Comments on: Joe Jennings slideshow

Joe Jennings slideshow

hortense — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 22:19:04 -0800

skydiving photos skydiving or skydriving (via)

By: loquacious

loquacious — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 22:59:25 -0800

Skydivers are certifiable. There was this guy I met who did pretty much nothing but skydive, but when he wasn't skydiving, he was running his mom and pop's liquor store. But while he was doing that he was always editing skydive videos on a totally swapmeet-style A-B editing rig. This is nuts. I really hope he has a reserve chute on under that shirt. These photos are above par though, even for skydiving photos.

By: ManicExpressive

ManicExpressive — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:00:00 -0800

Slides 80 and 120, among others, require quite a bit of insanity to accomplish. The tri-parachute on 123 reminds me of the mars landers ...

By: LeeJay

LeeJay — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:01:49 -0800

Good God. I feel nervous just looking at that.

By: ManicExpressive

ManicExpressive — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:02:30 -0800

And I wonder what caused this.

By: berek

berek — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:02:46 -0800

Wow, a single link post made into three links, how impressive. And exactly why, pray tell, should Berek care about pretty pictures of spoiled rich kids with too much time on their hands? And the decline of Metafilter continues.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:06:02 -0800

Holy crap. Burning skypeople! And exactly whom, pray tell, voted you Pope Asshole the Fourth?

By: ManicExpressive

ManicExpressive — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:06:22 -0800

Look at the top of the page. "Post a link." Not "Post a bunch of links." A bunch of high-quality, interesting pictures of crazy skydiving stunts need not be accompanied by other links to be post-worthy.

By: thedevildancedlightly

thedevildancedlightly — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:20:27 -0800

These guys are certifiable. Am I a bad person for wanting the DVD? It would only encourage them, but, then again, it's nuts...

By: sophist

sophist — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:20:54 -0800

Berek is just jealous. So am I, actually. Always wanted to go skydiving.

By: EvilKenji

EvilKenji — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:24:59 -0800

i dont remember which slide it was now, but there was a picture where a guy jumped without a parachute and was holding on to someone else....that must require a lot of trust.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:38:54 -0800

No, please encourage them. The guy I knew didn't make much money from his demo tapes and DVDs. And then I don't have to do it at least once and I can just watch the videos - and be happy with more and more complex and scary coasters and rides. I mean, the worst case scenario is that we have a few dead adrenaline junkies. They know the risks quite well. And at least they die doing something they love. (Though, after seeing that video that was circulating on the net a few months ago of the guy almost completely failing to base jump the dam seriously put a damper on any personal desire to try skydiving or base jumping. That guy was making the same kind of noises I make if I take a header off my mountain bike or pancake real hard in a fall off a halfpip, but a million times worse. And that's a whole lot of pain.)

By: hortense

hortense — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:40:01 -0800

berek:And the descent of Metafilter continues.. ;-)

By: jenleigh

jenleigh — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 23:43:52 -0800

Confusing in every context

By: growabrain

growabrain — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 00:12:42 -0800

The 300-way formation skydiving world record

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 00:51:31 -0800

Berek instead of bellyaching at a perfectly interesting post, why don't you post one of your own. Actions speak louder than words. And even when you say these things, I think you're mistaken - look at the other posts today and tell me metafilter is in decline. I haven't been here long but I've contributed and criticized my share, but to make some sort of vague statement like that seems to me to be a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy ... imagine if all mefites' efforts went into naysaying rather than postmaking. There's a decline for you. As for these lunatics in the sky, all I have to say is despite what they will tell you about safety, jumping out of a plane a mile up is always a risk and these guys are going to die messy deaths... after having the time of their lives of course. Can it possibly be legal to drop a car, though? what if that landed on a house or a cat or something?

By: shoppingforsanity

shoppingforsanity — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 01:38:46 -0800

It's very sad to have your cat squished by a car falling out of the sky. Believe me, I speak from experience. In all seriousness though - dropping cars seems like it would be illegal. There's no telling what it's going to land on, no matter how careful one is about calculating the landing site. It would definitely be interesting to see just randomly one day though, on the way to the market or something!

By: alumshubby

alumshubby — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 03:45:04 -0800

Believe me, I speak from experience. What happened, exactly?

By: peacay

peacay — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 04:01:06 -0800

Top drawer pics. Thanx. Skydiving is quite mad. But BASE jumping - that's a whole other certifiable disease. A former friend of mine lucked out off a waterfall and slammed into the ground pretty hard. He shattered both heel bones and has to gently limp in soft padded shoes on both legs forever. ..why, pray tell, should Berek care about pretty pictures.. Don't click the links and move on. That's the beauty of this site - the wide range available. Or piss off if none of it is to your liking. Don't just shit in the thread for the sake of it man. And...what BlackLeotardFront said.

By: Cedric

Cedric — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 06:35:39 -0800

Check out these skydiving Joe Jennings embedded QTvideos. I especially enjoyed "Pepsi / Goose" found under the "Commercials" link. warning, the video starts loading immediately

By: ArsncHeart

ArsncHeart — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 07:09:49 -0800

What a wide range of beautiful pictures. I never completed my skydiving license (ran out of money before I ran out of jumps to make), but this makes me want to go back.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 07:43:42 -0800

Wow, a single link post made into three links, how impressive. And exactly why, pray tell, should Berek care about pretty pictures of spoiled rich kids with too much time on their hands? And the decline of Metafilter continues. Member since february, zero links contributed, talks about self in third person, brings class warfare into a skydiving photo link. Looks like metafilter is just as kooky as ever.

