all lenses, cables, & batteries weighs 8.0 lbs and is very nicely balanced. I shoot 90% vertical stills, by preference, not by limited mounting options ...so when I MUST have horizontal stills for whatever reason, I just mount the camera horizontally

WRONG. ...have you thought about mounting the still camera vertically? You can have both a still camera AND Video camera (PC models, or HC3/HC5, etc)TOP mounted on a Vapor narrow. This becomes even easier if you're looking at getting one of the new CX100s as Shane (NextGenSkydiver) mentioned. Personally I find your camera/camera plate set up to be rather frightening.... Seriously, I really think there are much more efficient ways to mount things. Does a larger plate allow for more mounting surface area? Absolutely! Would one need acreage on the top of their noggin to mount the toys? Not necessarily. I've attached pics of my set up showing the vertical stills (Canon Xt, 15 mm Fish Eye), with flash (Canon 580EX), and video camera (was an HC3 at the time, currently an HC5, but very soon to be a CX100), as well as a pic showing a Vapor Narrow with a vertical stills/HC5 top (NOT front) mounted. Please be careful when handing out advice with absolute terms, because there's never just "one" option.

I've jumped a Xaos-21 108, Xaos-27 93, Velocity 90, and Velocity 84, all with top mounted and side-mounted camera systems. In my experience, the Velocities have opened softer, and consistently than the Xaos canopies. I rarely use packers, but when I do, I'm very picky as to who packs 'em. I'm so used to my Velo's consistent opening and flying characteristics that it unnerves me to jump any other canopy. Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Cool, sounds good! I also sent Kaz the link to this thread so that she has the whole picture of what you're needing an explanation of. See you this weekend... We'll definitely be drinking the liquor I owe Art for my Tandem cut-away/reserve ride.

Shane... Wow, I haven’t been on the forums in about a month, and this is exactly what I don’t miss about them. I’m fairly certain you’re referring to things that I’ve said. However, you’ve taken 10 different thoughts or statements I've made in passing about my swoops at different times, took the bits you thought you retained, and pieced them into 1 very incorrect statement about my strategy and swooping in general. So let me try and clear some stuff up for you: Consider the following scenario: PD Sponsored, Pro Swooping Tour Pilots that bail to toggles to dig out of the corner, pass through the gates with *massive* power, transition BACK to REAR RISERS, then back to toggles to finish off the flare. I could tell you that I’ve seen that *EXACT* scenario in competition at least 4 times… Each time I’ve seen it, the result are great competition runs (albeit often earning the pilot a yellow card). However, I can tell you that the pilot(s) would NEVER condone or endorse that course of action. (To make matters a bit grimmer, there’s at least 1 fatality (within the last year) that can be attributed to the pilot attempting to do just that. I would never make a statement that condones using rear risers to get yourself out of the corner to get a better swoop, and I do not ever ”plan on using rear risers on every jump” to get the "slingshot effect." On the contrary, I’m slightly paranoid of high speed rear riser stalls. LOL. In fact, my UNDER application of rear risers during competition has been pointed out to me by various canopy pilots/coaches (Scott Roberts & Ian Drennan @ the Farm last year in reference to shortening up my recovery arc, & Jay Mo @ Lake Wales this year in reference to maximizing my distance runs by going deeper into rear risers before transitioning to toggles). I use rear risers to shorten my recovery arc *IF* I've set up properly, AND *IF* it will maximize my wing's efficiency throughout the entire swoop, and even then, I tend to transition to toggles sooner rather than later. When looking at DISTANCE covered over a swoop course, that distance can be maximized by using a control input (ideally rear risers bec of lowest drag) to shorten that recovery arc (not ARCH) slightly. That is a VERY important point... rear risers are NOT being used to "pull out of the recovery Arc" as you’ve said this swooper Check out Brian Germain's book "The Canopy and its Pilot" if you're having a hard time visualizing what I mean. There are at least 2 copies at the DZ and the book has a ton of useful information. Furthermore, that "slingshot effect", whether real or *perceived*, is not the result of mere rear riser application. It is largely dependent on your position relative to entry gates, your position in your recovery arc when the recovery input is applied, the amount of the input, and even wind conditions. The percentage of jumps where the “slingshot effect” is perceived is quite low (at least for me), as it requires a near-perfect initiation, propagation, and termination of the set up, speed building maneuver, recovery arc, and rear riser application. If you have to use excessive rear risers to shorten that recovery arc, you start introducing excessive drag, which is definitely counterproductive to a distance or speed run through a swoop course. As Ian said, the point is to shorten the recovery arc slightly by "forcing" the canopy to reach level flight. It's all a balancing act... because too much of this input, and at the very best you'll introduce unnecessary drag; at worst, the ground will break you. Again, thinking that rear risers should only be used in response to a bad set up will be hazardous to your long term health. I do use rear risers on 99 percent of my landings... but that's the tail end of a precise set up and only if I haven't put myself in a corner where I need to bail to toggles. As you know, I recently downsized to a Velo 84 after almost 1500 jumps on a Velo 90. Out of the 20 jumps I've put on it thus far, I've missed the gates twice, both times bec of traffic immediately in front of entry gates. However this has nothing to do with the “slingshot effect” you’ve heard about. Most of my swoops come at the end of working jumps, and they’re not done to maximize distance, hence you won’t see me pop-up using rear risers to maximize my distance. My goal at the end of these landings is simple: nice, smooth set up, pass through the 5’ gates, and maximize my distance over the ground (where I’m passing only a foot or less over the ground. That’s where I get my personal rush, being RIGHT over the ground. I apply an entirely different technique and (through and beyond the gates) when training for competition or on hop-n-pops. There's a very important point that's often missed by those learning to swoop...And that is that ANYONE can swoop, but a great swoop [in competition or competition simulation] is only the end result of a good set-up. So it doesn't matter if you're doing 270's, 450's, or 630's... if you're 1 inch too high on the gates, the result is a 0. You could have massive power as a result of a great set-up, but if you cannot control or place that power through the gates, you may as well do a straight in approach; it’ll be safer and your scores (whether in competition or just personal satisfaction) will be higher at the end of the day. There are sooooo MANY misconceptions in this sport, sometimes a result of taking ideas or concepts out of context. Many of them can be resolved by just asking for a clarification, or taking things and putting them into their correct context. I’m glad you posted this, because it definitely reinforces the need for SIT-DOWN, formal canopy coaching, training, and courses (the science behind canopy flight and the swoop) in addition to competent canopy coaching on actual jumps. To that end, we’re going to be doing some canopy workshops at the DZ within the next couple of weeks, with the goal of clearing some of the misconceptions and bad information out there about basic canopy flight and “swooping”. Hopefully you’ll be there to give your input and ask some of these questions.

