Blogs - Skydive Addiction

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Adam — Leave a comment

Great weekend at the Tokaya Chick’s Boogie

Hey everyone!

So I was at the Tokaya Chick’s Boogie over the weekend… And apparently, so was everyone else! There were over 100 people signed up for the event and it looks to be that there will be even more next year.

The event was organized by Karine Lemelin and Karine Provost, the two ladies also run Tokaya, a green company that basically designs and sells clothing made of Bamboo.

I wasn’t present for the whole weekend as I had to work on the Saturday, but I did manage to get there just after dinner time. They had turned a barn into a dinner hall and did a wonderful job at it!

As a side note: The boys from Parachute Montreal all skydived in wearing dress shirts and bow ties which was quite funny to see… Pretty much a James Bond style jump.
Dinner was raw vegan… Not exactly my thing, nor my girlfriend’s, but I’m guessing that for those who are into it, it must’ve been great =)
After dinner, they started some games, had a couple of bodyguards (guys) strip their clothes off for prizes, who could do the most squats with their lady friend in their arms, etc… I found some of the games more fair than others as some were geared towards applause, which usually leads to who has the most friends there winning. But all that aside, I’m pretty sure everyone had a lot of laughs.

This was followed by a percussion band who played as they walked everyone from the barn to the Manifest where there was a DJ booth set up and people could continue to party the night away.
The drummers played at least a couple of hours and got everyone engaged which was great fun.
The DJs looked kind of bored though, but that was simply because people were having such a great time with the percussionists.

There weren’t any drinks available for people who hadn’t thought of bringing anything with them, so for some people, it was a dry night, but the night went on until at least 3-4 AM.

The next morning was sort of rough for some people as an 8 am wake up for skydiving isn’t always very easy after partying all night, but there were plenty of people in the sky.
I was on a couple of loads organized by none other than Melanie Curtis. I only got on two loads that day, but Nick Grillet (From Arizona Airspeed) got into the skies and showed people how things are done!
He came up with a bunch of fun skydives including a Speedstar to back flip 10 way. (10 people racing to form a star, then all back flipping).

The day pretty much continued on that note, there weren’t any activities on the Sunday unfortunately, but from what I read on many Facebook statuses, people seemed to have had a great time.

Sorry I didn’t have much more to say about it, but I wasn’t there for the whole time. 🙁

Blue ones for now everyone!

Adam

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Adam — 1 Comment

Is it the end? Or just the beginning? – Interview with Ashley Mead, The Skydive Chick

(Photo above of Ashley M. Aka The Skydive Chick)

“I don’t always sneeze with my eyes open, but when I do, it’s because I’m AWESOME!”

Hey everyone,

As some of you may already know, Ashley has been a contributor to Skydive Addiction for nearly 3 years… Almost as long as the site’s been around. She is also one of the two in charge of the Jump for Diabetes which happened at the beginning of July. Today, I got the chance to interview her about it.

Adam: So tell me how you started Jump for Diabetes?

Ashley: Jump for Diabetes started in 2009, it was sort of the brainchild of my partner Richard. He wanted to give back. The first event was held that August at Canton Air sports in Ohio. It was pretty successful, they raised about 2000$ and donated that to the American Diabetes Association.

Adam: By they, what do you mean? Who did the fundraising?

Ashley: Richard took care of it for the first year while I mostly helped spread the word at that point. The following three years were where I took over as the coordinator.

Adam: How did you come to be a part of this?

Ashley: Richard kind of wanted to hang it up after the first year; there were a lot of out of pocket expenses on his part and a lot of work. And I have a Marketing degree and said “Hey, let me give it a shot, don’t hang it up just yet” and I built on what he had already started.

Adam: By out of pocket expenses, what do you mean?

Ashley: He did all sorts of stuff, silent auctions and he made gift baskets for prizes and stuff, he bought tents and all sorts of things. I just sort of came in and streamlined the process a bit. I took away the silent auctions, streamlined the raffle process, basically, I used my event planning experience to help benefit the cause.

Adam: And how did that work out for the second year?

Ashley: Good! We managed to raise about 10 000$ to benefit Diabetes research. Of course, there was still more that could be improved and we continued to improve it every year. Moving it to Skydive Chicago was a key part of the improvement process.

Adam: How was Skydive Chicago an improvement?

Ashley: Well, Rook Nelson gave us the support we needed, he ensured we had everything that we needed to make the event a success, he helped us promote it, and really… The Community there, there was overwhelming support by the community at Skydive Chicago.

Adam: How did this year go?

Ashley: Well we still have money coming in, we’re over the 10 000$ mark right now, we had more pledge jumpers than ever. We had 14 from 10 different states! We had the biggest raffle we ever had with more than 17000$ in gear and discounts! We limited it to 300 tickets and we sold all of them. I’m really overwhelmed by the generosity of the community and the manufacturers. And I’m really glad to say that we are going out on a high note with the best year we’ve had yet.

Adam: What do you mean going out on a high note?

Ashley: After the final donations are made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Jump for Diabetes will be dissolved as a company. I’m so honored to have been able to work with both the Skydiving and Diabetes communities on this cause. I’ve met and worked with so many great people and I hope to continue to provide value within the community as I pursue other endeavors. I want skydivechick.com to have a purpose and I will be consulting on a case by case basis as others in the skydiving community want to embark on fundraising journeys themselves.

Adam: Wow! That’s a shock! Especially considering how well things were going!

Ashley: Yeah, it wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I believe that it’s the right decision and one that will allow me to continue to do good in the community.

Adam: Well I’m sure that you’ll continue to do good in whatever you decide to pursue, be it helping other people with their projects or simply in your day to day. You said you will be consulting, what do you mean by that?

