Sorry to hear that you broke a spring(s) the carbon fibre springs have had trouble in the past, and the break is not your fault. To answer some of your questions:

1) The springs are toast, you need new ones
2) 80 deg. F is an ok temp, i bocked when it was 95 out and the only problem I had was with myself sweating like crazy
3) It is possible it was a bad spring, like I said they have had problems in the past
4) When it breaks it does all go at once, but they tend to soften as they age and then suddenly break
5) Removing the cover is OK
6) The springs you have now are appropriate for your weight, so I would not worry, as you get better you might want to get stiffer springs, but as for now stiffer springs would be harder to jump on

Cheers,
Derek

Sweet! Can't wait to see the video.

Just saw the video! Congrats!!

Don't forget, the originals are available on flickr in their full resolution under a Creative Commons-Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike License

Yeah, a full range flip would be cool jump off the floor and then tap the ceiling, then land on the floor again would be very cool and would require insane precision.

The area is covered in part so you could bock in the rain but the clearance is a little low. If you are tall and bounce high, I would advise against performing flips.

These are truly team photos. Becky and I were both required to take the shots. The setup was as follows:

Ingredients:
- 2 flashes, type does not matter as long as there is manual control over the power output, even the cheapest generic flashes offer this option
- 2 quick hands, being able to push buttons rapidly to create a strobe light effect, think video game fingers
- 1 camera, needs to have bulb exposure mode e.g. shutter time limited only by battery life
- 1 dark environment, this works best in a place that is pitch black, but then the bouncing becomes difficult so night with a little street light will do

Taking the shot
1) Tell subject to bounce and then count down before doing the trick
2) Once trick begins open shutter
3) Once shutter opens, second photographer pulses the flashes
4) Close shutter at conclusion of trick
5) Check exposure and adjust aperture or ISO as necessary so that no areas "blow out" or go completely white
     -Note on last step keep aperture stopped down as focusing is difficult in low light and subject may move, stopping down will allow for plenty of depth of field so that the subject will always seem in focus

Alternative methods
- If you have lots of money you can buy the top range model of flash for your camera system, these have very accurate stroboscopic flash modes for scientific use, this allows one to set the number of pulses, the intensity, and duration of pulses in the sub millisecond range, the effect is similar but the spacing will look more "uniform"
- If you have somewhere to plug into you can just use a party strobe with adjustable timing, results are usually good but you need to play with exposure

Notes
- Tripod, Good if you have one but as you can see it is not necessary
- Remote Release, required if you use a tripod your hand shaking the camera while pushing the button negates the advantage of using the tripod, allows you to poen the shutter without touching the camera

Sorry masterking there are no videos. I shoot with an SLR so there is no video functionality.

South Bank Bocking
In the aftermath of Capital Bocking 2008, Becky, Flybaby, XS, Dominion, and I went to London and bocked around a skate park. The back ground was really cool and the environment was really conducive to photos as with the last story all of the photos from this set are available on my flickr












Cheers all Derek

Southend-on-Sea Night Bocking
On my last night in the UK I decided to get crazy with the camera, with advice from becky we created some pretty unique shots. As usual all of the photos are available on my flickr

Split kick and land


Smacking ones own privates


Grab and fireworks




Hey Look!


Leap frog.


Straddle.


Split Kick


Split Kick with Fireworks


Exploding Nether Regions





Multiflash Jump


Cheers all Derek

Highlights from Capital Bocking 2008
All photos in the set are available at My Flickr

Parking Tickets


Sprog is...


Flips on bone breaking concrete


Some Twat


Front Flips


More Sprog!


Fancy Dress


Dags...Oh Dogs


True Love


Problems in financial risk management


Vaults


Flips


Erm, uncatagorized!


Funny Faces


The man we owe it alot to

Can do Saturday, but I would prefer earlier in the day, I need to go home that day so if we could finish around 4 or 5 PM that would be great.

Great stuff, I was saying to myself, "great flip"...then... "surely that must be the last in a series"... and then... "guess not". Good stuff yo guys.

Absolutely brilliant photos!

Well the forums went down last night, bad timing, but the request still stands.
Can anyone please help me.
Thanks,
Derek

Hi everyone, I can't believe the time since Capital Bocking has passed so quickly, but I saw XS and Dominon off to the airport today and they have flown back to the USA. I however, have a few more days let in the UK, and I really need a place or places to stay.

I am currently in the London area, staying with Jelly and Muncher, however they are leaving for a festival over the weekend. That leaves Thursday and Friday nights. I am willing to travel on the train to pretty much any destination.

If anyone could help, please let me know.
Thanks,
Derek