Author: Adam

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The winter is long…

So thanks to our long winter, most of the Dropzones around here have postponed opening for another week to clean up the snow that’s been left over and wait for warmer weather.

That part kind of sucks… But while I was waiting for the season to start up, I took advantage to do some wind tunnel training with Andrew Toman at Skyventure Montreal.
Andrew was my first instructor when I first learned to skydive. He was the one who did the ground school, he was also the one who gave me my 1st 20 minute coaching in the tunnel.

He didn’t join us in Florida for the AFF course, but he followed up later on by giving me a good portion of the lessons for my A license.

Now comes the time to learn to back fly and the basics of sit flying.
2 weeks ago and this past week, I had booked a total of 40 minutes of tunnel time with him to work on my back flying.
And work we did… I haven’t had to do it since my B license, so it was quite fun to see myself during the first debrief when I nearly kicked Andrew in the face haha.

In the first 2-4 minutes, we did mostly work in low wind with me simply trying to keep control and move around on the net while learning to change to sit position.
For the rest of the 10 minutes we progressed onto slightly higher wind so that I could work on controlling my fall rate.

In debrief, he showed me what I was doing wrong and we worked on improving that (I was really stiff and flew large, but flew my upper body fairly small….)
so for the next 10 minutes, we worked at improving that and then worked more on holding myself in the sit position.

The following week (this past Monday), I went back to the tunnel to do the second half of the 40 minute block with him.
Armed with some comfort in the back fly position, we went on to see how much I remembered and how I flew now.
I was much more stable, but still had some polishing to do, but we didn’t focus much on that.
Instead, Andrew had me working on my transitions to sit fly and started working on my stability, my turns, my movement forwards, backwards, up and down.
It was VERY awkward… Being that I was someone who had always said that I wasn’t interested in learning to freefly yet as I wanted to focus more on CReW, I was quite surprised to say that I enjoyed it.
A LOT.

I asked Andrew to find me another 10 minutes of time to do some more training, so I’m excited to see how that pans out.

Also: Francois Huot accepted to let me join his CRW seminar in June over the long weekend, so I’m SUPER excited about that!
We’ll be sponsoring a few events this summer as well as showing up with gifts at some boogies, so keep your eyes open for us!

Blue skies everyone!Adam

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NZ Aerosports Sky Art Competition

Hey birds!

Our friends at NZ aerosports are doing their SkyArt contest this year again!

And who doesn’t like free stuff?

 

Here’s a copy of the contest details:

 

SkyArt Competition

We love giving away cool free shit! So we’ve started a new SkyArt competition to give you a chance to win. Keep reading…

So what’s cool?

We’re doing something new with SkyArt. It means you can have anything at all on your canopy…fades, complex patterns, even photos (or tie-dye if you’re into that kinda thing)! Plus, NO extra pack volume! Winning.

Whether you want your canopy to be elegant, beautiful, arty, or badass, now you can have it — whatever your style!

What free shit?

That’s where you come in! First prize is an Icarus or Daedalus canopy of your choice and size with your design on it. Completely FREE!

  • 1st Place: FREE canopy + FREE SkyArt
  • 2nd and 3rd place: FREE Skyart Design with any canopy bought
  • Top 5 Funny Favs: Get your design printed on a slider!

If that’s not worth a few minutes (or hours) of your time, some serious creative brain juice and as many entries as you can come up with…we don’t know what is!

So grab a beer to get those juices flowing and sit down with a pencil, paper or photoshop and get designing some SkyArt! Remember this is art, so make sure to name your masterpiece!

Competition running from now until Mid May.

Templates:

Click on the logos below to download a template and get started with your first design!