Ashley: I will be taking the knowledge that I obtained through Jump for Diabetes and apply it to help others within the Skydiving community to start fundraisers of their own. No matter the cause.

Adam: Is this something you plan on doing right away?

Ashley: I think I’m going to take the rest of the season off and focus on my Freeflying skills. And at the beginning of next season, I will set up a spot on skydivechick.com where people who want to find out more about planning a fundraising event and want to get some consulting can contact me and let me know and we’ll get to working on it!

Adam: I look forward to seeing where this takes you! Thanks for taking the time to talk to me about all this. I’m sad to see that the Jump for Diabetes won’t happen again, it permitted you to help so many people, I hope that your new project will do the same.

Ashley: That makes two of us! Thanks, I appreciate you letting me tell my story!

Adam: Well, that’s what we do!

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Adam — Leave a comment

My 100th jump.

Ever since I started skydiving, I wanted to become a CReW dog… I used to love watching them fly and I visioned myself as one of them flying through the skies.
As recently as 3 months ago, I had signed up for a CReW camp at Parachutisme Atmosphair, but was denied by the instructor as I wasn’t experienced enough for his comfort. I took the refusal in stride and kept my head up as I knew I would be able to try it at some point soon.

For quite some time, I had been speaking to Nicolas Huard, one of the DZOs at Parachutisme Voltige about doing it as it is the best DZ in my area to learn it and he himself is a CReW dog =D. You should have seen the look in his eye and the eyes of all the other instructors at the DZ when I said that I wanted to learn. I got high fives all around and nothing but smiles… I knew I was in for the time of my life.

The day had come, I was 3 jumps away from my 100th, the skies were cloudy, but had many blue holes, so I took the risk and ventured to the DZ (which is about an hour and a half drive from my place). I figured, I can’t jump if I’m not at the DZ, so I’m going. “Jump or no jump, I’ll be there!” I said to myself.

I got to the DZ at 9:30 am, the first load had gone in the air, an hour later than planned as the skies were quite cloudy by now. My hopes were shattered for the moment, as it was clear enough to skydive, but not enough for CReW (For those of you who don’t know what CReW is, it stands for Canopy Relative Work. Basically, canopy formations). So I kept on waiting, and waiting, and waiting. 4 hours had passed, and I was still waiting, so I decided “what the hell” I’m gonna go get some skydiving done, this isn’t going to be a wasted day! I decided to work on my freeflying. I asked Philippe Thibodeau (the local freefly skygod) for some tips, and I get in the air to work on my sit flying. My new Deepseed Vyper hadn’t arrived yet, so I wore one of the school’s jumpsuits. Needless to say, I had fun flying, but I wasn’t very stable haha. 😀

After a couple of attempts at freeflying, I grounded myself. I wasn’t going to pass 100 doing practice, that’s for sure! This IS a special jump after all.

Come 5 pm, things are looking dire. The DZ is in full swing, tandems everywhere, load after load of tandems go up, Nicolas was replacing one of the tandem masters who hadn’t made it in to work that day. I was starting to feel the disappointment getting to me as I felt that jump slipping away (Especially since next weekend, I’ll be at the Tokaya Chicks Boogie, and I know I’ll be jumping there… Although, a 100th jump with a bunch of skydive chicks would be fun, the idea didn’t mean as much to me as a CReW jump did… Is there something wrong with me?)

At 6:30 I look to the sky and there’s not a cloud in sight… Perfect for a CReW jump!!! But the last 2 loads are already manifested and I’m not on them… And to make matters worse: Nicolas is still set as a tandem master!!! My hopes are shattered, at this point, I figure, I might as well just stick around and have a few beers with everyone before heading home, someone else surely paid for some for some reason or another haha.

Mario comes to save the day! No! Not this mario!

Mario is another one of the DZOs, he pulled me to the side and said “I’m not going to let the tandems get in the way of your 100th, I’m going to replace Nicolas on the last load so you can do your jump!”

The shine returned to my eyes, my smile instantly appeared! Mario had made my day! Nicolas brought me to the side to start the briefing:

Ok, I absolutely HAD to post this picture as we look like complete tools but I find it quite funny!

After the briefing, we headed to the plane to get things rolling.

We started off with Simond exiting and popping, I was to wait 2 seconds then jump and pop 3 seconds after then Nicolas to follow me.

As you can see, Nicolas and I are fairly far after only a couple of seconds delay.

Now, explaining the rest of the jump would take ages as it lasted a good 8-10 minutes. So here’s a video that Simond filmed.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZfB_V5NMaw&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Overall, this was THE BEST time I have ever had skydiving. I have now found my 2 passions in the sport. Big ways and CReW. I spoke to Nicolas about starting coaching to learn it and practice more and more, he said he’d be very happy to teach me, so I’m hoping that by this time next year, I’ll have a bit more experience on my belt. And don’t worry, you’ll all get to read about it!

I want to thank Nicolas Huard and Simond Gingras for being a part of my 100th jump and helping make it a reality. I also want to thank Mario for having thought of me and helped make it possible. And I would like to thank Voltige 2001 for being my home DZ and a great overall place to have fun!

Saturday, I’ll be heading to the Tokaya Chick’s Boogie, so keep your eyes open for my next article!

Till then, blue skies everyone!

Adam

Posted on August 7, 2012 by chris — 1 Comment

Basic Gear Maintenance by Chris Saindon

So, you just got your license, or maybe you’re a seasoned jumper, but how much do you really know about your gear? What can you do yourself and what is best to leave to your rigger to take care of? It seems that most jumpers rely on their packers and riggers to maintain their gear, but there are a few things that everyone could (and should) do.

