We are all suspects now.

Snapped en route to collect the Christmas groceries by foot. It was a long way back up the hill!

Thanks to West Oxfordshire Conservatives, I dined recently with David Cameron, experiencing his quick wit and good humour.

In the end, I made eleven jumps this weekend, seven yesterday and all good fun. Here I asked a tandem cameraman to shoot a solo exit:

Exit Steve
Originally uploaded by stevenjbaker

I find I must make way too much effort to match my fall rate to the average skydiver, particularly in big formations (which fall slower), so here goes the diet…

Follow the link from the photo for a sequence of images showing how, when the main parachute is cut away in an emergency, the Skyhook RSL deploys the reserve parachute using the main as a drogue. The reserve is professionally packed in the white bag on the left, which pulls away completely in the air to release the chute. (The reserve needed its regular repack, creating this opportunity.)

This is an extra safety feature over the usual reserve static line arrangement, which just pulls the reserve pin and allows the reserve pilot chute — grey in the picture — to deploy the reserve.

Fast windsurfers, originally uploaded by stevenjbaker.

Must learn to do it one day…

Going out on the wire, originally uploaded by stevenjbaker.

Racing a Hobie 16 single-handed on a gusty day

Race day was comical, with lulls followed by moderate gusts from various directions.

In a mixed fleet, Remko and I were first over the line in a Tiger two out of three in the morning. For the third, Remko took a unilateral decision to put in a capsize in the last minute before the start, giving us a finish of third on the water.

In the first of the afternoon, we were part of a bizarrely mixed group of boats who crossed the line at more or less the same time. Never before have I seen two Tigers and a half dozen Hobie 16s finish with three Lasers. (We’ll see what the handicap system makes of all this shortly, but I expect a Laser won.)

The comedy then turned risky as the gusts became near gale force. Remco and I were knocked down violently, with Remco gashing his leg on some part of the boat. The staff team in a Tiger were dismasted a little later when a shroud snapped:

Wildwind 36, originally uploaded by stevenjbaker.

The Tiger was soon fixed:

Wildwind 79, originally uploaded by stevenjbaker.

Remco will take a little longer.

(And I just learned that a Laser won.)