KBUDA

I have had several different back pads from several different manufacturers, and I can confidently say that none of them have ever made a difference. It might just be where I've lived. It goes from fun springtime temps, to brutal, ruin your soul hot summer temps pretty quickly. A fun mesh design in my backpad has been the last thing on my mind when I'm trying not to die of heatstroke. I'm sure there are varying opinions on this, but if money was a factor for me, I wouldn't bother with any of the backpad upgrades.

You can also route your chest strap this way: https://www.dropzone.com/forums/topic/263720-chest-strap-quick-release-routing-/?do=findComment&comment=4594717

Adrenalin BASE uses quick detach buckles for all of their hardware I think. I'm sure they could point you to their supplier.

Not trying to call you out, but maybe it will relieve some anxiety about riser maintenance. https://www.dropzone.com/forums/topic/10643-looking-after-your-3-rings/?do=findComment&comment=941792

I still think this is an odd choice to be making. It's like being stuck between buying a Vespa or an S1000RR. Do you want an impact rated helmet, or a lightweight, low-profile helmet?

Were you in control of your tunnel time? You can talk with your coach at the tunnel and say something like "I want to work on flying super fast on my belly," and they can work you until you break in half. Get on a foam roller and do a bunch of upward facing dog pose, and get dat back workin. It will come together for your eventually.

These have been designed for 2 completely different reasons. The G4 is an update on the G3 for sure, but it was designed to be an impact rated helmet. The BC Dynamic appears to cater to high speed freefly disciplines where low-profile is the major consideration.

RABBLE! RABBLE! RABBLE! RABBLE!

I use a tool I heard on Skydive Radio. Start by asking "How did your jump go?" Then you let that conversation play out naturally. You're just establishing the connection. Once you've both finished talking about how good your skydives were, I usually say something like, "Would you mind if I gave you some feedback on something I noticed?" At this point they're not getting blindsided, and I feel like the people I've talked to have been very receptive. Bonus points points if they turn into a person you get to know, rather than a person you scolded one time. Reinforcing relationships on the dropzone is what builds this community. That's all if you don't really know the person. If you already have a rapport with the person, that should be pretty straightforward.

The G3 and most other skydiving helmets are not impact rated, and they are not made out of any material capable of achieving an impact rating. Impact rated helmets are made out of a substantial layer of expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) or expanded polypropylene. These materials are capable of absorbing impact forces in a way that other materials cannot. Existing skydiving helmet designs are functionally worthless with regards to actual impacts. Out of curiosity, when you say "I've found my G3 to be quite adequate", do you mean that it helped to prevent or lessen the severity of a TBI after a foolishly low turn or something? Because that's the point of an impact rating, not to provide additional protection from someone's foot on a freefly jump.

Also, and I get that this might rub you the wrong way, but since you're selling a rig with a Katana 107, and in that same classified ad are looking for a 170-190 main, I would STRONGLY recommend you do all of your gear buying through a single rep who knows exactly how many jumps you have. A 150 is a high performance parachute regardless of wingloading. I'm making a lot of assumptions about you, but a traumatic brain injury will change your whole life forever. Every single person in the sport for more than a few years has seen it happen. Gung ho people downsizing too quickly and ending up with broken bones and TBIs. Sorry if my assumptions are wrong, or if that came off like a dick thing to say. It's just kind of rude to bounce in front of people if it's something you could have avoided doing. I know I don't like to hear people screaming because their bones aren't in the right order anymore.

Since I've been skydiving I've encountered two people that have tried to either pass off a jump story as true, or they could have just been messing with me. I'm curious how many others have caught people lying about jump experiences out in the wuffo world. One was my boss's boss's boss at my last job. I found out that he was a former skydiver, so at some point I started a conversation about it with him. About 30 seconds into it he told me about a friend of his who was under canopy, saw a person in distress (unconscious) and in freefall, friend cuts away his main canopy to chase down the unconscious person, and finally deploys his reserve once he has a firm grip on the unconscious jumper. That boss was not a joke telling person in all of my experience with him. I never called him out on it, but my assumption was that he got really drunk and watched Dropzone and incorporated the happenings of that movie into his own life story. The second was pretty recently at my current job. There were two guys in front of me at the coffee machine, and I could hear them talking about one of the guy's special forces service in the military. SF guy was talking about HALO jumps and whatnot, and I asked him if he still jumped for fun. He told me that he got it out of his system while he was in the military, and then he proceeded to talk about his escapades, the most outlandish of which was throwing his rig out of the plane and chasing it down. I get that people have done similar things, but I feel like the chances of that happening without me already knowing about him specifically are pretty slim. I just nodded and said "that's crazy" and walked away. He could have just been yanking my chain too I suppose. I welcome anyone's stories of people blowing smoke, or if anyone has ever seen anything like the two stories I've heard I'm into hearing about that too. I've got to imagine that chasing a rig out of a plane is pretty much a non-starter cause of the terminal velocity difference.

I use the VSE hook knives: http://www.chutingstar.com/vse-infinity-hook-knife You can install snaps on each mud flap and on both leg strap covers. I run with two and never have to think about it outside of touching them for EP practice.

I have large gear... ...I'll see myself out.

The last DZ I jumped at had the first part of that. We would all agree on a landing direction at the loading area, but once everyone started looking at the stupid spinning arrow all bets were off.