DISCLAIMER: If you are unsure of anything I mention below, please speak with your local rigger, or send me a message directly. I would hate to see someone attempt something, only to cause more risk by not reconnecting something correctly.

How about giving your risers some exercise? No, I don’t mean go out and put another jump on them, I mean disconnect them and give them a twist. You can easily pull the cutaway cable (NOT your reserve handle!) all the way out and pull the risers away from the main 3 ring. Once they’re loose, you’ll probably see that they retain a “J” shape if you look at them from the side. This is the problem you’ll be correcting. That “J” shape can actually cause your risers to hang up during an emergency cutaway, and we all know that seconds count when you need them most. So, to prevent any delay of your 3 ring system, bend the “J” shape backwards and forwards several times to take out the “memory”. You can also give the risers a twist several times in each direction and you should be good to go! See? That was just a couple of minutes’ worth of effort and is recommended to do once a month.

While your 3 rings are still disconnected and your cutaway cable is removed, this is a great time to give your cutaway cables a wipe down. The inside of your cutaway housings are a place where dirt gets into and is very difficult to get out. That dirt gets onto the cutaway cable and can make the force required to cutaway very high. Take any cloth, a towel, or even your shirt and wrap it around each yellow cable. Pull the cable through the cloth to wipe any grease or dirt off. Now that you’ve completed these basic steps, put your 3 ring system back together. Remember to ask questions if you’re not sure how to reassemble!

The two things above are a couple of the simplest things that you can do to maintain your gear. There are many other general things you can do without really taking any time out of your day.

Below are some of the more common things to keep on your mind:

* Don’t leave your gear in a hot car during the summer. This can do all sorts of scary stuff to it, and if you have an AAD in your rig, batteries really don’t get along well with intense heat. Same goes for storing your gear in the car during winter.
* Avoid getting any liquids on your gear. This may sound obvious, but the grease on your spare tire or the battery acid from that battery you carried for a friend can cause severe damage to your rig, and possibly even compromising its integrity (YIKES!). If you accidentally spill something on it, wipe as much off as you can and air it out. If you spilled something other than a harmless chemical such as water (i.e.: pop, juice), it’s best to give your rigger a shout and let them know what happened. They will give you advice on what you should do, and that may mean bringing it to them for a gear cleaning and repack.
* If you get your gear wet in the swoop pond, or take a slide across the sandy/muddy part of the LZ, make sure you give your gear an inspection immediately after and prior to jumping again. Remember why we cleaned the 3 rings? Well, that dirt gets in there from all your non-optimal landings. Any damage should be investigated and repaired as required. In regards to wet gear, water may seem harmless, but when suspension lines get wet, they become sticky and very prone to tension knots. Something you don’t want when you need your reserve. There was a fatality just a few years ago as a result of exactly this.
* Take care to avoid damaging your gear. Again, this one seems a bit obvious, but it’s absolutely astonishing to see how some people treat their life saving device. Something as simple as throwing your gear in the car, and then accidentally closing the door on the harness. Seems harmless right? Wrong! Imagine how you’d feel when you needed to pull your reserve and your cutaway cable was pinched by the cutaway housing. It’s happened…don’t let it happen to you.

Proper gear maintenance is something that everyone should keep on their mind. There is really no training in CSPA’s program to address items such as gear maintenance, but if you hang out at the DZ on a rainy day, you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about your gear. I also recommend asking your rigger if they would mind if you hung out while they packed a reserve (does not have to be your own gear). Some riggers allow this, others prefer not to for various valid reasons. I am thrilled to have someone watch their gear get packed by me because even if they only gain the slightest bit of information about their gear, it may be the information that will prevent an incident one day.

Here’s some food for thought…literally. I was once told that skydiving relates very closely to Swiss cheese. Yes, Swiss cheese. Think of it this way. During an incident, there is always a series of events leading up to it. You’ve all heard of the person who forgot to turn on their AAD, realized that they forgot their altimeter half way to altitude, and just installed a new, smaller canopy. Going back to Swiss cheese, none of those individual items would necessarily cause an incident, but when the holes in the Swiss cheese line up and make a path all the way through, that’s when an incident can happen. Keeping in mind the basic gear maintenance tips mentioned above, you are helping to prevent those holes from lining up, or at least increasing the odds that everything will work as designed when you need it most. Learn as much about your gear as you can!

If you have any questions, please talk to your local rigger, or contact me (Chris) through my website www.repackmyreserve.com. I am happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you!

About the Author: Chris Saindon is a certified CSPA Rigger A and the owner/operator of RepackMyReserve.com.

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Adam — 3 Comments

You absolutely have to get to Boogie Fest….

If you don’t have the chance to get there by the last day (August 5th) then you ABSOLUTELY MUST attend next year.

This was the first boogie that parachutisme Atmosphair had and what a boogie it was!
It started on July 25th and will be going on until August 5th.

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend by Pierre Bilodeau AKA Peter Pan. He’s one of the 6 DZOs at the drop zone which is located just outside Quebec city in Quebec Canada.
He was setting up the event organized around Festivent which is a hot air balloon festival in Quebec city.

Pierre never ceased to impress me during my entire time at the DZ. He is extremely lively, always up for fun jumps and was simply a blast to be around.

Unfortunately I have a day job, so I was only able to attend for a couple of days. I arrived on Saturday July 28th at around 8 PM. Just in time to see a sexy 2 plane 30 way sunset jump. The load was organized by the lovely Katie Woods, an English skydiver who lived at Deland for a while before moving north to the Montreal area. Katie took care of organizing all the big ways of the weekend for us. (More on that later)

After the sunset load landed, I had the opportunity to be welcomed by Scott Bland and Paul Litherland who were running the Wingsuit camp.

