With the help few online calculators, I’ve estimated a force of the impact required to remove the 3M VHB tape was approximately 250psi – 15 times the amount required to crack a skull! So in general — don’t do anything to your GoPro camera, that you wouldn’t want to do to your neck!

In any case, since I first got my GoPro, I’ve been a huge fan. It’s a (relatively) cheap, well made, easy to use, small, point of view camera. It can handle the rigors of practically any extreme sport, in or out of the water! If you don’t have one yet, check them out and get yourself one (after consulting your local Instructors to see if you’re ready to fly with a camera). Word to the wise though, if you jump out of a plane and land on your head – it’s not covered under the warranty!

#——————————————————
Hi Jeromy

Sorry to hear about your crash, it definitely does not sound like fun.

Unfortunately, an extreme crash such as this is not something that we can cover under warranty, so you will have to purchase the housing from our website. I will, however, send you out a couple of stick on mounts. Just specify which stick-on mount you want (flat or curved) and I will send you out three of them.

Let me know.

Many thanks,

GoPro Support

http://www.gopro.com/support

#——————————————————

Anyhow, after initially landing on my feet/knees and leaving a 12 inch divot in the ground, I continued to fly forward another 20 feet where I landing on my head, removing the 3M mounting tape cleanly from the top of my helmet, breaking the mounting mechanism off the bottom of the clear case, and embedding the camera about 6 inches into the ground. I rolled through on my my neck and bounced another 20 feet where I touched down again and finally rolled to a stop.

Amazingly, my camera itself is still functioning perfectly (although, quite sadly, I had forgotten to turn it on for that jump). However, the mount on my helmet that was lost due to the 3M tape losing it’s grip (granted, due to a high speed impact with the ground!), was my last curved mount. Also, although the case itself is still intact, the clip that snaps into the mounting bracket was broken off completely and could not be found. Truthfully, I consider myself very lucky that I was not seriously injured.

My question to you is this: Is this the type of average “wear and tear” that might be covered under warranty for a camera that is designed for extreme sports? Whether covered by warranty or available for a moderate fee, please send me a replacement case and mount immediately, I plan on jumping this weekend, and after this experience, I’ll make sure I always have my GoPro turned on!

Jeromy Alexander

Everyone already receives The Parachutist, which as published by the USPA displays the professionalism of our sport.  I think Blue Skies displays us – when we’re not trying so hard to be professional!  If you haven’t already subscribed, get over there and do it!  It’s worth the cost of a jump ticket to read the stuff that got them kicked out of their first printer!

The weather on Friday kept me at home, and really, even Saturday and Sunday didn’t look that great. However, things seem to work out when they need too, and this was no exception. Saturday came and the clouds rolled back enough to get out there and get a few in. Of three jumps on Saturday, the second was great. Just a simple three way with Glenn and Mac, but Mac had the great idea for us to swap camera’s (you’ve gotta love the way the gopro’s click in and out of their mount so easily). So below, for the first time on this blog, you can see me in the video!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ttwn5hlCY8

On Sunday, everyone (well, actually just most) that I wanted to be there on my three hundredth were there, so i tried to squeeze onto each load and get the jumps done before the weather went bad. On jump number 298, Jon, Franz, and I went out to do a very common skydive at our dz, a “Cat Fly-Around”, you can see it the first half of the video how the jump is supposed to go.. but towards the end, appearantly Jon and Franz and decided to fuck with me a bit by turning the two way and not letting me get into my next slot!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=duZXjnJ_7g0

Next was my 300′th! In the beginning, this started as just a small jump.. maybe a four way. But one by one I saw people around the dz that I just couldn’t not invite and then someone brought out the hoop. Yes, “the” hoop.. it’s the hoop that set the world record hoop dive (21 people through the hoop, World Freefall Convention, 2002). My first mistake on this dive? Think I should try to go through backwards on my first attempt. My second? Managing to kick both hoop holders.. and my third misktake? Thinking they might let me go through the hoop a second time! Oh well, fun jump!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lWdildIyS8

Just for reference, out of my current jumps, I’ve got 40 on student canopies (from 288 to 210) the next 100 on a Sabre-1 190, and the next 150+ on a Pilot 168. For the day I decided to demo the Pilot 150, as that would be my next logical step down. However, the Aerodyne guy, after watching me land a few times, though I’d be fine with the Pilot 140, not so sure myself, what do you think, with my progression and an exit weight of 190 pounds?

Anyway, on to the days video’s! In the first one Jon does a backflip, Chris does a half barrel roll, I do a strut curl exit and wave goodbye to the pilot!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkwwkamcqLY

Here are to good examples of stable cessna exits: Jim does a diving exit, Ian goes out poised.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSZ4X0F6-P4

I had plans to drive down to Ohio for the weekend to meet with Ashley Mead from SkydiveChick.com and take a small tour of the local dropzones in her neck of the woods while helping her check off the last few items on her progression card and hopefully to be there when she got her license!

The first stop was Cleveland Parachute Center for a few jumps from their Cessna 185, the first jump was Ashley’s hop-n-pop from 5,500 feet followed by my exit.  Watch carefully – you can see how I figured out that the step on a 185 is about six inches higher than a 182!