By: fletchmuy

fletchmuy — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 08:13:26 -0800

loquacious, it looks like he didn't have a reserve.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 08:16:33 -0800

As for the cars hitting something, notice they're being dropped in Arizona... probaby somewhere out there in the black rock desert. If you haven't been out there... there's really nothing for miles. It would be physically impossible to hit something if you dropped it at the right spot. The picture of the guy hanging from his opened parachute with one hand really makes me feel ill.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 08:17:05 -0800

*not black rock desert, that's in nevada. I'm an idiot.

By: senor biggles

senor biggles — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 08:27:19 -0800

No way I'd try it myself (no way I'd ever jump out of a plane, for that matter), but the black strap that's visible on his left wrist suggests he's pretty firmly attached to that chute. Dangerous, yes, but not necessarily much more dangerous than parachuting itself.

By: carter

carter — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 08:32:19 -0800

Excellent, thanks, hortense!

By: knave

knave — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 09:12:17 -0800

I think the black strap is an altimeter. In slide 79 you can see it's not really attached to the chute. He's really just holding on!

By: knave

knave — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 09:21:01 -0800

Wow, I was wondering what happened to the cars. Now I know.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 10:03:00 -0800

I'm pretty sure for the foreign object drops they at least have their drop zones spotted by folks on the ground, and perhaps even some kind of permit or something. I'd hazard a guess that most skydivers do things by the book as much as possible as well, so there's probably some local and/or FAA control that's being notified or something. But, then again, maybe not. Spotting the drop zone and any local air traffic is probably enough considering the pretty linear trajectory of something like a falling car. As for the guy hanging on to the chute, yeah, I don't think he has a reserve. And that wrist strap is his altimeter wristband, not a safety strap. *shudder* What a lunatic.

By: senor biggles

senor biggles — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 10:03:49 -0800

Knave, having now looked at the trailer, I think you're right about the black strap being an altimeter. But I still wonder if he's not attached somehow. Frame-by-framing through the video seems to show him holding on to a carabiner by one or two unflexed fingers. My guess is still that he's got a safety mechanism in place, but that's probably just my natural scepticism talking...

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 10:37:47 -0800

There's no way he's got a safety mechanism going, biggles. That'd take away the thrill. You just know he's not one to do things by half measures.

By: senor biggles

senor biggles — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 10:58:33 -0800

FFF, perhaps you're right. I can't comprehend what that thrill would be or why it would be worth risking death, but that's probably why he's out there skydiving and I'm in here typing on metafilter...

By: ChrisR

ChrisR — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 12:07:17 -0800

senor biggles writes "FFF, perhaps you're right. I can't comprehend what that thrill would be or why it would be worth risking death, but that's probably why he's out there skydiving and I'm in here typing on metafilter..." Interestingly, statistically speaking you probably have a greater chance of dying while driving to go skydiving than you do during the dive itself. And hey, I'm one of the most uncoordinated people in the world, and I've done it fine about 5 times. And more to come. It's an amazing feeling, there's nothing in the world like that feeling as you open your hands and let the plane go, and then you're flying. It doesn't feel like falling, it feels like you've forgotten how to. For that 35 seconds, you fly. Words really do fail me in my attempt to describe it. However, I've invited the MeFi folk from near Edmonton to come and try it out for themselves (see MeTa)

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 13:53:37 -0800

The guy hanging under his bag -- his chute's not deployed so it's falling only a little more slowly than he is; a function of drag. If he were to lose his grip it wouldn't necessarily be a death sentence, he could "fly" back to it. Still completely nuts, but not completely suicidal.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 13:57:29 -0800

And that'll teach me to comment without looking at the picture again. Never mind, it is deployed and he is insane.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 14:20:58 -0800

And he is barefoot. That's gotta make for an interesting landing.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 16:30:04 -0800

I don't care if he is a million times more ~~brave~~ outrageously nuts than I am, he's dressed goofy. Who wears a bright white sweatshirt with a pink logo? With faded blue jeans? Hello 1983.

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 17:01:10 -0800

With faded blue jeans? Hello 1983. I think all of you are making a gross assumption that he jumped. In a plane low on gas, the dirty hippy is the first to go. In all seriousness though - dropping cars seems like it would be illegal. Nevada's state motto is, "I didn't see a god damn thing." That's why I visit, that's why I don't live there. To me, this is the worst. Normally they give you a jumper suit to wear on tandems, thick material neck to ankle. Falling 30K ft mind-numbing cold until the chute is pulled. The only real unpleasant aspect of skydiving for the first time. Well that and the wicked snot mustache.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 17:49:23 -0800

Oh dear. Looks like this jump didn't turn out so well. And that's not the worst, Milton -- the jump leader let him go! Maybe the guy was bitching about the cold. Here's another. Is a failed parachute? And WTF?! Obligatory bad joke. The ultimate tire swing.

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 18:53:54 -0800

Is [that] a failed parachute? Parachutes don't fail, they are just improperly packed. Last jump I did there were two "Two for ones." When you have to pull reserve most of the time you don't land on target, and you main chute has likely drifted 1/4 mile. You have to buy beer from whoever has to get in their car to pick you up. I had a friend do a tandem, main chute failed and when the reserve was pulled the main failed to automatically detach. The reserve got tangled in the main chute, the jumpmaster had to filp around pull back in the reserve, detach the main and hand throw out the reserve. Not the softest landing. So who want to go jumping with me?

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 07:06:40 -0800

I find it kind of surprising that the word "Photoshop" hasn't entered the discussion to date...