They were doing a briefing of the last jump that was done with the camp.

I had never met Scott before, but Paul and I had met when I was doing my AFF at Skydive City in Z-Hills. He’s a great guy and a hell of a photographer!

After I met them, I proceeded to set up my tent next to the hangar and I went on to eat with everyone at the dining hall. when I was greeted by this:

A sexy BBQ/Smoker for our ribs! That’s right, dinner was a rack of ribs… MAAAAN do they know how to sell themselves to me =D.
Following the dinner, we were given a fire breathing show by a couple of skydivers:

This was followed by a bunch of beers and some partying in the packing loft.
Unfortunately, my camera didn’t manage to take such great shots in the black light, but we were given a live DJ show and a sweet light set up!

I went to bed fairly early… In fact, I was snoring by about Midnight. The next morning, bright and early I started roaming around the DZ meeting more people. Pierre got me onto the second load for an 11 way big way which was a great chance for me to warm up and also get to be part of what would be a full day of big ways!

Katie was organizing all the loads and took care of all the briefings and planning. We just needed to go where she told us to be haha. =)

The first jump was done from the Caravan, which was fairly successful. I unfortunately wasn’t able to get my hands on any shots of the jump.

The second was an 18 way that turned into a 20 way as we were being briefed by Katie. This was done from both the Twin Otter and the Caravan, 10 in each plane.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFJEaxI2BVc&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

I’d like to point out that Pierre mentioned that this was the first time he was able to dock without issue. Being that he doesn’t have complete use of his legs, being able to dock at all is a feat in itself. Hat’s off to you Peter Pan!

The following jump was a 16 way which didn’t go as smoothly unfortunately. What was of note is that Katie divided the jump into two sides, one side being the more experienced skydivers, the other being the less experienced ones. The only side that actually connected completely was the less experienced one. NYA NYA! (Ok, enough teasing, the more experienced people were jumping from a different plane altogether haha)

The final big way of the day was another 20 way. on my exit, I banged my head on the handle bar and messed up my exit, caught up to the group, but ended up on the wrong side of the formation, by the time I had placed myself in the right area, I was too low to be able to catch up to the group, so I flew off. My messing up lead to it being a very symmetric formation however, so it wasn’t all bad. 🙂

All in all, I learned a heck of a lot during that day and I truly appreciate the fact that this boogie was set up the way it was. No one was left behind, be it their 100th big way or their 1st, they were allowed to participate and were given ample coaching and proper briefings to get to learn.

The wing suit peeps also mentioned that they loved the camp and that Scott and Paul were great teachers (I never doubted it).

We finished off the day by doing a drawing and a contest for a few prizes that our sponsors had given me to hand out as well as the event sponsors.

UPT had given me some shirts, packing pull-ups and two 30%/15% discounts on brand new Vector containers. (For those of you who don’t know, Vector containers are among the best on the market, and 30% off the price + 15% off add-ons saves a HELL of a lot of money)

NZ Aerosports sent me some stickers, temporary tattoos, packing pull-ups, bottle openers and a few other goodies.

Vigil sponsored the event directly by giving a 50% rebate on a brand new Vigil AAD and a Vigil backpack.

Frankais also sponsored the event directly by giving a 30% rebate on a pair of Freefly pants, a 100% rebate on a a pair of freefly pants, a free reserve repack and two packing mats.

Aside from these, there were 10 tickets to Festivent (The Quebec City sky festival) and 5 flashlights (Sort of a gag gift I guess)

We decided that we would raffle off everything to all the participants of the boogie who had signed up.

Since there were so many winner, I’ll simply name those who won big prizes:

Hélène Bouffard – Reserve Repack
Mario Morales – 30% rebate off Freefly pants
Jérome Caron – 100% rebate off Freefly pants
Odile Bélanger – 30/15 rebate off a UPT Vector Container
Martin Casgrain – 50% rebate off a Vigil

Now, I mentioned that there was TWO rebates from UPT.

For the second rebate, we figured we’d have a bit of fun. Since NZ Aerosports had sent us a whole bunch of temporary tattoos, we figured we’d have a little contest:
The person who came up with the most original placement of said tattoos would win the prize.

Here are some highlights:

We had such a hard time deciding on this as there were lots of great ones, so we ended up picking the top 6 and doing a draw for the winner.

The winner of the contest was Nicolas Alie-Chartrand.

I’d like to take a quick second to that UPT and NZ Aerosports for their generosity and for sponsoring some gifts for the event.

I also want to give a HUGE thank you to Pierre and Isabelle for being so hospitable. I’ll DEFINITELY be back.

Blue skies in the meantime everyone!

Adam

Photos by:
Marc Guerin
Sylvain Demers
Martin Casgrain
Guy Labarre
Denis Lessard
Jose Calderon
Alain Houde

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Adam — 1 Comment

Awesome weekend!

Hey everyone!

Just spent the weekend at Parachutisme Atmosphair for Boogie Fest which is still going on until next Sunday!

Had an AWESOME time there, participated in a few big ways that were organized by the lovely Katie Woods. I’ll have a story about the entire event up soon.

Here’s a few previews for you though:

They managed to get Deland’s twin otter so there was a caravan and the twin for the weekend so we got to do two plane big ways.

There was also a wingsuit camp organized by Paul Litherland and Scott Bland, so more details about that to come also!

Keep your eyes to the skies everyone! I should have an update out this week with pictures and possibly some videos of the event!

If you have the opportunity, head out there next weekend, they’ll have a helicopter to jump from!

Adam

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Adam — 1 Comment

New records for the books!!!

Andrew Toman of the Hired Guns just let me know that there were two more record breaks for freeflying done at Parachute Montreal the 20th of July.

