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

The airplane, often seen from a distance, but now so up close and personal. The ride up, in the beginning seemed to be that last slow walk down the green mile, but later becomes an unbearable delay from your own sweet release. The open door at altitude, the doorway into another world. Freefall, where you finally spread your wings and fly. Pull time, when it all gets serious. The canopy, is it there and is it square. The ride down, can this thing do a cart wheel? The landing pattern, downwind, base, final.. then.. wait for it… wait for it… FLARE!

Yeah, thats how a skydive works in my mind. But “skydiving” transcends the “skydive”. After all, every tandem student has done a “skydive”, but do they understand “skydiving”? So if not just the skydive, what else is there? Well, a lot! Not the least of which is the dropzone’s atmosphere itself!

The friends, the students, the Coaches and Instructors. It’s a beautiful spring day spent waiting in the shade, casual chatter all about. Idle time spent learning about aviation from the pilot and teaching new students about the skydive, explaining the difference along the way between fact and and your own opinion. Enjoying the day at the dropzone, not skydiving, just relaxing.. and waiting for the skydive.

It’s not easy. It’s took me three years to get used to it and another year to learn to enjoy it. It’s hard to understand, much less appreciate this part of skydiving in the beginning -- when it’s all about the skydive -- but now, a fine spring day, spent outside with friends.. that’s enough to make me smile any day of the week -- of course, getting some altitude at the end of that wait is great too!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk8cSEnEd6E

Some find winter hobbies: skiing, ice skating, or snowboarding. Some travel: mostly to boogies all over the south and out west – though this past winter many jumpers I know jumped the ocean and landed in Puerto Rico! (lucky bastards) But mostly, we just sit around, look at the sky, and pout.

So when does it end? Well, when the new season begins of course! But when is that, exactly? Is it the big get together all the skydivers had in the winter where you discussed some of the changes coming this year? nope. Was it a couple weeks ago at Safety Day when we all got together and figured out how to keep our asses alive this year? nope. Is it the “opening day” date on the website? nope. So when, when do you ask? When is the moment that new season begins? Well here is a clue.. First you hear someone yell “DOOR”, then a few seconds later…

A little green light comes on. Your trusty S&TA checks the spot and you look outside of that open airplane door for the first time in months, only slightly scared (not that you would admit it), and you remind yourself that you’ve done this hundreds of times before. Your friends climb out, you know they’re waiting on you to start the count, so you take a diving stance, look up at them, smile and nod.

The 2010 season is here!

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 swoop club event was scheduled for Monday morning, but alas, the clouds and rain just didn’t want to let it happen. Well the rain paused for a moment, so we decided to quickly get the Cessna up and test the ceiling. Well, we were able to get up to 4,000 feet, but it sure hadn’t stopped raining up there! I’m sure someone might have considered not proceeding.. but the next load was already manifested.. and they had already setup the swoop course.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvHq_xvoDWY

Now for a bit of my personal history, I am not a swooper. I hadn’t ever participated in swoop club before. I was on the load for a quick hop-n-pop and I saw the course setup, I thought I’d just use it for a bit of accuracy practice. Of course when I landed, Ryan said I was the only one that had even scored in the round, putting me momentary in first place, so I decided I should stick around and finish it -- couldn’t hurt to learn a bit more about my canopy! Many thanks to Ryan for answering all my questions that day, the rules, scoring procedures, the different rounds, etc.. I really learned a lot.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNgoHY24g-4

Mostly I focused on just hitting the gates with an accurate approach. In the first round (above) I had a 77′ swoop followed with a 42′ swoop in the second round. The rules changed in the third round (accuracy) so I just tried to land in the square Ryan showed me and in the process I hit three of the four gates. At this point, I was the only person to score in each round and I might have had a chance at placing first or second.

Hellfish Swoop Club 2009 - 3rd Place Medal

However for the final round I decided to put a bit more effort into it and hit all four gates, which I did, but landed 10′ early in the “no mans land” area just before the target landing area! Oh well -- How much can you learn if you don’t try hard enough that you might fuck up? All in all, it was a good end to the boogie weekend. One that will be well remembered by myself at the least. And, after a few calculations by Ryan (you’ve gotta love a weighted scoring system) I ended up placing third -- in my first try at swoop club!

I’ve got pretty good range with my own jumpsuit, but with all the warnings I was receiving, I thought I’d better grab one of the bigger spare suits in the back. I ended up with giant blue and yellow balloon suit that I could have fit into twice! I was able to do two jumps with the student. The first, I went out poised with her diving behind me. As I released and glided down the hill, I recall wondering if she had let go of the plane yet, she had, but was.. well a bit floaty! I de-arched and “hugged the beachball” as quickly as I could, but to no avail – I was able to keep myself from falling any lower, but couldn’t get back up! I had to turn my head sideways and watch her do her turns from 20 feet below!

The second jump I knew what to expect. I had her go out poised and dove out two seconds behind her and instantly de-arched and then let myself slowly sink to her level. This went much better and I was able to stay on level and watch the dive. The student herself did very well on both jumps, I was easily able to check of her objectives. Unfortunately, she’s had a hard time going through the progression as many of our Instructors and Coaches have had a hard time falling slowly with her.

Anyhow, the definition of good hump day at the dropzone? Being there to help out the anxious students.. the ones that can’t wait until the weekend. Getting more instruction myself from the current Instructors – my Coaches from years past! And ending the night down at Muk’s – 1/2 burrito, hot, sour cream & hot pepper on the side and a tall Labatt – that will be missed as much til next season as the jumps!

So, a perfect day? Almost. The gopro has starting acting up on me a little bit. Each jump the camera didn’t turn on until I thought I was turning it off – two long clips of me flying the canopy (in a huge balloon suit), so every will have to wait until the next post to get their video fix!

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

As soon as I got to the DZ I could tell the day was a little more hectic than most, Franz was running manifest himself, and it seemed the phone was ringing off the hook.  Rather than bug him to see the next load I could jump on, I just hung out for a moment, next up to the counter was a student looking for coach, good timing. We were quickly manifested and starting some ground training for his jump. Kent had a good jump and was able to get an adjusted fall rate & dock and a swoop and dock checked off his A card.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEsQJuQCEV0

After that, Dale was putting together a small way with some of the newer jumpers around this year, I of course, was glad to jump into the mix!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Z_ffcRcYw

The sad part about days like these?  For me, I know they’re numbered.. my boys will be back to school in a few weeks, and I’ll be back to a weekend jumper :(