 

 

* Remember the designs are going to be printed on canopies — these are HUGE pieces of art. The mockup you submit on our entry page doesn’t have to be hi-res – however if you want it to be printed on your canopy (i.e. if you’re gonna win with your awesome design), you have to have a hi-res image to print from! So make sure you can get a good quality version of whatever you’re submitting! This means if it’s a graphic you need to have access to the vector file (.ai, .psd or .eps) and of it’s a photograph it needs to be hi=res and as big as possible. If you’re taking a photograph to use set up your camera for the maxiumum 10MP-14MP at 300dpi. The rule is the bigger the original file, the better it will look printed!

It’s simple! Just click on the ‘Enter Now’ button below to take you to the competition page on facebook, and follow the 4 easy steps to upload your entries!

Competition Low Down

  1. You can enter as many designs as you’d like — no limits!
  2. The designs are going to be printed on canopies — these are HUGE pieces of art. If submitting a graphics image it needs to be min a vector format (.ai, .psd or .eps). If you are submitting a photograph it should be hi-res and if possible above 8MP (if you’re taking a photograph to use set up your camera for the maxiumum 10MP-14MP at 300dpi). The rule is the bigger the original file, the better it will look printed!
  3. NZ Aerosports Ltd reserves the right to use any artwork or entry for shameless promotional, sales and print purposes.
  4. It is the entrant’s responsibility to make sure any artwork they use in their submission is copyright free. NZ Aerosports Ltd will not be held responsible for any use of copyrighted material post competition. Which means you cannot sue our asses!
  5. Our decision of a winner is final! No correspondence or bitching about it will be entered into. Wink.
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20th Anniversary of Parachutisme Atmosphair!

Bonjour tout le monde!

 

Nos amis à Parachutisme Atmosphair célèbrent leur 20e anniversaire cet année.

Pour fêter ceci, ils font un concours mensuel ou ils donnent soit un saut Tandem, un rabais de 15% sur un cours de parachutisme ou des sauts gratuits dépendant de votre statut comme parachutiste.

Je vous suggère fortement de mettre vos noms!

Bonne chance!

Hey Everyone!

So our friends at Parachutisme Atmosphair are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.

To highlight this momentous occasion, they are having a monthly draw giving away either a tandem skydive, a 15% discount on skydive lessons or some free jump tickets depending on your status as a skydiver.

I strongly suggest that you all sign up!

Being that it’s in Quebec City, it’s all in French, but just to sum it up:
You fill in the details, (Last name, first name, e-mail) then the same for a friend you’d like to refer.

Good luck and Blue Skies!

Adam


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Ever heard of Parabatics? Neither did we!

So once again, Nick in Florida has surprized us with a new video.

At first peek, it doesn’t look like anything special, but once you realize what’s actually going on…
Just check it out:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxKKWmxVWMk[/youtube]

I asked Nick to do a quick write up about his experience, here it is:

One of my more recent ventures in skydiving has been learning parabatics or acrobatic flying of 2-4 canopies and pilots linked together either via leg lock or straps. My friend Bob told me that only about 3% of Skydivers actually get into CReW as a primary discipline within our sport and that only about 1% of those 3% every consider or get into parabatics. For me parabatics are a total release. It requires focus, the ability to stay calm and think quickly, and absolute trust of the other person or people connected to the straps with you. Something as simple as turning the canopies left or right is now a combined effort once attached via the straps making coordination between the pilots paramount. My overall learning curve has been quite steep and in 5 jumps I’m told that I’m doing better than most with far more jumps than I have. To be quite honest it almost feels natural to me like its something I am supposed to be doing. For me parabatics has brought me closer to recapturing the feeling of that first skydive many moons ago. Most of our jumps end with a final downplane that we ride to about 1000 feet before severing the strap connection. If there are any other canopies still in the air it forces us to end sooner and if conditions are right the downplane can be ridden conceivably as low as 100 feet giving both pilots ample time to safely land their canopies (something I’m looking forward to doing when the time and place is right). Hope you enjoyed a view into what I like to do under canopy!

Cheers
Nick

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Nuit Blanche 2 – Skyventure

Hello Ladies and Germs!