The first, a 30 way head down jump:

And an 18 way head up:

Congrats to everyone who participated, this has been quite the month for Canadian records!!!

Below, a picture of all of the skydivers who participated:

Blue skies everyone!

Adam

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Adam — 1 Comment

The moment has finally come… (Version Fr en dessous)

…for me to post the interview of Rise N Shine!

But first, I’d like to wish Lance the best of luck with his move to Florida as it’s not only half way across the world, it’s also a HUGE change of way of life and a totally different culture. Hat’s off to you Lance!

So a couple of weeks back, I had the opportunity to sit down with and interview two skydivers who have mentored other skydivers, spent plenty of time fun jumping, one even started a business and all the while, they managed to win the Canadian nationals for Artistic Freeflying.

Bruno and Olga are the two “faces” of Rise N Shine. I say faces as they are the two who are seen on camera, however as we’re about to learn, Artistic FF is a whole different ballgame. The camera person is considered a part of the team and so (s)he has an effect on the final score the team tallies.

Here’s a video of one of their competitions:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaU8OfAlMWY&feature=plcp[/youtube]

Adam: So can you guys tell me, what exactly is the difference between Artistic Freeflying and VFS (Vertical Formation Skydiving)?

Bruno: Artistic freeflying encompasses all the positions that are involved in skydiving, be it sitfly, head up, head down, back flying, belly flying, whereas VFS is usually head down or sit flying and is usually a 4 person team. In VFS you aim to get the most points by doing predefined figures in the sky. In Artistic, you are scored for the quality of your presentation. The person filming is just as important as the people flying in front of the camera. You have to implicate the person in your show. You are also ranked on the difficulty of the moves you attempt.

Olga: You’re putting on a show for the people watching the video.

Adam: Sort of like figure skating?

Olga: Yes, but in freefall.

Adam: So how did you two meet? It seems like you really have to know your partner well to perform well in Artistic Freefly

Olga: We were both part of the first group of instructors at SkyVenture Montreal. Because we were hired before the tunnel even opened, we flew to San Francisco to be trained

Bruno: We had been working together for two years before we decided to form a team.

Adam: Why Artistic freefly? Why not VFS or RW?

Bruno: Olga has had a lot more experience than I did. She’s been in many competitions and had already done some Artistic Freefly before.

Adam: What was the progression for Rise N Shine? I’m sure you didn’t just look at each other on the day of a tournament and say “Let’s make a team for today”

Bruno: Well, we started together in 2009. In 2010 the team was started. In 2011 we won the nationals. And now we’re here, preparing to go to the Worlds in Dubai in December.

Adam: How long have you two been skydiving?

Olga: My first couple of skydives were in 2003 in Russia, which were done with the round military parachutes. Then I moved to Canada in 2004, so by the time I was able to get myself organized and get around to doing my PFF it was 2005.

Bruno: I started in 1999, but I had a much slower progression, I was mostly just doing fun jumps here and there, I wasn’t paying much attention to competing, to me the sport was for fun. The motivating factor was when I got my job at SkyVenture. I realized that I was enjoying improving my skills constantly. Once I met Olga, she coached me and my skills exponentially improved. Competition was a way for us to set an objective for ourselves.

Olga: It’s a goal that we set for ourselves which had a deadline so we had no choice but to be ready by then.

Adam: I’m sure you’ve heard this a lot, but why do you skydive and why compete?

Olga: We do this because it helps us push new skydivers to try the sport and, more specifically, to Artistic Freefly. This discipline is relatively small in Canada, compared to the United States and Europe.

Bruno: Our primary activity is to compete, but also to Coach. It allows us to share our passions while hoping to bring more people to competitions. And hopefully have more friends to play with in the sky.

Adam: What competitions have you participated in? Aside of course from the SkyVenture competition a few weeks back.

Bruno: In total, we’ve participated in two tunnel competitions and the nationals once. But 2011 was mostly a team planning year where we built our strategy and formed the team properly. Before competition, there’s a lot of mental preparation, which takes a while to develop. We alsoneeded to make our preparation for the competitions efficient and effective.

Olga: We’re definitely more efficient now.

Bruno: We took 1^st place in the 2011 nationals, which allows us to go to the Worlds in Dubai in December 2012. As part of our preparation for the 2012 Worlds, we’re also going to the US nationals in November.

Olga: With 2011’s experience we can much better prepare ourselves for competitions.

Adam: How exactly do you compete by the way?

Olga: An Artistic Freefly competition consists of seven rounds. Typically, those 7 rounds comprise of 5 rounds of open routines where the team is free to do anything they want as long as the routine, submitted to the judges is followed. Most teams will do the same routine 5 times over because it’s easier to learn one routine than it is to learn 5 different ones. Those 5 rounds are judged on the difficulty, the esthetics and the execution of the routine. There is a grid that the judges use to figure out how many points of difficulty they can attribute for the move that is done.

Bruno: The other two rounds of the competition are a bit different. You can still do whatever you like in it, but the judges set four elements to the routine that must all appear in the routine.

Adam: So basically if they ask for a back flip where Olga flips around you, and a barrel roll, you can do a barrel roll, then switch to head down and circle around each other, then do the flip thing?

Bruno: Yes. But you have to keep in mind the difficulty grid. If the team chooses to do something very difficult and has sloppy execution of the move, they will end up with a lower score than a team who chooses a simpler routine and does it perfectly.

Adam: What’s your mission exactly?

Bruno: Our mission as a team is to train ourselves, to compete and win of course. But it’s also truly about making Artistic Freefly popular.

Adam: I can see a LOT of logos on your jumpsuits, who are your main sponsors?

