The original Rant & Rave from ChutingStar...equal opportunity offenders. Find out the good, the bad and the ugly related to skydiving gear and skate goods from ChutingStar Skydiving Gear SuperStore and ChutingStar Skate Park & Skate Shop!
Over the years, ChutingStar Parachute Riggers have used a wide variety of seal presses. Some of these were commonly available and others were obtained with long searching, persistent inquiries and the utmost patience (it took one year to get a unique press from Germany).
ChutingStar started selling Parachute Rigging Seal Presses to our rigging students, and then later, to riggers worldwide once we found a quality press and engraver. It must be a tough business as over the past 20 years, we've seen a few seal press manufacturers come and go. Continue reading →
ChutingStar has been carrying Dan BC's book Above All Else for the past 5 years, and we have sold well over 100 copies, but I had never taken the time to read the book until this past week.
WOW...what have I been waiting for? What a story of life...from pursuing your dreams to just trying to survive to a glimpse of the afterlife as well as perseverance, determination and the rewards of never giving up.
Above All Else is a page-turner from the first chapter account of his conversation with his teammate James in the afterlife while Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld was in a coma to the step-by-step personal and business guidance at the end for "Playing to Win." Continue reading →
Skydivers LOVE their Cookie G3 helmets as well as their GoPro cameras...but combining those two together has been a bit of a gamble in the past as the full-face helmet didn't have any type of cutaway system. And a cutaway system is important at 2,000 feet when that pilot chute just got snagged on your camera mount at the end of a crazy, funneled skydive with a "save yourself" deployment.
Cookie hasn't yet developed a cutaway system for the helmet, so skydivers have resolved to either take the risk, make their own cutaway system, make a mount that is less likely to get snagged or find a mount that cuts away the camera.
The most unique mount is from Vmag, which allows a quick release via magnets. This unique mount is available as a chin or top mount
I have owned the Hypoxic Turned On status indicator for about 3 weeks and I have used it on nearly every skydive I have made since then, and I must say, the device does exactly what it is supposed to do, and it does it extremely well.
Installation:
Installation of the device was fairly straight-forward. Your camera must be upgraded to the most recent GoPro firmware at this link. Once your camera has the latest official firmware, you go to the Turned On website at this link and download a small patch file for the GoPro (currently, the Hero 3, 3+ and 4 are supported). You then copy that file to your SD card, stick the SD card back in the camera and turn the power on. The GoPro applies the patch and just like that, you're ready to install the Turned On hardware.
Hypoxic sees a need and meets it...actually exceeds it. I would pay the $100 just to be able to stop asking people "am I on?"
For anyone doing more than the casual weekend jumps, status indicators for cameras are priceless. The cost of missing an event you are paid to record is higher than the cost of the jump. When Trunk first introduced the Hypeye, immediately one was on each camera on my head. Yes, two cameras. In R&D I am not taking any chances of missing a shot. Knowing for certain cameras were rolling, it became possible to play with different shots from the same helmet. With the overwhelming use of GoPros, the security of knowing the camera was rolling has been sorely missed, until now. Continue reading →
In 2002, several instructors from Skydive Illinois took up residence in Atlanta and made Atlanta Skydiving Center their new home. An influx of new staff of course brings new ideas, skills, attitudes, and even gadgets. And the one gadget that is starting to catch on is the Suunto watch with altimeter.
Suunto does not advertise in the skydiving industry, but the altimeter function of its watch is easy to read and operate. It also keeps up with the change of altitude in real time as fast as any other digital altimeter I have ever used. I've since put it in an altitude chamber next to a Neptune2 and found it to be within 100 feet at every moment. Continue reading →
Past posts on rigging forums at one time focused on one manufacturer's solution to keeping a collapsed slider at the base of the risers after opening without anchoring the slider to the container. Many jumpers have concerns about a number of slider holders that connect the slider to the top of the reserve container, which could potentially cause a cutaway delay.
When Team Method (Steve-O Utter, T.J. Landgren and Nate Gilbert) arrived at Atlanta Skydiving Center in 2001, the freefly team showed-off a new slider block design. Over the next few years, ChutingStar riggers tweaked and modified the design for strength, durability and aesthetics.
Mirage Systems International recently released a 4-ring harness called Unisyn. The company is touting its design as being better than others on the market (and I will reprint their reasons later in this article), but what I really like about the design is the padding attachments under the four rings.
The two chest rings and the two hip rings have padding between the wearer and the rings. So in addition to providing a better overall fit, the harness itself is more comfortable to wear. For those looking to purchase a high-quality rig with all the extras, I recommend going the extra mile and adding the Unisyn option; it is well worth it at $300.
ChutingStar started selling Parachute Rigging Seal Presses to our rigging students, and then later, to riggers worldwide once we found a quality press and engraver. It must be a tough business as over the past 20 years, we've seen a few seal press manufacturers come and go. Continue reading 
Above All Else is a page-turner from the first chapter account of his conversation with his teammate James in the afterlife while Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld was in a coma to the step-by-step personal and business guidance at the end for "Playing to Win." Continue reading 
Continue reading 
