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I have find something very cool on the sea...
I would know advices from experienced jumpers on which type of procedures they use before the splashlanding anf if they use some items to protect the hardware and the fabric of the rig from the salt.
Thank you.

Be sure your cutaway handles are easy to get to on the jump and make sure your gear gets rinsed out very well with fresh water later.

or........ wanna buy a cruiselite?


nevermind...

later.
-smd7

or........ wanna buy a cruiselite?

lol.

Ahhh yes...the Cruiselite XL
That thing has history bro, seen some sick action.
How are the openings getting to be?

---

Q: Why do you keep looking up there?
A: __________

... some old dirty-green/dirty-grey/shit*ty-brown fabric?...
... something "for base" for $300?...
cool....

I don't think you can really protect the gear from the salt. Your best bet is probably to use gear that you can afford to have wear out quickly.

If you can find an old canopy, use that for sure. You might also consider putting it in an older BASE rig for the jump.

As soon as possible after the jump, rinse the gear in fresh water. Then, let it soak in fresh water for a while, then give it another rinse off and hang it to dry out of the sun.

Salt water pretty much eats gear.

The salt is harmful not because it eats your gear but because it eventually recrystallizes and becomes very abrasive to the canopy. Put the canopy in a large bucket afterwards and run a fresh water garden hose continually into the bucket. Taste the lines or canopy for salt on occasion. Once the gear is salt free, handle the wet canopy very very carefully. The permeability of the fabric is determined by the spacing of the nylon threads, and these are forced together during a manufacturing process known as calendering. When the canopy is wet, it becomes so heavy and unwieldy, that it's easy to pull hard enough in some locations to damage the canopy and further increase the permeability (by further spreading the spacing between the threads). Of course, when the canopy gets wet, it absorbs moisture and bloats. During the drying process, it doesn't necessarily shrink uniformly, leading to an increased permeability. However, this shrinkage may be more noticable among various canopy tapes, which can slightly affect your airfoil.

Shrinkage, it's why I hate water jumps . . .

BTW, in the short term the two things that will hurt a canopy or rig are acid and sunlight. Shake and bake drying is all right for older gear, but for something you care about a shady spot with a breeze is slower, but better, as it dries more uniformly. I always cringe a little bit when I see someone out in direct sunlight whipping a shiny new BASE canopy around like a bed sheet.

Handling is what destroys the porosity holding properties of canopies for the very reasons 460 stated. It's why the less you repack a reserve the better it will fly.

NickD
BASE 194

Man, my canopy isn't doing well then is it? It gets man handled when wet and right now it gets wet on ever jump.

The best technique I've seen for drying a canopy is to hang it from the tail (out of the sunlight - no UV). Nick raises a good point. I suspect the amount of deformation of the canopy and the amount of increase in permeability that results in the drying process is minimized with slow gentle drying.

>>Man, my canopy isn't doing well then is it?<<

You're special, Russel . . . and when you get the land-on-land thing going, you're going to want a new canopy.

NickD
BASE 194

Yeah I know. Not only a new canopy because of all the water landings but also a bigger one!