Bruno:
Parachutisme Voltige
SkyVenture Montréal
Frankais suits
Unites Parachute Technologies
Performance Designs
Cookie Composites
Brainshell
Float4 Interactive
Oberfeld Snowcap

Olga: Parachutisme Voltige and SkyVenture are two of our main supporters. They are directly involved in our training.

Below, a picture of Olga and Bruno sporting their sweet Frankais jumpsuits and cookie helmets (Design on the helmet by Brainshell)
(Yes, I’m aware that I’m the worst photographer ever and my shadow is in the picture haha!)

Adam: So you two mentioned that the cameraman is a part of the team, who is your cameraman?

Bruno: Last year we worked with Philippe Thibodeau, who acted as a cameraman and who played a very important role in launching the team. Today, our cameraman is Richard Guilbault. Philippe remains highly involved as a coach.

I’d like to thank Rise N Shine for taking the time to sit with me. Bruno and Philippe have both taken the time to coach me in the past and Phil even taught Geneviève (My girlfriend and photographer) to sitfly.

If ever you’re around SkyVenture and want to learn from some top level skydivers, give them a shout, they’re always happy to teach!

They can be found on:

Facebook

Youtube

And the Rise N Shine webpage

And of course, if ever you want to see them fly, just head to Voltige in Joliette Quebec on any given weekend, you’ve got great chances of being on a load with them!

Blue skies everyone!

Adam

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Le moment est finalement arrivé…

… pour que je vous parle de l’entrevue de Rise N Shine!

Mais avant tout, j’aimerais souhaiter à Lance le meilleur dans son déménagement en Floride car ce n’est pas seulement un déménagement à l’autre bout du monde, c’est aussi un changement ÉNORME de mode de vie et une culture complètement différente. Chapeau Lance, chapeau.

Donc il y a quelques semaines, j’ai eu l’opportunité de m’asseoir et faire un entrevue avec deux parachutistes qui ont étés des mentors, ont eu pleins d’opportunités à faire des fun jumps, un d’entre eux à même parti une entreprise et tout cela en même temps qu’ils étaient en train de s’entrainer et même GAGNER les nationaux Canadiens de Freefly Artistique.

Bruno et Olga sont les deux “faces” de Rise N Shine. Je dis faces car ils sont les deux qui sont vus sur la caméra. Par contre, comme nous allons bientôt apprendre, le Freefly Artistique est un jeu complètement différent. Le caméraman est considéré une partie de l’équipe donc il/elle a un effet sur le pointage final de l’équipe.

(Plus haut, vous pouvez voir un video d’un de leurs competitions.)

Adam: Pouvez vous me dire quel est la différence entre le Freefly Artistique et le VRV (Vol Relatif Vertical)?

Bruno: Le Freefly Artistique inclus toutes les positions qui font partie du skydive soit le sitfly, head up, head down, back fly ou belly fly tandis qu’en VRV c’est plus souvent du head down ou du sit et d’habitude, c’est une équipe de 4 personnes. En VRV l’équipe vise d’avoir le plus de points possible en faisant plusieurs figures prédéterminés dans le ciel. En artistique, l’équipe est mesuré pour la qualité de leur présentation. La personne qui est en train de filmer est aussi important que les personnes qui volent en avant de la caméra. On doit impliquer la personne dans le “show”. Vous êtes aussi noté sur la difficulté des manœuvres que vous tentez.

Olga: Tu es en train de faire une pièce pour la personne qui regarde la vidéo.

Adam: Un peu comme le patinage artistique?

Olga: Oui, mais en chute libre.

Adam: Comment avez-vous rencontré l’un l’autre? Il me semble qu’il faut vraiment bien connaître ton partenaire pour pouvoir bien performer en Freefly Artistique.

Olga: Nous avons tous les deux fait partie de la première équipe d’instructeurs au SkyVenture Montréal. Étant donné que nous étions engagés pour le tunnel avant l’ouverture, on est allé au San Francisco pour faire notre formation.

Bruno: Nous avons travaillé ensemble pendant deux ans avant de décider de former une équipe.

Adam: Et pourquoi le Freefly Artistique? Pourquoi pas le VRV ou le VR?

Bruno: Olga avait beaucoup plus d’expérience que moi. Elle à participé dans plusieurs compétitions et elle avait déjà fait un peu de Freefly Artistique.

Adam: Comment s’est passé la progression de Rise N Shine? Je suis certain que vous ne vous êtes pas simplement regardé le jour d’un tournoi et pensé “On va faire un équipe aujourd’hui”.

Bruno: Au faite, nous avons commencé ensemble en 2009. En 2010, l’équipe à été formé. En 2011, nous avons gagné les nationaux Canadiens. Et maintenant, nous sommes là en train de se préparer pour aller aux Mondiaux à Dubai en Décembre.

Adam: Depuis combien de temps faites-vous du parachute?

Olga: Mes premiers sauts étaient en Russie en 2003. Ils se trouvaient à être avec des parachutes ronds militaires. Après cela, j’ai déménagé au Canada en 2004, et jusqu’à ce que je me suis organisé et finalement eu l’opportunité de faire mon cours PAC il était déjà 2005.

Bruno: J’ai commencé en 1999, mais j’ai eu une progression beaucoup plus lente. La plupart du temps, je faisais des fun jumps ici et là. Je ne portais pas trop d’attention à faire des compétitions. Pour moi, le parachute était pour m’amuser. Le facteur motivant arriva lorsque j’ai eu mon emploi au SkyVenture. J’ai realisé que j’aimais améliorer mes habilités constamment. Lorsque j’ai rencontré Olga, elle m’a coaché et mes habilités se sont améliorés exponentiellement. Les compétitions étaient une façon pour nous d’avoir un objectif fixe pour nous-mêmes.