This coming weekend is take 2 of Skyventure Montreal’s Nuit Blanche event. It’s been booked solid for 2 months now as usual, but we’ll be onsite to give you the dirty.

I’ll be doing some 4 way RW  (Relative work) with some strangers, so this should be quite fun!

 

Also: The Quebec Invasion tour is heading to PST again this year, I unfortunately won’t be present, but if all works out, I should have the videos from their trip. Buffalo Wild Wings seems to be sponsoring the event again.

 

I’ll keep all of you posted about that too!

 

Blue Ones!

 

Adam

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Will you raise the bar?

 

Hey everyone!

The off season’s half over, with that, Sebastian Bos at GoSkydive UK got in touch with me and wrote up a post about this past year’s accomplishments… What do YOU have planned for 2013? Think you can raise the bar higher?

 

A new breed of heroes have raised the bar in 2012

By Sebastian Bos

It’s been a tough few years for sports fans who’ve had to watch a succession of their favourite sporting idols fall from grace. First it was Tiger, then came Lance and the final admission that brought an end to the slow puncture of his reputation. Michael Schumacher’s return to Formula 1 was chequered at best, while the old master Roger Federer began to show signs that his reign at the top of the tennis world may be coming to an end. And, of course, footballers continued to be more trouble than they were worth.

Can we consider 2012 to be a changing of the guard then? Bradley Wiggins won the Yellow Jersey clean at the Tour de France; Team GB inspired a nation with their feats of strength, speed, intelligence, coordination and determination at the Olympics; and both Andy Murray and Rory McIllroy played their part in creating the most memorable year in British sporting history.

But across the pond in America, one man’s achievement rose above them all – quite literally. In record breaking Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner, the world was presented with an adventurer who was prepared to push the boundaries of human technology to the limit and test the laws of physics like no one before him. Leaping to the earth from the edge of space isn’t something most people can get their heads around, but by bringing skydiving into the limelight from 24 miles up, Baumgartner demonstrated what makes it the pinnacle of adventure sports. How else could you enjoy the stunning views of the world from thousands of feet up with absolute freedom while travelling at over 100mph – or in Felix’s case nearer 800mph? In becoming one of the most viewed moments of 2012 across the world, Fearless Felix allowed us all to share in that sense of excitement and anticipation that comes with being courageous enough to make that leap. Skydivers often speak about their love of the adrenaline rush that they get from freefalling and the sense of empowerment that they get from facing up to a challenge and proving that they can do anything.

If you’d like to try something different and push yourself out of your comfort zone, why not try a Skydive (http://www.goskydive.com) out for yourself? At GOskydive thrill seekers are offered the best training and equipment available to make your skydiving experience an unforgettable one.

 

If you aren’t in the UK, but are planning a trip there, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the people at GOskydive. If you’re simply looking for general info about the dropzones in your area, send us an email and we’ll be glad to help out.

 

Blue skies everyone!

 

Adam

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Rise N Shine!!!!

Photo by Rolf Kuratle (Kuri)

We’d like to congratulate Rise N Shine on their performance at the world championships in Dubai.

This was their first attempt at the worlds and they performed marvelously. They were 12th out of 22 teams, I can’t wait to see how they do next time, now that they have some experience on their belts.

 

Amazing job guys!

 

Adam

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The off season….

So while most people here are “enjoying” the off season… Some of our friends are out in Dubai living it up at the world skydive competitions.

 

We’d like to give a shout out to Rise N Shine (Bruno from Brainshell’s team) as well as the Flying Ferns (Shan from NZ Aerosports’ team).
To those of you who who are competing, we’d like to wish you all the success in the world!

We’re all watching you!

 

I unfortunately haven’t gotten the rights to post any photos yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll have an update!

 

Blue skies everyone!

 

Adam

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Party d’halloween et fin de saison Atmosphair – Par Pierre “Peter Pan” B.

Hey everyone, bonjour tout le monde!

