If you start deploying your canopy at 2500 feet you are still falling at a rapid rate and would be open around 2100-2250 or so depending on how you packed it to open otherwise you'd break your neck from the shock of opening, hence 12.5 sec. give or take a few tenths of seconds. Yup it's Friday eve hoisting a few myself.
Now, waaaaaait a minute. Bode Miller has 'fessed up to taking a drink and going skiing. Unless I'm mistaken, though, he's never said that he raced while drunk. He's admitted to morning-after damage, which is not the same thing as inebriation. Also: If they win, we applaud them with extra vigour because they won despite being drunk the night before. If they fail, we know why, and they know why, and it doesn't occur to anyone to accuse them of bottling it. In a way though, that's exactly what they have done. Worse still, they have bottled it long before they have even lined up at the start. They have prepared themselves thoroughly, but only for failure. So, you think that Bode goes off and drinks in order to prepare an excuse for a poor performance? Then why has he never used that excuse in any of the many races where he dragged his butt on the snow or punched through a fence? Sorry, JJ, this doesn't hold water. What does hold water are Bode's claims to not care about the medals. Anyone remember the World Alpine Ski Championships in 2003, when Bode won the combined? Without going into details, it was a brilliant, come-from-behind performance, and he had to beat out two of the best combined racers of all time to get the win. After his final slalom run, Bode was standing in the finish area with the other contenders, with his skis off, leaning on them. When he knew he had the win, he didn't wave his arms or air-punch or cheer or anything like that. Instead, he crouched down in the finish area and rested his forehead against his upright skis, his eyes closed, for about ten seconds. I wish I had a link to a vid of this, because I can't do it justice, but that simple gesture was so full of emotion. It was very plain how much that win meant to him. But the medal? He doesn't have it any more. He used it to hold up a broken toilet seat in his apartment, and that's the last place he remembers seeing it. He didn't deliberately abandon it or treat it with contempt; it just didn't mean that much to him. The win mattered. Fact is, the attention is getting to Bode, but not in the usual way -- rather the opposite. He does not like the limelight. When ski season's over, he loves to go back to the States and be able to vanish, be able to walk down the streets in any city and have no one recognize him. He does not like appearances, dog-and-pony shows, or all the other hoopla that surrounds his current position. He loves to ski, he loves to race, he wants to be the best he can at it. But he's already won the highest award that the sport has to offer. When it stops being fun, when it's no longer worth the annoyance of the publicity, he'll simply quit. And I, for one, would not bet that that day couldn't come before the Torino Olympics.
In the Sport of Skydiving alcohol is a major part of its appeal, but not how you would think. It's actually illegal I would have to be drunk to jump out of a plane. I'm weak like that.
I would have to be drunk to jump out of a plane. Naw, I believe in you jg, you can do it sober, you can get hammered once your back planetside! ;)
I missed it JJ as I was down the pub watching Hull v Villa. Did Central say they'd be showing it again later?
Hey squealy - you didn't miss much - they did it as the "and finally" throughout the day, but frankly they did a complete hatchet job on the footage, not even managing to work in anything that would have lead the casual observer to the website. Still, at least TV really does add pounds and I didn't look like quite as much of the lanky idiot I am while I was running around the track with a hangover trying not to barf. lbb - it's late, so I can't be arsed to formulate a reposte (and I'm also slowly learning that you could accuse a collander of not holding water), suffice it to say for now that when I said he professed to not care about medals I didn't mean the actual physical items themselves, I meant the titles. Your description of how much he cares about winning pretty much makes my point for me. He professes not to care, claims there are more important things in life and that he's here for a good time not a long time, but he can't hide it when he wins something - he does care, whether he wants to or not. As for the excuses (and everyone bear witneess now as I continue not to be arsed with a reposte), I could have made it clearer that the excuses I accused him of carrying around with him aren't excuses for us, or for TV, or for anyone other than for Bode Miller. None of us knows what he tells himself to get through the day, but I'm taking a punt that when he wins he congratulates himself, and when he doesn't he pulls out one of those excuses like his own sycophantic best friend.
Eh, JJ -- he cares about doing well. 'snot quite the same thing as winning. How come you're so down on the guy, anyway?
JJ, nice op-ed on the week. Neat idea, and expertly executed. After seeing the interview in question, Bode apparently cares about the perfect run, being one with the mountain, leaving the world behind...or something. He also doesn't like drug testing. Dirty Hippy
lbb - you can't have it both ways - you can't have him so filled with emotion about winning that he has to take a moment and then say that it's not the winning, it's the doing well. If he was happy enough to do well and the winning meant nothing, the reaction would come when he finished his own run, not when he watched the last man down the hill fail to beat his time. I'm not overly down on him - I think he has immense talent and admire him for it - but I just smell a bit of bullshit with him. I don't think it's deliberate or even conscious, but I think he isn't honest with himself and that he fears making the kind of commitment to his sport that could make him one of the all time greats. Again, on the one hand, that's actually fantastic and more power to him if he can really resist getting caught up in it all and "do it for the love of it". But, on the other hand, it smacks of waste and (worse) it smacks of fear - fear of failing. Without wanting to exactly jump on the couch here, I suppose if I sound down on him it's more to do with being down on myself for doing the same thing.