Olga: C’était un but que nous nous sommes donné qui avait une date fixe donc nous n’avions pas de choix sauf d’être prêt pour ce moment là.

Adam: Je suis certain que vous entendez ceci souvent, mais pourquoi faites vous le parachute et encore plus, pourquoi participer dans des compétitions?

Olga: On le fait car c’est une façon qui nous aide à pousser d’autres parachutistes à essayer le sport et plus spécifiquement à essayer le Freefly Artistique. Le sport est relativement inconnu au Canada comparé l’Europe et aux États-Unis.

Bruno: Notre activité principale est de participer à des compétitions mais aussi de Coacher. Cela nous permet de partager nos passions et espérer d’amener plus de gens aux tournois. Et bien sur pour avoir plus d’amis avec qui jouer dans le ciel.

Adam: Dans quelles compétitions avez-vous participé? Mis à part bien sur celui de SkyVenture il y a quelques semaines.

Bruno: Au total, nous avions participé à deux compétitions de tunnel et une fois aux Nationaux. Mais 2011 était pas mal un an de planification ou nous avons préparé notre stratégie et formé l’équipe correctement. Avant une compétition, il y a beaucoup de préparations mentales qui prends énormément de temps à développer. Nous avions aussi eu besoin de rendre nos préparatifs plus efficaces et effectifs.

Olga: Nous sommes définitivement plus efficaces maintenant.

Bruno: Nous avons pris la 1^ère place dans les Nationaux en 2011 qui nous permet d’aller aux Mondiaux à Dubai en Décembre 2012. Comme préparatif pour les Mondiaux, nous sommes aussi enregistrés pour participer aux Nationaux Américains en Novembre.

Olga: Avec nos expériences de 2011, nous pourrons nous serons beaucoup mieux préparés pour les compétitions dans le futur.

Adam: Et comment exactement se déroule un tournoi de Freefly Artistique?

Olga: Un tournoi consiste de sept rondes. Typiquement, les sept rondes sont comprises de cinq rondes de routines ouvertes ou l’équipe est libre de faire n’importe quoi tant que la routine qui à été soumise aux juges à été suivi. La plupart des équipes font la même routine cinq fois de suite car c’est plus facile d’apprendre une routine qu’il est d’en apprendre cinq différentes. Ces cinq rondes sont jugées par leur difficulté, l’esthétique et l’exécution de la routine. Il y a un barème que les juges utilisent pour décider combien de points qu’ils peuvent attribuer à leurs mouvements.

Bruno: Les deux autres rondes de compétition sont un peu différentes. L’équipe est encore libre de faire ce qu’ils veulent pendant la routine, mais les juges mettent quatre éléments qui doivent tous absolument apparaître dans la routine.

Adam: Donc pour simplifier, si ils demandent un salto arrière ou Olga fais son salto au dessus de toi, et un tonneau, tu peux faire un tonneau, par la suite, faire un switch et faire du head down et faire le tour l’un de l’autre et après faire le salto?

Bruno: Oui, mais tu dois garder en tête qu’il y a encore l’histoire du barème de difficulté. Si l’équipe choisis de faire quelque chose de très difficile et l’exécute mal, ils auront un pointage moins élevé qu’une équipe qui à choisi une routine plus simple et l’ont exécuté parfaitement.

Adam: Quel est vôtre mission exactement?

Bruno: Notre mission comme équipe est de nous entrainer, de faire des compétitions et bien sur de gagner. Mais avant tout, il est aussi d’aider à rendre le Freefly Artistique plus populaire.

Adam: Je vois beaucoup de logos sur vos jumpsuits, qui sont vos commanditaires principaux?

Bruno:
Parachutisme Voltige
SkyVenture Montréal
Frankais suits
Unites Parachute Technologies
Performance Designs
Cookie Composites
Brainshell
Float4 Interactive
Oberfeld Snowcap

Olga: Parachutisme Voltige et SkyVenture sont deux de nos commanditaires principaux. Ils sont directement liés à notre entrainement.

Ci dessous, une photo de Olga et Bruno portant leurs Jumpsuits Frankais et leurs casques Cookie (Le design est fait par Brainshell)
(Oui, je sais que je suis un photographe horrible et qu’il y a mon ombre dans la photo haha!)

Adam: Vous avez mentionné que le caméraman fait partie de l’équipe. Qui exactement est votre caméraman?

Bruno: L’année dernière nous avons travaillé avec Philippe Thibodeau qui à agi comme caméraman et à joué un rôle très important dans le lancement de l’équipe. Aujourd’hui, nôtre caméraman est Richard Guilbault. Philippe reste très impliqué comme coach.

Bruno: Artistic is less accessible at first as it’s much harder and needs more training, but once you learn it, it permits you much more than belly flying ever could.

J’aimerais remercier Rise N Shine pour avoir pris le temps de vous asseoir avec moi. Bruno et Philippe ont tous les deux pris le temps de me coacher dans le passé et Philippe à même entrainé Geneviève (Ma copine et photographe) à faire du sitfly.

Si jamais vous êtes au SkyVenture Montréal et vous voulez apprendre quelque chose de quelques parachutistes de haute niveau, demandez les, ils sont toujours heureux d’enseigner!

Vous pouvez les trouver sur:

Facebook

Youtube

Le site web Rise N Shine

Bien sur, si vous voulez les voir voler, allez simplement faire un tour à Voltige à Joliette, Québec une fin de semaine, vous aurez de bonnes chances d’être sur un load avec eux!

Blue skies tout le monde!

Adam

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Lance — 5 Comments

Life Changing

It has been a while, my apologies – Life has made a few drastic turns, leaving my free time extremely limited.