I've done 2 of these seminars in the past year with great feedback and results. Maybe it's time for another one, seeing as NextGenSkydiver (Shane) jumps at my DZ. Shane... your posts on these forums are coming accross quite abrasively. If you're coming to this (or any) forum with questions, be prepared for topics to wander off-topic and to take any and all advice you receive with a grain of salt. I applaud you for ask questions, but you cannot demand answers to these questions. No matter what anyone recommends, it ultmately comes down to YOUR personal preference. Having the best, and the latest may not be the what's RIGHT for you. The only thing that will determine that is trial, error, and EXPERIENCE. A perfect example of this is Joe Jennings and Tony Hathawait. With their DECADES of experience and tens of thousands of jumps, what do you think they shoot when they're doing their tandem videos? I can tell you that both of them use Sony PC-100's. Not PC 1000's, or HC/HCX, etc. Why? Do they not keep up with the times and see that there are better camera's out there? Are they LastGenSkydivers? No, I can assure you that's not the case. They have bigger and badder toys to play with, but for the application you'd be using it in, they choose reliability and work-horse durability, something that is yet to be determined with the newer cameras. That being said... come into this with an open mind, knowing that the gear that you buy, will not necessarily be the gear that you stick with. Get advice from the local peeps at the DZ... from there... you can make an informed decision based on what you like or dislike about what people are saying and showing you. Utimately, what's best for me, or JoeShmoe DZ.commer, may not be what's best for you. See u at the DZ! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

Ugh... Let me tell you how disappointed I was not to be able to compete on my home turf! I'm glad the weather finally cooperated for those that could stay. I definitely wish I could've been one of those! Instead I got to fly back to the frozen tundra (Michigan) for another 2 weeks. Oh well... now I'm definitely looking forward to the next one in warm and sunny Sebastian! Cheers! --Jairo Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!