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  1. Awesome. But still, it's really scary to have a person dedicate an epic amount of time and money to ruin something. It's funny you say that! It reminds me of Jumpdude! He spent hundreds, maybe thousands of hours trying to ruin Skyride! But with some sharp differences, even though a lot of us thought he was nuts like Gibbs, but at least he meant well for skydiving and he was pretty good at getting the word out about their scam without the financial help of others. I haven't seen any posts from him lately about the subject, but his sites are still up, so I guess he's still at it!
  2. Not exactly sure who to give credit to in that arena, but for what it's worth to the ones who have tirelessly fought them and their scam, regardless if you guys had any bearing on this particular outcome or not, it's a win! Now the customers can go to dropzones who they should be going to and not as apt to be scooped up by those lairs down there in Waverly!
  3. Well, first off, being gay isn't a CHOICE. There's a lot of uncertainty about it's causes, but it's pretty clear that it isn't a choice. As was asked, when did you say "I like guys, and I like girls. I'll choose girls." Second, you weren't born with guns, do you have rights to have them? You weren't born with a house, do you have a right to privacy in that (free from unreasonable searches?) I can list a lot of rights that are attached to choices. Third, where do you have the right to force YOUR religious CHOICE on everyone else? Your bible may call homosexuality a sin, but that's your belief. How can you feel that you can require everyone else to believe the same thing (remember those guys, the Pilgrims?). Last, why do you get to pick and choose which sins should be condemned and which should be ignored? Sure, homosexuality is listed as a sin in the bible, but so are a LOT of other things that are completely acceptable today. Why aren't you railing against those? The one that comes to the front of my mind is the one about "Keeping the Sabbath Holy." It isn't just mentioned in Leviticus or somewhere, it's one of those "Commandment" things that the big guy gave to Moses, on stone. I seem to recall reading about a servant being stoned (as in killed by rocks, not smoking something) for gathering firewood on the Sabbath. These days, it seems like everyone in the "Bible Belt" is either at the mall or watching fast cars on Sundays. Why isn't anyone calling for NASCAR to stop their sinful ways? Well, the Nascar thing sure was random!! So You're saying they can't race on Sundays, but football, basketball, hockey or any other event is ok? Just seems odd that you would single out Nascar without listing others to accommodate. Anyway, I seemed to have struck a nerve on the gay thing! I will admit that I don't know as much about what's in the Bible about that subject as some, but I do know that it's considered to be a sin, so if the good lord considers it a sin, it must be a choice. IF it's a genetic thing, or a sickness, how could it possibly be considered to be a sin? It is the same as someone who smokes, or drinks! NOT picking on either, just making a point. People who smoke or drink, do that because they choose to do so, it's not genetic, or hereditary! It's a choice! Same goes for gays, they choose to go against nature, and bed down with their own sex! We all know that the male and female body was designed to fit together for appropriation, so how can it be said that it's not a choice? I've heard that song and dance before that it's genetic, or whatever you want to call it, but it's still a choice to go there if one so chooses to do so! It's just like nuts and bolts, or pipes, you HAVE to have a male AND a female thread or fitting for it to work CORRECTLY! You don't plug the male end of a cord in to the male end of another cord. It don't work very well, does it?
  4. There's that sort of 'judging' that gets Christians painted as assholes, yep. No, the woman's right to manage her health wrt pregancies was settled by the Supreme Court in the early 70s. I'm sure you heard of that case. I was thinking in particular about gay rights around marriage, which the Christians have been attacking with dollars, legislation and votes till finally the courts stepped in to defend the rights of the minority. Those actions went well beyond simple judgement and instead became impositions. The "Gay Rights" thing is something of a tough subject! I may be, and probably am biased on that since I'm retired military, and was conditioned to have no tolerance for gays, but since society seems to be accepting it these days, I will make a point and try to be politically correct; People who are gay, and that way BY CHOICE! They CHOOSE to be that way! So the whole gay rights thing is, IMHO BULLSHIT! Our constitution gives us rights and freedoms, and maybe sexual pref is one of them, but I do feel that it's a big difference between gays and the race or nationality. ALL People were born as one nationality or another, or one race or the other, so THAT'S where the RIGHTS come in to play! NONE of us asked to be born with a certain skin color or nationality, so why should someone who makes a choice to be gay be awarded a right to be that way, especially when it's clearly defined as a sin in the Bible, (or at least in any version that I've ever seen)? Someone correct me if I am wrong.
  5. Watch out for I looked thru it and didn't have to look far to see it's them fuckers again! Damn parasites never give up!
  6. So your basically saying that you are pissed off about the instructors jump suits being in ill repair and the lack of adequate gear maintenance on tandem harness leg straps causing a potential safety hazard if the leg strap webbing were to be compromised. I agree with you about the gear maintenance issue, as for the TI's pants, thats a personal preference, although it may look more professional if he were to patch it up, but I don't think that affects safety for the student. It's not like I'm so pissed that I will make a big scene about it, but the worn equipment and busted out asses gives a very unprofessional image of a sport that already has black eyes from the online scams being perpetrated on it and USPA's lack of ability to police or control it. (the scams) It's kinda like showing up at a car detail shop expecting the most awesome cleaning and detail job, and the owner pulls up in a ragged out, dirty old POS of a jalopy. If I get a hole, or rip, etc, I fix it before I return to the DZ. I guess I'm saying, just take a little pride in your stuff, people do gauge their impression of our sport on what they see, and not just the great skydive they got.
