I totally agree it's about time we, the active jumpers,
start making suggestions publicly and privately to
the gear manufacturers for either tailor-made or
general experimentational directions or overall directions
the gear should head to. You know, riggers and manufacturers
frequently cannot see the forest for the trees. They are
so inundated with details they cannot easily assess the
gear they are manufacturing. on top of that, they are
excessively conservative.

For example:

1) bottom skin holes with mesh. been done years ago...
I wasn't satisfied with my BASE canopy years ago and was
going to do this myself several years ago.

2) multiple bridle attachment points. been done... check out
the modern ram air called a Unit. but yes, it only has
attachment points on the center 3 and 5 cells. i saw that
canopy work better than most base canopies by BASE 74 and
others. BTW, BASE 74 made 900 base jumps by 1996.

SO! I want to hear gear suggestions from people. I
tried to get people to start thinking hard about this
back in 1996 when I posted a bunch of articles to a
BASE mailing list.

Here are some of my suggestions:

1) More elastic lines. Less stress will be placed on the
canopy during opening. Far less sensitivity to shoulder and
body (and harness tension) asymmetry. It is known that
spectra lines (nonelastic) will cause excessively hard
openings and shoulder assymetry will be accentuated (resulting
in frequent line twists)

2) Spandex pouches that have a complete release. Possibly
a handle on the other side.

3) pilot chutes with a 1/4" foam rubber stiffener on the crown.
been done. works very well.

4) toggles that will not friction lock when not using the
line mod. can simulate on the ground using either Adam's
or BR's toggles.

5) slider size experimentation. my BASE canopy opening
performance sucked. turned out they used to small of a
slider on it.

6) ZP rounds. open fast and they can land softer than
you think and are appropriate to some objects.

7) rounds with the apex pulled down. very, very fast
opening. can easily release center line after opening to
make landing.

8) front toggles on a convention base canopy. can a canopy
turn not as a flying wing but as an angled lower surface?

9) single surface square canopy.

10) triangular single surface canopies. seen it freefallen
over water from 90'. used on personel for high speed
race boating. when they fall out, their parachute inflates,
they stop, and hit the water.

11) vents on ZP pilot chutes. these pilot chutes oscillate
violently in the burble and can cause bad off heading
openings. even further, if you stow you pilot chute
particular ways, when you extract it, it will inflate
to the right of you and drag you pilot chute out an
angle, causing an off heading opening. this happened
to me on 100+ jumps. like rounds, vents would relieve
some of the spilling air and keep the pilot chute from
moving around violently. pc crown is not an easy
option. maybe some vents a 4 to 8 inches from the
center line with tape and mesh.

just a thought while i'm recovering from a nonBASE
related broken leg... Chris Stokely