Swooping competitionsWritten by Jakob Jelling
No sport would be complete without a competition for best of that sport to show off their skills, and swooping is no exception. Just like any other sport, there are swooping competitions year-round in several different countries around world. If you have been swooping for a while, and you want to see how well you compare, then you should look for a swooping competition in your area.Swooping competitions are relatively new, and there are two different types. The first is just a swooping competition in which all of sky divers are accomplished swoopers. The second type of competition takes place as part of a larger sky diving competition. Even though swooping is a new sport in a lot of areas, and there are not always competitions in place wherever you go, number of competitions worldwide is increasing. In fact, these competitions are doing a lot to add to popularity of sport - both among other sky divers and other people who are just looking for an extreme sport to watch. Most swooping competitions are only for very expert swoopers. Since a lot of different maneuvers that are required in competition are difficult, none of these competitions are open to everybody. If you would like to compete in a swooping competition, then you're going to have to qualify. You can qualify by showing through a few jumps that you have control over your canopy, and that you are able to accurately hit inside of a target area.
| | Bull TroutWritten by Cameron Larsen
The Bull Trout is indigenous to Western North America. Once hailed as greatest of all Salmonids, it began a quick decline in 1930's. Early naturalists had this to say about fish: Bull Trout are by far most active and handsome of trout, they live in coldest, cleanest and most secluded waters. No higher praise can be given to a Salmonid than to say, it is a charr(sic). Indeed they are an aggressive and worthy game fish. And because of their desire for coldest and cleanest water, they are a great indicator species. A whole watershed's health can be measured by its indigenous population of bull trout.Once common in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, as well as Alberta and British Columbia, it has now declined so much as to be put on endangered species list. Of course human degradation of environment is much to be blame. But at least as big a factor is introduced species. The Bull Trout was considered an enemy of Rainbow Trout, because of their predatory nature, so as Rainbows were introduced, catching and keeping of Bull Trout has been encouraged. The Bull Trout can be highly mobile, often migrating back to lakes that form headwaters of streams, or even into different streams altogether. Coastal streams will have populations that migrate to ocean and then back. Often times in same stream will be stationary and migratory Bull Trout. This migratory ability has undoubtedly aided diversity and thereby prosperity of species. Besides their beauty and fighting abilities. Bull Trout are also known for their size. River Bull Trout can reach 4 pounds, while lake dwellers have been caught up to 20 pounds. Perhaps saddest part of their recent history is that sportsmen's desires for other fish, and official biologists agreeing with this desire has directly resulted in their perilous status today. It seems we do a better job today of recognizing entire eco-systems and appreciating them for what they are. But once we begin to trigger some species as desirable and others as not, we are playing with a kind of fire that can burn us for generations. Native species exist where they exist for a reason, and we cannot wily nily go deciding we prefer other species to live there instead.
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