1
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So, once everything is in position, I'm ready to pull up the tail.

2
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If you're packing a canopy that's built here in the United States, most of the manufacturers...

3
00:00:18,913 --> 00:00:25,432
either put a piece of tape on the tail here, letting you know that it's the centre...

4
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Performance Designs has a warning label there.

5
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There's a lot of different things that the manufacturers do, but we want to make sure that we have the centre of the tail.

6
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I'm not going to pull this up really far up the lines.

7
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I'm gonna keep it pretty low down there on the slider.

8
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I'm gonna grab one side at a time, and I'm also going to put my knee... lift my knee up,

9
00:00:45,733 --> 00:00:56,062
and just kind of pull that tail around my pack job, as opposed to letting it roll that pack job open.

10
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There's seams on this tail, which make it really easy to line everything up.

11
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I find the two seams down here - it's kind of tough to see because it's a yellow canopy that I'm packing.

12
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But there's a stitch line right here on both sides, that I'm matching up with my fingers.

13
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I just pinch it together, to keep it from going anywhere.

14
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While I do that I keep as little of the tail on the lines themselves as possible.

15
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The more I pull up - I see this a lot - the more you pull up here,

16
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the better chance you're going to get damage around this area of the tail,

17
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as you put more and more jumps on your canopy.

18
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One of the things that I do, that I think helps my pack jobs a lot, is at this point right here

19
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I'm pulling down and away from the slider. The tail itself is putting some tension on those grommets...

20
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making sure that they're seated all the way down on those stops.

21
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And it allows me to - putting tension on nylon material allows me to have something to work with.

22
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So, I'm gonna grab a little bit at the top of the slider here, and down on that seam that I've never let go of.

23
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And I'm gonna start folding it. About two-inch folds, and I do two or three of them.

24
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And that's about it. I don't need to roll it any more than that.

25
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The more I roll that canopy, the more distorted the inside of this pack job gets.

26
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The better chance for off-heading openings, or funky openings.

27
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Before I lay the canopy down on the ground, I do something that really helps me once I am on the ground.

28
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and that's actually laying this - walking my shoulder up to the base of the canopy, where the lines and the canopy meet,

29
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And setting it there. I'm actually gonna let go of the tail.

30
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So right now the tail is probably starting to get loose and unwind,

31
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I'm gonna take both my arms and I'm gonna take the material down and away.

32
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Not pushing really hard, but I want to put some pressure on there to keep some air out of it.

33
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It just helps me lay down the pack job.

34
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And it saves the time from me bending over on the pack job, trying to get the air out of the canopy.

35
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Once I do that, I just come back, find my tail, and just make sure that that roll is back in place,

36
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and it hasn't come undone.

37
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Now I'm gonna lay this down. People laugh, but I lay it down like I would lay down a kid going to bed.

38
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If I slam it down, that child's gonna wake up, they're gonna start crying.

39
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If I slam my canopy down, it's gonna squirt out everywhere and everything that we just did right up here:

40
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the flaking of the canopy...was useless. Might as well not flake.

41
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So as I do this, I'm holding the slider grommets and putting some tension away from my rig,

42
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so that my lines are nice and taut.

43
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I don't know if you can see it from there, but there's no slack in those lines. That looks good.

44
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So, I'm laying the rest of the canopy on the forearm, and I'm just going to set it down nice and gentle.

45
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By setting the canopy down like that, we know that our pack job is basically the same...

46
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that it was when it was over our shoulder.

47
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You slam it down and let it squirt out, who knows what it looks like in there.

48
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I take the chance to kind of take a breather, a rest, and cock my pilot chute,

49
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Kind of square up my bag a bit - make sure it's not inverted or anything else.

50
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Get that flap so that it's facing down.

51
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Ready for that parachute to be put into the bag.

52
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I also cock my pilot chute there - I cock my pilot chute a number of different times throughout the pack job.

53
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Basically it just gives me a chance to recuperate and get ready to put the canopy in the bag.

54
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Something that helps me out a lot is putting my knees on the grommets, and pushing down on them

55
00:05:06,446 --> 00:05:12,227
and I'm also pushing away from the rig a bit. Again, line tension is very important.

56
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By anchoring my knees here, it allows me to put some tension on the top skin of this canopy,

57
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which allows me to work with the nylon in the parachute.

