Product Rant & Rave

(Published in Blue Skies Magazine) If the "small things" in life grab you, then you'll be taken by the Seven. This French-made rig is the brainchild of Basik Air Concept's Jérôme Bunker. Basik's Seven container has a minefield of surprises for skydivers and riggers alike. I assembled, inspected and packed my first Seven container last month, and was impressed by the attention to detail and the several of the design features. As a rigger, my first “Aha!” was with the full protection pocket for the AAD cutter at the base of the reserve container. In essence this keeps the entire cutter enclosed, allowing just the hole open to feed the closing loop through. It’s a clear concept change from the usual elastic keeper in most rigs to hold the base of the cutter in place, but leaving the rest of the cutter and some of the cable exposed as a possible snag point for reserve lines. Continue reading →

HypEye D Pro Review Video for ChutingStar. Continue reading →

Jumpshack's Racer container elicits many comments from riggers due to how different it is from most other rigs on the market. At the very least, a Racer container takes a little more thought and preparation; and that is where a new DVD packing manual released by Jump Shack steps in to save the day.

I highly recommend every rigger who plans on packing even one more Racer in their lifetime purchase the Racer DVD packing manual. The packing updates, tips and techniques straight from the manufacturer are well worth the money ($15 plus shipping).

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Dropzone.com may be the be all, end all of internet forums in the U.S., but Dropzone.com may be the be all, end all of internet forums in the U.S., but https://www.skysurfer.com.au/ was Australia's internet forum (since this post it is now defunct)…and it's a more interesting one to follow at times. was Australia's internet forum (since this post it is now defunct)…and it's a more interesting one to follow at times.

Recently a fellow skydiver turned me on to the forum after a thread started on "Price Wars" in "The Car Park." The gist of it is one skydiver's experience from purchasing a Pilot main canopy from ChutingStar, but the ensuing debate, comic relief and video are worth a read.

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Sony is making their entrance into the action camera market with the appropriately named "Sony Action Cam". My friends over at ChutingStar loaned me one to try out and see how it stacks up. The Sony Action Cam comes in two models, one that is WiFi enabled and one that is not. I got to play with the WiFi enabled version. My first impression was that it's small and light with very few buttons. The bottom is curved so it will not stand up on it's own, you must put it in a case of some sort. In other words, you can't just set the camera on the table and press "record" because it will fall over. The clear plastic housing has a flat bottom with a standard camera screw mount, so it can be mounted onto any tripod or camera mount. Once inside the housing there is only one accessible button. Pressing that button turns the camera on and automatically starts recording, pressing it again will stop recording and the camera will automatically power off in 10 or 60 seconds depending on your settings. An attachment screws into the bottom of the housing which allows you to clip it into Sony's self adhesive mounts. This mounting system is a fixed angle system, so placement of the adhesive mounts is crucial. There is a tilt adapter that can be purchased separately that allows for angle adjustment though, and I think the Surfboard mount kit also comes with an angle adapter. Continue reading →

The first Skyhook-equipped Sun Path Javelin Odyssey was dropped off at Chuting Star Rigging Loft in April 2008 for a full assembly. I had seen the new Javelin Odyssey updates at the Parachute Industry Association 2007 Symposium in Reno, but this was the first time I was able to really see how the updates work with a fully-assembled and packed rig.

From the outside, the Javelin look remains the same. It has always been a rig that has little flash, but gets the job done. The Javelin reserve container has also been one that is what I consider to be rigger-friendly and easy to make look good. It's a combination of the limited reserve container flaps (4) and the fact that the reserve freebag sits fully against the side flaps. This keeps wrinkles in the reserve container nearly non-existent with a smooth pack job.

The new updates do not change the looks of the reserve or main container. A smooth pack job still leads to a nice looking rig.

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