This has to be one of the most terrifying skydive malfunctions I've seen in a while, and our friend Marcos dealt with the situation incredibly well! We now have more info (and HD video) about this incident:
Marcos had a hard pull and his pilot chute was still stuck in the BOC when he pulled his reserve (it was not a pilot chute in tow). As the reserve deployed, the steel rapide link on his riser breaks, causing his reserve parachute to malfunction. Luckily he didn't cutaway before pulling his reserve — he was able to manually deploy his main parachute to add more fabric above his head. He fights the spinning malfunction all the way to the ground and after a seemingly hard landing, he stands up and gives a thumbs-up to a concerned driver passing by. What a trooper!
After speaking with a few riggers about this incident, it sounds like both soft links and steel rapide links are still commonly used, but here are a few benefits with soft links: they never bend, they never crack, there's no barrel to loosen up and they're twice as strong as rapide links.
Just some food for thought and worth discussing with your rigger.
Glad you're still with us Marcos! Stay awesome and stay safe.
This has to be one of the most terrifying skydive malfunctions I've seen in a while, and our friend Marcos dealt with the situation incredibly well! We now have more info (and HD video) about this incident:
Marcos had a hard pull and his pilot chute was still stuck in the BOC when he pulled his reserve (it was not a pilot chute in tow). As the reserve deployed, the steel rapide link on his riser breaks, causing his reserve parachute to malfunction. Luckily he didn't cutaway before pulling his reserve — he was able to manually deploy his main parachute to add more fabric above his head. He fights the spinning malfunction all the way to the ground and after a seemingly hard landing, he stands up and gives a thumbs-up to a concerned driver passing by. What a trooper!
After speaking with a few riggers about this incident, it sounds like both soft links and steel rapide links are still commonly used, but here are a few benefits with soft links: they never bend, they never crack, there's no barrel to loosen up and they're twice as strong as rapide links.
Just some food for thought and worth discussing with your rigger.
Glad you're still with us Marcos! Stay awesome and stay safe.