  7. So you stand up every landing? If conditions permit I do, if conditions don't I don't. Whatever I feel is safer for the student, and thats the way it should be. Yep, as many as I can. I can't say I'm 100% on the stand ups, but I make every effort to stand them up, and usually don't have a problem.
  8. That's ok, one tailbone strike on a small stone, a TI will be caught up in a law suit by the crippled tandem passenger who does his/her homework and learns that they could have stood it up, and the TI will see the light the the good lord gave us landing gear (our legs/feet) for a reason! It pisses me off when I go to a dz and see the TI's with the asses busted out of their jump suits and the leg strap covers/padding worn away or starting to wear away. The quality of the tandem as we knew it has really gone to shit over the last few years.
  9. This whole scenario sounds very much like some of the comments and videos that have been posted that routinely happens at ASC and AST. I remember one video of Jeff Fincher, TI at AST, during the climb to altitude, picking his nose and wiping it on his tandem passenger, and there was other stuff like that posted as well. All be it, that's not sexual, it's still very much inappropriate.
  10. Sounds pretty cut n dry to me. jclalor explained how his DZ closed it's doors because of getting screwed by the deep discounts and the way the groupon business model worked, which became the demise of that dz, so even though he (jumpdude) slammed the DZO's who use them and the other's, he's right, what's lost in translation? Kinda looks like you may need hooked on phonics if you can't understand what's been said.
  11. Jumpdude, All too often, you are off the scale with your tactics, but you usually have valid points when you blast your info, and this is no exception, but be careful to not step on the toes that don't deserve to be stepped on. For some dzo's, they are using the middle men as a last resort to stay open and keep skydiving alive in their areas, so maybe give those guys a bit of latitude and a lot less attitude! I agree with you 100% that the middle men need to stay out of skydiving, but they have gotten themselves rooted as a necessary evil for now and it has become obvious that there really is very little that can be done about it. I also 100% agree that if the dzo's would do their own web stuff and marketing, and only compete amongst each other, it would be best for the whole skydiving community, which as has been discussed before, and along with your explanation of the lesser profits, it would translate in to more turbine dz's and better and newer equipment, etc. @TaylorC; It's unfortunate that the middle men have pushed themselves to the point that they have, but you are correct, there are dzo's who are contacting them in an attempt to try to stay alive, others are just greedy, and there's a variety of other reasons, but it's still unfortunate. @NWFlyer; About your "protector of DZ business models" comment, well, what do you do to try to educate people about how to keep from scammed by the middle men? While your perspective may be valid and I know of a few that like his cause, but despise his rants and tactics, and I even get annoyed as hell sometimes, but I must say that I have personally been at various dzs on 4 different occasions and heard tandem customers talking about how they found the dz and how his sites were instrumental in educating them so they knew to go directly to the dz and not through any of the middle men sites. You do have some very good points about the restaurants or other industries, and I would even be inclined to use that myself, but as the OP has demonstrated, and you seemed to tap in to, These sites are bad for our sport. At least from a standpoint of profits being taken from the dz's, considering the already discounted rates, and having to give up an additional cut to the middle man. @Fast; You made some good points, but it has been said many times in the many threads about skyride, groupon, living social, and the the other, if the dz's would just quit using them, they will have all that money back in their own pockets and will only compete with the dz down the road, and in a lot of cases, the other dzs are far enough away that they wouldn't have to compete anyway. Either way, if I were a dzo, I'd much rather compete with another dz than a bunch of sites that are getting in between me and my customer, who are not even based in my area, or the competing dz and the customer, whether it be the same customer trying to decide which one to go to or the customer that is closer to the other dz anyway.
  12. The sport we love is being overrun by scammers, spammers, scalpers and criminals!!!
  13. Yep! There's another name for them Skyride fuckers! A friend emailed me, and I verified! It's them!! The question I have is when the hell are the DZO's around the country going to wise up and quit relying on middle men in general, especially Skyride and any of their new names??
  14. That was totally unnecessary ! ! ! ! Why do you think that? I suggest that you read this thread and make your own decision! Doug essentially admits it himself that he intends to get in between the customer and the DZO and skim some of the profits, he uses strong arm piracy tactics to try to force DZO's to sign up and he also admitted that he is affiliated with Skyride and had no intention of severing ties with them, which, Skyride, as I've heard has made several name changes since this topic was hotly discussed here last.;post=3680598;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;
  15. I was going to pick your post apart, but I found no need to, you are absolutely correct! Although, I don't know about your demo stuff that you described, you are correct on everything else. I do believe there are some good benefits to being a uspa member, both individually and group member, but I agree that it doesn't make you a superior skydiver over a non member. I keep my membership current simply because I don't like to hit snags when I visit a new dz. And Mr Quade, you are getting beat down! You REALLY need to get a reality check! Just sayin!