Between juggling new projects at work, moving, and drop zone politics; life has been busy in most other areas as well, to say the least.

I am happy to say that amongst the chaos, there have been many great experiences since I last sat down to write: My jump numbers have increased to 252, I recently received my C-License YAY, I have started filming tandems and this past Saturday, I was able to do a display jump into our biggest air show in South Africa – This was an amazing experience that I had been aiming towards for a number of years. To top it all off, I jumped from a 1944 Piston driven Dakota “Marilyn” with many of my great friends. Naturally, this jump was promptly followed by BEERS, which was a great way to end off a great day!

In November & December 2011 I was in Tampa, Florida for my sister’s wedding, and I jumped at the opportunity to get some tunnel coaching with Luis Prinetto who was able to break some habits that I had formed with my sitfly and vastly improved my skydiving in general! On a side note: anyone wanting to improve their skydiving, regardless of skill level or discipline, I strongly recommend Luis – He is an excellent coach!

As I was Florida, I made sure that I visited a few drop zones to see what they are like when compared to our small DZ’s in South Africa, and man was I impressed! Before my trip last year, many people had told me that I would not be able to even imagine how much better skydiving in the States was than it is here – they were RIGHT. I made a few jumps at DeLand, Sebastian, Z-Hills and Tampa Bay – I really enjoyed all of them, but I cannot tell you which I prefer as I have not been able to decide.

I have a number of family members in Florida and it was really great being able to spend time with them all. My sister’s wedding was beautiful and she has married a really great guy that I have no doubt will be a great husband for her. Oddly enough, her husband grew up in South Africa, roughly 30 minutes away from her, and his father knows my dad from business many years ago. It’s amazing how small the world has become.

I got home from my amazing US holiday with an open mind – it was my third trip to the States, but my first as an “adult”. My friends have been trying to work out why I choose to stay in South Africa when I am a US Citizen. The question that is very common for me is “but you have an American Passport, why are you still here?”. Up until this point, my answer was simple and standard: “I love South Africa”. For those of you who are not familiar with this country, it truly is beautiful; we have 12 months of fantastic weather, great beaches, mountains and wonderful natural sights around the country, all within a few hours of where I live. Unfortunately though, it does have some bad points as well. Crime and a dysfunctional government have many people worried about its long-term future. This aside, I still love the place and will always call it my home.

Anyway (I digress), I have booked myself a one-way ticket to Florida, resigned from my job, and am in the process of getting everything in order for my big move on the 1^st of October, 2012.

The decision to move 8422 Miles was not an easy one to make! I have amazing friends, (had) a great job which I enjoyed and allowed me to skydive. Not to mention that it means leaving my parents, sister, brother-in-law and two nephews here, as well as many other people and opportunities.

I have never been one to make a list of PRO’s and CON’s as I’m generally quite spontaneous, this decision however, took a number of weeks to make. There was one major deciding factor: I want to skydive! Although amazing and filled with great people, our DZ’s here are too small for me to give skydiving a real go. I love working with students and have been coaching and jump-mastering for about a year. I love freeflying and I love flying my canopy, FAST!

So – I have come to the conclusion that in order for me to be able to progress as much as I would like to in the sport, there is only one option: Move to Florida!

I’m unbelievably excited, nervous, sad and outright TERRIFIED – it’s a strange combination of feelings.

I’m extremely analytical and try to find answers and reasons for every situation, I research and analyze every possible scenario and outcome for every situation in my life (it’s a bit annoying), but with this, I’m just stepping out of my comfort zone, a leap of faith, if you will. There are LOTS of unanswered questions about this move; will I be able to get a decent job? How long will it take to find a job? Will I be able to get on my feet quickly? Am I going to be imposing on my family by staying with them while I get on my feet? Will I enjoy the States, How long am I going to give it? And of course, which DZ do I make my home!!?? But, I’m going against my better judgement and ignoring the part of myself that wants answers. I’m just going to wing it and see where life takes me.

I preach that people step out of their comfort zones and “live a little”, it’s a bit ironic considering how shit scared I am to do the same. Haha. For the first time, I am taking my own advise because I know it’s for the best. I will just have to let you all know how it turns out.

Blue Skies and Happy Days!

~Lance

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Adam — 5 Comments

What a week for Canadian skydiving!

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the delay on the posts, I had quite a setback with my move, just getting back into the swing of things.

So this week was quite an insane week for Canadian skydiving in Quebec. It started with Mission 100, the Lemay family’s 2 year project. (For those of you who don’t know, the Lemay family are also known as team Evolution, they are and have been team Canada for 4 way relative work for many years. They also happen to operate two drop zones in Quebec and part of Skyventure Montreal.)

Mission 100 was first attempted in 2011, but unfortunately didn’t pan out after a few attempts. So they decided to give it a whirl in 2012 a second time. 102 skydivers participated, and 102 skydivers made the formation.

Here is what it looked like from below:

(Picture by Andrew Toman of the Hired Guns – Parachute Montreal)

This was a HUGE event for Canadian skydiving, and it is sure to be remembered by at least 102 people who now have their names in the record books!

The second is equally as impressive, but completely different in it’s own way:

This past weekend was the Go Big boogie at Voltige 2001 a weekend oriented around big ways. 17 000 foot skydives, 3 caravans and lots of smiling faces!

They broke the Canadian head down record with 29 people!!!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of the record, but as soon as I do get my hands on one, it’ll be on our Facebook page!

I’d like to congratulate everyone who participated on a job well done!

And I want to give a shout out to the organizers of these events as without people like them, skydiving would be a lot less organized. =)

Blue skies everyone!

Adam