This one’s only in french as I didn’t write it and don’t have time to translate it, but I’ll re-write it later this week for all you Anglophones out there.

Je n’ai pas pu être au party de fin de saison et d’Halloween à Atmosphair, donc j’ai demandé à mon ami Pierre de m’écrire un article à propos. Voici le résultat:
Un party à l’image de Parachutisme Atmosphair : simple, authentique et combien énergique. Le moment est venu de dire au revoir à la belle saison 2012 et son party de fin d’année devait être à la hauteur de la belle saison et surtout à l’image des parachutistes.

 

Après une dernière journée de sauts pour les moins frileux et les plus crinqués, tous sont invités dans le hangar pour souligner la fin de la saison : un party costumé! Plus de 100 personnes (certaines arrivaient même de Montréal!) se sont déplacées pour participer à ce party. Ce fut un franc succès : décor, musique, personnages venus on ne sait d’où, tout y était!!!

 

Parachutisme Atmosphair a la chance d’avoir parmi ses membres deux artistes bourrées de talent : Julie et Joany qui ont su réchauffer la salle et mettre une belle ambiance pendant qu’on se régalait au buffet à Marquis.

 

Qui dit party de fin de saison dit place à ceux qui se sont démarqués! Soulignons la personnalité masculine de l’année : Guy Labarre, les personnalités féminines : les Kit-4 et la recrue de l’année : Jimmy Desbiens.

 

Après le repas, place à la danse! Dj Sp@cE y était pour dégourdir les pattes et tenter d’épuiser les infatigables. L’esprit est à la fête et les gens en demanderont encore et encore, en passant par les demandes (très) spéciales, et ce, jusqu’à 4 heures du matin! Quelqu’un a osé croire que ça se terminerait tôt?

 

Sans oublier les nombreux prix de présence offerts. Un remerciement particulier aux commanditaires Adam de Skydive Addiction et Frankais qui ont fait plusieurs heureux!

Parachutisme Atmosphair peut dire sans prétention : mission accomplie!
Blue skies tout le monde!
Adam

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So I’m back from Mancun!

Hey everyone!

 

Sorry about the major delay in posts, spent some time down south getting away from the cold.

The weather here’s not so bad, but it’s quite cold. I was hoping to get some skydiving done at the skydive mex boogie, but I ended up on more of a party trip then anything else.
The weather in the Cancun area is really not permissive of safe skydiving anyway… It was about 25-35 mph of wind every day, great for surfing, but that’s about it…
So before my trip, I got to go to the tunnel for about 40 minutes of flying time. 30 minutes at the “nuit blanche” (All-nighter in english) which was a blast. I got to fly with 3 friends of mine who also happen to be much better skydivers than I, so I got to learn enormously and have fun at the same time. We did 3 sets of 10 minutes broken into 2 minute splits. The first 10 minutes involved a lot of getting through the rust I had built up (being that I hadn’t flown in nearly a year in the tunnel) I had quite a laugh when I almost rammed head first into the wall during the first 2 minutes. Afterwards things pretty much progressed nicely. I got to practice 4 way formations, work on my levels, formation speed and we worked towards getting as many points as possible.

By the last 10 minutes, we were doing swimmingly, but it was also 4 am and we were burnt.

 

A few days later, the day before my trip, Geneviève and I decided to go fly for 10 minutes during the day. We couldn’t find anyone else to join us, so we just flew together. We flew as if we were flying with 2 other people that were in formation with us and worked at mostly fun formations. Over-unders side by side, over-unders while doing 180 degree turns, position work, 360 degree turns while holding each other, etc.
This was quite a fun 10 minutes and would’ve been fun to continue.

I received my sexy new suits from Deepseed a while ago, had to mail them back for re-sizing as there was an issue with measurements… Kinda sucks when the company’s on the other side of the planet, but I’m REALLY excited to get them back as the suits are the best looking suits I have ever seen.

Blue ones everyone!

 

Adam