The second jump was an interesting one.. but no story about it here (go watch the video, be observant), you’ll have to come find me around the bonfire to hear me tell you the story about it!

After the second jump we took off back to Cleveland to meet up with Shawn at http://www.voodoomonkey.org/.  We know how many skydivers wear  a closing pin necklace.. but how many of them would put that pin on them permanently?  Only two that I know of..  but who among us couldn’t use a little good luck charm on that pull hand?

After the tattoo’s it was back on the road the Canton Airsports to meet up with the crew there just after sunset.  I got to meet a lot of great people and couldn’t wait to come back Sunday morning to jump with them.  First jump was with Rick, Christa, and Tkoa – we never quite built the first round, but a fun jump anyhow!

Next I got to fly outside camera for a hybrid attempt, it was the group’s second try at it and they were pretty sure they were going to get it.  The were so sure, they made two of us squeeze onto that camera step to do the video for them!  I couldn’t keep up with the fall rate once Rick stood up under the two way, but I love the footage I got of the first camera guy colliding with group at exit!  I tried to go into a sit, but I just couldn’t hold it stable, I need to practice my free flying abit more for these situations…

And finally, the last jump.  All during Sunday we’d worked on getting Ashley card checked off, three ring maintenance, packing (I got to jump her pack job on the first jump of the day), and she was on the plane during the second jump during her check dive to get her A license!  We thought that was the end of the day, but a few more tandems walked in, and we had just enough to send the plane back up.  For her first licensed jump, she said she just wanted to do something fun.. no learning, no practice.. so I offered to just spin her around and see how far I could throw her across the sky!  This was a great end to a great weekend.. A great new dropzone to visit, a newly licensed skydiver to jump with, a new skydiving tattoo.. it doesn’t get much better than this.

The month started with jump number 229 on the 3rd, a pseudo coaching dive with a Christian, a jumper back from a 7 year layoff.  He’d already done a recent recurrency jump with an Instructor at another dropzone and then another with an Instructor at Skydive Tecumseh.  But on this jump we were still working on some basic fall rate and docking skills.  This jump definetly cemented my decision to enroll in the coach course later in the month.  Later that night we did a 13-way dive that had experience levels from 43 jumps to 12,142 – I remember there was a plan, but the video just shows a big ball of shit!

The 4th of July was very special – a six point nine way, a five point nine way, a four point eight way, and one of my best sunset tracking dives!  Thats my camera on the leader and it’s me docking on the left.  Most importantly, we did night jumps on the fourth, and no matter how much I try, I can not explain how patriotic I felt watching hundreds of fireworks and dozens of grand finallies covering the ground beneath me.  I got video of my solo night jump, but you can’t really see much – hey, it was night time!  But I forgot to turn on the camera for the following four way group jump on the next load!  That Sunday continued the many more bigways, up to a fourteen way skydive!

USPA Coach Rating card

Jump number 250 was my first jump flying outside camera for a four-way (they got three points).  Being a part of Brian’s 1200th, Margret’s 1200th, and Mike’s 1800th skydive was very rewarding, and was a very well done skydive!  On July 16th & 17th I was able to enroll in a Coach Course by Bram Clement at SkydiveRatings.com and got my Coach Rating card in the mail a few days later!

The next day brought my first experience as a Coach – telling my student they were grounded due to weather – even while everyone else was still jumping :(  But she took it well and I was able to do my first Coaching jumps the next day on the 19th.

The jumps got lean towards the end of the month, but the quality surely improved.  There was a 29 point two way with me and jon;  and finally ending the month with Greg back in the air and a five way missing man dancing spider!

All in all a great month… Night Jumps, Big ways, Coach Rating course, my first (and so far only) student, first outside camera jump, and a lot of quality fun jumps in between for a total of 38 skydives!

Perhaps becuase I did just recently get my coach rating, now was a very good time for me to read back and remember.  And, in the process of that, I’ve went back through my own log book, and the notes I kept then, and have added those stories here.  For any that are interested, here is the journey I took in June, July, August, and September of 2007.

How many of you take your experience for granted?  Do you remember the racing hearbeat of your first jumps?  What was your experience before jumping out of an airplane was just another day?

January – 1 – Just one jump, but what a great – and cold – one it was!

February – 18 – What can I can, ELOY baby! Hot Air Balloons & High Altitude Jumps!

March – 3 – Waiting for saftey day was rough, but it sure was nice to be jumping back at home.

April – 25 – Not bad and I bitched about the weather? Even had my first official team jumps :)

May – 8 – This was a rough month personally, way too much RW in the way of my jumping :(

June – 37 – Finally back on track for a great month, ended by following out my good friend Patrick out of the plane on his first AFF jump!

So, wth the first half of the year over and already standing at 92 jumps already, 228 total; and with really the best part of summer still coming.. how many will I end up with this year? 300? 350? 400?!

One thing I know for sure is that I need to learn to stop bitching about the weather! I’m starting to confuse myself with someone still on student status!

Jeromy