58
00:05:23,766 --> 00:05:32,322
The mindset that I take when I'm putting this canopy into the bag is more of getting the canopy to a shape...

59
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that is easily controllable; that's approximately the same size as this bag.

60
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If I can get that, then I slide the bag over that canopy.

61
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If we think about trying to push the canopy into the bag, we're gonna wrestle and fight with that all day long.

62
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Nylon material is slippery, so when you push on it this side, this side pokes out.

63
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I'm sure we've pretty much experienced that at some point.

64
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So I'm putting my knees here as an anchor, which allows me to push the canopy material taut,

65
00:06:04,531 --> 00:06:12,032
and squeeze the air out of it. I'm not doing anything to my pack job while I'm doing that either.

66
00:06:12,032 --> 00:06:17,301
I don't want to do really fast. I'm gonna work with one side of the canopy at a time.

67
00:06:17,301 --> 00:06:21,032
I'm gonna use this double stitch line on this canopy as my reference line.

68
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Not too worried about what's going on over here. I'll get to that.

69
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I'm gonna focus right here. I basically cut this centre line and the end of the canopy in half,

70
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and I try to get the top skin and the bottom of that together, so that I'm pinching it with my hand up here.

71
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Then I fold it up underneath.

72
00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:44,818
And this is my technique. It works really well for me.

73
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I've tried a number of different things, giving me the best openings, the most consistent.

74
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Notice my knees are still on that slider, keeping it in place. Hasn't moved.

75
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The top skin is nice and taut - easy to work with.

76
00:07:03,608 --> 00:07:07,648
I've never laid my entire body down on this parachute.

77
00:07:09,432 --> 00:07:16,166
Unless you're packing something that's well over two-hundred square feet, I find that I can do this style,

78
00:07:16,166 --> 00:07:20,715
and this technique on every single size.

79
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I'm gonna replace my hand, or replace my knees with my hand.

80
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I'm gonna make sure that I'm pushing down with my hand before I do it,

81
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because I'm pulling away from the rig right now with this hand.

82
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If I were just to hop off, my knees would take the tension off of the slider, and the topskin of the canopy here,

83
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and it would pull everything in that direction, which would basically ruin my pack job.

84
00:07:50,590 --> 00:07:55,879
So I want to make sure that when I'm having something nice and taut, that there's always

85
00:07:55,879 --> 00:07:59,006
an anchor point down here.

86
00:08:01,197 --> 00:08:05,191
Notice I'm not struggling. I can take all day to do this.

87
00:08:05,191 --> 00:08:12,906
There happens to be a construction tape right here that I'm just gonna lay my shin across,

88
00:08:12,906 --> 00:08:20,919
and I'm gonna let go my hand at the top part of the canopy. I'll get back to that and clean that up.

89
00:08:20,919 --> 00:08:24,137
Right. Now I'm just focussed on this bottom half.

90
00:08:24,137 --> 00:08:27,859
I get the canopy slider grommets - I can feel them all in my hand here -

91
00:08:27,859 --> 00:08:33,580
and I'm going to make a little bit of a S-fold right there. Just like so.

92
00:08:33,661 --> 00:08:36,217
Cleaning that up, making that nice and tight.

93
00:08:36,217 --> 00:08:40,079
I'm gonna put my knee right back on top of that.

94
00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:44,539
My lines still look good - there's still good tension on my lines - and I'm setting my knee on it.

95
00:08:44,539 --> 00:08:50,230
I'm not pushing down so hard that I squirt the canopy material out either direction,

96
00:08:50,230 --> 00:08:53,281
but I'm putting enough pressure on it that it's not going to move.

97
00:08:53,281 --> 00:08:58,052
Now I told you that I'd get back to this top part of the parachute. I'm gonna do that.

98
00:08:58,052 --> 00:09:03,580
I'm going to reach underneath so that I can lift the entire canopy up, right here,

99
00:09:03,580 --> 00:09:06,870
and I'm going to bring it up and rest it on the top of my knee.

100
00:09:06,870 --> 00:09:10,799
If it's a larger canopy it might even go up onto my thigh.

101
00:09:10,799 --> 00:09:15,614
All I'm doing at this point is just rolling some of that material under.

102
00:09:17,732 --> 00:09:22,914
Looks pretty good. Again, the mindset that I'm taking is to get the canopy

103
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to the size approximately the same size as this bag.

104
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I can see right now that I'm pretty good.