Subject: Frames of Reference 2 of 5 - Oreo Cookie
Date: posted 22 Feb 1995 23:33:00 GMT
----

When last seen we were at the National Parachute Jumpers-Riggers
frame of reference in 1956 and the topic was how the same physical
activity could appear quite different according to our mental frames
of reference.

I tried back in the 70's to write a book about this called The Skydance
Approach but it was too tangled in my mind with all the details of how
it had gotten that way and life came along and brushed it aside. Then in
1993 when I realized I was going to start jumping again "the book" came
up again, so I pulled out my pile of notes and thrashed around for a few
months and it now has enough form that I think it won't evaporate, and
may actually get written some day.

Meanwhile I want to talk about one of the main ideas. It is an example
of viewing our activity from a different frame of reference. And then
in another post I'll go back and pick up some of the threads in the
intervening 20 years from 1956 to 1976.

OK ... Let's see ... Hard to just jump in to the middle ... but here goes

...  ..

In early 1981, after having lived in my van from drop zone to drop zone
with a self image of something like a wandering zen monk / barnstorming
skydiver / acid head alien from another planet, and knowing it was time
to make the leap from the skydiving world to ... somewhere ... get a
job, a zip code, etc ... I did one last job in Holland. It was arranged
by Arnold Camferman and after the boogie was over he asked me to write
up some 9 way dives for them.

So I did. But I also knew that that was my last boogie in the skydiving
world and that this would be the last thing I wrote about skydiving, so
I put in some other stuff that I had been wanting to say for a long
time.

It was partly about freeform flying and designing dives around the
flying instead of the hookups. The competitive sequential steamroller
was already crushing the life out of innovative skydiving. I called it
Skydance (the good stuff is in the flying *between* the hookups).

And it was partly about designing dives out of moves (instead of
hookups) so you could create hard and easy slots and thereby include
students more naturally into the dives.

And especially it was about using altitude as an active ingredient in
dive design. An *active* ingredient. Change the nature of the dance at
different altitudes and stuff like that.

Now this was partly to incorporate keeping track of distance from the
ground into the very form of the dive. We'll do hopovers until 8 grand,
then we'll switch to whirling swoops until 5,500, then we'll construct
and execute our breakup.

And it was partly to make the closing maneuver - construct and execute a
breakup - a full fledged maneuver in its own right rather than a frantic
after thought.

And it was also about making active use of the different ways the
different layers of the skydive felt. The exit feels one way. The long
fall another. The bottom part feels a third way. To organize around the
emotional content of the dive. Why miss the exit and breakup in the name
of cranking out more meaningless maneuvers?

I called this the Oreo Cookie because a dive has different feeling
layers like an oreo cookie. I even started talking in terms of "distance
from the ground" rather than "altitude awareness". "Altitude awareness"
sounds nice and civilized while "distance from the ground" sounds down
and dirty. And down and dirty is how it is when someone runs in to it.

     Physical    Emotional

       ---         ---
Exit    |           |
       ---          |   Opening Maneuver    Oh
        |           |
        |           |
        |          ---
        |           |
Skydive |           |   Filling             Dance
        |           |
        |          ---
        |           |
        |           |   Closing Maneuver    Re Oh
       ---          |
Breakup |           |
       ---         ---

Organizing around the emotional content of the dive comes from the
observation that we act in certain ways in order to feel certain feelings.

I think it's the answer to the classic whuffo question. I jump out of
the airplane because I like the way I feel when I do that.

It also opens up a whole realm of themes to organize around - the
feelings produced rather than the maneuvers performed.

Physically the exit and breakup are small parts of the dive, but
emotionally they are huge.

We started with just the closing maneuver. The idea was that at 5,500 we
would stop what ever we were doing, build a star by amalgamating, and
then at 3,500 break and track away. (I agree with Bryan Burke that 3,500
is too low, but this was 1977, squares were just coming out, and opening
altitudes were working their way up through 2,000. We weren't aware
enough to see that 2 grand was too low to start an opening sequence and
and still have time to be clumsy/confused/stressed.)

The idea was that building a star at the end of the dive would bring us
together and add a feeling of unity. We were trying a lot of new stuff
that we could not yet do and the dives often ended in disintegration
and dissarray.

And doing a change of activity based on distance from the ground trained
us to keep track through out the dive. Sometimes I see that Dytter ad
that says "Ever lose track of altitude? Consider buying ..." and I think:

"No, Consider training yourself not to do that. Consider designing
distance from the ground into the very form of the dive."

Sequential is an inherently dangerous format because the focus is entirely
on the maneuvers.

"By amalgamating" meant just flow into a big star like small drops of
mercury flowing together into one big drop.

The plan was to flash five-five with both hands at 5,500 and then really
practice and get used to that interval 55 --> 35 while building the star.

Our first efforts were pretty comical. I thought we would just do it -
like any other maneuver, but when we first started trying it, it didn't
work at all.

I remember some dives going through 3,500 still trying to get some
people's attention for 5,500!

Even after we got so we could see 5,500 the nice calm closing maneuver
didn't happen. It got frantic. Gotta get that star!

So then we tried: when you get to 5,500, just stop - freeze - look
around for a moment - then slowly get in a big loose circle - and then
slowly push into the center.

That worked. And another thing that happened was that by freezing and
starting over and moving slow, the bottom of the jump seemed about
10 seconds longer.

OK - This is getting pretty long so I'll stop here.

(to be cont)

Skratch

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