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I'm buying CLAMPS. At least to put my packjob in the container. After distorting it real bad and having to do it over, I saw the light. Should I get 4 or 6 small orange clamps? Opinions?

I use 6...it keeps things under control as you're putting it in the container.

What size canopy are you jumping? Smaller canopies I only use 4.

Kaye

I use 5, no matter canopy size. (222-280)

one for riser symmetry, 4 for packing tabs then consolidation folds.

322 sqft.

Buy as many LARGE clamps as you like to finish the job. Small clamps are easy to leave in the packjob.

I like one small clamp for the risers and eight big ones for the pack job.

One big one gets used on the lines from when I place the canopy on the ground. I add a big one at the top and bottom when I finish folding a side to width. The first big clamp and three remaining ones get used when I adjust the canopy to fit into a trapezoidal BASE container. Starting at the tail-pocket, the canopy is wide, narrow, wide, and then it doesn't matter although a clamp on each of the ears keeps them neat until I stick them in the container.

I briefly used two more small ones to hold the steering lines together from the standing pro-pack but don't think it saves any time and they could get lost in the pack job.

Tom A probably holds the record with like a dozen clamps.

ditto, plus i add 2 little ones to clip the tail together so i can flake it when its on my shoulder.

I used to kind of laugh at that. Then, last year my buddy Jean-Marc and I had been working 6 days a week for quite a while and no jumps. Got up early one morning aqnd I did the 4 hour drive with him to the low bridge here. Bastard was sleeping all the way. I was really tired and after packing for my third jump I noticed something bulging on the side of the container...

What are "Clamps"?
Take care,
space

Yeah Space, these kids today, with their clothes, their music, and their clamps . . .

It reminds me of the "hook cripples" of the early 90s who couldn’t pro pack without first hanging their skydiving canopies on something.

Seriously though I'm all for whatever makes for a neater pack job so it's not too big a deal I suppose. And clamps have been around for a long time. Historically, Moe Viletto was using clamps in the late 80s on BASE pack jobs (and skydiving reserves too). But Moe was very anal (in a good way) with either a last, or an only, parachute.

The only time I thought he was going too far was when I saw him snapping down a blue chalk line prior to packing . . .

Back to clamps, I hate to think there may be people who can't pack without them as it shows a lack of skill and it's another shortcut in a sport that should be devoid of shortcuts.

But, one thing you can say about clamps is it sure makes it easier to have a beer in the middle of a pack job . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Sure, clamps can be considered a 'shortcut', but at the same time, they keep everything very neat and tidy...and tight. who doesn't like tight?!

Although still a junior jumper, I took a course a week before some friends of mine did. I used clamps, they did not. On my course, I had but one off heading opening on a slider up jump... Everything else was pretty much bang on.

My friends, who didn't use anything but pullup cords to pack, had off headings EVERY jump. Now at the potato bridge, that's no big deal.. but at the cliffs we've been jumping since, and the antenna they've been at, that means a lot.

I'm more than willing to pack around a bunch of clamps to help ensure I don't have an off heading than pack without them and hope for the best....

Does that mean you use them or don't use them?

I sure do if I have them with me.

I'm only using the CLAMPS to put the pack-job in the container. It's a tight fit, and it helps prevent distortion.

Can you tell I've been drinking.

When I first started BASE jumping we were sort of in a minimalist period. I mean we enjoyed the fact we could shod ourselves of all the claptrap you needed at the DZ. We reveled in not needing things like goggles, helmets, pull-up cords, packing mats, reserve parachutes, money for tickets, membership cards, jumpsuits, shoes or even sometimes clothes. I don’t know how many building jumps I did wearing my Tevas, and I remember the first time I wore a pair of sneakers and how much of a pussy I felt like.

When boots became the thing I tried them for the first time and I remember thinking, if anything goes wrong the extra weight is just going to make me pound in harder. A canopy and a rig was all you needed and you were good to go. We flew with only our bodies, no radios, no golfing range finders, no GPS, no nothing.

That lasted for a few good years and then we started to gadget up. Sectional maps to find towers, screwdrivers to hold tension, hook knives, rapid-grips, high tech camping and climbing stuff and before we knew it we were bowling again.

I went to using clamps (most of the time) when the pin rigs first came out. With the old Velcro closed BASE containers you really didn’t need them. The canopies we were jumping were all small, mostly in the 220 sq ft range, and the Velcro rigs were big and roomy and easy to close neatly. And if you jumped a larger canopy you just got a bigger Velcro shrivel flap.

In fact I laugh sometimes when I see a guy with a modern pin rig and a 265 sq ft canopy worrying that his pack job is going to move around. With the Velcro rigs, if you didn’t jump it that night you were pretty much resigned to repacking for the next night as it would really swim around in there. And once packed we handled them like fine china. You'd never throw a Velcro rig over your head to don it like you can do today with a pin rig today. I mean, in a tight pin rig where's it going to go?

So yeah, I use clamps nowadays, but I still miss my Tevas . . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Clamps are a tool, like any other. We use them packing parachutes for the same reasons we use them when building a house, or working on a car. They make a task easier, faster, more reliable, more consistent, or all of those things.

I learned to pack without tools. I now pack (and teach packing) with a whole bunch of them. I do this because it makes things easier, faster, and more consistent, for me. In my opinion, it also makes things easier for the vast majority of students. Also, in my opinion, virtually any experienced jumper can pack without the clamps (some just haven't tried it), albeit a bit slower, or less consistently, if they aren't used to it.

Can I pack without clamps? Yep.

Do I think everyone ought to be able to? Yep.

Do I mostly use tools to pack? Sure.

Can I make jumps without them? Again, sure.

If you can't pack without your clamps, I encourage you (once you're comfortable with packing altogether) to take a trip to somewhere nice and strike-friendly, and make some jumps packing without tools. It's a nice experience, and once you've seen both sides of the fence you can decide for yourself what tools you want to use (and what tools you don't want to use).

packing outside without clamps, in the wind, is a giant pain in the ass. Especially after you have had 86 beers and continue to fall over before its in the container.

packing indoors, out of the wind with clamps is a pain after you have had 86 beers and continue to fall over before its in the container.

i only use tools if the wind is so high that i cant maintain control of my packjob...

i do have tools but 99,8%of my packjobs i dont use them..

Bottled beers make good packing weights assuming they are not open. But remember that not only are they inversely proportionate to the progression of the pack job but they also have the potential to turn into a vicious cycle. By the time you need the most packing beers, you have drank them which in turn causes one to need them more.
take care,
space