Don't put it past him...saw a picture of Spot with an open canopy over his head just yesterday. Getting a birds eye view of the islands. Now that's a camera angle.
Randy

LOL...Yeah, if you can jump in Hawaii, you can jump most anywhere. The tradewinds that make the islands great for sailing and surfing aren't so great for jumping.
Goshep, you aren't *that* far off the mark. ;-)

I did one jump with an office buddy way back in 1982.

It was the day before Thanksgiving, and we decided to take the day off, since business was dead that day anyway. We drove to Perris Valley Airport, a small airstrip near Lake Elsinore in Southern California. This has become some sort of "Mecca" for parachutists.

The most interesting part of the training was learning how to fall down without hurting anything. First from 2 feet, then 4 feet, then 6 feet (or was it 3, 6, 9?--too long ago). The trick, as I recall, was to learn to convert the kinetic energy of the fall into a spectacular roll/twist upon hitting the ground. I was amazed that it could be done, and jumped off that perch multiple times just for the heck of it.

when landing, you must keep your knees bent, or you won't be walking or jumping for awhile. Its best to avoid landing on the balls of your feet, too.

How you land is entirely dependent on several factors. If you land facing windline and maintain forward velocity, you can land sitting down on your butt with less vertical velocity than if you slipped off a curb. In other words, no bent knees, no rolls, nothing different than stepping off a train. It's all in the flare.
Skydiving is a significantly different sport than when I did my first drop 10 years ago; the technology is substantially more advanced. tuck n' roll, ankle ties, etc are all still part of jump school, but have far less meaning than they had in the old days, particularly under round or elliptical canopies.
Check out www.dropzone.com if you'd like to see some really fun images of competitors landing in a measured velocity comp. (trying to land as light as possible)

A buddy of mine, Bill, from back in Oahu, when I lived there, used to skydive with his girlfriend all the time ... sounded like a lot of fun ... we went to the airfields up north there in the nw area (forgot the name) .. it's a close-knit community of jumpers, all seem like great people.

I miss hawaii, after moving away 2 yrs ago. great 10+ years there.

skydiving - that's a thrill.


ken